iversity ol the State oi New York Bulletin Entered as second-class matter August 2, 1913, at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y.. under the act of August 24. 1912 Published fortnightly No. 702 ALBANY, N. Y. January 15, 1920 EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS ALBANY, NEW YORK MAY 19-28, 1919 ALBANY THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 1920 D96r-Di9-2500 (7-4673) THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Hegents of the ITnlversity With years when terms expire (Revised to January i, 1920) 1926 Pliny T. Sexton LL.B, L.L.D. Chancellor - - Palmyra 1927 Albert Vander Veer M.D. M.A. Ph.D. LL.D. Vice Chancellor Albany 1922 Chester S. Lord M.A. LL.D. ----- Brooklyn 1930 William Nottingham M.A. Ph.D. LL.D. - - Syracuse 1923 Abram I. Elkus LL.B. LL.D. D.C.L. - - - New York 1924 Adelbert Moot LL.D. ------- Buffalo 1925 Charles B. Alexander M.A. LL.B. LL.D. Litt. D. ----------- Tuxedo 1928 Walter Guest Kellogg B.A. LL.D. - - - Ogdensburg 1920 James Byrne B.A. LL.B. LL.D. ----- New York 1929 Herbert L. Bridgman M.A. ----- Brooklyn 193 1 Thomas J. Mangan M.A. ----- - Binghamton President of the University and Commissioner of Education John H. Finley M.A. LL.D. L.H.D. Deputy Commissioner and Counsel Frank B. Gilbert B.A. Assistant Commissioner and Director of Professional Education Augustus S. Downing M.A. L.H.D. LL.D. Pd.D. Assistant Commissioner for Secondary Education Charles F. Wheelock B.S. LL.D. Acting Assistant Commissioner for Elementary Education George M. Wiley M.A. Director of State Llhrary Jam;es L Wyer, Jr, M.L.S. Pd.D. Director of Science and State Museum John M. Clarke D.Sc. LL.D. Chiefs and Directors of Divisions Administration, Hiram C. Case Agricultural and Industrial Education, Lewis A. Wilson Archives and History, James Sullivan M.A. Ph.D. Attendance, James D. Sullivan Educational Extension, William R. Watson B.S. Examinations and Inspections, George M. Wiley M.A. Law, Frank B. Gilbert B.A., Counsel Library School, James I. Wyer, Jr., M.L.S. Pd.D. School Buildings and Grounds, Frank H. Wood M.A. School Libraries, Sherman Williams Pd.D. Visual Instruction, Alfred W. Abrams Ph.B. V5- CONTENTS Agricultural Education 22 All-year School 2^ Americanization 24 Art 26 Civics 20 Clearing House 34 Economics 35 English 40 Foreign Languages 41 General Science 44 Geography 46 Plealth Education 58 Higher Education 60 History 66 Home Economics 67 Industrial Education 68 Libiaries 69 Mathematics yo Mental Diagnosis 73 Moral Instruction 80 Music 81 Rural Education 82 Training of Teachers 8^ [3] Dniversity ol the State ol New York Bulletin natter August 2, 1913, at the Pos under the act of August 34, 1913 Published fortnightly Entered as second-class matter August 2, 1913, at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y,, under the act of August 34, 1913 No. 702 ALBANY, N. Y. January 15, 1920 EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS Upon authorization of the Regents of The University of the State of New York, many leading educational workers of this and other states were invited to meet in an educational congress in the State Education Building, Albany, May 19 to 28, 1919. The purpose of the congress was to consider existing fundamental American educational needs, particularly as revealed since the war, and to determine what modifications, if any, of the curriculums or of the general plan and scope of the work of our schools should be made to meet such needs. The chief work of the congress was carried on through a series of small conferences rather than through large mass meetings and formal lectures. Men and women of broad educational experience and dependable judgment, of highest authority in special fields of education in our own and other states, as well as many of proved ability in other professions and in business and public affairs, par- ticipated in these conferences. In each section certain speakers were asked to present papers upon some phase of the subject, after which there was general discus- sion by those in attendance. Each section was requested to appoint a committee to formulate the general conclusions reached as to matters under consideration in each conference, and to make such recommendations as it thought wise. These reports, prepared for submission to the Board of Regents, are given in this pamphlet. f5] D THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK SUBJECTS AND SPEAKERS The speakers in the various sections, with the subjects under dis- icussion, were as follows : Agricultural Education Woman as a farm laborer in peace times Mrs Otto Eichel, Executive Director, Woman's Land Army, New York Lessons from the experience of the United States School Garden Army John H. Francis M.A. LL.D., Director, United States School Garden Army, Washington, D. C. Permanent effect of the adult war garden program Charles Lathrop Pack, Director, National War Garden Commis- sion, Washington, D. C. Secondary agricultural education of the future Aretan W. Nolan M.A. M.S., Assistant Professor of Agricultural Extension, Illinois College of Agriculture, Urbana, III. Rural social problems after the war A. R. Mann B.S.A. M.A., Dean, New York State College of Agri- culture, Ithaca What the war has taught us in the extension of agricultural educa- tion for adults A. C. True M.A. Ph.D. Sc.D., Chief of the States Relation Serv- ice, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. What the farmer demands of agricultural education Silas L. Strivings, President, State Federation of Farm Bureaus, Castile Lessons from tlie experience of the United States Boys Working Reserve Frank L. Rexford, Supervisor of Farm Service and Agricidtural Education, Nezv York, and Federal Director U. S. Boys Work- ing Reserve for New York State All-year School Is it feasible to divide the school year into four terms of twelve weeks each? David B. Corson M.Pd. D.Pd., Superintendent of Schools, Newark, N. J. James F. Barker M.E., President, Mechanics Institute, Rochester Frank D. Boynton M.A, Pd.D., Superintendent of Schools, Ithaca EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS / Americanization Educating the immigrant in school Organization and supervision of classes for adult foreigners George E. Smith M.D., Deputy Superintendent of Schools, Buffalo Methods of presentation for classes of adult foreigners H. H. GoLDBERGER, Principal, Public School p8, Manhattan, Neiv York Making the school and its facilities suitable for classes of adult foreigners H. S. Weet Pd.D., Superintendent of Schools, Rochester Educating the immigrant in industry Advantages to the employer J. A. Satter, Employment Manager of Jacob Dold Packing Co., Buffalo Advantages to the employee Clarence C. Dewitt, Supervisor of English Schools, Ford Motor Co., Detroit, Mich. Advantages to the industrial vi^orld E. H. Feisinger, Safety Engineer, Solvay Process Co., Syracuse Means of educating the immigrant in industry Through factory classes Sarah Elkus, Supervisor of Continuation Classes, Nezv York Through lectures, talks, concerts etc. John J. Mahoney B.A., Principal, State Normal School, Lozvell, Mass. Through welfare work and recreational facilities Esther Everett Lape, Section of Aliens, Council of Women's Organisations, New York Educating the immigrant in home and neighborhood classes The necessity for home and neighborhood classes Elba Alsberg, Director, Home Classes, Council of Jezvish Women, Nezv York The advantages of home and neighborhood classes Harriet Dow, Secretary of Yorkville Neighborhood Association, Nezv York Volunteer service in home and neighborhood classes Mrs H. C. McMillen, Volunteer Teacher in Home Classes, Plain- field, N. J. O THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Art The place of art in a Elementary schools Harry W. Jacobs, Director of Art Education, Buffalo Richard F. Bach, Associate in Industrial Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nczu York b Vocational schools Herbert J. Spinden, Museum of Natural History, New York M, D. C. Crawford, Editor, " Women's Wear," Nezv York City c High schools Royal B. Farnum, Superintendent, School of Applied and Fine Arts, Mechanics Institute, Rochester Jessie Franklin Turner, Bomvit-Teller Co., Nezv York City Civics Are we teaching the meaning of government and the methods of administration in the most effective way? Albert Bushnell Hart L.L.D., Professor of Government and Lazv, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Edgar Dawson 'Ph.D., Professor of History, Hunter College, Nezv York The development of citizenship and patriotism through the teaching of civics in the elementary and high schools J. Lynn Barnard Ph.D., Professor of History, School of Peda- gogy, Philadelphia, Pa. The teacher and the teaching of civics A. E. McKinley Ph. D., Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. Clearing House A clearing house for closer cooperation between educational institu- tions, and the adjustment of courses to community needs as shown by national, state and other employment agencies Virginia C. Gildersleeve Ph.D., Dean, Barnard College, Columbia University Mrs Anna Y. Read, Assistant Chief of Junior Section, U. S. Employment Service, Washington EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 9 Economics The place in the curricuUim of economics a Vocational schools A. L. PuGH M.A., Chairman, Department of Economics, High School of Commerce, Nezv York b Elementary schools Adam A. Walker M.A., Professor of Economics and Sociology, State College for Teachers, Albany c High schools Walton H. Hamilton Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. What simple economic facts should be taught in elementary and high schools? . David T. Clark M.A., Professor of Economics, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. How may economics be most effectively taught in elementary and high schools? x c ; ; John L. Tildsley Ph.D., Associate Superintendent of bctiools, New York English Inculcation of patriotism through the teaching of English Literature Henry Neumann Ph.D., Ethical Culture School, Nezv York Composition Ernest E. Clark B.A., Head of English Department, East High School, Rochester Socialization of English teaching Conduct of class exercises Charles Robert Gaston Ph.D., Head of English Department, Richmond Hill High School, Nezv York Connection with life outside the classroom Frederick H. Bair M.A., Specialist in English. State Education Department, Albany The library as a continuation school in English Allan Abbot B.A. M.A., Assistant Professor of English, Teachers College, Columbia University, Nezv York 10 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK The elimination of nonessentials in the teaching of English Mary Bird Fontaine, Chairman, Committee on Economy of Time, National Council Teachers of English, Glenville Normal School, Glenville, W. Va. Charles E. Gorton Ph.B. Pd.D., Superintendent of Schools, Yonkers English in the intermediate or junior high school Thomas H. Briggs Ph.D., Associate Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University James Glass B.A., Principal, Washington Junior High School, Rochester Development in the schools of pure English speech worthy of our great democracy 1 Development of pleasing tone and of correct idiom and pronunciation Jean Y. Ayer, Principal, Post Road School, White Plains 2 Correction of speech defects Frederick Martin M.D., Director of Speech Improvement, Department of Education, Nezv York Foreign Language Aims and purposes of foreign language study E. W. Bagster-Collins M.A., Associate Professor of German, Teachers College, Columbia University, Nezv York How may children be guided in their choice of a foreign language to be studied? Calvin Thomas M.A. LL.D., Gebhard Professor of the Germanic Languages and Literatures, Columbia University, Nezv York James F. Mason Ph.D., Professor of the Romance Languages, Cornell University, Ithaca The relative amount of foreign language study in a well-balanced high school curriculum Charles A. Downer Ph.D., Professor of fJic Romance Languages, College of the City of Nezv York, Nezv York The preparation of the foreign language teacher Albert Schinz Ph.D., Professor of French Language and Litera- ture. Smith College, Northampton, Mass. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS II Marian P. Whitney Ph.D., Professor of German, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie William R. Price Ph.D., Specialist in Modern Languages, State Education Department, Albany General Science Aims and purposes of general science Otis W. Caldwell B.S. Ph.D., Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York Bertha May Clark Ph.D., Head of Science Department, William, Penn High School for Girls, PJiiladelphia, Pa. Place of general science in the public school curriculum Harry A. Carpenter, West High School, RocJiester Clarence F. Hale M.S. Ph.D., Professor of Physics, State College for Teachers, Albany Content of the general science course Daniel R. Hodgdon, President, Neiv Jersey College of Technology, Newark, N. J. James E. Peabody M.A., Head of Department of Biology, Morris High School, New York City Geography The importance of geography as shown by the great war 1 The extent of territory involved and the means adopted by the belligerent nations to obtain and retain control of territory and land and sea ways G. B. RooRBACH M.A., Assistant Professor of Geography, Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 2 The influence of physical geography upon the conduct of the war A. P. Brigham M.A. Sc.D., Professor of Geology, Colgate Uni- versity, Hamilton 3 The effect of the war upon the normal industrial and com- mercial relations of nations especially as to food supplies, the raw materials of industry and markets O. P. Austin, National City Bank, Nezv York 12 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Geography in the elementary school 1 Has the war shown that there should be a change of emphasis in teaching this subject to children? Charles T. McFarlane B.'Pd. Pd.D., Professor of Geography, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York 2 (a) Should new material of instruction be included? (b) What old material of instruction should be omitted? Charles W. Hunt M.A., Vice Principal, Horace Mann School, New York D, J. Kelly B.Sc, Superintendent of ScJiools, Binghamton Geography in secondary schools 1 In the light of recent world events are the secondary schools justified in devoting a half year to physical geography as it is now being taught? W. W. Atwood B.S. Ph.D., Professor of PJiysiography, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 2 Assuming that graduates of our secondary schools should know the world's resources and the use to which they are being put, what instruction in geography is best calculated to give this information? Consider a The claims of commercial and industrial geography b The claims of regional geography AvARD L. Bishop Ph.D., Professor of Geography and Commerce, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, Nezv Haven, Conn. Clara B. Kirchwey, Horace Mann School, Columbia University, Nezv York Geography in normal schools What work in geography should be given in normal or other teacher-training institutions ? Edward M. Lehnerts M.A., Teachers College, Columbia University R. A. Searing, Superintendent of Schools, North Tonazvanda Health Ekiucation How may health instruction be promoted through the schools? Thomas E. Finegan M.A. LL.D., Deputy Commissioner of Educa- tion, Albany Joseph S. Lawrence M.D., State Department of Health, Albany Thomas D. Wood M.D.. Teachers College, Columbia University, Nezv York EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 13 How may cooperation in a state plan of school health instruction be given by a The national government? Taliaferro Clark M.D., Assistant Surgeon General, U. S. Public Health Service, Washington b The Red Cross? Mrs Annie Humphrey, Atlantic Division, American Red Cross, New York Special needs and difficulties in health work in rural schools J. Mace Andress, Boston Normal School, Boston, Mass. The school's responsibility for health as shown by educational experience Major Henry L. K. Shaw M.D., State Department of Health, Albany Clinton P. AIcCord M.D., School Health Director, Albany Forms of organized efir'ort for health work in schools Jennie Haver, County Helping TeacJier, Flemington, N. J. Ruth G. Norton, Physical Training Supervisor, State Education Department Helen Harwich, Physical Training Supervisor, State Education Department Essentials in a program of physical training in city schools Herman J. Norton, Director of Physical Education, Rochester Colonel Arthur Woods, United States Employment Bureau, Washington, D. C. Essentials in a program of physical training in rural schools William H. Geer, Assistant Physical Training Inspector, Military Training Commission, Albany Preparation of teachers for health and physical training ^ Elmer Berry, International Y.M.C.A. College, Springfield, Mass. Helene M. Bennett, Instructor of Physical Education, State Col- lege for Teachers, Albany Higher Education American and European continental systems of education : relative advantages and disadvantages of the systems Stephen P. Duggan M.S.c. Ph.D., Professor of Education, College of the City of Nezv York, and Director, Institute of International Relations, New York 14 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK The time element in education : Can the long period from kinder- garten through college and professional school be shortened? How and at what points? William McAndrews B.A., Associate Superintendent of Schools, New York Admission to college : Upon what training shall it be based and how shall it be determined? Adam Leroy Jones Ph.D., Director of University Admissions and Associate Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University, New York The secondary school and the college Rush Rhees D.D. LL.D., President, University of Rochester, Rochester Some lessons of the war : How shall we profit by them in modifica- tion of college courses and practices? C. A. Richmond D.D. LL.D., Chancellor, Union University, Schenectady College training for business : What place has training for business in the college course? Jeremiah W. Jenks Ph.D. LL.D., Research Professor of Govern- ment and Public Administration, School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance, New York University, New York History The general content of the curriculum in history for elementary schools Samuel B. Harding Ph.D., Committee on History and Education for Citizenship in Schools, Chicago, III. Vocational schools A. S. Beatman M.A., Chairman of the Department of History and Civics, Julia Richman High School, Nezv York High schools Henry Johnson M.A., Professor of History, Teachers College, Columbia University, Nezv York A new emphasis on recent periods of history James Harvey Robinson Ph.D., formerly Professor of History, Columbia University, Nezv York EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 15 How shall the fair interpretation and presentation of history to the minds of children be assured? C. H. Van Tyne Ph.D., Professor of History, University of Mich- igan, Ann Arbor, Mich. Home Economics The Smith-Hughes vocational school act and after-war home economics Anna E. Richardson M.A., Acting Assistant Director for Home Economics, Federal Board for Vocational Education, Washington The training of teachers for reconstruction demands in home economics Anna M. Cooley B.S., Associate Professor of Household Arts Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, Nczv York Permanent lessons in food conservation Martha Van Rensselaer B.A., Professor of Home Economics, State College of Agriculture, Ithaca; formerly Head of Home Conservation Division, U. S. Food Administration War lessons and home extension work Florence Freer B.S., State Leader, County Demonstration Agents, State College of Agriculture, Ithaca Permanent lessons in clothing thrift Cleg Murtland B.S. M.A., Associate Professor of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. Permanent benefit of Junior Red Cross in the schools H. N. McCracken Ph.D. LL.D. L.H.B., President of Vassar Col- lege, Poughkeepsie, formerly National Director, Junior Red Cross, Washington Lessons learned by the elementary school children Grace Schermerhorn B.S., Director of Cooking, Department of Education, New York Industrial Education After-war industrial education Dexter Kimball B.A. M.E., Acting Dean, Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca l6 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Training labor for peace time C. T. Clayton, Director of Training Service, U. S. Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. Methods and results of training women for industry Louise Odenkrantz, Assistant to the Federal Director for Women's Work, United States Employment Service, Nezv York Lessons from the experience of training army mechanicians C. R. Dooley B.S., Westinghouse Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa.; Formerly Director of Vocational Section, Committee on Educa- tion and Special Training, War Department, Washington, D. C. Industrial education and the New York State Federation of Labor Peter Brady, Chairman, Educational Coinuiitiee, Nezv York State Federation of Labor, Nezv York Industrial education and the New York State manufacturers E. H. Feisinger, Safety Engineer, Solvay Process Co., Syracuse Libraries The library as an essential agent for conserving and advancing the results of formal school training in after-school life William Warner Bishop M.A., Pres'ident, American Library Association, and Librarian, University of Alichigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. Mathematics Mathematical requirements (Report of committee for information) J. W. Young Ph.D., Professor of Mathematics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H. Frederick C. Ferry Ph.D. Sc.D. LL.D., President, Hamilton Col- lege, Clinton Mathematics in the junior high school William Betz, . Vice Principal of West High School, Rochester Joseph K. VanDenburgh, Speyer Experimental Junior High School, Nezv York Howard F. Hart, Montclair, N. J. Mathematics of senior high school of the future John H. Denbigh M.A., Principal, Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn Herbert E. Hawkes Ph.D., Acting Dean of Columbia College, Columbia University, Nezv York EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 17 Experiments in teaching secondary mathematics Raleigh Schorling B.A., Instructor in Mathematics, Lincoln School, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York Vevia Blair B.S., Teacher of Mathematics, Horace Mann School, Teachers College, Columbia University, Nezv York Applied mathematics in high school courses William E. Breckenridge M.A., Associate in Mathematics, TeacJiers College, Columbia University, and Head of Depart- ment of Matlicmatics, Sfuyvesant High School, Nezv York Major Fred L. Engelhardt M.A., Elementary Education Inspector, State Education Department, Albany Tests in mathematics Frederick E. Newton Ph.B., Instructor in Matlicmatics, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. Projects for mathematical research David Eugene Smith Ph.D. M.Pd. LL.D., Professor of Mathe- matics, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York Training of mathematics teachers R. C. Archibald Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pure Mathematics, Brozvn University, Providence, R. I. C. W. Watkeys M.A., Professor of Mathematics, University of Rochester, Rochester Harry Birchenough M.A., Professor of Mathematics, State Col- lege for Teachers, Albany Mental Diagnosis Mental diagnosis and psychometric methods What have mental examinations in the army suggested for a Phychometric work in the schools? b Use and value of group tests in the schools? Rudolf Pintner M.A. Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Oliio State University, Columbus, Ohio Marion R. Trabue M.A. Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, Nezv York Arthur S. Otis, Nezv Haven, Conn. What have army psychologic experiences suggested for the sub- normal child? a What is the place of the moron in industry? Mrs Helen Thompson Woolley Ph.D., Director, Vocation Bureau, Cincinnati Public Schools, Cincinnati, Ohio l8 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK b How can the schools best train the subnormal child? A. Leila Martin, Psychological Examiner, Child Study Labora- tory, Rochester Ada M. Fitts, Director of Special Classes, Boston, Mass. c How can the schools cooperate with industry? Arnold Gesell Ph.D. M.D., Professor of Child Hygiene, Yale University, Nezv Haven, Conn. What has army psychologic experience to suggest for the very bright child ? a How conserve his time and energy in the grades ? h How shall he be fitted for leadership? James E. Lough M.A. Ph.D., Professor of Experimental Psy- chology, New York University, New York Robert S. Woodworth M.A. Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Columbia University, Nezv York Edgar A. Doll M.A., Psychological Laboratory, Princeton Uni- versity, Princeton, N. J. Louis A. Pechstein Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Education, University of RocJiester, Rochester Modifications of the Curriculum What modifications of the curriculums or of the general plan and scope of the work of public education should be made to meet existing fundamental educational needs as revealed by our recent national experience? Major John F. O'Ryan, Commanding General, New York National Guard George D. Strayer B.A. Ph.D., Professor of Educational Adminis- tration, Teachers College, Columbia University, and President of National Education Association C. R. Mann B.A. Ph.D., Educational Adviser, War Department, Washington Hugh Frayne, Organi:;er of American Federation of Labor for New York State Clyde Furst Litt.D., Secretary of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Moral Instruction Should there be specified and. formal courses of moral instruction in schools ? Felix Bertaux, Agrcge de I'Universite de Paris, Professor in Lycee Corneille at Rouen, France EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 1 9 Adam A. Walker MA., Professor of Economics and Sociology, State College for Teachers, Albany If so, what should be the program of such instruction in the high schools ? Mrs Annie W. Allen, Director of Roger Ascham School, White Plains What should be the program of such instruction in the elementary schools ? Angelo Patri M.A., Principal, Public School 4j, The Bronx, New York The preparation of the teacher for giving moral instruction A. R. Brubacher M.A. Ph.D., President, State College for Teachers, Albany Music How may universal interest in music be developed through the schools ? Hollis E. Dann Mus.D., Head of Department of Music, Cornell University, and President, National Conference of Music Supervisors What place should music have in the program of a Elementary schools Arthur James Abbott, Teacher of Music, State Normal School, Buffalo Julia E. Crane, Teacher of Vocal Music, State Normal School, Potsdam b High schools Charles E. Miller, Supervisor of Music, Rochester Inez F. Daman Mus.B., Supervisor of Music, Schenectady Russell Carter, Supervisor of Music, Amsterdam Rural Education The curriculum of the elementary schools Mrs Florence E. S. Knapp, Director of Department of Domestic Economy, Syracuse University, Syracuse LiDA Lee Tall B.Sc, Lincoln School, Teachers College, Columbia University Martha Gilmore, Geneseo 2 20 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK The junior high school a In the small community b In villages MiLO B. HiLLEGAS Ph.D., Commissioner of Education, Montpelier, Vt. Thomas H. Briggs Ph.D., Associate Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University Standardization of rural schools H. A. Allan, State Agent for Rural Schools, Augusta, Me. J. M. Foster, Supervising Principal, Dansville M. B. FuRMAN, District Superintendent of ScJiools, East Rochester Supervision George A. Works Ph.B. M.S. A., Professor of Rural Education, Cornell University, Ithaca Ruth M. Johnston, District Superintendent of ScJiools, Port Ley den Building the community spirit Mabel Carney, Instructor in Rural Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, Nezv York M. C. Burritt M.S. in Agric, Ph.D., Vice Director of Extension, New York State College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca Training of Teachers General problems of curriculums a Length of curriculums b Differentiation of curriculums for specific types of teaching c Relation between academic and professional subjects William C. Bagley Ph.D., Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York Henry W. Holmes M.A., Professor of Education, Harvard Uni- versity, Cambridge, Mass. Training school problems a Relation of training departments to other normal school departments b Administration of training schools c Gradation of participation and practice teaching d Supervision of practice teaching William C. Bagley Ph.D., Professor of Education, Teachers Col- lege, Columbia University, Nezv York Stephen S. Colvin Ph.D., Professor of Educational Psychology, Brown University, Providence, R. I. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 21 Problems of preparing rural school teachers a Variations in subject matter courses b Variations in professional courses c Variations in participation and practice teaching Mabel Carney, Instructor in Rural Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York Special problems of normal school administration a Standards of " teaching-load " of instructors ; " student- load " in hours of prescribed work ; size of classes b Problem of faculty organization ; functions of faculty ; com- mittee work George D. Strayer B.A. Ph.D., Professor of Educational Adiiiinis- tration, Teachers College, Columbia University, and President of National Education Association 22 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The various sections of the congress were asked to appoint com- mittees to make such report and recommendations to the Board of Regents as the discussions suggested. Such section reports follow : Agricultural Education The committee recommends-: 1 Attention should be given to the matter of conducting a program of publicity among the various agencies in the State that may be interested in and should have a part in the promotion of instruc- tion in vocational agriculture as a part of the public school system of the State. This campaign of publicity may well be conducted among such agencies as the grange, the farm bureau organizations, com- munity improvement leagues, fruit and truck growers' associations, local boards of education, and school superintendents and principals. Information may well be disseminated through the Extension News, Farm Bureau News and the agricultural journals and by means of special circulars of information issued by the Education Department. 2 A careful study should be made concerning the opportunities for extending agricultural instruction to a larger group of farm boys. Up to the present time, attention has been focused on the problem of organizing courses in agriculture for pupils regularly enrolled in the high school departments. In the communities now offering such courses it is very evident that only a small proportion of the boys living and working on farms are being reached by the school. Two rather distinct groups of such boys may be recognized : a Boys who have left school and who may desire to reenter for the purpose of receiving instruction in agriculture. These pupils might be reached through a one-year or two-year course embodying the major phases of agriculture. b Boys and young men of the region who might be interested in a short course in agriculture conducted during the slack season of the year for a period varying from two weeks to three months. 3 The experience gained as a result of the war garden activities point definitely to the fact that the school and home garden work may well be continued as a part of the elementary school program in the larger villages and cities. During the past four years, the State Education Department and the New York State College of Agri- EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 23 culture have cooperated in the organization of junior home project work throughout the State. The school and home garden work in the State may well be included in the junior project activities and made a part of the instruction in elementary agriculture as organized in the syllabus for elementary agriculture and homemaking. A. R. Mann Anna M. Cooley L. A. Wilson Committee All-year School No comprehensive report or final recommendation can be made by your committee on the basis of the limited scope of the material now before it. The chief material before the committee consists of the following : 1 A detailed report upon the working of the all-year schedule in certain elementary schools in Newark, N. J., which was presented to the conference by Dr David B. Corson. 2 A less formal report from President James F. Barker, of Mechanics Institute, Rochester, N. Y., presenting the results of his experience with the practice of the idea in the secondary schools of Cleveland and in the Mechanics Institute of Rochester. 3 An informal report by Dean A. L. Bouton upon the working of a three-term schedule introduced in connection with a section of the freshman class in the College of Arts and Pure Science and the School of Applied Science of New York University. The discussions presented made clear the great economy of time made possible in formal school and collegiate training by the elimina- tion of the long summer vacation. They also made clear the greater efficiency resulting from the continuous use of educational plants throughout the twelve months of the year. These arguments are quite unanswerable. Insufficient data are before your committee touching the practical application of the all-year schedule to certain types of high and secondary schools, and to the general organization of colleges and universities. It would of course be necessary, before entering further upon the study of the problem, to investigate the working of the all-year schedules now in force in such universities as the Uni- versity of Chicago and the Leland Stanford Junior University. 24 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK The committee believes that the physical welfare of pupils and students working under an all-year schedule should be carefully safe- guarded by adequate medical inspection so as to prevent overstrain on the part of students who are either overambitious or under pressure of economic need to shorten their school training. Your committee believes, therefore, that the all-year schedule should be offered as an opportunity rather than presented as a requirement to pupils in any community where it may be adopted. The committee believes, moreover, that in the all-year system the welfare of the teaching staff is of equal concern with the welfare of those who are taught and that ways should be definitely organized to prevent teachers from engaging in consecutive work over too long a series of terms. It is desirable, moreover, that the all-year schedule should be tried out experimentally in a greater variety of schools and in a larger number of municipalities than has so far been the case. We believe that the State Department can do much by way of encourag- ing experiments in this direction on the part of local school authori- ties. Your committee recommends that further study of the problem proceed under the authority and organization of the State Depart- ment of Education and that, on the basis of such authoritative study, recommendations be formulated for the consideration of the schools and colleges of the State. Inasmuch as the success of the system in the colleges and uni- versities depends in large measure upon coordinating the term system of the colleges with that of the secondary schools, it is recommended that the State Department take this particular problem under special consideration, inasmuch as uniform action among the secondary schools of the State would seem to be a prerequisite for the successful introduction of an all-year schedule by the colleges and universities. Archibald L. Bouton David E. Corson James F. Barker Committee Americanization The committee considers the fundamental principles involved in Americanization work to be as follows : EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 25 1 The foreign-born should be interested in their own Americani- zation work from within the group. 2 The foreign-born should be represented by their leaders on all Americanization committees. 3 Community and neighborhood Americanization with the school- house as the logical community center olTers best possibilities. 4 Factory classes in English and citizenship should be made a large part of the program. 5 So far as possible adult non-English-speaking foreign-born should attend factory classes on their own time and not under compulsion. 6 Inducements as to promotion, preference and pay should be made to those attending these factory classes. 7 Cooperation of all organizations in the field, through a central- ized Americanization council representing all activities, is desirable. 8 The active cooperation of the State Federation of Labor and the Associated Manufacturers is essential to the success of the program. The committee on home and neighborhood teaching makes the following recommendations : 1 That the teacher of home and neighborhood classes be an integral part of the public school system. 2 That the teacher of home and neighborhood classes be con- nected with a definite school or schools and that she be responsible to a definite school superintendent or school principal. 3 That the teacher of home and neighborhood classes be chosen with discrimination, for home teaching requires resourcefulness, tact and sympathy combined with an attractive personality. 4 That the teacher of home and neighborhood classes be specially trained along social and educational lines. 5 That the teacher of home and neighborhood classes give full time to this work, daytime, evening or both. 6 That the teacher of home and neighborhood classes be paid on a yearly basis and that she receive a salary at least equal to that of other school teachers. 7 That trained volunteers be used for home and neighborhood classes, that they be under the supervision of a director or super- visor, and that they be required to hand in at regular intervals written reports of their work. 2,6 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 8 That the program for home and neighborhood classes inchide Teaching of EngHsh . ( 1 ) Speaking (2) Reading (3) Writing h Instruction in civics and naturahzation c Instruction in homemaking d Instruction in child welfare e Instruction in American ideals Clara B. Springsteed Elsa Alsberg Sarah Elkus Harriet P. Dow Committee Art The committee on art education appointed to consider existing fundamental educational needs particularly as revealed by our recent national experiences, and to determine what modifications, if any, of the curriculums or of the general plan and scope of work of our elementary and secondary schools should be made to meet such fundamental state and national needs, has the honor to submit the following report : In Elementary Schools Men and women engaged in the business of the world are demand- ing that industry be made the controlling motive for the handwork done in school. They have! come to realize that much of the time devoted to drawing and construction in the past has been wasted in purposeless activity. There would appear to be but one solution, the formulating of courses combining thought and art with drawing and construction. Industry from the first demanded of education that it be made industrial, not merely that it be made manual. The result of our inability to meet in the past the demands of the times has been that manual activities have flooded our schools, activities decidedly lacking in educational "".vorth. A nezv school study. vVe must establish a new school study which shall provide educative art and construction work and at the same time contribute to the other studies facts which can be obtained at present through no other means. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 27 There is an extensive body of industrial information which is already being organized, evaluated and crystallized into the new school study. Our geographies, reading books and drawing books are taking cognizance of this point of view. Instruction in the industries will create in children a sufficient interest in and knowledge of things industrial to enlarge their ability to appreciate and enjoy the works of artist, mechanic and manu- facturer. This will be brought about : ( i ) by investigating the con- ditions under which products are made; (2) by making drawings to illustrate forms, facts and operations, thus clarifying concepts; (3) by manipulating the materials from which articles are made, thus creating a new product; (4) by making decorative designs to enhance the beauty of objects. There is no reason why such materials as clay, Portland cement, woody textile fibers, glass and metals should not each perform a prominent part in school courses. The course. To develop a course of study it will be necessary first to select an industrial subject matter; second, to provide prac- tice in color, representation and design based upon the subject matter ; and third, to provide construction or the manipulation of materials based upon the subject matter. The course should be made out grade by grade, month by month. Guiding principles. We advise caution in confining art education within too limited bounds. There must be considerable art expres- sion in paths other than those industrial ones which appear just now to be most important. We must not forget picture study, the artistic arrangement of written work, the care of school property and of the school 'premises in particular, the conduct of systematized recreation, entertainments and other social functions involving often- times music and dancing. Literature too comes in for her share in art expression. Try as we may to provide a subject in the ele- mentary school course which will entirely take care of art instruction we shall not succeed. Art will not be so confined. We believe that upon the acceptance of the nine principles listed below will depend in a large measure the success of art teaching in the first six grades. I There must be established a new school study combining the former subjects of drawing, manual training, cooking, sewing and construction work still found on many elementary school programs. (Drawing, cooking, sewing and shopwork are appropriate subjects for grades above the sixth but the combined subject will make for efificiency in the elementary school.) 28 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 2 The Study will be the same for all children regardless of race, sex, social standing or future occupation. 3 Its aim will be the development of social intelligence and appre- ciation through understanding the things of the environment which have resulted from man's transformation of the raw materials about him into finished products to meet the need for food, clothing, shelter, records, utensils, tools, machines, light, heat and power. 4 The topics around which the course is to be organized are: how the race feeds itself ; how the race clothes itself ; how the race houses itself; how the race puts itself on record; how the race pro- vides utensils ; how the race provides tools and machines ; how the race produces light, heat and power. 5 The primary object of the course will not be the cultivation of technical skill although some degree of efficiency will result from a proper graduation of the work and from careful teaching. 6 The handwork will be for illustrative purposes, giving insight through participation. 7 Subject matter will include the story of the growth of the race in the use of the raw materials of industry, from primitive to modern industrial methods ; the simpler principles involved in tool processes and the influence of the industries on the life of the people, with constant connection with related literature, history, geography, arithmetic and nature study. 8 If the school program is properly adjusted such a course will greatly vitalize the other subjects of the curriculum in many cases saving much time through correlation. 9 The course will be cultural, having an intimate relation with the life experience of the race as shown in its art expression in pottery, textiles, basketry, metal and woodworking and as reflected in its painting and sculpture. In Secondary Schools The junior high school. Above the sixth grade, an entirely different problem confronts us. The adolescent stage is approaching and the boy or girl begins to think and act in terms of more advanced, even adult activity. Now is the time to ascertain the pupil's capacities for certain kinds of work, his interests, and to discover if possible what his natural abilities may be. It is the period when we can " try-out " EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 29 the individual in various fields of life work. His inclination may be largely mental or largely manual. It may be professional or trade ; commercial or industrial. Art teaching should seek to develop latent powers. At the same time the general knowledge of what constitutes a fine thing, good taste, beauty, should be instilled into the receptive mind of the pupil. At present we find pupils entering high school with widely vary- ing degrees of art knowledge. We believe, therefore, that every first year high school class should be required to pursue a general course in art training or art appreciation, a course permitting of the interpretation of beauty in innumerable ways. It should include a study of nature as applied to art, historic works of art and modern manufactured forms. It should permit of enough practice to demonstrate the possibilities and limitations of art expression in a variety of mediums. Finally it should bring before the ptipils many direct applications which may be carried out in the common experiences of daily life. Following this general course, which should seek to discover the talented, there should be offered special courses whose technical content is focused upon definite types of commercial, industrial, decorative and graphic art. We realize that the average high school is not equipped to offer successfully even one course in art instruction. When from two to five different classes have to use the same room it is obviously impossible to equip or maintain that room as an art studio. A flat table for stencilling, drawing tables, a bench, space for illustrative material, a sink, shadow boxes, etc. are not possible in the room required for general recitation purposes. The senior IngJi school. In the senior high school more definite steps should be taken toward specialization. Up to this time art education has sought to bring to the attention of the pupil various esthetic experiences, with definite reasons for selections, choices or arrangements. \Miatever taste has been developed was probably dependent upon one of two things, or perhaps both — first, con- victions resulting from experience and second, statements of fact presented by the teacher and accepted by the pupil as final. This more general knowledge must now be directed toward somewhat prolonged and specialized types of artistic production. Economic necessity for properly trained art and craft workers will sooner or later force more adequate equipment into the average high school. 30 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK A Special Art School We are convinced that Europeans never have produced nor will they ever be able to produce in Europe or in America the kind of industrial art that America must have. There must sooner or later be established a group of industrial art schools which will eventually be capable of training an adequate number of craftsmen to execute the kind of work which the American child is to be taught in the public schools to appreciate and to enjoy. The State should at once make provision in a state school of art for highly specialized design and industrial art training, in or near New York City. This school should include high school grades, and advanced art and technical departments for the highest type of professional training short of a possible university of art at Wash- ington. Provision should also be made for teacher-training classes. Schools from all over the State would feed into this school which would be directly associated through advisory boards with the art industries and their professional studios. The school should be closely afBliated with the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Natural History and it should seek to give to the State and Nation artists and designers better trained and more efficient than any country has ever seen. Royal B. Farnum Harry W. Jacobs Leon L. Winslow Richard F. Bach Herbert J. Spinden Committee Civics That " The principles which you would incorporate in the life of your community you must write into the curriculum of your schools " has become a proverb of reform. Mr Roosevelt para- phrased this proverb in the expression, "If you are going to do any- thing permanent for the average man, you have got to begin before he is a man. The chance of success lies in working with the boy, not with the man." Our conference is concerned with the making of good citizens in a democracy, a form of government in which success — that is, peace, order, industry, justice and general happiness — depends on wise action and right living by the average person. This end must EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 3 1 be attained if at all as a result of education; through the cultivation of the mental, spiritual and physical possibilities of the young, which is the task of the whole school system. As a part of this general undertaking, the particular concern of this conference on the teaching of government, is the preparation of children for participation in democracy through planting in their minds and characters sound principles of political and social cooperation. Among the most useful studies of the teaching of government is the one which was made by the Maxwell committee for the National Municipal League. This committee reported to the league in the years 1904 and 1905, and the results of its work may be found in the proceedings of the league for those years. The chairman of the committee, Dr William H. Maxwell, in summing up its work, called attention to one outstanding difficulty in the way of useful instruction in government, and made four basic recommendations. The difficulty on which he laid stress had immediate reference to the teaching of municipal government, which he said was then still in a state of flux. He said that because of this it was difficult for the teacher to know what to teach. For the teacher of city govern- ment, this difficulty has been removed through the publication of a model city charter which is the expression of the concensus of opinion among political scientists as to what city government should be. It remains now for the teacher to implant in the minds of his pupils the principles contained in this model charter. The same difficulty persists in the teaching of state government. We have no model state constitution, and there is no simple expres- sion of the consensus of opinion as to what a state government should be. This lack is a sad indictment of the leaders of our political thought and should soon be corrected. It is wrong to teach to young citizens the chaos which characterizes most of our state governments. The result of doing so would be an antieducational influence ; it would do the pupils more harm than good. But while the government of states is still in chaos, as stich men as Mr Bryce and Mr Root have pointed out in no uncertain terms, the study of political organization has evolved a body of principles which are capable of being taught and which should constitute the basis of courses in government. On them may be built a body of thought, even in the minds of the young, which will go far toward preparing the way for sound and enduring democracy. 32 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Among the principles which are now accepted with practical unanimity by our pubHcists and poHtical philosophers are the following : 1 The short ballot principle 2 The merit system in the civil service 3 Departmentalized and coordinated administration 4 The executive budget and standardized accounting These basic principles and those which are corollary to them, may be taught as easily and with as much hope of useful results as may the principles of geometry or of physics ; but they can not be so taught except by teachers who are trained in them, not super- ficially and aimlessly, but thoroughly and with a view to propagating a body of doctrine with a motive and purpose. The four recommendations made by Doctor Maxwell in reporting for his committee are the following : 1 We must train children to be careful observers of political phenomena 2 We must train them to form correct judgments from their observations 3 We must oppose the enactment of laws which are unenforceable and which therefore weaken respect for government 4 We must create through teaching a demand that public officials shall be judged by the same moral standards as are private citizens These recommendations have to do with the immediate pedagogical machinery, and may be supplemented by the following three steps in the pedagogical process : 1 We must catch the attention and interest of pupils by showing them the government at work in their interest 2 We must make government visible to them and show them that it is an organization of the community in the common interest 3 We must dispose the young citizen to take part in public activity For the teaching of government, in addition to the difficulty referred to by Doctor Maxwell, two other obstacles lie in the way of sounder teaching: 1 The school authorities are not willing to give to the teaching of government an allotment of time commensurate with its importance 2 The school administrators are not willing to assign the teaching of government only to teachers who by reason of character and training are suited to the work In view of the conditions set forth above, this conference makes the following: recommendations : EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 33 1 That those who direct the organization and growth of the school system look to the following provision of time for government in the schools : a In the first six grades let the teacher be given ample time and encouraged to train pupils in an attitude of voluntary cooperation in the work of the community, the care of public and private prop- erty, and the support of public officials. h In the next three grades (7-9), frequently referred to as the junior high school cycle, let the subject of government be given the exclusive use of five periods a week for at least half a year, or a corresponding amount of time distributed through a longer period. c In the next three grades (10-12), frequently referred to as the senior high school cycle, let government receive at least as much time as is recommended for it in the junior high school cycle above, exclusive of such time allotment as seems desirable for history and economics. d Let the work to be oft'ered under a, h and c, above, be required of every pupil in the school ; and permit no one to be recorded as a graduate until the work has been completed to the satisfaction of the teachers of government. e Let all normal schools, training schools for teachers, and col- leges, require for graduation at least one thorough course in the principles of government. 2 That those who direct the organization and growth of the school system use their best endeavors, through the enactment of statutes and the administration of their own authority, to prevent the teaching of government in the junior or senior high school cycle from being assigned to any teacher who has not been trained in government, economics and history ; and also to provide that all prospective teachers in the first six grades be required to show some careful study of these subjects and the methods of teaching them, 3 That colleges and universities be urged, in the interest of encouraging this work in the private as well as in the public schools and of preventing it from being made secondary to so-called " college entrance subjects," to recognize adequate instruction in government by allowing credit for it to candidates for admission. Edgar Dawson J. L. Barnard A. E. McKlNLEY Committee 34 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Clearing House The committee offers the following suggestions for the establish- ment of a special bureau or clearing house by the State Department of Education as an important part of its work : 1 Purpose. To aid in the adaptation of education in New York State to the changing demands occasioned by the conditions of war and reconstruction. 2 Method a General: To coordinate the educational work of the State by bringing the educational institutions into closer touch with one another and with the needs for trained workers in the fields of industry, business and the professions. b Special: (i) To collect information regarding the opportunities for training offered in the State. (2) To make this information available to the institutions and to the public. (3) To gather from all available sources specific information as to the current needs for various kinds of trained workers. (4) To present this information to the institutions in order that all necessary courses be provided by the appropriate institutions and unnecessary duplication avoided. 3 Suggested organisation. The establishment by the Department of Education of New York State of a bureau or clearing house with a competent director and expert staff to function according to the above statement of purpose and method. The following resolutions were adopted by the clearing house section : Whereas, There is at present no official medium for securing close cooperation among the educational institutions of New York State and for conveying to them information from national, state and, other employment agencies, so that their courses of study may be adjusted to community needs, and Whereas, The experience of the war, as revealed for example in the experimental work of The Clearing House for War-time Train- ing for Women in New York City, has shown the vital necessity of some such agency for increasing the efficiency of elementary, secondary and higher education, and Whereas, This agency can be most appropriately and effectively conducted in New York State by the State Education Department, because of its position, authority and prestige. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 35 Resolved, That this meeting strongly urge upon the Board of Regents the estabHshment of such a clearing house for the State of New York, to deal with the training of men and women, and request the Board to grant a hearing to representatives of the former Clearing House for War-time Training for Women in New York City, so that the plan may be set forth in concrete detail. Virginia C. Gildersleeve Secretary ?. ', . Economics The members in attendance were in agreement that the general industrial unrest and the conditions resulting from the war had brought home to us as never before that the problems of our age are largely economic and that an understanding of economic laws is most needed, if the citizen is to grasp the significance of the move- ments of the day, especially since he is to lend his aid through the vote to some solution of these pressing problems. It was further agreed that to limit the systematic study of economic principles to college students, as has been generally the case in this State, is to train but a small minority of the body politic for intelligent participation in the activities of an industrial and democratic state. It was further agreed that since it is desirable to give some train- ing in economic principles to all citizens, it would be advantageous to introduce some form of economic teaching as early as possible in the school curriculum while the great mass of the voters to be are still in school ; that to this end our aim should be to teach some elementary economic concepts as early as the seventh year of the elementary school. Though some doubt was expressed as to the possibility of finding teachers equipped for teaching these concepts to pupils of this age, there was practically unanimity in believing that the pupils of this grade would profit from such instruction from well-trained teachers. Such economic ideas as the social value of saving, the evils of waste, the advantages of the use of capital, and its necessary compensation, the advantages of the division of labor, of increased product due to developed skill, the functions of banks, can be easily taught to children of that grade, provided the instruc- tion is based on the actual experiences of the child. These topics can be dealt with in connection with the work in geography, arithmetic, and especially in a course in community life, such as that now required in the first year of the New York City high schools. 3 36 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK This instruction can be better given in the elementary schools when teachers have received a training in economics, not only in the colleges but also in the normal and training schools, and your committee is prepared to recommend the introduction of courses in economics and methods of teaching economics in the special schools which prepare teachers for the elementary schools. But even with teachers with training in economics, a syllabus of matter to be presented, with suggestions as to the best methods of presentation, needs to be prepared. It is desirable, therefore, that a committee prepare at an early date a syllabus of topics to be taught in the seventh and eighth grades, and that the President of the University shall cause such a syllabus to be used throughout the State. The members of the conference were in complete accord in believing that the recent action of the board of education of New York City in making one-half unit of economics a required subject for graduation from all four-year courses of its high schools, was a great step forward. It was felt that a similar requirement might wisely be enforced throughout the State. Discussion arose not so much over the desirability of teaching economics in the high school as over the method of teaching it and the advisability of introducing a new subject in the curriculum with no assurance that properly trained teachers of the subject could be secured. The weight of opinion was that experience has shown that rarely do we wait for a supply of trained teachers before introducing a new subject, but that the most common procedure has been first to create a demand for the teachers by introducing the subject and then to allow the demand to create the supply. Mr Tildsley cited his experience in the High School of Commerce, where he had selected teachers of mathematics and science, who were students of method and who were socially minded, and had set them to teaching economics even though they had had but rudimentary training in the subject. These teachers had become within a few months effective teachers of economics and had developed a strong interest in the subject. It was further brought out in the discussion that teachers of history are not necessarily the teachers best qualified to teach economics, that the methods used in natural science are the methods most akin to the methodology of economics, that the all-important element is the personality and interests of the teacher. Although some members favored a descriptive treatment of economics and a study of problems of society, the members in the EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 37 main supported the position that what was needed was a systematic study of a body of economic theory taught deductively. Professor Hamilton had stated his belief that we are in grave danger ( i ) because business men do not think their problems through and (2) because labor leaders are sometimes acting in ignorance when they are so sure that they are not getting what they are entitled to. Mr Tildsley maintained that a systematic study of economic theory followed by a study of the working out of these theories in industry would tend to develop in the pupil a power of analysis and of accurate thinking which would help to safeguard society against the dangers which Professor Hamilton had cited. The new syllabus in history which seeks to combine economics with American history does not meet the need which the conference believed to be so urgent. Such a study of economic topics will undoubtedly vitalize history but it will not give the student that mastery of a body of economic theory which is necessary if he is to be in a position to understand new problems as they arise. It is not fitting, as Doctor Sullivan stated, that economics be made merely the hand maiden of history. The minimum that should be offered in economics throughout the academic high schools of the State is five periods a week in the theory of economics for one term in the fourth year. Wherever possible this one-half unit should be sup- plemented by a second half unit in applied economics or economic problems. The chief obstacle to the adoption of this policy is the attitude of the colleges and the consequent omission of this subject from the subjects accepted for a college entrance diploma. Your committee is of the opinion that economics as a study in the high schools of the State has been somewhat discredited because of its superficial treatment, in that pupils have been set to solving problems and discussing great economic questions without a sufficient grounding in the principles of the subject, with the result that pupils have been allowed to employ defective premises and indulge in loose reasoning. The subject when elective has not therefore always attracted to its classes the most thoughtful and best prepared students who have chosen instead the subjects of mathematics, foreign languages and physical science in the belief that these subjects yield as taught a larger measure of training in accurate observation, close reasoning and sound generalization. Your committee believes that when economics is presented to high school pupils as primarily a systematic body of principles, with a 38 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK fairly exact nomenclature, and when the teacher insists upon exact definitions of terms, accurate statements of principles and close reasoning from tested premises to valid conclusions, economics becomes a subject not inferior in training value to mathematics and physical science and furnishes in addition a unique contribution of its own to the preparation of the pupil for the real business of living and especially for intelligent participation in the duties of citizenship. To the end that economics may be taught so as to yield this value, it is imperative that the State Examinations Board should see to it that examination papers should be so framed as to demand a knowl- edge of economic theory and ability in rigid reasoning in the appli- cation of this theory so as to discourage loose thinking. Special emphasis should be laid on accurate definition of economic terms and accurate statement of economic principles, and pupils should be required to criticize constructively passages from economic writings and detect economic fallacies. A change in the character of the examination papers can thus be made to bring about the desired change in the methods of teaching and in the results of such teaching. It was the sense of the conference that the President of the University should be urged to make representations to the colleges of the State and to the Board of Regents asking them to cooperate in furthering this study of economics in our high schools by crediting economics for admission to colleges. The conference realized that the introduction of a half unit in economics in the fourth year of the course would affect but a small proportion of high school pupils. The State Department of Educa- tion now requires of all pupils of the first two years of the high school a course in civics. If this course were to be given four periods a week for the first half year, four periods a week could then be devoted for the second half year to a study of the industrial life of the community. In this study many elementary principles of economics could be brought out so that this study could become an elementary introduction to the more systematic course in theory in the fourth year. For vocational schools, the conference agreed that there should be more intensive courses in economics beginning with an introductory study of local industries as outlined above, followed by a study of the division of the industry, trade and commerce of the past, to be adequately treated in a course in industrial and commercial history for the second year. In the third year there should come EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 39 the study of the industry, trade and commerce of the present, that is, commercial or economic geography. In the fourth year should appear a course in the theory of economics for the first half year followed in the second half year hy an intensive study of selected economic problems, such as labor problems, banking, insurance, foreign trade, factory management, economics of agriculture, etc. The problems treated in this course should be such as the pupil in that particular vocational school deals with when he enters upon the vocation for which the school has trained him. Such a course is not visionary, but has been in operation in the High School of Commerce for more than ten years. For the furtherance of this general program of economic study which has the support of this section meeting of the congress, your committee makes the following recommendations : I That although it is not advisable at the present time in view of the want of economic training on the part of our teachers to attempt any systematic treatment of economics in the elementary schools, yet it is desirable that certain simple principles should be taught there and certain habits developed in them which will tend to make the pupils more efficient members of an industrial society. Children of the seventh and eighth grades should be taught, for example, the benefits of thrift to society as well as to the individual, the evils of waste both in production and consumption ; they should be taught the advantages of the division of labor, of large-scale production, the function of capital in production, the function of banks, etc. These subjects may be taken up in connection with geography, arithmetic and history. In order that some progress may be made at once in impressing these ideas upon these children, it is recommended that the President of the University have pre- pared and sent to the elementary schools of the State a syllabus of topics to be taught, together with suggestions for teaching them. 2 That in the high schools with a general course, economic teach- ing may well begin with a descriptive study of the industries, the occupations of the community, to be given in the second term fol- lowing a course in the activities of the local unit of government in the first term. 3 That a systematic course in the theory of economics be given for at least one-half year, five times a week in the last year of the course ; that whenever possible such a course should be given in the first half of the fourth year to be followed in the second half by a five period course in applied economics or economic problems. Your 40 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK committee further recommends that at least one-half unit of economics be required in all approved four-year high school courses and in all approved commercial courses. 4 In order that further encouragement may be given to the study of economics in the high schools, your committee recommends that the Board of Regents be requested to amend the requirements for a college entrance diploma in arts, as also for a college entrance diploma in science and in engineering, by adding to the list of elective subjects for each diploma, economics 2^^ counts. 5 In order that the teachers in our elementary schools may be trained to recognize economic forces at work and so illumine their teaching of geography and history, it is recommended that every normal school and teachers training school offer a required course in economics of the equivalent of at least one-half unit. To this end, your committee requests the Commissioner of Education to include economics among the subjects required of students in the training schools and normal schools. 6 That the State Examinations Board be requested to select as a committee to frame papers in economics teachers who have had a thorough training in economics, who will so frame examination papers as to demand systematic teaching of economic theory and discourage loose thinking, and unwarranted generalizations from insufficient data. 7 That because of the general industrial unrest and the wide interest in economic problems, the loose thinking of many of our leaders of public opinion and the tendency to seize upon untested plans for the amelioration of pressing evils of our industrial society, the President of the University be urged to expedite the adoption throughout the schools of the State of the program as outlined above or such modification as may seem to him advisable. John L. Tildsley Chairman English The committee appointed to formulate the general conclusions which seemed apparent in the English conferences of the Educa- tional Congress makes the following recommendations : I That a committee or committees be appointed to prepare lists of patriotic readings to be recommended for the use of (a) the elementary schools, (b) the high schools of the State. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 4I 2 That a committee be appointed to prepare for the use of ele- mentary schools a brief and simple syllabus in voice training and correction of faulty speech with special reference to foreign accent. R. T. CONGDON Secretary Foreign Languages Recent developments in the subject of foreign languages clearly indicate that there should be some definite attempts made to formu- late their value, establish their position in the course of study and organize the work so as to produce the most efficient results for the time expended. It is the purpose of this committee to make certain recommendations with regard to these three points of view. For the guidance of the general public, educators, school children and their parents, it would be wise for the Regents of the State to publish a succinct statement on foreign languages as a subject of instruction, with the idea of setting forth the potential value of the several languages, and how long a language will have to be studied in order that its potential value may be realized. While, doubtless, the foreign languages now studied in the secondary schools of the State have a right in the course of study, it is also true that other languages may present, in the near future, equally valid claims for inclusion. The present drifting policy of admitting new languages merely upon the basis of popular appeal, and allowing indiscriminate competition will, if pursued, surely bring the whole subject into disrepute. Moreover, there is already great clanger of the foreign language occupying too large a place in the individual pupil's program and in the program of the school. Both conditions are bad, the first educationally, and the second from the point of view of public expense. Complete city systems, with their different types of schools, should provide classes in several foreign languages, but it is the opinion of the committee that it would be sound policy for small schools in the State to plan, and carry out to completion, under well-equipped teachers, a course in but two foreign languages — one ancient and one modern — and it is suggested that the standard course should be of four years' duration, with a weekly schedule on the basis of at least 5, 5, 4, 4 for the successive years. Where the junior and senior high school system prevails and the equipment is adequate, experiments should also be made with the six-year foreign language 42 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK course and the results compared with those attained in the standard four-year course. While it is advisable that many languages should be known by the citizenry of the land, we can best accomplish our ends if, in the school, the individual pupil specializes in and masters one. Only in very exceptional cases should a pupil pursue more than one modern foreign language during the secondary period. Because of the possible future value as a tool and as a means of general culture it is desirable that a large proportion of pupils of high school age should begin a foreign language. On the other hand, it must be pointed out that the greatest success will come only through interest, steady application and linguistic ability on the part of the pupil. Not all children possess the power of sustained interest and the somewhat special ability to acquire the technic necessary for success in the subject. It is suggested, therefore, that the child should first be given as good guidance as it is possible to give as to what foreign language he should undertake. He should then be permitted to pursue the subject during the elementary period lasting two years, provided he can pass with a mark of 6o per cent in the Regents examinations. But pupils who fail to get 75 per cent or over should be discouraged from continuing the subject. In order further to safeguard the success of the third and fourth years of the course, it is also recommended that the passing mark for these years be raised to at least 75 per cent. Moreover, it ought not to be possible for pupils who have shown marked unfitness in one foreign language to attempt another. The foreign language course ought to be so planned as to give pupils the best value for the time and energy they expend, regardless of whether they complete the whole course or are compelled, for some reason or other, to discontinue it at an earlier stage. In order to meet these conditions the whole course should be mapped out with the reading control as the chief practical end to be kept in view. And while the best modern practice will make use of all elements of language control, such as hearing, speaking and writing, yet these should be regarded as but means to an end in arriving at the desired goal-reading ability. How best to teach reading, in the modern sense of the term, is by no means as settled as many are inclined to think. It is suggested that some constructive investigation be done by specialists under state auspices with the idea of providing teachers eventually with some definite ideas as to the size, range and extent of vocabulary EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 43 required to equip pupils to read material suitable to the several stages of advancement. It is also desirable to have evaluated exer- cises in speaking, hearing and writing as means of promoting reading control. For example, teachers should have at their disposal and as a means of testing pupils' ability and progress in the foreign language, reading scales similar to those devised by Thorndike and others for the study of English. If similar means of measurement existed and were used with understanding and discrimination some of the obvious defects of school and state examinations, however carefully set, would be largely corrected. Moreover, they would do much to insure steady progress in foreign language method. The teacher is the strongest factor in the modern language course. The best paper-organization will be of little avail if the vital teaching force is lacking. There has always been a lack of well-equipped teachers in the State and country at large. It is the duty of the State to foster in every way the training and interest of young men and women in the subject of foreign language teaching. It is par- ticularly necessary to attract to the subject the better minds among the American-born. The State should not only have clearly defined standards as to what equipment the teacher of foreign languages should possess, but should also take steps to arouse greater interest and cooperation on the part of colleges and universities to help meet the exacting demands of the profession. Up to the present time the higher institutions of learning have either shirked or not realized their responsibilities in the business of providing teachers for schools. The modern language teacher, particularly, requires long appren- ticeship and special training to succeed. It is necessary that as early and as good a start be made as possible, during the undergraduate years, and even though no great degree of specialization can be expected during this period college authorities should be urged to provide adequate preliminary courses which shall culminate in one or more years of graduate work in the language of the student's choice. The degree of M.A. in the special subject, or equivalent work done abroad, should be regarded as the minimum standard of scholastic attainment in the profession of teacher of foreign languages. The holding of such a degree will not, of itself, solve the problem of the well-equipped teacher. It will, however, guarantee a certain breadth of general education and at least a year's intensive study in the special field. Since the State Department of Education should know what degree of learning and special proficiency are needed for sue- 44 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK cessful foreign language work in the schools, it should prepare a statement regarding the subject of the training of the teacher and in every way cooperate with the graduate schools of the State to secure the results desired. Bagster Collins John Green Charles A. Downer Charles Holzwarth William R, Price Committee General Science A The committee understands that it is not its function to outline fully the purposes of science in education, but desires to make the following brief statement of some of the ends which science teaching should give. In the report on " Cardinal Principles " of the N. E. A. Commission on Reorganization of Secondary Education, the follow- ing objectives of secondary education are given, to all of which we believe science teaching should make important contributions: 1 Health 2 Command of fundamental processes 3 Worthy home membership 4 Vocation 5 Citizenship 6 Worthy use of leisure 7 Ethical character More specifically, the courses in science for young pupils should: 1 Make a large contribution to health improvement as well as to the other objectives above stated. It is clearly true that if health is a leading objective of secondary education, the introductory courses should include the aspects of science which suitably interpret and guide the health needs and environmental controls of the pupils. 2 Bring pupils into first-hand contact with the actual materials with which science deals in order to develop proper control of fundamental processes and the kind of science knowledge which functions in real living. There should be a considerable amount of class demonstration and individual laboratory work, and textbook and other information, while essential, should be supplementary to first-hand experiences. 3 Give a comprehension of the scientific method of working which, on the part of each pupil, involves inductions and deductions from EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 45 facts and principles which appear in common uses of science. Since this method of instruction necessitates a considerable amount of classroom discussion, it is evident that the number of topics or problems constituting any course in science should be sufficiently limited to admit of the desired kind of training in the scientific way of working. 4 Lead pupils to appreciation of our indebtedness to the achieve- ments of scientists, and to a consciousness of the duty on the part of each pupil to contribute his share to human welfare through the proper use of science. Tlie topics and problems selected for study, therefore, should be those that enlist the real interest of pupils, call out their best endeavor, and seem to them to be worth while because of their close connection with the necessary affairs of life. B The committee desires to recommend as follows : 1 Junior high schools of the junior-senior high school plan That general science be offered for credit in the first and second years of the junior high school (seventh and eighth grades). When given throughout both of these years, as is usually desirable, it is recommended that the total time given to the subject be at least the equivalent of one full year's work. It is further recommended that biological science be given in the last year of the junior high school (the ninth grade) since, (a) the seventh and eighth grade work in general science will include a considerable amount of biological materials; and since (b) some schools will desire to organize the junior high school sciences so as to make a unified three-year course, the latter one being especially biological in nature, with two full years' credit; it is recommended that upon presenta- tion of satisfactory outlines for the three-year course, such plans be approved. The above recommendations for junior high school science specifically are as follows : General science in first and second years or in second year with the time and credit of one full year's work, and a year of biological science in the last year ; or, a three-year course, the third of which is especially biological, the whole being planned as a three-year unified course. 2 Four-year high schools: In the four-year high schools we recommend that wherever pos- sible there be a course in general science in the first year, followed 46 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK by a course in biology in the second year. Where this two-year sequence is inadvisable, we recommend that general science be offered in the first year as an alternative with general biology with equal credit. 3 Examinatio ns : We recommend that schools submit to the State Department full topical outlines of their courses and a list of proposed final examina- tions. In considering these questions for examination, it is recom- mended that the State Department recognize the desirability of having a wide variety of questions for different environments adapted to the types of studies included in the general science course. Otis W. Caldwell Harry A. Carpenter James E. Peabody Committee Geography The committee has condticted correspondence with the normal schools of the State and with various normal schools and training colleges in other states where strong departments of geography are known to exist. The committee has also communicated with school superintendents, school principals and teachers of geography within the State. Tiianks arc due to many who have thus given their cooperation. Geography in the Colleges and Universities of the State A survey of the condition of geographic instruction in the State of New York must include a review of the higher schools. The only schools of this grade which recognize the subject in the titles of officers of instruction are Columbia and Cornell Universities. The former has a professor of geography, a professor of physiog- raphy and an instructor in geography. The latter has a professor of physical geography and an instructor in physical geography. Of these five men, one gives the major part of his time to administrative duties. It should further be stated that Columbia University is opening a new school of business, has established a chair of com- mercial geography and that one of our foremost teachers of this phase of the science has begun his work in the new department during the current academic year. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 47 Practically all the other instruction in geography in the colleges of the State is given by teachers of geology. It has probably in every case been introduced because such teachers have recognized the importance of it, and not because college authorities or faculties have been cognizant of its value. The indexes of the college catalogs do not as a rule recognize its presence. The showing for geography thus informally introduced is sub- stantially exhibited in the following statements. At Syracuse Uni- versity courses are given in physiography, climatology, industrial geography, physiography of the United States, the physiography of New York, and the physiography of South America. At Colgate the major part of the time of one of the professors of geology is given to geography and courses are given in physiography, commercial geography, the history of exploration and commerce, the geography of Europe and the geography of the United States. Vassar College offers courses in climatology, commercial geography and the geography of North America. St Lawrence University has phy- siography, commercial geography and climatology. Some work offered elsewhere is indicated in the following tabular summaries. Courses in physiography: Colgate University, Columbia Uni- versity, Cornell University, Hamilton College, Rochester University, St Lawrence University, Syracuse University. Courses in commercial geography: Colgate University, Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, St Lawrence University, Syracuse University, Vassar College. Courses in climatology: Cornell University, Rochester University, St Lawrence University, Syracuse University, Vassar College. Courses in mathematical geography : Columbia University (given by the department of astronomy). Courses in regional geography: Colgate University (United States, Europe), Columbia University (United States, principles of regional geography), Cornell University (North America, Europe), Syracuse University (New York State, United States, South America), Vassar College (North America). Analyzing the last table it appears that but two of our higher schools give a general treatment of North America, namely, Cornell and Vassar. Our own country receives attention in but three schools, Syracuse, Columbia and Colgate ; Europe in two, Cornell and Col- gate ; and South America in one, Syracuse. At Columbia a course in the physiography of the eastern United States and a course in 48 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK the physiography of the western United States are offered in aher- nate years. The student has no opportunity for mature study of Asia, Africa or AustraHa. Thus is shown the poverty of our edu- cation in a subject whose value has been demonstrated as never before, during the years of the war, and at a time when the United States is entering upon closer relations with the world. This further appears if we observe that out of the colleges and universi- ties of the State, only eight give courses in physiography, eight in commercial geography, and five in climatology. While some work is offered in a few schools in map reading, there is not a single course in the principles and practice of cartography. Finally it must be said that about a dozen of our colleges offer no instruction whatever, in any department of geographic science. The above outline refers to the facilities offered in the regular academic year. The summer sessions of Columbia and Cornell Uni- versities present a considerable variety of geographic courses, cover- ing both subject matter and methods of teaching. These courses, as is well known, are taken mainly by teachers in the lower schools. While this is highly valuable, the summer work, except in a few cases, does not reach the great body of undergraduate and graduate students in our higher institutions. The Need of Geography in the State College for Teachers The committee is informed that the State College for Teachers offers no courses in geography except such physical geography and economic geography as are given in the commercial department. This does not affect the college as regards the great body of geo- graphic teaching throughout the State. The schools of New York, as it would seem to the committee, may naturally and properly look to the State College for teachers with a training for superintendents, for principalships in high schools, and to take charge of the vitally important departments in our state normal schools. Where shall we obtain good teachers for elementary grades if they are not trained in the secondary and normal schools, and have these schools not a right to expect that the State College will furnish teachers fully equipped for so basal and widespread a study as geography? We are in this respect far behind other states. As proof of this statement we submit the following outlines of work in geography which is offered and accomplished in several of the teachers colleges and normal schools of other states. This list could be greatly, indeed almost indefinitely, enlarged if it were necessary. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 49 Geography in Institutions outside of New York State lozva State Teachers College, Cedar Falls, Iowa. Courses are offered in economic geography of North America, economic geography of Europe, conservation of national resources, commercial geography of South America, relation of geography to American history, physiography, meteorology, geography and geology of Iowa, methods of geography teaching. There are three instructors in geography and it is hoped soon to employ a fourth. There is a well- equipped museum in geography, used in the work of the extension faculty, which meets teachers in all parts of the state of Iowa. Geography teachers go out from the college for frequent consulta- tion work, criticism and conferences with teachers. Michigan College for Teachers, Ypsilanti. Seven courses are offered, including physical geography of America, geography of Europe, commercial geography, map drawing. Climatology and various other studies are occasionally given as demanded. The material equipment is full and there are three instructors giving their time to the subject, George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn. The scope and character of the work are indicated by the titles of the following eight courses given in the summer quarter : fundamentals of regional geography, economic and commercial geography of the United States, economic and commercial geography (foreign), geography of Europe, college geology, influence of geography on American history, geography study tour, seminar in geography. During the year there are more students in geography to the instructor than in any other department in the college, and geography leads in the correspondence study department. Boston Normal School. Two courses are given: (i) a year course, six 40-minute periods a week, purely academic with nothing on methods. The course includes physical geography and the study of the most important countries; (2) shorter course on teaching geography as related to the Boston course of study and the teaching of the model school. The equipment is very full, consisting of contour maps, lanterns, reflectoscopes, moving picture machines, slides, books, pamphlets, products and geographic magazines. Salem Normal School, Salem, Mass. Six courses are given: methods (full year), continental geography, junior high school 50 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK geography, general geography, commercial geography, commercial and industrial geography. There are two instructors. Los Angeles State Normal School, recently made a branch of the State University. There are four teachers in the department. Five rooms are wholly devoted to the subject. The equipment consists of maps, folios, models, nearly three thousand slides, stereoscopic outfit and meteorological instruments. There are twelve courses of twelve weeks each as follows : elementary physical geography, world geography. North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, Oceania, economic geography, advanced physical geography, con- servation of national resources, special methods in geography. Rhode Island State Normal School. The school offers very full courses on the forms of the continent, climatology, natural resources, population. North America, Europe (and other regional studies) and methods. State Normal School, Mankato, Minn. Seven courses are offered : elements of geography, elements of geography with method. North America, South America and Europe, industrial geography, geographic influences in American history, special geography. There is a professor and one assistant. No separate course is given in methods, which are taught with the subject matter. The equipment of slides, views and apparatus cost about $3000, which is exclusive of the more valuable geographical library and museum. Two hun- dred fifty to three hundred students are taught in geography each year. The committee begs to call attention as follows : 1 Several of these schools are normal colleges of the general type of our own institution at Albany. 2 Several of the schools above noted with ample equipment in geography are not colleges, but simply normal schools having the same status as those of our own State. 3 It will be. observed that the great bulk of the instruction given in all these schools deals not with method but with subject matter. 4 The committee lays emphasis upon the high professional stand- ing and advanced training of the instructors in all these schools. At least six heads of departments of geography in the schools above named have the expert standing shown by their membership in the Association for American Geographers, and one of them is a former president of that organization. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 51 Neiv York State Normal Schools A questionnaire was sent to the normal schools of the State of New York, calling for answers to the following questions: 1 Is geography a required or elective subject for students preparing to become teachers? 2 a How many lecture or recitation hours are required? How many elective? b How many laboratory hours are required? How many elective? c How many hours of field work are required? How many elective? d What proportion of time is given to subject matter? To methods? 3 a In addition to the above, is there any other geography work ottered? b Of what nature and how many hours? 4 If geography is not required of all, a Approximately what percentage of your 1919 graduates will have had normal school work in the subject? b What kind of work and how many hours? 5 a Has your normal school a well-equipped geographic laboratory? b Indicate briefly the nature and extent of your equipment : (i) Wall maps (2) Contour maps (3) Stereoptican (4) Geographic slides (5) Stereoscope and views (6) 6 Does your normal school give any instruction in method of conducting geographic field excursions in the elementary schools? 7 a Have you a separate department and teacher of geography? b If not, what other subjects are taught by the geography teacher? c In what subject has your geography teacher had his major training and experience? 8 Suggestions, recommendations and additional information. Seven schools responded. Referring to the numbers on the ques- tionnaire, it appears that all the schools require geography. Under 2a, it also appears that lOO hours is the usual time devoted to the sub- ject, being 20 weeks of 5 hours each. As regards laboratory hours, three schools require none, one says they are included in the 100 hours, one gives 10-25, one gives 20, and one gives 40-50. In relation to field work, three schools oflfer none, one devotes 5 hours to it, one 20 hours, and two reports are so general as to render it doubtful whether any field work is done. As a rule half the time is devoted to subject matter and half to method. This means that all the subject matter in geography that is acquired by students of our normal schools must be gotten in a period of ten weeks. Com- ment hardly seems necessary. 4 52 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Referring to the question as to other geographic work than the above, none is given in any school. The answers as regards laboratory equipment are of a very general and unsatisfactory character. Such replies are given as " complete," " ample," or " plenty " for the outfit of wall maps, contour maps and slides. One school replied that there is a well-equipped laboratory, the outfit being twenty-five wall maps, stereoptican, twenty-five contour maps, geographic slides from the State Department, and a " full equip- ment " of stereoscope and views. One school replies that the wall maps are " all needed " but with these are no contour maps ; the school owns some slides and obtains others from Albany. Most of the schools answer " yes " to the question relating to instruction in field excursions. Several say " yes " in reply to 'ja, but in these cases it is not clear to the committee how lOO hours of geography in the year can accord with this statement. Among subjects taught by the teachers of geography are nature study and voice training. Only two replies to the last question as to general suggestions, and both these teachers offer sound and wise counsel. One says " Pupils should be required to take a course in physical and mathe- matical geography before entering a normal school, or such a course should be given in the normal school with a study of topography and geographic controls." The other suggestion is " Geography should be taught in grades beyond the sixth." To summarize, geography in the normal schools of New York is far behind the subject in similar schools in many, probably in most, other states. No doubt some of the principals and teachers realize this but are handicapped by a two-year course and a dearth of trained teachers. Here again we must emphasize the need of sufficient training in the State College at Albany. It is idle to expect efficient geography teachers in the elementary schools with ten weeks of subject matter in the normal schools, where the subject is poorly recognized and with slight material equipment and no opportunity for training in the regional, commercial or other large phases of the subject. If we had good teaching more widely diffused in elementary geography, and if we had an approach to adequate instruction in our high schools, the case of the normal schools would be better. As it stands these schools should be equipped to atone in some measure for the deficiencies of the schools out of which the normal school students come. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 53 Tlic Problem of High School Geography Under (,ur preseiiL .system of geographic instruction in the Empire State a large majority of our youth receive no instruction in this subject beyond the sixth grade. Physical geography is the only branch in this field which has a place in the examinations held under the Regents. The few thousand who prepare for this examination bear no comparison to the vast number who pass through our high schools without geographic training. It is not therefore surj)rising that we find appalling deficiency among college men and women, as regards any and all phases of the subject. The experience of some members of the committee has involved much service in setting the state examinations in physical geography. The examination committee has often sought for what may be human questions which it ■..ould be fair to ask under the prescribed syllabus, and deep regrei has been expressed that there was no place in our system for studies of countries, races and products under our present plan of high school instruction. This range of human subjects lying in the heart of geography has received powerful emphasis during, and as a result of, the war. It seems needless to argue the value of instrtiction in these aspects of the science ; and it is cause for regret that continents and countries, peoples and poptilation centers, national boundaries, soil products, industries and climatic conditions, should be untouched in methods and subject matter beyond those suited to the fifth and sixth grades. The committee ventures to offer, in a somewhat general manner, stiited to open discussion and lead to careful consideration, the following constructive suggestions : 1 There should be a full department of geography in every large high school. 2 In the small high school, geography may well be combined with history and instruction in elementary economics. It is not advised that these subjects should be united in single texts or in joint courses of instruction, but that the unity should be achieved in the person and the training of the teacher. 3 Ample provision should be made for a room, or rooms, solely devoted to the subject and an outfit of material should be provided to meet a reasonable minimum standard of eqtiipment. This equip- ment should include wall maps far beyond the average now thought necessary, a lantern owned by the school and therefore at all times available; topographic maps, models, and a collection of common 54 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK earth materials and staple ]5roducts. Teachers are advised to avail themselves of the large and growing equipment of lantern slides now conveniently accessible, as provided by the Visual Instruction Division of the Education Department. 4 The minimum outfit of courses in a large high school should embrace the following: ( CONGRESS 55 The whole subject of s^e(\^ra])]iy in llic high school niiqhl, in the judgment of the committee, be prolUably submitted to a committee, consisting perhaps of five members, of whom at least three should be teachers of geography in our high schools. Such a committee could report maturely considered recommendations, which would be much more full and specific than the general suggestions of the present committee. GcograpJiy in iJic Eleincnfary ScJiools Preparatory to substantial improvement in our grade geography work, there must be a recognition of the vast importance of the subject in the training of that great body of our citizens w^ho never |)ass beyond '.he elenienlary school stage of instruction. The need of knowing the world, its lands, peoples, races, products and exchanges has been set forth effectively in the Albany conference and in educational discussion in many places, during the war and after its close. With this conviction of the importance of geographic training for citizenship, we must also realize the difficulties inherent in subject from the point of view of teaching it effectively to immature minds. These difficulties appear in 1 The vast range and compass of its subject matter. Physical Human (political, racial, industrial, commercial) 2 The remoteness of many of the types and concrete illustrations. Thus in the ])hysical realm — mountains, oceans, A-olcanoes, tropical climates and vegetations, deserts, glaciers etc. In the human field there are strange peoples and unfamiliar modes of life. Not only is comprehensive knowledge required, but descriptive power and the exercise of the imagination. Hence also the need of abundant helps, of much representative and illustrative material. 3 Growing out of (i) and (2) are the inescapable limitations which are placed upon all textbooks of elementary geography. Owing to the limitation of space, these texts can include little in comparison with the whole body of truth, of which an understanding is sought. 4 Difficulties inherent in our system of elementary instruction. The single teacher is responsible for all the subjects of a particular grade, and hence is unable to acquire a broad and deep special knowledge. The teacher is also severely limited by the exigencies 56 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK of time and expense, in seeuring illustrative material. There is no time, energy or training availal)le for proper conduct of class excur- sions, and tlie average teacher does not, it is to be feared, go far outside of the textbook to develop special problems, and add to memory work an understanding of the great relations which lie at the heart of geography. We are brought back by the above discussion to the fundamental fact, the imperfect training of our teachers. Well-equipped teachers alone can afford a solution of our problem. Thus says Professor Dodge, in a recent letter : " It seems to me that the one big problem is the better and more up-to-date training of teachers for the ele- mentary scliools, so that we can have teachers better able to put across modern geography." Professor Dodge also places strong emphasis on the need in our normal schools for giving better train- ing in this subject. He doubts (and in this view the committee heartily agrees with him) if the method and subject matter can successfully be taught together. In the same tenor we quote also a recently tendered view of Prof. J. F. Chamberlain of California: "The fundamental cause of poor geography teaching is the inadequate preparation of teachers. Large numbers of our teachers have had no preparation in geography beyond that afforded by t1:e elementary schools." Professor Chamberlain thinks the minimum requirement in a two-year normal course should be one year of geography. In the same direction, we have already cited the view of Superin- tendent Ef^inger of New York Citv. Superintendent Hartwell of Buffalo suggests the preparation of a. manual of model lessons show- ing the teacher how to develop problems, and how to plan work both in and ou^ of the recitation. With this the committee is in hearty agreemen'^. All, however, would recognize that we must aim in the end a^ the deep and broad basal training which is needed to make such helps fully effective. We have incidentally referred to the demand for material equip- ment. Here we need to reach principals, superintendents and boards of school control, who in too many instances do not know that a textbook and a se": of continent maps, with a map of the United States, are not adequate helps for geography teaching. The un' rained and overworked grade teacher, struggling with a wide range of subjects cannot be expected to have the ability or the interest and energy to impress school authorities with the need of material for teaching. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 57 The committee appends a few suggestions looking toward such betterment of conditions as may be practicable in the near future : 1 That geography teachers and all others who have the subject at heart, encourage its inclusion to a greater degree in our teachers gatherings, local, state and national, as a subject of far-reaching worth. 2 That state requirements be so changed as to permit of and encourage the carrying of the subject beyond the sixth grade. Among many others who have felt that geography in our State is handicapped is Superintendent Weet of Rochester. The highest maturity in the grades should be available, and there should not bQ a two or three year gap between grade and high school geography. 3 Conditions should at an early date be changed as regards geography in our normal and training schools and colleges. 4 It would be in line with precedent, at least in a few cases, to appoint a highly competent supervisor of geography, to do appro- priate work of conference, criticism and general assistance to grade teachers of geography, in any or many of our city school systems. It seems to the committee that if deemed practicable, the State Depart- ment .might accomplish much through one or more inspectors, detailed especially for oversight of geography work in the State. The Iowa State Teachers College has an interesting extension system in this and other fields of study. By this system the teachers of the college use Saturdays in holding conferences throughout the state. One of the geography teachers of the college does much consultation work, visiting the geography classes of a city, and following with constructive conference work with the group whose teaching has been inspected. In conclusion of our report as a whole, if it should be thought well to follow up our tentative and incomplete suggestions with more deliberate inquiry and consideration, it is believed that we might formulate and encourage the beginnings of a fairly graded system of geographic instruction, reaching substantially, if not formally, from our higher institutions through the training schools and high schools, to the elementary years of teaching. Albert Perry Brigham Charles T. McFarlane A. W. Abrams Edw^ard M. Lehnerts Committee 58 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Health Education Your committee in summing up the most significant results of the meetings of the section on health education, prefers to present them in the form of resolutions, trusting that the Education Department may make them dynamic. Whereas, The section on health education is unanimous in approving a wider program for this State, which shall continue and correlate the activities under the Department of Education with all the social forces of our various communities in one united effort to develop and sustain in our school children the highest attainable degree of physical health and ability, Resolved, That we, the committee appointed to represent this sec- tion, do most earnestly recommend for your consideration the following elements in a statewide program of health education, all of which were advocated and approved in our meetings : 1 The aims of our health education program should be a The development of men and women of maximum organic vigor and endurance, well poised, self-controlled and capable of acquiring skill in their various callings. b The training of school teachers, school physicians, school nurses and physical directors who shall in themselves be exponents of good health and who shall be " pedagogically adapted " to give health instruction. c The maintenance of schools, playgrounds and, finally, homes that shall be sanitary and hygienic, worthy of the important place they occupy in the social life of the community. 2 The basis of our health education program must necessarily be a body of school teachers fitted physically and mentally to exemplify and impart the essential rules of health. To this end a " Normal schools ought to have a requirement covering the following items : health examination for entrance ; health certificate showing evidence of vigorous health at the time of graduation ; pro- vision for at least one hour of enlivening exercise each day of the normal school course; opportunity for practice teaching; an evidence of good hygienic habits on the part of the teacher;" special prepara- tion as a teacher of health and physical training. b Teachers training classes should exercise equal care in selecting and graduating students physically fit for health education work and specially prepared for teaching along these lines. c Teachers now in the field should be subjected to a medical examination once each year, and oftener if necessary, in order to EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 59 prove their physical fitness for teaching and their freedom from any disease or defect that might vitiate their influence as teachers. d By supervision, inspection and other means, the working teachers should be instructed and guided in their various duties as comprised in our health education program. c All school medical inspectors, school nurses, dietitians, physical directors and other special teachers engaged in health education must possess special qualifications for performing this work and must have the educational viewpoint before they can be recommended by the Department of Education for employment in school health service. 3 The health education program shall include daily systematic instruction in hygiene and daily physical education exercises for all school children and pupils from the kindergarten to the senior class in our normal schools and teachers college. This instruction should be definitely graded. There should be some standard for measuring the progress of the pupil in health education and this progress should have a definite value in determining the standing of the individual pupils upon the school records. Scholarship records and health records should be combined and kept continuously from the beginning to the end of the curriculum. In health education a premium should be placed on health achievement or health habits as of more value and higher rank than mere information or precept. 4 A syllabus of instruction in physiology, hygiene and sanitation, covering all grades from the kindergarten through the normal school is essential in order to maintain systematic educational activity in the interest of health. This syllabus should allot suitable parts of the health education course to the classroom teacher, the physical educator, the school nurse, the school medical inspector, the dietitian and any other teachers qualified to carry out the purposes of the course. Due provision should be made in this syllabus for training the pupil to overcome physical handicaps and acquire health habits. Every elTort should be made to translate information into prompt and willing action. 5 The physical training syllabus should be so modified as to articu- late with the health education syllabus. " It should also include action story plays as well as singing games, folk dances and indoor and outdoor games arranged by grades. The present syllabus supplies a list of dances, games etc., but does not include the dance music and directions for games." 6 The state program of health education should provide for the 6o THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK closest cooperation between the school and the community to promote their common interest in the health of our young people. The health teachers, physical educators, school nurses, school physicians, dietitians and others engaged in health work should identify them- selves with social factors such as parent-teachers associations. Red Cross organizations, churches, granges, lodges, clubs etc., for the purpose of making known their health propaganda, eliciting popular sympathy and support and enlisting the workers of the comnmnity in a vigorous campaign for the enforcement of such health educa- tion measures as may hereafter meet the approval of the State Department of Education and the agencies joined with it. Thomas D. Wood Herman J. Norton William A. Howe Committee Higher Education Dr Stephen P. Duggan, after comparing the American college, its needs and the modification necessary to meet them, with the insti- tutions of Europe, and considering the relative advantages and dis- advantages of our system of higher education and those of Europe, concluded that each system is suited to the national temper of the people whose educational needs it is intended to meet. The further conclusion was reached that the proposed exchange of students between American universities and those of Europe should be con- sidered carefully before actually entering upon an agreement of exchange and that whatever the plan of exchange may be, it should be arranged for graduate students who first have been made thoroughly familiar with American institutions. Superintendent McAndrews presented a clear-cut analysis of the various proposals that have been made from time to time to shorten the period of the child's education from his entry to the kindergarten to the time that he leaves the university. After such analysis he concludes that such proposals may be summed up in a proposition to reduce the age of graduation of pupils from the high school from 1 8 years to i6 years, thus enabling a student to complete his college course at the age of 20, but he further concludes that while this proposition is made on all sides, no one makes a definite proposal of where the two years shall be deducted. As a premise for his answering the question Mr McAndrews stated that " the parent and the public have grown to regard the pub- liDlKATION AL CONGRESS 6i lie school as the carelakcr of children." Therefore, no matter how much belter the present school course could be completed in one- fourth, of the time, there remains the obligation for holding the children as long as we hold them now in order that the schools may meet their obligation as caretakers. He then raised the question, "How shall we best fill the time?" After quoting Franklin, Washington, John Adams, Monroe, Madison, and Jefferson as to what constitutes the function of the public school, he arrived at the conclusion that the founders of the American state prop;>sed that the public schools should be the Nation's nursery for in'elligent patriotism. "One can not read the speeches, letters and essays of Franklin, Madison, John Adams and especially of Jeffer- son, without realizing how ho])efuIly they looked to education to preserve and foster the great proposition of equality and public mindedness on which the life of the Nation most depends " and then declares that we can " understand the regret of a Draper that by our system of education ' the lives of our youth have been wasted', of an Elliot 'that our system has failed to hit the mark', of an Abbott 'that our training has missed the moral duties' of the man and citizen which Adams proclaimed to be the purpose of the national schools." From all tiiis he makes the deduction that no shortening of the school course can l)ring about the remedy for the shortcomings of the schools. The remedy must lie in the schools making " citizenship par.-'.mcnm'." Heretofore they have considered this only secondary, or incidental. The inevitable duty of the schools is to train majorities to think on imblic ([uestions, for ,he pioneers of American institu- tions, while they did place great confidence in what education could do, did not aim first at scholarslri ), but at citizenship. Our teachers " must propagate and nurture in (;ur coming citizens the desire and intent that their part goes on right," to " make live and real the prin- ciples of ])olit!CS, of economics and of social science, which ought to be the core of all instruction maintained at public expense and for j^ublic v.elfare." " Let us give over scholarship as an aim and seek what ahvays the great heart of America desires us to do: the care and nurUire of men living together for the common good. He concluded by a plea for more attention in the schools to the training of the conduct of the pupils. " Of all things that are, man- ho-xl. or chnrp^cters or virtue, is the most teachable." " Shorten the r-t ' r-.nr c, by all means; cut out the antique lumber of a bygone age ; dispatch the refinements which are used as marks of the dis- 62 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK tinguished, but lengthen the Hst of direct and specific exercises calculated to store the mind and exercise the will in patriotism, service, fraternalism, unselfishness, community betterment, public honesty, civic judgment, ' moral duties of men and citizens.' If there are no sucli studies and exercises, devise them." Doctor Jones discussed the subject assigned him under two captions: (i) Upon what training shall college admission be based? (2) How shall it be determined? The two factors that determine the training on which it shall be based are (i) The aim of the college; (2) The place of the college in the educational system. He based his discussion upon the aim of the college of liberal arts and its place in the educational system, and first discussed a college curriculum to the end that a conclusion might be reached as to what requirements might safely be omitted for admission to the college, and concluded that the training upon which college admission should be based should be that which would prepare a high school pupil for admission to college, or for entrance upon his life's work ; that the training which prepares for admission to college is the best training that can be given for one preparing for any function in life, whether he may go to college, or not; that he ought to study English, algebra and geometry, three years of a foreign language with a reasonable amount of history and science. How admission to college shall be determined is dependent upon four elements: (i) ]n-eparation, (2) health, (3) character and promise, (4) intelligence. President Rhees c< ncluded his discussion by stating, "I can see no sharp difference in aim between secondary school and college. Both seek to advance a student in maturity of mind by the means adapted to the student's stage of development. The means adapted to the student's stage of development mark the difference in method that he believes to be distinguishing. For the secondary school the method of instruction must inevitably be predominantly didactic. The college, if it discharges its function, takes a student farther by challenging his own initiative in study, developing the power of scientific inquiry and investigation. Most development is often too long deferred and much of the first two years of college is consumed in the development of power that a student might gain in the secondary school. " In the measure in which stress is laid by the secondary school on the development of power by continuous pursuit of a few exacting subjects through the three or four years, in that measure EDUCATIONAL CONGKliSS 63 colleges can begin earlier to elici[ the student's own initiative in the pursuit of higher studies. At this time it is wise for us to consider anew the contrast between our secondary training and that in advanced European countries. More than ever before, America will be in competition with the world in all lines of work. If European youths come to 18 years of age one or two or more years advanced in mathematics, in foreign languages, or in elementary science, than our American youth, that handicap will ft)llow our youth into and through college. It is no time for slavish following of foreign models. But it is a time to consider whether in seeking to offer our youth fuller realization of life, we are sacrificing their power to live life most effectively. " The key to our problem may be an earlier beginning of subjects now started in the high school — the junior high school points the way. So sludents might go into college earlier to exercise their own initiative in intellectual work. The organization of secondary school study by groups, the center of each being continuous study of exact- ing subjects for a series of years, with carefully considered oppor- tunity for less thorough training treatment of less essential subjects. When this is realized, colleges should make only one condition of admission, namely, evidence of acquired power for doing college work, and should order their own courses of study so as to permit all such secondary school graduates to continue their higher work without loss of intellectual momentum." Chancellor Richmond, in discussing some lessons of the war, said: " It was not only the training of the college men which was needed (in the war), but the spirit of the college men, and if we ever had reason to be proud that we are college men, we have reason now. We may lay this unction to our hearts : that the college men were the first to jump at the call and they were the last to quit. " So the first thing this war has shown is simply the fact that it has proved as never before what an enormous asset the colleges are to this Nation. "As to changing conditions, undoubtedly we have more call for technical training, but I doubt very much whether the technical training called for is going to be so early specialized, and highly technical as many people suppose. As a matter of fact, this war has shown the need not merely of highly trained specialized men, but the need of generally educated men who can adapt themselves to changing conditions. So if we are wise in our technical training, we are going to insist upon broader general knowledge. What we 64 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK are trying to do in our engineering departments today is to get them through in four year ;, when they should have six, but what many of us are trying to dj, at least, is to insist that the foundation shall be broad and if anything is lacking it shall be something of the strictly technical kind. " I look to see also in the colleges a clearer conception of their relations to national life and responsibilities. The one course that seems to have been successful in the S. A. T. C. was the war issues course. It developed a stronger national spirit, I am confident, and many of the colleges are continuing in some form or other, not exactly the course on the issues of the war, but a course "which gets it into the mind of the student, and to the professor by reaction, that he belongs to this country and that he is being trained not merely to make a career for himself, but to make some contribution to his country. "Another thing seems certain. The industries have got hold of the conception that it is necessary for them to foster and promote the sciences which underlie their industry. The industries are coming to realize that while the dollar may not be in the foreground, a great many dollars lie in the remote background, and if they cultivate the sciences upon which these industries are based, as the Germans have done (and I hate to confess there is any good in Germany, but I have to go that far), it will eventually result in great profit to themselves. And so they have come to see that it is not only good morals to help a college, but it is also good business. " The industries have seen all this, and they see also that the colleges with their laboratories and their men of science can operate not only to the benefit of the college and to the benefit of the science in general but to the immediate benefit of themselves and to the development of the resources of the country. I regard this as one of the most important things that is coming to pass in colleges as a result of the war. " One other thing I hope will come to pass. I hope the colleges will realize how necessary it is to see that the members of their faculties are loyal men, and by that I mean, who are loyal to the core. This, war has shown that some of our universities have been harboring men who were not loyal, men whose influence upon their students was not good, but evil. I hope that we shall keep clearly in mind that after all the college and the university is a spiritual organism and that at the bottom of it all the purport of all our training is the forming of good citizens, and to do this we must EDUCATIONAL" CONGRESS 65 have in our faculties only men of active loyalty. It is not inter- nationalism we are after in developing the students in our uni- versi.ies. We must think first of all of making Americans and that is a big enough task for any ])lan of reorganization, or recon- struction, in our country." Doctor Jenks argued for commercial education in colleges, basing his theory upon certain premises: " I should say that the study of business was a humanistic study, for the type of training that a student would receive from following a course in business adminis- tration, if it were properly taught, would be quite the same as that received from the study of economics, political science and ethics. I have thought that there is no reason why the study of business in our colleges might not be given substantially the same rank as that given to special epochs in history or to economics or to the science of government. Of late years it has come to be recognized that there is a science of business. A few of the best trained business men are really putting into practice the principles of that science. Business with them is becoming a profession. "If we take up the questions in business that would be followed in college, we shall be able to see how well many of them fit into humanistic studies. A question or two will be suggestive: " I Is there any essential difference in cultural value between a course in commercial Spanish and one in literary Spanish? " 2 Is there not perhaps a big cultural value in a course in business English in which the student is taught to write a selling letter ? That is a letter which would exert a direct influence upon the mind of its recipient to lead him to decide to buy the product in question. Would not the preparation of such a letter give a humanistic train- ing equal to that of an essay on some descriptive or even moral subject? " 3 The training in the art of selling involves a very direct and practical knowledge of psychology. The student must learn (to follow the ordinary steps in the selling process) how to attract attention to a subject; to arouse interest; to stimulate desire; to inspire confidence and to compel a decision on the part of the customer. Is not a detailed study of such a question one of high humanistic value? "4 So I might go on with an analysis of the type of work done in courses in commercial geography, banking, the organization and management of business, including, of course, the questions of methods of payment, wage premiums, collective bargaining and so 66 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK forth, in dealing with workmen, accounting, the relation of govern- ment to business and similar matters. "Moreover, the moral effect upon students of seeing how extremely practical in business matters is truth, the carrying of responsibility, the rendering of service to one's customers is likely to stimulate the spirit of altruism even more than the study of history or literature. "Again, in determining what the college curriculum should be, we all wish to keep in mind that our chief purpose in college is to train our students for their life work. First, they must live with themselves, and we should place at the foundation studies that will develop not only their minds but their tastes, so that they shall get greater enjoyment out of life through a love of art, a love of music, best of all, a love of their fellow men. It is essential that they be taught how to be self-supj^orting, independent financially," to conduct their business so that they will make a profit; otherwise, they are likely to be miserable themselves and a distinct cause of misery to many others. The making of profits and the fixing of the attention upon making one's self independent are absolutely essential in training for social service. " With all these considerations in mind, I think we should be led to the conclusion that training in business should be looked upon as humanistic training and that it should occupy as prominent a place among the elective studies in a college curriculum as do foreign languages, or history, or political science, or any other of the common humanistic studies. In many instances it is quite possible that some of them, at least, such as economics, principles of government, should be made required studies." Discussions of these various papers were taken part in by those attending the conference. History The committee makes the following recommendations for a course in history for grades i-8: Grades /-j. Lr.y a foundation so that the child will be led to see that he is a member of the family, of the community, of the village, town or city; and learn something of the elements of social organiza- tion. This can be done in various ways — as outlined by the Com- mittee of Eight, through such books as Miss Bopp's Early Cave Men, Later Cave Men, etc. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 67 Grade 4. Greek and Roman myths and hero stories, and Bible stories. Treated mainly as stories, but with some intent to lay a foundation of knowledge of the ancient world. Grade 5. Hero stories of American history, so arranged as to make a connected survey. Grade 6. Old World background to American history, sketching what we have inherited from the old Greeks and Romans, the development of Europe in the Middle Ages and the discovery of new worlds beyond the seas. The discovery and exploration of America, Spanish and French colonization, and the first attempts at English colonization should be studied in some detail, together with the European rivalries which influenced American settlement. For the sake of the child who leaves school after the end of the sixth grade, a very rapid survey of the subsequent history will be useful. Grade 7. United States history. With the period of discovery and exploration disposed of in the sixth grade, it will be possible to begin the formal study of United States history in this grade with the English colonization, passing rapidly on to the Revolution. At least half the year should be devoted to the period since 1850. Grade 8. Problems of American democracy — economic, civic and social. This should be broader than formal civics, and while deal- ing in large part with the community should not forget the larger community of the State and Nation. Some of the elementary prin- ciples of economics should be included. Constant use should be made of history by way of illustration. Samuel B. Harding Chairman of Committee Home Economics The committee recommends : I That the program for training teachers of home economics be reorganized in such a way as to emphasize the conception of home- making as a whole rather than a series of detached subjects such as cooking, sewing, dressmaking and millinery. That these teachers be called teachers or instructors of homemaking. It is further recom- mended that each teacher of homemaking secure adequate experience in the independent management of a home and some experience in commercial fields in order to enable her to help raise the standards of the material product in the home. 5 68 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 2 That the State Education Department encourage the establish- ment of homemaking courses in the high schools of the State. These courses should become a department in the high school and offer a well-rounded course in homemaking work, together with sufficient supervised project work to enable the pupil to secure a definite training in this field of work. In the foods work, special emphasis should be placed upon the scientific and economic phases of the work. In the field of clothing, the time element in relation to both school construction work and home construction work should be given more consideration in the balancing of values in regard to clothing. 3 That in the elementary schools special emphasis be placed upon the proper kinds of food, simple manipulation, greater responsibility in developing the work and independent home work. All children should receive some instruction in fundamental principles under- lying homemaking work. 4 That a special effort be made to establish evening homemaking departments in all schools in the State in places having a population of 3000 or more. Evening courses in homemaking should be open to all people sixteen years of age or over regardless of their daily occupation and should provide instruction in a variety of home- making activities. For the adult woman who has had experience in homemaking work, the need for training is largely in terms of short courses in special phases of homemaking, such as cooking, sewing, household decoration, household management, household science, care of children, home nursing, etc. A. R. Mann Anna M. Cooley L. A. Wilson Committee Industrial Education The committee recommends : I That the State Department of Education continue its general program in regard to the unit trade and vocational courses, general industrial schools and evening industrial schools. That a special effort be made to encourage all communities in the State, with a population of 5000 inhabitants or over, to establish evening indus- trial classes for men sixteen years of age or over who are engaged in industrial occupations during the day. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 69 2 That the State extend its industrial teacher training program and provide scholarships for men who have had special trade experience and a good general education in order that these men may pursue a one-year all-day course in one of the normal schools of the State. That special attention be given to the training of teachers of related technical subjects. 3 The importance of developing the continuation school program in the largest possible manner can not be overemphasized. This program should include an opportunity for dififerentiated courses, placement and follow-up work of children, vocational guidance and courses in economics and hygiene. 4 The committee feels that it is highly desirable for the State Department of Education to assist local communities in making industrial studies in order to determine the types of work to be organized in the day, evening and part-time schools. These studies might well be made in cooperation with special committees appointed by local boards of education. 5 The committee urges that the State Department of Education carry on a publicity campaign in order that the residents of the State may be thoroughly informed as to the opportunities for industrial training in the State. Very few people are familiar with the provisions of the vocational education law or the federal law; or realize the financial assistance available from state and federal funds. A publicity campaign along this line would be of great value in developing the industrial education program. In developing such a campaign it might be well to work with the Associated Merchants and Employers, the New York State Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants Association of New York City, the New York State Federation of Labor and other organized bodies representing the employers and employees. A. R. Mann Anna M, Cooley L. A. Wilson Committee Libraries The committee asked to provide due representation for the library in the Educational Congress of May 19-28, 1919, reports as follows: The purpose of the congress was to consider educational con- ditions and needs (particularly in New York State) in the light of recent national experience and on the eve of extensive enterprise /O THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK in social and industrial reconstruction. In any program developing such a theme the library inevitably claims consideration, not alone in its own right, as an important and separate educational agency, but as an indispensable handmaid to all formal or informal educa- tional efforts and institutions. More and more, all educational processes lean heavily on books. Even the so-called vocational and manual studies have called up as great a volume of auxiliary print as the humanities and the only agency which makes any claim or effort to organize the " world of print " for quick, effective use and to relate it intimately to educational work is the library. The library's ultimate standing in the community and as a social institution depends primarily on its educational service. The war has not merely put a unique emphasis on the general subject of education but it has to a peculiar degree emphasized these aspects of education which the library is particularly fitted to serve. For example, it has emphasized the importance of education as a con- tinuing, life-long process and this despite the statement laid down as a truism (but certainly open to argument) by a recent writer in the Atlantic that nothing fundamental is learned after the age of eighteen. Again, it has shown how largely the efficiency of men, and presumably of women also, depends on what they get from books. It emphasizes, and the year which has lapsed since the armistice adds sinister emphasis, the grave danger to the Nation in the ignorance and prejudices which exist in great classes of men in this country who are now quite beyond the reach of schools and for whom the library is the main educating agency. J. I. Wyer Jr Director, State Library Mathematics The undersigned were appointed to report upon the general con- clusions reached in the mathematics section, and this commission they have accepted with the understanding that these conclusions were not submitted to the section for formal adoption but that they seem to represent the general opinion of those who took part in the discussion. I There has been appointed by the Mathematical Association of America a committee upon mathematical requirements. This com- mittee has secured ample funds for carrying on a thorough investi- gation of the subject in all parts of the country. The intensive work of the committee will begin in September, and the results EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 71 are certain to have an important bearing upon the courses of study, the extent to which the various branches should be taught, and the methods of presentation in the schools and colleges of this State as well as in other parts of the country. It would therefore seem, to be desirable to postpone the consideration of details in our state courses of study in mathematics until this committee, with its unusual facilities for doing the work, has had time to consider the problems and to make its report. Although a complete national standardization of courses is undesirable, on the other hand it seems to be the part of wisdom to profit by the knowledge of the strong features of all courses as these will doubtless be set forth in this report. 2 The status of mathematics in this country seems today more satisfactory than ever before. Such destructive criticisms as have appeared from time to time have had no noticeable influence, but many of the constructive suggestions of teachers of mathematics, looking to the improvement of their work, have met with general acceptance on the part of both colleges and secondary schools. This harmony of view appears to assure a better status of mathematical teaching in the immediate future. 3 The movement to begin a new type of mathematics as early as the seventh school year is becoming very strong throughout the country. In some places this has resulted in the establishing of a junior high school ; in others it has led to the introduction of intuitive geometry and of algebra in the elementary school ; in others it has found expression in the six-year high school. Whatever form it takes, it signifies a desire to effect a more rational introduction to mathematics, to lead pupils to know something of the meaning of the science before they undertake a study of the abstract theory, and to enable the school to determine which pupils may proceed with profit to a more advanced phase of the work. The section felt that the time had not come for suggesting a detailed curriculum, the whole matter being still in the experimental stage. There is, how- ever, a general concensus of opinion that the work of the seventh, eighth and ninth school years should see the completion of the practical applications of arithmetic; a course in intuitive geometry; an introduction to the practical part of algebra; enough work in numerical trigonometry to show the meaning of the subject; and, for the better class of schools at least, a brief introduction to demonstrative geometry. This may possibly conclude the required work in secondary mathematics, but it is felt that, with such an introduction, all the better type of pupils will elect the mathematical work to which this leads. "^2 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 4 The nature of the mathematics of the senior high school can not be decided upon at this time. It necessarily depends upon the results of the experiments being made in the junior high school. While it will doubtless omit various features of our present course in algebra, and while it will limit the number of propositions which make up the present standard list in geometry, it will retain all the strong features of these subjects and will offer electives in more advanced work. The feeling of the section was very strong that higher electives should be provided for those pupils who show a taste for mathematics, and that provision should be made for the intellectually superior groups as well as for the normal and sub- normal types. 5 Experimental work now being done in certain schools was explained and the means were described for establishing stronger motives for the study of algebra, geometry and trigonometry. 6 The question was considered of various types of courses in the high school, and especially in the last three years, such as academic and vocational, the latter relating to commerce and the various industries. It was felt that this subject could be discussed more intelligently after it had been considered by the Committee on Mathematical Requirements. 7 The subject of examinations was considered briefly, and atten- tion was called to the unfortunate lack of uniformity in certain types of college entrance tests. Graphs were submitted showing that in some years an examination in a subject like geometry has three times as many failures as in another year, the number of candidates being such as to preclude any other explanation than that the questions themselves were much more difficult at one time than another. The system by which some continuity is secured in the board of examiners preparing the Regents examinations was commended. 8 A statement was made as to certain projects which America might undertake for the advancement of scholarship. These include an encyclopedia of mathematics, a mathematical dictionary, a work on the biography of mathematicians, an annual publication summar- izing the books and leading articles on mathematics produced in each year, and some such series of mathematical handbooks as were issued in Europe before the war. The peculiar financial condition of the world at present seems to render it necessary for America to take the lead in such publications. The prospects of this work were considered. 9 The training of teachers of mathematics in various countries was EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS ' 73 considered. It appears that the leading countries in which this train- ing is, in general, the poorest at present are Australia and the United States, while those in which it is the best are Sweden and France. The reasons were considered, and the section expressed the hope that the Department of Education of the State of New York would seek to remedy the difficulty, in some degree, by licensing teachers in secondary schools to teach specific subjects. It was felt that the initial steps might be taken by granting no general college certificates after, say 1921 ; but only certificates to teach certain subjects. In mathematics, for example, license should be given only in case the candidate has successfully pursued the subject in college for a certain length of time or has satisfactorily completed the work in certain specified topics. In the case of teachers already having some form of life certificate, it was suggested that the Department might grant supplementary certificates of proficiency in mathematics and other lines, which diplomas would soon come to have a well-recognized value to those to whom they are granted. David Eugene Smith William Betz Harry Birchenough H. E. Hawkes Fred Engelhardt Committee Mental Diagnosis Mental Diagnosis and Psychometric Methods Provision for psychological service. The value of mental tests as a basis for the classification of school children has been so well estab- lished, both by the army mental tests and by the use of tests and educational measurements in schools, institutions and clinics, that the committee suggests provisions for psychological service in all school systems in New York. Cities of 50,000 or more inhabitants ought to have departments of child study and educational measurement of their own. For smaller communities some plan should be developed through the State Department of Education whereby qualified psychologists from a central bureau could be assigned for definite periods. There are three main fields for psychological measurement and service: (i) group mental testing; (2) clinical diagnosis; (3) educational adjustment. Group mental measurement. The group method of applied psy- chology has the advantage of great economy. It can reach large 74 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF XEW YokK numbers of children in short periods of time. While it must be used with discretion and skill, it does not require the higher grade of psychological expertness. It is therefore adaptable for widespread use in conducting mental surveys, measuring educational results, and canvassing school systems. Several group mental tests are now standardized and available for use for all children above seven years of age. They should be used for preliminary classification in helping to discover feeble-minded, subaverage, and bright children in our schools. They should be used in order to secure closer grading in large school systems, so that children more nearly equal in intelligence may be grouped together. Educational and mental survey tests should be used together in order properly to determine whether any school is teaching its children as much as they are able to assimilate. Used comparatively, educational and psychological group tests are useful instruments for improving school practice and school organization. Psycho-clinical diagnosis. The group mental test has decided limitations. It acts as a selective sieve ; but it never delivers an adequate diagnosis of an individual child. Group testing does not in the least obviate the necessity for a clinical psychologist. The clinical psychologist frequently uses a test quite as much as a means of gaining an insight into the type of per- sonality of the child, as he does to determine mental level. No group method can take the place of personal analysis of the child, nor do group methods completely solve those subtler problems of personality which constitute the most important and the most exacting part of the task of the clinical psychologist. This personal diagnostic analysis must depend upon intimate clini- cal methods. It may sometimes require the judgment of the school physician, the neurologist and the psychiatrist as well as that of the psychological examiner, before a conclusion is reached. The responsi- bility of the mental and educational classification of abnormal and subnormal children should be carefully safeguarded. Educational adjustment. 'Psychology as an applied science must finally affect pedagogical methods and educational administration. Problems of maladjustment must reckon with individual children and individual teachers. The latter have a right to demand of the psychologist concrete educational advice as to procedure after he has made a diagnosis. For this reason there should be vital cooperation between school psychologists, teachers and educational authorities. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 75 Special-class teachers and auxiliary teachers who deal with subnormal and otherwise exceptional children should actively assist in discover- ing and determining the mental status and educational possibilities of these children. There must be flexible school arrangements .which permit the shifting and observation of problematic children under varying conditions. Such flexible school arrangements should be regarded as part of the technic of mental diagnosis and educational readjustment. The part of the special teachers in such a program is very signifi- cant. Clinical psychology unaided can not meet the situation. The committee therefore wishes to stress the importance of carefully selected, and well-trained, socialized special teachers, with opportuni- ties for professional growth and preferment. More adequate facili- ties for the training of various types of special teachers, increased supervision, and salary bonuses would work toward that end. The certification of psychological examiners. A group attending the conference felt that the standards of mental examination are at this time of critical, practical importance. Accordingly, on May 28, 1919, an informal special meeting was called to consider the matter of certification of qualified psychological examiners. Dr W. B. Cor- nell presided at this meeting and among those present were Dr David Mitchell of the Bureau of Educational Experiments of New York; Prof. James E. Lough of New York University; Dr R. S. Wood- worth and Mrs Leta Hollingworth of Columbia University ; Miss Elizabeth Farrell, Director of Special Classes, New York City ; Prof. Rudolf Pintner of Ohio State University, Columbus ; Prof. L. A. Pechstein of the University of Rochester; and Miss Eleanor Gray, State Director of Special Classes, Albany. During the discussion it was pointed out that the American Psychological Association had appointed a national committee on qualifications for psychological examiners and other psychological experts, with a subcommittee on certification. It was agreed, how- ever, that the New York State mental deficiency law had created a situation which made immediate action in regard to the certification of mental examiners in New York advisable. The members present resolved themselves into a committee and it was voted that the following resolutions be incorporated in the conference committee report to the Board of Regents : Resolved, That \vc recommend to the Board of Regents of the State of New York that a committee or board of psychologists be authorized to pro- vide for the certification of psychologists who meet the requirements of train- ing specified in the New York State mental deficiency law. 76 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Resolved, That we place ourselves on record as being of the opinion that the qualifications specified should be recognized as the minimum requirements for all psychologists who h~ave the diagnosis of subnormal or other excep- tional children under their jurisdiction. Training of Subnormal Children At least fotir groups of children should be distinguished in the elementary school and different rates of progress and types of instruc- tion planned for them : 1 The inentally defective. 2 The inferior, slow-moving and border-line group whose abili- ties are too limited to enable them to finish the academic work of the elementary school. 3 The average child who can progress at the normal rate in the elementary school and can profit by training for a skilled trade, for the median grades of commercial work and for the great mass of business positions. These are children who can be expected to finish from two to four years of training beyond the elementary school, either vocational or general. 4 The superior child who can accomplish more than the present curriculum in the time assigned and who ought to go to college and take some type of professional, technical or civic training. These groups should not be rigidly separated, either clinically or educationally. There is no established, standardized procedure for the subnormal groups (i and 2). School procedure must be based chiefly on the intelligence status and vocational possibilities of the child. A highly flexible school system which provides generous opportunities for manual and occupational expressions alone can do justice to these children. Psychological measurement and classification should aim not at pigeon hole placement, but at discovering the optimum educational environment. Teachers specially trained in the psychological and social aspects of subnormality are indispensable in the operation of a constructive program. These teachers must provide not only the necessary training, but must cooperate in adjusting the subnormal youth to the life of the community and of industry. For the genuinely and seriously defective, special classes, special schools, and in rural and village districts supervised individual pro- grams are a necessity. These agencies should be made more com- plete, and should be supplemented by a system of after care at least partly under the control of state and local public school authorities. Special after-care teachers, supervisors and committees must be pro- EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS JJ vided by local initiative or by state legislation. Special educational facilities for the definitely feeble-minded are not a wise investment unless this follow-up work is added. The educational devices for the inferior or border-line group (group 2) must be similar in character, but broad, varied and very elastic. The goal should be to adopt as many as possible to a self- supporting or partially self-supporting life in their own community. Army statistics and other evidence suggest that probably over 20 per cent of our elementary school population could not ade- quately meet the academic requirements of the eighth grade. This situation calls for far-reaching readjustment of the elementary curri- culum for subacademic and subnormal pupils who have reached their teens. It means a new emphasis on vocational education ; but not of a specific kind. Even the training of the high grade " moron " in shop schools should be general and many sided. By judicious experiment and legislation increasing cooperation should be brought about between schools and industry, analogous to the part-time factory arrangements already in force with trade schools. Mutual cooperation and supervision are necessary, if workers of inferior mentality are to remain in their communities, happy, secure and productive. Vocational guidance, in a vigorous sense, is needed for the mentally subnormal. There must be not only guidance and proper placement in industry ; but a constructive form of vocational proba- tion and supervision. After-care teachers and committees can with permissive authority develop relations with employers, which will serve to keep the subnormal outside of institutions. For those who can not maintain a vocational life in the com- munity, even with such supervisory safeguards, there must be local and state colonies, agricultural and industrial. A sincere, construc- tive educational policy, however, is calculated to reduce the number who are committed to colonies, asylums and corrective and custodial institutions. A system of vocational after-care and supervision for the subnormal is not a form of paternalism, but a natural extension of the constantly evolving functions of public education. It is a policy of humanity and of social thrift, well within the scope of a State Department of Education. Training of Very Bright Children The superior child suflfers great injustice at the hands of our present system. Special provision for him is rare. He is not a school problem in the sense that he gives trouble, and the school has 78 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK not been alive to the fact that superior children are failing to develop their talents. He wastes time, fails to learn how to work, and only too often leaves school with far less than the amount of training which he might have secured. Experiments have shown that groups of children whose average intelligence quotients are as high as 120, with no members below 100, can go twice as fast as the average rate in school. From the standpoint of mental conservation these children demand specialized educational consideration. From the standpoint of democracy they challenge concern, because the very welfare of democracy is bound up in the recognition of their intelligence and the conservation of their latent powers of citizenship and leadership. The need of special school provisions for very bright children. Bright children offer somewhat the same problem in the grades as backward children. They clog the grades, by preventing the teacher from dealing efficiently with the great bulk of the children. Their advanced questions go over the heads of the average child, and the teacher's answers to them waste the time of the class as a whole. Then, too, they offer disciplinary problems, when, as often, the assigned work of the grade does not suffice to keep them busy. Bright children evidently deserve good treatment in the schools, but this they are likely not to get, since, when placed below their mental level, they do not get the stimulus to mental application; they get through too easily and are apt to get into habits of loafing. Also, they do not have the opportunity for developing the initiative that is in them. Bright children should be encouraged to continue their education ; they might well receive scholarships for high school and college. They should receive special vocational guidance, in accordance with their abilities — which does not mean that they should always be steered into the professions. Means for discovering the very bright child. School records and teachers' judgments are not sufficient, because they do not customarily take account of the chronological age of the child in connection with his mental achievement, while they do penalize for lack of interest and industry which may be the result of a child's being mentally superior to the work assigned to him. Intelligence tests are necessary, to determine the child's mentality independently (to a great extent) of the precise matter he has been taught in school. The development of group tests for army use, and the demon- stration of their value as a preliminary sieve in locating those of EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 79 high as well as of low mentality, and the concerted efforts now being made to adapt group testing to the school child, make this the most practical line for securing an intelligence rating of all school chil- dren, and so discovering the very bright child. Wherever possible, individuals indicated by a group test as being either very superior or very inferior should be subjected to indi- vidual examination and case study, so that their mental status may be more certainly and more completely known in advance of special treatment being given them. An educational policy. Individual differences among very bright children are considerable and must be respected. In larger school systems special classes for exceptionally bright children have proved highly successful. Such classes, however, are not absolutely essential to the development of an educational program in behalf of the superior child. The range and detail of his study can be increased, special interests and initiative can be fostered, his academic progress can be hastened by flexible grading. Guidance and initiative from overhead are now much needed in this whole matter ; everywhere, in village, country, and city schools alike. The situation should be regarded as of sufficient civic and educa- tional importance to receive special administrative attention. The training of teachers and of supervisors in methods of handling bright pupils as individuals and as class groups should follow. Systematic investigations and demonstrations of actual possibilities should be organized. Scholarships for selected elementary and secondary pupils are already indicated. All this seems to call ultimately for a centralized agency within the University of the State of New York, analogous to that now constituted for dealing with the feeble-minded. Meanwhile one or two experts associated with the State Depart- ment of Education could do much to devise and direct procedure in tliis promising field of educational engineering. Arnold Gesell Marion R. Trabue A. Leila Martin Helen T. Woolley Ada M. Fitts R. S. Wood WORTH L. A. Pechstein Committee 8o THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Moral Instruction Negative Considerations 1 The teacher a The quaHty of teachers is poor. The best material goes into Other fields because of greater remuneration. The recruit comes from homes that lack cultural and moral background. b A great majority of teachers is immature. The teaching career is brief, being interrupted by marriage or change to other more remunerative employment. The teacher changes positions too fre- quently to develop effectively such personal potentiality as may be possessed. c The teacher is so poorly paid that a small percentage can afford to take the training necessary for the full development of personal power. For example, almost no college graduates are found in grade positions ; not even normal school training is the usual preparation. A majority still lacks adequate professional training, and a vast majority lacks a broad, foundational education. 2 Tlie subject matter of morals a It is a question of conduct, which grows out of right feeling toward one's fellows. & It is a matter of guidance, of correction, of habit formation; not instruction, but force of example, is the important fact. c Formal instruction in morals has a tendency to antagonize the pupil and so to rouse the feelings that right conduct is an improbable result. Positive Considerations I The teacher a The teacher is the all-important factor in moral instruction. His own conduct must be exemplary; his moral jvidgment must be true and unerring ; his personal power must be effective and pervasive, results promoted through culture and scientific education. b The teacher must understand moral sanctions, both religious and social. c Teacher training should therefore include the following: (i) Systematic instruction in ethics. (2) Thorough training in social sciences — anthropology, sociol- ogy, government, modern social relations. (3) Special emphasis on loyalty and intelligent patriotism. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 8l 2 The school program for the child a It must he concrete. Material is to be found in the life of the school — playground, school discipline, relation between child and child, relation between child and teacher, relation between school and home, community life, in every phase of all the social relationships of school and community, h It must be systematic. (i) All the virtues should be listed for the use of the teacher, and special stress should be laid on specific virtues in assigned grades. While no daily special hour need be assigned, the teacher should be required to cover the assigned virtues in a given period or term. Incidents in school and community life should be seized as lesson materials and the children guided in forming moral judgments on them. (2) Literature should be suggested for the use of the teacher. Stories, episodes, scenes, poems, dramatic incidents, all are valuable for use when specific, concrete experiences occur in the school or community. 3 The common law should be taught; the rights of others recog- nized and respected. 4 The State should prepare a graded syllabus and suggest a time schedule for the guidance of teachers. The French " Course of Study in Ethical Training for the Ecoles Primaires " is suggestive. 5 The work in civics should relate itself to the course in morals. Here again the " Course of Study in Civics for the Ecoles Primaires " is suggestive. A. R. Brubacher Angelo Patrie Annie W. Allen Committee Music The matters discussed grouped themselves under three heads: music in the elementary schools, music in the high schools and music as an aid in Americanization work. The following recommendations were unanimously agreed upon : Music in the Elementary Schools That music be made a required subject in all elementary schools of the State and that the Music Council be authorized to establish mini- mum requirements for different classes of schools. 82 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Music in the High Schools That music courses in the high schools be revised. The follow- ing courses are suggested : 1 Elementary theory, 2 points 2 Ear training and music reading, 3 points 3 Elementary form and melody writing, 3 points 4 Ear training and elementary harmony, 3 points 5 History and appreciation, 3 points 6 Chorus singing (2 periods a week), i point 7 Orchestra practice, i point That students in the teacher's course should be required to pass examinations in courses i and 2 of the above. It was further the sense of the meeting that gratitude should be expressed to the Board of Regents for having acknowledged the value of music, in the granting of credits to high school pupils, for the study of music under private instruction, and that the granting of such credit be made conditional upon the pupil's passing examination in course i of the above suggested courses. Music in the Work of Americanization That the Board of Regents go on record as approving the use of music as an aid in the work of Americanization. That such approval be manifested in two ways : first, by authorizing the Music Council to prepare lists of songs and plans of music work to be used for Americanization purposes ; second, by sending out a leader, upon request, to organize the music work for Americanization purposes. Russell Carter Inez Field Damon Committee Rural Education The most im]:)ortant single educational problem of New York State is that of developing adequate educational facilities for the rural population of the State. The wealth of the cities and the large number of children in a limited area make it possible for the urban centers to develop a relatively complete and varied educational pro- gram. In the open country there are comparatively few good ele- mentary schools and in many sections of the State high school facili- ties are inadequate. It is imperative for the welfare of the State as a whole that the educational needs of the rural community be deter- EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 83 mined, and when this has been done early steps should be taken to satisfy this need. Aside from the problem of teachers for the rural schools the report of the comniitlec is :in attempt to answer in tenta- tive form the first part of this program. The committee recommends the following: 1 Administrat'wn and supervision a That the ci»unty be made the unit of school administration and supervision. b That provision be made in each county for a county board of education to be representative of the county at large. c That provision be made for a trustee to be elected by the people at each school, this trustee to be responsible for the property of the local board. d That in addition to the county superintendent there shall be such additional supervisory assistance as a study of county condi- tions may indicate is necessary. Tiiis study should be made by the State Department of Education. e That a minimum salary be established for the county sui)erin- tendent and the supervisors, two-thirds of the salary lo be paid by the State and one-third by the county; with provision for a maxi- mum mileage in order that the poorer counties may not be placed at a disadvantage in securing the services of a competent superintendent. / That the State Department of Education fix the qualifications for county superintendents and supervisors with provision for pro- fessional training in school supervision. g That provision be made for adequate clerical assistance and for travel of the county superintendents and supervisors. In making provision for taxation and supervision it is stiggested that all common schools and union free schools in places of less than five thousand be included in the county unit. 2 Rural high scJiooIs. We commend (o the consideration of the Board of Regents the idea of the junior high school for rural communities. a We recommend that a committee on rural high schools be appointed for the purpose of making a study of the needs for such facilities in rural communities throughout the State. Tn this con- nection it is suggested that whenever jjossible the elementary school- ing in country districts be reduced to six years and at the beginning of the seventh grade all pupils who have completed the first six years of elementary school work, or who have attained the age of twelve years, be admitted to the junior high schools. 84 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK b We recommend that consideration be given to the possibiHty of development of continuation work for rural communities. 3 Curriculum a We recommend that a committee be appointed for the purpose of making a study of the curriculum of the elementary school, for the purpose of securing a curriculum adapted to the needs of the rural community and with a greater degree of flexibility than obtains at the present time. It is suggested that this committee contain repre- sentatives of the district superintendents, the state normal schools, state schools of agriculture, State Department, training classes, rural school patrons, and outside help if such assistance can be obtained. b We recommend in connection with the normal schools and the State College of Agriculture that experimental schools be established for the purpose of making studies and investigations regarding con- tent of the elementary school curriculum and the methods of instruc- tion in the rural school. c We recommend that syllabusses be prepared that will assist teachers in adapting the work of the elementary school to the needs of the rural community. 4 Standardization a It is recommended that state aid be granted for one-teacher and two-teacher schools that meet certain standards as to the school plant, equipment and teacher. b That a pamphlet be prepared setting forth the aims and purposes of such standardization for distribution among school patrons. 5 Community development Since school welfare is largely determined by community progress, we urge that special attention be given to rural community organiza- tion and development and recommend that a special agent devoting full time to this field be employed by the State Board of Regents. George A. Works J. Murray Foster Ruth M. Johnston Mabel Carney Committee Exception to the Report of the Committee While I have the highest confidence in the opinion of the other members of this committee, still because of the frequent varied con- ditions in different parts of the same county, and because of the extreme difficulty of transportation in the more remote counties, f-:r)U(ATi(mAL tonckess 85 which need help and improved cotuhlioMs niosl, I am unwilHn*^ to indorse the county unit for school administration and sui)ervisiou. I am not convinced that the success of the states of the Middle West under the county system justifies the attempt in New York State because her problem differs in so many respects. Otherwise I heartily indorse the above recommendations. Ruth M. Johnston Training of Teachers Adequate professional training on the part of those who are to enter upon the v^^ork of teaching is one of the most vital problems in our educational work. The fact that there is some dissatisfaction with the work of the schools is in a sense a lever which should be used to the advantage of the schools. Educators and, in fact, all school people should " talk big," said Doctor Bagley, in order that the bigness and importance of the task may in part at least be appreciated by the public. Teaching has not yet become a career. Only 16 per cent of the teaching staff' in America have had two years' professional training beyond the high school. In England 66^ per cent have had at least two years' professional training beyond the high school. There is a very low standard of rewards for those who are in the teaching service. The remuneration must be considerably increased before the work will be sufificiently attractive to interest those who are best qualified for the work of teaching. The following suggestions were made : 1 The period of training for the preparation of elementary school teachers should be extended. Eventually it should be equal to the period for the training of high school teachers — at least four years of professional training for all teachers whether their work is to be in the elementary grades or the high school. There should be equality of salary schedtiles for elementary and high school teachers. The fact that the responsibility of the ele- mentary teacher is eqttally as important as that of the high school teacher is a sufffcient reason for making the salary schedule the same. 2 Teacher-training curriculums should be differentiated. Normal schools and normal colleges should train teachers specifically for the character of the work which they are to do. It will naturally follow that there will be specialized form of licensing. (We are appreciating the need of some definite steps in connection 86 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK with this matter in the administration of our certification of teachers. The time is rapidly coming when high school teachers must be Hcensed specifically for the work which they are to do, particularly in our larger schools where the work is de])artmenlalized.) 3 There is also a vital question as to the specific training which should be the basis of the certification of teachers for intermediate schools or juni'or high schools. (Doctor Ragley was to discuss this question at a later session but had to leave before it was reached at the conference.) Professor Holmes in his discussion emphasized the point that the training of teachers is in one sense strickly a vocational matter rather than academic ; that there should be no so-called " academic work " in the normal school or teachers college. Doctor Brubacher took strong issue with Professor Holmes on this point, maintaining that breadth of view and of culture was a very vital asset to the success- ful teacher. Doctor Brubacher held that there was a real difference between professionalized history and a broad study of history. Doctor Holmes in discussing the relation between academic and professional subjects maintained that English, composition, voice training and physical education were necessary for increased pro- fessional efifectiveness. He also proposed a course in general advice as an orienting course. English, history, science and economics ought to appear in normal sch(»ol ctuTiculums; these are fundamental to a general education. . The following points were made in conneclion wiili ilie (inalifica- tions for an efficient teacher: 1 She must know her subject ; have broad background. To become really efficient, a teacher must know her subject and in fact must know much more of her subject than is included in the course or in the textbooks in use. The teachers of Erance have a higher range of scholarship than do ours. 2 She must be familiar with educational psvchologv; make a specialty of child study. Professional courses are oftentimes too remote from the task immediately at hand. Tn dealing with children she should be fruitful and resourceful ; she should be a keen student of humanity. 3 She must know methods and how to apjjly them practically, 4 She must know the community and be one of the people. 5 She must know " what it is all about." 6 She must be physically fit. 7 Those without personality shoul4 be sjft^d out. EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS 87 Under the discussion as to the desirable length of the training course, Professor Bagley made the following ])oints : 1 It must be determined by what tlie trafhc will stand. (There was a discussion of this ])oint in an endeavor to articulate the economic side of the (|uestion with llie professional; in other words, what may be ihe ideal length of a prolessioiial course may be unwise of immediate applicnlion on account (tf the present limited supply of teachers.) 2 It depends somewhat on the entrance recpiirements. 3 It depends upon the maturity of the students. (Those now entering are said to be less mature than formerly.) 4 It depends on the work to be done. (Under this heading was emphasized the Lact that it should be at least three years and eventually four years.) 5 There should be differentiated courses for those entering upon additional phases of educational work. In the discussion of this whole problem by the normal school principals and others in attendance it was apparently the thought of some of those at the conference that it would be unwise to lengthen the course immediately because of the unusual economic conditions which now obtain. It seemed to some inadvisable to urge at this time either a three-year or a four-year curriculum, inasmuch as it was felt that such action would still further depress figures of registration which are now abnormally low. It was also pointed out in the discussion that a supreme effort should be made to see that all teachers had at least the minimimi two years of professional training. In a subsequent meeting of the normal school principals, it was voted that the matter of a three-year curriculum be referred to a committee consisting of Principals Riggs, Sturges and Rockwell and reported on later. At the same time a committee of two (Principals Rliss and Hawkins) was appointed to urge that critic teachers be placed oil the same salarv basis as assistants. In connection with the discussion as to the lengthening of the normal school course. Professor Holmes stated that increase in the requirements and length of time given to courses has usually resulted in an increase of registration rather than a decrease. Doctor Bagley outlined what he considers a detailed three-year course. It was essentially the same as laid down in the Carnegie Curricula. In discussing training school problems, it was emphasized by Doctor Colvin and others that teachers in training, whether in train- 88 TTIF. TTNTVERSITV OK Tl 1 R STATE OF NEW YORK ing class, normal school or C(jll(\ne, should he permitted to go out into actual teaching for a period long enough to enahle them to gain an adequate realization of the character of the job. Training school students should be given some portion of the work to do (work of respectability) in place of the usual formal observation work, such as marking pupils upon their registration, etc. Teachers might well be assigned to individual pupils who are backward in order that the student-teacher may discover the pupil's difficulties. This will be helpful in bringing the student-teacher to a realization of the fact that the problem is in the final analysis indi- vidual and not massed. An interesting point was developed in the discussion on organiza- tion of the training department to the efifect tliat in Wisconsin, students who do their first observing in normal schools become a member of the class. This gives the student something definite to do and gives her a positive interest in her observation. The func- tion of the lesson plan in the training of teachers was emphasized and the necessity of an aim in every lesson was unanimously accepted. Too much time and stress are often given to matters of adminis- tration and supervision which do not immediately concern the student teaching. The teacher must be intimately acquainted with the personal character of the problem. It was frequently repeated that normal training should be made more specific, that is, for primary, grammar, intermediate or junior high school work. As has already been stated, the licenses should be on a basis of special certification. The blanket certificate to teach any subject in any school is an atrocity. In the session which was devoted to the discussion of the problems of preparing rural school teachers. Miss Carney was very helpful. A few of the normal school principals, the Department specialist in elementary subjects, several district superintendents and teachers of training classes were present and the discussion was very general. The suggestions which were presented gave a very helpful outline covering a full year's program for training class work. Copies of the suggested outline were placed in the hands of all present at the conference and were discussed in detail. Following the discussion of the suggested scheme, certain specific recommendations were made for the purpose of further discussion. Among the more vital sug- gestions were the following: I That the state aid should be increased to $1500 for each train- £dUcational congress H9 iiig class, $1200 of this fund to he sti])iil;itc'(l as a miniinuiii salary for the training class teacher. 2 That the curriculum for the training class should he modified somewhat, for instance: a School law should he eliminated as a sei)arate course and given but a week's time as one topic in the rural school management course. h Psychology should be modified into a practical course in pedagogy including the elements of class technic, fundamentals of child study and the simplest possible .statement of the laws and ])rinciples of teaching. (This is probably a very vital point, as mucli of our psychology in the training classes has been, to put it mildly, abso lutely lacking in vitality.) 3 It was suggested by Miss Carney that state examinations for training classes be eliminated. It was pointed out in discussion that this could not be done imtil the ijrogram for supervision of tliese classes was broadened and until the state aid was sufficient to guarantee training class teachers of the highest type and who were professionally trained for the work. 4 That the teacher is by far the most important factor in training class efficiency. It is recommended that the rules he changed to require a Two years of rural school experience. h A minimum salary of $1200. c That the training class teacher give full time to training class work. 5 Friendly, inspirational, democratic, constructive and profession- ally sound supervision is essential to training class success. The following supervisory activities were recommended : a An annual state conference of training class teachers, one week in length. h Special six-weeks summer session required of all teachers enter- ing the work for the first time. Experienced teachers encouraged to attend other summer schools. c Two full-day visits a year from the state supervisor. d Helpful correspondence on daily problems. e Course of study cooperatively developed by state supervisors and teachers. Sitnunary The large features which stand out as a result of the conference on the training of teachers seem to be the following : 90 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 1 Extending the period for professional training of teachers in the normal schools from two years to three years and possibly four years. This must be worked out with keen appreciation of the present economic problems. It must not be administered in such a way as to decrease the teacher supply which is already limited. The compensation of teachers must be i^reatly increased so that there will be an incentive to yoimg men and women of ability and promise to enter the teaching profession with the idea of making it their life work. We should talk of the matter in big terms in order that the public may gradually be educated to a realization of the serious situation which confronts the schools. The aims must be high in order that the attainment that is actually made will be worth while. 2 The rural school problem is one of the most vital features of the teacher-training question. State aid, modification of curriculum, helpful, inspirational leadership through trained supervisors, and fol- low-up activities must all be given serious thought and constructive help if the State is to give the aid to tlie rural schools wliich the present situation demands. 021 508 672 0(