Author . ^f*o^ o o z o Title. ■I mtS >59 Imprint. 10—17372-2 OPO SCH001> EFFICIENCY MONOGRAPHS 339 THE PUBLIC AND ITS SCHOOL MCANDREW Class 4/^^^3^L_ Bookj:BsiJ::ri3_ Copyright N°__ COPYRIGHT DEPOSm THE PUBLIC AND ITS SCHOOL SCHOOL EFFICIENCY MONOGRAPHS THE PUBLIC AND ITS SCHOOL A STATEMENT OF THE MEANS OF FINDING WHAT THE INTELLIGENT PUBLIC EXPECTS OF CHILDREN AND HOW A SCHOOL SYSTEM MAY BE MANAGED TO DELIVER THE GOODS BY WILLIAM McANDREW ASSOCIATE SUPERINTENDENT, NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS RELIEVED By PICTURES HADE BY SCHOOL GIRLS AND BOrS YONKERS- ON -HUDSON, NEW YORK WORLD BOOK COMPANY 1916 COPYRIGHT, I 9 I 6 BY WORLD BOOK COMPANY THE -PLIMPTON -PRESS NORWOOD 'MASS* C'S- A |)CI.A4;n039 AUTHOR'S PREFACE I AM surprised. World Booh Company, at your threat to make a piiblic book out of a home- made document designed for family use. Our official edition, like those zvho got it, is exhausted. Your plan to put ''go" into the thing by means of school children's pictures ought to mitigate its solemnity. Such cheerful effect is one of the bless- ings the Lord conferred when He gave us boys and girls. This may dispel some of the awful dignity that loivers over tvhat should be the merriest business of all : teaching school. You will offend some good and sober people. The credit will be yours. I need have nothing to do with any part of the venture. Wm. McAndrew EDITORL\L COMMENT 1 T^HERE is only one William McAndrew and he is •*- something different every time he comes to the bat. We were of those who were not easily reconciled to his leaving the Washington Irving High School. It seemed as though he was the last man in the world to be harnessed to the inevitable treadmill work of a great city supervisory system. William McAndrew is a genius, first, last, and all the time. He thinks, acts, writes, speaks as a genius. He has criticised traditions mercilessly. When he lets him- self loose with his pen, no one knows what he is to hit or what fragments will remain after he has hit a tradition. What could such a man do with the responsibility of leadership in a district with 100,000 children, more or less! W'ell, what did he do? W'ith this query in mind we turned with keen interest and some anxiety to his first report upon the schools of Brooklyn, just published by the New York Board of Education. Imagine our delight at finding McAndrew, William McAndrew, fiercest of critics, corralling all critics of the schools in Brooklyn, taming them, harnessing them, and making them pull together like a trained team. "It takes a rogue to catch a rogue," and it evidently required a critic to tame and harness, for team work, the critics of Brooklyn. Nowhere else in professional or profane literature can there be found as valuable a summary of criticism and remedies as in this report. No Inquiry, Survey, or Inves- ' From Journal of Education for September 30, 1916. Cvii] tigation has been as constructive as is this report of Mr. McAndrew. It should be published at once by the United States Bureau of Education as a monograph, or by World Book Company in its School Efficiency Series. It comes near having the ring of one of Horace Mann's reports of seventy years ago. . . . The conclusion of McAndrew's report is that all of the things employers expect of graduates are attainable with a surprisingly small amount of effort. The schools will not suffer by taking up the criticisms passed upon them. On the contrary they will benefit. Every school ought to invite a committee of taxpayers to formulate the definite abilities expected of the graduates and at desig- nated periods ought to be invited to test the graduates upon such abilities. McAndrew proposes this as a means of holding a close bond of friendship and loyalty between the pubUc and the schools. He contends that such defi- nite and intimate knowledge of what the schools are doing is essential for their adequate support. His report contains a complete summary of abilities proposed by Brooklyn citizens, employers, ministers, edi- tors, mothers, schoolmasters, as necessary in the Brooklyn youngster on graduation day. McAndrew applies general principles of management to the problem of directing the schools so as to turn out this product. He enumerates the agencies existent in Brooklyn for getting the result. A remarkable thing about the project is that it has been formulated by conference and cooperation and is not a theatrical conception proposed for imposition upon the schools. Get this report at once if you can. If you cannot get a copy, stir somebody up to print it so that it can be had by everyone who wishes it. A. E. WiNSHIP [viii] PUBLISHER'S STATEMENT AT its best today the school report is a prophecy and a convincing appeal, a program for next year, a road map with warnings and assurances. Yet the clammy hand of tradition and conventionality still writes too many reports, — and spoils them. Timidity or inatten- tion to technic or tardy planning interferes often, with the result that the reporter writes away from the audi- ences he sincerely aims to inform and win. Two kinds of help can be given to those who write school reports, whether superintendents, principals, super- visors, teachers, business agents, or trustees: 1. Reports, as printed or in manuscript, can be submitted for frank review to experts in the education depart- ments of universities or in the United States Bureau of Education, or to such agencies as the Institute for Pul)lic Service, New York City. 2. Helpful reports can be given wide circulation to stimu- late competition and emulation. The Public and its School is an effort of World Book Company to afford this kind of aid. The author, William jNIcAndrew, is widely known to teacher's associations as a man with a message and a humorous, forceful, courageous way of uttering that message. This hook is Mr. McAndrew's annual report as Division Superintendent in charge of the elementary schools in Brooklyn. While addressed to City Superintendent William H. ^laxwell, it contains in every .sentence a message not only for superintendents everywhere but for parents, taxpayers, employers, and teachers. In it readers will find: [ix] 1. How to write to several audiences at one time. 2. How to test teaching, pupils, and product. 3. How to bring the schools back to the public, — how to recognize the proprietorship of the public and the partnership of trustees and teachers. 4. How to win support by admitting past deficiencies and listing future needs. 5. How to use excellences for correcting deficiencies. 6. How to make every supervisor and teacher a surveyor of his own work. 7. How to open the way for general truths by clear state- ments of concrete facts. 8. How to combine dignity with humor and directness. 9. How to inspire a desire for self-testing and self-advance- ment in teacher and community. 10. How to stimulate originality and preference for results over guesses. For readers who are not familiar with the organization of the New York City school system, a word of explana- tion as to the position of a division superintendent may be in order. At the head of the entire school system is the City Superintendent, who is assisted by eight associate super- intendents. The elementary schools of the city are divided geographically into forty-six school districts, each of which has a district superintendent, who reports directly to the City Superintendent. These forty-six districts are grouped into six divisions, and the high schools and training schools make two additional divisions. The eight divisions are assigned among six of the associate superintendents. For the school year of 1914-15, Associate Superinten- dent McAndrew had charge of Divisions 4 and 5, which include all the Brooklyn districts. The report which follows is a summary of the cooperative study of the needs of the two divisions, undertaken by the Division Superintendent and groups of principals, teachers, and citizens. World Book Compant [x] CONTENTS PABAQBAPH What a Division Report Should Be 1 New Features in Brooklyn — Vocational Gary System 4-7 Criticism of School Rbbults — "Graduates cannot write, spell, or figure" 8-9 Ability Tests by Employers 10-16 Self-correction 17-19 Value of the Department-store Test 20-22 Influence of Examiner 23 Guesses and Results 24 \'ariations in Schools 25 Getting the Knack and the Pleasure 26-28 Interest and Drill 29 Exhibitions of Ability 30-31 Use of the Criticisms of the Year 32 What a Brooklyn Graduate Should Be — Sugges- tions from various sources 33-36 What a School and a Principal Are For — Analy- sis of human products. Working by plan 37-41 The Science of Supervision — Underlying principles 42 Ideals and Revisions — Professional facilities and work in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Teachers' .\ssocia- tion. .\ publication needed. Saturday conference. . 43-51 Efficiency Stand.4.rds — ■ Periodic inspections. Rating a principal. Judgment of results 52-56 Efficiency Records 57-62 IxsTANciis OF Efficient Org.4^niz.\tion — Care of Buildings. Fire drills. Saengerfest. Flag Day 63-71 Principal's Inckeiased Responsibiuty 70-7 1 Principals: Obedience and Originality 72-73 Where a Principal Ought to Be 74-75 Cxi] PARAQRAPH Reduction op Clerical Work 76-81 Cheering the Principal — Depreciation of salary requires offset 82 Efficiency Records of Graduates — Present records obsolete. Suggested substitutes. Guarantee of em- ployers 83-88 Efficiency Records of Teachers — Lack of stand- ards. Too subjective. Rating system not used as intended. A teacher's work tested by pupils' attainment 89-93 Efficiency Rewards — Relation between work and pay. Stagnation from automatic increase. Criti- cism by teachers' and principals' organizations. Ob- ligation for present salary schedules. Small number of non-meritorious ratings. Vulnerability of school system to attack. Encouragement of mediocrity. Definite proposals. Stiffening required 94-102 Discipline of Staff — Large measures neglected for attention to petty personal grievances. Reasons why more businesslike management of complaints is needed. The fair deal. Waste in oral complaints. Anonymous letters 103-105 Costs — Schoolmaster's isolation from financial poli- cies of the system. Cost of a school per minute. Waste at opening and close of terms 106 Pronouncing the School System All Wrong — ■ Specific criticism not sweeping condemnation. Ex- actness of definition needed 107-109 Summary of Recommendations 110-111 [xii] THE PUBLIC AND ITS SCHOOL THE PUBLIC AND ITS SCHOOL Hl'RCHES, homes, and schools have been Brooklyn's boast for many years. Public in- terest in education is more alive than in any community I know of. All the Brooklyn news- papers pay unusual attention to schools. The public turns out for school exercises in large numbers. No apology ought to be necessary for the length of any report on the schools of the Brooklyn divisions. WHAT A DIVISION REPORT SHOULD BE 1. Official expectation of what a division report should be, I find in Board of Education Document Number Sbc, lOVl, page 4: 2. "A report by a division superintendent is obviously a record of specific information with reference to the pupils under the care of that part of the educational system assigned to him. Apparently the division heads are left to themselves and may report at random upon whatever has appealed to them without the direction of their attention definitely to certain essential functions common to all divisions." 3. The following report is planned in accordance with the first part of the paragrapli just quoted and takes advantage of the freedom described in the last part. NEW FEATOTIES IN BROOKLYN 4. During the school year 1914-15 two radical de- partures have been made in the Brooklyn divisions. 5. Elementary Public Schools 5 and 158 were put upon new programs involving attention to vocational pursuits. Although the work of these schools is covered in detail in Associate Superintendent Ettinger's report, their influence upon the educational service of the borough requires reference to them here. The construc- tive exercises introduced into these schools, based upon a wide review of educational experiments in other cities, have thereby obtained an advantage which has freed the work of the year from much of the objection which not imcommonly impedes any departure from the usual educational track. But the increase in the number of self-expressive exercises not only has produced a pro- nounced enthusiasm in the boys and girls for this kind of work but has affected the old-line school subjects in a remarkable manner. The connection between book study and actual construction carried out in this new type of school has provided a new motive in class recitation which is evident. The visits of principals and teachers to these schools have created an active sentiment in the borough for more schools of this kind. Not only are the Brook- lyn newspapers pronounced in commending the departure, but principals and citizens are asking that new school buildings, when obtained, shall be equipped for the type of school represented in these organizations. 6. The Brooklyn Trade School for Boys, organized this year, also is reported on by Associate Superintendent Ettinger. 7. On November 6, 1914, Mr. William Wirt, Superin- tendent of Schools of Gary, Indiana, reorganized PubUc School 89 to secure for each child a six-hour day with opportunities of study, work, play, and coordination of child-welfare agencies. The relief afforded this congested school by the new program is very marked. Even with- out the special equipment, which is an essential part of the [2] / ^^ 1 r nnn nn n nnp nnnn nn nniff (innn nn nnfn nnnn jp^ nn«n nnnn fm .mfW *^ >^ \ n nnn mi nnoi " \ V rinnQ mi nnnc \ \^ KNOCKING THE SCHOOLS Gary system, the advantage to the children in this school is so evident that the new plan has proved welt worth the change. In my visits to this school, / have been im- pressed with the spirit of principal and teachers, with the »mooth running of the machinery, and with the progress of the pupils. CRITICISM OF SCHOOL RESULTS 8. "Specific information with reference to the pupils" of the divisions, as related to "the administration and supervision" of the schools, seems especially desirable this year on account of criticism of the education given and the cost of giving it. Newspapers circulated in the divisions and newspapers published in them gave promi- nence to charges that the children "are not thoroughly grounded in anything." "Reading, writing, and arith- metic are wofully neglected, though correct spelling, ability to figure, and legible writing are as essential today as ever before." "So many subjects have been crowded into the course of study that a thorough training in those few which are essential is impossible." "The defects are not confined to children who leave before they finish the course, but exist in those who have the grammar school certificates." "It is almost impossible now to get com- petent boys and girls, and the natural conclusion is that the pubhc schools are at fault." "The elementary school [3] graduates cannot spell, write, or figure because they are victims of special courses and psychological pedagogy." One editor predicted that the schools would take the criticisms with smiling patience and cheerful philosophy. "The teachers will grin at each other out of the tails of their eyes when a man comes along to tell them they are not teaching the three R's." One pubUc writer says, "These charges are heard on all sides"; another, "The schools have stood this a long time without attempting to refute it." An unusual amount of general criticism of the schools as extravagant consumers of taxes and able to do better public service than at present followed the specific complaints I have quoted. 9. The progress of education in America has been due in great measure to active public interest stimulated by newspaper suggestions. The -prominence given this year to the specific criticisms referred to calls for attention in order that the benefit intended by their publication may be secured. ABILITY TESTS BY EMPLOYERS 10. I submit an account of an investigation suggested by the criticisms upon elementary school graduates. 1 1 . Twenty -five elementary school principals in various parts of the Borough of Brooklyn made a canvass to determine in what business houses their wage-earning graduates were engaged in the largest numbers. The superintendents of the two firms which were shown to be the most extensive employers were asked to give specimen tasks most commonly required of elementary school graduates in their employ and bearing upon the abihty of graduates "to write, to spell, and to figure." These tasks are: [4] 1. Addition: a sum. of about this difficulty: 1.58 .65 49 2.98 10.77 1.38 3.10 2. Penmanship, multiplication, fractions, addition, filling out a sales slip about like this one from dictation, computing the values, and adding the amounts: Bought by. Henry Wise 6^9 Classon Ave. Brooklyn Sales No. 163 Carrier 15 Charge Ck. Date 5/16/15 Quantity Items .\mount 2 3/4 White Lace @ 57c 3 Spools White Silk @ 10c 1 3/i. White Silk @ 93c .\mou nt 3. Spelling, grammar, composition, general intelligence: "Write a letter to Hiram Moller, 275 Ocean Ave., Far Rockaway. He has bought a new house there. Invite him to look over our new [5] THE MESSAGE TEST stock of furnishings. Feature the most im- portant ones. Attract him to the store." 4. Attention. Carrying messages: "Have one person direct the messenger to tell the other person in a distant room that the letter sent by the former regarding repairs and referring to a list of them was received but there was no list enclosed. Get it." 12. These tests I applied to pupils of the graduating classes of the Brooklyn divisions. Following are the results. 13. Test No. 1. Simple addition : Number tested 1023 Number right 778 Per cent, right 76% Poorest class record 68 % Best class record 91 % 14. Test No. 2. Penmanship, multiplication, frac- tions, addition, sales slip : Number tested 962 Number right 539 Per cent, right 66 % Poorest class record 42 % Best class record 92% 15. Test No. 3. Grammatical letter from suggested matter : Number tested 410 [6] Form, appearance, penmanship, on scale of 100 perfect: 41 rated at 100 10% 39 rated at 95 9.5% 124 rated at 90 30.3% 16 rated at 85 3.9% 60 rated at 80 14.6% 32 rated at 75 7.8% 18 rated at 70 , 4.4% 12 rated at 65 2.9% 28 rated at 60 6.8% 36 rated at 50 8.8% 4 rated at 40 1 % Errors in spelling and capitalization: 82 with errors 20 % 88 with 1 error 21.5% 70 with 2 errors 17 . 1 % 75 with 3 errors 18.3% 35 with 4 errors 8.5% 31 with 5 errors 76% 9 with 6 errors 2.2% 10 with 7 errors 2.4% 5 with 8 errors 1.2% 3 with 9 errors . 7 % 2 with 10 errors . . . 5 % Errors in punctuation : 110 with errors 26.8% 49 with 1 error 12 % 61 with 2 errors 14 .9% 40 with 3 errors 9.8% 67 with 4 errors 16.3% 53 with 5 errors . 12.9% 4 with 6 errors 1 % 6 with 7 errors 1.5% 10 with 8 errors 2.4% 6 with 9 errors 1.5% 3 with 10 errors .7% 1 with 11 errors .2% [7] Blemishes, blots, erasures, corrections, and words omitted or rewritten; 58 wi 22 w 106 w 24 w 142 w 28 w 9 w 5 w 6 w 5 wi 3 w w 1 w 1 w th th th th th th th th th th errors 14 , 1 error 5 , 2 errors 25 3 errors 5 5 errors . 6 errors . 7 errors . 8 errors . 9 errors . th 10 errors, th 11 errors, th 12 errors . th 13 errors. 6.8% 2.2% 1.2% 1.5% 1.2% .7% % .2% .2% 16. Test No. 4. Carrying messages: Number tested 91 Number correct 56 Per cent, correct 62% SELF-CORHECTION 17. In the mathematical tests, a tendency to prove the work before handing it in was almost entirely lacking. There is in the children an idea that speed is valuable apart from correctness. I recall that from the tests given by S. A. Courtis he made the generalization that the average accuracy of New York school children is very low, while the speed is above the average. That is, it takes us less time to get a thing wrong here than it does in the average school system. I cannot believe that an absurdity of this kind would not yield in great measure to an organization of the Brooklyn divisions into a work- ing unit to promulgate specific efficiencies in directions where investigation shows a common need and to provide for systematic follow-up processes, until the formation of [8] GREAT SPEED — BUT WHAT HAVE TOU WHEN YOD GET THERE? habits of self-correction in mathematical work becomes a recognized obligation of every teacher and principal. In one school every column is required to be added up and down to an agreement before the adder attempts the next column. 18. I can see the justice which leads some teachers to aUow children some credit for correctness of method even when the result is wrong, but no school usage is more ridiculed by the lay critic. For him a wrong result is useless no matter how slowly or how quickly obtained. IN SCHOOL SHE ACCEPTS 60% RIGHT; BUT AT THE BANK - 19. The school habit of accepting 60% as "satisfactory" is ridiculed as tending to promulgate a 60% civilization. [9] VALUE OF THE DEPARTMENT-STOEE TEST 20. Without going into the question whether a school system is a failure whose "graduates cannot spell, write, or figure," one may enquire whether the tests proposed by the department-store superintendents represent ac- complishments which a principal of a school should be held responsible to secure in his graduates. There was opportunity of asking thirty-one principals that question specifically. Each answered independently that these are requirements which may fairly be exacted of him. Experiments were then made as to how long it would take to bring a graduating class to the point where its maximum efficiency in these abilities could be counted on. This problem was set for graduating class teachers of mathematics. "Teach self -correction of mathematical exercises of the kind proposed by the department-store superintendents. Note the time you spend each day, and when the efficiency runs fairly constant notify me to come and confirm your record by a similar test." These are sample reports: 21. Test No. 1. Easy addition. Self-correction: jj , Time spent by class Number Number Per cent, and teacher tested right right May 12 8 min. 35 28 80 13 5 min. 34 30 89 14 5 min. 35 32 92 17 4 min. 35 31 90 18 5 min. 32 31 90 18 4 min. 35 34 97 20....... 5 min. 35 35 100 21 4 min. 34 34 100 24 3 min. 34 34 100 25 3 min. 34 34 100 26 3 min. 34 34 100 26 Test by division superintendent 34 32 94 [10] This class reached maximum efficiency for teacher's test in thirty-nine minutes distributed through six days. 22. Test No. 2. Sales sHp, penmanship, multipHca- tion, fractions, addition, filling of headings. r, . Time lipent bv class ^^^' anA teacher May 12 . 15 min. 13 10 min. 14 10 min. 17 10 min. 18 1'2 min. 19 8 min. 20 8 min. 21 8 min. 24 8 min. 25 8 min. 26 10 min. 27 8 min. 28 8 min. 28 Test by division superintendent 29 28 96 This class reached maximum efficiency for teacher s test in one hour forty-seven minutes distributed through eleven days. INFLUENCE OF EXAMINER 23. One of the principals, after a test by me, remarked that the presence of a stranger decreases the efficiency of the children. My test showed 82 % correct. He gave an equivalent test in my presence with a result of 97%. In one school the test given in "the grand manner" with apparent fear in some of the children secured a result of 62 9c- ^Ve then sang together "There's a Light still [11] Number tested Number right Per cent, right 30 18 61 30 22 74 30 24 80 30 22 74 29 28 96 29 28 96 30 28 93 30 29 97 30 29 97 29 29 100 29 28 96 29 29 100 29 29 100 burning in the Window" and tried an equivalent test, securing a result of 90 %, and immediately after with one of the same sort we secured 96 %. I give these appar- ently trivial details to support the opinion that, with- out much trouble, our grad- uates can be found by their employers to have the abiUty to "spell, write, and figure," and that our schools are able without strain to prepare grad- uates so that the principals can guarantee such ability and sub- stantiate the guarantee by re- cords of actual performance. Ability that is at command under trying cir- cumstances is so much of an asset that a test by a stranger is a valu- able exercise. EXAMINING IN THE GRAND MANNER, NOTE THE QUAKING CHILDREN GUESSES AND RESULTS 24. In fifteen cases the test was shown to principals before giving it. Their estimate of the success of the class in it was obtained. Comparison of estimate with results runs like this: Principal's guess Actual result 100% 73% 95% 42% 90% 73% etc. etc. cipal guessed as low as 73 %. Most principals thought 100 % ought to be expected. [12] VARIATIONS IN SCHOOLS 25. There is no discoverable relation between the results and "the nature of the district" of the school. Very well-dressed children ranked high and low. Poor neighborhoods showed similar diversity. But schools standing low, tested again, did not reach a high standard until more drill on these specific tasks had been given than was necessary in schools standing higher. That the graduating classes of any Brooklyn school should surprise their principals by as low a result as 42 % on so simple a requirement and that all the classes with so small an expenditure of time so materially improved their record, leads me to submit some observations looking to organi- zation of these divisions next year. GETTING THE KNACK AND THE PLEASURE 26. Observers of habit formation have noticed that in learning to swim, to play tennis or cards or a musical instrument, or to ride a bicycle, there is a preliminary period of more or less discouraging attempts during which practice is mostly drudgery. This is apparent also in the study of foreign languages. After drill, the cells of the brain, often with apparent suddenness, seem to group themselves in new relations, and one feels he has the knack. After this, practice is attended with much less dulness. I have seen this come in students of Latin and of geometry at different times for different boys. Observation of elementary school children inclines me to believe that many of them reach such a state that making combina- tions of quantities becomes pleasurable to them, and that ihe children who "do not like arithmetic" can, by skilful and sympathetic guidance, he brought to the point where the knack comes to them, and that thenceforward such children are permanently changed in capacity. [13] THE JOY OP ACHIEVEMENT 27. I should like to be able, in large schools where facilities for it are abundant, to put in a program sys- tematically engaging the arithmetically efficient children upon some other work part of the time, while the unsteady ones in large groups could be exercised with conscious attempt to get pleasure out of computation. Precaution would need to be taken not to emphasize mere drill. 28. Continued unsuccessful drudgery stupefies the mind. The consciousness of success and of growth felt and enjoyed by the learner himself seems to me a healthy stimulus which can be nursed by the right kind of teacher, selected because of this power. The scheme proposed is a modification of the "opportunity class" idea, extended to children who are normal but in specific abilities have been hurried along without the happy experience of waking up to find themselves possessed of the knack. INTEREST AND DRILL 29. I have not seen in the Brooklyn divisions any- thing in the line of interesting drill as good as what I saw seventeen years ago, in Public School 5, Brooklyn, [14] tm&mi AN ARITHMETIC ASSEMBLY IN PCBUC SCHOOL 5 when Principal William T. Vlymen used to have an assembly drill in the fundamental processes of arithmetic every day. The interest, which I take it is the most ini{)ortant factor in nutritive drill, was pronounced. The importance of the occasion — large numbers present, principals and teachers observing, a sort of figure-fest, short, cheerful, and considerate — was a harmless but efficient spur to industry, care, and success. I recom- mend this feature to the attention of principals in the division. EXHIBITIONS OF ABILITY 30. Although it occurred in a division not assigned to me, I should like to record, for the benefit of the Brook- lyn principals, a contest managed by Mr. Walter H. Eddy, of the High School of Commerce. The various classes have in their own rooms "try outs" in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, vulgar fractions, decimal fractions, and percentage. The best boys of each group then contest in the assembly hall. Each has a blackboard. At the same moment identical problems on slips of paper are handed to the contestants. WTien a boy has completed and proved his work, he takes his position at a designated place at the front of the stage; [15] AN ARITHMETIC RELAY RACE IN PUBUC SCHOOL Hi successive contestants fall in as they finish. The exer- cises are so short that they involve no strain. I recom- mend that this means of putting spirit into arithmetic be introduced into the Brooklyn schools for contests both between classes and between schools. I recognize that arithmetic, as it is the most usually tested of sub- jects, is also the most dangerous to mental health if overdone. I couple with my suggestion a caution which may be necessary only to principals not known to me, that the prelmiinaries be conducted with moderation. 31. During the year the Brooklyn Daily Eagle conducted a spelling contest in which public interest was keen. The revival of this old-fashioned school exercise in the form of friendly contests between schools is recommended. USE OF THE CRITICISMS OF THE YEAR 32. The tests made may be interpreted to show that in some of the schools in the division assigned to me, too many of the members of the graduating classes apparently could not "spell, WTite, and figure." I know that it is not customary to make such admissions in school reports, [16] TWO USES OF CRITICISM but recofjnition of the criticism seems to me to lead to some advantage. As long as the schools depend on public indorsement for their maintenance, why not court suggestions for improvement from the public? When a service es- tabhshes itself on a sohd foundation, its managers often inspire the staff with a pride of efficiency sufficient to lead to an invitation for suggested betterments. I know several schools in Brooklyn that are strong enough to print on their report cards, "Patrons are requested to suggest improvements desired in our service." I think both divisions would profit by a frank invitation to the public to suggest what abilities it expects in a school graduate. The commercial employers on whom I called were interested. Later in this report you will find their contribution. WHAT A BROOKLYN GRADUATE SHOULD BE 33. The purpose which led the builders of America to establish for the first time in history a plan of free and universal education was expressly to rear a race of citi- zens superior to existing humanity. No expounder of the function of public education in the early days of the repubhc or at the present time has been content with [17] spelling, writing, and figuring as the result of school training. The culture of better men and women has been the theoretical aim of American schools from the beginning. 34. Would it be possible to define profitably for the Brooklyn schools the personal product to deliver which they are maintained? Such a formulation has engaged the attention of managers of school systems to an increas- ing degree in the past twenty-five years. 35. Starting with the specific attainments the lack of which have been emphatically asserted this year and extensively advertised throughout the country, I added to the list other virtues given me by employers as needful. I submitted the list to ministers, lawyers, and various citizens, and to thirty Brooklyn principals, asking for corrections and additions. Striking out the repetitions and the different forms of expressing the same idea, I present herewith young Master or Miss Brooklyn as he or she, certificate in hand, theoretically walks down the front steps of the perfect school on graduation day. 36. Conceive a boy or girl made up of these charac- teristics : Health, agility, cleanliness, good posture. Good personal appearance. Attention to dress, erect figure. Audible voice, clear and correct speech. Self-control, ability to look you in the eye, courage, absence of the impediment of shyness. Deftness of hand, including legible, shapely penman- ship, power of simple graphic representation, ability to use common tools and simple machines. Punctuality; economy of time and material. Ability and tendency to think, to compare ideas, and to reach consistent conclusions. [18] Tendency to reflect before important action. Mental economy. Ability to study a problem intelli- gently and to summarize essentials in a reasonable time; intelligent application. Orderlines.s. Tendency to plan. Ability to comprehend and to reproduce in writing or by word of mouth printed or oral discourse of reason- able difficulty. Accuracy and reasonable speed in such computations as the ordinary citizen is called upon to make and in such quantitative work with tools and material as is pertinent to the tool and machine work of the school. Appreciation of the value of money, of the advantage of intelligent spending, and of thrift. An efficient knowledge of the usual sources of informa- tion. Skill in using them. Conception of the intellectual inheritance of mankind. Possession of a reasonable fund of information resulting from the conventional studies, including especially the duties of a citizen. Knowledge of the main avenues of self-support, the nature of occupations, wages, and opportunities. Taste, refinement, appreciation of beauty in literature, music, art, and nature. Humor, cai)acity for healthy enjoyment, cheerfulness. Desire and ability to cooperate with others. Willing- ness to act under direction; loyalty. Intelligent patriotism. Industry, perseverance, grip, grit, self-reliance. Originality, independence, initiative, management, en- thusiasm. Honesty, decency, clean-mindedness. Good manners, couite.sy, consideration for others, helpfulness, readiness to volunteer, unselfishness. Advantageous use of leisure. [19] ./ ,"'' ^"^ r /^ 0' .