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NEW YORK AT SCHOOL








NEW YORK AT SCHOOL
A Description of the Activities
and Administration of the Public Schools
of the City of New York
BY
JOSEPHINE CHASE
Assistant Director, Public Education Association


IN COLLABORATION WITH
THE SCHOOL AUTHORITIES
PUBLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK


I927




COPYRIGHT, 1927, BY PUBLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION


COMMONWEALTH PRESS WORCESTER, MASS.






/ ed 7
FOREWORD
HIS story of New York at School has been designed to
further the purpose of the Public Education Association to inform its members and citizens generally
of the work of the City schools. For years, the Association
has discussed various educational questions of current
interest in its bulletins and in articles in the public press.
This is the first time, however, that an effort has been made
to present a comprehensive picture of the school system as
a whole, in order that the average citizen might see its
numerous activities in relation to one another. The Association has long contemplated the publication of such an
account, but until this year has found it impossible to spare
any one of its staff to do the painstaking work involved.
The aim of the book is to describe the work of the schools
in a non-critical way, without any attempt at appraisal, by
sketching briefly the origin of the several activities, the way
in which they are being carried on, and the objectives which
the school authorities have in view. In order that this
might be accurately done, the cooperation and assistance
of the superintendents and specialists in the school system
was enlisted from the very beginning. The fact that it is a
description of the work of the schools from the point of view
of those who are actually carrying it on, rather than an
interpretation solely from our own viewpoint, is evident
from the following list of individuals, and those cited elsewhere, who either furnished material or approved the text
after its completion.
Ev]




FORE W O R D


Among those who aided in planning and organizing the
book, we are particularly obligated to: Dr. Eugene Nifenecker, Director of the Division of Reference, Research and
Statistics; Dr. John S. Roberts, Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools; Dr. Louis Marks of the Board of Examiners; Morris Siegel, Director of Continuation and
Evening Schools; George Chatfield, Assistant Director
of the Bureau of Attendance; Frank A. Rexford, Supervisor
of Civics in the High Schools; and District Superintendents
William E. Grady and Stephen F. Bayne.
The plan for the book was approved by Dr. William J.
O'Shea, Superintendent of Schools, before the manuscript
was prepared. With his permission, the aid of those in
charge of the special fields of school work was obtained in
gathering the data and checking up the final manuscript
for accuracy. The SchoolVisiting Committee of theWomen's
City Club, with the aid of members of the Junior League,
under the Chairmanship of Mrs. Samuel A. Lewisohn,
rendered special aid in making available the data gathered
in the course of their visits to a large number of the public
schools of the City.
After the manuscript had been completed and had been
checked by the specialists in the school system, it was carefully read by District Superintendent T. Adrian Curtis,
at the request of the Superintendent of Schools, and was
approved for publication both by the Superintendent and
by Dr. Roberts.
As is pointed out in the opening pages, it is impossible
to give a perspective of the work of the schools as a whole
and at the same time delve too minutely into details. Because of this, the volume must not be looked upon as an
encyclopaedia, but rather as a guide book to tempt those who
[vi]




F O R E W O R D


may be interested in certain phases of the work of the
schools to seek for further details in the official reports andrecords of the Board of Education and to visit the schools
themselves.
Those who may be interested in a more intensive study
of any phase of the work of the schools will find, as we have,
that the school authorities are only too willing to aid them
in every way.   Visitors are always welcome and need
only make a request to the Superintendent of Schools for
permission to visit any part of the school system.  The
Bureau of Reference, Research and Statistics of the Board
of Education, to which we are particularly grateful for
constant assistance in gathering data, is especially equipped
and willing to be of service. It is our hope that we may be
able to re-issue this story from time to time, so amended
as to bring the material up to date.
HOWARD w. NUDD, Director.
Yune, 1927.


[ vii ]








ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IN addition to the special acknowledgments carried in
the Foreword, the Association wishes to express its
appreciation of the cooperation of the following school
officials who have aided either in furnishing the original
data or in verifying the accuracy of those portions of the
final manuscript which deal with their respective fields of
work:


Miss AGNES V. BIRMINGHAM
Acting Director of Speech Improvement
Miss MAUDE J. BLEIER
Manager of School Lunches
Dr. J. L. BLUMENTHAL
Director of the Bureau of Child Hygiene
of the Board of Health
GEORGE B. BUCK
Actuary of the Teachers' Retirement
System
DR. HAROLD G. CAMPBELL
Associate Superintendent in charge of
High Schools
FREDERICK G. CHAMBERS
Auditor of the Bureau of Finance
Dr. FRANCES COHEN
Assistant Director of Educational
Hygiene
FRANK H. COLLINS
Director of Art and Drawing
ERNEST L. CRANDALL
Director of the Bureau of Lectures
THOMAS DONOHUE
Principal, Parental School
Miss SARAH ELKUS
Supervisor of Continuation Classes
Miss HENRIETTA FLAMM
Division of Reference, Research and
Statistics


Miss ELIZABETH FARRELL
Inspector of Ungraded Classes
GEORGE G. GARTLAN
Director of Music
EUGENE C. GIBNEY
Director of Extension Activities
WILLIAM GOMPERT
Superintendent of School Buildings
FOREST GRANT
Director of Art in High Schools
Dr. WILLIAM A. HANNIG
Chairman of the Board of Examiners
Miss RITA HOCHHEIMER
Assistant Director of Visual Instruction
WILLIAM E. HORNE
Parental School
Miss MINNIE L. HUTCHINSON
Director of Sewing
Miss OLIVE JONES
Principal, P. S. I20, Manhattan
PATRICK JONES
Superintendent of School Supplies
Miss CARRIE KEARNS
Principal, School for the Deaf
Dr. FRANKLIN J. KELLER
Principal, East Side Continuation School
VAN EVRIE KILPATRICK
Assigned to the supervision of School
Gardens


[ix]




ACKNOW  L E D GMENTS


CLAUDE G. LELAND
Superintendent of Libraries
GEORGE J. LOEWY
Director of Vocational Activities
Miss JESSIE LOUDERBACK
President of the Association of Visiting
Teachers
Dr. CHARLES W. LYON
Associate Superintendent in charge of
Leaves of Absence for Teachers
EDWARD MANDEL
Associate Superintendent in charge of
Organization of Classes in Elementary
School
WILLIAM J. MCAULIFFE
Assistant Director of Extension Activities
MISS MARGARET J. MCCOOEY
Associate Superintendent in charge of
Special Schools and Classes for the
Handicapped and the Problem Children
Dr. WILLIAM J. MCGRATH
Assistant Director of the Bureau of
Reference, Research and Statistics
JOSEPH MILLER
Secretary of the Board of Education
Miss FRANCES E. MOSCRIP
Inspector of Classes for the Blind and
Sight Conservation Classes
Miss LUELLA A. PALMER
Director of Kindergartens


R. W. RODMAN
Superintendent of the Bureau of Plant
Operation
Miss CAROLINA G. RONZONE
Inspector of Industrial and Placement
Work for Handicapped Children
Miss CHRISTINE SCHLENKER
Principal, P. S. 6I, Brooklyn
JOSEPH SHEEHAN
Associate Superintendent in charge of
Physical Training
Dr. EDWARD W. STITT
Associate Superintendent in charge of
Vocational Schools
Dr. ADELA J. SMITH
Assistant Director of Physical Training
in charge of Handicapped Classes
Dr. GUSTAVE STRAUBENMULLER
Associate Superintendent in charge of
Character Education
Dr. JOHN L. TILDSLEY
District Superintendent in charge of
High Schools
Dr. BENJAMIN VEIT
District Superintendent in charge of
Junior High Schools
Dr. A. P. WAY
Acting Director of Physical Training
Miss MARTHA WESTFALL
Director of Home-making
HERMAN W. WRIGHT
Director of High School Organization


[x]




TABLE OF CONTENTS


FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...
PROBLEMS AND PURPOSES........
I. REGULAR PATHS OF SCHOOL PROGRESS
I. In the Kindergartens......
2. In the Elementary Schools...
3. In the Junior High Schools...
4. In the High Schools..
5. In the Vocational Schools..
II. GENERAL SERVICES AFFORDED....
I. Health and Physical Education
2. Character Education...
3. Visiting Teachers....
4. School Lunches...
III. SPECIAL SERVICES AFFORDED....


Page...~.  v....     I....  7
7....  I2....  38.....  51....  70... 77.... 79....  99....  I04....II3...  II7


I. Classes for Physically Handicapped Children
2. The Ungraded Class Department...
3. Special Schools for Behavior Problems
Probationary Schools.........
Adjustment Schools.....
Detention Schools.........
The Parental School....
IV. EXTENDED PATHS AND BY PATHS...
I. Vacation Schools............
[xi ]


II9
I37
I46
I46
I49
ISI
151
I53
I57
I59




T A   B L E     O  F   C O   N T E    N  T  S


2. Continuation Schools.......... 162
3. Evening Schools............         I74
4. Adult Education in Day Classes..... 80
5. Extended Use of School Facilities....  184
Bureau of Lectures.......... 184
Community and Recreational Centers. 187
Meetings and Forums......... 189
Playgrounds,  Swimming    Pools  and
Showers.............. 190
V. KEEPING TRACK OF A MILLION CHILDREN.. 193
VI. THE TEACHERS OF A MILLION CHILDREN... 203
I. How New York Trains its Teachers... 205
2. Examining and Promoting Teachers... 211
3. Opportunities for Teachers in Service... 218
VII. ADMINISTERING THE SCHOOLS........ 223
I. Overhead Control of Education....   225
How the State Controls the Schools.. 225
How the City Controls the Schools.. 228
2. Internal Administration of the Schools..237
3. Business Administration of the Schools.. 249
Making the Annual Budget and Securing
Funds............... 249
Auditing Accounts.......... 255
Erecting Buildings.......... 256
Operating Buildings......... 260
Supplying the Schools.......... 261
INDEX....................  265
[xii ]




PROBLEMS AND PURPOSES


T   HAT the New York City school system must be different from other school systems is evident from its
size alone. One million pupils-more than in Chicago,
St. Louis, Detroit, Boston, and Baltimore combined-762
school units, the teaching force itself larger than the entire
population in more than two-thirds of the cities in New
York State and larger than in any city in some states. Unusual, too, are the crowded conditions that cause many
New York schools to be built up in the air six or seven stories
from the midst of a city block with no grounds roundabout.
The problem of teaching in a city so widespread that many
children have never seen a cow, a chicken or a pig, nor any
spread of growing things outside of a city park, presents
peculiar difficulties. In variety of population, in assortment
of races and degrees of culture, New York is unequalled.
Although the minimum essentials of education are carefully prescribed and standardized so that no school shall
fall short of them, nevertheless the schools of the city show
great variation not only in physical surroundings but in
ways of doing things and in the mental attitudes of those
in charge. It is perhaps fortunate that this is so. For in
the midst of lower Manhattan where there are three or four
thousand children to a school and almost every available
corner accommodates a child, and in P. S. 8I Bronx, a beautiful new building with less than 400 pupils, where the
children may pick violets on the school lawn and eat luncheon under the trees, the task of the teacher is necessarily
[ I ]




N E U' Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


different.  Method of presentation and subject matter,
too, must differ for children from homes where no English
is spoken and for those from homes where careful parents
watch over-anxiously to see that Isadore or Isabel does his
or her homework.
The great task of modern schools, recognized by educators, is to give to all children the kind of education that
will best meet individual needs and interests. It used to be
customary to set for whole groups of children the same
standards of achievement. And in a city of such bewildering size as this-the equivalent of five large school systems
under the supervision of one central office-the tendency
naturally was to make the physical task of administration
easier by requiring all children to do the same work in the
same way at the same time. But experience has taught
that one set of standards will not serve for I,ooo,ooo children, whose talents, tastes and potential possibilities are all
different.
It is to the task of individualizing education, of making
the school program elastic enough to fit the needs of each
child, then, that the progressive school leaders of New
York are bending every effort. A gigantic task it is! How
are they going to take these curiously assorted groups of
children spread over so wide an area, being taught under
such different conditions, often in schools with so large a
register that the influence of personal contact and interest
must of necessity be minimized, and give them, not some
standardized brand of school but a number of individual
brands?
Yet, as leaders of insight recognize, the very size and
complexity of the city's school system offers the greatest
possible opportunity for allowing to each child the particular
[2]




P R O B L E M S A N D PURPOSES


work that will interest him and that will offer him the best
chance for future usefulness. The system is so large, the
needs of the pupils so varied, that schooling in widely
different fields becomes possible. Opportunity for industrial
training, for art work, for highly specialized academic work
are practicable in a city where a sufficiently large group
will benefit by that training. A smaller city might not be
able to afford courses in brick laying, in art metal work, in
clay modeling, in Italian, in office practice.
Recognizing this opportunity, the wisest school people
for the last twenty or thirty years have been directing every
new development, every revision of courses of study, to give
to each individual child as much information, as much skill
or as much curiosity as he is able to acquire.
The school program is being adjusted, first, to varying.
mental abilities. Children are being classified and taught
in fairly homogeneous groups. Second, schools are making
adjustments to further the proper physical development of
pupils. Health and physical education play a large part in
any school curriculum. Medical and dental supervision
are used to guide the individual child in protection of his
physical well being. In case a child has certain defects the
school course is changed and adapted to fit the child's need
and to counteract the ill effects those defects might have on
his future career. Special classes are provided for seriously
handicapped children.
While schools are just beginning to take into consideration a child's personality and emotional development in
determining the kind of education best suited to him, they
are making a real effort to offer in school the knowledge,
inspiration and training that will make for the development
of sturdy character.
C3]




N E W' Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


For the schools aim, first, to give a rounded education,
developing mind and body and personality; and, second,
to give every child a chance before he leaves school to
develop special talents and tastes, to get the particular
type of education-trade, commercial, academic, artistic,that will best fit him for a happy and useful life.
It might almost seem that these two aims are contradictory-a rounded education and a specialized education. And perhaps they are-two contradictory purposes
forcing educators to find a golden mean.
In view of the foregoing considerations, it is, therefore,
very hard to generalize about New York City schools-hard
to give any complete picture of this huge and complex
system that has inevitably grown up in somewhat hap*hazard fashion. The statistics cited are subject, of course,
to constant change in detail, but they will serve to indicate
the relative cost and size of various activities and to suggest
the emphasis put upon them by the city educators. An attempt is made here only to suggest the scope of activities
the schools have undertaken and to explain briefly how they
grew and where they seem to be going.


[4 




I. REGULAR PATHS OF SCHOOL PROGRESS




I
I
i




I. IN THE KINDERGARTENS


T   HE story of what the New York City schools are doing
for the children begins properly enough with the
kindergartens. There are very few schools now where there
are enough children of kindergarten age-four and a half
to six years-that do not have a kindergarten. In a few
over-crowded schools there is not room.
WHAT THE KINDERGARTENS DO
The kindergarten period, more than any other part of
school life, perhaps, gives the individual child a chance to
be happy and successful. Its function is to introduce
children naturally and gradually to school life, giving them
certain fundamental information and certain necessary
skill with their hands, and guiding them in the formation
of useful habits.
They go for a walk and see the policeman. They go back
to school and with blocks lay out the street they have just
walked through. Then Antony or Mary plays policeman,
directing the traffic,-a street car made with empty spools
for wheels and a bus that used to be a biscuit box. Through
this observation and dramatization they are learning many
things, about transportation, about safety, about necessary
rules of conduct, about life in a community. They go to
the park, then talk and sing for days about the trees and
birds, the lake and the swans, the animals of the zoo, and
all the natural wonders many have never known before.
[7]




N E ~W Y 0 R K


A T    S C H 0 0 L


The kindergartners of the city have laid down certain
standards-standards of information, of music, of art,
of handwork, of language expression, of courteous and
responsible relations to others-that all kindergarten children should attain. In some districts the kindergarten
teacher must first teach the language and elementary habits
of behavior. In outlying districts where things are not
too crowded the pupils make their own gardens in a corner
of the playground; in one Staten Island school the children
in spring see father and mother birds building their nests
and watch for the first peep of the baby birds; while in
downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn a window box and
pictures must suggest gardens and springtime.
KINDERGARTEN DEVELOPMENT
It has been fifty years since the first New York kindergarten supported by public funds was established at the
Normal School, now Hunter College. But it was not until
the I89o's that the school system accepted the demonstrations of model schools and established its first kindergartens.
There are now 973 kindergartens in the city and io6 kindergarten extension classes, with a register of 41,613 in the
regular kindergartens and 4,240 in the extension classes.
In addition to the kindergartens in school buildings
there are 39 classes in annexes in day nurseries and settlement houses. In these annexes children of kindergarten
age are kept all day by the nursery management but are
under the care of a public school kindergartner during the
regular hours for kindergarten classes. In 1926 the budget
for kindergartens totalled $2,756,I43.
[8]




I N  T H E   K I N D E R G A R T E N S


KINDERGARTEN METHODS IN THE FIRST GRADE
Kindergarten extension classes are really first grades
taught by kindergarten teachers and carrying some of the
methods of the kindergarten into the first grade. Many
teachers feel that the change from kindergarten to the regular
first grade is often too radical, and that a first grade which
carries over some of the kindergarten freedom and utilizes
play instincts and interests will allow the children to develop as rapidly and in a healthier and happier way. Children enter kindergarten at five years of age or even at four
in schools where there is room to accommodate the younger
ones. The admission age for kindergarten extension classes
is six years.
Here, too, children are required to fulfill certain standards of health habits, courtesy, responsibility and initiative,
in addition to the regular first grade requirements. Kindergarten extension classes are limited to an attendance of
forty, with a session of four hours, as are all the first grade
classes.
PROBLEMS OF TEACHING AND SUPERVISION
In order to learn the needs of each pupil, a kindergarten
teacher tries to know the mothers of her charges. She has
from twenty to twenty-five children a session and usually
teaches two sessions a day, one in the morning and one in
the afternoon, so that her daily quota of children is rarely
less than fifty. Two teachers are provided in rooms in which
from forty to fifty children are present each session. The
kindergarten teacher holds mothers' meetings and visits
the children's homes. Something like 35,000 such visits
are made annually by kindergarten teachers, and 2,500
[9]




N  E  W     Y  O  R  K    A   T    S C   H  O  O   L
mothers' meetings with an attendance of approximately
60,ooo are held each year. Mothers' clubs are formed and
hold annual conventions.
A special problem of the kindergarten teacher grows
out of the fact that children enter and are promoted from
kindergarten solely on the basis of age.  Consequently
children enter at any and all times. Vaccination is another
cause of late entrance. Too many parents delay the required vaccination and thereby deprive their children of
much of the training the kindergarten offers.
The kindergartens are in charge of a director and two
assistant directors. The staff assigned to the supervision
of 1,079 classes is of the same size as it was at the time of
the consolidation of the five boroughs in the 'go's when
there were only 89 classes. Each supervisor is now assigned
to an average of 360 classes, located in approximately 175
different school buildings.  Classroom  supervision thus
becomes almost an impossible task. In an effort to obviate
this difficulty many after-school conferences must be held,
and a plan of inter-school visiting for teachers and supervisors has been worked out.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
Every good department has, of course, its hopes and
plans for future development. The kindergartners hope,
in the first place, for an increased staff, the better to take
care of their 4I,000 pupils from homes of many different
nationalities and varied stages of culture and knowledge.
They plan, of course, for the establishment of kindergarten
and kindergarten extension classes in every school where
there are enough children to form them. As to buildings
[IO]




I N   T H E    KI N D E R G A R T E N S


and equipment, plans of the Building Department approved
by the Superintendent promise that in each new elementary
school building the space usually occupied by three classrooms will be divided into two classrooms, twenty-four
by forty-two feet, one for kindergarten and one for the
kindergarten extension. Each room will contain movable
chests for blocks, a work bench, bulletin board, individual
locker cupboards, and other equipment necessary to good
kindergarten work. These new rooms will meet a very definite need, for lack of floor space has limited the children's
activities in many schools.


[II]




II. IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS


IN the elementary schools, including all grades from the
kindergarten through the 8B, with their 900,000 pupils,
the task of offering each child exactly the amount and kind
of training each should have is one to trouble the most
farsighted of educators.
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM
How, for example, are teachers going to fit into the
same school system Arturo whose parents have just come
from Italy, Joseph who is inclined to be "cocky" because
he knows English and his parents do not, Mary whose
father is a college professor, and Hulda who is thirteen years
old and has never attended school?
Assigned to this task are some 23,000 teachers variously
equipped by training and native ability. Some have been
trained in the new ways, others are so experienced in old
ways that change is difficult and perhaps unwise. Guiding
the teachers' work are I,I73 principals, teachers-in-charge
and assistants to principals, assigned to elementary and junior
high schools. It is difficult to separate junior high schools
from the regular elementary schools because the junior
high school department is often housed in the same building
as an elementary school and the lower grades included
in the same organization. The principals preside over schools
varying in size from 30 pupils in P. S. 27, Richmond, to 4,Io6
in P. S. I56 Brooklyn. Some principals have many annexes
under their jurisdiction in addition to their main school.
[ 2]




I N   E L E M E N T A R Y


S C     0    L 


Up until a year or so ago there still remained a little one
room school-a veritable little red school house where one
teacher taught all subjects and nearly all grades.
Considerable responsibility for administering these varied
schools rests upon the district superintendent. However,
he supervises not only the regular day elementary schools
but also the continuation schools, lecture centers, recreation and community centers, and evening schools in his
district. The fact that one district superintendent-in
districts 26 and 27 Brooklyn-presides over 65,ooo pupils
and 1,5oo teachers suggests the temptation to over-standardize schools. Among his functions are the actual supervision of teachers and principals, and the establishment of
standards in school work for his district through the examination of pupils for promotion and graduation.
How THE CHILDREN ARE GRADED
One difficulty in the way of establishing standards and
at the same time allowing elasticity of program is this: if
standards are to be kept high for all schools-a laudable
and necessary aim-it is difficult to allow sufficient freedom
from generally useful rules and regulations for the experiments necessary to bring about needed changes. To surmount this difficulty the Board of Superintendents have
from time to time selected certain schools to undertake
experimental work.
Experimental Schools
Operating under the supervision of the Bureau of
Reference, Research and Statistics, these schools seek to
[I3]




N E Wr Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


conduct their experiments in a scientific way, keeping
accurate data and comparing the results of various controlled
experiments. The plan for research done by the Bureau
in these selected schools is that it be concerned with the
practical problems which the district superintendents find
creeping up in classroom situations, and that it give to the
teachers and principals definite facts that will help them in
every day work.
The schools are allowed considerable latitude with
curriculum and course of study, and, being selected schools,
are conducted for the most part by teachers of unusual
ability.
The work of the experimental schools is a significant
factor in producing scientific change and progress in the
school system. These schools have played an important
part in the re-classification of pupils according to ability
rather than chronological age, and in the preparation of
courses of study adapted to the new classifications.
Grading Children by Ability
Taking a rapid and decisive step toward the goal of
suiting the school to individual child needs, the Superintendent of Schools three years ago issued a general order
that all elementary and junior high schools in the city classify
pupils according to their ability to learn. Wherever there
are enough children in a grade for three or more classes
they are so divided that one class may be for pupils capable
of rapid progress, another for normal children, another for
the slow. Where there cannot be three classes to a grade
there must be two, and in smaller schools where there is
only one, the children of that class must be divided accord[E4]




I N   E L E M E N T A RY


S C H OO L S


ing to ability into sections, the teacher varying the work
so that each section may progress as rapidly or do as much
work as possible.
This plan of grading children by ability and not by age
and of using scientific tests grew out of the realization on
the part of educators that a sense of accomplishment and
power to attain success is necessary to make a child happy
and energetic in his school work. A child loses heart and
grows to hate school when he is always being "left back"
and scolded and prodded by teachers and parents-often
in an effort to have him do work he is wholly incapable of
doing. On the other hand children who slide through
school without work because school is easy for them often
form habits of laziness or get into mischief simply because
they have not enough to do and are bored.
With the order from the Superintendent's office that
all pupils in the schools be re-classified according to ability
there came no definite instructions as to how this regrading
was to be accomplished, the feeling being that each district
superintendent and principal could best work out that
problem for his own school or schools. As the regrading
has worked out, classifications have been determined variously by the use of intelligence and achievement tests, by
the teacher's judgment, or by a happy combination of these
two.
Intelligence tests to determine ability, or mental tests
as they are often termed, have come to be used in many
schools. A mental test is a test carefully prepared by
psychologists and tried out with thousands of children to
establish the standard of mental ability that a normal child
should have developed at a certain age. These tests are
given to find out what a child is capable of learning; not to
[5I]




N E WT Y 0 R K


A T    S C H 0 0 L


discover what he has learned. The ratio between the mental
age established by the tests and the child's actual age in
years is the I. Q. or Intelligence Quotient. It has been
found that an I. Q. of I40 or over represents very superior
ability amounting in some cases to genius; from IIo to I40
represents superior ability; from go to IIo is considered
average or normal ability; from 80 to 90 slightly dull; from
70 to 8o dull; and below 70 mental deficiency. Ordinarily,
a child of normal intelligence should be able to finish high
school in the regularly allotted time; if he has less than
normal intelligence he will probably not be successful in
the regular high school courses and had best take some of
the special trade or commercial work provided.
Through the findings of intelligence tests, a teacher often
discovers that some child who has been backward has the
native ability to do much better. She then sets out to find
out why he has been slow and to spur him to do the things
he is capable of accomplishing. Sometimes a physical
examination discovers some defect that may be correcteddifficulty in hearing, perhaps, or some gland condition sapping his vitality. Sometimes conditions at home, which
may be helped with the aid of school authorities, are holding the child back; sometimes the child is merely over-timid
or is lazy because his interest has never been aroused. At
any rate the teacher, knowing by means of scientific testing
his capability, puts forth unusual efforts to help him, and
often with startling and gratifying results.  Often the
teacher comes to a better understanding, too, of the difficulties facing a hard-working boy or girl in her class who
actually has not the ability to do the work that the others
do in the same time.


[i6]




I N   E L E M E N T A R Y


S C H 0 0 L S


Achievement tests have been worked out by the psychologists in many of the school subjects, such as spelling,
reading, and arithmetic, establishing certain standards of
excellence which the child should have attained in a certain
grade. These tests, together with the regular examinations
in the work covered and the teacher's judgment as to a
pupil's ability, are usually deciding factors at the end of
the term in grouping pupils for the next term into rapid,
normal and slow divisions. Some schools use both intelligence and achievement tests with the teacher making the
final decision on the basis of these results. Many schools
prefer to rely on the teacher's judgment; many have not
properly trained people to administer the tests and so the
tests are not given. But their use seems to be steadily
increasing and probably in a few years intelligence and
achievement tests will be in universal use in New York
City schools.
To help in the work of assigning children to the proper
groups, the schools have found it necessary to establish a
number of special classes where a teacher with a small
group of children can give individual help to those who
need it. The regular classes range in size from 40 to 45 pupils
on the average; special classes from 20 to 30. For many
years schools in foreign districts have had special classes,
often termed "C" classes, to teach English to foreign
children. Most schools that are large enough maintain
several opportunity classes, where children who are backward in their work on account of illness, or long absence,
or too frequent transfer from school to school or from any
cause whatever, may have a chance to make up work and
to go ahead faster than they could in a large class. For the
exceptionally bright child special rapid advancement classes
[I7]




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similarly allow an opportunity to progress faster than the
regular grade group so that the child often accomplishes
three terms' work in two.
Some Illustrative Cases
Some hypothetical cases will serve to show how this
plan works out. Arturo, the Italian immigrant boy, for
example, is of average intelligence and quickly learns the
language. He enters school in the class for foreigners where
a special teacher teaches English first of all and other
subjects only incidentally. After a year in the foreign
language class, he is given an intelligence test. As a result
of the test and of his teacher's judgment he is considered
ready for the 5th grade. He is twelve, somewhat over-age
because of his language handicap, but capable of going
ahead in the 5th grade with normal ten-year-olds or elevenyear-olds in the middle section of his class. The school
had already made special preparations to meet Arturo's
needs-the class for foreigners-but now that he is in a class
with children near his own age and ability he will take the
regular work until he reaches junior high school. There,
or even earlier if he is lucky enough to go to a pre-vocational
school, Arturo may begin preparation for a trade. For
Arturo's parents, so newly arrived from Italy, have not
much money, nor have they yet accepted the value that
Americans set upon education. Arturo will probably have
to leave school to go to work as soon as he is old enoughat fourteen if he has been graduated from the 8th grade by
then, at fifteen if he has not but has completed 7A, or at
sixteen in any case.
Joseph offers a number of special problems. For all
that he is sure he knows more than his parents, the intelli[ 8]




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S C     0    L 


gence tests show that he is not capable of keeping up with
Arturo or any of the normal middle group of children in
the 5th grade. He must make progress slowly; without special attention he might very easily make no progress at all.
When Joseph had to compete with bright children or even
normal children in a miscellaneous group he soon found
that he could be successful only in mischief; he became a
show-off just to counteract the effect of daily bad marks
and reproofs from the teacher. But in a smaller class-the
slow pupils are assigned in small classes-where the teacher
can give him especial attention, Joseph can feel the thrill
of occasionally doing something better than others in his
class, and Joseph, as his teacher knows, is a boy to be greatly
stimulated thereby.
Mary is inclined to be "cocky" too, but for a different
reason from Joseph's. She has always found school so very
easy that she could lord it over her classmates and had begun
to think Mary a very smart girl. Now she is put into the
A or the highest section of her class where she must compete with children of notable ability. She soon finds that
it is not so easy to lord it over this group, and that if she
wants any distinction at all she must begin to work for it.
If she shows great energy and ability in this section, she,
with others of her class, may be put into a rapid advancement class and be allowed to take the work of three years
in two. She will not skip a whole term of work, as bright
children used to be allowed to do, but she will actually
take all the essential work of three grades in two. If there
are not enough children in the school to make a rapid
advancement class for the 5th grade or if Mary is too young
to go on to a higher grade her teacher will simply provide
the class with additional work-a new subject entirely
[    I9]




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perhaps, or some special project in geography or history,
in handcraft or music. One school allows the highest sections of the lower grades to begin the study of French so
that by the time they reach junior high school they can
talk it quite well. She will be required to do more reading,
to write more compositions. She will be kept so busy that
she will not have a chance to be lazy or to feel superior
because school is too easy for her.
Now Hulda presents a wholly different problem. Newly
arrived from the West Indies, she is starting to school for
the first time at thirteen years of age. For a while she will
have to go into the opportunity class if the school is large
enough to have an opportunity class. If Hulda is intelligent
and works hard she may soon be transferred to a regular
third or fourth grade where the teacher will let her progress
as fast as possible. When she finishes the 5B she may be
transferred to a special class in junior high school to take a
millinery or dressmaking course and receive a special junior
high school certificate. One school, II9 Manhattan, provides a special trade cooking course, allowing over-age girls
of the regular elementary school grades to learn marketing,
cooking, serving, and cafeteria management in a cafeteria
run at the school especially to offer that trade training.
These are only a few scattered cases typical only in
that they suggest the variety of problems confronting
teachers and administrators in a large New York City
school. Farther along in this volume will be discussed the
special classes to take care of all handicapped children,
including those with mental, physical or social and environmental handicaps. This section treats only of the great
mass of children of all ages and abilities whom the schools
used to try to teach in miscellaneous groups.
[20]




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Adjusting Courses of Study
When school children have been re-classified into three
groups according to ability the courses of study must be
carefully modified to meet the needs of the groups above
and below the normal classification. The Bureau of Reference, Research and Statistics is constantly working on
these courses and has prepared "The Suggested Course of
Study for Dull Normals," adjusting the regular course of
study on the basis of results obtained with these children.
Teachers in the experimental schools are also working on
an adjusted course of study for bright children which will
probably give more work in the arts, handcraft, languages,
etc., and also more extensive work on the material usually
covered in a grade's work.
A very real problem of maintaining standards meets
the experimenter who strives to adjust the course of study
to children's varied abilities. For example, the modified
course of study for the slow pupils includes only certain
minimum essentials in the three R's and the geography,
civics and history that are the backbone of a course of study.
The normal and bright sections of each class take more work
and are required to acquire more information. Until a boy
or girl in the slow section of the class gets to 8B he is promoted under the new "Suggested Course" at the same time
that the other two sections are. Ninety-five percent of the
children in the experimental schools are now promoted every
year, whereas previously the average promotion was only
eighty-five percent. But arriving in the 8B the slow pupil
is there required to take the regular work without modification because he must pass the regulation tests for graduation. If he is allowed to graduate with only such minimum
[2I1




N     E   W   Y     O   R   K  A     T  S   C  H   O     O  L
requirements as he is able to fulfill, standards are automatically lowered,-or such has been the conception of things
in the past. Probably some plan will be worked out for
giving to the slow groups special certificates of graduation
based on minimum requirements.
WHAT THE CHILDREN ARE BEING TAUGHT
Now that it has been seen how teachers and supervisors
are trying to make easier and more effective the task of
giving each child what he needs by means of teaching
children of like ability together and of establishing special
rapid advancement classes, classes for foreigners, and
opportunity classes, it will be in order next to see what
the schools are trying to give them. Up to the fourth grade
greatest effort is put upon the business of learning to read
and write and spell and it is only beginning with the fourth
grade that the special lines of study begin to come in. But
from there on the term minimum would seem a most
diminutive term to apply to all the branches of knowledge
deemed essential. New York schools have no general
course of study but rather many syllabi as follows:
English-including Reading, Literature, Moral Education
Word Study and Spelling, Oral and Manners and Conduct
Written Composition and Grammar  Fire and Accident Prevention
Arithmetic                      Foreign Accent
History                         Humane Education (required
Geography                        by special state law)
Civics                          Nature and Environment
Penmanship                      Use of Library Books
Music                           Hygiene
Sewing and Constructive Work    Physical Education
Cooking                         Science
The following schedule will indicate the time allotted
to each per week:
[22 1




TIME SCHEDULE FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
_  s  er2dYa   r  er4hYa    t  er6hYa   t  er8hYa


zS


Ist Year   2nd Year   3rd Year   4th Year   5th Year   6th Year    7th Year   8th Year    t
Minutes    Minutes    Minutes    Minutes     Minutes    Minutes    Minutes    Minutes
Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max.
Opening Exercises.75                   75    75   75    75    75   75    75   75    75   75    75    75   75    75   75 7
Arithmetic....... 90                    I25   i8o  240   I50   240  I50   300  I50   270   I50  240   200  289   200  280
Drawing......                   920   go   120   90   120   90   120 9o     120   9      o 12 0     o 8 0 I22 0 80 0 
English.......              495  705   615  705   615  675   525   555  405   555  405   585  340   420  380   540
Music............. 60                    6o    60   6o    60    60   60    6o   60    60   60    60    60   80    60   80
Nature Study.........               6o    90   6o 9  g    6o 9  g    6o 9  g     6 6  go 
at Penmanship...... 75  75    75   75    75   75    75    75   75    75   75    75   60    60    6    6
w   Physical Training....... 200          300  200   200  200   200   200  200   200  200   200  200   200  200   200   200
and Hygiene.........                20     0   20    30   20    30   20    30    20   30    20   30    20   30    20   30
Sewing or Constructive Work.. 30     30    30   30    60    60   60    60   60    60    60   60.. 
Geography..........                                         9o   I20   90   I50    90   50    8o  I20    8o   8o 
History and Civics                                                                9I....  150 o0 i8o i2o 200 I20 200
Science............................   8   120    8o   20
Shopwork or Cooking......................                                           80   80    80 8o
0
In the last two years no period is to exceed 40 minutes and in the other years no period is to exceed 30 minutes. These
are to be considered maximum periods.
Provision should be made for certain definite study periods, at least one period each day.                                0
Drawing, constructive work, cord and raffia work are prescribed for boys and girls; shop work for boys alone; sewing and  o
cooking for girls alone. In the third year the girls begin sewing, and the boys continue weaving and basketry. In the seventh
year and thereafter girls take advanced sewing instead of science.                                                             r




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O L


The Three R's
There is perhaps no need to justify the three R's, the
reading, writing and arithmetic of the school curriculum;
but new methods are continually tried in these subjects
and old ways discarded.   Certain scientific analyses of
learning processes and of the drills necessary to effective
learning have made teaching more effective than in the
little red schoolhouse days. Also much material, which is
now deemed unessential, is omitted. This is especially
true in arithmetic. Modern schools endeavor to give only
practical problems such as the child may sometime meet
in every day transactions.
Tryouts of new methods have not always been scientific,
certainly, but with the analyses and comparative studies
of various methods and devices such as are being carried on
now in the experimental schools under exact direction,
steady growth may be hoped for in the effectiveness of
teaching these timeworn essentials.  Thirteen* of the
experimental schools have been carrying on for the last
three years, under the direction of the Division of Reference, Research and Statistics, a series of experiments in
the teaching of vocabulary, silent reading, fundamentals
in arithmetic, reasoning in arithmetic and spelling. These
experiments were undertaken partly, at least, to meet the
need, under the new classification of pupils into rapid,
normal, and slow groups, for modified courses of study
and methods of teaching.
As a result of experiments, the Division is making and
will continue to make recommendations both as to adjusting
the content of the course of study to meet new conditions
*P. S. I, 32, 39, Bronx; P. S. 5, 22,30, 59, 157, I65, Manhattan; P. S. 58, 83,
92, Queens; P. S. 145, Brooklyn.
[24 ]




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and also as to teaching methods to be employed in the
various groups. For example, the experimental schools,
which are giving systematic and vigorous training in
acquainting children with the important words of the
language find that the children have not only improved
in reading ability but their I. Q.'s are higher. Tests show
that a large proportion of children, particularly in the
lower I. Q. ranges, are sadly lacking in the power to understand and use words.
It may be interesting to indicate briefly what the New
York school system proposes to cover in some of the subjects on its list.
History. The plan is to stir children's interest through
stories of heroes and great deeds in the lower grades, before
beginning the narrative of history in the fifth grade. New
York confines history in the elementary grades to American
history with important related European history.
Geography. As a formal subject geography begins in
the fourth grade with the topography of New York City
and a study of the city's occupations. Then comes a general
discussion of the form and surface of the earth, leading in
succeeding grades to a consideration of the hemispheres
and the continents, returning occasionally to detailed studies
of the United States, and culminating in the eighth grade
with a study of physical geography and a review of political
and commercial geography along with the location of places
associated with current events.
Civics. Since the war educators have come to regard
civics as a most important study. They feel, too, that the
most effective method of making children realize their
responsibilities to the community is to offer them a chance
to participate in school and community activities. So it is
[ 25 




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A T    S C H O O L


that teachers are encouraging their pupils to help in the
management of school discipline, recitations, fire drills,
opening exercises, clubs, entertainments, excursions, games,
playgrounds, class and school libraries, athletic contests
and savings banks. The syllabus suggests that in the
first three years of school the children "should be exercised
in the ways and means of caution and safety, the protection
of person and property, and in their duties as useful little
citizens." Through the other grades are studied, in turn,
the citizen's duties, rights and privileges in the home, the
neighborhood, the city, the state and the nation.
Music. The purpose of the music teaching is to train
children to sing, to read music fairly well, and to appreciate
good music. The music work of the school plays a large
part in social and community activities and the school
children take part in many community activities. Violin
clubs consisting of stringed instruments and pianos are
recommended by the director of music for elementary
schools. Interest in these small orchestras is encouraged
and fostered by after-school violin classes whereby lessons
are provided at a nominal fee of twenty-five cents to interested pupils.
Art. Art work in the elementary schools still consists
a great deal in painting and drawing, supplemented by a
picture study course. A new course of study in art and
drawing aims to lead pupils to realize the relationship of
art to the city as expressed in its buildings, parks and
streets, and to the home, also to dress and manners; to give
training which will enable pupils to interpret ideas graphically by means of drawing and color; and last, to equip pupils
with a possible means of employing their leisure profitably.
Cooking and Home Making. In the elementary school
[26]




I N  E L EMENTARY  SCHOOLS


emphasis is placed on skill to do the simple household
processes, while more detailed and scientific work is given
in high schools.
Sewing. The emphasis is on practical problems. Simple
stitches and mending in the lower grades lead up to the
cutting and making of graduation dresses in the 8B.
Manual Training and Shop Work. Manual training was
introduced in New York schools as far back as 1888, along
with physical training and acceptance of the fact that
schools should train bodies, and correlation of minds and
bodies as well as minds themselves.
The schools now have elementary shop work for all boys
in the 7th, 8th and 9th years and for those below the 7th
grade who are over-age-approximately 95,000 in all. The
shop work in the 386 shops scattered through the city
schools follows certain standard basic courses, but teachers
have been allowed to vary these basic courses by introducing their own special talents and individual interests. For
example, teachers who are proficient in one or more of the
art crafts such as wood carving, art metal and jewelry or
in the application of color are expected to plan their courses
of instruction so that their pupils will profit by the special
knowledge they are prepared to give. Other teachers interested in furniture design and construction, in designing
boat models, aeroplanes, kites, radios and other mechanical
devices in which boys are interested make use of these
special activities in their courses of instruction.
Pre-vocational shop work is discussed on page 43, under
Junior High Schools.
Nature Study and Gardening. New York schools face a
big problem when they try to bring to children of the
City's crowded tenement districts some of the invaluable
[ 27 




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A T    S C H 0 0 L


lessons of nature. Since the fields and farms that are the
proper textbooks of nature study are not at hand, they do
what they can to provide opportunities for studying plant
and animal life in school gardens, in rooms especially equipped
for nature study, and in the parks and museums and zoos.
School gardens afford children an opportunity not only
to observe but to do; not only to tell about plants but to
plant seeds and watch them grow. Many schools maintain
school gardens throughout the year including summer vacation periods, while others keep their gardens only during
regular school sessions. In at least 250 schools, gardens can
be planted on the school grounds and many of these furnish
flowers and vegetables that are used by the pupils.
In a specially equipped nature-room some of the schools
keep all sorts of natural specimens which the children and
teachers collect. Somewhere in a pan of water and rocks
a turtle will be moving slowly about. There may be a
rabbit hutch in one corner. In a cabinet will be all sorts
of sea shells, starfish and odd pebbles laid out quite properly
on white sand. In another cabinet will be butterfly specimens; in another a nicely mounted wild flower collection.
Guinea pigs, tortoises, salamanders, fish, mice, turtle doves,
pigeons, parrots, even an occasional monkey have found
places in a school nature-room with children as their guardians and caretakers.
One or two schools keep profitable beehives. Here and
there a school will undertake some special project in studying the ways of living things-a poultry project or a classroom aquarium. Many teachers of the special classes and
the ungraded classes have found that their pupils are greatly
interested in making nature study collections and in keeping
growing plants flourishing in their classrooms.
[28 




I N   E L E M E N T A R Y.S C H 00 L 


Thrift
School banks are one of the most practical of modern
innovations in schools. In the first place there is back of
them the wisdom of thrift; there is character education in
the principle of present self-denial for future benefits; there
is arithmetic and bookkeeping practice for the pupils who
help in keeping the bank accounts.
Since school banks were first established in the city
schools in 1916, the total deposits have amounted to $8,453,920.00. And seventy percent of all the money paid
out of these banks has been in deposits to 29,464 interestbearing savings accounts in the city's established banks.
Pupils to the number of 135,829 who have begun their
savings accounts in the school banks have opened accounts
in mutual savings banks-the habit of thrift has apparently
been inculcated. School banks now operate in 433 of the
city's school organizations.
In most schools the pupils themselves do most of the
collecting and recording of moneys collected for the school
banks. Most of the city's savings banks cooperate with
the schools in encouraging pupils to open accounts. Some
banks send a representative to the schools regularly to take
such deposits. In the high schools and continuation schools
student staffs take care of the school bank work.
TEXTBOOKS AND LIBRARIES
The approved textbook list in New York City allows
the teachers considerable latitude of choice in every subject.
Every year in February the Associate Superintendent in
charge of textbooks sends out to publishers of school books
a circular suggesting that they submit samples of books
[ 29]




NE     W    Y  O   R  K    A  T    S C   H   O  O  L
they wish to have included on the approved textbook list.
The Associate Superintendent reviews these samples or has
them reviewed and makes recommendations to the Board
of Superintendents regarding them. By the end of July
the Board of Superintendents will have given its approval
to selected books; the list then goes to the Board of Education for final approval. This finally approved list is sent to
the Bureau of Supplies, which gets price lists from the
publishers and prepares the printed list of textbooks from
which teachers and principals are required to select the
books they use.
For the use of pupils and teachers the Bureau of Libraries maintains over o0,ooo libraries in the school9,501 grade libraries in elementary schools, 436 teachers'
reference libraries, 36 high school and 49 junior high school
libraries, and a central library at the Board of Education
building.
Specially trained librarians are furnished by the Board
for high school libraries. According to a ruling of the
Regents, the junior high schools should also have in charge
of their libraries teachers with at least one year of library
training. The library in junior high schools is often a
regular "shop" where the teacher gives library lessons
and encourages reading clubs.
Many of the new elementary schools have specially
equipped library rooms which are often used as regular
classrooms because of crowded conditions in the schools.
Grade or class libraries are still maintained at least in the
upper grades, although the allowance of approximately four
dollars per grade library does not go far in keeping them
up to date.


[ 30 ]




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S C     0    L 


SOME CHANGES DURING THE LAST TWENTY YEARS
The schools seem not so different in face of modern
advances in psychology and educational philosophy as
they should be from the schools of twenty years ago, not
because that psychology and philosophy do not work, but
because they are too little tried. Yet certain marked
changes are notable.
Emphasizing Pupil Initiative
In the first place, there is more freedom of action and
of thinking for children in a modern school. Teachers do
not generally hold with the old maxim that "children should
be seen and not heard," nor is absolute and fearful silence
considered a stimulating atmosphere for the well-disciplined
classroom. On the contrary, children are often found moving
about a room, each quietly going about his or her business,
without interference from the teacher unless attracting
attention unnecessarily. They conduct recitations, dramatize history and literature, build Indian villages at a sand
table, cut and paste pictures to illustrate a geography
notebook-working independently, happily, and usefully,
fairly free from nervous or impatient tyranny of a teacher.
The old repressive atmosphere that makes so many children
impatient of school benefits still exists, of course; the scolding teacher, the talking teacher and even the shouting
teacher still reign occasionally; but on the whole, principals
and teachers are beginning to develop toward children
the attitude of collaborators and advisers rather than of
autocratic arbiters of destiny and learning.
The feeling is now that children should be allowed to
learn for themselves, to initiate activities in the school.
[3 I]




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A T    S C H O O L


So it is that many schools list in their annual reports on
"high spots" all sorts of projects for allowing children to
find things out for themselves following that most potent
of stimulants-interest. Many teachers use the socialized
recitation in which the children themselves organize the
lesson with the teacher in the back of the room saying very
little and that little only to steer proceedings when they are
getting out of bounds.
A number of schools have the Dalton plan and its many
modifications-in some schools for upper grades only, in
some in the opportunity classes where it is found to be a
helpful device. The Dalton plan involves the preparation
of contracts by the teacher dividing the work of a term
into units of a week's or a month's work. These contracts
cover the work-reading, written papers, oral recitations,
maps, etc.-that the pupil should do on a certain subject
in the given unit of time. With them in hand he may work
as fast as he likes, going back and forth from classroom to
classroom, or from library to classroom almost at will, reporting progress to the teacher and proceeding to his new
week's or month's contract as soon as he has taken the
required tests and passed them to her satisfaction. The
plan is hardly suitable for lower grades where pupils have
not yet developed habits of responsibility and sustained
effort, but in the hands of a skillful teacher it has proved
an incentive to initiative and rapid progress with pupils
above the fifth or sixth grades.
Modernizing Subject Matter
Another marked difference between the schools of
today and those of the last generation is the growing content
of the course of study. The World War unalterably changed
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and increased the scope of material to be considered in civics,
history, geography, reading. Modern scientific inventions
and discoveries and ever more complicated social and
economic problems must have their influence on what is
taught in schools. The schools must keep up with the
times, and rapidly moving times they are.
Utilizing Modern Inventions
Modern science is opening up to educators such vast
possibilities-and responsibilities-as to leave them breathless. Moving pictures-what may not be done with them
by showing children just what happened in history instead
of giving them a story on a printed page? How much more
real can geography be made when actual scenes from other
lands flash before the pupils on the screen. Nature study,
hygiene, civics may be learned from direct observation.
The abstractions of the printed page, so difficult for some
children, become concrete when this modern device is
impressed for service in the teaching profession.
Then comes the radio, with its opportunities for putting
children directly in contact with current happenings. They
may actually hear the President's inaugural address, or a
description of Lieutenant Commander Byrd's momentous
flight over the North Pole. Learning becomes not a bore
but a truly thrilling adventure.
Now how much have the New York schools so far made
use of these two great modern devices? With radio there
has been nothing done in an official and organized way, due
probably to the present difficulties in the way of controlling
radio program sources. A number of schools have been
wired so that radio may be installed in every room. Many
[33 1




N  EW       YO     R  K     A  T    S  C  H   O  O   L
make considerable use of classroom sets often furnished by
parent's associations or other outside agencies.
But with visual instruction, in which motion pictures
play a major part, New York City has gone far. Beginning
a few years ago with one course in one subject in three or
four schools, ten specific courses have now been prepared,
reaching with two or more subjects some thirty schools
and about 56,ooo children. The courses are as follows:
Biology...............  9th year
Current Events......          7th, 8th and 9th years
History.................       Adjustment classes
Home Economics............. 7th, 8th and 9th years
Physical Geography............  8th year
Physical Training and Hygiene....... 7th and 8th years
Primary Grades..............    Ist, 2nd and 3rd years
Sample Program........    Training schools
United States Geography....... 7th year
Vocational Guidance........... 8th and 9th years
The films have been adapted for use all the way from
the lower grammar grades to the teacher training schools.
Syllabi and courses have been carefully worked out by the
Bureau with the cooperation of committees of teachers
and of the directors of cooking, nature study, physical
training, etc.  Such authoritative organizations as the
Vocational Service for Juniors, the American Museum of
Natural History, the State Bureau of Visual Education,
National Health Council, New York Tuberculosis and
Health Association, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Prudential Life Insurance Company, and the International Dental Hygiene Foundation have given invaluable
help.
These films are secured from a great variety of sources.
For example, prints of the remarkable historical pictures
on U. S. History from Yale University are placed at the
disposal of the city schools to a limited extent, and have
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been effective in making history vivid. The Battle of the
Plains of Abraham near Quebec, for example, enacted with
careful historical accuracy, becomes a real happening of
exciting times instead of merely another group of facts in
an unending succession of facts. Wolfe and Montcalm,
pictured just as they looked in those stirring times, become
real men and real heroes even to the unimaginative child.
Certain teachers in each school have been trained to
conduct the courses by prefacing each picture with a short
preparatory lesson to emphasize important points and
following up those points at the end of the showing by
questions and discussion. One or two schools are kept
as fully equipped as possible with the latest devices that
they may serve as model and demonstration centers.
Visual instruction is, of course, not confined to the use
of motion pictures. Lantern slides, stereographs, booklets
and charts have long been used to illustrate the work of the
geography or nature study class. Invaluable cooperation
with the schools on the part of the American Museum of
Natural History through the lending of slides and charts
has been a great aid in working out courses in biology,
science, geography, nature study, etc.
The work of visual instruction has passed the experimental stage, and its infinite possibilities have been sufficiently demonstrated, so that the extension of the service
seems inevitable and highly desirable.
Modernizing School Buildings
Perhaps it is unfair to mention the problems of overcrowding and of part-time and double sessions in comparing
new schools with old; nevertheless, comparatively recent
[ 35 




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developments-the cessation of building for school purposes
during the war and subsequent failure of the building program
to keep up with the growing school population-have made
this one of the school's gravest problems. In spite of valiant
efforts in the last few years there were still on January 31,
1927, 68,212 children on part-time schedule, 46,998 in the
elementary schools and 21,214 in high schools. In addition,
28,924 in elementary schools, 21,3IO in high schools, and
I,090 in training schools, were on special schedule, which
means that a school is, by shifting of time schedules, made
to care for two sets of pupils in one building in one day.
Part of the children come earlier than nine in the morning
and leave early in the afternoon while others, coming later,
leave later. The noon session, too, is extended so that
half of the pupils may be at work while the others
are free.
With the slight decrease in elementary school population noted in I926 and with the building program going
forward, school authorities expect to reduce gradually this
part-time and special schedule program. Meantime, a new
type of school has been establishing itself here and there
in the school system. These schools operate under a plan
for making the greatest possible use of a school plant in a
school day by what is known sometimes as the work, study,
play plan. In specially equipped buildings groups of children alternate in classrooms, shops and supervised indoor
and outdoor playgrounds. While one group is in the shop
another uses the classrooms, the third the playgrounds;
thus while one group is on the playground or free for lunch
the other two groups are making use of both classrooms and
shops. The plan allows for the proper variety of scholastic
and manual training and recreation and for specialized
[36]




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teaching and equipment, at the same time utilizing all of
the school plant all of the school day. The plan has been
especially valuable in the junior high schools where the
shops already play so large a part in adolescent education.


[37]




III. IN THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS


TWHE last ten years have seen the establishment of
numerous junior high schools throughout the city.
A junior high school includes the 7th, 8th and 9th years
of schooling and aims to make more gradual the break
between elementary and high school work.
THE GENERAL PURPOSE
The establishment of junior high schools is part of the
general process of making education suit the needs of every
child. Educators have come to realize that children at
twelve or thirteen years of age, about the time that most
of them are ready for the 7th grade, arrive at a definite new
stage in development. They enter upon the period of
adolescence, that impressionable age when they are no
longer wholly children and are certainly not yet grown-up.
It is a period of bodily change that should be accompanied by a change in the treatment of the child at home
and at school. Therefore it has seemed to many educators
that the beginning of the 7th grade is a more logical time
to make a change in the type of schooling offered than at
the end of the 8th year, as has been, and still is the custom
in many schools.
THE GROWTH OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS
As early as I905 in New York a number of so-called
intermediate schools had gathered pupils from surrounding
[38]




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schools into one building to take the work of the 6B grade
through 8B, and in 1914 special commercial and pre-vocational courses were being introduced to meet the needs of
these adolescent children.
In I9I5 three schools, 85 Brooklyn, 69 Manhattan,
and the Speyer School connected with Teachers College,
Columbia University, were selected as experimental junior
high schools which would give to gifted boys in the districts in which they were situated an opportunity to do the
work of the 7th, 8th and 9th years in two years. In 1916
seven more junior high schools were added and the opportunity for rapid advancement was extended to girls' and
to mixed schools. By 1922, when a survey of junior high
schools was made by the Board of Education, forty-three
junior high schools had been established, twenty-two of
them in Manhattan.
By this time the junior high school had developed from
a school which gave opportunity to bright children to take
three years' work in two, to a school which includes not only
normal children who take three years to do the work of the
7th, 8th and 9th grades, but also all adolescent children
of thirteen or over who have finished only the 5B grade.
There are now more than fifty junior high schools with
a register of more than 79,000 and three junior-senior high
schools. The junior-senior high school, including the three
years of junior high and the last three years of high school,
was established to take care of graduates of the 9th grade,
junior high school, who were not at first welcomed into
the sophomore year of high school, although they have by
now won their place there and may enter unquestioned.
As the junior high school idea grew, central schools were
selected to gather from a number of neighboring schools
[39]




N  E  W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O  O   L
all children who had completed the 6B grade and including
children of thirteen or over who had only completed 5B.
The central school was re-organized to take better care of
these adolescent children, and teachers who had had experience and success with upper grade children were chosen
to man it.
If the building selected was of the regular elementary
school type, classrooms had to be turned into woodwork
and metalwork shops; a room, somewhwere in the basement, usually, was found for the printing press and linotype machines of the print shop; big tables replaced small
ones in the kindergarten room, perhaps, so that junior
high school girls might sew and make hats; in another part
of the building two classrooms had to be turned into one
and typewriters installed. A library and a biology room
must be equipped. A gymnasium and auditorium were
usually already there. Seats for twelve and fourteen-yearolds everywhere were made to replace the smaller seats of
elementary school predecessors. In some cases it seemed
best simply to add the junior high school work to the other
grades of the elementary school because of the dangers of
sending small children to another school farther away;
sometimes only the kindergarten, first and second grades
were continued in the junior high school building.
When a new building is especially built for junior high
schools-there are now nine* beautifully equipped new
buildings-these shops and special music, drawing, science,
and nature study rooms are carefully provided by the
architect, together with suitable gymnasiums and an auditorium. The cost of remaking old buildings into junior high
school plants has been slight however. The district superin*P. S. 24, 40, 64, 97, 136, Manhattan; P. S. 37, Bronx; P. S. 66, 136, 178, Brooklyn.
[40]




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H I G H  S CHOOLS


tendent in charge of junior high schools estimates that the
cost of establishing the present junior schools in the elementary buildings averaged $9,ooo a school.
WHAT COURSES ARE OFFERED
The junior high school is really a very "different" type
of school from the old 8B school. It offers boys and girls
for the first time an opportunity to choose what kind of
school work they will take. In neighborhoods where an
opportunity for industrial training seems advisable pupils
may take one of three courses in junior high school:
The General Course
The General Course leads to either (a) a general or academic high school at the end of three years-for normal
progress pupils, or (b) a general high school at the end of
two years-rapid advancement course for bright pupils.
The Commercial Course
The Commercial Course leads to either (a) a commercial
course in high school at the end of three years-for normal
progress pupils, or (b) a commercial course in high school
at the end of two years-rapid advancement course, or
(c) a job at the end of three years-for those who intend to
leave school at the end of junior high school.
The Industrial Course
The Industrial Course leads to either (a) a trade school
or industrial high school, or (b) the trade itself-for those
who intend to leave school at the end of junior high school.
[4 ]




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Even in these courses themselves there is some little room
for selection of subjects on the part of pupils. In the
general course and in commercial (a) and (b) the children
select a foreign language for study-French, German
Italian or Spanish. Forty-two percent of junior high school
pupils study a foreign language.
OPPORTUNITY TO CHOOSE WORK THAT INTERESTS
The junior high school offers special advantages to three
types of children: those who do not want to take the regular
academic course leading to high school and college, either
because they are not fitted for it or because they cannot
afford it; those who are overage and have not yet been able
to finish the work of the elementary school; and finally to
many bright children who are able to do the work of the
three junior high school years in two years.
The opportunity to choose, at the end of 7B usually,
one of the three courses meets the need of many adolescent
boys and girls. They will like the new work better if it is
work of their own choosing; moreover, they have chosen
it probably because it is work which they think they can do
successfully. This freedom of choice fits in with the plan
of the junior high school to allow the pupil more initiative,
more participation in school management, more independence and self-reliance.
In the industrial courses, for example, pupils who show
ability and marked preference for a certain trade are allowed
to follow that trade in their 9th year. Equipment for the
shops of the industrial course is gradually being installed
in all junior high schools. At first industrial work was
given, because of lack of funds, only in neighborhoods
[42 ]




I N   J U N I 0 R


H I G H    S C H 0 0 L S


where many of the children would leave school almost as
soon as they reached the age limit.
These industrial courses have in large measure supplanted
pre-vocational elementary schools. Several pre-vocational
8B schools were established in 1915 to give to those children
who did not take kindly to book work a chance to try out
a number of trades. In the 7th and 8th grades the children
in these schools were allowed to take "shops" a half day
each day,-woodwork or machine shops for boys; millinery,
dressmaking or practical cooking for girls. Pupils would
stay ten weeks in one shop then go on to another. Later
the time devoted to shop work and related drawing was
reduced to two and a quarter hours a day. At the end of
their two years they would have had a chance to try out
a number of trades and to find out which they liked and could
do best. After pre-vocational school they might go to a
trade school to specialize in the trade chosen, or they might
become apprentices in the trade itself.
But with the growth of junior high schools and the
theory that here was the time for a child to make a definite
break in his schooling if he so desired, many of these prevocational schools have been gradually drawn into the
junior high school division, and their shops have been
turned over to industrial course pupils. The period of tryout is shortened, eight or ten periods a week being allowed
to one type of shop. This shortening allows more time
for the cultural subjects still deemed essential to adolescent
boys and girls.
A child is allowed to select his trade and follow it intensively in the 9th year. From junior high school he can
go either to a trade school or to a technical high school
course. The trade schools have not acceptedthe 9th year
[ 43 




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A T    S C H O O L


junior high school industrial course in lieu of the first year
in a two-year trade course, but as the junior high courses
are perfected this adjustment may be made.
A wide selection of "shops" or trade courses is offered
in the pre-vocational schools and the industrial courses,
including the following:
Dressmaking         Electric Wiring   Machine Shop
Millinery           Pottery           Printing
Sheet Metal Work    Sign Painting     Trade Drawing
Woodwork            Book Binding      Art Weaving
Novelty Work        Typing            Home Making
OPPORTUNITY FOR RAPID ADVANCEMENT
The rapid advancement classes in junior high school
have been developed with the idea that in many cases rapid
progress will be so encouraging both to child and parent, that
a child who may be planning to leave school as soon as he
is old enough to get working papers may be allowed to continue high school work. If William Abbott is one of six
children in a poor family, that family will be forced to
look forward to the earliest possible time when William
may go to work and help with the buying of food and paying
of rent. But when William's family realize that their boy
has unusual ability and is able to take his last three years
of school work in two years, they may be induced to make
continued sacrifices in order that William may go on to
high school or trade school. At any rate William will have
a chance at ninth year work that he might never have had
otherwise. These rapid advancement classes, too, constitute a valuable economy,-economy of money and
teachers' time, of supplies, and more important by far,
economy of children's time and energy.
[44]




I N  JUNIO  R  H I G H


S C H OO L S


OPPORTUNITY TO OVERCOME RETARDATION
The junior high school is a boon to children in the
elementary school who are thirteen or more years old and
have been able to complete only the 5B grade. Their tastes
have outgrown those of their elementary school classmates
because they are older; they are perhaps unable to do the
required "book work" although they may have other
talents and aptitudes which they have never had a chance
to develop. At any rate they are usually not interested in
academic work and often cause much trouble because continued failure has made them hate school.
One theory is that if such children are put into shops
with boys of their own age or into the model flat with girls
of their own age for part of the day, their interest in school
may be renewed and stimulated, and their lost self-respect
restored.
This theory led to the establishment of adjustment classes
in junior high school to give over-age pupils a chance to take
up new work which they would like and which might be of
more use to them when they were allowed to leave school.
In the adjustment classes they are drilled in absolutely
essential language and arithmetic skills, and in addition are
allowed to select one of the many "shops" of the industrial
course. Pupils registered in adjustment classes in 1925-26
numbered around 3,750 pupils. Incidentally retardation
in the elementary schools has been reduced by just 3,750
pupils and many a teacher's energies released to the benefit
of her normal or bright pupils. Members of the adjustment
classes are included in the regular student body, invited to
take part in outside activities and auditorium periods, and
in short may reap all the social advantages which the
[ 45 




N  EW       Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H   O  O  L
junior high school offers. Some schools provide special
certificates for those who have finished their trade courses
in junior high school.
OPPORTUNITY FOR SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
One of the most important factors in the development
of junior high schools is the recognition by educators that
a new type of organization and of management is necessary
in a school for adolescent boys and girls. They feel that one
of the first duties of a junior high school is to provide wholesome means of self-expression to children who are fast
developing impulses to adventure, romance and idealism.
To take advantage of the fresh enthusiasms and the bubbling
energies of these adolescent children, the junior high school
superintendent suggested the formation of social and cultural clubs as an extra-curricular activity. The plan was
tried and met with unusual success.
At the time of the I922 survey, 387 clubs of junior high
school pupils had been formed in the various schools. The
children eagerly remained an hour after school for the
French club or the drama club or the folk-dancing club.
Indeed, so successful were the clubs that they have now
been included as one of the organized school projects and
are given a place on the program of every junior high school.
The club answers the need of many children for wholesome social activities; it fosters new friendships, and
strengthens new ideals; sometimes it stimulates scholastic
progress when backward pupils are encouraged to join a
small study club or coaching group to make up a deficient
subject, returning to a social club as soon as the deficiency
is worked off.
[46]




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H I G H  S CHOOLS


An astonishing variety of activities has grown up in these
clubs, mostly on the initiative of the boys and girls themselves. There are music and art clubs, science and literature
clubs; sewing clubs, home-making and woodwork clubs;
walking and dancing clubs; photography, stamp collecting,
and radio clubs. They are all organized and run by pupils
themselves, with teachers in the background to advise and
help only when help is needed. The drama club prepares
a play for presentation with one of their own number coaching; the English club criticizes contributions for the school
papers, accepting some, rejecting others; children learn
to "talk on their feet," to conduct meetings; the over-timid
gain confidence and the over-sure are put in their places.
Perhaps the participation in school management that
most of the junior high school principals allow pupils should
be considered a social as well as an educational advantage.
Sometimes a school is run as a city, sometimes as a little
republic with the pupils themselves in office. Sometimes
committees of pupils co6perate with the faculty in affairs
of school administration. Always pupils are allowed some
measure of responsibility in fire drills, opening exercises
and changing of periods. Here again, the idea is to allow
the children to feel responsibility, to make decisions and
plans, to develop self-reliance and qualities of leadership
if possible.
SOME JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENTS
Seventy-five percent of junior high school graduates
go on to senior high school and maintain themselves well.
About 7,790 were graduated in June, I926, from the 9,423
on register in 9B. High school principals who were at
first skeptical of the powers of pupils from the junior high
[47 1




N E WC7 Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O     L


school are now inclined to accept the idea that the junior
high school is eventually to take all first year high school
pupils, because it has been found that the percentage of
failures among junior high school pupils is less in high
school subjects than among graduates from the regular
elementary schools.
The rapid advancement classes have saved many terms
of school without harming the prospects of future progress
for the pupils thus advanced. The 1922 survey showed
that forty-three percent of the children completing 9B had
gained a year from 7A to 9B. Registration in rapid advancement classes in 1925-26 was well over I7,000.
Teachers and principals have reason to believe that the
junior high school has succeeded in keeping in school for a
year or two at least, and in many cases for a much longer
time, many children who would otherwise have left as
soon as they were old enough.
GUIDING CHILDREN INTO VOCATIONS
Much has been said in talking of the junior high school
idea about allowing children an opportunity to choose
new paths leading to the practical world where they will
probably have to earn a living. Yet few would hold that
a twelve or thirteen-year-old child is well enough informed
or wise enough to make the best choice without some special
information and some special guidance.
The teachers in all junior high schools try, of course, to
help pupils in choice of new paths, but their tasks are already
so heavy and their time so well filled that they can do little.
A junior high school teacher has on an average only three
periods a week in which to make records and do all the
necessary outside preparation and correcting of papers.
[48]




I N    j U    NI 0    


H I G H  S CHOOLS


The Vocational Service for Juniors, one of the many
outside organizations cooperating with the city schools,
has provided several vocational counselors to help children
of a junior high school to make a wise selection either of
school work or of a trade or profession.
This counselor begins her work with a series of short
talks to 7th year pupils about various occupations. She
gives them a brief glimpse of the part industry has played
in history; she classifies the principal occupations from
which they must choose; she discusses the wages, hours,
and working conditions of each type; she stresses particularly
the qualifications necessary and the training that would
best fit the child for a skilled trade, or a licensed or technical
profession.
When the time comes for the children to select their
special courses she talks to each one separately about what
the future probably holds for him. She has information
at hand about his I. Q., his school record, his own ideas
about what he would like to do. If circumstances seem
to be forcing him into a course unsuited to his abilities or
tastes the counselor will ask his parents to call to discuss
the matter. Usually she can guide both child and parents
to a sensible course, but if she cannot the child is given a
chance to take what he has chosen. If he fails after one
term he is usually ready to follow her guidance, which is
based on careful consideration of everything she can find
out about him-his home conditions, his health, disposition,
capacities as demonstrated in school, etc.
The Board of Education has tentatively taken over the
plan of placing vocational counselors in the junior high
schools and high schools by allowing $I5,000 in its budget
and by fixing a salary of $S,9oo for such a counselor. There
[ 49 1




N  E   W    Y   O  R  K    A   T    S  C  H   O  O   L
is no provision, however, for periodical advancements and
the salary itself offers little inducement to a properly trained
person.
THE FUTURE OF THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS
Of course as more and more junior high schools are
established those in charge hope to have new buildings
provided with all the necessary equipment for allowing
pupils a choice of either a general, a commercial or an
industrial course. Junior high schools will perhaps never
wholly supplant the 8B school because a junior high school
plant with its special rooms, its shops and its library,
auditorium and gymnasium, will be financially possible
only where a district is well enough populated to have a
junior high school of some size. But the wide extension of
junior high schools in all but the sparsely populated districts
is predicted. The instability of the present junior high school
teaching force, due to promotions to high schools and trade
schools where salaries are higher and "pupil-loads" less,
is now a source of considerable worry to the junior high
school division. For all except foreign language teachers
three years' experience in the upper grades is asked of junior
high school teachers in addition to high scholastic requirements. There is no experience requirement for high school
teachers.


[50o]




IV. IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS


ONCE the idea is accepted that in junior high school,
when boys and girls have only begun to grow up, opportunities for choosing new paths and for partly guiding
their own affairs are necessary to their right development,
it is easy to accept the idea that high schools should offer
even further opportunities and varieties of experience. By
the time most children reach high school they are old enough
to be legally free from school obligations, old enough to quit
school if they like,-and if their parents like. If then, they
may choose, with certain limitations, what work they shall
do, it seems logical that if they go to school they should be
able to choose, with certain limitations, what studies they
shall take.
THE THREE-FOLD OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED
As in the junior high schools there are three main
paths that pupils may take: (I) An academic or general
course leading to a normal school or college and such professions as law, medicine and teaching; (2) a commercial
course leading possibly to college and a business course, but
more likely to business and a job; (3) a trade or technical
training leading either to a college technical course and a
scientific or engineering profession or to a trade itself. New
York City high schools offer varied opportunities along
all three of these paths, and, for the benefit of many children
whose high school career will probably be cut short because
[5I]




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A T    S C H O O L


of lack of funds, or of liking for school, or of ability, they
offer short one and two-year courses that will prepare directly
for a job.
TYPES OF HIGH SCHOOLS
Open to the adolescent boy or girl who wants a high
school education-there are now about I36,000 of them in
New York-are thirty-eight high schools with forty-five
annexes, including: (I) General or academic high schools,
usually preparatory to a higher school; (2) "cosmopolitan"
high schools which offer all three courses so that children
of the district may not have to travel far for the type of
education they want; (3) high schools of commerce; (4)
technical high schools; (5) textile high school which prepares
for participation in the city's chief industry; (6) cooperative
high schools which offer pupils a chance to learn from the
actual job at the same time they are having theory and
practice in school.
The Board of Education has published a pamphlet*,
for the information of elementary and junior high school
graduates, setting forth in clear and concise form not only
what each of the city's thirty-eight high schools and four
vocational schools offer, but also just what a student must
do in order to prepare for a specific trade or profession.
This pamphlet is distributed among elementary and junior
high school pupils who plan to go on to high school. Most
schools arrange to have a meeting of parents of children in
the graduating class at which this information may be
given out, so that parents may help their children in making
wise choices.
*The Public High Schools and Vocational Schools of the City of New York
(I926).
[52]




I N   T H E   H I G H


S C H 0 0 L S


Since this pamphlet explains so clearly the specific courses
offered in each high school it is necessary here only to suggest,
in general, what the high schools have done to accommodate
the varying powers and tastes of individual children and
to meet rapidly changing social and economic conditions.
Certainly it is no light task to give understanding and
expert attention to each individual pupil in the huge cosmopolitan student body-numbering up to 7,ooo000-of a
present day large New York City high school. Thomas
Jefferson High School in Brooklyn boasted 6,826 pupils
in October, 1926, De Witt Clinton 6,oio and New Utrecht
in Brooklyn, 6,289. Of course, the task might be easier
for Tottenville High School, Richmond, which is much like
any small town high school with its 449 pupils; nevertheless,
certain difficulties are presented by the problem of maintaining for Tottenville's 449 pupils a four-year general course,
and a four-year commercial course so as to allow every individual a chance at work he particularly wants and is fitted
for. In the three densely populated boroughs of the city
only Haaren High School at 120 West 46th Street, in the
midst of Manhattan's uptown business district, numbers
under 2,000 pupils.
In many ways the Haaren High School, which was the
first to work out a cooperative plan allowing children to
go to school and hold a job at the same time, is one of the
most interesting high schools in the city. There are now
five or six high schools offering opportunities of that kind.
Two pupils, usually only in the last two years of their high
school course, may alternate on a job, one working one
week and the other the next week, and at the same time
continue their high school work, completing the Regents'
requirements in academic work.
[53 




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A T    S C H O O L


The emphasis in Haaren High School is on the educational benefits to the pupil, rather than on the fact that
the money earned on the job allows many a pupil to finish
high school who could not otherwise do so. The job is
secured only with the approval of the school, and that approval depends upon whether or not it offers the pupil
experience that will demonstrate the work the school has
set out to give him and that will continually teach him new
things. The academic work is, of course, adapted to help
the pupil in the business he has chosen.
THE COURSES OFFERED
The plan is to make the high schools of the city part
of a huge cooperative enterprise organized for the purpose
of giving to Sam Smith and Agnes Delehanty just the
proper training he or she needs for a useful and happy life.
Beginning at the beginning of this plan, there is, first, the
diversification of the schools themselves suggested by the
types of schools listed above.
There is, second, the diversification of courses, especially
in the larger high schools, to meet every need of a highly
diversified group of pupils. New subjects have to be added
to the curriculum constantly. Textile High School came
into being when the war, the breakdown of the old apprentice system, and other conditions of the trade made the
men of the textile business suddenly feel the need for
trained young workers. Immigration has brought to our
shores representatives of almost every race under the sunand with them certain racial skills and aptitudes which the
schools should recognize and foster. Compulsory education
laws, made to benefit large numbers of pupils who might
[54]




IN        T    H    E   H   I  G   H      S  C     H         L   S
otherwise be too hastily forced into industry, have forced
into the high school pupils of little aptitude for "book
learning" to whom the work of the secondary schoolshigh or trade schools-presents great difficulties. Old courses
must be adapted, new courses fitted to their abilities.
More than 200 subjects or parts of subjects may now be
selected by pupils in New York City high schools. In
addition to the regular subjects of English, mathematics,
science, foreign languages, history and social science,
domestic art, domestic science, commercial branches,
technical arts, music, fine arts, and physical education, of
the general, commercial and technical courses, many special
subjects designed for pupils with special needs or specific
abilities are found in our high school curricula. Among
these may be noted:
Instrument making designed for those boys who are to study dentistry,
or surgery, or take up research; naval architecture, including ship designing..                    Stuyvesant High School
Graphic statistics, machine calculation, machine bookkeeping
Haaren High School
Dramatic art, stage design..... George Washington High School
Auto repairing................ Curtis High School
Journalism................ George Washington,
De Witt Clinton,
Girls Commercial,
Bay Ridge and
Wadleigh High Schools
Short story, Salesmanship....... Evander Childs High School
Physics for slow pupils.......... Erasmus Hall High School
Agriculture................             Newtown High School
Problems in democracy........... Boys High School
Industrial hygiene, Raw materials of commerce, Commercial art advertising, Foreign trade, Business ethics, Mathematics of investment
High School of Commerce
Domestic sanitation............. Wadleigh High School
The development of good taste..... Commercial High School
It is interesting to note the aims and methods pursued
in some of this vast array of courses.
[55 




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Art
With the numerous art treasures available in such a
city as New York the high schools would be poor, indeed,
did they not offer ample opportunities for all pupils to
appreciate and understand the various arts, and for the
talented few to develop their talents. Under a new plan
the study of art is taking on an entirely new aspect.
For many years art teaching meant the teaching of
drawing, until most pupils had the idea that art was drawing. It meant training the talented and letting the untalented struggle until they were sure they did not like art
and never would. The new plan is based on the realization
that appreciation of beauty is possible without the skill
to create it, and that appreciation requires the development
of taste and judgment rather than of deftness of eye and
fingers. The two-year course is to be a course in the principles underlying good art as demonstrated in all manner
of things,-furniture, paintings, buildings, textiles, landscapes, etc. The plan is to surround the pupils with as many
examples of good art in as many forms as can be made
available, in the museums and art galleries and in collections of slides and pictures that can be kept in the classroom;
then to apply the principles exemplified in all these other
things to some medium of daily life-a dress design for
girls, an automobile design for boys. The schools will
continue to offer numerous art elective courses both in the
fine and applied arts for those whose talents lie in that
direction.
Music
Similarly in the field of music, appreciation is the goal.
Singing for two of the four years of high school is required.
[56]




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Talented music students are encouraged to make music a
major subject and several high schools offer a special fouryear course. Every high school has its orchestra and credit
is allowed for this activity. Orchestral work is encouraged
by annual scholarships provided by the New York Symphony Society whereby six undergraduate students of each
orchestra instrument receive instruction from the Symphony
Orchestra group leaders.
Textiles
A word should be given to Textile High School, a school
of 3,300 pupils and five buildings given over to preparing
pupils for one particular industry. The school was the
outgrowth of a demand from the industry itself for trained
workers and it is one of the best examples the city affords
of cooperation between business and educational leaders
to make a school that will be at once practical and cultural.
It was organized six years ago with eighty-three pupils and
three teachers; it now maintains I28 teachers and occupies
an administrative building-the ancient Julia Richman
High School-and four annexes several blocks apart. The
curriculum covers every part of the textile businessmarketing, manufacturing, chemistry and dyeing, applied
design, and costume design. There are one or two-year
courses for children who plan to stay in school only that
long. One of these short courses offers trade sewing and
millinery.
Most of the courses offered in the five buildings that
make up Textile High School have had to be worked out
from the very foundations. For many there were no textbooks, no previously worked out plans to go by. Teachers
from the trades themselves were essential and yet these
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teachers must have fulfilled the requirements of the Board
of Examiners-a double preparation hard to find.
Technical Subjects
Brooklyn Technical High School is another new type
of high school that may be setting a precedent for the
development of other schools of its kind. It offers to boys
a generous amount of work in laboratory, drafting room and
shops. It gives, in the first two years especially, a knowledge
of various industries, allowing the pupil to specialize in the
last two years in such courses as architecture, chemistry,
electrical science, machine construction and design, structural drawing and surveying.
Commercial Subjects
During the past year a careful study has been made of
the commercial courses now being given in the schools. The
High School of Commerce is modifying its courses to meet
the needs of modern business and during this process of
modification has had the benefit of the advice and experience
of many of the business leaders of this city. The State
Department of Education has practically accepted for
state-wide use the new high school syllabi in bookkeeping,
economic geography, business law, business arithmetic,
stenography, typewriting and elementary business training.
Home-Making
Home-making and home-nursing courses in several
schools are designed to meet certain social and economic
needs. Since eighty percent of American women are
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engaged directly or indirectly in home-making, it seems
reasonable that the schools which now spend very much more
on the other twenty percent might offer to girls who will
probably join the eighty percent some practical training
for this profession of home-making. A high school course
includes usually an intensive study of food and food requirements; instruction in household management, including light and ventilation, furnishing and caring for the home,
plumbing, the Sanitary Code, and tenement house laws;
a study of public utilities such as markets, milk stations
and bakeries; instruction in the art of laundering, including
lessons on the different fibres, cotton, linen and silk. Finally,
there is the home considered as a social center, as the center
of much that is gracious in the lives of everyday folk. This
latter consideration has led to the establishment, in many
elementary and junior high schools as well as in the high
schools themselves, of model flats where girls may practice
and demonstrate the arts of home-making with which they
are becoming familiar; where they learn to serve dainty
meals; to clean and to scrub and to add such home-making
touches as stenciled curtains and handmade linens and
embroideries. These model flats usually have a nicely
equipped kitchen, living-room, bedroom and bath, together
with such modern accompaniments as vacuum cleaners
and electric irons.
Home-nursing, too, has come to be a regular course in
a number of high schools. This course, beginning with
the causes of sickness and methods of prevention, goes on
to practical demonstrations of the care of babies, and of
the sick at home, accompanied always by discussions of
fundamental rules of hygiene and sanitation.


[59]




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Agriculture
It is natural that city-born children seeking novelty
might become interested in fields and gardens. It is unnatural that children of foreign folk who have a long farming
ancestry be not interested in agriculture, and unfortunate
that the great city of New York cannot do more to train
them for a vocation which would "come natural" to them.
But only in Newtown High School, Queens, has the
novel task of teaching agriculture to city boys been undertaken. There, with approximately Ioo pupils, three teachers
and need for a fourth, some interesting projects are being
carried on, such as: flower garden and poultry, flower production and greenhouse work, landscape and care of grounds,
fruit farms, general farms, dairy farms, truck farms, truck
and tobacco farms, dairy and fruit farms, dairy and tobacco
farms, Indian garden.
Difficulties are many. A year ago the vacant lots, on
which the boys had been growing their beans and cabbages,
were suddenly taken over by real estate agents and the
boys' crops ruthlessly dug up to make room for the foundations of buildings. A plot of land loaned by one of the
advisory committee of citizens is now the only available
land for practice work. The laboratory and one classroom
in which nearly IOO boys and three teachers must do most
of their school work is in the cellar of the shop building.
There is no greenhouse where two-thirds of the boys who
are interested in floriculture and landscape gardening may
work through the winter.
However, the Board of Superintendents has recommended that a suitable piece of land be acquired and a suitable garage for farm implements be erected. Reliable
[60]




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I N     T  H  E    H  I G   H    S C H    O  O  L S
farmers have been persuaded to take the more advanced
boys for their practice work.
Languages
Courses have been especially adapted to meet special
needs of those of other lands who have come to be citizens
of America. For example, French and German and occasionally Spanish, where a community's business called
for that language, used to be chief among the foreign languages offered by the schools, but now recognizing the
city's 803,000 Italian residents, several high schools offer
Italian.
GROUPING PUPILS ACCORDING TO ABILITY
The third item in the plan for giving an individual type
of education to every pupil is that of grouping pupils
according to ability. Not only must the high schools offer
a rich and varied course of study that will meet the needs
of children from every economic and social class, but they
must estimate the ability of the pupils under their care
and must somehow assort them so as to group together
those who are capable of making progress at nearly the same
rate of speed.
Pupils upon their entrance to each high school are
classified into three classes-A, B, C. The basis of classification is either: (I) their record in the elementary school,
(2) subject tests given by the principal of the high school,
(3) intelligence tests, or (4) a combination of any two or
more of these methods.
This plan of grouping high school pupils according to
their capacities to do varied types of work allows to the
[61 ]




N  E  W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O  O   L
slow pupils, for whom academic work is hard, a chance to
substitute such subjects as typewriting, shopwork, modified
science, extra English or even supervised study periods in
place of foreign languages or mathematics. In the classes
themselves the idea of allowing all pupils to progress as
rapidly as possible has led to the adoption by many teachers
of the individual contract, or Dalton plan, which has
already been described in the discussion of elementary schools.
Standards are maintained in the high schools by the
uniform examinations given in certain prescribed subjects
by the State Board of Regents to all high school pupils.
In January, 1925, 98,024 Regents' examination papers
were written by New York City high school students, of
which ninety-five per cent received a passing rating.
INDIVIDUAL GUIDANCE OF STUDENTS
A high school is organized with the principal at its head
and with one or two administrative assistants or assistant
principals. Although responsible for all phases of high
school work and discipline, the principal and his assistants,
in a 4,ooo-pupil high school, say, which represents a $3,000,ooo investment with a pay roll of $6oo,ooo, have upon their
shoulders so many problems of administration and organization that division of labor demands specialists working with
them in other fields-heads of departments responsible for
the standards and courses of their departments; grade advisers responsible for steering pupils into the right courses;
expert program makers routing 4,000 pupils so that each
has everything he needs; and, finally, deans.
A number of high schools appoint deans to take care of
special problems that arise among high school pupils, and
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H I G H


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the High School Principals' Association has asked that
deans be appointed in every high school in the city. Deans
are at once advisers in school and social matters and officers
of discipline. They are experienced teachers whose whole
time, attention and interest are given over to students who
need help. The dean is a person to whom pupils themselves
may go for advice; to whom parents may come to talk
over difficulties; and to whom principal and teachers may
submit special problems of school discipline and administration.
Many schools have appointed teacher advisers-grade
advisers or scholastic advisers they are sometimes calledwhose business it is to help all children who seem to be
in the wrong courses or wrong groups to find a course or
group more suited to their abilities as demonstrated through
their scholastic records and such intelligence and achievement tests as they may have been given. When a boy or
girl is failing badly and an adjustment seems hard to make,
the teacher adviser calls in the child's parents and explains
as carefully as possible what she thinks is wrong. Jennie
Smith, whose I. Q. is only 84, let us say, has insisted upon
taking the full commercial course including Spanish, which
is too hard for her. The result-failure in stenography and
Spanish, low marks in English, typing, bookkeeping and
her other subjects. The teacher adviser thinks she should
drop the Spanish and concentrate on English and typing,
or else transfer to an industrial course-sewing or millinery.
Jennie's parents, ambitious for her, have encouraged her
to struggle along with these subjects. The adviser manages
after a conference at school over Jennie's school record to
persuade them and Jennie, too, that the Spanish must be
dropped.
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MINISTERING TO THE MANY SIDES OF PUPILS
Modern high schools with their care for the individual
feel that they must minister to the many interests and
aptitudes of their pupils. Half-grown boys and girls have
many needs-health needs, recreation needs, social needswhich schools can help to meet.
On the health side little in the way of regular and
thorough physical examination has so far been provided
for high school students except through the Department of
Physical Training, only a few of whose men, of course, are
physicians. The medical inspectors of the Board of Health
have all and more than they can do with the elementary
schools, although occasionally they do, by special request,
send a doctor to make a series of examinations of high
school children. For the most part high school health work
is carried on under the physical training department and
each child receives an examination of heart and lungs before
being assigned to a gym class. The physical training schedule usually includes corrective gym work and hygiene and
health lectures.  Athletic activities, described in detail
elsewhere, are one of the best possible health builders and
all students are urged to take part in them.
Hundreds of recreational and social activities are
encouraged. Glee clubs, orchestras, dramatic clubs, school
papers and magazines are there for the artistically inclined.
Dances, concerts and lectures offer evening entertainment.
There is hardly a fad, hobby or favorite study for which a
club has not been formed. Some high schools boast as many
as sixty clubs-more than Heinz' fifty-seven varieties.


[64]




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S C H 0 0 L S


CITIZENSHIP TRAINING AND STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
Recognizing that training for citizenship is one of the
foremost functions of schools, the Board of Education in
1918 made civics one of the required subjects in first year
high school for all pupils and assigned a special director
to the supervision of civics teaching.
The first step in organizing the course was to get together
a committee of teachers to formulate a plan for making the
study of civics-or civil government as it used to be calledconcrete rather than abstract, participatory rather than
merely discoursive. The syllabus in civics which resulted
suggests to teachers ways and means of using the wonderful
civic laboratory the city itself affords; and of showing the
pupil how the government is helping to solve problems
immediately touching him and how he may cooperate with
the government's agents in dealing with those problems.
When the syllabus was finished there could be found no
one textbook to help the teachers in carrying out all its
projects. Therefore civics is taught without a textbook.
A room is set aside in the Municipal Library for use of civics
teachers and pupils, and the city librarians, with the wholehearted cooperation of city officials, have gathered there
all available information about the doings of different city
departments.
Freedom of access is accorded to children to all city,
state and federal bureaus. The Bureau of Weights and
Measures will send an automobile loaded with apparatus
used in testing scales and in charge of a capable lecturer
to any school. Fire houses will stage special demonstrations
for a high school class. Bureau heads meet with civics
teachers to tell them  about their work and to suggest
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activities for pupils that will make them feel they play a
part in government.
Student organizations with school administrative and
governmental functions become the practice shops in
citizenship. Civics and debating clubs conduct courts and
legislature and congressional sessions. Traffic squads and
sanitary squads keep order within the schools themselves.
Pupils are urged to take part in such activities as the
National Oratorical contest, in which a prize for the best
ten-minute original oration on the Constitution was won by
a pupil of Wadleigh High School last year.
The plan is for pupils to take some of the civics teaching
into their homes. Before election day some of the high
school freshmen civics pupils conduct effective campaigns
to induce citizens to enroll in some political party, attend
the primaries, and to vote. Pupils of foreign parents are
often able to interest their parents in taking out citizenship
papers. One father wrote to the school that his daughter
had persuaded him that he should not dodge jury duty when
it fell to him.
The influence of citizenship training in the schools becomes even more widespread. It enlists the cooperation
of officials and of outside civic organizations and gets them
interested in schools.
One of the most valuable of student organizations for
putting upon pupils themselves responsibilities such as they
will meet later in life is that distinctive feature of New
York City high school life known as the G. 0. The G. O.'sGeneral Organizations-are the student body associations
of the several high schools. The officials of the G. 0. are
elected by the students and are most important factors
in the school's social life. Membership in the G. O. is
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S C H O O L S


voluntary, but practically all of the students join and pay
their twenty-five cent dues each term. Funds are administered by elected representatives.
What becomes of the twenty-five cent dues each term? In
the first place every athletic team gets its outfit-base-ball,
football, soccer, girls' and boys' hockey, girls' and boys' basketball, Lacrosse, track and swimming. Several high schools own
their athletic fieldswhich have been purchased by their G.O.'s.
The dramatic society needs to rent a theatre or to hire
costumes; the orchestra wants a bass viol, the mandolin
club must have copies of the latest jazz, the glee club must
be up-to-date and have new music each term; the poster
club needs brushes and colors; the French club must have
a few new French plays to read and discuss; the chess club
wants a new set of men once in a while. All these activities,
and many more, are given impetus by the semi-annual
membership fee. Besides this, the student receives reduced
rates at all entertainments and games.
Of course the twenty-five cent pieces do not do all the
work. Some of the games and entertainments are open to
the public and are so well attended as to be money makers
for the G. O.'s. Forexample, football usually makes money
while baseball is apt to run behind.
Budgets are made at the beginning of each term for
each activity of the school. These budgetary requests are
submitted to the elected student officials who go over them
in true political style, grant hearings and make appropriations to fit the funds.
Teachers and officials of the schools go over all activities
of the G. 0., but the youngsters are expected to take the
responsibility and actually carry out the wishes of the
students who have elected them to office.
[ 67 




NE    W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O   O  L
The total assets of the G. O.'s of the thirty-eight high
schools at the present time amount to approximately half
a million dollars. Accounts are carefully checked in the
office of the superintendent in charge of high schools, audited
by the Auditor of the Board of Education and published
each six months.
The G. O.'s began in a small way twenty-five years ago.
The principals of the schools used to keep the accounts and'
appropriate the funds. Gradually, as the schools grew in
size and more activities were undertaken, the boys and girls
were allowed to take more and more responsibility until
now they not only administer their G. O.'s but participate
in many other activities connected with the running of the
schools. The G. O.'s are probably the best practice schools
for citizenship and self-government that the high schools
can offer.
One of the largest responsibilities undertaken by the
G. O.'s is their work in connection with the high school
lunch rooms. Seventy percent of the high school lunch
rooms are managed by the G. O.'s, the rest by private
concessionaires. There is no central supervision for high
school lunch rooms although there is usually a faculty member in charge at each school. Supervision by a trained
faculty member from the Home-Making Department is
highly desirable so that the lunch rooms shall be run according to an educational, not a commercial plan, with the
sensible foods displayed before desserts, and the menus
properly balanced. Patronage is excellent; the G. O. lunch
rooms alone do something like half a million dollars worth
of business each term. In one term last year the receipts
were $685,ooo. Salaries are paid to managers and the
equipment is usually paid for by lunch room receipts. For
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S C H 0 0 L S


training in business management as well as in civic responsibility the lunch room project serves an excellent purpose.
OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE
Most hopeful for the future development of the high
schools is the spirit of experimentation that is abroad. A
rare high school it is whose teachers are not carrying on some
sort of experiment, the results of which sooner or later appear
in the monthly "Bulletin of High Points" published by the
High School Division and distributed among high school
teachers,-experiments with intelligence and achievement
tests, with Dalton plans and project methods, with courses
for the subnormal and courses for the superior, with new
and old courses, with character ratings, with programs
that make readjustments easy, with school organization,
and with absolutely every phase of school life. Such
experimentation indicates, of course, a teaching corps possessed of energy, initiative, and a scientific spirit of inquiry
that augurs well for the future of the high schools.


[69]




V. IN THE VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS


IT is not surprising that with its million children from
homes of varied degrees of culture some phases of the
educational work in New York City may seem like Topsy
to have just grown. A legislature passes a law stipulating
that vocational education be provided for children who have
completed the grammar grades and are not yet old enough
for their working papers. The legislature cannot, of course,
pass trained teachers for the work also; neither is the legislature equipped to prescribe detailed courses of study. There
are not enough men and women at first who know the
trades and who also know the business of education to make
the proper plans and specifications. There are no buildings
fitted for the necessary work and there is, of course, not
enough money to provide them immediately.
What then, can the vocational and continuation schools
do but "just grow?" Children are coming to newly established schools from all parts of the city, from many walks
of life. Here is a large group of boys who are clever with
fingers, probably apt at the mechanics trades. Here is
another group of boys, not so clever with their fingers
perhaps, but intelligent and intent upon success. One boy's
father is in the garment trades, another's brother is an
expert sheet metal worker, another has a friend who is
making good money as an auto mechanic-and these are
the facts that determine the boy's choice of trades most
often. The vocational or trade school must provide for each
of them the training he needs in the field he selects.
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IN  VOCATIO NAL


S C     0    L 


THE FOUR VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS
In the face of difficult and diversified problems the
vocational schools individually and collectively have made
great progress. The first public vocational school in New
York City, the Vocational School for Boys, was organized
in 1909. The Manhattan Trade School for Girls was founded
as a private institution in I901 and taken over by the
Board of Education in I9IO. The Murray Hill Vocational
School was organized in 1914 and the Brooklyn Vocational
School in I9I5.
REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION
Children must have satisfactorily completed the course
of study of an elementary school before they can go to trade
school or in case they are fourteen years of age and have not
yet been graduated from elementary school, they may be
admitted provided they pass a written examination given
by the vocational school principal in reading, writing and
arithmetic. They are not, as is so often supposed, the
subnormal or mentally deficient children, although naturally
enough there are among them many who like a job better
than a lesson and who frankly care little for books and
bookish learning.
THE COURSES OFFERED
The vocational schools offer a two-year course enabling
pupils to acquire an intensive training together with the
related and academic subjects in some one of the basic
industries. One half of a six hour day is devoted to trade
work and the other half to related and academic subjects.
At present boys have the choice of one of the following trades:
[7I ]




N     E  W   Y  O   R  K     AT      S  C   H  O   O  L
Architectural Drawing  Book-binding      Clay Modeling
Auto Repair        Mechanical Drawing    Electric Wiring
Forge and Foundry  Machine Shop          Pattern Making
Plumbing           Printing              Sign Painting
Sheet Metal        Woodwork              Garment Design
Dressmaking        Power Machine Operating  Novelty and Pasting
Millinery          Sewing and Embroidery
RELATION OF THE COURSES TO INDUSTRY
Courses in these trades have grown with the schools.
There are few definite and stereotyped texts or courses,
which is perhaps best because these of necessity must be
changed with the changing conditions of industry. Great
responsibility rests upon the teachers in a trade school,
for to them is left much of the curriculum making.
Each trade has its carefully equipped shop where the boys
work under conditions as nearly approximating those in
the trade as the school can manage. Conditions in the
old buildings which house the boys' trade schools often do
not allow adequate space, neither does the budget always
allow for adequate equipment. Teachers keep in as close
touch as possible with the trade itself so that their methods
be kept up-to-date.   They do considerable placement
work in some trades although as yet there has been little
organized placement and follow-up work done. Teachers
of the related subjects, English, mathematics, drawing,
science, etc., also keep in touch with the trade itself, and
with the trade teachers and work out their courses accordingly. Civics and physical culture are required subjects
and the trade schools try to incorporate something of
general culture into their work. In the Vocational School
for Boys there is a regular library period in which the boys
are exposed to good books and encouraged to read them;
Murray Hill Vocational School sends groups of boys to the
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I N  VOCATIONAL


S C     0    L 


public library to be instructed in the use of its books; Manhattan Trade School has a library which it encourages the
girls to use during free periods.
TRADE TRAINING FOR GIRLS
Manhattan Trade School is at present the only trade
school for girls. It is a most impressive school in a new
building distinguishable from the office buildings around it
only by its superior appearance. Here I,I0o girls may learn
and practice any one of many trades-dressmaking, power
machine work, novelty and embroidery, millinery, cooking,
tearoom management, laundry, manicuring and hair dressing, etc. They work on the Dalton contract plan so that
each girl may go ahead as rapidly as she likes. The course
covers two years of work, forty weeks a year, six hours a day.
There is no stated time in which a class graduates but
diplomas are given out to all who have completed their
work within the year at a special annual exercise. When
any girl has completed her course a placement teacher secures her a place, which has been carefully investigated
previously, in the trade she has chosen. Her progress in
that trade is carefully followed up for a number of years
by the school and better opportunities secured for her if
she is deserving.
Health receives great emphasis in Manhattan Trade
School. Every girl is examined by a physician upon entering and any defects discovered are followed up and corrected. Teachers make much of personal hygiene, insisting
that the girls keep their hands, nails and hair in healthy
condition. Swimming and athletic clubs offer opportunities
for healthful exercise.
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A T    S C H O O L


Most of the girls have a chance to learn the elementary
principles of selling through actual experience in the school
salesroom where the products of the trade classes-hats,
dresses, coats, novelties-are sold to cover the cost of all
supplies in the school. Manhattan Trade School, it should
be added, having grown up under the auspices of outside
organizations better able to equip it, perhaps, than a public
school system, has many features not often found in a public
school.
TRADE TRAINING FOR HANDICAPPED CHILDREN
Special classes for cardiopathic cases have been organized in an annex of Manhattan Trade School as an
experiment to find out whether or not these children should
be segregated from normal children and given separate
work in separate classes. A careful study is made of each
girl and the training adapted not only to her physical condition but to her ability. Care is also taken to place these
girls in positions where the work will not be too difficult
for them. Murray Hill Vocational School for boys has
a similar annex for boys with cardiopathic troubles in the
same Children's Aid Society building at Lexington Avenue
and I27th Street.
The special work for the dull normals has also been
organized separately as an annex, since only elementary
school graduates are admitted to the Manhattan Trade
School proper. There are, however, a large number of
girls who reach the working age who cannot graduate from
elementary school because of low-grade mental ability.
Many of them, however, can be trained for certain elementary wage-earning positions where they can earn fairly
respectable wages. As most of the work which these girls
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S, CH      0   L   


go into is of a semi-skilled variety, there is no definite length
set for the course and no standardized course of study
pursued. Each girl is encouraged to remain as long as
possible, and when she leaves she is placed at some kind of
work which she has shown she is able to do.
SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF TRADE TEACHING
The greatest difficulty of the vocational schools is in
finding properly trained teachers to assume the responsibilities teaching in an almost uncharted course involves.
This is the same difficulty that is met in the continuation
schools. Men and women from the trades can hardly be
expected to work for salaries that are less than the union
wages in their trades. Yet, practical experience and a
knowledge of the trade itself are essential to the trade
teacher.
The children who go to vocational schools are usually
much in earnest as, indeed, are the teachers who take
double preparation in order to teach them. The pupils
volunteer to attend a longer day than high schools or junior
high schools require. Attendance is excellent and the trade
schools are not subject so much as other schools to the
tapering off process when advanced work discourages
lackadaisical pupils.


[75 1




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II. GENERAL SERVICES AFFORDED




It




I. HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION


H   EALTH    and physical education and the care of
children's physical welfare call for a program going
straight through the school system from kindergarten to
high school and training school.
In New York City examinations of children to detect
illnesses and physical defects are conducted under the
Bureau of Child Hygiene of the Board of Health, as is also
the follow-up health work of the school doctors and nurses.
The schools, through their physical education department,
direct the work of physical education itself and also of
educational hygiene and recreation.  After-school and
evening recreation centers, which also have much to do with
health, are under the Division of Extension Activities.
The aim of the school is, of course, to give children the
best possible equipment for leading a happy and useful life.
Education in the days of the little red schoolhouse was
primarily concerned with children's mental equipment and
particularly with the information to be had from books.
Attention to physical education and to development of
children's bodies came later when crowded conditions of
city life forced certain facts upon public attention.
THE WORK UNDER THE BOARD OF HEALTH
One of these facts was that crowded conditions, especially
in the immigrant sections where rules of sanitation were
unknown or neglected, made the dangers of epidemics very
[79]




N  E   W    Y  0   R  K    A  T    S C   H  0  0   L
real. Thus it was that in 1897, I50 medical inspectors were
appointed from the Board of Health to go to the schools and
examine, before ten o'clock every morning, children whom
the teachers suspected of having contagious diseases. Five
years later in 1902, with crowded conditions growing more
crowded and a new set of immigrants freshly ignorant of
city sanitation coming in, these inspectors were asked to
give the whole morning to the work and to examine all
children for signs of contagious diseases. They were asked
also to visit homes of children absent for more than three
days without satisfactory explanation. That year, too,
the first staff of municipal school nurses to be employed
in this country was set to work by the Department of
Health, following an experimental study conducted by the
Henry Street Settlement of what a nurse might be able to
accomplish in school health work.
Finally, in I905, people were beginning to realize that
to try to teach children who cannot see well, who cannot
hear well, who are ill from bad tonsils or poor food or
miserable homes, is a waste of time; and that since children
are gathered together in schools something might possibly
be done about these ills through the schools. The Department of Health decided that the school doctors might examine children to detect uncorrected physical defects and
notify parents of their findings; and, the experiment with
school nurses having proved highly successful, that the
routine inspection to detect contagious diseases might be
turned over to them, subject to confirmation of suspicions
by the medical inspector, of course.
Alas, however, the notification to parents of their
children's defects seemed almost useless; only six percent
of the children with defects obtained medical attention.
[80o]




H -E A L T H


E D U C A T I 0 N


Thus it was that after three years, in I908, the Division
of Child Hygiene under the Board of Health was organized
and an increased staff of school nurses was set to visiting
homes to induce parents to have their children given proper
care. As a result of this home visiting eighty-three percent
of the children with defects had been treated in I909, as
against six percent before the home visits were made.
What the Bureau of Child Hygiene Aims to Do
Now the plan of school medical inspection is as follows:
i. Examination of all children by the school doctors in the
first, third, and sixth years of their schooling followed by notification to parents whose children are found in need of attention.
2. Examination of all new entrants to school.
3. Morning inspection by the school nurse of all contagious
disease suspects.
4. Cooperation with teachers and principals in Annual Health
Day by special examination of children reported as having defects.
5. Recommendation of special cases to sight conservation,
cardiac and open air classes and the like; examination of children
in the open air classes at the beginning and end of each term.
6. Maintenance of eye clinics and dental clinics for special
treatment of school children.
7. Regular treatment by the school nurse of certain eye and
skin diseases not serious enough to warrant a child's exclusion
from school.
8. Nurse's follow-up of recommendations made by the medical
inspector through home visits, making appointments for pupils
at hospitals, dispensaries and clinics.
Unfortunately the rapid growth in the population of
the schools without a requisite increase in the medical and
nursing staff makes the complete fulfillment of this program
impossible. There are in the City of New York at the present
[8 1




N  EW       Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O   O  L
time, in public and parochial schools, under medical supervision of the Department of Health through its Bureau of
Child Hygiene over a million and a quarter pupils. Since
January I, 1918, 185 elementary and fourteen high schools
have been opened, providing seatings for 250,000 children
in the public schools. During all of these years there has
been an increase of from 12,000 to I5,000 children in schools
each year. A large number of special classes have been
opened including open air, cardiac, crippled and sight
conservation classes. As the number of schools and children
in them increase, the force of medical inspectors and nurses
has been thinned out to cover the area. It is natural, therefore, that not as much work for the children can be done
as was done ten years ago.
In 1918 the Bureau of Child Hygiene had eighty-six
school doctors and 22I school nurses for a school population
of 951,778, giving an average of 1,067 pupils per inspector
and 4,586 per nurse. Today, with a force of ninety-eight
inspectors and 216 nurses for a school population of I,II8,I85, the average is 11,410 per doctor and 5,176 per nurse.
This does not include a large continuation and high school
population. There is in some districts one inspector for
I9,000 children, one nurse for 6,000 or 7,000 children. And
these children are housed, of course, in scattered school
buildings so that transportation problems add to already
numerous difficulties.
What the Bureau of Child Hygiene does Accomplish
The school doctors last year examined more than
300,000 children, nearly 49,000 of whom were treated in
an effort to remedy their deficiencies. Nearly half of the
82 ]




H   E  A   L  T  H     E   D  U  C   A  T  I O    N
300,000 had defective teeth, more than 2,000 defective
hearing, and 27,I50 defective vision. Nasal troubles and
tonsil difficulties affected one-third of those examined,
while 48,95I were badly nourished.
There is a decided improvement in the general health
of children. The percentage of malnutrition among school
children is on the decline, the percentage of cases of adenoids
and enlarged tonsils found is lower, more and more children
have come to wear eyeglasses or have been admitted to
sight conservation classes where their eyesight may be
preserved. Under the watchful eye of the doctor and
nurse, the major contagious diseases as a problem have been
practically eliminated from among school children. Several
hundred thousand innoculations against diphtheria are
made during a year. Vaccination is so thoroughly carried
out that practically no case of smallpox ever occurs in a
child attending school in this city.
The staff has laid particular emphasis on the importance
of giving a complete physical examination to every new
child entering school. Any defects found are reported to
the parents and every effort made to see that their children
are taken either to private physicians or to clinics for
suitable treatment. The second examination of children
in the third year of school life has been carried out in most
boroughs but the huge assignments of the doctors has made
it impossible to carry out fully the third examination in
the 6th year. The examination of children reported by
teachers on the annual Health Day* is conscientiously
made. This task has been added in the last few years and
has come to be a heavy one.
*See page 90.


[83 1




N  EW       Y  O   R  K    A  T    S C   H   O  O  L
The Bureau of Child Hygiene maintains ten eye clinics*
in various schools throughout the city to which are referred
all children who are found to have eye diseases or defective
vision and who cannot obtain treatment elsewhere. Seventeen thousand and fifty-nine children were discharged last
year after treatment or after having been fitted with glasses.
Children who are candidates for the sight conservation
classes are examined in special sight conservation clinics
where a Board of Health oculist makes the final decision
as to whether they shall go into the special class. All
conservation class pupils are examined periodically and
receive treatments unless a private physician or oculist is
handling the case.
A vital part of the health program of the New York
Schools is the work of the school dentists and oral hygienists
working under the Bureau of Child Hygiene. Their work
is work both of prevention and repair. Attention is concentrated upon examination of children in the first three
grades whose sixth year molars may be in danger. Many
parents and some dentists have been inclined too often to
neglect children's teeth, but through watchfulness and
care the school dental division has been trying to save the
valuable sixth year molars, permanent teeth, for thousands
of children.
As soon as the examination is finished the parents are
notified if any dental work needs to be done and are asked
to sign and return a card saying whether or not they are
having the work done.    Fourteen operating dentists,
eighteen dental hygienists and twenty-one nurses make up
the staff of the dental division.
*P. S. 2I, 30, 64, 65, Manhattan; P. S. 9, Bronx; P. S. 54, 28, Brooklyn; P. S.
81, 70, Queens.
[84]




H E A L T H


E D U C A T I O N


Thousands of children have their teeth cleaned and
set in order at the clinics, often maintained by private
philanthropic organizations, in various schools throughout
the city for children whose parents cannot afford private
dentists or who are able to pay only a small fee.
How Parents Cooperate
The cooperation of parents with the school medical
division and with principals and teachers is essential, of
course, to any effort to keep children healthy and happy.
If parents will respond promptly to notices from the school
doctors and dentists, if they will have the children's defects
treated promptly, if they will attend to the required vaccination of children before attempting to send them to a school,
the problems of the nurses and doctors will be half solved.
Doctors urge, too, that parents have their children examined by private physicians and given any necessary treatments before entering them in school so that the whole burden will not fall on an already over-burdened staff.
Doctors and nurses make an effort to reach many parents
each year through talks in the school assemblies and to
after-school meetings of parents and through nurses' home
visits. Parents are urged to come to school when their
children are being examined so that the school physician
may discuss the child's health problems, or at any other
time, to talk over problems with the school nurse.
The school nurse looks upon her job as one of preventive
education, not only at school but with parents in the home
as well. She talks to mothers' meetings, particularly to
meetings of kindergarten mothers about the care of their
children and their homes. A plan for helping both children
[85]




N E WT Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


and mothers in the whole health education work is that of
organizing "Little Mother Leagues" of school girls from
eleven to thirteen years old. The nurse gives instruction
and demonstrations on the care of babies, which are often
transmitted in turn by the "Little Mothers" to the "Big
Mothers." Nurses have organized Health Leagues in many
schools to stimulate the interest of pupils in health
topics.
One of these leagues functioning under the nurse has
enrolled 500 girls who hold weekly meetings. The girls
conduct their own meetings, arrange their own programs
and each autumn plan a huge bazaar for the benefit of the
health work in their district. They have been known to
raise $I,ooo or more in this way to provide milk for children
in the special classes-open air and crippled classes-to
get eyeglasses for children who cannot afford them, to
pay for dental work of needy children, etc. Prizes are
offered each year from this fund for the best attendance at
Health League meetings and for the best compositions of
the year on health topics.
THE WORK UNDER THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Having reviewed the work done by the Bureau of Child
Hygiene of the Board of Health to foster and safeguard
children's health, it is important to consider the work which
the Board of Education itself does in this connection. All
of the health and physical education work of the schools is
under the supervision of the Director of Physical Education.
This work falls into three distinct divisions, Physical Education, Educational Hygiene, and Recreational Activities.
[86 




H E A. L T H


E D U C A T I O N


Physical Education
Physical Education is a well established part of the
modern school curriculum. In New York the Welsh Law
of I916 requiring that all children over eight years old have
physical training at least twenty minutes a day, has been
amended by eliminating the time requirement, but the
Regents of the State have fixed certain standards, as
follows: (a) Morning hygiene inspection, a few minutes
each day; (b) two minute relief drill, four times each day;
(c) teaching hygiene, twenty minutes each week; (d) directed
recreation and (e) formal gymnastics, 200 minutes per week.
This is a comprehensive program-broad in possibilities
and with its status well established, although the supervisory staff should be very much larger.
At present one of the elementary school special teachers
supervises I7 schools and 588 teachers,-far too heavy a
load. The junior high schools, presenting a new form of
school organization, should have special supervision and a
specially organized program of hygiene and physical
education.
The task of physical education in high school includes
a physical examination upon entrance to a gymnasium class
and subsequent follow-up in an effort to have defects
corrected. The examination given by the physical training
director aims to detect remediable defects or illnesses, to
detect any organic defects and to adjust school activities
to individual health conditions.
One of the assistant directors and two of the thirteen
members of the administrative staff of the department
are assigned to supervision in handicapped classes. The
class teachers under their guidance follow very carefully
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N E 'W Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


the schedules of games and exercises outlined for open air
classes, for anaemic and tubercular contact cases, for classes
for the crippled, the deaf, the blind, for children in sight
conservation classes and for children with heart trouble.
The physical training department cooperates with the
building department in planning new school buildings so
as to offer ample play and physical training space for the
boys and girls. Standard specifications for physical training
equipment in high schools have been fixed for all new buildings and also for equipment of athletic space allowed to
those buildings. The modern high school is equipped for
health education with facilities as follows:
I. Two large gymnasiums, locker rooms and shower bathsone for boys and one for girls.
2. Two smaller gymnasiums-one for boys and one for girls.
3. Two corrective training rooms for individual corrective
exercises.
4. Two physical examination rooms.
5. Two physical training instructors' offices-for men and
women.
6. Two emergency rest rooms for pupils.
7. One medical inspector's office.
8. Swimming pool for boys and for girls, equipped with
lockers and showers.
9. Laundry equipment for the care of towels and swimming
suits.
Standard specifications for equipment of elementary
schools have also been fixed in blue prints available for use
of contractors. These specifications deal, of course, with
new buildings and grounds. Meantime lack of financial
provision allows many old buildings to continue poorly
equipped and many playgrounds and athletic fields to
[88]




H E A L T H


E D U C A T I O N


remain unimproved. The limitations of inadequate gymnasium space are particularly felt in many junior high
schools.
Educational Hygiene
Two assistant directors are assigned to the work of
educational hygiene which is the second division of the health
education program. Two directors, as a matter of fact, seem
to constitute the whole staff of this department, although
the special teachers of physical training aid in supervision
of direct hygiene measures, such as dental inspection, daily
health inspection and the examination and follow-up of
Health Day. It is, therefore, rather hard to generalize
about the work they do. They can make syllabi for the
teachers but they are of course unable to see that the
teachers present the work outlined in the syllabi properly
or to help them with suggestions and supervision. This
check-up must be made by the teachers of physical education.
Nevertheless, much of the health program which they
have organized is being carried out in the schools. Daily
morning hygienic inspection, one of the most important
items of the whole program, is a ceremony religiously
adhered to by most teachers. At a signal every child takes
position for inspection-teeth bared, head on one side, one
hand pushing the hair off the ear, another lifting collar
away from the neck. The classroom teacher rapidly makes
the rounds reprimanding any lapse from neatness or cleanliness, making pertinent inquiries as to use of toothbrushes
and clean handkerchiefs, sending to the nurse any child
who seems ill or feverish. Meantime a child "Health
Officer" marks the daily records on each child's card.
[89]




N  E  W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O  O   L
Annual Health Day inspection is another feature of the
health education work which has met with undoubted success. The second week of November is usually set aside
for special emphasis on health education, and on Thursday
of that week all regular work is stopped until the teacher
has had a chance to examine every pupil in her class for
signs of defective vision, hearing, teeth, of nasal breathing,
malnutrition, or other obvious physical defects. She selects
five children whom she considers most in need of attention,
and the principal arranges for a follow-up of the cases
through the school doctor and nurse. Meantime, of course,
the teacher's attention has been emphatically drawn to
those children who need special consideration from hera seat near the front for the near-sighted and partly deaf
children, instruction as to dietetics, rest, sleep, and fresh
air for children who are underweight and malnourished.
School doctors follow up these cases as quickly as they
can, making recommendations for treatment or for transfers
to special classes.
The educational hygiene directors conduct, with the
aid of school dentists and oral hygienists, a campaign to
establish among children the habit of an annual visit to
the dentist. Notes are sent home to parents stressing the
importance of this health habit and special instruction is
given the children on the care of their teeth.
The directors cooperate with the Board of Health in
its program of testing and immunizing children against
diphtheria and scarlet fever. They cooperate with the
Department of Health again in the publication of "School
Health News." Ten issues of this small magazine are put
out every year to keep teachers and parents in touch with
school health work.
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H E A L T H


E D U C A T I O N


The two assistant directors of educational hygiene make
many physical examinations for other departments. For
example, they examine certain cases for the Bureau of
Attendance; they have examined approximately 1,200
candidates for the training schools for teachers every year;
and they advise the Board of Examiners as to health
standards to be demanded of candidates for various positions.
To them, of course, falls the work of making and revising the hygiene syllabi for the elementary and high school
teachers. Health films have been constructed and reviewed
in cooperation with the Department of Visual Instruction.
A series of model lessons covering the elementary school
syllabus has been prepared for the guidance of teachers who
have ten or fifteen other subjects to teach in the regular
course of a school week. Cooperating with a number of
outside organizations interested in the schools, they have
prepared an excellent course of lectures suitable for elementary, junior high schools, and high schools.
So it is that though the tasks of this particular department are not very definite, and the department not sufficiently manned to spread itself over all the educational
hygiene work that must be necessary in so large a city, yet
a great deal is done. Individual teachers and principals
have taken a special interest in the health education work,
carrying on some excellent programs, maintaining lively
organizations and doing a great deal of educational hygiene
in their own schools.
Recreational Activities
As part of the directed recreation after-school athletic
centers are maintained in many schools. These centers
[9 I]




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A T    S C H 0 0 L


are in the hands sometimes of regular teachers working
after school, sometimes of teachers from the outside whose
names are on the approved list as having passed the Board
of Examiners' requirements. Three hundred and fifty
men and three hundred women teachers are thus assigned
to organize and direct games, drills, and athletics, from three
to four or five o'clock in the afternoon. In some schools
children may be required to stay the first hour after school
once a week, this time to be counted as part of the required
200 minutes a week.
New York City has made extensive use of the part
played in stimulating boys and girls to beneficial activity
through athletic competitions. The athletic work falls
into two distinct parts-the work with girls and the work
with boys. It has been thought best not to allow girls to
take part in inter-school competitions but to confine their
activities to inter-class competitions and annual outdoor
fetes.
The boys, on the other hand, with the assistance and
guidance of the Public Schools Athletic League, of which
the Director of Physical Training is always the secretary,
have developed an organization of athletics that holds a
unique place in school history.
Back in I904 or I905 a number of citizens interested
in the problem of getting for public school boys ample
opportunities for athletic sports organized the Public
Schools Athletic Association and started athletic competition, supervised by competent athletic directors, among
school boys. In I9I4 the Board of Education officially
recognized the Athletic League as a part of the Physical
Training Department, and the Director of the Department
became the secretary of the P. S. A. L. ex-officio.
[92 1




H   E  A   L  T   H     E  D  U   C  A  T   I O    N
With the authority and approval of the Board of Education all public school athletics are under the direction of
three committees on games of the P. S. A. L., one for elementary schools, one for junior high and one for high
schools. Acting as executive secretaries of these committees
are the three inspectors of athletics for boys, paid by the
Board of Education and directly responsible to the Director
of Physical Training. Representative school officials serve
on the three committees; for example, each high school
sends a representative teacher to the high school committee
on games. These committees have worked out rule books
setting high standards of conduct and sportsmanship in
the various organized competitions.
Competitions are, with one exception, confined to interschool and inter-class competitions.  Following an old
custom the League does send its championship baseball
team to Chicago to compete with the champions there;
but in general it is felt by the League and school authorities
that outside competition will not work for the best interests
of all the boys. For the aim of the P. S. A. L. and the
whole physical training department is to benefit not a few
boys but all the boys of every school. Thus it is that some
of the most sought medals and prizes are awarded not to
members of winning teams but to boys who have themselves
shown the greatest athletic improvement over a certain
period, at the same time keeping up in their studies and
showing a good record of character.
Nearly 500,000 boys take part annually in the various
athletic competitions of the league. The record for I925-26
is as follows:


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A T    S C H 0 0 L


Elem. Schools  Jr. H. S.  H. S.
Class Athletics.........  127,588   32,628.....
Athletic Badge Test.......  I4,000     I,IO0    I,600
Field Days..........     I I0,000   80,ooo   22,000
Track and Field Games......*  40,000   15,000   I0,500
Soccer Football..........     1,800      650     1,200
Baseball.............          ),500     600      550
Football (Rugby).....................    275
Tennis...........................       60
Golf...........................   20
Swimming............           7,000     2,100     800
Rifle Shooting................      600
Skating and Hockey...............      450
Basketball............        I0,350     3,625     350
Total.............        3I2,238    35,703   38,605
The average daily attendance in the 163 athletic centers
is 35,650 boys-boys whose chief playgrounds would
otherwise be the streets of the city.
Of course standards of scholarship and deportment are
required of all boys who would compete either in a competition or a badge test; no boy may compete in athletics who
has not been examined and his activities approved by a
physician.
This business of athletic competition in New York is
highly organized; there is perhaps no other city in the world
which can equal it. And this in spite of the shortage of
proper and convenient play space. Aided by plans worked
out with the help and advice of the Physical Training
Department, the new schools are provided with adequate
gymnasium and play space, but alas! there are not enough
new schools even to house the surplus children whom the
old schools have to accommodate on part-time or half-time
programs.
Some of the United States armories are now rented to
the schools and it is hoped that more of them will be open
for the use of public school children after school and in
the evenings. The parks offer really very little playground
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E D U C A T I O N


space equipped for athletics, and that space can hardly be
set aside for use of certain schools or athletic organizations.
The League now uses eight large athletic fields in various
parts of the city and three smaller ones. In addition some
of the high schools have their own athletic fields. The
average daily attendance at these fields is 8,500.
In all plans for further development of athletics in the
schools this problem of adequate space must come in. So
many of the schools themselves have not sufficient play
space that additional athletic fields properly equipped for
competitions in a broad program of sports are greatly needed.
The activities mentioned above represent only one half
of the after-school recreation and athletic activities of
this division. The second half comprises the Girls' Branch
of the Public Schools Athletic League, which was organized
twenty years ago by a number of citizens interested in girls
and schools.
The first task of the Branch was an active investigation
of the existing athletics for girls in the Public Schools, which
brought out the fact that there was very little, owing to the
lack of, (i) after-school supervision and instruction, (2) any
standard form of athletics for girls, and (3) available space.
The Girls' Branch then set to work to meet two of these
needs by providing after-school supervision and instruction,
and after careful study and experimentation in cooperation
with the Department of Education by establishing some
standard forms of athletics for girls, the primary object
being to provide the city girl with the vigorous, wholesome,
natural recreation and play, of which city life robs her.
Pioneer work had to be done in girls' athletics because it
was a comparatively new thing for which no standards had
been established, no experiments made.
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The fundamental policies adopted by the Girls' Branch
during the first year and still in force, are as follows:
i. Athletics for all girls in a school.
2. Athletic events in which teams-not individual girlscompete.
3. Athletics within the school and no inter-school competition.
4. Athletics chosen and practiced with regard to their suitability for girls and not merely imitations of boys' athletics.
5. Sport for sport's sake-no gate money.
Instruction classes in folk-dancing and girls' athletics
for teachers marked the next step in establishing girls'
athletics. They were offered to all teachers who would
in return conduct after-school athletic clubs. Two such
classes the first year had an enrollment of thirty-eight
teachers, who in turn taught 328 children in athletic clubs.
In I925 there was an enrollment of 300 teachers and over
60,000 children were reached by them.
The Girls' Branch was at first entirely a volunteer body,
having no official relation to the Board of Education, but
in 1909 it was given official authority. The Board now refers
to the Girls' Branch for recommendation all matters relating
to girls' athletics, and two Inspectors of Athletics for girls
are provided on the administrative staff of the Director of
Physical Training.
In I9II swimming was introduced and has proved one
of the most valuable and successful of girls' activities. Red
Cross life-saving courses followed, and Evander Childs High
School was the first public high school in the country to have
a corps of girls qualifying as life-savers. It is, however, one
of the most expensive sports and the number of pools is
entirely inadequate, in spite of the fact that twenty school
[96]




H   E  A  L   T  H      E  D  U   C  A  T   I 0   N
pools have now been built and are being maintained by the
Board of Education. This is a most important item in the
athletic equipment of the new schools and the Girls' Branch
recommends that the Board of Education will include a pool
in the plans for every new school.
Each year a park fete, or rather park fetes are held at
which the girls from all the schools in the different boroughs
of New York meet on "The Green" for an afternoon of
dancing and games. The girls of Manhattan gather from
schools on every side in Central Park; to Prospect Park
come the girls of Brooklyn and Queens; a park at Sailors'
Snug Harbor entertains the children of Richmond; and the
girls of the Bronx frolic on the lawn of Fordham University.
A summary of other activities of the Girls' Branch last
year is typical of other years:
Two hundred elementary after-school athletic centers
and athletic clubs for girls were in operation throughout
the city, with over 64,ooo girls attending. One hundred
and forty-seven after-school athletic clubs for high school
girls were conducted with over I5,oo0 girls registered.
Hockey was introduced as a game for high school girls
in I9II and now the great problem is to provide enough
fields on which to play. Last year the League was able
to secure the use of thirteen hockey fields and over 2,000
high school girls played each week, but there are many more
who want to play.
Twenty-eight basketball clubs in thirteen high schools
met each week for practice and at the end of the season
played off intra-class games.
Indoor baseball is also being fostered for elementary,
junior high and high school girls together with other team
games such as volley ball.
[97]




N E Wr Y 0 R K


A T   S C H O O L


Through the voluntary services of teachers, officials,
referees, coaches, etc., the Girls' Branch receives $60,000
worth of voluntary service each year; in other words, for
every dollar spent ten dollars worth of volunteer service
is received.


[98]




II. CHARACTER EDUCATION


IT has seemed to educators of late that there is no issue
in the whole school program so vital as character education. For great as is the parents' responsibility for molding
a child's character, obviously the teacher who has the child
in her charge for four or five hours a day must share that
responsibility. 
Heretofore, although there have been syllabi in moral
education and citizenship training there has been no definite
"program" throughout the school system. There has been
a more or less general feeling that a set program of character
education is almost futile-that the character training must
be tied up with all school activities; that a teacher must
direct the formation of good habits in every part of the
day's work. The plan has been to develop certain qualities
of character directly through allowing children a share in
school affairs, in classroom management, in school government, in management of the school bank and student body
organizations.
THROUGH THE REGULAR SCHOOL WORK
Civics in particular offers opportunity for practical
character education, and citizenship training through civics
as it is now being taught is one of the most effective and
constructive activities of the school system. History with
its tales of heroes and great deeds furnishes character training by example and inspiration. Physical education and
the development of fair play in athletic competition-all
[99]




N E W


Y O R K


A  T  S CH  0O  L


these offer opportunity every day to the earnest teacher to
guide her young charges in the formation of those more
stalwart traits of personality that go to make a strong
character.
Teachers have felt that they can fill the minds of their
pupils with good precepts and ideas in connection with every
subject on the list. Of course good teachers have always
recognized the appeal that ideal conceptions can make to
children and have utilized children's love of dramatizing
themselves and their activities through the forms and
insignia of organizations and clubs. And every good teacher
of adolescent and pre-adolescent children has capitalized
their idealism and their enthusiasm for great deeds and
great heroes for the furtherance of inspirational teaching.
THROUGH STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
In several New York City schools more or less elaborate
organizations making use of this child love of drama, of
heroes, of ideals, this child capacity for inspiration and
enthusiasm, have grown up to be the vehicles of a definite
plan of character education. Two of the best known of
these plans will serve as examples.
The Knighthood of Youth, well established in a number
of schools, is an organization developed by the National
Child Welfare Association after long study and experimentation. It begins by interesting children in the romance
of ancient chivalry, then brings the ideals of chivalry to bear
on modern life. Conscientious performance of daily character training exercises at home and at school will win for
the aspiring pupil, one by one, the coveted titles, Esquire,
Knight, Knight Banneret and Knight Constant. These
[ Ioo ]




C H A R A C T E R


E D U C A T I 0 N


daily exercises by which one may win one's spurs embody
the ideals of truthfulness, self-control, courtesy, thoroughness and thrift in concrete acts. The child keeps his own
chart of performance, for his deeds of courtesy and thoroughness and thrift must be done at home as well as at school.
Seventy percent of a certain specified set of exercises faithfully carried on for twelve or more weeks wins the first
rank-that of Esquire. A more complicated set of exercises,
for a like period, wins the title of Knight, and so on.
Another organization which is being tried out is the
Four I League. This is a program of progressive steps by
which the child must strive through months and years
to attain the coveted recognition and honor for honest
effort. The emphasis is on positive qualities, and a definite
effort has been made to inculcate in the League certain
sturdy qualifications that will appeal especially to boys.
The four I's are Integrity-basic and most importantIndustry, Initiative and Intelligence. At the end of the
child's fourth year his teacher carefully explains the tenets
of the League. At the end of the 5A grade, teachers nominate candidates whom they consider worthy of any one of
the four I's. A child may take only one step a term and
he must be nominated by more than one teacher, or by a
majority of departmental teachers, and opposed by none.
Each step is designated by the proper insignia and accompanied by the ceremony that children appreciate. The
insignia of highest honor is the square pin representing the
four I's in a perfect whole. Membership is forfeited for any
member whose fellow members vote him at any time unworthy.


[ II ]




N  E  W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O   O  L
EVALUATING THE SERVICE
But whether through constant effort in the daily round
of school life or though constant effort in keeping alive the
enthusiasm and interest necessary to make school organizations and their insignia an effective influence in children's
lives, the teaching of "character" is an elusive and intangible thing. Its worth may never be exactly measured,
nor its results counted. Nor can anyone attribute to this
or that teacher any exact measure of success or failure in
efforts to rouse and foster and strengthen worthy qualities
of character in her many charges. Nor, as a matter of purely
administrative efficiency, is there any way of ascertaining
how much or how little of effective time and energy teachers
devote to this most vital problem of teaching.
These considerations have led to the appointment of
a special committee on character education. This committee is part of a larger curriculum revision committee
which is striving to readjust the whole curriculum in keeping
with modern ideas and practice.
The committee has sought first of all to ascertain how
character education is now accomplished in the various
schools and to gather data on various devices and organizations, such as the Knighthood of Youth and the Four I
League, of which the schools are making use. One of the
problems before that committee is, of course, whether or
not there is to be a regular character education curriculumwhether or not there is to be a time set aside each day or
each week for some sort of special exercises designed to
stimulate goodness and to encourage wisdom. It is for the
committee to recommend to the schools what it considers
the best working plans for the development of character
[ o2 ]




CHARACTER                  E D U C A T I ON
among school children, possibly to suggest experiments,
possibly to outline a course of study. It is hoped that the
report of this committee will bring about highly effective
concerted action on the part of principals and teachers to
make character building the school's most vital achievement.
At any rate, the problem of character education is one
that is now claiming a paramount share of attention on
the part of New York's supervisory staff. The Superintendent holds that although the problems presented by the
future of the city are numerous and important, the most
vital one of all is "the determination of the character of
the citizens of the next generation."
It is a problem demanding, of course, that the men and
women responsible for the education of boys and girls be
men and women of such character as those boys and girls
should possess. It is a problem demanding that standards
of the teaching profession be never lowered or loosened.


[I103 ]




III. VISITING TEACHERS


A BOUT twenty years ago when educators were beginning in earnest to recognize not only that children
must be taught as individuals, but that individuals are the
only real concern of any school, a way was sought
by which to link home and school together to work for
the welfare of individual children. It was reasoned thus
reasonably: Of course it is a perfectly impossible task to
give children an education based on understanding of
their individual needs and problems unless parents and
all those directing their school life are aware of influences
and conditions occasioning those needs and problems.
Moreover, if any one child presents problems to his
teacher which cannot be solved in the schoolroom, perhaps some solution can be found through special effort
to discover the child's problems both in school and out
and to coordinate efforts of school and home and community in his behalf.
Who can find this solution and make this coordination?
The class teacher has already too much to do. A teacher,
then, who is particularly understanding, and who has added
to her classroom experience case work experience necessary
for solving social problems in the community and in the
school. In other words a "Visiting Teacher."
After several years of demonstration under private
auspices, two such specially trained people were appointed
by the Board of Education in I9I3 to be visiting teachers
in New York City. The number has been gradually in[ I04]




V  I S   I T   I NG         T  E  A   C  H  E   R  S
creased to nineteen, fifteen of whom are assigned to district
superintendents, who in turn assign them to schools in their
districts. Of these Manhattan has seven, Brooklyn three,
Bronx four, Queens one and Richmond as yet has none.
The Department of Ungraded Classes has three visiting
teachers; the remaining one is assigned to Sight Conservation Classes and Classes for the Blind.
WHAT THE VISITING TEACHER DOES
The visiting teacher makes contacts for the school with
parents and becomes acquainted with outside factors in
a child's life that may be affecting his success and happiness.
Such contacts, needed in any community, are especially
necessary in a huge cosmopolitan city like New York. There
are a hundred difficulties of crowded city life that must
affect both the home and school life of the city childrendifficulties that parents and teachers working together may
surmount. The pressure of poverty, the close proximity
of communities of good repute and of bad, difficulties in
the way of wholesome recreation, varying social and ethical
standards of people from different lands and different walks
of life, are conditions that those in charge of children at home
and at school must take into account. All of these things,
in addition to just the ordinary perplexities and troubles
that a child meets in the process of "growing up," the
visiting teacher will investigate when trying to solve the
problems of an individual child.
On the other hand, the visiting teacher makes contacts
for the parents with the school. She is able to explain many
of the more or less complicated regulations that a large
school must enforce.
105 ]




N E W' Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


How  THE VISITING TEACHER WORKS
The first thing a visiting teacher does is to find out all
she can about the children referred to her for help. She must
find out why John is restless and inattentive and always
misbehaving in class; why Bennie never has his home-work
prepared although his parents are anxious for his success
in school; why Alice seems moody and dreamy and cannot
get on with her fellow pupils; why Rebecca with her high
I. Q. falls below the attainment of the average girl of her
age; and many other "whys" that are puzzling teachers.
Her first task is to find out why because she aims always to
prevent as well as to correct.
How does the visiting teacher go about finding out these
things? Take John for example. First she looks into his
school record; she finds what his teachers, past and present,
think of him, his I. Q., his record of physical condition, his
weak and his strong points. Then she gets John to talk
about a lot of things-when and what he plays and with
whom, when he sleeps and works, what he likes to do and
what his parents like him to do. She goes to his home and
learns what his parents or those in charge at home have to
tell her about him and perhaps about his brothers and
sisters and how he gets along with them. Putting all her
information together, she has a pretty good chance of finding
the cause of John's misbehavior and lack of interest at school.
Perhaps he is getting no chance to play at all because he
is working after school in his father's shop. He may have to
work to help with the family bills; in that case the visiting
teacher calls upon one of the many social agencies she
knows to give the family some help so that John need not
work so long after school and so that he may have needed
[ Io6]




V I S I T I N G


T E A C H E R S


medical attention. Or the cause may be the attitude of
John's parents, who have not realized the unnatural strain
they were putting upon a child through such a long working
day and are only intent on keeping him out of mischief;
the visiting teacher must then change the parents' attitude
and convince them that John must have plenty of rest and
recreation if he is to keep up in school and grow into a
strong, educated man.
Similarly Bennie may have a secret and unwarranted
grudge against the teacher; Alice may never have heard
of "inferiority" but after failing daily in school perhaps
has found a satisfying escape in day-dreams, movies and
novels; Rebecca may not be realizing her best possibilities
because she is hampered by the emotional strain of her
parents' disagreement, quarreling and impending separation.
Whatever the cause, the visiting teacher must do what
she can. She must try to show Bennie where he is wrong
and to have him substitute a more tolerant attitude for his
grudge, if a grudge he has; Alice must be given some opportunity for success-possibly in a trade class or in music
or in a monitorship; Rebecca's parents must be educated
to the harm their disagreements are doing so that Rebecca's
surroundings may be changed. At any rate, the visiting
teacher keeps working away until she has found the cause
of a child's difficulties and has secured his own and his
parents' cooperation with the school in the interests of a
happier and more successful childhood.
There are various and complex problems presented to
the visiting teacher with as many and as intricate solutions.
She is assigned to solve problems of poor scholarship and
problems of poor conduct. She will probably find more than
one cause for a child's difficulties. He may be tardy and
[ o07 ]




N E 'W Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


irritable in class because he dislikes his teacher and thinks
she hates him. Poor scholarship is the natural consequence.
From the point of view of the school one of the most valuable
contributions made by the visiting teacher is the help given
to children whose school work is falling below standard. In
order to give this help she has to do some adjusting with
the child himself, encouraging him in the formation of
habits of study and concentration; with the teacher by
citing to her some of the difficulties of environment or temperament that may be holding the child back; and with the
home by showing the parents what homework is expected
of their son or daughter, and suggesting how they, too,
may help in forming habits of study and concentration.
In helping to solve conduct problems the visiting teacher
lightens the class teacher's load and frees her time for her
other pupils. At the same time the visiting teacher is
accomplishing a definite work in preventing future delinquency. Having first discovered the causes or probable
causes of a child's misconduct in school, the visiting teacher
must next seek to find the remedies. She invites the co6peration of the teacher and the principal at school, sometimes
asking that her charge be put in another grade, possibly
assigned to a new teacher, perhaps given more shop work,
or a chance in the school orchestra. She suggests to parents
ways to remedy home conditions that are in their power to
remedy. She herself knows the social agencies of the neighborhood who can and will cooperate helpfully by giving recreational opportunities or by treatment in a medical or
psychiatric clinic, or by finding jobs for the unemployed,
etc. In extreme cases she may have recourse to the Children's Court to secure certain necessary changes. With the
child himself she talks over difficulties understandingly,
[ io8 ]




V I S I T I N G


T E A C H E R S


points out where he may be wrong, and suggests new interests, new uses for his leisure time and a new outlook, perhaps, on his own situation.
A SPECIMEN DAY'S WORK
Perhaps the easiest way to picture the visiting teacher's
work is to consider one of her days. Part of each day is
spent in school, part in calls at her pupils' homes or at
social agencies she may need to enlist in the interest of her
charges.
Go to a big school in a congested neighborhood on a day
that the visiting teacher has office hours. Her "office"
may be only a little cubby-hole down on the ground floorfor the older buildings frequently are too crowded to allow
her more space. One by one the children come to her.
Tony has been referred to her because suddenly just before
graduation his school work has fallen off and his diploma
is jeopardized. Tony says that he has been working after
school until Io P. M. because last month his father was put
in jail. His mother, too, is working to care for the four
younger children. The visiting teacher promises to call at
Tony's home that night to see what can be done for him.
Next comes Isabel with her birth certificate asking for
a working paper. But she is too young to leave school and
has a mind worth educating. The visiting teacher listens
to what Isabel says about her financial need and makes a
mental note that Isabel may be unhappy in her class and
that she will investigate further. Then comes Warren, whose
prosperous father thinks play a waste of time, and the roller
skates for which his son longs particularly dangerous, because
he might fall and break his neck. Warren, who used to take
I 09 ]




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O L


out his grievance on the school, is now one of the visiting
teacher's staunchest friends. He is bringing a note from his
teacher showing he has "A" in conduct on his latest report
card.
While the visiting teacher is talking with him about
his relations with his father, voices at the door demand
attention, and the visiting teacher looks up to find Stephen's
mother and step-father excitedly explaining in broken
English that Stephen did not come home at all last night
and five dollars also was missing. Stephen, it develops upon
investigation, is the family "dumb-bell" and his more
successful big brothers and sisters "pick on him"-according to his account-and "lick him plenty but it does no
good"-according to their account. Poor Stephen has an
I. Q. of less than Ioo and hates everybody who finds fault
with him. There has been plenty of faultfinding. Consequently, Stephen has formed a habit of staying home
as little as possible, of playing on the streets until he thought
the rest of his critical family would have gone to bed, and
going to school late in the morning hardly fit to do school
work which would be hard for him at best. It will take
patience and several visits to get these parents and the older
brothers to see that the brothers must leave all control of
Stephen in their parents' hands; and that the parents themselves must change their attitude toward Stephen because
"lickings" can't help his school work, although freedom
from fear of his family elders may.
Others come with still other troubles filling the time
full. Before leaving the school for her visiting work
the visiting teacher interviews Isabel's teacher to confirm
her suspicions of Isabel's discontent because of a reproof;
then she hastens to call at the Prison Association to get help
[ Io]




V      I  S   I    T      I  N    G


T E A C H E R S


for Tony's family, and on Tony's mother to get her to
cooperate with the Association for the sake of Tony's graduation; then on to other home visits, including a re-visit to
Warren's father to see what Warren's good report will do
to soften his heart toward boyhood.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK
Every adjustment that the visiting teacher makes is
looking to the future. By providing normal conditions
instead of abnormal, by giving a child understanding and
encouragement, and helping him to find normal interests
and activities she is putting a future citizen, who may have
strayed, back on the path to an orderly and normal life.
In view, then, of the lasting good that visiting teachers
accomplish for the "problem child," the future of the
visiting teacher work in New York City is of considerable
interest. Principals and district superintendents feel that
the visiting teacher service should be extended to all parts
of the city. About 55 schools are now served by I5 visiting
teachers. This means not only that these visiting teachers
are overloaded with cases but that more than 6oo schools
have no visiting teacher service at all,-a service that is
needed in all sections and among all classes. Children may
be misunderstood among rich and poor, by educated or
uneducated parents, by the schools in one section as well
as in another. A resolution of the New York Principals'
Association commending the visiting teachers' work and
requesting an increase in the number of visiting teachers
was endorsed by 400 principals. The district superintendents have repeatedly taken a similar stand. They feel that
the service is not an expense but an economy, that the
[III]




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O L


visiting teacher saves many times her cost. They feel
that she plays a large part in promoting better scholarship and behavior, better citizenship, and correspondingly
in decreasing retardation, delinquency and undesirable
citizenship.


[1II2]




IV. SCHOOL LUNCHES


ONE of the most helpful welfare measures undertaken
by schools is that of providing wholesome lunches at
small expense for children who live too far from school to
go home for lunch or for children whose mothers work and
are unable to look after them at noon. This measure is
even more necessary in New York than in a small community because of the traffic difficulties which make it
unsafe for children to be abroad more than is absolutely
necessary.
LUNCH ROOMS UNDER SCHOOL SUPERVISION
As is true of many innovations in the schools, lunches
were first provided by outside agencies. But in I919 the
Board of Education opened a lunch service under its own
direction and appointed a school lunch manager. This
service now reaches 6,00o or 7,000 children a day in thirty
elementary schools of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the
Bronx, most of which are served from two central kitchens.
Food prepared in the central kitchens, with all the economies
of quantity buying, quantity preparation and centralized
supervision, is distributed by truck to the schools.
Here are some typical orders in preparing these luncheons
for one day:
250 pounds of baked beans
240 gallons of soup
200 loaves of bread
I5oo quarts of milk
3500 portions of pudding
4000 portions of vegetable or spaghetti
["I3]




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O L


It is possible through this service for a child to secure
a proper lunch for less than ten cents. One of the advantages
emphasized for the lunch service is that through it children
can often be instructed in better eating habits than their
eyes and sweet teeth might dictate for them. Therefore
no child is allowed to buy more than two cents worth of
candy. The cooking department with its trained staff
helps on menus and recipes and the cooking teacher usually
oversees the serving of lunch and gently persuades small
Anne or large Billy that a bowl of soup and one piece of
cake is better than two pieces of cake.
LUNCH ROOMS UNDER PRIVATE MANAGEMENT
Thirty-eight schools have separate lunch services under
private management and still ten other lunch rooms are run
by teachers or by unofficial agencies. In these schools, of
course, a profit is made which goes to the concessionaires.
The result of the varied types of management is a variation
from school to school in the prices charged for the same
food-one cent for a glass of milk in one school, five cents
in another, for example.
A PLAN FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
The school authorities have been considering for some
time plans for bringing all the lunch rooms under the supervision of the Board of Education, and for re-organizing the
lunch room management to the end that the cost to the
city might be reduced. The Board of Superintendents have
made the following recommendations which have been accepted by the Board of Education:
[II4]




S   C  H   0   0   L      L  U   N   C   H   E   O   N   S
I. That the director of home-making be put in full charge
and made responsible for school lunches.
2. That a business assistant be appointed to buy supplies,
keep records or accounts of transportation and business details
for elementary and junior high schools.
3. That no further concessionaire services be allowed.
4. That present concessionaires be discontinued as soon as
possible.
5. That all changes in menus, prices, and employment of nonpermanent labor be made by the assistant director subject to
approval by the home-making director and the associate superintendent in charge.
6. That two teachers of domestic science be assigned to the
office of the assistant director of home-making to aid in the school
lunch work.


FiIs5






I




III. SPECIAL SERVICES AFFORDED




I
0




I. CLASSES FOR. PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED
CHILDREN
FEW citizens realize the difficult tasks that confront
educators in a city as large as New York before they can
take up the business of education with any prospect of
satisfying results. For, as a sort of prelude to actual school
work, as a matter of essential preparation, there are a
hundred problems of health and social service that must be
struggled with.
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM
Among more than I,ooo,ooo children the schools will
enroll next year, an appreciable percentage will be physically
unfit to take the school work outlined for a normal child.
There are the crippled children, the blind and the deaf,
the partially blind and deaf, the tubercular, the undernourished, the cardiac cases. In addition, there are the
mentally defective, the subnormals, the abnormals, the
neurotic, the children of unstable temperaments. There
are children whose homes totally unfit them for giving
attention to school work. There are children whom poverty
shadows and frightens. There are children bedridden;
others held in detention homes, perhaps through no fault
of their own. All children, however, and therefore in the
province of the educators.
THE GENERAL PLAN OF THE WORK
Obviously, it would be folly to try to teach these children
until they have received physical and mental examinations,
[II9]




N  E  W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O  O   L
until recommendations have been made for conserving the
powers left them, and for developing those powers to compensate for powers they lack. In this necessary preliminary
diagnostic work New York City has done some wonderful
things; some wonderful things, too, in the education of
handicapped children in special classes.
The whole plan of the school's service to handicapped
children is so to educate them as to offset their handicaps
and allow them to live as nearly natural and independent
lives as is possible. For this reason many educators have
thought it best when possible not to segregate them in
separate schools but to maintain classes for them in the
regular schools so that they may have the association of
normal children and may feel that they are accomplishing
the same work. Emphasis is laid upon the fact that these
special classes try to accomplish the regular work of the
regular grades. Upon graduation from elementary school
the children are prepared to continue their school work in
high schools or vocational schools. Many go into secretarial courses, commercial courses and library work.
Many, of course, may need to have a job when they
are old enough to leave school. It has been part of the aim
of teaching in the classes themselves to provide the children
with some means of earning a livelihood when they shall
have finished school and wish to continue normal associations. Therefore, industrial handwork, especially in the
upper grades, is provided in addition to the regular
work.
Industrial trade work in classes for handicapped children
is under the direction of a special inspector who has worked
out courses adapted to the varying abilities of the children
and designed to give them training that may later provide
[120]




P HY SI C A   L 


H A N D I C A P P E D


them with a job and the feeling of independence that is
important to the self-respect of a normal human being. The
inspector,studies the trades themselves and brings back to
her teachers through after-school teacher training classes
technical information as to new methods and devices. The
industrial work is designed to give basic skill with fingers,
needle, shuttle, and does not necessitate expensive equipment. It consists of basketry, rug weaving, novelty making,
sewing, hand leather work, millinery, and the like.
Teachers of handicapped children work under a special
license which requires that they know something of the
nature of the children's handicaps, something of the care
that various types of handicap must have, of the exercises
that should and may be given and of the handwork that
these children may undertake. Afternoon and evening
courses to teachers who would qualify for the special
licenses and to teachers already licensed who wish to keep
up with developments in trade handwork are given by the
inspector in charge.
Placement of handicapped children in jobs when they
leave school also is under the direction of this department
and, with the help of one assistant-at-large, what placement work is done she or the class teachers themselves must
do. It is, of course, vitally important that these children
go into work that they can do well, and that will in no way
endanger their health. As a precursor of placement work
itself employers must first be persuaded to give these
unfortunate children a chance. Many employers feel that
employment of handicapped children involves a responsibility that they do not wish to undertake; and, probably,
they under-estimate the ability of the children to keep up
with normal workers.
[121]




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O L


Physical handicaps are the most obvious and the most
numerous. The lame, the halt and the blind we have always
with us. Since care of the health of the children must be
the first and paramount consideration, the Board of Education has placed an assistant director of the Physical
Training Department, who is also a physician, in charge
of the supervision and administration of special classes for
the crippled, cardiopathic, undernourished, pre-tuberculous, tuberculous, and for malnutrites and doubly handicapped children in schools, hospitals, institutions and in
private homes.
SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE WORK
The Board of Education has had to make many special
provisions for these handicapped children. Auto buses
under the supervision of careful attendants take children,
who could not otherwise attend, to and from school. Classes
for the crippled and cardiopathic children must be on the
ground floor, near to exits and playgrounds. The rooms
are equipped with special furniture, adjustable in the case
of the crippled to accommodate unwieldy casts and braces,
and movable so that space for games and exercises may be
easily provided. There are cots for rest periods and in
most of the special classes milk and usually hot lunches
are served.
For all the handicapped classes specialized physical
training is required and supervised by two special teachers
of the Physical Training Department. Health is emphasized
in these classes above all else. Courses that will be within
the children's powers and that will yet give them the
exercise essential to their development have been carefully
[122 ]




P H   S IC A    L 


H A N D I C A P P E D


prepared for the various types of handicapped children to
be given in the regular physical training periods. Teachers
are instructed in certain games.and competitions that will
interest their small charges and at the same time be safe
for them. Balls and beanbags in passing and throwing contests exercise bodies and lungs. It is amazing how very active the crippled and blind children often are, and keen indeed is the competition,-keener still the children's enjoyment.
Special classes for handicapped children are limited to
a register of twenty-five, but when this register includes
pupils doing work in as many as eight different terms the
teacher has to work fast in order to get through all her school
work, observe scrupulously rest and recreation periods,
serve the morning milk, conduct the physical training and
game periods and yet devote several hours a week to industrial handwork. Moreover, the buses will bring part of
her charges at 8:30, others at 9, take some home at 2:30
and others at 3.
Great care is taken that the education of the handicapped
children continue uninterrupted.  Clinics for treatment
of school children have been arranged for afternoons after
school, and on Saturday mornings. When a crippled child is
sent to a hospital for an operation, he is transferred to the
class of cripples there. In case his convalescent care covers
a period of thirty days or more, he will be admitted to one
of the classes of cripples in the convalescent home, or a
home teacher will be assigned. As a result, the age of
graduation of crippled children in special classes in elementary schools has been reduced from seventeen or eighteen years to fourteen, and in some instances to thirteen
and a half years. Teachers in the upper grades often make
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use of the Dalton Plan so that individual progress may not
have to wait on the short recitation periods for which the
teacher has time.
Classes for handicapped children under Board of Education teachers are conducted in many institutions as annexes
of the regular schools. Exemplifying this arrangement is
P. S. 192, Manhattan, located in the Hebrew Orphanage
at Amsterdam Avenue and I37th Street and with fourteen
annexes scattered from there to Peekskill and Pelham.
The New York Orthopedic Hospital for crippled children
and the Martine Farm for children with cardiac troubles,
White Plains; the Blythedale Home for Crippled Children
and the House of Mercy for Delinquent Girls, Valhalla;
Surprise Lake Camp for Undernourished Boys, Cold-Springon-Hudson; Jewish Protectory, Hawthorne; and Josephine
Home for Children Suffering from Malnutrition, Peekskill,
are among the fourteen. Although outside the area of greater
New York, these are nevertheless New York City children
and New York's Board of Education has gallantly responded to requests from the various institutions for
teachers and school supplies.
The principal in charge of a school like P. S. 192 has
what would seem to be an almost impossible task. He must
approve the course of study and oversee the school work of
teachers in fourteen annexes miles apart, whose pupils
present very special problems of discipline or of health or of
scholastic ability. Trained teachers who are capable of
undertaking the responsibilities and who are willing to
live, as is sometimes necessary, in isolated institutions,
are not easy to find.
The fourteen annexes of P. S. 192 by no means represent
all of the institutions where teachers and school supplies
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are sent by the Board of Education to children who are
bedridden or separated from home and family and schools
in hospitals and institutions. Hospitals and convalescent
homes in various parts of the city have their classes for
crippled and sick children; teachers are sent to orphanagesthe Dobbs Ferry Orphanage is an annex of P. S. I65, as is
the Hebrew Sheltering and Guardian Society of Pleasantville. Home teachers are provided for children whom it is
impossible to send to the classes for crippled children in the
regular schools. Indeed, it is difficult here to do more than
to indicate the far-flung activities of the New York school
system in caring for handicapped and helpless children.
At the New York Orthopedic Hospital, for example,
there are six classes for crippled children. One teacher
spends her entire time teaching at the bedside of children
who are unable to attend classes. A kindergarten of twentyfive or more limping but radiant babies is a sight to stir the
heart and convince one that any joy that books or teachers
can bring to these handicapped children must be theirs. On
through the eighth grade, two or three classes to a room,
a valiant corps of teachers is striving to give their beloved
charges the essentials of a normal life so that no child
shall be without the equipment education offers if one day
a normal life becomes possible for him.
SPECIAL CARE FOR THE CRIPPLED
In I916-I7 the city experienced a scourge of infantile
paralysis that left in its wake a sad procession of little ones
stumbling their way into our schools. In I918-I9 there
were thirty-nine classes of crippled children organized and
that number more than doubled in the next four years.
[ I25






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There are still in the schools 1,92I crippled children in public
school classes, 1,983 in institutional classes, and I04 who
are transported to high school classes, in addition to more
than 300 who are receiving school instruction at home
because none of the transportation and guide systems
the schools provide make it possible for them to attend.
There are two central schools for crippled children,
P. S. 75, Manhattan, and its annex in the Children's Aid
building on East 88th Street, maintained by outside philanthropic organizations. The Board of Education provides
these schools with teachers, classroom equipment and
supplies for elementary school instruction and specialized
physical training, and also conducts the after-school centers
for crippled children. The Lehman Foundation maintains
a commercial shop in connection with P. S. 75 which provides many of the school's graduates with jobs where their
health will be carefully protected and their lives made as
agreeable as possible. The building itself is admirably
equipped with baths, rest rooms and an infirmary; doctors,
nurses and clinical attention are provided free to children
in its charge.
These are special schools, however. It is, as has already
been pointed out, the general policy of the Board of Education to maintain the classes for handicapped children in
the regular public schools where the children will associate
with normal children.
Like the teacher of bedside classes is the teacher of the
home-bound cripples who personally takes the school to
children who can not come to the school. The Board now
provides sixty-seven of these teachers-not nearly enough
to minister to all of the city's children whose crippled bodies
will not allow them to venture far from home and bed.
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H A N D I CA P P ED


Thirty-five more home teachers were requested in the I927
budget. The plan is that each child of elementary school
age receive one and a half hours of instruction three times
a week. Specialized instruction for older children and
graduates of the elementary school course is also provided
to enable home-bound children to become self-supporting.
The work is one of the most appealing that the schools
undertake. The home teacher brings new interest and joy
to the homes of her crippled charges. The children often
make wonderful progress because of their keen interest and
devotion to their work. They learn to read and the joys of
the printed page are opened to them. When necessary,
medical and nursing care is secured through various agencies
cooperating with the schools. Many improve enough under
such treatment to be allowed to attend regular schools.
All children in special classes for physically handicapped
children are under medical and nursing supervision through
cooperation between the schools and specialists in charge
of the care of each child whether as a private patient or in
hospitals and clinics.
SPECIAL CARE FOR THE CARDIACS
The children with heart trouble were the last to receive
special care in school. To avoid stair climbing for them,
to take them away from the temptation to overdo when
competing with other children, to give their health special
attention, special classes for children with cardiac troubles
have been organized. There are now 855 such pupils in the
elementary schools, and in trade and high schools.
The first event of the day in the cardiac class is the
taking of temperature and respiration. In the middle of
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the morning there is a recess period when milk is served;
a forty minute period each afternoon directly after lunch is
observed as a rest period; from three to four, if the children
want to stay, there is a recreation period supervised either
by the classroom teacher or by a qualified supervisor furnished by the Physical Training Department.
OPEN AIR CLASSES
The children with tuberculosis-648 of them in New
York schools-present some difficult problems. More than
forty are taught in hospital classes. The Board of Education has secured space for outdoor classes for tuberculous
children and children who have been in contact with tuberculosis on boats, piers, in parks and on roofs of hospitals.
For example, at the foot of II2th Street on the East
River in the large upper floor of a two-story pier extending
out over the water are eight classes of elementary school
children. When the sun is out it streams graciously through
windows that make up most of the wall on three sides
of the building. The windows are kept open as much
as possible and teachers and pupils bundle up in coats,
furs and hoods when necessary.
Open air classes for approximately 3,700 children on
roofs and in open-window classes in the schools themselves
are no longer a novelty. To these classes are admitted
anaemic and undernourished children who need special
attention paid to their diet, to their rest periods and to the
air that they breathe. The rest and milk program is similar
to that of the cardiac classes. When the time comes for
rest period there is a cot drill to see how quickly and efficiently school work seats may be pushed against the wall
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and folding cots, which have been stored somewhere behind
a screen, may be unfolded and lined up in military rows.
Charts of weights and measures are scrupulously kept,
recording each child's health progress. The children themselves keep health cards and learn a great deal about what
care can do for sick bodies. They are taught to form proper
health habits in order that they will know how to maintain
the beneficial results obtained while in special classes after
they are transferred to regular classes.
SPEECH IMPROVEMENT CLASSES
Under the direction of an acting director and twentysix supervising teachers, classes for children with speech
defects and faulty accents are maintained in as many schools
as this service can reach. The function of the director and
the supervising teachers is three-fold. They have, first,
to examine all children reported by teachers as needing
the special speech improvement work. Second, they give
individual and group drills and exercises for loosening of
tight muscles and for gaining control of recalcitrant tongues
and palates. Lastly, they instruct class teachers in proper
methods of speech improvement, so that the few minutes
of work they are able to give in a special class once or twice
a week may be followed up.
When the special teacher arrives at the school the children who need her attention have been scheduled so as to
leave their regular classes in a period that they can miss
without delaying their regular work too much. They come
to her all through the day in some corner of the school
building where she can spread her charts and keep her
mirrors for distribution. The children are taught to practice
[ I29]




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before mirrors so that they can see when lips and tongue
are not obeying their commands. Special drills on difficult
sounds and combinations of sounds are run through, then
each individual child receives a separate drill on his particular
difficulty before returning to his regular class. This work
is carried on through elementary school and into some of
the high schools. Many children are cured of embarrassing
and detrimental stammerings and stutterings and lispings.
The problem of foreign accents is one that occurs with
great frequency in this cosmopolitan city, of course, and
here again the Department of Speech Improvement does
good work. With prospective teachers, too, who must pass
an oral English test for pronunciation and control of voice,
the Department helps. A clinic has been established at
the Brooklyn Training School for Teachers where the
pupil-teachers may have help in overcoming any slight
speech defects that endanger their teaching licenses.
THE SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF
One of the most difficult problems is the education of
the wholly or partially deaf. Even if there were room in
public institutions, parents hesitate to send such children
to them. Many have not money to send their afflicted boys
and girls to private schools. Back in I908, therefore, at the
special request of a group of parents who could not afford
special teaching for their children, the Board of Education
undertook, experimentally, the education of the deaf in a
special school. They took an old building at first, because
they were merely to try out the plan. The first year there
were forty-seven pupils; last year there were more than
400 in a new building on East 24th Street.
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HA N D I C A P PED


The children are examined first by the medical inspector
in their own school. Then cases recommended for the
School for the Deaf are sent to the clinic maintained there
with outside help for the examination and treatment of
children who cannot afford treatment elsewhere.
Only the children who cannot get along in the regular
schools are admitted to this school. Sometimes children
who have failed two or three times in IA and 2A grades are
found upon examination to have failed simply because they
did not hear well. This fact emphasizes the conviction of
every person who has to do with the administration of
economical and preventive measures in health and educational work-the examination should come before the
child has been allowed to fail two or three times because of
his physical handicap. Failure has discouraged him and
several terms have been wasted both for the school and
for the child. Physical and mental examination of children
before entering or in their first term of school-that is the
goal toward which serious-minded educators are looking.
The teachers are carefully trained to the very special
kind of teaching they have undertaken. They serve a year
of apprenticeship in the school, observing and practicing
as a part of their training.
It is perhaps unnecessary to go into the infinite demands on patience that this teaching makes, but the major
difficulty might be suggested. The totally deaf child has
no language, no medium of communication except by touch
and gesture. The teacher must build up for him letter by
letter, syllable by syllable, not only the ability to read
sounds from the lips and throat of the speaker, but she also
must teach him to reproduce vocally that which he can
understand although he has never heard it. The problem
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of the partially deaf is somewhat easier but they too must
read from lips, must be carefully trained in the reproduction
of sounds that they have heard only imperfectly.
As one goes from a class where the children have been
in school only one term to an 8B class it is thrilling to note
the progress accomplished. In the iB eager little children
hop, skip, jump, walk, run, at a monosyllabic command
read from the teacher's lips; they point out the picture of
a boy, a doll, or a wagon, in response to a noun pronounced
by the teacher; they recognize and reproduce in varying
stages of imperfection the sounds, b, r, oy, an, etc. Next
they begin to put these sounds together and identify them
with objects or acts.
In the 8B grade the children are able to read quickly
from the speaker's lips, and to talk interestingly and
intelligently in reply. These children do the work of all
the grades in only a little more time than is allotted the regular schools. They are allowed six years to do the work of
the first difficult three years of "learning the language"
and from then on keep up with the regular classes.
Teachers in the School for the Deaf are continually
experimenting with teaching methods. No one knows
what the best methods are. They try rhythm work, they
experiment with vibrations in an attempt to establish
somehow a standard of pitch for the voices of these children
who have never heard. A vocal music course is now being
tried out under the supervision of the Director of Music
and one of his assistants, to stimulate what measure of
hearing the children may retain and to help them with tone
and rhythm.


[132]




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H A N D I C A P P E D


SPECIAL CARE FOR THE BLIND
"You see, you write from left to right, but we have to
write from right to left this way. We have a much harder
job learning our alphabet, too. You only have one to learn,
we have two really."
A group of children were gathered round the visitor
eagerly explaining how they must adapt themselves gradually to our ways. It was a most casual acceptance of
fact-"you can do it this way, we have to do it that way."
Were they foreigners,-Japanese or Chinese children?
you ask. No. But theirs was also a strange and different
land-the Land of Darkness. They were blind children in
a New York public school class.
They showed how they work arithmetic on a special
hollow metal slate. They make the digits by placing in
different positions in specially cut holes in the slate little
lead slugs like those of a printer, one with a raised ledge,
the other with two points on top. William volunteered to
do some problems in subtraction and long division, working
them out with little rows of slugs on his slate.
Carmelo was persuaded to write for the visitor. With
braille writing, by means of dots punched with a stylus
from right to left so that the raised dots on the other side
can be read from left to right, almost everyone is somewhat familiar. Jeanette, the oldest girl, had -to reprove
Carmelo a little for his spelling, but then Carmelo is only
in the 4B and he was writing revised braille abbreviated!
About the two alphabets, Jeanette explained that there
is an American braille which public school children in
New York used to learn. Recently, because of the multiplication of systems used by different educational institutions
[I33 




NE    W     Y  O   R  K    A  T    S C   H   O  O  L
and publishing companies, a representative committee
decided upon a revised braille for all schools and institutions. Late comers in classes for the blind theoretically
need to learn only revised braille, but so many books have
been published in American braille that it is practically
necessary to know both systems.
The frank and practical acceptance of the fact that in
many ways they are like foreigners among us, reading and
writing a different language, clears the way for the rapid
progress of these children. Marvelously they do the regular
work of the school, going to every class, taking down dictation and writing notes in braille, studying from their own
texts and working arithmetic in their own way. They spend
only their study periods-and periods in drawing and
physical education in which they cannot take part-in the
class for the blind, where a special teacher helps them with
any difficulties. She teaches them typewriting, both on
a regular and on a braille typewriter. She interlines their
examination papers, translating their braille into script so
that the history or geography teacher can correct them.
She reads to them, gets volunteer readers from among
the upper grade children for them, orders books, explains
things that need explaining, talks with their regular teachers
and looks after them generally.
Classes for the blind were first opened in New York
public schools in I909, but now such classes are scattered
through the elementary and junior high schools wherever
they are needed. Transportation or guides are provided
free of charge.
At present there is only one class for the blind in a
high school, in Wadleigh High School for girls. There
again the work of the class teacher is to supplement the
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regular class work, and also to plan programs and advise
as to courses. She must be capable of giving help in anywhere from fifty to seventy high school courses, for her
pupils may come from any course and any grade in high
school. In addition, she helps the girls plan for the future;
she advises for or against college, according to the girl's
chances for success; she arranges bazaars to furnish money
for dictaphones that she may open up a new field of usefulness for the blind; she continually works on the problem of
finding jobs for her graduates because there is no one else
to do this necessary placement work.
SIGHT CONSERVATION CLASSES
Besides these classes for the blind or children so nearly
blind they must learn to read and write braille, there are
sight conservation classes in the elementary and junior high
schools. Special teachers for classes of twenty or under
supervise the study work of children whose vision is very
poor or failing, providing notebooks and the few text books
available in large print, seeing that the children go to oculists or the clinics when necessary, instructing them in the
care of their dim vision, and giving them special handwork
that may serve as a background of training for a job.
Sight conservation classes are a recent development.
Formerly the schools were content to let the child with poor
vision struggle along as best he could, straining his eyes
and accomplishing little. Now the schools assign a special
teacher in a special class to help him keep up with normal
children. These teachers take the utmost pains to conserve
his failing vision and if medical attention can better it,
then to obtain that medical attention for him. They try
to insure his independence when he leaves school by offering
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him through industrial handwork the rudiments, at least,
of a trade training.
A pupil in a sight conservation class must spend even
more time than a blind child in the special class, for, having some vision, he will be tempted to use his poor eyes too
much in other classrooms which are not specially lighted
or equipped. Reading and all written work of any length
he must do in his special room. Physical training, arithmetic, spelling and much of history, geography and nature
work hecan takewith the other children in the regular classes.
The staff in charge of blind and sight conservation classes
needs many things-more textbooks, better equipment.
The staff itself is not sufficient for the requirements of a
growing department. A special music supervisor, with a
knowledge of braille notation, is one of the things which
those in charge think vital to the work with children whose
other senses must make up for the lack of one. Class registers from fifteen to twenty grow too large for allowing
enough attention to individual children.
The equipment and lighting of some of the rooms that
sight conservation classes have had to use still leave much
to be desired in the older schools, but these are being gradually remedied. As yet there are not enough texts in large
print to supply the sight conservation classes and the teacher
must spend a great deal of time in tedious copying into notebooks that serve as substitutes for books.
Provision for sight conservation classes in high school,
so that no handicapped child be forced to end his schoolwork without high school is especially needed. For it is a
great work that the schools do in giving these children of
a near-foreign land a chance to be normal, successful, happy,
useful children,growingupwith a hopefuloutlook for the future.
[136]




II. THE UNGRADED CLASS DEPARTMENT


DIFFICULT as are the problems presented by children
with physical handicaps, their solution is perhaps easier
for the schools than the problems of hundreds of other children whose handicaps may not be so obvious but are none
the less severe. In this latter group are children born without the mental ability required for regular school work.
In this group, too, are children suffering from mental and
nervous disorders about which science knows little and
which teachers and principals too often mistake for intentioned misconduct and insubordination. There are also
children whom neglect and abuse and bad influence at
home have totally unfitted for participation in orderly and
happy school life.
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM
These are some of the "problem children" of whom so
much is heard lately. How many of them are there? Of
those who have been definitely reported, I8,903 were referred to the ungraded class department during the first
seven months of the last school year; 695 are in probationary
schools, and 287 in the New York Parental School,-a total
of nearly 20,000. These figures do not take into account
those truants whom the Bureau of Attendance is always
trailing, nor children who are referred for special attention
and adjustment to visiting teachers in the regular schools.
And, doubtless, there are many problem children whom
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teachers have not reported-problems they themselves are
trying to solve or that are not recognized.
Take the first of these groups of handicapped childrenthose of low mentality. Mental measurements have shown
that from two to five percent of the children of school age
have not the mental capacity to do the work of the traditional school curriculum. It is estimated that ten percent
of the amount spent on education annually in this country
is spent in an unproductive effort to re-teach children what
they have failed to learn in one school term. New York
City would thus apparently contribute to this fruitless
effort $I 1,000,00 annually. Formerly this group of handicapped children was simply carried along in school; they
studied in one grade two terms, then were pushed along
to another teacher, and so on for long weary years until they
were old enough to quit or troublesome enough to be transferred to a probationary or parental school. The schools
were giving these children a fifth grade education for which
a twelfth grade rate was paid-or the price of the whole
elementary and high school education of a normal child.
At the end of I925 the city school records showed 262,177
children retarded in school, approximately fifty percent of
whom were retarded more than one term. Mental measurements again have proved that a large percentage of all
children who are overage for their grades are of low mentality-that they have failed because they could not do
otherwise working with the traditional curriculum.
The presence in school of even a few problem children
makes the task of the teacher infinitely more difficult and
operates against the welfare of all the other children in a
class. The children themselves, continually scolded, continually discouraged, become morose, destructive, sullen.
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They come to hate school and teachers and are ready whenever a chance presents itself to break into mischief which
may develop into vice and crime. Realization of these facts
led to the establishment in I906 of the Ungraded Class
Department.
The functions of the Department of Ungraded Classes
are two-fold: (I) the examination of problem children, and
(2) the organization and supervision of instruction in the
ungraded classes.
THE PSYCHO-EDUCATIONAL CLINIC
For the first of these functions, the examination of
children sent to the department by principals and others
throughout the city, a psychological and educational clinic
is maintained in which the children are given physical, psychiatric and psychological examinations. These examinations are supplemented by facts about the child's family
and his personal history.
The personnel of the clinic staff is made up of trained
workers from four different fields,-education, psychology,
medicine and social work. The psychologist examines the
child to determine learning capacity and notes, as she examines, habits or traits that suggest certain aptitudes or
inaptitudes, and certain emotional or unemotional reactions. Children who show signs of extreme mental or nervous disorders or whose cases present particularly difficult
problems are turned over to a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist
is a scientifically trained physician who deals chiefly with
nervous and emotional troubles. The visiting teacher, who
has had training and experience both as a teacher and as a
social worker, makes contacts with the child's parents or
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N  EW       YO     R  K    A  T     S  C  H  O   O  L
with any of the social or welfare agencies that she knows
may help him.
The demand by principals for the services of the clinic
are far in excess of its facilities. Of the I8,903 children
reported for examination, the clinic has been able to examine only 9,238.
Here is an overgrown boy, overage for his grade, referred by a principal after a wild outbreak in which he
tore up his teacher's roll book. This violent act of resentment at a teacher's criticism of his work may mean a mental
disorder that makes it unsafe for that particular boy to be in
school. That is for the psycho-educational clinic to find out.
Here is a bright boy who wants to quit high school.
His father appeals to the department to try to make some
school adjustment that will help keep him in school. A
change of course of study, an intelligent interest in his
career, may do the trick. One of the three visiting teachers
assigned to ungraded classes will probably try her hand
at the adjustment.
A mother reports a boy in 3B who is always left back;
the clinic discovers that the boy has mental powers only
for the first grade work-he will doubtless go to an ungraded class where with special help and special work he
can be made to feel the thrill of doing some task successfully.
There are cases of sex offenses reported by principals
and assistant principals; cases, too often, of incipient insanity which must be taken from the regular schools for
the sake of other children as well as of themselves.
Of all problems that are submitted to the clinic for
examination only about one-third may be cared for in the
ungraded classes which are the other concern of the department. The troubles of two-thirds are due to causes other
[ 40]




U N G R A D E D


D E P A R T M E N T


than low intelligence. Re-classification in a higher or a
lower grade better suited to their abilities takes care of
many; sometimes examination reveals that a sight conservation class or a class for the deaf is the place for a particular boy or girl. Cases of other physical handicaps and
malnutrition are recommended for special care. Some children's troubles may be dissolved by providing opportunities
for natural social activities.
A definite need has been felt in the high school for psychiatrists and psychologists to make scientific examinations
of children who are experiencing unusual difficulties either
in their school work or in their social relationships. The
staff of the clinic has helped where it could, but of course
it is inadequate to meet the need of thirty-eight high schools.
Unfortunately, the schools offer at this time no solution
for the problems of some children. Children whose mental
age is below that of a five-year-old child and children of
thirteen years with I. Q.'s of 50 or under are excluded because the schools as now organized can do nothing for them.
The school of the future will doubtless provide sensorimotor training for the group.
There is another sad little group of children to whom
the clinic dedicated a half day a week last year-the children from the classes for the physically handicapped, who
present special problems of learning or of conduct. Of
fifty-two such children forty percent were recommended
to ungraded classes; seventeen percent were found to be
uneducable.
THE UNGRADED CLASSES
In I926 there were 361 ungraded classes with a register
of 7,220 children. What can the schools do for these 7,220
[ 4I ]




N E WV Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


children who cannot do the work of the regular grades because their minds are incapable of grasping all that is required of normal children of their ages?
Much of the work of the school curriculum has to do with
the manipulation of symbols, but inability to work with
symbols does not necessarily mean inability to work with
materials. Therefore the ungraded classes can furnish materials to work with, can develop certain practical skills that
may prove useful and that may lead later to an understanding of symbols connected with the practical job. Arithmetic
may seem a hopeless jumble of meaningless figures until a
boy tries to make a shelf and finds that he has to measure,
and that symbols on a ruler will help him in that practical task.
Classrooms for ungraded class pupils are specially
equipped with movable furniture so that seats may be often
put to one side and study by means of action substituted
for the study of symbols. Other equipment deemed necessary includes sewing and embroidery materials for girls,
sand trays for small children, looms for weaving, work
benches, and horizontal bars for exercising. The cost of
equipping an ungraded classroom is about $600,-$2I6,6oo
for the 361 classes. Classes accommodate twenty or twentyfive in a room. But remembering the $i I,ooo,ooo figure and
remembering the fifth grade educations at twelfth grade
rates under the old system, that figure seems trifling indeed.
For these children, once they have received a fifth grade
education, if they are capable of receiving a fifth grade education, will be sent on to the adjustment classes of the
junior high schools where many of them will learn the practical foundations of a trade.
With a small group of children an ungraded class teacher
has time to search out the individual difficulties of her
[142 




U N G~ R A D E D


D E P A R T M E N T


pupils. She receives a report from the clinic of each child's
showing on the psychological examination so that she may
learn what are his greatest difficulties. She has time to
experiment with all sorts of devices for spurring interest
and awakening the tiniest spark of intelligence. She arranges all the self-expressive activities she knows-dramatizations, songs, painting, drawing, story-telling, rhythms and
dances, bench work and handwork of all kinds.
She aims to give her children the essential skills in arithmetic and reading. Reading is the subject with which
retarded children have most difficulty. She makes use of
every opportunity to have the child associate the symbol
with the familiar object and of every situation in the classroom that requires his ability to read. Finally she adapts
her reading lessons so that they demand a motor response
-run, jump, toss the ball, pick up the book,-so that
always symbols shall be impressed on the memory by a
practical demonstration of their meaning. Re-examinations of ungraded children show frequent examples of
improvement.
The supervisors of the department are consultants with
whom the teachers may talk over problems of subject matter,
method and analysis of children's difficulties. The teachers
are given opportunity to visit, with the supervisors, classes
presided over by superior teachers, so that new methods
may be discussed and demonstrated.
A type of ungraded class which is unique in school organization is maintained at Bellevue Hospital. These classes
are for the psychopathic and psychotic children who come
to the attention of the department of ungraded classes.
They present a problem to the parents and to school officials
which is greater by far than the problem presented by
[ 43] 




N  E  W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O  O   L
children of low intelligence. Certain children who have
suffered from the dread disease encephalitis or "sleeping
sickness" are sent to this class. They are known as "postencephalitic" cases.  They present behavior problems
which are often mistaken for incorrigibility. They baffle
physician and teacher. The work of these classes has already demonstrated that constructive work with these
afflicted children is a necessary part of the modern school
system.
The clinic comes in again for re-examination of children
in the ungraded classes whenever they are recommended
either for a transfer back to the regular classes or when they
are old enough to leave school and apply for working papers.
Some schools issue to ungraded class children leaving school
a "certificate of merit."
THE FUTURE OF THE DEPARTMENT
The above heading is used in place of the often re-iterated
Plans for Future Development because the department has
already worked out very definite figures on the department's
needs in order to accomplish even the two functions set for
themselves. There are those io,ooo or more children reported to the clinic for special care which the clinic is not
equipped to give them. The department estimates that
this job could be finished if twenty-three trained people
were added to the staff, seven assistant inspectors, ten
psychologists, four visiting teachers, and two medical
inspectors.
It is estimated that for the proper supervision of the
ungraded classes seven additional inspectors are needed.
There are now three supervisors of ungraded classes who
[ 44]




U N G R A D E D


D E P A R T M E N T


act as consultants with the teachers in modifying courses
of study and methods of procedure in a pioneer endeavor,
for as yet there have been no standards established for the
work of an ungraded class.
Since I918 the department has been housed in old buildings with neither adequate space nor suitable equipment to
carry on the work of the department. The department
dreams of a time when it may have a suitable building-A
House of Understanding-to which all problem children who
need such attention may be referred for examination, kindly
interest and scientific treatment.


[ I45 ]




III. SPECIAL SCHOOLS FOR BEHAVIOR
PROBLEMS
PROBATIONARY SCHOOLS
/M   ANY of the problems handled by the visiting teacher
are, of course, problems of behavior, but there are by
no means enough visiting teachers to take care of all behavior problems, nor can visiting teachers alone give to
certain types of problem children the special kind of education and treatment that is needed throughout the school
day to train them in the paths of orderly and useful citizenship. Children who are continually holding up the work of
a class because of extreme misconduct and feats of mischief
or worse are an ever present problem to teachers and principals. Many educators feel that they should be separated
from the regular classes, partly because teachers have no
right to take time from a whole group of pupils to discipline
one or two unusually troublesome children, and partly because the troublesome children themselves need special
help and attention throughout the day which a busy classroom teacher has not time to give.
The principal of P. S. 120 Manhattan, which was the
first probationary school in the world, declares that at
least fifty percent of the boys who are transferred to probationary schools are as abnormal as are neurotics, cripples,
mental defectives and all the other special class children.
Not abnormal physically or mentally, perhaps, but temperamentally abnormal. She feels that they are as much
[ 146]




B E H A V I O R


P R 0 B L E M S


in need of special instruction and expert care throughout
their school days as are those other children with more
obvious defects-the blind and the deaf and the crippled.
P. S. 120 was established twenty years ago to give this
special care in a regular day school to boys of neighboring
East Side schools who were "in trouble" of one kind or
another. It's aim was not to punish past wickedness but
to prevent future delinquencies. There are now two probationary schools in the city-P. S. I20 with an annex at
P. S. 37, Manhattan, and P. S. 6I, Brooklyn.
The aim of these schools is to prevent future delinquencies by substituting good habits of industry, courtesy and
decency for bad habits the boy has begun to form. He is
to have an entirely new chance. They examine him carefully to see where he belongs in school and to find out, if
possible, what special interests or aptitudes he may have.
He is given intelligence tests and achievement tests and
placed in the proper school grade according to the findings.
He is given a physical examination and all effort is made
to have any defects that may be working against his best
interests corrected.
He is expected to measure up to the standards of the
regular schools in the essential academic subjects, but the
course of study is carefully modified so that academic work
may always be approached from a practical point of view.
Many of these boys have an aversion to book work but a
liking for practical jobs. They like to hammer and saw,
to paint and build. And they can overcome their aversion
to book learning when they find out that it may be quite
necessary to carrying out a practical project. Even fractions are interesting when a fellow has to use them to get
his measurements right for a checker board that has been
[ I47 ]




N  E  W     Y  O  R  K    A  T    S C H    O  O   L
ordered by the Soldiers'Hospital. A little figuring is not so bad
when you are making a cupboard to fit above your mother's
sink. Reading, geography, history,-all these make more
sense when they are tied up to things a boy already knows.
So it is that the probationary schools devote practically
a half day to manual training, drawing, shops and physical
training which exercise hands and bodies more than heads;
and the other half day to academic studies closely connected
with the work of the first half day. Moreover, the work
done in the shops-printing, woodwork, etc.-is made obviously practical. The boys do printing for the school and
for the Board of Education. They fill actual orders from
the Red Cross, the Soldiers' Hospital, and from their parents
and friends. They sell these things for actual money which
is promptly re-invested in materials and equipment for the
school. There is usually a Christmas sale of sewing baskets,
waste baskets, vases, and the like made in the manual
training rooms. One year P. S. 120 sold more than $iooo
worth of articles the boys had made.
P. S. 6I, Brooklyn, has a canteen in charge of the boys
run on a slight profit basis. The boys in charge do all the
actual work, the buying, planning, figuring and management under the supervision of a teacher, and the other boys
patronize. The school bank is also made into a practical
business run in connection with a course in business methods.
Both schools maintain school magazines written and published by the boys.
Principals and teachers in these schools make use of
every known device for fostering a school spirit of enterprise, pride in accomplishment, loyalty, and fair play. In
P. S. 6I, for example, the boys are organized in companies
with captain and lieutenants and there is keen competition
[1 48]




B E H A V I 0 R


P R O    B L E M     S


over company records. Any boy who breaks a school rule
spoils his company record and so is made responsible not
nearly so much to his teachers as to the rest of the boys.
Do the probationary schools get results? Five years ago,
an after-career study of the alumni of P. S. I20 showed that
eighty-three percent of them had definitely made good and
the remaining seventeen percent included all those boys of
whom no record could be found. Only a few of the 9,000
boys who have been in the school have been known to have
a criminal record later.
There used to be an idea current that boys could be
more or less miraculously "reformed"-that one could
take an erring boy, punish him, train him for a few months
in the way he should go and he would be a good boy ever
after. Then he was returned to the same conditions which
had contributed to his former delinquency-poor home
conditions unremedied, perhaps-to old associates, to
schools where mass teaching is the only teaching possible,
and in most instances backsliding into the old ways was
inevitable. The task of a probationary school, on the other
hand, is not to punish nor to reform by miracles but to
prevent by sustained constructive effort-to prevent the
formation of unbreakable bad habits, and to implant in
their stead abiding good habits. To do this it is not sufficient that a boy stay in a special school for a few months
but he must stay until his teachers are satisfied that
his good habits will keep him straight even in the old
environment.
ADJUSTMENT SCHOOLS
The probationary schools are for boys. Girls, of course,
often present behavior problems, too, but the regular schools
[ i49 1




N  E   W    Y  0   R  K    A  T    S C   H   O  O  L
struggle along with them as well as they can, sometimes
transferring them to special classes where trade work is
taught, sometimes to certain schools which offer special.
opportunities and which are better equipped for handling
"problems" than others.
Many principals feel that children who present behavior
problems should never be segregated from the influence of
normal children in any case and especially that they should
not be allowed to feel the stigma of public disgrace. In
response to this feeling several so-called adjustment schools
have grown up which take the most troublesome behavior
problems, girls and boys, from neighboring schools and
try to fit them into a regular school.
They give the child work with children of his own age
in physical culture, shopwork, etc. They work up lagging
academic studies by special tutoring and give to each child's
failings individual attention. Homes are visited, but usually without the aid of trained workers, in an effort to help
out there if conditions are against the child.
Only teachers imbued with a true missionary spirit can
do all these things, for they must do harder and more particular work and carry more responsibilities, with no more
financial compensation than the ordinary teacher. They
are conscious of the risk of giving a preponderance of attention to the problem child at the expense of the "law-abiding"
child, and try to offset that risk by extra effort and longer
working hours. To avoid classification as probationary
schools, the adjustment schools forego many probationary
school advantages, such as the higher salary schedule, limited classes, and special shop equipment.


[ISo]




B  E  H   A  V  I O   R     P  R  O  B  L  E   M  S
DETENTION SCHOOLS
Two annexes of P. S. I20, Manhattan, one in the main
building of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children on East Io5th Street and one in the Bronx building of the Society, take care of still another group of children with special problems. These are children held in
detention homes-some of them delinquents, others merely
the victims of parental delinquency and neglect.
Six teachers in the IoSth Street building preside over
rapidly changing groups of pupils who belong anywhere
from the first grade to the fourth year high school and who
may stay in the detention home only a few days or possibly
six months or more. Every room has a widely assorted
group of pupils, ten to thirty of them at a time. Classification of pupils in this strange school is made according to
the conditions of their stay there. If a child is a delinquent
he is put in an A, B or C division according to the gravity
of the offense for which he is being held; if not, then into
a division with the more tractable children.
Necessarily the tasks of a teacher in a school of this kind
are never two days alike. The school authorities have not
thought it right to allow these children to spend several
weeks or months without the benefits of school; yet they
cannot allow them in the regular schools until the courts have
decided what is to be done with them. The teachers assigned
to detention schools must do what they can for each individual, keeping him up to the academic work of the grade in
which he belongs as well as possible and giving him whatever
other work he may like or which may prove useful to him.
Much handwork-drawing, weaving, cutting-sewing
and millinery for girls and woodwork for boys is offered.
[ I5I ]




N  EW       Y  O  R  K    A  T    S C H    O   O  L
Some of the children have never been to school; many come
with no school records to help the teacher place them. Texts
in French, German, Italian or other languages are sometimes needed, for these children may be eighteen years old
and unable to speak or read our language.
Discipline must be carefully maintained and the teachers
are never free to leave their classes unattended. Yet,
throughout the school the aim of the teachers is to interest
these children, to help them, to make them forget any disgrace and misery that may have gone before, and to give
them standards of courtesy and decency and social intercourse. Many come from homes sadly lacking in any
standards whatever, and the cheerful school rooms of the
detention home with their movable furniture and their
plants and gay paintings, drawings and stenciled curtains,
may be the only pleasant rooms the children have ever
known.
Up in the Bronx one teacher suffices. She teaches the
boys of the home in the morning, the girls in the afternoon.
Her children are there an average of one week only, although
occasionally a child stays much longer pending the settlement of his case in court.
The building is old-it has no outdoor playground, it
is crowded, the schoolroom at night becoming the boys'
dormitory. But against all these odds teacher and matron
strive-and in some measure succeed-in giving these children at least a memory of better things than they have
known before and an inspiration to try to live up to some
of the things they have learned there. Sometimes letters
come back telling of this boy or that girl who is deeply grateful for his or her memories and inspiration and who is
started on the right path again.
[152]




B E H A V I O R


P R 0 B L E M S


THE PARENTAL SCHOOL
The children in the detention homes and many of those
in the Parental School are children whose problems have
been put in the hands of the courts and who are in a measure out of the hands of the school. Some boys are sent to
the Parental School directly by the Director of the Bureau
of Attendance with the consent of their parents, but if the
parents object and the Director feels that the Parental
School offers the only solution of the problem, then he will
ask that the boy be committed by the courts.
The aim of the Parental School, which consists of a
number of cottages and a large administration building on
a beautiful hilltop site of Io7 acres in Flushing, is to give
boys who have become habitual truants and who have been
unable to get along in the regular or other special schools
education and maintenance in an atmosphere that will
make for the formation of good habits of industry and
orderliness. To do this the boys are assigned in groups according to their ages to one of the fifteen cottages, each of
which is in charge of a man and his wife. When new cottages now under construction are completed the school will
accommodate 49o boys in classes of not more than twenty.
The work is of two kinds-three hours a day of school
work and three hours of manual work in one of the many
shops offered by the school. School work includes the regular academic subjects, manual training such as is offered
in the regular schools, and art work. Chief emphasis in the
shops is on practical accomplishment. The boys do Board
of Education printing in the printing shop; other shops
teach tailoring and repairing of school uniforms, plumbing,
shoe repairing, auto repairing, carpentering, baking, house[ 53 ]




N E 'W Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


work, laundering, farming-all getting the manual work of
the school done, and at least teaching useful tasks. School
and shop teachers are assigned by the Board of Education.
Boys who have the farm as their shop attend pigs and
chickens, and raise fruits and vegetables for the school. Big
boys do the heavy work, and the little fellows weed on Saturdays. The school plant is practically self-supporting. A
central heating and power plant supplies all the cottages.
Food is prepared in a central kitchen and rolled on small
trucks through underground passages to the various cottages. The kitchen is one of the shops; boys in each cottage
assigned to housework set the tables, scrub the floors, and
make the beds under the direction of the cottage matron.
An effort is made to surround the boys with certain
niceties of living with which they perhaps never have been
familiar before-spick-and-span rooms, white coverlets on
the beds, tablecloths, napkins, and growing plants in the
dining room windows. But their life is run on military lines;
plain severe order rules everywhere. The boys have only
two periods a day when they are at all free, an hour before
dinner at night and an hour after. And even that hour
after dinner seems to be mostly devoted to preparation of
school lessons for the next day.
The day goes like this: up at six, a detail job-of cleaning
usually-breakfast, another job, school or shop three hours,
lunch, school or shop again, supervised athletics one hour,
a free hour, dinner, another free hour, and bed. The boys
are, of course, under eternal supervision and of necessity
at night under lock and key. Religious instruction is offered
on Sunday for the various denominations. An assembly is
held once a week, when the boys sing and those of special
merit receive faculty commendation.
[ 154 ]




B E H A V I 0 R


P R O    B L E M     S


When a boy has been in Parental School six months he
is automatically brought up for parole, if he has been committed by the courts. Many of these boys, like the children
in the detention homes, are in trouble as a result of home
conditions. Occasionally when these home conditions are
too bad a boy is kept at the school a second six months.
Many of the boys are repeaters, sent to the school a second
term either by the Bureau of Attendance or the courts.
Most of them are retarded in school-many of low intelligence. The brightest boys are put into the printing shop
and from there the teachers are sometimes able to get them
jobs. No provision is now made for following up the boys
when they leave the school. The principal asked in the
I927 Budget that a visiting teacher be allowed for followup and placement work, but the item was not provided.
Those in charge of the school feel that a psychiatrist to
examine the children and a visiting teacher to do the followup work are absolutely necessary to the proper functioning
of a school which is to "reform" boys and give them a
chance to start anew on a right path.
It is a debatable question whether or not six months in
a school such as the Parental School or in any school is sufficient time to change a boy's habits; certainly a parental
school can do little to change the home conditions that are
so often responsible. These reflections bring one inevitably
to a fresh respect and support of the regular school's preventive work with children who show symptoms of developing behavior problems-through adjustments within the
school itself, through the work of visiting teachers in the
home and in the school, and through the work of school and
vocational advisers who take an interest in individual
children.
[ s55




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O L


The Board of Education maintains school classes in
a number of other institutions to which the courts have
committed wayward boys and girls, such as the Jewish
Boys' Protectory and the Cedar Knolls Schools at Hawthorne and the Episcopal House of Mercy for Girls at Valhalla. The aim of the school work in these institutions is
to provide the children with a trade by which they may
be able to earn a living and lead an independent self-respecting life later if they choose.


[i 56]




IV. EXTENDED PATHS AND BY PATHS




r
I
I
i
t




I. VACATION SCHOOLS


T   HE work of Summer vacation schools, giving pupils
opportunities to make up work in which they have
failed or which they may have missed, or to secure rapid
advancement, is being extended rapidly. Opportunity
classes in summer elementary schools have been organized
for twenty years but summer junior high school and high
school opportunity courses are quite recent. In 1925 an
experiment with summer junior high schools established
their worth and in 1926 three summer junior high schools
gave children an opportunity to make up work in which
they had failed. The first summer high school was organized in 1920 and in 1926 the standards established in
the six summer high schools were accepted by the Board of
Regents as equal to the regular high school standards.
FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN
The elementary vacation schools take care of four types
of children in the order named:
i. Non-promoted-or hold-overs-or repeaters.
2. Children who need to complete an attendance of I30 days
for employment certificates.
3. Overage, bright pupils specifically recommended in writing by their principals.
4. Foreign pupils from all grades who need help in English.
Vacation schools serve a number of excellent purposes
and practice a number of excellent economies. First, they
[ 591




N E 'W Y 0 R K


A T    S C H 0 0 L


cut down the dreadful cost of educating "repeaters." It
is estimated that seven times the cost of vacation schools
is saved each year by restoring thousands of children to
normal progress. Second, they cut down the equally dreadful overcrowding of the regular sessions by speeding up progress of hundreds of pupils. Third, they make good use of
an expensive school plant that might otherwise stand idle.
Incidentally the encouragement given to many a "leftback" by this chance to make up, and to many an ambitious child by this chance to go ahead, has its ingratiating
effect on the pupil's work when he returns to the regular session.
Vacation schools give a six weeks' course five days a
week. In I926 the elementary classes in fifty-three vacation schools enrolled more than 20,000-II,I31 hold-overs,
9,320 overage and bright children and 343 foreign children.
These classes covered the work in the fundamental subjects of the curriculum from the 4B to the 8B grades and in
addition there were twenty-six classes in manual training
and thirty in domestic art.
FOR HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS
The three junior high schools last summer accepted only
repeaters. Summer high schools are organized for two types
of children-repeaters and those who wish to take advanced
work in one or more of the major subjects. Pupils are required to attend at least eighty-five percent of the session
in order to qualify for promotion, and at the end of the
first two weeks an elimination test excludes all those who
have not been consistent in work or record and who have
not demonstrated their ability to obtain the coveted
promotion.
[ I6o]




V A C A T I O N


S C H    0  0  L S


The curriculum includes the basic subjects of a general
or a commercial course. In the subjects in which Regents'
examinations are given the requirements of those examinations are made a basis for the courses given. Last summer
the work was accepted by the Regents as an equivalent of
one term's work in the regular day high school.
FOR HANDICAPPED CHILDREN
The Board of Education does not forget that in vacation
time many of the handicapped children-crippled, blind,
deaf and tubercular children, and children confined in
institutions-will not be free as other children are for play
and recreation unless special provision can be made for
them. Therefore, under the vacation school department
their special training is continued in summer classes. Thirtysix classes were conducted last summer, many in hospitals
and institutions, under the direction of specially licensed
teachers. The regular school handwork, basketry, story
telling, games, and music were continued and there were,
in addition, special vacation features such as bus rides, ferry
rides, and trips on a sight-seeing yacht generously donated
for the purpose. Gardens and nature study had special
attention in districts where gardens were possible.
The demand for places in the vacation schools last summer was much greater than the schools could meet. In view
of the savings that vacation classes are able to effect their
extension would seem to be highly desirable.


[i6i ]




II. CONTINUATION SCHOOLS


IT is the recognition that education has to do with all
phases of child development and not solely with a narrow
scholastic mental development that has caused the period
of required schooling to be continually lengthened and the
school program to be enriched. Only the bright in books
used to be continued in school past a few years of grammar
school when the three R's held sway. Then began the
movement to keep children in school up to a certain age
or through a certain grade by compulsory education laws
and to give practical work that would appeal to those not
so fortunate as to be able to continue a scholastic career or
not fitted by taste or aptitude to the old type of "higher
education."
WHY CONTINUATION SCHOOLS WERE ESTABLISHED
In I9IO a law was passed in New York State compelling
attendance at evening schools by boys who had not finished
grammar school and who were not attending a regular day
school. That law, however, was a sad failure and was never
fully enforced; its injustice was too flagrant. Boys who
worked all day came home at night too weary for more
work,-and for many of the boys affected, school was hard
work. Parents objected and employers refused to assume
any responsibility for the boys' attendance at night school.
The New York Academy of Medicine definitely stated that
compulsory evening school attendance was bad for the
health of the boys. The law never included girls in its
[ 62 ]




C O N T I N U A T I O N


S C H 0 0 L S


provisions. Of 22,000 boys affected only a few more than
7,000 even registered for the night classes and only nine
percent attended in I9I3.
The City Board of Education, realizing that these young
workers who had left school without anything like an adequate education should have another chance, in 19I3 organized day continuation classes in a number of cooperating department stores and factories, and in 1917 began the
use of school buildings for workers' classes. Attendance on
these classes was dependent of course on the employer's
permission, but employers too had begun to see the advantages of more and specialized education for their youthful employees.
Finally, in I919, to replace the unsuccessful and unjust
compulsory evening school law, the continuation school
law now in force was enacted. This law provides that all
children between the ages of fourteen and seventeen-and
up to eighteen after September, I928-unless they have
completed a four-year high school course, not regularly
attending a day school, shall go to continuation school
at least four hours a week; and that unemployed minors
between these ages must attend every school day up to
twenty hours a week. The law permits the Board of Education to increase the required time for employed children to
eight hours a week.
In the meantime, the new schools were to deal with
children, many of whom did not want to go to school, and
with employers, many of whom did not want them to go.
The schools were to have these children only four hours
a week, and in four hours to give them something so obviously worthwhile that children and employers should finally
accept the new law as a blessing, not a bane.
[163 ]




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O L


WHAT THE CONTINUATION SCHOOLS AIM TO DO
Now what can a school which sees a child only four hours
a week do? In general, the continuation school aims to give
this adolescent child, whose educational advantages have
been less than those of many of his contemporaries, guidance based on expert knowledge and careful attention to
his individual needs. Such guidance will affect not only his
first or his second job but his whole life work. Vocational
guidance, educational guidance, health guidance, recreational and moral guidance-all these the continuation school
plans to give.
Specifically, the work of the continuation school falls
into three parts; vocational guidance-help in finding the
right jobs; offering educational opportunities allied to the
child's chosen vocation that will lead to his advancement
in it; and, finally, oversight of children in industry, to
determine and regulate the effect of the job on a child's
health, character and outlook on life, and to make sure that
sufficient opportunities for wholesome recreation and social
intercourse are open to him.
To carry out these aims two types of continuation
schools have grown up: one, the neighborhood or general
school which all the continuation school children of the
neighborhood enter; and, two, the central trade schools to
which children who have chosen a certain trade are transferred, once their fitness for that work has been demonstrated in the general school.
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE WORK
A child's first job is usually chosen at random. He has
had little opportunity to know what the various types of
[ 164 ]




C O N T I N U A T I O N


S C     0    L 


available jobs offer and he usually thinks most about the
money he will get and little about the chances for advancement the job offers. He does not know the qualifications
necessary for different vocations, nor has he had a chance
to discover his own aptitudes. Consequently, he is forced
into a juvenile job. His education fits him for nothing else
and certain legal restrictions upon hours and conditions
of labor still further narrow his choice. Many of these
juvenile jobs are "dead end" or "blind alley" jobs,-that
is, they offer no experience or opportunities to learn that
will lead to a better or more profitable job; and, what is more,
they are purely routine and manual, requiring no use even
of the very elementary education the child has already had.
After a few years in such a job the child, now nearly grown,
will suddenly realize that he continues to work for juvenile
wages; that there are no opportunities ahead for him in
that particular work; and that his experience will help him
not at all in getting another type of job at adult wages.
How can the continuation schools help out? They can
give him in his four hours a week a chance to try out other
jobs in the school itself, to take special training for a future
job in industry, and to find another and better job that will
exercise what knowledge he already possesses and that
will offer him a chance for promotion. They can offer him
the help of vocational counselors who know about the
various occupations; of teachers who have special knowledge
of certain industries; and of placement bureaus whose task
it is not only to find jobs but to find jobs in which a particular boy or girl will be able to succeed and advance.
Every continuation school makes one of its major tasks
that of helping individual children to choose the right job
and the right kind of training for that job. First, there
[ 65 ]




N E Wr Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


is the teacher who receives the boy or girl in his neighborhood continuation school. This counselor looks over his
records-school and job-asks him what he wants to be
and what he likes to do and why; considers any physical
or other limitations his records may show; and suggests
occupations which she, in the light of her special knowledge of jobs and of adolescent children, thinks will suit.
In the reception or "reservoir" class the boy learns what
the school can do for him and what qualifications are necessary for various occupations. Then he is given a chance
to try out in a chosen vocation and the counselor consults
with him from time to time to see whether or not he is
satisfied and is making progress. If not, he is transferred
to another department; if so, he may be transferred to a
central trade school or he may continue the course he has
chosen in his neighborhood school.
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED
He may choose from the following comprehensive list;
if his own neighborhood school does not offer all of these
he can be transferred to other schools that do:


Woodworking
Printing
Machine Shop Practice
Auto Mechanics
Garment Design
Mechanical Drawing
Plumbing
Music
Sewing and Dressmaking
Novelty Work
Power Machine Operating
Salesmanship
Typewriting
Commercial Law
High School Academic


Elementary School Diploma
Civil Service Examination
French Flower Making
Arithmetic
Civics
Stenography
Trade Drawing
General Mechanics
Jewelry Manufacture
Commercial Art
Electric Wiring
Radio Construction
Cooking
Hygiene and Home Nursing
Millinery
[ I66]


Homemaking
Office Practice
Bookkeeping
Banking
Personality
Lampshade Making
English
Hygiene
History
Accounting
Sign Painting and
Show Cards




C O N T I N U A T I O N


S C H O O L S


Each of the vocational courses is accompanied by related academic work that will be useful to him on his job.
Instruction in all continuation school classes is of necessity
individual. Its task is to guide individual pupils into paths
that will start them right for life. Therefore, every pupil
must be allowed to go in the way that is best for him. This
individualization of school work is provided by the use of
job instruction sheets which are put into the hands of a
pupil for him to accomplish, first, on his own initiative, and
then with the help of the teacher. A class usually presents
twelve jobs to be done before the pupil can go on to another
class. His job instruction sheet will set forth clearly just
what each job is, why it is included, to what it is leading,
and how it may best be done. This plan reminds one of the
Dalton contract plan although it was developed independently, and it works in the same way by allowing every
student to progress at his own rate of speed. The ambitious may plough ahead rapidly; the slow pupil is never
left back; and yet competition stimulates action.
SPECIALIZED CENTRAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS
The neighborhood schools offer try-out courses in which
a child may learn about a number of trades, trade preparatory courses which directly train the child for the trade he
has chosen but is not old enough to enter, and trade extension courses in which he may get instruction in the trade
he is already following. But in the last two or three years
the central trade schools have been organized to meet a
very logical and definite need. It is essential that the schools
have more and better equipment for this trade extension
function, especially in the more common and more highly
[ I67 ]




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A T    S C H 0 0 L


skilled trades. It is essential that there be provided courses
of study based directly on the needs of industry, teachers
experienced in the trades, and shops that will offer conditions similar to those of the industry itself.
The central schools already organized include:
The Printing Trades School
This school is a splendid example of employer, trade
union and school cooperating for the good of young employees. The employing printers of the city and two of the
printers' unions have equipped one floor of the building at
240 West 4oth Street with $I65,ooo worth of printing
equipment, and, in addition, they pay the difference between
the salary offered to trade teachers by the Board of Education and the union scale, thereby allowing the school to get
expert teachers directly from the trade.
The school authorities working with a Joint Apprentice
Committee from the trade have made a course of study,
including (I) work in English, mathematics and industrial
hygiene for practical application to the printing trades, and
(2) actual practice at various types of work connected with
printing-type setting, composition, proof reading, operation of presses, etc.
The Commercial School
The Central Commercial School on one floor of a loft
building, 725 Broadway, looks like the offices of a thriving
business. This school is offering, with special equipmentmuch of it donated by manufacturing companies-and with
special teachers, courses in office practice, calculating machines, salesmanship, commercial art, bookkeeping, stenography, typing, and related subjects.
[ i68]




C O N T I N U A T I O N


S C H 0 0 L S


The Building Trades School
A new school is just being equipped with the necessities
of the building trades.
The Needle Trades School
An advisory committee of people prominent in the
needle trades is helping with the course of study and equipment of this new school.
PLACEMENT AND FOLLOW-UP OF THE PUPIL ON HIS JOB
Each school has its placement bureau in cooperation
with the State Labor Department or the Vocational Service
for Juniors. These bureaus are able to find suitable places
for practically all who apply. Twenty-four thousand placements were made by them in 1925-26. Unemployment
among minors of continuation school age has steadily decreased since the establishment of the placement bureaus.
In I922, ten or twelve percent of minors of continuation
school age were unemployed; in 1925 the percentage of
unemployment was less than five percent; in the first half
of 1926 only two percent-a much smaller percentage than
for the whole group of unemployed of all ages. And this
in spite of the fact that the Board of Education has not
provided teachers enough to make it possible to enforce
that provision of the continuation school law requiring
that those who are out of employment attend school twenty
hours a week instead of four. The State Department of
Education recommends that the Boards of Education make
special effort to enforce this provision because of its conclusion that unemployment will be still further reduced thereby.
Wages paid to continuation school pupils range from four
dollars a week-in a trade where it is still customary that
[69]




N  E  W     Y     R  K    A  T    S C H       0  0  L
apprentices pay for their training-to sixty dollars a week.
The median wage is fourteen dollars. Every job is, of
course, investigated before a child is put into it, and in
many cases illegal employment of minors has been discovered
and stopped. Whenever it seems advisable the placement
bureau will try to find a better job for a boy or girl already
employed-one that will offer him more chance for advancement or that will utilize the work he has done in continuation school.
In order to know exactly how its pupils are faring in
the business world, and in order to secure the invaluable
help and cooperation of parents, employers and business
leaders, a system of follow-up of pupils' careers by the
teachers of the continuation schools has been established.
Each teacher is required to devote an hour a day-much
too short a time-to the task of coordinating school work
with the job and with the home. The teacher usually spends
this daily period visiting pupils' homes or employershomes where it is thought that parents can help, employers
when a teacher wants to find out how a child is progressing
on a job, what that job offers, and how the employer feels
about continuation schools. Sometimes the purpose of
the teacher is to convince the employer that the continuation schools are really giving his employee valuable training and to enlist his support and help. Moreover, by means
of information the teachers glean from these visits to offices
and shops, the courses of study can be checked and kept
up to date to meet changing conditions in the trades.
All the continuation schools carry on correspondence
with employers about the children's work-correspondence
designed to let the employer know what the schools are
doing and at the same time to find out how well a certain
[I70]




C O N T I N U A T I   N


S C H 0 0 L S


boy or girl is doing a job. Employers are invited to visit
the schools and make criticisms and suggestions. From
employers the response has been prompt and gratifying.
Many employers have sent representatives to visit the
schools; many do offer advice as to work that would be
valuable for their young employees; a great many report
on the progress of continuation school pupils in their offices
or shops and express appreciation for the help that continuation schools are giving those pupils.
SOCIAL AND WELFARE WORK
One of the tasks with which the continuation schools
have so far been able to do little because of lack of facilities
is that very important one of offering young workers some
constructive help and suggestions for the advantageous use
of their leisure time. Children of continuation school age
are impressionable, easily influenced by the "gang"; easily
led, too, in the paths of idealism. The continuation schools
encourage the formation of dramatic clubs, glee clubs,
school orchestras, and hiking clubs, and the publication of
school magazines. They encourage their students to form
good reading habits. Nearly every class in the East Side
Continuation School, for example, is taken to the New
York Public Library where a skilled librarian explains the
use of the library,
One outstanding feature is the health program recently
inaugurated in the West Side Continuation School under
which every pupil is to receive a systematic examination
by competent physicians. Four physicians from the Board
of Health, together with dental and other special service
obtained through the Public Education Association and
[I7I ]




NE    W     Y  O  R  K    A  T    S C H    O  O   L
the Public Health Committee of the New York Academy
of Medicine are making a careful study of the aims, methods
and standards of model health service for continuation
schools. A visiting teacher has also been provided to work
with children who present unusual problems of personality
or behavior.
PLANS FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
In view of the fact that continuation schools have been
in existence only since I919, and that they are a wholly
new type of school, taking upon themselves an entirely new
job for which no courses of study have been laid down, the
program outlined above suggests many lines of future development. But all plans for the future are subject to provision of increased facilities for continuation schools.
The continuation schools were all started in old school
buildings or in parts of loft buildings or private establishments. These buildings naturally lack proper facilities.
Only one school has a gymnasium available. Not one has
a proper lunchroom; rest rooms are rarely adequate. Some
schools can never have an assembly because they have no
auditorium. The shops are often too small and insufficiently equipped. And yet since the continuation schools
are vocational in character their success depends greatly
on variety of well equipped shops. New trades should be
offered; old ones kept up to date-and that takes money
for new equipment.
More important by far than equipment, even in a vocational school, is the teaching corps. The continuation
schools experience great difficulty in getting enough trained
teachers to do their work, and are forced to use a disproportionate number-nearly twenty-five percent-of substitute
[ 72]




C O N T I N U A T I O N


S C     0    L 


teachers. No special license for continuation school teachers
has been required by the Board; principals have had to select
their teachers from existing lists and then persuade experienced ones to transfer from the regular day schools to
a new type of school where they would get no more money
but many more new problems. To lure teachers from
among the most capable and intelligent workers in the
trades themselves, persuade them to take the necessary
pedagogical courses, and to work for a salary lower than
the union wage scale is almost impossible.
In order that the continuation school teachers have
some special training for their jobs, it has been necessary
to require them to take outside courses in the special technique suitable to continuation school work and in the organization of occupational subject matter into practical
job instruction sheets. And, in addition, many of these
teachers, spurred on by enormous enthusiasm for the new
job, have elected to take numerous unrequired courses.
The Director of Continuation Schools and his staff feel
that, in addition to the teaching staff, there should be specially licensed persons for the tasks of vocational guidance,
placement and follow-up work; that for work that has been
so little standardized, there should be specially trained
supervisors.
When they have received all these things they have
many plans for future development-new courses, new
recreational advantages, an extension of the health program, etc., etc. For the continuation school is new and
dangles before the eyes of educators, citizens, employing
business men and labor leaders enormous possibilities for
guiding thousands of young citizens into more useful and
betterpaths than, unguided, they might choose for themselves.
E I73 ]




III. EVENING SCHOOLS


T   HERE is no feature of school life in New York City
more gratifying than the hum of industry that may
be heard on the first three nights of the week from any
one of IIo evening schools from the middle of September
when school opens until the end of June when school closes.
Nor is there any feature more suggestive of the huge task
confronting New York schools which must educate not only
the usual school population of boys and girls during the
day, but also from 35,000 to 50,000 foreigners who annually
attend evening schools to learn this country's language,
customs and citizenship requirements; thousands of adolescent children who have been forced by circumstances to
leave school before their education could be finished; and
still more thousands of grown-ups whose ambition sends
them to school at night after a full day's work on the job.
WHAT THE EVENING ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OFFER
Seventy elementary schools with an average attendance
of 30,000 offer three separate types of schooling:
I. A four year course in English, allowing the foreign born
man or woman to learn English, acquire an elementary school
education and qualify for admission to evening high school.
2. A short course in naturalization.
3. A course in the regular elementary school common branches
for those who want to finish their elementary school education
and qualify for admission to evening high school.
[ I74]




E V E N I N G


S   C   H   0   0   L   S


Here a young Russian immigrant who has never been
to school in his life may come 114 nights a year, learn to
talk and to read English and study American history and
civics. If he is ambitious some public school will be open
to him year after year until he has had a chance to go
through either a trade school or a high school, and, if he likes,
college. If he wants very much to become an American citizen, he may, as soon as he has learned to read and write,
enroll in a naturalization class, learn how to get his first
papers and supplement his knowledge of American history and government so as to pass the required tests for
citizenship.
WHAT THE EVENING TRADE SCHOOLS OFFER
Here a young German or Polish lad, whose parents were
unable to send him to school after he was old enough to
work, may continue his education from where he left off in
a day school right through high school or trade school,and on to college if ambition takes him that far, for most
of the metropolitan colleges offer hundreds of night courses.
Restricted immigration is lightening the task of evening
schools to some extent, but there are still 800,000 foreigners
under twenty-one years of age in New York City; and
many of the foreign born who attend public school classes
belong to the non-quota groups-foreigners in America
on a six-months' visit planning to await their turns to
come in with the quota groups from their countries.
And what will this young German or Russian or Pole
or Italian or Hindu find awaiting him after he has earned
his elementary school certificate? Suppose he wants to
learn a skilled trade; or suppose he wants to learn more
about the trade in which he is already engaged. He may
['75]




N  EW       YORK          AT      S C H    0      L
go to anyone of twenty or so evening schools where trade
courses are given and find almost any course he may have
set his mind on,-applied electricity, gas engine mechanics,
brick laying, cabinet making, fancy plastering, catering,
commercial photography, photo engraving, any phase of
the printing trade, manicuring and shampooing, ship building or ship fitting, steam engineering, wireless telegraphy,
shop and mill mathematics-to mention only a few selected
at random from the list offered in the catalog on evening
trade schools. Murray Hill Evening Vocational School
offers an excellent course in upholstering, and another in
painting and mural decoration.
For the textile industry, for example, he will find training in every branch of the trade-textile chemistry, physics,
designs of various kinds, needle trades, pattern drafting,
machine operating, dress design, dyeing and loom working. He will be trained not just as an operator, but to be
a foreman, a leader of the trade. Proper machinery for
conducting these varied technical courses is often furnished
by the firms who wish their workers to be trained in the
schools.
Average attendance at evening trade schools is around
Io,ooo, register I3,000. Information as to the location of
the evening schools, the courses offered, time of registration,
and length of term has been concisely set forth in the catalog
of the evening schools which may be had at the office of the
Director of Evening and Continuation Schools, in the Board
of Education building.
Special courses for apprentices in several trades have
been arranged with committees representing employers
and labor unions in that trade. The employee's advancement on the job and in the union is made dependent on his
[ 76]




E V E N     I N G


S   C  H   0   0   L  S


attendance and his progress in the evening school course.
Approximately twenty percent of pupils attending evening
trade school are apprentices in the trades they are studying.
There is a waiting list for many of the trades, because
evening school accommodations are not adequate to take
care of them at the beginning of the term; in the fall of I926
four hundred were on the waiting lists for plumbing courses.
The automobile trade courses also have long waiting lists.
However, mortality in evening school is large; twenty-five
percent will probably drop out before the end of the semester
and men on the waiting lists will be moved up to take their
places. Thus, in spite of the falling off in the original register,
there are at the end of a semester approximately the same
number of classes as at the beginning.
Registrants in the evening trade schools and trade courses
in high school are mostly between the ages of sixteen and
twenty-one, but some courses attract older men. In the
building trades, for example, one finds older workers studying blue prints and estimates.
Probably thirty percent of the evening trade school
teachers are employed in the day time in the trade they
teach, and most of the rest are day school trade teachers.
WHAT THE EVENING HIGH SCHOOLS OFFER
Strange to say, evening high schools in New York preceded day high schools. As far back as sixty-five years ago
City College began offering secondary education in an evening high school for men. Then came old Brooklyn evening
high school-next to the oldest high school in the country
-but not until 1876 was there a regular day high school
in the city. The old high schools offered subjects, rather
[ I77]




N E 'W Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


than courses leading to some higher school. Most of the
high school students were studying for law examinations
in those days. Things have changed, for after I928 in
order to have an opportunity to take the Regents' examinations for college entrance an applicant must have gone
either to a registered evening or day high school.
After the establishment of regular day high schools and
the standardization of high school work the evening schools
became for a time merely part-time high schools where
students could make up courses they needed for college
entrance or supplement their educations in certain needed
subjects. But for the last five years the seventeen evening
high schools of the city and their several annexes have
functioned as regular high schools offering to 30,000 students
four periods a night, five nights a week, of intensive work
with a diploma for the successful at the end of four or five
years.
These evening high school students range in age from
fourteen to seventy-one. Many are preparing for college,
many more for business, some have purely cultural aims.
Most often evening high schools are badly overcrowded
at the beginning of the term; many students, of course,
drop out later. Some of them are doubtless discouraged
by classes where even standing room space is crowded.
Perhaps ten percent of evening high school students
complete the four year course. Considering the fact that
their school work is added usually to a full day's work on
the job, this proportion does not compare unfavorably with
that of the day high schools, thirteen percent of whose
entrants complete a full course.


[78 ]




E V   E N I N    G


S   C  H   0   0   L   S


THE EVENING SCHOOL'S SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY
Attendance at evening schools is in round numbers 75,000
yearly. Since practically 50,000 of the 75,000 are taking
English and citizenship courses in evening and adult day
classes, it is safe to count that number as representing the
attendance of men and women from other countries. Figures
are available for the year 1924-25 showing the distribution
of nationalities:
7,I83 Italians     930 Roumanians    3,717 Austrians
8,798 Germans     1,683 Czecho-Slovaks  870 Greeks
2,15I Scandinavians  765 Spanish    2,170 Hungarians
777 Porto Ricans  598 French      10,233 Russians
7,120 Poles       566 Irish
Jewish people in large numbers are not listed separately
but are included under various nationalities. One thousand
six hundred and thirty-five negroes, mostly from southern
states, included, however, some from the West Indies and
elsewhere. There were eleven Indians-native Americans.
The work of the evening schools is one of the greatest
Americanization projects undertaken by the school system.
It, together with the community centers and forums, offers
to the foreigners in the United States competent and free
instruction in the language, customs and ideals of the new
country to which they have come. It prepares them in a
very careful and reasonable way to become good and useful
citizens of our country. It offers to their children almost
unlimited opportunities for higher education, of which
thousands of ambitious boys and girls are taking advantage.
An increased budget in 1926-27 for the evening high
schools in particular indicates a realization on the part of
school authorities of the importance of offering to the workers
of the city ample opportunities for continuing education in
the fields of their choice.
[ 79]




IV. ADULT EDUCATION IN DAY CLASSES


SUPPLEMENTING the work of the evening schools
in educating the foreign born of the city in our language,
customs and citizenship rights and duties, from 150 to 200
day classes in English and citizenship are conducted in
various parts of New York's five boroughs. These classes,
presided over by specially licensed teachers, may be found
in settlement houses, churches, schools, libraries,-in fact
in any sanitary room with sufficient light and heat for a
class of twenty or more. Attendance must be kept up to
twenty or the class lapses.
PURPOSE OF THE ADULT DAY CLASSES
Here gather Italian mothers who have never been to
school before a day in their lives, Austrian doctors with
several degrees from European Universities, Chinese students who are ambitious to take college courses once English
is mastered, musicians who earn their living playing in
orchestras at night, lawyers, professors, waiters, hotel
bus boys, all intent upon one thing-learning about America
and American ways and above all learning to" talkAmerican."
Go about four o'clock in the afternoon into the basement
of Temple Emmanuel at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street.
You will find a number of classes, made up mostly of men
of a dozen nationalities and as many stages of culture, pronouncing in unison "America is a republic. Its President
is elected by the people. Its laws are made by representatives in Congress. They also are elected by the people."
[180]




A D U L T


D A Y     C L A S S E S


Many of these men are employed in the downtown hotels
and may take an hour in the afternoon to go to school.
Again, stand in the hall outside the "schoolrooms" in
the Young Women's Hebrew Association on IIoth Street
about three o'clock. You hear a babel as of many people
talking in tongues. Go into one of the several "schoolrooms" and you will find as eager a group of students as
ever you have seen,-this time mostly women, but with
one or two men. The women are mostly housewivesmothers who must learn English because little Antony or
Manuel at home is getting so that he talks English all the
time and Mother can not understand him. They have a
time with that tongue-twister "President of the United
States." They listen eagerly to the teacher's talk about our
government although "government" is quite impossible
to pronounce. Talk in this class may often center about
"What do you cook for supper?" or "When do you give the
baby his bath?" And you may be sure that problems of
children's health and school work and playtime come in
for their share of discussion. For these women must learn
our ways, must know how important promptness at school
and attention to notes from principals and teachers may
be to their children, must look forward to the time when
they, too, will be citizens voting for a President of the
United States.
Suggestive of the importance of day classes for foreign
women whose home duties are too heavy to allow them time
for evening school are State census figures for I925. There
are in New York City 85o,ooo or more foreign-born women,
less than half of whom are citizens. Probably Ioo,ooo cannot read nor write, probably 5oo,ooo are unable to use
the English language.
[ 18I ]




NE    W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O   O  L
OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED BY THE DAY CLASSES
Some of the day classes for more advanced students are
devoted entirely to preparing for citizenship. English and
civics are the chief subjects and the mechanics of getting
first and second papers is carefully explained. Those who
wish may continue in day classes for adults for four years
during which time they should have learned the language
and have acquired at least the equivalent of a fifth grade
education. Usually there are at least two classes in a building so that one may be for beginners, another for advanced
students.
Teaching in these classes is perforce of a very special
kind. The teacher must be first of all an actress projecting
her ideas through graphic demonstrations and exaggerated
gestures. The blackboards come in for much use as first
textbooks.  A  number of textbooks are furnished but
are of little use until the rudiments of reading, writing and
speaking English have been "put over."
The State Department of Education offers courses to
teachers of English to foreigners at a small fee in Hunter
College, in Hunter College Extension in Brooklyn, and at
Columbia University. Many of the teachers are ex-teachers
who have married and are willing to teach an hour or two
a day. The Board of Education pays for salaries and equipment, but rent for the classes is usually furnished free by
outside agencies. Some of the outside agencies pay organizers to interpret the work of the schools to foreigners
and encourage them to join the classes.
School work is not always confined to schoolrooms.
Some teachers chaperone their oddly assorted groups regularly on outings to places of interest in the city, such as the
[ i82 ]




A  D   U   L  T     D  A   Y    C   L  A     S  S  E  S
American Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt House,
the Aquarium, and Jumel Mansion. These trips are followed by the usual consequences when school classes go on
an outing-compositions on what the students have seen
and heard. Competitions with prizes for the best compositions stimulate interest and effort.
Day classes for foreigners have been established in
the city for eleven years. And perhaps there is no part of
school work that offers the same return in eagerness, appreciation and joy on the part of pupils as these classes.


[I83 ]




V. EXTENDED USE OF SCHOOL FACILITIES


BUREAU OF LECTURES
T   HE Bureau of Lectures, under the direction of the
Board of Education, came before the development of
radio and moving pictures. Yet it has lived through the
invasion of the movies into the leisure time of the city's
people and has maintained a considerable following against
that most competent of modern time-fillers,-the radio.
The aim of the Bureau is to provide during the leisure
hours of the adult population of the city a program of lectures dealing with practically every branch of human knowledge. It would have been easy enough for such a Bureau
to keep its attendance by furnishing lively entertainmentwholesome enough use of leisure time-but it has tried to
keep to its original purpose, to induce people to devote some
of their leisure time to cultural improvement.
There were maintained in I925-I926, fifty-seven lecture
centers throughout the city.  The lectures cover such
fields as classic and modern literature, including the drama,
with special emphasis upon an intelligent appraisal of
present day offerings as represented in such courses as
"The Book of the Hour" and "Plays of the Hour;" history,
especially United States history, and again with special
emphasis upon history in the making, as presented in the
"Trend of the Times" courses; sociology and economics,
treated in specific lectures and courses and also forming
largely the background of discussion in the "Trend of the
Times" courses; in art and architecture; in science, hygiene,
E[84]




E X T E N S I O N   A C T I V I T I E S


geography and travel; and finally in music, not from the
standpoint of entertainment only, but with a view of covering as wide a range of genuine musical culture as possible,
from chants and classic expositions of the dance and the
folk song to symphonic renditions of the highest forms of
classical music, embracing also the opera in all its forms and
including several continuous courses so arranged that they
constitute virtually a complete presentation of the history
and literature of music.
The centers are widely scattered so that people will not
have to go far from home to avail themselves of the lecture
courses. The larger centers devote themselves to the sustained courses, such as the "Trend of the Times" mentioned
above. Smaller neighborhood centers take lighter subjects,
and devote some time to musical and picture entertainments of a high quality.
The Bureau was established in 1888, thirty-nine years
ago and was for twenty-nine years under the direction of
its founder, Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, who termed it "The
University of the People." After the consolidation of
greater New York the total annual attendance on the
Bureau's courses reached well above the million mark for
several years. Then came the forced economies of the war
years, and since that time the Bureau has had to struggle
along with a fee allowance for lectures-averaging fifteen
dollars per lecture-wholly inadequate to secure the type
of lecturers a "University of the People" should have.
That the standards of the Bureau have been kept high
is due in part to the fact that many lecturers have served
at a fee much lower than they would ever accept elsewhere
and that many public spirited men and women have contributed their services. One hundred and sixteen lectures
[185 ]




N  E  W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O  O   L
were delivered last year without fees, one lecturer giving a
course of seven lectures free. Glee clubs, symphony orchestras and musical organizations of various kinds have
offered their services gratis or at merely nominal fees.
A few names selected at random will indicate the type
of speakers the Bureau has enlisted in the past: President
Coolidge, Charles Dana Gibson, Franklin H. Giddings,
Booth Tarkington, Charles E. Hughes, W. G. McAdoo,
Bishop Manning, General Pershing, Henry Fairfield Osborne, Irving Cobb, Edward Bok, William Howard Taft,
and Elihu Root.
The staff of the Bureau consists of the Director, assistant
director and local superintendents. The Department of
Visual Instruction is also under the direction of this Bureau. The local superintendent at each center must be
present to distribute announcements, introduce speakers,
take attendance and report on the character of the lectures.
The district superintendents of the regular school organization are charged with the supervision of lecture centers in
their districts.
Aggregate attendance at the centers in the season I925 -26 was 314,994.
Through the cooperation of the city Department of
Plant and Structures the radio has been impressed into
service, and the Bureau of Lectures now broadcasts almost
nightly at Io:I5 from WNYC, and once a week from WEAF.
In I925-26 three hundred and forty-nine lectures and concerts were broadcast, twenty-six concerts were broadcast
over WRNY, in addition to the 1,695 lectures delivered at
the regular centers.
Lack of sufficient appropriation to allow a higher fee to
lecturers and to allow more publicity to be given the courses
[ 86]




E X T E N S I O N     A C T I V I T I E S


are effective limitations upon the work of this department.
The extension of the use of the Municipal Radio Station,
thereby widening enormously the scope of the Bureau's
influence is probably one of the lines along which the future
development of the Bureau will come. And use of the
radio furnishes a most excellent opportunity for the Bureau
of Lectures to extend its usefulness and to maintain its
original function of instruction and inspiration.
COMMUNITY AND RECREATION CENTERS
Perhaps most extensive in influence of all extension
activities is the community center, which makes possible
the use of the school plant and equipment by the people
of the neighborhood and serves an invaluable end in the
amalgamation of races, the rapid transformation of foreigners to Americans, and the fostering of friendship, loyalty,
and good will among citizens of a community.
Community centers were started in New York City in
I901, chiefly as athletic and play centers for the youth of
the city. Gradually there developed club work, the game
room, and the library, and a participation in the development of the community. With the action of the New York
Legislature in throwing school houses open to groups of
responsible citizens wishing to use them under rules and
regulations established by the Board of Education, the
community center passed from a recreational movement
into one which added a community interest to the work.
Club work increased and broadened in its scope and the
participation of the adults of the neighborhood rapidly
made the community center a real center of community
life.
[187]




N  E  W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H   O  O  L
Community and recreation centers play excellent parts
in the work of citizenship building and delinquency prevention by providing wholesome occupations for the leisure
time of people attending them. Community drama, dances,
orchestras, choruses, neighborhood festivals and entertainments, the forum, club meetings, and social gatherings are
forms of self-expression which fill a very definite need. This
need is especially urgent among wage workers whose daily
job is a monotonous and uninspiring grind. Athletic and
game competitions are wholesome and healthful for the
younger members of the community.
The far-reaching influence of the centers is in a measure
indicated by attendance figures. The aggregate attendance
in sixty-three official evening centers last year was 3,298,779,
which means an average attendance of 447 at each session;
in 277 non-official centers 1,304,759, an average attendance
of I I7. The aggregate attendance in school buildings
opened for occasional use was recorded as 308,333, an average attendance of 428 on each occasion.
Attendance at the centers represents a pretty fair cross
section of the community. Most cosmopolitan gatherings
they are, for within the radius of a few blocks, this cross
section may bring in a dozen different nationalities.
The chief material requisites of a center are a wellequipped gymnasium, a well-equipped quiet game room,
and a contact with public libraries. More important than
these is a corps of properly trained teachers to care for the
various groups using the center. After-school centers for
children of school age usually have a two hour session from
three-thirty to five-thirty o'clock.  Permission is often
given to groups of parents or to some well-established organization to form a non-official community center in a
[ 88]




E X T E N S I O N     A C T I V I T I E S


school building. This center is carefully supervised by the
supervisors of the Bureau of Extension Activities but it
may or may not, as circumstances differ, have a teacher
assigned to it. Sometimes the Board of Education furnishes such a center with janitorial service, sometimes not.
MEETINGS AND FORUMS
The State education law provides that the schools may
be used for meetings pertaining to public welfare, and
New York communities take frequent advantage of this
provision. Going down the list for the "Extended Use of
Schools" in the season I925-26, one finds such items as
these: Boy Scouts Cooking Class, Citizen's Forum, Girl
Scouts, Parents' Association, Tennis Club, U. S. Junior
Naval Reserve, People's Chorus, Irish Republic, Polish
Educational Committee, Russian School, Home and School
League, Catholic Big Brothers, Bronx Centers' Association, League of Women Voters, C. C. N. Y. Alumnae Association, People's Institute, Greek Committee of St. Constantin, Violin Club, Chase Bank Club, Garrick Players, Flatbush Chamber of Commerce, Order of De Molay, Gym
Class Teachers Association, and dozens more.
A forum is one of the types of extension activities enlisting the people of the neighborhood. A forum program
usually involves the presentation of a topic of current interest by a competent speaker followed by questions and
discussion from the audience. That these discussions are
sometimes stormy does not detract from their value in
educating citizenry.


[ I89]




NEW         YO    R  K    A  T    SC H     OOL
PLAYGROUNDS, SWIMMING POOLS AND SHOWERS
The regular health and recreational work of the day
school is carried over into vacation periods by the Bureau
of Extension Activities which provides trained supervision
for playgrounds, pools and showers during the summer
months. Vacation playgrounds for mothers and babies
offer in many districts the only clean and open space to
which mothers can bring their young children away from
the wretched heat of a tenement street.
For children of kindergarten age experienced teachers
are there to organize games, to give out toys and handwork,
to lead in singing and rhythms and to see that the quiet
hour is enforced at nap time. Hammock swings in shady
places, safe toys which baby cannot swallow or put in his
eye, and stations for dispensing milk make the playgrounds
suitable havens for the babies,-havens that play their
part in reducing infant mortality. Weighing, measuring
and examining the babies is conducted by physicians and
nurses of the Children's Year Committee.
For the mothers these small playgrounds are places for
rest and social recreation,-places, too, where they may
receive instruction in the care of children, in nutrition,
hygiene, treatment of minor ailments and in standards of
physical development. The playground is a meeting place
where mothers may come together and plan great things for
the benefit of children. Little Mothers, as the older sisters
are called, come often in charge of smaller members of their
families. To them, too, the opportunities for rest, recreation and instruction are open.
Larger playgrounds are devoted to the older children
who must have more space in which to work off excess energy.
[ 90]




E X T E N S I 0 N


A C T I V I T I E S


The aggregate attendance of the vacation playgrounds
in 1925 was 6,55o,860. Two hundred-odd playgrounds
are open in the summer from one-fifteen to five-thirty;
playgrounds for the all day care of handicapped children
from nine to five; evening playgrounds from six to eightthirty; playground annexes from nine to five mostly; and
some from one-fifteen to five-thirty. The total of costs
for the summer playgrounds with their staff of I,o8I trained
people was $254,413.32.
In addition to the regular summer playgrounds the
Extension Division has organized play schools for the all
day care of children in eleven centers open from eightthirty to five-thirty. These centers take care of children
suffering from improper and irregular nourishment. The
play schools have a regular program of food, rest and recreation for the children and instruction in food values and
preparation of standard menus for classes of mothers.
Through contact with the Department of Health and
many outside agencies, hospital or clinic care is provided
for children in need of it.
Another of the health activities of the Extension division
is the utilization of swimming pools and shower baths in
and after school hours. There are twenty swimming pools
in school buildings in which evening as well as day classes
are conducted by trained teachers of the department.
Classes for men and women are held in some schools on
alternate nights. Aquatic sports, swimming meets and
Public School Athletic League badge tests are conducted
in school natatoriums, but since there are not enough most
of such meets and tests have had to be held in the municipal
pools.


[ I9I ]




N E W     Y O R K        A T


S C H O O L


Swimming teachers in schools which have only shower
baths and no pool have taken classes to the municipal pools
also to learn to swim. The use of the municipal pools is
curtailed by the fact that a ruling of the Commissioner of
Health does not allow the exclusive use of a pool to any
one school or organization. The swimming teachers are
especially licensed and selected from a recreation list.


[ I92 ]




V. KEEPING TRACK OF A MILLION CHILDREN








SUPERVISING AND INSURING ATTENDANCE
AT SCHOOL
PpTHE Bureau of Compulsory Education, School Census
and Child Welfare, more commonly known as the
Bureau of Attendance, is the agency provided by state law
by which the schools of the city may get in touch and keep
in touch with all the children of school age within its
boundaries.
THE FUNCTION OF THE BUREAU OF ATTENDANCE
The duties of the Bureau are to carry out the provisions
of the education law with regard to attendance of minors
upon required instruction and to maintain the school census.
To carry out these provisions, the Bureau is provided
with a staff consisting of a director, an assistant director,
a chief attendance officer, six division supervisors, 272 attendance officers, 29 district supervisors, and I I clerks.
The budget of the Bureau for the calendar year 1926 was
$973,506.12. However, even this staff has proved to be
inadequate to carry out all the duties prescribed for the
Bureau. The school census, for example, which is maintained in order to locate every child of school age and to
follow up to see that enrollment in school is not evaded,
must be carried on for the most part by a house to house
canvass. Moreover, the Bureau has certain other duties,
in addition to its attendance work, as, for example, the
issuance of employment certificates-a duty delegated to
it by the Superintendent of Schools. Duties with respect
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NE    W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O  O   L
to child welfare are implied by reason of the long title of
the Bureau, although there are no specific statutory requirements governing them.
However, the chief function of the Bureau is to enforce
the attendance of minors upon required instruction, which
means usually attendance at school.
How THE BUREAU CONTROLS ABSENCE
Within the schools themselves the first step in the control of absence is an accurate record of attendance, which
is specifically required of teachers by the state law. The
next is to provide for a regular examination of these records
by the principal or supervising head, and the requiring of
suitable explanations of absence. Accepted excuses for
absence are personal illness, death in family, religious observance and severe storm, and, at times, extreme distance
from school. The well-organized school controls the greater
part of absence by direct dealings with the parents. The
attendance officer deals with the parents who do not respond.
From the monthly reports of principals there is compiled and sent to each principal and district superintendent,
and the newspapers, a report showing the actual percentage
of attendance of each school and its relative rank. This
report has been found to be a most useful aid in securing
greater regularity of attendance.
The Board of Education through its by-law requires
that: "The principal of every school shall report to the
bureau of attendance the name of every child absent for
unexplained cause, on the beginning of the third day of
absence, and of a child absent because of truancy or suspected truancy as soon as the absence is known." The
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A T T E N D A N C E


B U R E A U


investigation of the causes of absence of such children, the
requiring of an appropriate explanation from the parent,
the statement to the parent of his lawful obligationsthis follow-up work is the principal duty of the attendance
officer.
To handle investigations of absence from school, the city
is divided into attendance districts, as follows: Manhattan,
seven; Bronx, two; Brooklyn, seven; Queens, two; Richmond, one; total, nineteen. Each attendance district is
under the supervision of a district supervisor, to whom are
assigned a clerk and attendance officers.
CAUSES OF IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE
Regular attendance is a product of several factorsthe school environment, a child's health and physical condition, his home environment, and in lesser degree the external environment. Where the first three are highly favorable, there is little need for the attendance officer. A
child may actively dislike the school, because he is unable
to do what is required, or because of dislike of a particular
teacher. Parents may be unsympathetic, careless, unintelligent; the child may be handicapped by poor mentality
or by a positive physical defect or impairment, and release
from school attendance may become the most desirable of
things. Forbidden pleasures and undesirable companions
may complete the tale. But whatever the cause, absence
is the sign. To control absence, first of all, it must be
known. Once known, it is obvious attendance officers can
deal successfully only with certain causes, and it is their
duty to deal with one cause, the parents, the chief factor in
the home environment.
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N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O L


How HEARINGS ARE CONDUCTED
After notice to the parent and child and an opportunity
for them to be heard, and with the consent of the parent
in writing, a child who is an habitual truant may be committed to a truant school for a period not exceeding two
years, but in no case beyond the maximum age of required
attendance. If the parent refuses such consent, court proceedings may be set in motion against him for failure to
cause the child to attend school. If the parent shows, however, that he is unable to control the child, then a petition
may be filed against the latter in the Children's Court as
a delinquent child.
Hearings are held by the bureau of attendance weekly
in the different boroughs for each attendance district and
each continuation school district, and parents are prosecuted on a day set aside in certain courts. Six officers of
the Bureau are busy all of the time with hearings,-an insufficient number to take care of 23,ooo cases yearly.
The following excerpt from "Instructions to Attendance
Officers" indicates the spirit in which hearings are conducted. With expert assistance for the making of physical
and mental examinations of children summoned to hearings,
better use could be made of these opportunities.
"The object of a hearing is not primarily to commit a
child to a truant school. Its object is to develop the sense
of parental responsibility, to bring about cooperation between the parent and the school, to confront the child with
the facts of his irregular habits, and to awaken in him a
consciousness of the effects of these habits and consequent
desire for improvement.
"A hearing takes primarily the character of an intensive
investigation. It is assumed that the motives of the parent
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A T T E N D A N C E


B U R E A U


are good, and it is not to be assumed that the child is bad.
Opportunity is taken to find out the nature of the home
surroundings, the sense of parental responsibility, and to
impress firmly but dispassionately the facts of parental responsibility where it appears to be inadequate. The cause
of the failure of the parent to control the child is examined,
and better methods proposed, where possible. The relations
of the child with his teacher and with other pupils may be
gone into, and any specific and motivating sources of irritation uncovered. Inquiry is also made as to his habits,
companions, tastes, activities, and places of resort when
a truant is absent from school. Principals and teachers
should be induced to report fully whatever information
they may have concerning the child in these or other particulars, and should be asked not only for the facts shown
on the regular reports but for any additional material they
may have.
"If for any reason you believe either physical or mental
characteristics of the child justify special examination, request that it be made; familiarize yourself with the results
of examinations of this character. They are made by the
Bureau of Child Hygiene of the Department of Health
and the Inspector of Ungraded Classes, Board of Education."
WHAT THE HEARINGS ACCOMPLISH
For about one-fifth of the number of hearings held, prosecutions are initiated. The Bureau of Attendance within
the school system itself is the final court of appeals in disposing of behavior problems. It is the only school authority
which can commit a child to the Parental School, and the
[E 99 ]




N E WT 'Y 0 R K


A T    S C H 0 0 L


Parental School is at present the last measure of discipline
upon which the schools may call.
There are several possible methods the Bureau may take
in dealing with these cases:
i. Place the child on probation.
2. Transfer the child to another school.
3. Uphold the principal's suspension from school.
4. Commit the child to the Parental School.
5. Prosecute the parents and later the child.
The great majority of children summoned to hearings
are placed on probation under the supervision of attendance
officers. While this supervision is largely formal, the result is that most of the children affected are regular in attendance. During the school year I925-26, I5,043 children
were placed on probation. During the same year 744 children under sixteen years of age were committed to a truant
school for the first time; 56I were placed on parole, and
202 were returned to the truant school for failing to attend
regularly.  Forty-six children under seventeen years of
age were committed for failure to attend continuation school.
In the hands of the Bureau of Attendance is also the
the matter of parole. The Bureau has power to place on
parole children committed to the Parental School, although
the power is usually exercised only on recommendation from
the Parental School parole board. The Bureau of Attendance has no authority over the children it has committed
between the time of the hearing and the dismissal or parole.
MAINTAINING THE SCHOOL CENSUS
Another function of the Bureau is that of maintaining
the school census, showing at all times the name, date of
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A  T  T  E   N  D  A  N   C  E     B  U  R   E  A  U
birth, names of the parents, and place of residence of every
minor under eighteen years of age. Reports from the
schools, covering each child admitted, transferred or discharged, supplement the attendance officer's canvassing of
his district.
Notice is received from the Commissioner of Immigration of the name, age and prospective residence of each
child admitted to the country for residence in New York
City, and each case is investigated to make certain the
child is registered in school. Certain immigrant children
are also admitted by the immigration authorities under
bond to attend school, and notice is sent to the Attendance
Bureau, which reports monthly to the Immigration Bureau
as to the attendance of these children in school.
To insure that every child shall attend school, no child
may be discharged from the register of a public school except
for duly recognized causes such as transfer to another school
or to an institution, expulsion, notice that an employment
certificate has been issued, death, marriage, graduation,
permanent removal from the city, mental disability, physical
disability, quarantine by the Board of Health, etc., etc.
ISSUING AND REGULATING EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES
The Superintendent of Schools has delegated to the
Attendance Bureau the power to issue employment certificates to children old enough to leave school or who have
completed certain educational requirements by law. All
applicants for employment certificates must pass a physical
examination given by doctors furnished by the Bureau of
Child Hygiene of the Board of Health. The Attendance
Bureau also issues vacation employment certificates to
[ 20I ]




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H 0 0 L


minors between fourteen and fifteen years of age valid for
employment when school attendance is not required. Newsboy permit badges are issued to boys between twelve and
sixteen years of age, permitting them to engage in the sale
or distribution of newspapers, periodicals and magazines
after 6 A. M., and before 8 P. M., and outside of school hours.
The Bureau enforces attendance at part-time schools.
Employment certificates are issued at continuation schools
only, to insure the registration of employed minors at these
schools.
The law requires that every minor under seventeen years
of age-and after I928, under eighteen years of age-who
is not attending a public, parochial or private school or who
is regularly and lawfully employed, and not a graduate of
a four-year high school course of study, shall attend a
part-time school for not less than four hours a week. It
requires also that every minor between fourteen and sixteen years of age, not regularly and lawfully employed, and
in proper physical and mental condition, shall attend upon
instruction the entire time the public schools are in session,
and that every minor between sixteen and twenty-one years
of age, unable to speak, read and write English as required
for the completion of the fifth year of the elementary school
course of study, shall attend a day or evening school for
not less than six hours each week.


[ 202 ]




VI. THE TEACHERS OF A MILLION CHILDREN








I. HOW NEW YORK TRAINS ITS TEACHERS


N any educational chain there is no link more vitally
important to the whole than its teacher training schools.
Where does New York get its teachers? From its own training schools mostly, and from surrounding colleges-Hunter
College, City College, New York University and Teachers
College of Columbia University.
THE TRAINING SCHOOLS FOR TEACHERS
The city training schools for teachers-New York Training School, Maxwell Training School and Jamaica Training
School-are controlled directly by the city Board of Education and represent the highest type of education that the
Board offers. Training schools are devoted solely to the
task of training New York City elementary school teachers.
In connection with each there is a model school that serves
at once as a demonstration and a practice school. Moreover, all of the schools of the city are utilized as training
and practice schools for the three or four thousand young
men and women of the city who yearly elect to prepare
themselves for the teaching profession.
The oldest of the training schools is Maxwell Training
School which began in May, I885, with forty students and
a faculty of four. Training schools for teachers were not
then compulsory because high school graduates were eligible
to teach without professional training. The course was a
one-year course in which the model and practice school
played a large part. In I898 New York Training School
[205 1




N  E   W    Y  O   R  K    A  T    S C   H   O  O  L
came along with a two-year course and finally in 1923 a
compulsory three-year course was installed, with plans for
a four-year course waiting in the wings only until the threeyear course has been well established. The annual register
for the training schools is now 5,406, with women much in
the majority,-5,I47 women and 259 men.
WHAT THE TRAINING SCHOOLS GIVE
The three-year course had to be introduced gradually
lest there be a sudden shortage of teachers. To anticipate
this difficulty certain classes are still being graduated at
the end of two and one-half years. The three-year course
is based on essential subject matter that is to be taught to
the children and on pedagogy. The list of subjects includes,
besides the regular arithmetic, English, science, nature
study, penmanship, etc., of the elementary school curriculum, such studies as health education, sociology, educational
psychology, classroom management, professional ethics,
industrial handwork and experimental education. The program is rather rigid with little choice of elective subjects
until the last year when students may specialize in a special
subject, such as domestic science, or physical education.
They may specialize, too, in training for teaching one of
three grade groups, the lower, middle or upper grades.
The chief argument for a longer session is that it may
allow cultural subjects a larger place in a teacher's training.
No foreign language is now taught in the training schools.
To meet the junior high school problem nothing has so
far been required of the training schools because junior
high school teachers have been selected, except in the case
of foreign language teachers, from among experienced upper
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T R A I N I N G


T E A C H E R S


grade teachers. The problem of training teachers especially for junior high school work has been largely left unsolved. There has been particular difficulty, as has been
seen, in attracting teachers of superior training into schools
where salaries are less than in high schools.
In the training school program, method and subject
matter are taught side by side. Every student spends at
least half of her time in practice work and observation of
actual classroom work. At least four times during the course
of training, students are sent either to the model practice
school or into the regular city schools as pupil-teachers to
observe and practice teaching. Each model school is a
complete elementary school where the city's most competent
teachers may give demonstration lessons and where the
students are required to teach under the instruction and
observation of training school supervisors.
The model schools are not experimental schools. Rather
they are regular elementary schools operating under exactly
the same conditions as other schools in the city, except that
they have picked corps of teachers who also teach student
teachers, and that the students are occasionally allowed to
conduct classes. At nine o'clock every morning there is a
demonstration lesson which student-teachers attend.
When the students are sent into the regular city schools,
the principals see that they have a chance to observe the
best teaching, particularly of the special subjects and in
the grade groups they have chosen, and to teach, either under
the supervision of the class teacher or, in case of her absence,
in entire charge of a class.
Special demonstration rooms in the training schools
themselves give the students an opportunity again for
observation and practice. A fine type of demonstration
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N  E  W     Y  O  R  K    A  T    S C H    O  O   L
room in the New York Training School has the regular
elementary school classroom accommodating thirty or forty
pupils on the floor level with seats for the students who are
observing at one side on a sloping platform.
In the matter of equipment the New York Training
School, in a beautiful new building set high on a bluff overlooking the city at I35th Street and Convent Avenue, is
a model. There are specially equipped rooms for every
subject,-model flats for domestic science; special cooking,
sewing, drawing and nature study rooms; a handsome music
room high in the tower; fine gymnasiums with showers and
locker rooms, and outdoor basketball courts for the physical
training department; an ample auditorium and stage;
double unit teaching-demonstration rooms; and, finally,
model school rooms where classes from IA to 6B-and
later through junior high school-may be accommodated
for model purposes in the building itself. Jamaica Training
School is also to have a new building, similarly equipped.
THE STANDARDS MAINTAINED
Requirements for eligibility to a training school are:
graduation from a recognized high school or equivalent
education; completion of certain required subjects such as
English, American history, two years of mathematics,
two years of science, two years of foreign language, two
years of drawing, and two years of music; a satisfactory
personality, on the basis of reports from the principal and
the teachers of high school; the passing of a satisfactory
examination in oral English and a satisfactory physical
examination. Through the oral examination the aspirant
must convince the examiner that her bearing, her voice,
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T  R  A   I N   I N   G     T  E   A  C  H   E  R  S
her pronunciation and her personality fit her to become an
example to children. The training school course is given
full college credit in New York University so that in a few
summers a graduate may obtain a college degree.
The pressure upon the training schools to meet the
constant demand for trained teachers and at the same time
to maintain high standards is one that perhaps allows too
little time for new projects, for expansion of curriculum
and adjusting of curriculum to meet new demands arising
with the development of such new types of schools as the
continuation and vocational schools and the junior high
schools. The training schools are now crowded to capacity
in the effort merely to turn out enough teachers to recruit
next year's teaching staff. Whenever this pressure is lessened, the tendency is for the training schools to raise
standards and expand courses.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
The four-year course which has been planned for the
future development of the teacher training schools has
already been indicated. New York Training School represents the kind of building and material equipment that would
seem to be necessary to the proper functioning of the training schools. The need for special training for junior high
school teachers is a problem for the training schools to
meet as soon as possible.
Still another problem in the minds of the training schools'
staff is that of allowing for more experimental work in the
training schools themselves and in the model schools run
in conjunction with them. The need for experimentation
in any school system in order that it be kept up to date,
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N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O L


that it be open to new ideas, that its teachers and prospective teachers be allowed to develop initiative and creative
ability, is an ever present need. That some of this experimentation be carried on under the expert supervision of
the picked and experienced teachers of a training school
staff seems a perfectly logical and desirable developmentone which will be possible when training schools are not
required to give all of their time and resources to furnishing
enough competent teachers to fill the gaps in the ranks.


[ 210 ]




II. EXAMINING AND PROMOTING TEACHERS


ONE of the greatest achievements of the New York
City school system is the selection of its teachers by
means of competitive examinations. This merit system
has been in use for twenty-eight years.
THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM
This system is in the hands of a Board of Examiners,
themselves selected by means of a searching competitive
examination prepared and conducted under the direction
of the Municipal Civil Service Commission by educators
in high standing chosen usually from outside the city school
system. The Board of Examiners is made up of seven members who have permanent tenure of office.
The Board is empowered to prepare, conduct and grade
examinations for all teaching and supervising positions in
the city school system except those of high school and training school principals, directors and assistant directors of
departments and special branches, district and associate
superintendents and the Superintendent of Schools himself.
Examinations may be authorized only by the Superintendent of Schools, upon whom rests the responsibility for
seeing that there are enough persons who have passed
proper examinations and been placed upon eligible lists to
supply the demand for qualified persons to fill vacancies.
When the examinations of the applicants for a certain
license have been graded, the names of those who have
[21II 




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successfully passed are placed upon eligible lists in the
order of the excellence of their passing grades. When
appointments are made thereafter for positions requiring
that particular license, the choice for any one position must
be made from the top three names on the eligible list. The
reason for allowing a choice of three names is presumably
that there may be certain professional reasons for preferring
the second or third on the list to the first. It is customary,
for example, to give preference to a person on the eligible
list who has been giving satisfactory substitute service in
the position under consideration.
Once the examinations for a certain position have been
graded and the eligible lists made up in the Examiners'
office, the lists are forwarded to the Board of Superintendents
to be used in making recommendations for appointments
to the Board of Education. Lists are valid for three years
only; after three years if those whose names are on the lists
have not been appointed they must take another examination in order to be reinstated on the new list.
TYPES OF EXAMINATIONS
Examinations are conducted from time to time for
something like 300 different kinds of teaching and supervisory jobs. To each examiner are assigned certain types
of examinations. For example, last year one examiner was
assigned to the problem of selecting teachers for vocational
schools, evening recreation centers, classes of physically
handicapped children and special classes for cooking.
The examination is usually three-fold, consisting of a
written paper, an oral examination and either a teaching
demonstration, or, in the case of vocational work, a test of
[ 212]




S E   L  E  C  T   I N   G    T  E  A  C  H   E  R  S
practical skill. The examination for which applicants are
most numerous is that for License No. I, to teach any one
of the first six school grades. Next in order is the promotion license to qualify for teaching grades seven, eight and
nine. The written examination for high school teaching
is usually limited to an intensive examination in the particular subject the candidate wishes to teach. There are
examinations for principal of elementary school, and for
assistants to principals of elementary schools. There are
hundreds more for special teachers of all kinds,-kindergartners, teachers of ungraded classes, of classes for the
blind, deaf, and crippled, teachers of foreign languages in
junior high school, of domestic science, cooking, music,
physical education, drawing, and manual training, teachers
of trade and vocational classes ranging in variety from
bricklaying and plumbing to dressmaking and art jewelry.
There are examinations for teachers of probationary and
parental schools, for evening school teachers of English to
foreigners, for visiting teachers, vocational counselors,
playground directors, librarians, and attendance officers.
In the case of License No. I, the three elements considered in determining an applicant's rating on the eligible list
are the written examination, the interview and the applicant's scholastic record. For promotion license the third
element is the teaching record. For high school the intensive written examination in the applicant's subject is
supplemented by the personal interview and by a teaching
demonstration in his subject conducted in a regular high
school class by the department head of that school. For
vocational and trade teachers a test of practical skill is
usually required in addition to the demonstration lesson.
A physical examination, it might be added, is given to all
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N  EW       Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O  O   L
candidates to insure their fitness. Wherever available the
candidate's record as a teacher is carefully scrutinized and
is given much weight in the final determination of his rating
on the eligible list.
On the written examinations a system of numbering
examination papers conceals the candidate's identity from
the examiner marking the papers. In many of the examinations a system is used whereby even the candidate does not
know his examination number.
The interview or oral examination is usually brief-not
more than a half hour in duration-and is designed to give
the examiner a chance to judge of the applicant's personality
and ability to use English. Various types of written examinations have been devised, from the old style examination requiring essay-like answers to the more modern short
answer tests, where the applicant is asked to mark statements as true or false, complete statements, or to select
from a group of several alternative answers the correct
one. The new type examinations may be completed and
graded more quickly and, moreover, are easily standardized,
thereby lessening chance of error in judgment on the part
of the examiner marking the paper. Standard answers
have been prepared for all examination questions, even
those requiring the "essay" answer, to serve as criteria in
marking papers.
This problem of devising tests that will be at once fair,
comprehensive and brief and that may be carefully graded
according to fixed standards is one on which the examiners
are working constantly.
Information about examinations is spread to those who
may be interested by means of circulars sent to the proper
schools in the city or neighboring cities-to teacher training
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S E   L  E  C T   I N   G    T   E  A  C H   E  R   S
schools and colleges for first license examinations, to the
schools themselves for promotion examinations and to
outside schools and colleges, if it is felt that qualified persons
for certain positions should be attracted to the city. These
circulars outline the advantages offered by the positions
for which the examinations will be held, including the
salary schedule offered, and the qualifications of education
and experience prescribed for eligibility to take examinations. In case of trade positions, the examinations are
occasionally advertised in the local papers in cities which
are the centers of the particular trade for which teachers
are needed.   Announcements are sometimes broadcast
from the city radio station.
It is now the plan of the Board of Examiners, with the
consent of the Superintendent, to adopt a fixed schedule of
examinations for the next three years so that teachers may
know some time in advance when a particular examination
is to be held, and that the work of the examiners may be
evenly distributed throughout the three years. License
No. I examinations are now scheduled regularly for June
and January of every year. Occasionally, of course, in the
case of sudden unexpected vacancies the Superintendent
may call for a special examination. Also, the Examiners
sometimes give emergency examinations, say, for a substitute to fill a certain position until the regular examination
can be held and the position filled from an eligible list.
The seven members of the Board of Examiners find it
impossible, of course, to make or to grade examinations for
all the types of positions for which they must seek qualified
persons; impossible also to do all the work of examination
themselves. Therefore, they are empowered to employ to
assist them assistant examiners whose names are approved
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N  EW       Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O   O  L
by the Municipal Civil Service Commission, and upon
whose services they may call from time to time. These
assistant examiners are mostly from the special fields-the
trades and such special branches as music, art and commercial subjects-and their aid is enlisted both in formulating tests and in grading them. The Examiners themselves,
however, prepare ninety percent of the tests given.
The examiners sometimes allow exemptions from certain parts of an examination. For example, in the case of
applicants for reinstatement on an eligible list that has
lapsed after three years, they might waive the written examination and use the grading obtained by the applicant
on his previous written examination in determining his
place on the next eligible list to be prepared. All the other
items of the test, of course, would have to be met. Exemptions from some part of the personal or oral examination
are sometimes made on college or training school records.
The organization of the Board of Examiners and all
details concerning it have been designed to keep that Board
an independent body, free from all influence inside or outside of the school system. The aim is to secure an intelligent and absolutely fair selective Board whose duty it is
to see that persons properly qualified for certain positions
in the school system are given an opportunity to manifest
their ability through competitive examinations. For this
reason, Examiners are selected by the Board of Education
from a list prepared by the Municipal Civil Service Commission; for this reason, too, they are given permanent tenure.
APPEAL FROM THE EXAMINERS' DECISIONS
The decision of the Examiners regarding a candidate is
final, subject only to appeal to the State Commissioner of
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T E A C H E R S


Education, who has power to reverse or modify their decision. However, the Examiners themselves, realizing that
no Board is infallible, have organized appeals committees
to which a dissatisfied candidate may present his case.
The appeals committee devised by the Examiners themselves and used last year for the License No. I examination
is a committee of three members, one of whom is chosen
by the Board of Examiners, one by the Superintendent,
and the third by the two members thus selected. The
Committee is asked to review the candidate's examination
and grading and make recommendations concerning it.
These recommendations must receive the approval of the
Examiners at a regular meeting before they become operative, however. Similar appeals committees have been used
in connection with examinations for higher licenses.


[ 217]




III. OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEACHERS IN SERVICE


OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION
OPEN to the teachers in service in New York City
are practically innumerable opportunities to continue
their education through extension courses. Hunter College, City College, New York University, Columbia University-these are only a few of the educational institutions offering courses especially designed for teachers.
Moreover, these institutions are usually willing and anxious
to establish courses anywhere in the city if there is a sufficient demand for a certain subject.
One of the teachers' organizations in particular-the
Brooklyn Teachers' Association-arranges for special courses
for teachers at very low rates, these courses to be given at
central points in any one of the five boroughs. The courses
cover all branches of cultural and professional education
and include such recreation activities as swimming, dancing,
photography, and dramatic art.
LEAVES OF ABSENCE
In addition, the Board of Education has adopted the
policy of granting to a limited number of teachers each
year sabbatical leaves of absence for study, rest, travel or
restoration of health. The teacher granted such a leave
may receive for one term the difference between her regular
salary and a substitute's pay for that term.
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TE A     C H   E R   S   I N    S E R V I C E
A by-law passed in January, I924, provides that sabbatical leaves shall be granted to not more than fifty members of the teaching and supervising staff in high school
and training schools, and to not more than one hundred in
other day schools. However, the requests for leaves were
so numerous that both in 1925-26 and 1926-27, the Board
extended permission to more than three hundred teachers
to be absent on leave. A teacher must have been in the
system at least ten years before she may be granted a sabbatical leave. In recommending the granting of leaves,
consideration is given, by a committee consisting of the
associate superintendent in charge and two members of the
Board of Education, to the teacher's record and length of
service, and to the needs of the school system.
Leaves of absence for study or for restoration of health
without pay may be obtained for one year or less by application to the Board of Superintendents.
Absence of a teacher from regular duty may be excused
by the Local School Board of the district with no deduction
in salary, subject to the approval of the Board of Superintendents, for any of three reasons,-illness, death in the
teacher's immediate family, or required attendance in court.
Each teacher is allowed three days for visiting other schools
if her principal so desires.
Maternity leaves may be granted without pay by the
Board of Superintendents. Any married woman member
of the teaching staff, as soon as she is aware of her pregnancy,
must notify the Superintendent of Schools and must forthwith apply for and accept leave of absence for two years.
Between 600 and 700 teachers are now absent from the
city's school staff on maternity leave. Three hundred and
ninety-nine such leaves were granted in the year I925-26.
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RETIREMENT SYSTEM
New York City, through the Teachers' Retirement
System, materially helps its teachers to prepare for disability or old age. The Teachers' Retirement System is
really a compulsory thrift system. As soon as a teacher in
the city schools has received her permanent license at the
end of three years of approved service, she is automatically
enlisted in the system and monthly deductions are made
from her salary on the basis of the salary she receives and
her years of service. The usual deduction is three percent
of the salary for those who were in the service in I917, but
a teacher entering the service since that date must pay
such percentage of her salary as shall be computed to be
sufficient to pay one-half the cost of a retirement allowance
of half average salary after thirty-five years of service or
on the attainment of sixty-five years. For every annuity
provided from contributions thus made by the teacher to
the retirement fund, the city pays a like premium. By the
time the teacher, then, has taught thirty-five years or has
reached the age of retirement, sixty-five, she is entitled to
a retirement allowance amounting to approximately onehalf of the average salary she has received for her last five
years of service. Retirement is mandatory at the age of
seventy.
If, in the meantime, the teacher leaves the service for
any reason, the sum of her contributions is returned to her
with interest compounded at four percent. If she is disabled at the end of ten years of service in the city, she is
entitled to receive a minimum of about twenty-five percent
of her average salary for the last five years, and this disability allowance increases with her years of service up to
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T     E  A   C  H   E   R   S  I  N    S  E    R  V    I  C  E
approximately forty-five percent of her average salary for
the previous five years. For a disability allowance the
teacher must have had ten years in the city's service. For
her service retirement allowance she may claim service
elsewhere prior to becoming a member of the Teachers'
Retirement System.
In case of the death of a teacher eligible for a service
retirement allowance, her beneficiary is entitled to a sum
amounting to one-half of the teacher's salary for the year
preceding her death, in addition to the return of her contributions with interest. If death comes before a teacher is
eligible, her beneficiary is entitled only to the sum of accumulated deductions from her salary with interest.
The foregoing is a very brief and sketchy account of the
retirement system. There are many ramifications of that
system into which it will be unnecessary to go here. The
present system was established by an amendment to the
city charter in I9I7 to replace the old system which had
proved to be on an unsound basis.* It was the first system
in the country for municipal employees which called for
the creation of reserves to pay benefits promised by the
city as well as those provided by employees.
Directing the operation of the Teachers' Retirement
System is a board of seven members composed of the President of the Board of Education, the City Comptroller,
two members appointed by the Mayor, one of whom must
be a member of the Board of Education, and three members elected by the contributors. This board elects its
*At the time of the 19I7 amendment, in order to take care of teachers already
in service, careful adjustments had to be made. The system as outlined above is
that for new entrants in the service after 1917. The city has, in the case of teachers
in service in 1917, made contributions greater than those made by the contributors
in order to equalize allowances.
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chairman and a secretary, appoints an actuary and necessary medical and clerical help, fixing their compensation
subject to the approval of the Board of Estimate. The
Board possesses the powers and privileges of a corporation
to dispense the teachers' retirement funds. The Comptroller, who is custodian of the fund, makes payments on
warrants signed by the chairman of the Board and countersigned by the secretary.
A medical board of three members examines all applicants for disability allowances. This board is made up of
one physician appointed by contributing members of the
retirement board, one physician appointed by the other
members and one expert in women's and nervous diseases
selected by the board as a whole. Teachers receiving a
disability allowance must submit to medical examination
yearly.


[222 ]




VII. ADMINISTERING THE SCHOOLS




i
I




I. OVERHEAD CONTROL OF EDUCATION


How THE STATE CONTROLS THE SCHOOLS
1T  HE State, first of all, is responsible for the schools.
According to Article 9, Section I, of the State Constitution, "The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools,
wherein all the children of this State may be educated."
The Legislature
In compliance with this constitutional mandate, the
Legislature has established by law certain minimum standards of education which must everywhere be met, and has
provided state financial aid to enable communities to meet
them. It has also created, for administrative purposes, a
State Department of Education to supervise and direct
the work of education in the state as a whole, and has defined the character and the powers of the various local
school boards, which act as the agents of the State in their
respective cities or school districts.
The Board of Regents
The State Department of Education is administered
by a Board of Regents, appointed by the Legislature. This
Board in turn selects the Commissioner of Education, who
is the chief executive officer of the State school system and
sees that all statutes, and all rules and regulations of the
Board of Regents designed to carry out these statutes are
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duly enforced. The Regents are elected, one each year,
by the Legislature, on joint ballot of the two houses, and
there must be at least one Regent from each judicial district
of the State. At the present time there are twelve Regents,
each of whom serves for twelve years.
The Board of Regents is, in effect, the legislative body
of the educational department of the State. Its jurisdiction is not confined, however, merely to the public school
systems of the State. In addition to determining State
public school policies within the statutes and holding local
school authorities responsible for their official acts, the
Regents act as the board of directors for the University of
the State of New York.
This University is, of course, not a university in the
usual sense of that term, with an institutional plant and
a corps of teachers and students under its immediate direction. It is, rather, a corporate body endowed with legislative powers to encourage and promote education, to visit
and inspect educational institutions and departments and
to administer such property and funds as the State may
appropriate or the University may hold in trust or otherwise. As a university board, the Regents may confer honorary degrees, or conduct examinations to confer degrees,
diplomas or certificates. It establishes standards for graduation and college entrance for pupils in the public secondary
schools. It fixes standards for evaluating diplomas or certificates issued by institutions of other states or foreign
countries, which may be presented for entrance to schools,
colleges or professions in the State. It has no control, however, over religious schools or theological institutions. In
addition, it may charter any university, college, academy,
library, museum, or other institution or association for
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T H E


S T A T E


D E P A R T M E N T


the promotion of science, literature, art or education. It
also supervises entrance regulations and licensing in such
professions as medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and optometry, and the certification of nurses, expert accountants,
architects, etc., and appraises the diplomas issued by other
states in these fields. It incorporates all correspondence
schools, administers state scholarships, and has just recently been assigned the task of censoring motion pictures,
which was formerly cared for by an independent commission
created by the Legislature. The annual budget of the
State Department, including the State normal schools and
such other educational institutions as are under its direct
control, is around $60,ooo,ooo.
From this brief sketch it may be seen that the State of
New York has made a unique effort to co6rdinate and
centralize its various educational functions and responsibilities, including that of publicly supported education,
with which this story is particularly concerned.
The State Commissioner of Education
As has been indicated, to carry out these policies and
to enforce its regulations, the Board of Regents appoints
the Commissioner and such assistant commissioners and
staff members as he and they may deem necessary. Exclusive of the State normal school faculties, the administrative
staff of the State Department includes more than 750 persons. The Commissioner's functions fall into two main
divisions: (I) administrative, subject to the direction of
the Board of Regents; and (2) judicial, conferred separately
upon him by law.
In his administrative capacity, as the chief executive
officer of the State Department of Education, the Com[227 ]




N  EW       YO    R   K    AT      S C   HO    O   L
missioner has power to enforce all the educational laws of
the State, to execute all educational policies and regulations
determined upon by the Regents, and in doing so to exercise
general supervision over all schools and educational departments of the State and to investigate and examine
them at his discretion.
In his judicial capacity, he acts as a supreme justice for
educational matters in the State. He can hear and determine appeals or petitions from any one inside or outside
the school system who believes himself to be aggrieved by
acts occurring in the administration of the schools in any
district in the State. He can annul upon cause shown to
his satisfaction any certificate of qualification to a teacher.
He can order the removal from office of any employee
illegally appointed and remove from office any school officer
who wilfully or through neglect of duty violates any law or
regulation of the Regents or the Commissioner. He can
also withhold public money of the State from any district
or city which willfully disobeys or neglects to enforce any
provision of the law or any regulation of the Regents.
Because of these broad administrative and judicial powers, it may be seen that the Commissioner is in an unusual
position to be a powerful agent in determining school policies,
in upholding high standards and in righting wrongs and determining controversies in any part of the State. The
history of his office shows countless instances of the beneficial exercise of these prerogatives.
How THE CITY CONTROLS THE SCHOOLS
As has already been indicated, the Legislature has set
up local boards of education to care for the immediate
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BOARD            O   F    E D   U  C A T I ON
administration of public schools. In most cities of the
State these boards of education are elected by the people.
In New York City and most of the larger cities, however,
boards are appointed. In New York City the Board of
Education comprises seven members, one of whom is appointed on May I each year by the Mayor to serve for a
period of seven years. At the present time, two of these
members must be from Manhattan, two from Brooklyn
and one from each of the other three boroughs.
All of these local boards of education have very broad
powers conferred upon them by the Legislature and most
of them raise the money necessary to support their schools
from local taxes which they themselves levy within certain
statutory limits. In New York City, however, while the
Board of Education has the same broad general educational powers as do other boards in the State, on the financial side it is dependent for its funds upon appropriations
from the City Board of Estimate and Apportionment. As
will be pointed out later, it must submit an annual budget
to the City authorities, only part of which is guaranteed
and upon which it can count. As a result, many of the
educational policies in New York City are actually determined by the City authorities rather than by the Board of
Education, because nothing can be undertaken unless funds
are provided for maintenance.
Four Official Bodies Participate
So far as New York City is concerned, it is thus evident
that four official bodies participate in determining the
character of education offered.
In the first place, the Legislature passes laws specifically
determining such matters as the powers and duties of the
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NE    W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O  O   L
Board of Education and other school officials, teachers'
salaries, methods of selecting members of the professional
staff, the establishment of continuation schools, the legal
requirements for attendance, etc.
In the second place, the State Department of Education
can amplify these statutes by rules and regulations respecting them, as it has done in the case of continuation schools
and vocational education. The Commissioner, also, can
intervene if he believes the law is not being properly enforced and can also hear and determine complaints in respect to the way the City is carrying out the statutes and,
if necessary, withhold state appropriations until regulations of the State Department are properly carried out.
In the third place, the Board of Education sets up its
own by-laws and appoints the administrative officers and
subordinate members of the staff that are essential to carry
out these laws and to maintain the standards indicated
by the statutes and regulations of the State Department.
It may, furthermore, consider these standards as mere
minimum requirements and go as far as it wishes beyond
them in providing local school facilities.
In this latter connection, however, the Board of Education runs up against the fourth factor in the control of
schools, the financial authorities of the City-the Board
of Estimate and Apportionment primarily-who can practically nullify anything which the Board of Education may
want to do, provided the law does not make it mandatory.
In fact, it will be seen later on that even the Board of Aldermen and the Mayor, through the power of veto, can take
a share in shaping the policies of the Board of Education.
This distribution of authority and the power of the
City financial authorities to veto practically anything which
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B O A R D


O F    E D U C A T I O N


is not made mandatory explains the tendency in New
York City to have as many policies as possible enacted into
law by the Legislature. Particularly has this been true in
the creation of certain types of education and in prescribing
salary schedules and the retirement system.
The Board of Education
Turning now to the Board of Education of New York
City specifically, its powers, subject to the foregoing limitations, may be briefly summarized as follows:
I. It can create, abolish, maintain or consolidate any
positions, divisions, boards or bureaus that it may deem
necessary for the administration of its work.
2. Subject to legal requirements as to nomination,
hereafter noted, it can appoint superintendents, supervisors, teachers and such other professional and business
employees as it may deem necessary in its work.
3. Unless the law specifically defines the duties of
these employees, as it does, for example, in the case of the
Superintendent of Schools and the Board of Examiners,
the Board of Education can definitely determine exactly
what each employee shall do.
4. The Board of Education has the custody and control of all school property and can prescribe rules and regulations for its use and preservation.
5. It selects sites and authorizes the erection of buildings, purchases and furnishes books and furniture, and
provides all the apparatus, equipment, and supplies necessary to carry on its program.
6. It can establish and maintain libraries, organize
public lecture courses, and equip playgrounds, recreation
[23 I1




N  E   W    Y   O  R  K    A   T    S  C  H  O   O  L
centers, social centers, etc., within the limits of the funds
it can obtain from the Board of Estimate.
In addition to the foregoing powers, which it can perform  entirely on its own initiative, it performs certain
functions on the recommendation of the Board of Superintendents which it appoints in accordance with the statutes
and which comprises the superintendent and eight associate
superintendents.  These latter functions include such
matters as the authorization of courses of study, the adoption of textbooks and the appointment of all members of
the teaching and supervisory staff except the superintendent
of schools and associate superintendents whom it appoints
entirely on its own initiative. It should be noted here that
it also appoints members of the Board of Examiners without recommendation by the Board of Superintendents, only
in this case its choice is confined to an eligible list prepared
by the Municipal Civil Service Commission.
The Board must also use municipal civil service lists
for all of its non-professional employees such as draftsmen,
janitors, stenographers, clerks, etc., unless those positions
are specifically exempted by statutes or by action of the
Municipal Civil Service Commission.
By this broad control over appointments and educational and business policies the Board of Education is thus
empowered to make final decisions within the limits above
described as to the conduct of the public schools in New
York City. Not only can it define policies but it may cause
such reports and accounts to be kept as it may require, and
it may institute such inquiries or investigations as it shall
deem necessary in formulating such policies and programs
or in administering the schools of New York City.


[232 ]




BOARD             OF       E  D  U  C A   T I ON
How the Board of Education Operates
Without elaborating in detail on how the Board goes
about its work, it is interesting to note that, like many
boards of directors, the Board of Education does the larger
part of its work through committees. At the present time
the Board has the following committees: finance and budget; buildings and sites; day schools; evening schools; departmental organization; special schools; law; continuation
schools and speech improvement; physical training; supplies;
care of buildings; Bureau of Attendance; lectures; and local
school boards.
After these special committees have passed upon purely
routine matters, the Board itself usually accepts their
recommendations without comment. Matters of policy
are discussed more thoroughly in the Board as a whole and,
on mooted questions, the Board sometimes calls public
hearings so that interested citizens may have an opportunity
to express their views.
The officers of the Board of Education are the president
and vice-president, who act as presiding officers and naturally have a commanding position in the conduct of the
Board's affairs. The details connected with the Board's
actions and deliberations are cared for by its secretary who
is an intermediary between the Board and the schools.
The Secretary of the Board of Education
As soon as possible after each meeting of the Board of
Education, the secretary notifies the officers of the Board
of all action taken by the Board affecting the respective
departments. He notifies all members of the teaching and
supervising staff, and other employees of the Board, of
appointments, promotions and transfers authorized. He
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makes requisition upon the Civil Service Commission for
the names of persons to be appointed to positions which
are subject to its rules and regulations, and he notifies this
Commission of the appointment, promotion, transfer,
resignation or removal of such employees.
On behalf of the Board of Education, he prepares and
executes all contracts after they have been awarded and
secures the execution of such contracts by the contractors.
On behalf of the Board, he also prepares and executes all
leases which have been duly authorized and approved according to law. He notifies the Board of Education of the
expiration of the terms of office of its officers and employees
and has charge of the books, papers and documents of the
Board of Education and the custody of the corporate seal.
For the accomplishment of these and various other
duties that the Board of Education and its president may
assign to him, the secretary is allowed a staff of thirty-two
persons, including two assistant secretaries.
Local School Boards
In a city so huge as New York it would be unfitting for
the citizens of a school district not to have a closer contact with the control of the schools than that afforded by
representatives of each borough appointed by the Mayor
to serve on the Board of Education. This closer contact
in New York City is afforded by the local district school
boards, which, indeed, have very little actual power but
which serve to give the citizens a chance to voice the needs
of their districts.
The larger school district comprised by New York
City is divided for school administration purposes into fiftyfour smaller districts. A local school board is made up of
[ 234 ]




B  O  A  R  D     O  F     E  D  U  C A   T  I O   N
five members selected from the residents of the local district
by the Borough President, who is himself an elected official.
In addition the district superintendent is required to attend all meetings although he has no vote and is not eligible
to office; and one member of the Board of Education assigned to the district is a member of the Board with a vote,
but not eligible to office.
It is the duty of the local school board to inspect all the
schools in the district at least once each quarter and report
to the Board of Education any matter requiring official
action. The members are particularly charged with the
inspection of the physical condition of buildings, of seeing
that the children of the district are suitably housed and that
the buildings are kept in order; they are asked to make
recommendations to the Board of Education regarding new
buildings needed and to suggest possible new sites. These
matters, too, are part of the job of the district superintendent and since he is in closer daily touch with the schools
than the local board members he is in a position to suggest
to the local school board any conditions of overcrowding
or poor or unsafe or ill-kept school buildings that need
investigation and attention.
One other important function of the local board is that
of investigating any complaints made against a principal,
teacher or other school employee in the district and reporting to the Board of Education thereon. In case the Superintendent of Schools sees fit to prefer charges against any
such school employee for violation of a school regulation the
local board has a hearing on those charges and makes a report to the Board of Education. The Board of Education
may then reject, confirm or modify their recommendation.
The local board may also excuse teachers' absence either with
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A T    S C H O O L


or without pay, subject to the approval of the Board of
Superintendents.
As can readily be seen most of the powers delegated to
local boards are advisory and investigatory; nevertheless a
determined local board of enterprising and interested citizens have a very influential medium through which to make
their voices heard and to bring needed changes to the
attention of higher powers.


[236 ]




II. INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE
SCHOOLS
JUST as the Board of Regents, acting for the State, administers its work through the Commissioner of Education as its chief executive officer, so each of the local school
boards of education in the school districts throughout the
State administers its work through a superintendent of
schools as its chief executive officer. So, too, just as the
law confers certain definite powers upon the Commissioner
of Education, it also confers very definite powers upon each
of these local superintendents.
In every school district in the State except New York
City, which itself constitutes a school district, these powers
are exercised by the superintendent as an individual. In
New York City, however, most of these powers are exercised
by the Board of Superintendents, comprising the Superintendent of Schools, as chairman, and his eight associate
superintendents, all of whom, as has been indicated, are
appointed by the Board of Education for a six-year term.
It thus happens that, whereas elsewhere in the State all
the fundamental professional policies are determined by
the superintendent, as an individual, with the approval of
his board of education, in New York City most of these
policies are decided by vote of the Board of Superintendents.
It is thus possible for a majority of the eight associate superintendents to outvote the superintendent and to adopt
measures which might not be proposed or enforced if he
were fully in charge, as are superintendents elsewhere in
the State and in the nation at large.
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A T    S C H O O L


THE BOARD OF SUPERINTENDENTS
The significance of this arrangement is indicated by the
following list of important powers and duties which are
conferred upon the Board of Superintendents rather than
upon the Superintendent alone:
I. To prepare courses of study and recommend suitable textbooks, library books and educational supplies;
to prepare syllabi in subjects of the curriculum.
2. To recommend kinds and grades of licenses to be
required and also qualifications for each kind and grade.
3. To recommend new school buildings and building
sites.
4. To recommend all appointments to teaching and
supervisory positions except superintendent, associate superintendents and examiners.
5. To make recommendations upon the quality of
work of teachers in the three-year probationary period.
6. To recommend changes in the kind or grade of
schools.
7. To make regulations for the administration, transfer
and promotion of pupils.
THE CITY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
This leaves to the Superintendent of Schools only such
individual powers and duties as the following:
I. To enforce laws and regulations of the Board of
Education relating to the management of schools and other
educational, social, and recreational activities under the
direction of the Board of Education.
2. To supervise all school employees, report any violations of law, and make temporary suspensions pending
[238 




S C H OO L


A DMINIST RATION


action by the Board of Education of employees suspected
of violations.
3. To issue teachers' licenses upon the recommendation
of the Board of Examiners.
4. To assign the district superintendents to supervision of certain divisions.
5. To visit or cause all schools to be visited and examined annually.
6. To fix office hours for associate and district superintendents and make a manual of regulations for all other
employees.
7. To report to the retirement board the names of
teachers eligible for any allotment of funds from it.
In addition to serving as members of the Board of Superintendents, however, the associate superintendents are also
assigned certain administrative duties under the immediate
direction of the Superintendent of Schools. The City is
divided into broad school divisions for each one of which
an associate is responsible. The associates also supervise
and administer certain bureaus and departments and report
to the Superintendent and the Board of Education at the
close of each school year on the conditions in their respective
divisions and upon the special activities under their
supervision.
THE DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENTS
The Board of Superintendents thus comprises the central
organizing and supervising force of the school system.
Under its direction the schools are administered by a
network of subordinate officials.
In the first place come the district superintendents.
The city is divided into fifty-four school districts as has
[239]




NE     W    Y      R   K    A  T    S  C   H  O  O   L
been pointed out previously, for each of which there is a
local school board. To every two of these districts a district
superintendent, appointed for permanent tenure by the
Board of Education on the nomination of the Board of
Superintendents, is assigned. These assignments vary in
size and complexity, but each one of them is larger in school
registration than most of the school systems elsewhere in
the State or in the country.
Twenty-seven of the district superintendents are thus
assigned to districts.  They supervise and inspect all
the schools in their respective districts except the junior
high schools, continuation schools, high schools and training schools. Two district superintendents are assigned to
high schools, one to continuation schools, one to junior high
schools, and one to training schools, making thirty-two
district superintendents in all.
THE DIRECTORS AND INSPECTORS OF SPECIAL BRANCHES
In addition to the foregoing supervision of instruction
and school management on a district basis, the various
special branches and special functions are also supervised
from headquarters for the school system as a whole. Among
the more important of the special directorships are directors of kindergartens, music, art and drawing, art in high
schools, sewing, speech improvement, extension activities,
physical training, evening and continuation schools, vocational education, lectures, modern languages in high schools
and foreign languages in junior high schools. Other officials
who are in effect directors of special branches are called
inspectors. There are inspectors of ungraded classes, of
playgrounds and recreation centers, of classes for the blind,
[240 ]




S C H OO L


ADMINISTRATIO N


of industrial and placement work for handicapped children
and of public school athletics. In addition to these are
assistant directors with special functions, such as the assistant director of visual instruction in the Bureau of Lectures,
the assistant director of manual training, assistant directors
of educational hygiene in the physical training department,
etc. A director is also specially assigned to high school organization. There is an officer especially assigned to the
supervision of civics in high school, another to school gardens. There is, too, a manager of school lunches. All of
these are branches or divisions requiring expert and special
knowledge.
These directors and inspectors are appointed for permanent tenure by the Board of Education on recommendation
of the Board of Superintendents and serve as advisers to
the Board of Superintendents, the district superintendents
and principals.  They give instruction in their several
branches to special teachers and regular class teachers and
examine and make reports upon the work as it is taught in
the schools.
THE PRINCIPALS
Immediately in charge of each school is the principal.
Elementary, junior high school, continuation and trade
school principals are appointed by the Board of Education
on recommendation of the Board of Superintendents from
eligible lists based on ratings received in competitive examinations. One or more administrative assistants are
allowed according to the size of the schools. These assistant
principals are also appointed from eligible lists.
Requests from a school principal are always given weight
in assigning teachers and assistants, of course. Assign[241 ]




N E WV Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


ment, transfer and promotion of teachers is the special
charge of one of the associate superintendents. Candidates
for teaching and supervising positions usually limit the
appointment they will accept to certain boroughs or parts
of boroughs, and the office of the associate superintendent
makes an effort to adjust assignments and transfers in accordance with the preference of both teachers and principals.
The principal is directly responsible both for the educational work in his school and for the physical condition of
his building. He inspects and examines class work, and
reports upon the work of teachers. He holds teachers'
conferences, and conducts or has conducted model lessons.
He makes requisition to the district superintendent for
textbooks, apparatus and supplies.  He supervises the
custodian and notifies the local school board of injuries to
the buildings and needed repairs. He makes out the payroll
for the teaching and supervisory staff of the school and
files it in the auditor's office.
High school and training school principals are selected
by the Board of Education on the recommendations of the
Board of Superintendents without reference to the Board
of Examiners; high school assistants to principals, however, are selected from eligible lists. Their powers as to
courses of study, school management and organization are
less restricted than those of principals in the lower schools;
they are left rather more room to experiment and to work
out their own ideas and plans of organization.
SPECIAL BOARDS AND BUREAUS
In addition to the regular staff of the educational system
directly in contact with administration of certain schools
[(242 ]




S C H 0 0 L


ADMINISTRATIO N


and departments, there are a number of advisory boards
which should receive mention here.
The Bureau of Reference, Research and Statistics
In the first place, there is the Bureau of Reference, Research and Statistics which performs an invaluable service
to the school system by conducting scientific experimental
work. It compiles data on various educational projects
and investigates all matters of education referred to it by
the Board of Superintendents or the Board of Education.
The Bureau is, as its name suggests, first of all, a bureau to
make research into matters of vital importance in schools
and to make available clarifying data on those matters
to the teaching and supervisory staff and to the general
public.  Its second duty, as has been     explained in
some detail,* is to carry on, at the request of the Board
of Superintendents, certain specific experiments with a
view to determining changes in educational policy and
practice.
Besides the director and assistant director, the Bureau
has now assigned to it four administrative officers and has
a clerical staff of thirty-nine. In addition, the Superintendent assigns from time to time members of the supervisory staff to help with some specific work. In I926-27,
the Bureau operated on a budget of $II4,035.
A third duty of this Bureau is the publication of
reports and the making of statistical charts authorized
or approved by the Board of Superintendents and by
the Board of Education. The Bureau itself is required
to make annual report of its activities to the Board
of Education.
*See page 13.
[243 ]




N  E  W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H  O   O  L
The Advisory Board on Industrial Education
The Bureau of Reference, Research and Statistics is
an integral part of the school system conducted by a salaried
staff. The Advisory Board on Industrial Education is, as
its name indicates, a board without salary and without
administrative powers.
With the growing demand for industrial education in
the schools, with the federal Smith-Hughes law requiring
the teaching of vocational courses and with the state continuation school laws providing for the continuance of education for employed children between the ages of fourteen
and eighteen, the schools, already experimenting with
industrial education, were forced to greatly extend their
activities. To aid the educational officials in this work it
was provided that an advisory board of five members representing local trades, industries and occupations be appointed by the Board of Education to counsel and advise
school directors in all matters relating to training in public
schools for gainful occupations. The powers of this Board
are advisory only, but its establishment has given invaluable
opportunity to representatives of the various trades to
cooperate with school men in suggesting or outlining courses
and in suggesting needed equipment.
Partly through the efforts of this advisory board, partly
through other interested labor leaders and employers, apprentices in many trades are now required to continue in
evening or continuation schools for two, three or four years
of their apprenticeship.  Incidentally, these same labor
leaders or representatives of employers are often instrumental in getting for the schools certain expensive equipment which they deem necessary to approximate in the
school shops the working conditions in the actual shops
[ 244]




S C H OO L


A  DMINISTRAT IO N


ihlere the children will be employed. Again, in the planning
and equipment of evening and continuation school courses,
the cooperation between the schools and the trades has
brought about a superior type of trade work in the schools.
The Teachers' Council
In order that the principals and teachers might have
a medium through which to make themselves heard by the
Board of Superintendents and Board of Education, the
Board of Education in I9I3 approved a plan to establish
a Teachers' Council. The functions of this council are
two-fold:
i. To furnish information and opinions of the teaching staff
upon questions submitted by the Board of Education or the
Board of Superintendents.
2. To make recommendations concerning any problems
affecting the welfare of schools or the teaching staff.
The Council is made up of representatives of voluntary
teachers' organizations recognized by the Board of Education. Representation is proportioned among these organizations by the Council's by-laws. Members are elected
yearly, as are the officers of the Council.
While the Superintendent and members of the Board of
Education are in no way constrained to accept the recommendations of the Council, yet the Council aims, like the
local school boards, to do two things: (I) to present to
the central boards in charge of schools the viewpoint of
persons more directly in contact with schools and school
children; and (2) to give the teachers a medium through
which to express their ideas about needed changes in the
schools.
[ 245 ]




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O      L


The following list of the Associations whose representtives take part in the deliberations of the Council will serve
to indicate the numerous and varied activities of the New
York City schools:
Association Teachers of Shopwork of the City of New York.
Association of Assistant Directors of Physical Training,
Educational Hygiene, Music and Manual Training of New York
City.
Association of Assistants to Principal of New York City.
Association of Male First Assistants in High Schools of New
York City.
Association of Model Teachers of the City of New York.
Association of Public School Teachers of Crippled Children
in the City of New York.
Association of Public School Teachers of the Deaf.
Association of Supervisory Teachers of Domestic Art.
Association of Supervisory Teachers of Drawing of Greater
New York.
Association of Teachers in Charge of Elementary Schools.
Association of Women High School Teachers.
Association of Women Principals of Public Schools in the City
of New York.
Association of Workers among Delinquent Children.
Brooklyn Principals' Council.
Brooklyn Teachers' Association.
Brooklyn Women Principals' Association.
Class Teachers' Organization of Brooklyn.
Council of Attendance Officers.
Continuation School Teachers' Association.
Critic Teachers' Association.
Evening High School Teachers' Association.
Heads of Department Association of the Borough of Brooklyn.
High School Clerical Assistants' Association.
High School Principals' Association.
High School Teachers' Association of New York City.
[246]




S C H OO L


AD M  I N I S T RATION


Home Economics Association of Teachers of Elementary
Schools of New York City.
Industrial Art Teachers' Association of Evening High Schools
of New York City.
Interborough Association of Women Teachers.
Male Principals' Association of Borough of Queens.
Men Principals' Association, Manhattan and the Bronx.
Music Teachers' Association.
New York Association of Biology Teachers.
New York Association of High School Teachers of German.
New York City Association of Men Principals.
New York City Association of Teachers of English.
New York City Association of Women Principals.
New York City Teachers' Association.
New York High School Librarians' Association.
New York Vocational Teachers' Council.
Physical Training Teachers' Association of Greater New York.
Professional Elementary Teachers' Association.
Public School Kindergarten Association of New York City.
Recreation Centre Teachers' Association.
Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Year Women Teachers' Association of the City of New York.
Speech Improvement Teachers' Association of the City of
New York.
Staten Island Teachers' Association.
Staten Island Women Teachers' Club.
Teachers' Association of the Borough of Queens.
Teachers' Interests' Organization.
Ungraded Teachers' Association of New York.
Vacation High School Teachers' Association.
In addition to these there are several other organizations,
as, for example, the Teachers' Union, whose activities influence the status of the teachers and.the schools. No list
of organizations of New York teachers would be complete
without mention of the New York Society for the Experimental Study of Education. The purpose of this organiza[ 247 1




N E Wr Y 0 R K


A  T  S  C  H O  0  L


tion is succinctly stated in its title. It enrolls about I,5oo
teachers and has functioned for ten years. The teachers
meet in groups-about thirty-five sections each studying
some particular phase of elementary or secondary education-once a month from October to May, usually in
Washington Irving High School. They compare notes on
experiments conducted in various schools and classes of the
city, with a view, not only to disseminating the experience
gained from those experiments, but also to encouraging and
inspiring further study and experiment on the part of
teachers and supervisors.


[ 248 ]




III. BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION OF THE
SCHOOLS
MAKING THE ANNUAL BUDGET AND SECURING FUNDS
HE main sources of school moneys are three: (I)
city appropriations raised by tax levy, (2) money
borrowed through the sale of bonds, and (3) state grants.
After taking into consideration the amounts estimated
as available from State sources, appropriations by the city
for recurring needs of the schools are provided out of the
annual tax on real and personal property. The rate of tax
depends, of course, upon the amount of money allowed in
the budget for all the city departments by the Board of
Estimate and the Board of Aldermen.
How School Moneys are Apportioned
All school moneys for annual operating expenses are
apportioned in two funds. In the general fund are included
the salaries of the superintendent, associate superintendents,
district superintendents, director and assistant director of
the Division of Reference, Research and Statistics, members
of the Board of Examiners, attendance officers, lecturers and
all members of the supervising and teaching staff. In the
special fund are included all school moneys for annual
operating expenses other than the general fund.
How the Budget is Made by the School Authorities
The compilation of an educational tax budget which
involves more than one hundred million dollars, the details
[ 249 ]




N E WT Y 0 R K


A T    S C H O O L


of which come from many persons and sources, is naturally
a task requiring several months and many hours of labor.
The chronological story of budget-making runs as follows:
First, the Superintendent of Schools in the early spring directs all executive officials, associate superintendents, directors of special branches, inspectors, etc., to prepare
estimates of the sums they will need for the next year. All
estimates for teaching service for the ensuing calendar year
are based upon register, number of classes, number of
employees in service, etc., as of the date March 3Ist of
the current year plus allowances for increased register,
and improvements or extensions of service.
The estimates must be in the Superintendent's hands by
May Ioth or izth so that he may hold hearings in which
the superintendents, directors and department heads may
explain the need of increased appropriations or of any
changes they desire to make in the budget. The Superintendent then sends the estimates that he has received
together with whatever recommendations he wishes to
make concerning them to the Board of Education's committee on finance and budget.
This committee is made up of three members of the
Board. They go over every item of the budget estimates
and the Superintendent's recommendations and call hearings on the estimates from every department. These hearings usually require from thirty to forty-five whole days and
are attended by the Superintendent of Schools, the Auditor,
and the Director of Reference, Research and Statistics, or
their representatives, and by the head of the department
or activity whose budget is under consideration, as well as
by representatives of the Board of Estimate and of the
Commissioner of Accounts on behalf of the City government.
[250]




B U    I NE S 


A D M I N I S T R A T I ON


At these hearings the superintendents, directors and
department heads again have a chance to explain their
requests, to show the need for any improvements or extensions of service for which they have asked, and to answer
any questions concerning their estimates. The estimates,
themselves, of course, reflect school policies as formulated
by the Board of Superintendents and carried by them back
to those more directly in touch with administration-the
directors and district superintendents.
Before the tentative budget estimate is presented for
action, public hearings are held by the committee on
finance and budget, and the Board of Education sits as a
committee of the whole for several days to consider the
budget estimate, so that when it is presented to them as
a board it is usually passed immediately without comment. This budget estimate must then be filed with the
Board of Estimate by September Ist.
How the Budget is Passed upon by the City
The Board of Estimate considers the items and calls
hearings when requested until October Ioth when its tentative budget covering all departments of the city government must be published. From October ioth to 20th any
additions may be made to items in that tentative budget;
after October 20th, the Board of Estimate may still subtract
from the proposed items but may not add to them.
On October 3Ist, the budget passes out of the hands of
the Board of Estimate to the Board of Aldermen which
may only cut the figures, not add to them. Moreover,
the Mayor who has sat with the Board of Estimate through
its deliberation on the budget has the veto power over any
subtractions the Aldermen may make. The budget finally
[251 ]




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H O O L


is passed by the Board of Aldermen and prior to December
2,5th is certified by the Mayor, the Comptroller and the
City Clerk, and the appropriations are then legally in effect.
The budget estimate, as prepared by the Auditor of
the Board of Education, is of necessity a rather awesome
collection of figures. Increases or decreases are made ascertainable by tables showing costs on the March 3ISt previous, on December 3ISt to follow, and in the case of salaries,
aggregate annual rates for the ensuing year.
The compilation of the City budget takes note of course
of the sums which will come to the City from the State, and
through the State, from the Federal Educational Bureau.
The state sums are apportioned in accordance with state
law and must be used for teachers' salaries.
How the State Aids in Supporting the Schools
The estimate of State and Federal aid to the City for use
during 1926-27 totalled $23,806,954.52. This sum included
quotas for vocational schools, courses in Americanization,
physical training and handicapped classes.
The largest one item in the State appropriation is the
teacher quota-an appropriation of $750 per teacher.
The passage this year of the Dick-Rice bill based on the
findings of the Governor's Commission on School Finance
carrying with it an appropriation of the $I6,500,ooo, will
allow to New York City approximately $Io,600,ooo additional state aid in 1927-28 and gradually increasing sums
for the next three years.
How Funds are Borrowedfor School Construction
Now the budget estimate of moneys needed from the
city exchequer to run the schools is a request merely for
[252]




BUSINESS  A D M INISTRATION


recurring annual expenses of conducting the school system.
It does not include capital outlay for new buildings or more
lands for.use of the educational department. When the
city of New York wishes to buy land or to erect buildings,
it is permitted by law to borrow money through the sale of
bonds, the money to be repaid to the bondholders over a
long period of time. In this way the taxpayers of today will
not be made to stand the whole cost of buildings that may
serve several generations of school children.
When the Board of Education wishes to borrow money
thus for lands or buildings it presents to the Board of Estimate, usually in January, the corporate stock budget.
This budget is in effect the Board's building program for
the year. It lists item by item, location, cost and size of
sites to be acquired and of buildings to be erected and
repairs to be made. The process by which the educational
authorities decide upon a building program is as intricate
as that of making the annual budget estimate of operating
expenses.
First, the Superintendent of Schools issues instructions
to prepare the corporate stock budget-that is, the building
program for the year. The Superintendent then requests
the preparation of data by the associate superintendent
in charge of buildings.
This associate superintendent has the building problems
as his sole assignment. It is his function to maintain a
survey of the school population, to note and take account
in his building program of shifts of population and of changing conditions in certain districts that will necessitate different types of sites and building plans. He must take
account of the need of vocational schools in this district,
of more continuation schools in that, of an ever increasing
[253 ]




N  E W     Y  O   R  K   A  T    S C H    O  O   L
number of children flocking to the high schools in still a
third district.
Such data will then be considered by the Board of Superintendents who will make recommendations to the
Board of Education's Committee on Buildings and Sites.
Next the proposed program will go to the Board of Education as a whole for approval.
Following that approval, the secretary will forward the
budget to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment where
it will be considered first by the committee on finance and
budget. That committee will have the plans and specifications gone over by its engineers and will then make recommendation back to the Board of Estimate. The Board of
Estimate will finally act upon its committee's recommendation and notify the Board of Education.
That is for the program as a whole. The process of
securing the erection of a particular building is described
in the section on the work of the Bureau of Construction and
Maintenance.
The Board of Estimate may do one or two things when
the corporate stock budget is presented to it. It sometimes passes a resolution to allow the sum asked by the
Board of Education in making up its corporate stock budget
for the whole city; or it may choose to pass upon each item
of the school program as it is presented during the year,
in accordance with the process described above.
The Comptroller of the City is authorized to sell bonds
for school and other purposes by the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment. The City may not at any time, however,
have a bonded indebtedness for all municipal purposes of
more than ten percent of the assessed valuation of its real
and personal property liable to taxation. The City is em[ 254 




BUSINESS  A D M INISTR A T ION


powered in case of an emergency need to issue special revenue
bonds, but since the proceeds of the sale of these bonds is
for current purposes, they must be redeemed out of the
taxes of the following year.
AUDITING ACCOUNTS
All the accounts of the Board of Education are administered by the Bureau of Finance which is headed by the
Auditor. The personnel of this Bureau consists of 121
persons who handle annually about 9o,ooo claims for supplies, equipment, repairs, etc., and I3,000 payrolls for
salaries, and carry on the business necessary to (I) the keeping of all formal funds, accounts and collateral records,
(2) the compilation of financial statistics, and (3) the auditing of all claims involving the expenditure of moneys.
The moneys handled annually will be indicated by the
following list applying to the year 1925:
Budget Accounts (Tax levy and State moneys, many
subdivisions)..................            $I00,722,207.28
State High School Trust Fund..........      5I,300.I3
State Trust Fund for Maintenance of Training Schools  58,237.14
State Trust Fund for School Libraries........    29,7I9.87
Special Fund-Collections for School Lunches..    76,992.05
Special Fund-Collections for Use of Auditoriums..  5,313.22
Special Fund-Sale of Products of Manhattan Trade
School.................  12,982.42
Fire Prevention Accounts.............            500,000.00
Accounts of the Employees' Retirement System...  631,738.25
Accounts of Hunter College..........          I,055,056.I7
Corporate Stock Accounts (Many subdivisions)...  II,519,220.47
$ I4,662,767.00
These are continuing accounts to which has been added at frequent but irregular
intervals from I918 to I927 the sum of $I85,I77,800.00 for the acquisition of sites
and the erection of buildings.
In addition to the above, the Bureau of Finance has
supervision of the school savings banks, computes deductions from salaries, certifications as to average salary, etc.,
[255 




N  EW       Y  O  R  K    A  T    S C H    O  O   L
for the Teachers' Retirement Board; investigates and reports in matters of actual or threatened legal actions, collections from sureties on defaulted contracts, etc.; prepares
financial resolutions for the Board of Education and prepares and publishes the annual financial and statistical
report of the Board of Education.
Last, but not least, there is the work done by the Auditor
and his staff, and other officials of the Board of Education,
in preparing the annual budget already described in the
preceding section.
ERECTING BUILDINGS
The Board of Education, facing the fact that circumstances had conspired to cause a serious school seating
shortage, has been struggling for many years with the housing problem. Early in I923 an intensive school building
program was launched for the purpose of coping with the
serious overcrowding in school buildings. This campaign
was also intended to establish new standards in construction of buildings and so far as possible to apply these standards to the existing buildings wherever the maintenance
work made it practicable to do so.
The Bureau of Construction and Maintenance
The conduct of this building work is in charge of the
Bureau of Construction and Maintenance. Its work is
divided into two main divisions,-the one carrying on the
planning and supervision of new building construction
work and the other, conducted by five deputy superintendents of school buildings, with a separate office located
in each of the five boroughs of the city, in charge of maintenance and betterment of the existing school buildings.
[256]




BUSINESS  A D M INISTRATION


After a building for a certain number of pupils for certain
activities has been approved by the Board of Education,
the architects of the building bureau confer frequently
with members of the pedagogical staff so that the building
will be complete in detail and constructed as economically
as is consistent with the character, size and importance of
the structure. Also, whenever new standards in the planning of buildings or in the arrangement of equipment are
undertaken or old standards are reviewed and revised, conferences are conducted under the jurisdiction of the Board
of Superintendents, at which are present several executives
of the pedagogical staff, and a proper representation of the
architectural staff.
Steps Required to Authorize a School Building
The process of erecting a school building from the time
of deciding that it must be to the time of its completion is
a long one. Once the corporate stock budget is made up,
the process for authorizing and building a particular building is somewhat as follows:
I. Report of associate superintendent to the Board of Superintendents as to the requirements of any particular buildingnumber of rooms, grades, etc.
2. Action by Board of Superintendents.
3. Report to the Board of Education. Consideration by
committee on building and sites.
4. Approval by the Board of Education.
5. Copy forwarded by the secretary of the Board of Education
to the Superintendent of School Buildings.
6. Obtaining of the building survey, and
7. Consideration by the Superintendent of School Buildings
as to what plan would best meet the requirements.
8. Consultation with pedagogical staff.
E 257 ]




N E WT Y 0 R K


A  T  S  C  H O  0  L


9. Preparation of plans in the draughting-room.
Io. Submission of preliminary design to the Municipal Art
Commission.
11. At completion of drawing, submission for final approval
of the Municipal Art Commission.
I2. Submission and approval of Bureau of Buildings in the
borough in which the job is located.
13. If plumbing, gas-fitting and electric work are included,
submission to the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity.
14. Preparation and printing of specifications.
I5. Submission to and approval by Board of Education.
I6. Forwarding of notice of such approval of resolutions by
the secretary of the Board to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment.
17. Reference to committee of the whole of the Board of
Estimate and Apportionment.
I8. Reference to the engineers of this committee.
19. Report back to the committee of the whole.
20. Action by this committee.
21. Action by Board of Estimate and Apportionment.
22. Notice to secretary of Board of Education.
23. Notice from secretary to the Superintendent of School
Buildings.
24. Submission to the Corporation Counsel for approval of
form of contract and advertisement.
25. Filing in the City Record and advertising for ten days.
26. Opening of bids by Superintendent of School Buildings.
27. Report to Board of Education.
28. Making of award.
29. Notification to the Comptroller for the approval of sureties.
30. Then return to Board of Education.
3I. Surety bonds attached.
32. Contract signed.
33. To Auditor for recording.
34. Then its return to the Comptroller for his final approval.
[258]




BUSINESS  A D M INISTRATION


35. Notice of which is received, and
36. Conveyed to the deputy superintendents of buildings.
37. Notice to the contractor to begin work.
Recent Progress in School Building
When it is considered that in spite of this complicated
process more school buildings have been built in the last
three and one-half years than in the next six largest cities
of the country combined, some idea is gained of the magnitude of the building enterprise conducted by the Board,
and the necessity for coordinating the work of its various
departments. For, in that time, 145 new school buildings
and additions have been completed and occupied by 211,296
pupils at an aggregate cost of $113,489,835, not including
the cost of the sites on which the buildings have been located.
Problems Involved in School Construction
The school housing problems in this huge cosmopolitan
center are greatly varied. To provide a new school building to accommodate 2,700 pupils in a congested section requires an entirely different plan and structure design than
for a school for an equal number of pupils to be built in an
outlying section.
Not alone has the architectural department of the Board
of Education been occupied with overcoming the many
practical difficulties, but it has also aimed to keep apace
with the great strides made in the last decade in the architectual design of buildings. Undoubtedly the improvement made in school building designing has had its cheering
influence on the occupants and has established a sentiment
and attachment among the pupils for the school.


[ 259 




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H 0 0 L


OPERATING BUILDINGS
The Bureau of Plant Operation is responsible for the
care of all buildings used by the Board of Education and
for the repair and maintenance of all heating and ventilating
plants and mechanical equipment used in those buildings.
This means that the Bureau has in charge 750 buildings
owned by the Board of Education and 134 more loaned or
leased to the Board-884 in all. The I926 budget of the
Bureau amounted to $6,734,338.15.
Its functions divide the Bureau into two divisions, the
custodial or housekeeping service and the heating and
ventilating division.
Care of school buildings is provided for in two different
ways:
i. The direct system plan-civil service-under which all
the help required in the care of the school building is employed
directly by the Board of Education.
2. The indirect system plan-contract-under which a flat
allowance is made for the care of the school building which is
paid to the custodian-engineer or custodian in equal monthly
installments, out of which he pays the help he employs in the
care of such school building. It is estimated there are about
3,200 persons employed under the indirect system.
The present superintendent of the Bureau recommends
that all of the schools be brought under the second plan.
Under both plans the employees must be chosen from
eligible lists specially prepared by the Municipal Civil
Service Commission and after a short probationary period,
varying with the type of job, have practically permanent
tenure, providing always, of course, that they continue to
do the job properly.
[ 26 ]




B U S IN E S S       A D M I N I S T R A T I O N
The second or indirect plan has been installed in all but
fourteen schools. The sum allotted to the contracting custodian is based upon certain standard calculations which,
in turn, are based upon the building area, the paved area
and the type of heating and ventilating plant in a building.
The inspection of buildings under both plans is in the
hands of inspectors from the central office.
Qualifications of custodians and custodian engineers
are carefully looked into by the Civil Service Commission
which maintains a separate eligible list for school employees,
and in addition, the custodian-engineers must have a license
from the Police Department based upon statements of
several engineers that they are qualified. Further insuring
the competence of the custodians and the safety of the
school plant annual tests of boilers in the school buildings
are made by the Police Department.
SUPPLYING THE SCHOOLS
Upon the Bureau of Supplies devolves the task of supplying the schools with all the books, equipment, janitorial supplies, scientific supplies and apparatus, pianos
and organs required by all the schools under the direction
of the Board of Education, from the kindergartens to the
training schools and including all the special classes and
branches of educational work. This Bureau too furnishes
transportation for pupils when necessary, provides film
service for visual instruction, and apparatus and supplies
for vacation schools and playgrounds.
To indicate the variety of activities carried on by the
Bureau of Supplies a few distinctive items might be cited:
Allotment of school supplies to each school is based
on the number and grade of pupils in the school. All the
[26I 1




N  E  W     Y  O  R   K    A  T    S C   H   OO    L
necessary books, supplies, and equipment for the children
in the grades from kindergarten to 8B, including the materials required for instruction in sewing, drawing, kindergarten work, cooking, work-shop practice and for the classes
for anaemic, tubercular, deaf, blind and crippled children,
are furnished at approximately one penny per child per day.
All the supplies required by the high school pupils amount
to a cost of about two and a half cents per child per day.
Supplies are furnished for the school lunches in thirty
schools in the various boroughs. The cost is kept very low
by advertising and purchasing supplies under contract
or on competitive estimates.
The amount expended for the transportation of pupils is
nearly $400,000 yearly. Of this amount $70,ooo to $80,000
is for trolley and bus line tickets furnished to the pupils.
The delivery division of the Bureau receives supplies
at four central depositories whence they are delivered to
the schools at the proper time. But because of lack of
space in these depositories many deliveries have to be
made directly to schools.
Principals make their requisitions for supplies upon
official printed lists. Approximately oo00,000 requisitions
are received by the Bureau yearly, 30,000 orders are issued,
45,000 bills passed and I,ooo,ooo contract items tabulated.
The total amounts of funds expended under the jurisdiction
of this Bureau is $5,500,00.
All coal is purchased under contract and on an analysis
basis. When all the new schools now under construction
are completed, an annual tonnage of from 190,000 to 200,000
tons will be needed to heat and ventilate the schools. Coal
has also been provided to heat water for pools, showers,
domestic science purposes, cleaning, etc.
[ 262 




B U S I N E S S  A D M I   I ST R A T I O N


The inspectors of fuel weigh every load of coal supplied
to the buildings under the control of the Board of Education. They also measure all the wood furnished for kindling
purposes for boilers, stoves, heaters, etc. A visual examination is made of all coal before accepting it; samples are taken
and sent to the city laboratory for analysis, and payment
for the coal is based on the results obtained.
Lumber for use in the shops is sent direct to the schools
from five separate lumber yards. It is inspected, measured, checked and accounted for by inspectors assigned
from the Bureau of Supplies. There are forty-nine different
kinds and sizes o' lumber.
Operating the garage and transportation equipment is
also under the control of the Bureau of Supplies.
Increase in the Bureau's staff or in the facilities at its
disposal has not been proportional to the growth of the
school system in the last few years. Many new buildings
have been opened and supplied by the Bureau with much
the same staff as formerly.
The Bureau needs a centralized storehouse, large enough
so that supplies and equipment now being sent direct to
schools and offices could be handled in one building. Better
prices would be obtained because materials could be delivered on a wholesale instead of a piecemeal basis as at
present, which would help to pay for such a building in a
short time.


[ 263 1




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I




INDEX


Absence, leaves of, for teachers,
218, 219; pupils', 196, I97; teachers' 235, 236
Achievement tests, 15, 17, 147
Adjustment, classes, 20, 45, 46,
142; schools I49, 150
Adult Education, 174-I79, I8o183
After-school Centers, 9I, 92, 94,
97, i26, I87-I89
Agriculture, 60, I54
Americanization, 179, 180-183,
187, 252
Appointments, 2I2, 231, 233, 238,
241
Art, 26, 56
Associate Superintendents, See
Superintendents, Board of
Athletics, 64, 73, 9I-98; boys,
92-95; girls, 95-98
Attendance, Bureau of, 9I, I37,
153, 155, 195-202
Banks, School 29, 148, 255
Baths, School, 190-192
Blind, Classes for the, 105, 133 -I35
Budget, 233, 249-256
Buildings, 35, 36, 40, 88, 172,
231, 235; annual program 252 -259; number of, 260
Cardiacs, special care of, 122, 124,
127, 128


Census,195, 200, 201
Character Education, 99-1o3
Citizenship Training, 25, 26,
65-69, 99, i8o, 182
Civil Service, Municipal, 211,
216, 232, 234, 260, 261
Classes, size of, 17
Clubs and student organizations,
46, 47, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 171
Commercial courses, 41, 58, i6I,
i68
Community Centers, I87-I89
Construction and Maintenance,
Bureau of, II, 25, 256-259
Continuation Schools, 70,162-173,
202, 244, 245
Course of Study, continuation
school, I66, 167, I68, I69;
elementary school, 21-28, 32,
33; evening school, 174-178;
high school, 54-6I; junior high
school, 41-44; kindergarten, 8;
physical education, 87; training
school, 206-208; ungraded class,
145; vocational, 71-75
Cripples, care of, I22, 123, 124,
I25-I27
Dalton Plan, 32, 62, 69, 73, I24,
167
Deaf, School for, I30-I32
Deans, in high school, 62, 63
Dental Inspection, 84, 85, 90


[265 ]




N E 'W Y 0 R K


A T    S C H 0 0 L


Detention Schools, ISI, I52
Directors and Assistant Dire ctors,
240, 247
District Superintendents, 13, 235,
239, 240
Education, Board of, 30, 212, 218,
219, 229-262
Elementary Schools, regular, 12 -37; evening, I74, I75; vacation, 159, i60
Estimate, Board of, 229, 230,
232, 249-254, 258
Evening Schools, 162, I74-I79,
244, 245
Examiners, Board of, 9I, 92,
211-217, 231, 232, 242
Experimental Schools, 13, 14, 2I,
24, 25
Extension Activities, 79, I84-I92
Finance, Bureau of, 250, 255, 256
Foreign, classes, 17, 18, 20, I80 -183; languages, 42, 6I, 152, 206
Gardens, 27, 28, i6i
Grading, by ability, 13, 14, I5,
i7, 6I, 62
Health, Department of, 64, 79 -86, 90, I7I, 19I, I99, 20I
Health and Physical Education,
64, 73, 79-98, 252; in continuation schools, I7I, I72; for
handicapped children, 122, 123,
128,  129; in   probationary
schools, 148; in summer playgrounds, 190, 19I
High Schools, 51-69; evening,
I77, 178; vacation, I59-16I
Home-making, 26, 27, 58, 59, IIS


Hospital and Institutional Classes, 122-128, I56, i6i
Hygiene, educational, 73, 89-91
Industrial Courses, in continuation schools, I66-I67; in high
schools, 55, 57, 58, 60; in
junior high schools, 4I, 42, 43,
44; for physically handicapped
children, 120, 12I, 136; in probationary schools, I48; for
ungraded classes 142; in vocational schools, 70-75
Industrial Education, Advisory
Board of, 244, 245
Inspectors and Assistant Inspectors, See Directors
Instruction, time schedule of, 23
Intelligence Tests, I5, i6, 17, I8,
25, 6i, 138, I39, 143, I47
Junior High Schools, 30, 37, 38 -50, 89, 206, 207; vacation, I59,
i6o, i6i
Kindergarten and Kindergarten
Extension, 7- 1
Lectures, Bureau of I84, 187
Libraries, 29, 30, 65, 72, 73
Licenses, Teachers', 121, 213 -2I5, 238, 239
Local school boards, 234-236
Lunches, 68, 69, II3-II5
Medical examinations, for pupils,
64, 73, 79-86, I3I, I39; for
teachers, 222
Mentally Handicapped Children,
74, 75, I37-I45
Model Schools, 205-207
Music, 26, 56, 57, 132, 136


[266 




N D E X


Nurses, School, 80-86
Open Air Classes, 128, I29
Opportunity Classes, 17, 20, 32
Parental School, I37, 153-I56,
199, 200
Part-time and overcrowding, 35,
36, 8i, 82, i6o
Physical Training, Department
of, 64, 87-89, I22, 123, 128
Physically Handicapped Children,
74, 119-I36, I41, 252; in vacation schools, 16I
Placement, of continuation school
pupils, 169-171, I73; of handicapped children, I2I, I35, I55;
of vocational school pupils, 72,
73, 75
Plant Operation, Bureau of, 260,
26I
Playgrounds, 94, 95, I90-I92
Principals, 47, 62, 63, 241, 242
Probationary Schools, 137, I46 -I49
Promotion and Graduation, 13,
21, 22, 62, 226, 238
Psycho-Educational Clinic, I39 -141
Rapid Advancement Classes, 17,
I9, 39, 41, 42, 44, 48
Radio, use of, 32, 33, I86, 187
Reference, Research and Statistics, Bureau of, 13, 14, 2I, 24,
25, 243-244, 250
Regents, Board of, 30, 225-228;
examination by, 62, I59, i6I,
178


Retardation; over-age pupils,
20, 42, 45, 46, 138, I55, i6o;
also see Ungraded Classes
Retirement System, Teachers',
220-222, 231, 256
Salaries, 230, 231, 249, 252
Sight Conservation, classes for,
84, I35, I36
Speech Improvement, 129, 130
State Commissioner of Education,
225, 227, 228, 230
State Department of Education,
225-228, 230
Superintendent of Schools, 195,
201, 211, 215, 231, 235-239,
243, 250, 253
Superintendents, Board of, 30,
212, 219, 232, 236, 237-243,
25I, 253, 254, 257
Supplies, Bureau of, 30, 261-263
Swimming Pools, 96, 97, I90-I92
Teachers, of adult day classes,
182; assignment of, 241, 242;
associations, 218, 245-248; in
continuation schools, I70, I72,
I73; Council, 245, 246; examination of, 211-217; extension
courses for, 218; of handicapped classes, 121, 129, I3I;
home teachers, I25, 126, 127;
leaves of absence, 218, 219; requirements, 50, 103, 208, 212;
retirement system, 220-222; of
swimming, 192; trade, 57, 72,
75, I68, I77; training schools
for, 9I, 130, 205-210


[267]




N  E  W Y  0  R  K


A T    S C H 0 0 L


Textbooks, 29, 30, 65, 72, 238, 242
Training Schools, 9I, I30, 205-210
Transportation, 122, 123, 134, 262
Ungraded classes, Department of,
I05, I37-I45
Vacation Schools, I59-6I
Visiting Teachers, I04-112, 137,
I39, I46, 155, I72


Visual Instruction, 32-35, 91
Vocational, courses for shop-work,
27, 43, 44; evening schools,
f 175-I77; guidance, 48, 49, 155,
I64-I66; day schools, 43, 44,
70-75, 252
Working papers, 195, 201, 202


[268 ]




PUBLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
Founded         OF THE CITY OF NEW         YORK          Incorporated
1895                                                      1899
8 WEST 40TH       STREET
THE PUBLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION was organized "to study the
problems of public education, investigate the conditions of the
common and corporate schools, stimulate public interest in the
schools, and to propose from time to time such changes in their
organization, management or educational methods as may seem
necessary or desirable." It is an independent organization which,
cooperating wherever possible with the authorities, enables citizens to make their combined influence intelligently effective for
the advancement of the public schools. It supplies reliable information on current educational problems, and demonstrates new
ways of adjusting the schools to the needs of the individual child.
The work of the Association falls into two main divisions: its
general work in connection with current school problems, and its
special projects and demonstrations to effect changes in existing
procedure.
In conducting its general work, it maintains an informal information service on school affairs, holds conferences and public
meetings and issues a bi-weekly bulletin entitled "The Public and
the Schools," in which it expresses its views upon matters of
administration and legislation of immediate importance affecting
the public schools.
During its three decades of service to public education, it has
not only worked actively for many of the modern developments
which have been initiated by the schools themselves, but has
conducted several experiments and demonstrations under its own
auspices. Among these now in operation may be noted the following:
i. The establishment of visiting  program for meeting the physical,
teacher work in the New York schools,  mental and social needs of the worka type of work which it has now ex-  ing child.
tended on a national basis as part of  4. A study of the needs of cardiac
the Commonwealth Fund's program    and crippled children, in order to aid
for the prevention of delinquency.  the schools in discovering their apti2. An experiment in adjusting the  tudes and in determining what can be
school to meet the needs of the indi-  done to prepare them for a normal life.
vidual child in P. S. 6i, one of the  5. Guidance for boys in the city
largest of the New York City schools.  prisons by seeking the causes of their
3. A demonstration in one of the  difficulties and by aiding the courts
continuation schools to work out in  and other agencies to cooperate incooperation with the Board of Health  telligently on a sound program for
and the school authorities a practical  rehabilitation.
The Association welcomes to membership all who are interested
in the betterment of the public schools.




PUBLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK


FREDERIC W. ALLEN
LEO ARNSTEIN
MRS. JOHN BLAIR
WM. M. CHADBOURNE
JOSEPH P. COTTON
MRS. ARTHUR M. DODGE
MRS. E. C. HENDERSON
CHARLES P. HOWLAND
DR. FRANK M. McMURRY
OGDEN L. MILLS
MRS. I


TRUSTEES
MRS. RAY MORRIS
ROBERT H. NEILSON
WM. CHURCH OSBORN
MISS FRANCES PERKINS
MRS. MIRIAM SUTRO PRICE
MRS. F. LOUIS SLADE
PERCY S. STRAUS
FREDERICK STRAUSS
MRS. JOSEPH R. SWAN
HENRY W. TAFT
WM. G. WILLCOX


OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE
STAFF


President
JOSEPH P. COTTON
Vice-President
MISS MARTHA L. DRAPER
Honorary Vice-President
MRS. SCHUYLER VAN RENSSELAER
Treasurer
WILLIAM  B. NICHOLS


Director
HOWARD W. NUDD


Assistant Directors
MARION CURTISS KINNEY
JOSEPHINE CHASE
Visiting Teacher Executive
JANE F. CULBERT


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
MRS. MIRIAM SUTRO PRICE, Chairman
MRS. CARL A. L. BINGER    MRS. SAMUEL LEWISOHN
JOSEPH P. COTTON          WILLIAM B. NICHOLS
MISS MARTHA LINCOLN DRAPER G. H. PULSIFER
CLYDE FURST               KENNETH SIMPSON
MRS. E. C. HENDERSON      MRS. WM. B. OLMSTED, JR.
ALFRED JARETZKI, JR.      GEORGE D. STRAYER
MRS. LOUIS S. LEVY        MRS. WALKER E. SWIFT




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