New-York tribune., 1881-07-13

the schools are in danger of being organized to
death. 1t is feared that absolute devotion to
routine and too strenuous insistence upon
the elaborate details of the manual are paral-
yzng all personal enterprise and enthusiasm
among the teachers, and transforming them into
listless and lifcless machines The effect of the
existing mode of superintendent aggravates
this tendency. When teacher knows that his
record for the year in a certain branch of study
depends on the report of an assistant superin-
tendent, made after visit of fifteen minutes or
half an hour, he is more than human if he does
not take means to find out the special weakness
or peculiarity of his superior and prepare his
class accordingly. He will be tempted to teach
at mark, and the mark will not be the highest
development Of his pupils, for this would not
make so brave a show as some glib ability TO
answer what he knows the superntendents will
ask. The assistant superintendents are them
selves hampered by specific instructions. They
can make no allowance for any special excel
ience of the teacher outside of the regulation
drill. Every teacher, no matter what his
special gifts and no matter what the peculiar
characteristics of the pupils under his charge,
must be subjected to the same requirements
The examiner has no latitude of choice, and he
is unconsciousy made n martinez. In this way
the cast-llon system has n contracting influence
upon both teachers and superintendents, and
destroys their efficiency by ccntring their
energies upon trBes instead of essentials, and
forcing them TO pursue the shadow rather than
the substance.
No doubt principals, well as subordinate
teachers, need supervising in such an extensive
organization as the school system of a arcat
city. Bnt having been selected with care. it
a bp hot 4 l
to cooperate in the work of discipline and in
structon. They certainly should not be treated
with suspicion and subjected to degrading
espionage. They ought To know from daily
contact with teachers and pupils what is done
ana low 1t Is done, ana their Judgment on the
quallty OF the work achieved ought to he as ac-
cllttc at least as that of an examiner after n
nan houi : Inspection. Instead of being held
Oh at aims length, they should be invited TO Che
couhHe!S OF the superintendent department.
AS matters stand, principals have learned from
experience that it is dangerous TO volunteer any
information, and safer TO reply only to questions
asked. If they have been impeled by conscience
or neccsSlty to take a single stcp outsidc of
established usage, they fear that any cxplana-
ton, however convincing will subject them to
beng "marked down" Subject to such un
reasonable domination and openly treated as
dlstrustcd interiors, principals are conscious of
beng degraded III the eyes of their subordinates
ana pupils, and the result cannot be other than
hlmIllatng and dcmoralizing.
1he schools need abundant superintendent.
but 1t should be intelligent oversight, and
control which can adapt itself to varied cond-
tons. They need less espionage and more
sympathy, less djStrust and more cooperation.
less doadcning Journalism and uniformity. and
more freedom of individual action.