The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-27

HAY LIN MOkNlNG JOUh to the superintendent 1t would not 1 have met with approval. He didn't
 think that the public knew that she
 was coming here to be supervisor of primary instruction.
 Mr. Fox-"How do you explain the fact that in other cities without q st. pervisor there is good penmansAlp and
 that there would be poor penmanshlp here if there was no supervisor
 MT. Kendall--'I am willing to answer that, but l want time to do it,'
 | Chairman Staub-'I wish you would
 condense on both sides as much as pos-
 sible."
 MT. Kendall--"I am not going to
 answer if I am compelled to condense.
 This whole matter hinges on the Aamount of work that the supervising principals have to do. Here they have
 more to do than in any other cities of
 corresponding size in the country. In | New Haven the supervising principals
 are responsible for from twenty-four to | forty-eight teachers, an average of I thirty-six. In Albany they are respon-
 sible for from twelve to nineteen, in
 Cambridge for from eight to seventeen. That is the difference and that is the | economy under supervision. Here is a
 thing MT. Fox that you are overlooking. | Now we have supervising principal in | New Haven who has brother-in-law who is a supervising principal In Cam l bridge. The Cambridge man gets 3D.
 900 for doing his work and the New Ha
 ven man gets s2,100. The Cambridge
 man has eleven teachers to supervise
 and the New Haven man has forty
 eight. The Cambridge man has ample time to look after penmanship. He \ don't need supervisor of penmanship When I came here there were two su- pervising principals in the district
 which I have just referred to. Now there is one and the work is being done more efficiently for the children, the ones for whom it is done. If I could drop down the number of teachers that a principal here has to look after I could get along without a supervisor of penmanship. You take away the su- pervisor of penmanship and penman- ship goes down because the supervising principals have too much to do to look after it."
 Chairman Staub-'Then you think that 1t would be better to have more supervising prlncipals?"
 T do, indeed, but at the same time I don't think that you can get the same results in penmanship from corps of penmanship teachers''
 'Well here in our schools the super visor is in each room only twenty or thirty minutes each month, isn't that all?"
 Yes, but he does the work in that time"
 Aren't the teachers doing 1t? Why was 1t that during your time the num- Der of supervisors was lessened?"
 Tt was on my recommendation with two objects in view, first I believed that we could get as good results and second I believed that we could save money"
 MT. Fox-sI have heard that in all the schools the work of the supervising principals devolves on the teachers who are in charge of each building, while the principal devotes himself largely to supervising the school where he is To- cated He can step in any time when they are writing it seems to me and that would be better than to have the supervisor come once month for twen- | ty minutes. It seems better to add to the number of principals and to drop | the supervisor who spreads himself over all the schools. I went to one school | and found the principal correcting | arithmetic examples, work which a | teacher could have done as we'll. | claim that your figures are misleading | because the principal confines himself | to twelve or thirteen rooms''
 MT. Kendall-"I deny that A man | might go to building once a week and [ do more than another man who went | a dozen times. It depends on what he does when he goes I brought Mr. Houston here and think that I never did any more service for the schools here, so far as penmanship goes at least than in bringing him here. The idea that anyone can teach penmanship l. is a fallacy"
 MT. Fox-"I shall put against his k statement the fact that schools without produce as good results as his. and so there is a gap in his argu- ment as to the necessity of a supervisor of penmanship here.'
 MT. Fox then quoted Prof. Nicholas Murray Butler as saying that supervis- ! DTS in public schools were unnecessary II md could be dispensed with He read |, rom the report of a committee in Is Providence which has been conducting l similar Investigation to show that the committee there reported adversely to t having supervisor of penmanship. Is
 MT. Kendall submitted a report of the s Providence board of education favoring h | penmanship supervisor. In closing his talk MT. Fox said: I would exclude all chemistry, physics, lf 'tc., from the lower grades. The nine ssentials are what should be taught |t md they are spelling, reading, writing, |e English grammar, English literature civil government, geography Y nd history. I want the whole time de- a 'oted to these until they are taught 1 thoroughly and until then you have no Ic business to take up these extra studies. II Hartford they have an admirable 1 curse in civil government, and here ou haven't any. Elementary botany r oil +LA