The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-12

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for those who represent that education TO
be men OF culture. The burden Of the NOR
al training of the masses lies with the
teacher Teaching children TO know and TO
think Is the salt but the SAVIOR must come
from the manners, character and lives OF
those who stand for education. We con-
TESS, therefore,, to a little disappointment
when We learned that you were an invet-
crate user OF tobacco. We had hoped to
begin a crusade against the evil in school
but so long as the head OF our school In
dulges there is no hope for reforming the
boys. No life can be pure in its purpose
and strong in its strife and all life not be
purer and stronger thereby. If there Is one
place. more than another in which we need
clean, pure, noble, earnest
Christian men IL is in the office OF super
intendent of schools.
In the relation Of yourself and the
school 10 the public we expected that you
would not be careless Of public opinion nor
yet too susceptible to it. We hoped you
would have a personal interest in the
moral and social welfare of the communi-
~ and that you would stand for the right
II you stood alone. We presumed that with
your rare good vision you would see the
school as an integral part OF the
ty-that the public and the school are in
terdependent. But you failed TO connect
school Is not a farce in the community.
Your policy has been ultraconservative. You
have sought to keep the school out OF the
papers, TO pursue a laisSeZ faire policy, TO
discourage innovations. instituted TO attract
and hold the boys in school. You have been
guided. not by your better judgment, but
by the desire TO avoid friction. You have
maintained your threatened dignity by an
owl-like silence and an occasional but UNI
called-for display of authority and power.
You have escaped the work OF organization
into the belief that their plans are just
right In nearly all cases.
A POLICY WORKER.
We regret to say that we have found
you to be a policy worker-a political
rather than a professional superintendent.
We know you to be a lodge man, a church
man. a clubman a Sunday=school superin-
tendeht, and yet you lack the backbone TO
speak frankly in the face of an evident
fault. You are afraid OF the School Board,
afraid of public opinion and. because you
are a small man trying to wear the mantle
Of an educational prophet. you are afraid
of your teachers. You do not attempt to
create. You are a slave to public opinion
rather than one of its molders. Pupils are
promoted, II from prominent families. re-
fuence politically in the community are
your favorites. AT state teachers meetings
you never sit through a session, but may
De seen In the lobby scheming to secure a
place on the programme or the election of
yourself or a friend to an office. You are
q politician through and through, feared
Tor your 'treachery rather than loved or
even respected for your usefulness.
Your fear Of public criticism has in
fuenced greatly the discipline of our
schools. During the first month you gave
the teacher no support in discipline. Mis-
demeanors in the halls or on the play
ground were always referred to us. When
one of our principals appealed to you for
advice you replied that il was his business,
That he should use his own judgment.
Mentally you doubtless said: Il shall not
entangle myself in this affair; if L err it
may inture me in the eyes of the public
When the School Board strengthened your
Gnfnn mr. ~ a. a
man in your place you went to the opposite
extreme. You required teachers to stand
guard In the halls, stairways and doors
until the pupils thought we were police
men and the school a veritable prison.
You required the doors of the building to
be closed on tardy pupils. You required
yourself. You thus weakened our discipline
airy power. If you only supported us and
respect 1t and school would ~'keep'-almoat
as well in your absence as in your pres
ence.
Not pleased, as we have said, with your
first appearance we trusted your ability to
regulate the course of study. to conduct our
teachers' meetings and TO exercise a wise
supervision over our classroom work. But
In these particulars We were not a little
disappointed. On the first day OF school we
found you had not been careful in the ex-
animation of pupils entering from other
schools. You placed them out of their
proper grades.
w had a good course of study. 1t was
iOt ehtAt dddpNtu u OuI city 4 10 Il
manufacturing community, and il seemed
TO us a little top-heavy. But we trusted
you to give IL a proper balance. We had
heard your discourse on the high art of ed
ucation. We had given respectful ear to
your ideas of how much time should be de-
voted to the binomial theorem and quanti-
tatve analysis, and how much to magnet
ism, zoology and the structure of bugs and
fish bladders. We thought you were quite
learned Imagine our surprise, therefore.
when we saw you squeeze the life and fleX-
Utility out of our course of study. We
think now that you permitted the special
list to upset your sense of the balance which
should always exist in the curriculum. You
went OFF after false gods. In spite of our
small means and the crying needs of our
schools you promulgated your pet schemes.
often expensive ones, and whipped your
protesting teachers into line. For exam
pie, you introduced a dry goods store. You
spent weeks of precious time working out
intricate and almost endless details. You
expended public money for costly supplies.
You took hours of time and volts of energy
-sorely needed-from the helpless teachers
and more helpless students. You introduced
a method of modern diplomacy and estab-
lished a laboratory for building airships.
These are all good things. no doubt. but
our pupils failed in reading. writing and
spelling. When you resign, at the end of
this year, your machines, erected by money
collected from the toilers in our factories,
Will fall. Your pedagogic tomfoolery will
not conGone the fact that their children are
weak in the essentials of a common school
education. They ave asked you for the
ahd VI AokC lNC
them a stone.
SUPERVISION CRITICISED.
"The greatest criticism we have concerns
your supervision. We believe that when so
much is demanded OF teachers We have a
right to think of our superintendent as an
expert in education. The assumption that
any man of learning-any college graduate
is competent TO supervise a school is false.
He may be no more able to direct teachers
in professional work than the educated man
is able TO practice law or medicine. In adj,
dition to the many qualifications needed
We think you should be a critic, teacher
and supervisor-an expert. You have called
long and loud for trained teachers: the echo
of that cry is trained superintendent. We
believe you SHOULD then be relieved of the
countless details of brooms, pals, ~janitors.
handling OF accounts and making of repairs.
We know you should be thoroughly ac-
quainted with all the details of the school
and able to advise on all questions of ad-
ministration. But too much OF your time
Is spent in the Office dealing with the min
utiae. the non-eSSentials, which must be
added, subtracted, divided and multiplied
until your time is taken and your strength
crushed. You seldom come to our rooms
and when you do you perhaps find that mis-