The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-01-10
CO. OPERATION IN !.
EDUCATION
DR.. James M. Green, Princi-
pal Of the Sta.a Normal
and Model Schools Says
It Is the Eff sctnal Thing
NO FEDERATION or TEACHERS


SUCH ORGANIZATION WITH POS
sIBLE UNION WITH OTHER La
BoR BODIES WOULD ONLY
WORK EVIL.
DR.. James NJ. Green, Principal Of the
State Normal and Model Schools, lis in
friendly sympathy with any movement
which promises to permanently benefit
the cause of education. but lie does not
endorse the idea put out of federation
Of teachers organization with unpledged
membership and with possible ultimate
affiliation with other labor organizations.
He said recently
Il believe in cooperation, not only Of
teachers but Of parents, for the promo
ton of education. As / understand it,
both of these plans would have the same
end in view, but would aim to reach it
by entirely different processes. Fedora
tion means uniform salaries for teaching
in the same grades, with the same
amount of experience, and opposition to
supervision or direction by men who, by
reason of their experience and efficiency
as teachers, have been chosen to be prin-
cipais. or supervisors in representing the
parents through the school board in an
effort to bring the. schools up to the high
est grade of efficiency.
In my judgment the parents are and
should always be a factor in education.
Whatever we may as teachers think or
say, the fact remains that it il their
children we are teaching, that the respon-
sJbiIity for the education of the children
is primarily with the parents, and that
any scheme of education that does not
bring the parents in official counsel with
the teachers through the schools boards
and the supervisors is fundamentally
wrong
s Again, whatever may be said Of the
virtues sf organization. in other occupa-
tions in securing uniformity of wages and
a consequent tendency to Uniformity of
output, in education is the one place
where it seems to me Individuality should
Z
be not only preserved. sbut given its
greatest scope Edueation is not simply
instructing the children in o.d ideas, but
it is such an imparting Of old ideas as
VIII make possible new results and new
thoughts, and the occasional production
of these new thoughts on the part OF the
teacher himself
81 was never more impressed with this
latter benefit than in looking over the
various inventions of scien'tifc apparatus
in the German department of the st.
Louis exhibit and learning that almost
every one of them was the discovery Of
l.
it would mean to require that all of these
inventive teachers should belong TO an
organization, work for the same wages
received by other teachers Of similar
classes and teach in the same manner
'.As | understand it. federation DIS
tinctly tends to reduce to common
level. / have had large contact with
employers of teachers. and it has been
my observation that pracfica IS their first
inquiry concerning a proposed teacher is
Of his personality? Has he foree2 Has
he originality? Is he especially interest
ing? Federation would tend to destroy
tbs individuality or any result that
might come from it.
81 believe the salaries of teachers
should be raised, and that they must be
raised if the people are to maintain their
own standards of alton. The pres
ent standard toward which New Jersey
is workingsand to which she hopes u,ti-
mately to bring her teachers, is at least
high school graduation, or it's equivalent,
and two years of professional training;
that is. practically fourteen years of
schooling. The average salary she is
paying her teachers is about 50 per day,
calculated on the basis Of the total num-
Der Of working days in year. 1t is
apparent that she is paying her highly
educated employees less than many Of the
lower grades of employment are paid.
This cannot in the very nature Of things,
continue indefinitely. 1t has resulted al
ready in driving men largely out Of
teaching, and in causing able women to
hesitate before taking ii UP. but it seems
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