The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-12-31

cause them TO be properly recognized
while others have no personality at
all Il fear they do not have the per
sonality which indicates able leader
ship" no, most school men are not
sufficiently versatile to warrant Ieau,
erShip.' Personality of teacher and
superintendent is not what it should
and can be" More thought should be
given TO making a personality. These
answers are explicit and to the point
and since the superintendent Is ny
virtue of his position the intellectual
leader of his community he should en-
deavor to obtain personality that
would command the respect OF lhe
entire community.
To the third question-Do su, erin
tendents maintain as lofty proiessloh-
al ideals toward their fellow super
ntendents, their teachers ana the
public as they should9 All answered
i'm the negative except one. However
some in answering offered some eN-
cuse for this deficit. Some OF the
characteristic answers We're, Since
superinteEdentS are human, | am sure
that they do not maintain as lofty
professional ideals as they ShOdld; !
know several whose teachers do NOT
regard them highly, | think because
they lack ability to supervise AM al
minister in affairs. No, some DO, but
many do not. No superintendent
should think of applying for a posi-
tion until a vacancy has been declar-
ed by the board. lerintendentS OFT
en- do not maintain as lofty protes-
sional ideals as they should. II they
| did there would be a stronger tie be-
! tween teachers and the public and the
superintendent. T his is one question
uDOu which the members of the pro
fessiOn are almost universally agreed.
Yet we know superintendents who
openly and wilfully and shall we say,
shamefully, violate this point OF pro
tessional ethics. We shall never be
able to secure for ourselves proper
professional respect and regard from
the members of the profession and
. the pubic as long as this is the case.
We, therefore, urge superintendents
to condemn on all occasions and un-
der every circumstance any breach or
professional courtesy with fellow
superintendent, a teacher, or the pub
lie ignorance of what constitutes
proper professional ideals should not
be counted as an excuse for the viola
tion of them and any superintendent
who wilfully violates them should he
forced to seek employment in some
! other vocation than teaching innocent
childhood.
Feeling that there is a great deal
of aimless, definiteless. purposeless
work done in our schools today We
asked, Are superintendents sufficient
ly acquainted with the operation Of
their courses of study and do they
know what each subject taught rUn-
tributes to the education of the ChiiG
as they should" While some offered
reasons why they did not. all except
one answered in the negative. From
/ the answers received we quote the
following. Some of the superinteud-
ents have had no kind of training TO-"
supervision and have but little knowl
edge of the value of subjects i'm the
course. no. because they are COu..
PEELED to do too many things and
must look too carefully after the b is
mess affairs of school Il think as a
rule superintendents are not suffi-
GENTLY acquainted with the operation
of their courses of study. They DO
not know enough of the value of eaCn
subject i'm the course of study and
how much it contributes TO the edLca-
tion of children. In fact, | have dis
covered that there is little knowledge
of courses of study so far as subjects
are concerned" Since all buJ one
answer this question in the same way,
il seems that Nerintendents realize
| that this is one of our great needs.
The physician goes in to the sick
room and examines his patient. He
knows that the symptoms which he
finds there indicate a certain disease
He knows that certain medicines will
have a tendency to restore health to
the diseased parts There is a large
degree of definiteness in his work, and
vet he is working upon the mortal
part of the patient Why should not
We Who work upon the imIortal part
of the being have greater of defiin-
itnesS in our work? Why should not
We know the operations of the mind
and what powers of the mind pre-
dominate at different periods in the
child's life? Why should not we
know what powers of the mind are
exercised by the study of each sub
iect and knowing this know what is
ordinarily contributed to the educa-
tion of the child by each subject? We
believe that our superintendent
should give more attention to this
rart of their work to the end that
there may se more purpose and definite
aim in the teaching done in our
schools.
While We realize that the fifth ques-
tion-Are superintendent able to Sc
cure teachers properly trained to en-
able them to carry out their ideals
in the work of teaching childhood
has been a greater problem to the
superintendent in the past than it IS
in the present. yet from the answers
received to this question indicates
that this is still a great need of sup
erintendents. We quote the following
answers which are similar TO all of
those received. Il should say that [,
this * the greatest obstacle the SuD- I