Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-12-20
REMOVE POLITICS
FROM THE SCHOOLS
Commissioner Kendall Says
That Is Great Drawback in
States System.
MORE MEDICAL ATTENTION
AND NURSES IN SCHOOLS
Also Suggests High School Cur
ricula More Adapted to
Present-Day Needs.


TRENTON, Dec. 0.-Commissioner
OF Education Calvin N. Kendall to-
day presented to the State Board of
Education his annual report. He
treats of almost every phase of the
school question in an analytical way.
DR.. Kendall also presented a report
showing the increased cost of the
schools for a period of ten years and
giving his reasons for the increases.
The elimination of politics and ia
voritism from the appointment and
promotion of teachers and principals
the annual report urges as one of the
educational needs of the State DR..
Kendall says there is no more reason
for politics in school affairs than in
the affairs of a great mercantile es-
Establishment, well-regulated farm, a
railroad or a factory. The superin-
tendents Of schools should have, he
continues, at least by custom and
preferably by statute. the initiative
In the appointment of teachers.
Other recommendations of the COM
missioner are for additional normal
school facilities for the training of
teachers; the development of summer
schools for teachers; better salaries
for teachers in some sections of the
State; the use of good pictures and
lantern slides in schools to aid in
language exercises; better enforce
ment OF the compulsory education
laws, and adequate provision for the
education of mentally defective chill
dren in country districts.
Better Medical Inspection.
DR.. Kendall also points out the need
for better medical inspection and the
employment of school nurses in cities,
as well as better school buildings and
grounds. He also suggests more con-
: solidated schools in rural districts
and summer schools in the large cities
of the State. The extension of play
ground facilities in our cities is also
urged.
He also suggests the development of
agricultural and industrial education
and the wider use of schoolhouses as
community centres. Multiplicity of
school libraries in the State and the
teaching of New Jersey local history,
and high schools with courses of study
that are better adapted in some re-
spects to present-day needs, are also
suggested in the report.
DR. Kendall lays particular stress
upon his recommendation for the
higher education OF women. New
Jersey is the only great American
commonwealth in the northern half
of the country from the Atlantic to
the Pacific without a college or uni
versity open to women" he says.
Other recommendations are: For
special custodial schools for de-
linquent and hayward boys and girls;
fewer children under the care of one
teacher in many small municipalities
and greater care in some districts in
the choice of members of boards of
education.
Reasons for Increased Cost.
In his report showing the increase
In the cost of schools Dr. Kendall says
it comes from the increased salaries
received by teachers, janitors and
other school employees, necessitated
by the high cost of living, increases
In the amount paid for building ma
terials and supplies and fuel and the
ever increasing number of pupils en-
tering the schools.
Again, the new features of our
schools such as night sessions, kim
dergartens, manual training depart
ments, detention schools, summer
schools, medical inspection courses
and so on have all helped to bring the
cost of the education of the children
of the State to its present figures
In his report DIR. Kendall said:
1.-THE figures, which seem to be re-
liable, indicate that the tobacco bill
In this country is almost as great as
the bill for public education; that the
bill for candy is one-fourth as great;
that the bill for automobiles is one
half as great. How much is spent in
the aggregate for amusements-mov-
ing-picture shows, vaudeville. the
theatre baseball-no one knows. But
how far would the bill for these
amusements fall short of the bill for
education? Would it? 1t costs the
national government more than $4,000
a day to maintain the battleship New
Jersey.
"The schools of the State enrolled last
year more than half million pupils;
this is in excess of one-sixth of the
population of the State. This great
number of pupils, equal to the total
populaton of New Jersey in 1852, Is
not only supplied with books and APP
paratus for doing their work. but the
pupils are housed, in the main. in
safe comfortable and convenient
school buildings. They are taught by
a fine body of men and women, nearly
IL 900 in number. The expenses in the
aggregate must be large, for the
school is by far the greatest enter
nrise in mere magnitude in which the
state is engag ed, to say nothing of
other and substantial reasons why 1t
is the greatest enterprise in the
State"
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