Evening journal., 1915-06-09

also for the willingness to consider
improvement said to be characters
tic at present of the board members
Just how much this attitu0e has heen
] stimulated by the approaching cleo
/ tion and how much is the result of
conviction and conversion the public
! IN some cases may never be able
TO discover. That will depend upon
the results of the election. In any
( case the education of the present
school board has begun rather late.
The alumni campaign for a smaller
Board of Education during the past
year brought out many questions in
/ school administration which might
well raise questions i'm the minds Of
I citizens. AS a matter of fairness TO
! all concerned the time was ripe for
disinterested investigation into the
methods and administration of pub
/ lie school affairs. and had such been
made by a properly qualified expert in
these subjects, backed by a commit
/ tee of fair-mlnded citizens, the issue
might have terminated more satisfac-
torily TO the community.
! cannot pretend any more intimate
/ knowledge as 10 this part Of the
school system than is in the posses
sion of the public and can only draw
the obvious conclusions from facts al
ready stated. Records on many sub
lects, If they exist, are not available
To the volunteer investigator. and any
study, unless backed by official au-
thority, must necessarily be incom-
plete
Neither has any attempt been made
to criticize the professional side OF
the schools adequately. The public
believe, will heartily endorse and
readily accept Mr.. Scott's public tes-
timony that this part of our school
system is distinctly good: but while
the efficiency of many of the teachers
tends TO minimize some OF the worst
conditions in the schools, Il is mani
! festly unfair that either the Board
of Education or the public should al
low the teacher TO stand as the prin-
cipal- educational asset behind which
gross neglect and both the excusable
and ineXcusable defects OF the school
system are allowe dto hide. The only
square and honest public-spirited
thing for both school authorities and
the community at large TO do, Is TO
acknowledge conditions as they are
and make knowledge of facts basis
Tor building up school system TO
every detail of which we can point
with pride.
One of the clearest conclusions TO
be drawn from study of present
school conditions and the develop
ment of education in Wilmington is
Z that there has been little co-opera-
tion on the part of the school board
. with the teaching force.
No Board of Education unless itself
made up Of teachers and experts can
satisfactorily administer the educa-
tional affairs of a city without de-
pending to large extent upon the
, practical findings of the trained
/, workers who have actual contact
with all the problems of pupil and
; school. The school itself is a
laboratory for study upon which all
principles, policies and direct rulings
must be based. Failure to take into
consideration the value of this sort
of cooperation is doubtless to no
small extent the cause of the present
unpopularity OF the School Board
AS far as | can gather, the aver
age of the boys and girls who get
far enough through the public schools
to be measured by definite education
al test and standards. rank well in
this respect with the pupils of bet
ter school systems In the light Of
conditions already revealed. this can
only be attributed to unusual quail
, ties in the teaching force
Some OF the maturer pupils when
questioned, spontaneously and Gag
erly give credit where credit Is due.
do not for one moment suppose
that every teacher measures up TO
all that should be required. Many
things point TO the contrary. Low
salaries for instances and low edu-
p cational requirements arc not condu-
d GIVE 10 expert service. but the many
cases in which expert service must
be rendered in the Wilmington
schools in order to produce the re-
suits observed, arc all the more re-
: markable on this account.
Some interesting statistics in re-
gard to teachers in the elementary
schools are as follows: OF the 246
teachers. Ia or only about per cent
come from outside the state. and only
u have been partly or wholly edu-
Gated outside of Delaware. OF the
twenty-slx principals only two have
come from outside the State and only
two were educated outside OF Della
ware. This situation is very largely
explained by a statement in regard 10
the Wilmington training school pub
lished In the general school reports
The object of the training school is
specifically the preparation of teach
ers for the elementary schools of our
city The training school was open-
ed in 1876. There are no printed re-
ports concerning this school except
the limited information in the regu-
lar school report, and there are no
records available.