Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1916-05-19
Public Education In Maryland.
The Next Step.
From The Town.

Public Education In Maryland.
The Next Step.
From The Town.
By DR.. Abraham Flexner, delivered at
the seventh annual meeting of the Mary
land State Federation of Women's Clubs.
The new Maryland Education Law is one
of the most comprehensive statutes ever
written upon the law books of an Ameri-
can commonwealth. 1t furnishes the peo-
pie of Maryland an opportunity to bring
about, with patience. tact, and in good
time. very considerable improvements in
the educational administration of the State.
You will notice that | say advisedly that it
furnishes an opportunity" The statute
itself has been called by your chairman,
and in a sense properly called, great
achievement. Nevertheless, from the point
of view of the education which the chill
dren of Maryland are going to get. it is
not an achievement. it is not a perform
ance-it is simply an opportunity. 1t is
possible that the children of Maryland may
be as poorly educated under the new law
as they have been under the old. Whether
any changes in educational practice COM
mensurate with the changes in the educa-
tional law will follow the enactment of
this law remains to be seen.
l have gladly taken advantage of this
opportunity to speak in order to point
out to you what you doubtless al
ready know. that it is very largely in the
hands Of the women of Maryland to de-
termine whether the promised possibilities
of the new law shall or shall not be more
or less fully realized.
The law itself simply changes and i'm
proves the conditions under which the
educational game is henceforth to be play
ed in Maryland. The old rules, to use the
sporting phraseolsy. left the public educa-
ton in Maryland open to politicians and
amateurs. The new rules seek to exclude
the politician and amateur and to install
the professional. do not mean, of course,
to imply that all persons who have dealt
with public education in Maryland have
been either politicians or amateurs. Some
very admirable men and women are to be
found In educational positions in the State
of Maryland in administration, supervision
and teaching. do not mean to say that
under the new law you will necessarily be
rid of politicians and amateurs and be
dealing only with well-trained profession
ais. What | do mean is this, that the
natural tendency of the old law was to
leave public education in Maryland in the
hands of unframed persons. Whenever a
highly trained person obtained an educa-
tional position. it was more or less the re-
suit Of accident or good fortune. The new
law is designed to bring disinterested citi-
zens into school boards, and to fill tech
nical posts with highly trained men and
women. Whether or not this will turn out
to be the case depends in no slight measure
upon the intelligence and activity of the
women of Maryland.
Let me run over for you very briefly the
changes which the new law brings about.
Under the old law which governs until
the first Of June, almost any one who had
been occupied in school work was eligible
for the important post of State Superin-
tendent Of Education. 1t is hardly less
than a miracle that a skillful, competent
and able man has held that position for a
number Of years. Under the old law the
State Board of Education had to be some
thing of political body. and the county
board was also politically constituted. The
county board was. under the old regime,
not only liable but almost sure to choose
an unframed or slightly trained superin-
tendent. True enough in several counties
this expectation has for one reason or an
other been disappointed; there are a few
extremely well-trained county superintend-
ents in the State of Maryland; but the
whole tenor and tendency of the old law
was in favor of the amateur and the poll
tician. Neither State nor county superin-
tendent Of education was provided with
the technical assistants absolutely indis-
pensible to the effective performance of
their duties In respect to the teaching
staff we counted something like twenty or
thirty perfectly legitimate ways of enter
ing the teaching service Of Maryland. 1t
is quite fair to say that any ordinary edu-
Gated person who had gone through the
elementary schools might hope to secure
a position in some part of the educational
system. Finally, under the old law, there
was no assurance that the children of
Maryland would 60 to school regularly.
When it became evident to us that such
was the framework Of the Maryland sys-
tenn. it was almost unnecessary to 90 into
the school in order to find out what was
happening. Though there are. of course,
vigorous. highly trained and resourceful
teachers in Maryland, the existing condi-
tons tended toward inefficiency. 1t was,
therefore, no surprise to US to find an OBJ
solete and overloaded course of study lead
ing to an extremely unsatisfactory edu-
cational outcome.
The new law endea vors to create differ
ent underlying conditions. If you will read
the report of the Maryland Survey Commits
sion you will find that it contains very few
suggestions as to what the schools should
do. as to how teachers should be trained.
as to how the teaching should be super
vised, as to what the schools should teach.
There are in 1t a few suggestions on these
topics. We have indeed been criticised
in some quarters for not undertaking to
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