Evening star., 1922-01-01
Only Way U. S. Can
Get Schools Up
to Standard.
Education Through Eyes
Is Method of Future,
Utilizing Movies.

ME people of the United States
are doing q lot of flour flush
ing about being interested in
education and being the best
educated country in the world. AS a
matter Of fact. they are not interested
primarily in education. but in money
making. and their interest in education
is for the most part chiefly as a means
to making money. This is the startling
opinion Of the new United States COM
missioner of education. John James Tig-
ert. whom President Harding re-
Gently brought here from the Uni
versity of Kentucky. He thinks the
big problem is to awaken the United
States into real interest in educa-
| ton for it's own sake and to enrich
the knowledge. culture. science and
art of future generations
He believes that the education Of
the coming years is visual educa-
ton" taking the real everyday.
genuine world to the children rather
mosphere of dead languages. nathe-
matical puzzles and mind-cluttering
historical data
This man TiRert il real fellow,
not yet forty years old and Of inter-
national fame as an athlete Last
year he was selected as head linesman
for the big game between Harvard
and Central College. Fayette. Mo,
where re formerly occupied the chair
Of philosophy and psychology His
father and grandfather were bishops
Of the Methodist church. 1t was his
grandfather who persuaded Commo-
dore Cornelius Vanderbilt to con-
tribute a million dollars with which
/ to found Vanderbilt University He
was the first from Tennessee to win
Rhodes scholarship. where besides
taking many scholastic honors he
represented his college. Pembroke. in
rowing. tennis and cricket. and was
a member Of the all-Rhodes scholar
base ball team
While at Vanderbilt he was an all
round athlete. captain In foot ball and
basket ball. and was an all-Southern
full back. Before becoming federal
commissioner Of education he was
vice president Of the Southern Inter-
collegiate Athletic Association and
advisory member Of the national bas-
ket ball rules commission. He worked
for years for clean sports and to elm
mate professionalism In college ath-
letics. He was a college president
when only 81 at Kentucky Wesleyan.
Commissioner Tigert realizes, as
all thinking men realize, that the
teaching profession-the men and
women carefully trained who are
conscienciously devotiEg their lives
to the education of the youth OF the
land and instilling into them high
ideals-is scandalously ill-paid and
has not been getting a living wage.
But he looks at both sides of the
question and has felt his way around
the whole vicious circle. He points
out that the teaching profession Is
largely not up to standard and specifi-
cations. but that the pay is not suf-
ficient to induce the right sort of
people to train properly for teaching
as great life work.
In 1916 he finds that the average
salary of teachers. both in high
schools and in elementary schools. was
1868, and in one state in the Union
was as low as 1894. while if the high
schools were excluded the average
salary would be much smaller. BY
1918 the average salary had climbed
to $685.. The United States bureau of
education aims to get out biennial
survey of the standing, but, owing
to congestion OF work. this survey
has not yet been completed. An esti-
mate. however, indicated that the SAL
aries in the'high schools has increas-
ed since 1918 about SO per cent. In
1918 it was $1,o99 and now is about
s1.6i2. The average of all elemen-
tary and high school salaries is now
estimated at something less than
$500.
Teachers salaries at no time in
creased as fast as wages of either
unskilled labor or skilled labor. or as
fast as the cost Of food or living ex-
penses generally rose. The cost OF
living is now dropping some. so that
for the first time in nearly five years
the teachers salary can buy as much
as it did before the war.
Tn critctsing the entirely inadequate
salaries paid to the teaching profes-
sion, Commissioner Tigert says that
to he fair we must recognize two
things: First-we haven't really
well trained profession, showing by
contrast the medical and legal pro-
fea.tons. where one cannot think OF
nracticing without having made
.pecal Study of well recognized
courses. Then he says that accord
ing to a survey recently made OF all
those teaching in this country today.
not more than one in five has been
professionally trained, according to
standards agreed upon by educators.
second-As long as it is impossible
for a teacher to get proper renumera-
ton after years of preparation. where
for the most part, the teacher gets
less than unskilled labor, less than
the janitors or. street scavengers, it
Is going to be extremely difficult to
get the right type Of men and women
to prepare themselves professionally