The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-12
PEOPLES FORUM
As To Pro-Brftlsh Textbooks

AS 10 frO-brtIlen AeNtboohS To the Editor of The Age Herald:
 Criticism of Textbooks" is the title of an editorial in your issue of June 6, in which, among other things, you say: AS to the authen- ticity of the charges, one is not prepared to say, not knowing whether MT. Hirschfield is a real hundred per center. Now, Mir Editor, may I respectfully ask why you raise the question of the patriotism of the commissioner of accounts of New York, MT. David Hirschfield? Of course, he may have a funny name. but so had La Fayette and DeKalb. Similar ac- tion has been taken by other cities and bills are now pending in state legislatures aimed at banning from public schools such propa- ganda as MT. Hirschfield mentions in his report of 40,000 words, but perhaps not so thoroughly. Mr. Hirschfield goes into details, 1t seems. and calls names, particular ly the Carnegie foundation and the Rhodes scholarship founda- tion, and touches on the first will
 
 :lot seen a copy of the first will of MT. Rhodes. but has heard there was a provision in it creating a secret society for the purpose of making this country a colony of Great Britain. I do not charge that this is so, but if 1t is, then every man should know about 1t. I believe your readers would be intensely interested in the charges made by Mir. Hirschfield, particu- larly since this committee has been investigating the revising" of the school histories for over a year. I would like to see you print the full report in your ex- cellent paper. R. P. MNALLY.
 Birmingham, Ala, June z, 1923. Normal Schools and Their Support To the Editor of The Age-Herald
 I have read with great interest editorials in The Ase-Herald caii- ing attention to the need of tne normal schools of Alabama, and cf the states obligation to them. A recent editorial emphasizes the need for continued and expanding sAPPt OPi AatiOAS Aol GApCH- ses and to make possible the growth. equipment. faculties and facilities which Alabama's increas- ing demand for trained teachers makes imperative" For such ap- propriation there Is indeed great need. Without them the normal schools and the whole public school system must suffer and fail to function effectively.
 The normal school is a profess sional school, as is the medical school, the law school and the school of engineering. Its sole function Is to prepare teachers. That teachers in the elementary schools need the professional preparation of the normal school is now generally understood. The minimum of such preparation that should be accepted is generally admitted to be two full years of instruction and training after graduation from a good four-year high school. Certainly nothing less should be thought sufficient for this most difficult task of edu- eating and training large num- bers of children for life, citizen ship, and industrial and economic efficiency-the most difficult task men and women have ever yet set their hands to.
 The very nature of normal school work requires small classes. For 600 regular stu students, 300 hundred in each year of the course, there should be not less than twenty-five in- structors, thirty would be better. The instructors. should be men and women of strong personality, ripe scholarship and tried and proven ability in teaching. They should all have had successful experience in teaching children. Such teachers cost money. Nor nal school salaries should not be on d lover scale than are college salaries. Incompetency in the normal school faculty is more fa- tai and reaches farther than in competency in the college faculty.
 Normal schools should not be cheap schools. Any attempt to make them so cannot fail to cheapen all the work of the school system. For the faculty of the school of 500 regular students, and such numbers of irregular students from the ranks of teachers already in service as may be expected to attend the several sessions. not less than s1O0,000 should be available. For other current expenses, experience shows. not less than twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars of this should come from stu dents fees. Normal school stu dents are preparing for the high but unremunerative service of the state. That preparation should be free. They should, however, all be required to sign pledges to teach in the schools of the state a specified number of years.
 Since schools cannot be made effective without adequately pre- pared teachers. and since such teachers cannot be had in suffi- cient numbers without adequately supported normal schools, there should be no question as to the better support of these schools through the millage tax, or. some other effective means. To con- tinue them on the present made quate basis of support would be little less than a crime against the state and the children.
 P. P. CLAYTON,
 Provost University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Ala, June 6. 1923.