I am now going to advocate medical inspection as an economic mesure--as
a money saver. Every child who repeats a grade is costing the city more
than it should for its education. That is clearly apparent. How much
that amounts to, in the aggregate, in Grand Forks, I do not know. But it
is probably no small item. I have no doubt that, in the long run, the
saving would pay the school physician. And then we should be clearly
ahead in all the years saved by the various children, as well as the
greater happiness and usefulness directly resulting from the improved
situation. On the whole, it seems to me and to many others with whom I
have talked that the next step forward that we should ask our Board of
Education to take is the adoption of medical inspection.
Another phase of the subject to which I desire to call your attention is
that of the superintendency. And it isn't exactly like the old maid
sister telling the mother of half a dozen lusty boys how to bring them
up because, in addition to spending years in the study and teaching of
educational matters, I have occupied the superintendent's office and
tried to do his work.
Historically, the superintendent of schools represents a development
from the Board of Education, not from the teaching body. Originally, he
was looked upon as the business manager of the Board, rather than an
educator by profession. Quite specifically, he was, at first, often one
of the regularly elected members of the Board, designated by the Board
to attend to the details of the work, to keep the educational machine
properly oiled, his selection seldom being dictated by any particular
qualification of a professional character.
But in this matter of education as in other matters, great changes have
arisen. In those days teaching was not looked upon as a profession. It
was merely a calling, a trade, a temporary activity requiring no special
preparation. Anybody could teach and could teach any subject. Education
was not recognized as a science. The function of the school was merely
to give knowledge and it was not looked upon, as to-day, as a great
social institution, largely responsible for the welfare of society and
even for the stability of government. And as touching the child, not
interesting itself with the formation of right habits of action, with
the development of character, in a word, so handling the child and his
environment as to bring about both the normal development of his inner
life and the adequate shaping and preparing of that life to satisfy the
demands that will later be met. Not at all.
But great changes have arisen. Education has become a science, and its
activities, its processes, are being based upon definite scientific
principles. We are to-day demanding a professional preparation of all
our teachers. We require them to know something about the child mind and
the laws of its development. We expect them to know why they teach this
subject and that, that is, the educational values of the various
subjects, and the best manner of administering this educational food.
Education, I say, is now looked upon as a _science_, closely allied to
and continually assisted by its sister science of sociology, definitely
based upon and springing out of the sciences of psychology and
physiology, and even having its roots deep down in the sub-soil of
biology.
Together with this change of thought as to the function and work of the
school, there has been a corresponding change as to the superintendent
and his work. While we are not completely emancipated from the old rule
of cut and try, from the old mechanical routine, the country as a whole
has taken some long strides in advance. While some boards of education
still look upon their superintendent as a chore boy, that idea has, on
the whole, long since been abandoned. And the best educational thought
of the country to-day regards the superintendent primarily as an
educator, having to do with the inner, rather than the outer, phases of
the school's activities. And our most progressive centers are looking
upon him as a specialist, an educational expert, and demanding in him an
educational and a professional equipment commensurate with the larger,
more difficult, and most important work. He must be intimately
acquainted with the sciences most closely related to his own and capable
of drawing upon all the others for contributory assistance. And then, in
carrying out the thought of this larger view and so shaping matters of
detail as to profit by the superb equipment provided in the new
superintendent, he has been freed from the routine work formerly done by
him, thus giving the opportunity of studying the local problems and
planning their solution.
Now for my definite suggestion. It has taken me a long time to get to
it, but I believe it is worth the time. I want you to look upon the
superintendency of your schools as the largest, the most difficult, and
most important position within the bestowal of the city. The mayor's job
doesn't begin to compare with it. And then after you have so rated the
position, I want you to free the man who holds it from all hack-work,
from the details of business management, from anything and everything
that now prevents him from making a careful, scientific, investigative
study of fundamental educational problems that confront him right here
in Grand Forks.
And what are some of those problems, do you ask? Superintendent Kelly
could doubtless name a score of them that he is waiting to get at but
can not for want of time. Let me suggest a few that are confronting our
superintendents all over the land. Nor can I do more than mention them.
I name first this matter of retardation of which I have already spoken.
Why is it that so many children fail of promotion and so have to repeat
grades, thus adding to the expense of the schools? It no longer
satisfies to say, "Because they do not study"--the question is, "Why do
they not study?" Is it the fault of the child, the home, or the school?
And, whosoever it is, how can the difficulty be removed? You would not
in your business suffer a daily loss thru unnecessary friction--thru the
unsatisfactory working of your machinery. You demand the largest and
best output possible for the money expended. Why not the same in the
biggest business enterprise of the city--your schools? But to prevent
the friction, you must know the cause. I want the superintendent to have
time to investigate these matters. All this applies as well to those who
drop out before completing the course as to those merely repeating a
grade. An analogous question: Why do so few, relatively, of the
graduates of the eighth grade enter the high school? And why do so few
of those who enter complete the course? Again, is it because they can
see no real connection between the work of the high school and the work
of life--because it doesn't seem to fit them for anything? These things
should be investigated and, when reasons are found, the remedy applied.
We should know the facts. But all these matters take time, and the days
are only so long and a man's strength always limited. Exhausted by
hack-work, no man can do constructive thinking. And so we go on in our
waste of money and energy and life. The waste of soil, the waste of
tools, in our farming communities, doesn't compare with this waste in
seriousness. Let us adopt the principles of scientific conservation.
And now, in keeping with the topic given me to discuss, "Improvement in
Our Public Schools," I have given three quite definite suggestions: In
the first place, I have recommended the utilization of the Press as an
agent of improvement. That is, I have asked that there be established in
one or both of your daily papers an educational column in charge of some
competent person thru which the public could become better informed on
school matters and thus able to co-operate more intelligently in the
upbuilding of the schools. In the second place, I have urged that
mesures be taken looking toward the adoption of regular and systematic
medical inspection of all school children. And lastly, I have urged you
to look upon your superintendent of schools as an educational expert
rather than a business man. And, regarding him as such, I have asked you
to free him from the petty details of office work and all mechanical
drudgery so that his training and his abilities could be used for
educational betterment.
VIII
LOCAL WINTER SPORTS
_A Paper read before the Franklin Club of Grand Forks, North Dakota,
December 1, 1910, and printed in the Grand Forks "Daily Herald,"
December 4, 1910_
It is no longer necessary to offer an extended plea for a recognition of
the value of physical training. The human race, in its upward climbing,
long ago passed the stage where the body was looked upon as a hindrance
to the soul in its aspirations. We have likewise gone beyond that higher
stage in which the attitude toward the physical being was merely
negative, and have clearly reached an altitude upon which we recognize a
well-defined relationship between the physical man and the mental and
spiritual man. We know now that only as each is healthy and thus in a
condition to do its own work well, is the other able to act normally. As
the great English philosopher, Locke, said, "A sound mind in a sound
body is a brief but full description of a happy state in this world."
This is a well-recognized article of our educational creed, not only,
but even the conservative religious workers have accepted the principle,
and we find inscribed over the entrances to our Christian Association
buildings the word "body" as well as the word more commonly found in
such connection, "spirit."
But to go back just a moment: let us consider it from the standpoint of
mere physical betterment. We know that a muscle unused means a muscle
undeveloped, and that, on the contrary, intelligent, systematic use,
with a definite purpose in view, will accomplish wonders in physical
development. We know something as to what a physical trainer can do with
a bunch of raw foot-ball material. We know how the gymnasium can
metamorphose a loose-jointed, lop-sided, stoop-shouldered,
shamble-gaited young fellow. We know what the brisk recruiting officer
can do with the "awkward squad." In the one case as in the other, the
physical training stands him upon his feet; it takes the kinks out of
his back; it throws his head up; it unties the knots in his legs; it
puts fire into his eye. The good red blood courses thru his veins, and
even shows itself in his cheeks. He walks with an elastic step. Every
organ of his body is doing its duty. He no longer needs liver pills,
digestive tablets or wizard oil.
I said "mere physical betterment," didn't I? Well, you can not have
"mere" physical betterment. In every case suggested above, there is
something better than physical improvement. Without knowing why, or how,
the young fellow, after the training suggested, in addition to being a
more perfectly functioning animal, a better working flesh-and-blood
machine, is several rounds higher up on the ladder of manhood. He looks
you in the eye. He gives your hand a regular Stearns grip. He dares to
say that his soul is his own. And why? Because the life-giving oxygen is
getting down into the long-neglected corners of his lungs. Because his
heart is forcing this purified blood thru his veins building up his
system and incidentally throwing off the waste and poisonous matter, so
that, relieved of the dregs, the bodily organs can really function. And
if that is true of the "gizzard" it is likewise true of the brain. He
can feel more keenly, think more wisely. But all this can be done by
physical exercise alone. Some of the best of these results can be
obtained by the use of the mere punching bag; by running around the
house, if you run often enough and fast enough; all alone with the dumb
bells or Indian clubs, if you keep at it long enough, or even by walking
out to the University on the railroad tracks and saving your street car
nickels. But taken thus, these exercises constitute a mere medicine. And
people don't take medicine until they have to. And for some strange
reason they won't take this kind even then unless some doctor prescribes
it in consideration of the payment of a good sized fee. Why is it?
Simply because we prize things in proportion to their cost?
Now, we want these results and even better ones. And we don't want to
pay the doctor's fees for this or any other kind of medicine in order to
get them. What are we going to do about it? Isn't there some sugar
coating that we can put on to these physical exercise pills to make them
a little more palatable? Can't we in some way make ourselves believe
that we are eating candy instead of taking quinine? For you know that we
grown-ups have not lost all our powers of imagination. How often we play
make believe, even yet! I'll tell you what we can do. Let's have this
same physical exercise idea but introduce into it the element of sport
which Webster defines as "that which diverts and makes mirth." Let's do
these stunts "for the fun of it" instead of as a medicine. We'll get the
results, just the same, and thus get double pay for our pains. I fancy
that the skiing and the skating, the snow-shoeing and the curling of
which we are to hear, all have that element tucked away somewhere in
their anatomy.
But you may ask me what more there is than the results already mentioned
to be gotten from these physical exercises, if we succeed in covering up
the quinine with Mr. Webster's molasses. I've used Indian clubs and dumb
bells by the hour; I've walked to the University in season and out of
season; I've even run around the house--and as a result have experienced
the exhilaration that comes from such vigorous discipline. I've been
better for it, physically, and therefore, of course, mentally. More
oxygen, better blood, firmer bodily tissue including better nourished
brain cells, have done their beneficent work. But yet, as I look back
and see myself going thru these various maneuvers, I am fully confident
of the fact that all this time I was also doing something else--that my
poor brain cells, which really needed recuperation more than any other
part of my body, that these brain cells were still at work, that I was
all the time carrying on a more or less strenuous train of thought as
exhaustive as tho I were seated in my study chair, or standing before my
class in the recitation room. More than one lecture, or address, have I
worked out while walking to and from the University.
Now, one of the most important things for us to do is occasionally to
stop thinking, or at least to stop thinking along our accustomed lines.
We should give those few brain cells that are being made to work
over-time a chance to rest once in a while. We are living too fast. Our
lives are too intense. We are running our machines under high pressure,
and some of them are already showing the results altho they are almost
new. Unless there is a change, new ones will have to take their places
ere long. The rate of speed of the life of the modern American business
and professional man, the rate of speed of the life of the modern
American society woman, is something terrific. We are wearing ourselves
out before our time. Modern life is so complex, so exacting, so wearing,
that we are losing all the joy of living. We are at our own firesides so
seldom and for such short periods that we scarcely know our own little
ones. Longfellow's "Children's Hour" that came "as a pause in the day's
occupation," is almost wholly unknown in most American homes. There is
no "pause" in the day's occupation. The occupation goes right on till
after these "children" are soundly asleep in their beds and begins again
before they are awake in the morning. And all this is true even of us,
right here in this select circle, the "favored ones," many would call
us.
But I am not giving a diatribe on American life, so will not pursue the
matter farther. All that I am trying to do is simply this: to call
attention to the fact that we are living _fast_--faster than our
physical and mental make-up can long stand; that we have already reached
the danger point. And what are we going to do about it? Well, we shall
have to do many things before the problems are all solved, the
difficulties all met. As a slight relief, and to answer a question
raised a little earlier in the paper, I am suggesting the sports--those
activities that both rejuvenate the physical man and also "divert and
make mirth." Into these we can not carry our teaching and our preaching
and our making of social calls. The goods of the merchant, the notes of
the banker, the briefs of the lawyer, the annoyances of the teacher, and
the cares of the housewife, alike, would all have to be left behind. The
mind could rest while the body and the spirit are being recreated. An
hour a day, in the open air, with fears and anxieties and schemes all
cast aside, in companionship with kindred spirits similarly divested of
that which troubles and makes afraid, all engaged in recreative sports,
would do more to make us physically well, morally strong, and civilly
decent than all the pills of the doctors, all the texts of the
preachers, and all the keys of the jailers!
In keeping with the world-wide movement in this direction our own
people, in their civic capacity, have already acted and have thus become
the possessor of splendid park facilities which offer ample
opportunities, when fully developed, for a sane out-of-door life of a
population many times as large as ours at the present time. And as we
all know, the Park Board has entered intelligently and systematically
upon this matter of development and improvement. Much has already been
done. Very much more is fully outlined in the minds of the Park Board. I
think it is their purpose--and I fully believe that they will carry it
out--to proceed in this matter of development just as rapidly as the
people show, by their use of the facilities progressively offered, an
appreciation.
Nearly all the work done thus far, such as clearing away the rubbish,
making the shady retreats usable, fitting up picnic grounds, caring for
the tennis courts, golf links, and other game reserves, as well as
erecting pavilions and other conveniences, has looked toward putting the
grounds into condition for summer use. And the response on the part of
the people has been gratifying. As rapidly as the parks have been put
into shape, they have been generously used by an appreciative people. It
has done my heart good, many times, especially on Sundays in the hot
summer months, to see the numbers of people, and _the people_, who were
really using the parks. They have been the people, in a large mesure,
who can not easily get elsewhere the best things that the parks give.
Thus far, as said, the plans for development have looked mainly toward
summer use, But I am especially glad to note a recent improvement that
shows that the Park Board has the winter use of the parks also
definitely in mind. I refer to the new skating rink in Riverside Park.
It is a most commendable institution. I very much hope that it will be
extensively used, not only by the people living in that part of the
city, but by those of all sections. It belongs to all of us. Here is an
opportunity for a most delightful winter sport freely offered. If
appreciated, as shown by its use, I have no doubt that it will be
duplicated next winter, and on a larger scale, in Lincoln Park. And if
we show that we appreciate this, other features will be added.
Perhaps I should stop here, but I can not lose the opportunity of saying
just a word to connect this topic with the great playground movement,
and therefore in behalf of providing facilities for winter and summer
sports alike, for our boys and girls--our young people.
Do you realize fully that the boys and girls of to-day--yours and mine,
yes, and just as truly those less favored--those into whose lives there
comes but little cheer, into whose stomachs there goes but little
nourishing food, and into whose lungs, but little oxygen--do you
realize, I ask, that these boys and girls are to be the men and women of
to-morrow, with all the responsibilities of the world resting upon their
shoulders? Do we want them to enter upon the duties of life
stoop-shouldered, flat-chested, spectacle-eyed? Do we want them to be
anæmic, pessimistic, nervous wrecks? Do we want them to be mental
weaklings and moral cowards? Do we want them even to approximate these
conditions? No? Then, with all our provisions for their wants and their
needs, let us be sure to develop those things which minister so largely
to the development of the opposite characteristics. Prevention is not
only cheaper than cure, it is also better. Let us see that our parks are
developed with provisions for our boys and girls as well as for the
adults. Let us see that playgrounds are scattered over our city and
provision made for both winter and summer sports.
In addition to the Riverside Park skating rink, I wish the City Council
or the Board of Education would establish one on the grounds of the
Winship school, another at the Central building, and still a third on
the Belmont grounds. This could be done at nominal cost. What a splendid
opportunity it would give to all the children of the city to engage in
this most healthful and invigorating sport! It would give them their
needed entertainment and relaxation in the pure, invigorating,
out-of-door air. It would surround them with an emotional atmosphere
that is at once normal, natural, and spiritually health-giving. Instead
of these conditions, what do we find? Many of our young boys and girls
and very many of those a little older--those just entering upon manhood
and womanhood, when both emotional and physical atmosphere count for so
much in the forming of habits and the choosing of ideals--many of these
future men and women are finding their entertainment and their
relaxation (and mind you, at the close of a day in school or in the
evening after a day spent in the poorly ventilated office or store) in
the moving-picture show or at the vaudeville. And in these places the
air is apt to be both hot and impure, and all the physical conditions
enervating. The emotional atmosphere, too, is sure to be abnormal,
unnatural, and spiritually deadening. We find here, and in too large
quantity to be a negligible factor, the atmosphere, the conditions, the
associations, that help greatly to breed incorrigibles, truants, and
laggards in our schools; that develop juvenile delinquents, hasty
marriages, and early divorces; that send into the world paupers,
grafters, and criminals. Not all the conditions are such in all such
places, it is true, but as affecting young life these are usually the
dominating ones.
I am not condemning the theater. It has its legitimate place, and a
large place it is, in normal, healthy, American life. I am merely
declaiming against these lower forms as usually conducted for commercial
gain--these perversions of the true theater idea--these institutions
that deal so largely in the sensational elements and appeal so strongly
to the passions. I am told that the cheap theater is the poor man's
club. I very much doubt if that is its chief function or, rather, that
its chief result is a wholesome quickening of the better nature of this
poor man--that its chief accomplishment is to send him back to his home
kinder, truer, and stronger, thru either the relaxation or the
instruction, to grapple with the difficulties of life. I greatly fear
that, as usually conducted, its influence upon the adult is at best but
the temporary slaking of an unhealthy and never-satisfied thirst, and
that upon the child and the adolescent it is a distinct blunting of all
the finer sensibilities and elements of character. But even these lower
forms are not all bad. There is enough of good in them to warrant an
attempt at improvement rather than elimination. They can be improved,
made clean, and wholesome, and thus become a positive factor in the
development of right character. I doubt if it will be done, however,
until some other motive than personal gain shall be responsible for
their management. Still, as they are, they might be very greatly
bettered if in some way those most deeply interested in the outcome
could have a choice in the selection of the material to be used.