and Miss Sarah J. Walter, State Normal School, Willimantic, Conn. A general discussion followed by Principal Theodore B. Noss, State Normal School, California, Pa.; President Z. X. Snyder, State Normal School, Greeley, Colo.; Professor Edwin C. Page, Northern Illinois Normal School, De Kalb, Ill.; Professor Frank M. McMurry, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York; Professor John H. Glotfelter, State Normal School, Emporia, Kan.; President Livingston C. Lord, Eastern Illinois Normal School, Charleston, Ill.; and Professor N. A. Harvey, Chicago City Normal School. EVENING SESSION The program of the evening consisted of an address on "The Educational System of Porto Rico," by Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh, commissioner of education for Porto Rico. THIRD DAY MORNING SESSION.--THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 The department was called to order by President Glenn at 9:30 o'clock. After making a number of miscellaneous announcements, the president announced the following Committee on Resolutions : President Glenn expressed the regret of the department because of the absence of Colonel Francis W. Parker, occasioned by impaired health, and stated that he thought the department was very fortunate in having present so excellent a substitute for Colonel Parker as Dr. Arnold Tompkins, of the Chicago Normal School, who would address the department on "Altruism as a Law of Education." The report of the Committee on Nomination of officers for the ensuing year was then called for. The report of the committee was made thru its chairman, E. H. Mark, of Louisville, Ky., and the following officers were recommended for election: President-Charles M. Jordan, superintendent of schools, Minneapolis, Minn. The report was unanimously adopted. Dr. H. R. Sanford, of New York, moved that the directors of the National Educational Association be most earnestly requested to provide an official stenographer for the next session of this department. After voting down several proposed amendments, the original motion was unanimously carried. The selection for the place of the next meeting of the department was taken up, and nominations were presented from New Orleans and Helena, Mont. The claims of Helena for the next meeting of the department were presented by State Superintendent W. W. Welch. Superintendent Warren Easton, of New Orleans, La., presented an invitation from the educational institutions and other organizations of his city. New Orleans was selected by the unanimous vote of the department. Dr. G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., was introduced by the chairman and read a paper on "The High School as the People's College versus Fitting Schools." The discussion was opened by Irwen Leviston, superintendent of schools, St. Paul, Minn. The general discussion was participated in by Commissioner Harris and closed by Dr. Hall. The Committee on Resolutions then offered the following report, which, upon motion, was unanimously adopted: Resolved, That it is a sense of this department that the subjects discussed should bear directly upon supervision in all of its phases; and that it welcomes to its meetings all who are interested in the investiga tion of its problems. That a committee of nine be appointed to formulate, upon a sound educational basis, contemporary educa tional doctrine; submit statements covering contemporary educational experience; and indicate the tenden cies of contemporary educational methods. That all speakers discussing a paper shall speak without manuscript. That the committee on program should make more ample provision for "round-table conferences." That the thanks of this department are tendered to the president for the rare intelligence manifested in the preparation of the program and the courtly dignity with which he has presided; to the secretary and other officers for numberless helpful and considerate courtesies received at their hands; and to the several speakers for the superior quality of the papers presented. W. W. STETSON, Committee. Superintendent John Richeson, East St. Louis, Ill., moved the adoption of the following resolution, which was seconded by Superintendent Arthur Powell, Steubenville, O.: Resolved, That, in order to secure facts and opinions bearing upon school administration, the president of this department shall annually appoint a committee of three to serve one year, whose duty shall be to receive questions which can be briefly answered, and have them printed in the form of a ballot to be distributed at all section meetings in the afternoon of the second day of the annual meeting, and to report the results during the forenoon session of the third day. Amended, so that the members shall serve for three years, one being appointed each year after the first year. The amendment was accepted by the mover and seconder. The resolution, as amended, was referred to the Board of Directors of the National Educational Association. Miss Mary McCowen, supervising principal, Chicago Day Schools for the Deaf, extended an invitation to the members of the department to attend a series of meetings exemplifying the work of the Chicago schools for the deaf. After several miscellaneous announcements, the department adjourned to meet at 2 P. M. AFTERNOON SESSION After a The department convened at 2 o'clock, President Glenn in the chair. number of announcements, the chair introduced Superintendent Thomas M. Balliet, of Springfield, Mass., who read a paper on "College Graduates in the Elementary Schools." The general discussion of Superintendent Balliet's paper was participated in by the following: Superintendent Eugene Bouton, of Pittsfield, Mass.; Superintendent A. K. Whitcomb, of Lowell, Mass.; Superintendent William J. M. Cox, of Moline, Ill.; Superintendent W. F. Slaton, of Atlanta, Ga.; State Superintendent Delos Fall, of Michigan; Dr. H. R. Sanford, of New York; Principal A. S. Downing, of New York; Professor E. O. Sisson, of Bradley Institute, Illinois; Dr. E. E. White, of Columbus, O.; and John MacDonald, of Topeka, Kan. Before declaring the meeting of the Department of Superintendence closed. President Glenn thanked those who were on the program for the careful way in which all addresses were prepared; the secretary and other officers, for their hearty co-operation in making the meeting a success; Superintendents Cooley and Lane, for so kindly looking after the details with reference to the place of meeting, hotel accommodations, etc.; and the members of the department, for their patience and willing co-operation during all of the sessions of the meeting. President Glenn then declared the session of the Department of Superintendence for 1902 closed. Subsequent to the close of the meeting President Glenn appointed as the Committee of Nine provided for in the report of the Committee on Resolutions the following: Hon. Frank A. Hill, secretary of the state board of education, Boston, Mass. Superintendent L. H. Jones, Cleveland, O. Superintendent C. B. Gilbert, Rochester, N. Y. Superintendent C. H. Keyes, Hartford, Conn. Professor George H. Locke, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. Professor D. L. Kiehle, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. Superintendent J. H. Van Sickle, Baltimore, Ind. Professor Elmer E. Brown, University of California, Berkeley, Cal. JOHN DIETRICH, Secretary. PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS OBSTACLES TO EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS PAUL H. HANUS, PROFESSOR OF THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF 66 In the following paper I limit myself to discussing obstacles to progress in three phases of educational activity; and in the time allotted to me I shall be able to treat in some detail only one of these three. The phases referred to are the making of school programs or courses of study," the organization and administration of school systems, and the training of teachers for elementary and secondary schools; and of these I can treat only the first in some detail. First, the obstacles to improvement in school programs or courses of study. The recent history of attempted reforms in school programs is quickly told. About twenty years ago the elementary-school program, with its narrow content and overwhelming emphasis on the school arts reading, writing, arithmetic, and English grammar-was seen to be inadequate and formal. It provided some acquaintance with the school arts themselves, but afforded little real education. It prepared for an elementary education, but did not furnish it. Accordingly, rather more than ten years ago we began to increase the scope of elementary-school programs. We sought to improve them by "enrichment." To the school arts, the formal studies, we added "thought studies" literature, history, nature study, and an improved geography. To the narrow field of the traditional arithmetic we added elementary algebra and geometry; we laid more stress on the drawing, music, and physical training already represented in the schools' occupations; and we introduced manual training, and occasionally a foreign language. But the result was far from satisfactory. We had become convinced that enrichment was necessary, and had acted on our conviction. But the enrichment had involved us in new difficulties that proved to be formidable obstacles to progress. Our programs were congested, especially in those portions of the new programs most affected by enrichment the earliest and the latest pre-high-school grades. The middle ground was and remains, justly I think, tho perhaps not always intentionally, the territory where the school arts are supreme. Then it seemed that the elimination of "nonessentials" from the old programs would solve our difficulties. Such elimination, it was asserted, must precede and accompany enrichment - which was true; and it was also announced, with something of a flourish and a good deal of insistence, that "correlation" would accomplish the rest. Correlation was interpreted to mean such a grouping of the subject-matter that each study could and should be so pursued as to cover, incidentally, adequate instruction in others. Examples of such grouping would be history and geography, history and literature, reading and "nature study," nature study and arithmetic, English grammar and foreign language, elementary algebra and geometry and arithmetic, manual training and drawing. This solution of our program difficulties also insisted on a subordination of the formal studies to the thought studies. The school arts were no longer to be pursued solely as ends in themselves, but primarily as means to ends as the instruments by which education is deepened and ultimately extended, but not as embodying an education themselves. So promising and important did the solution of our program difficulties by means of correlation seem that, when this association, in 1893, appointed a committee on elementary-school studies, it was understood that one of the committee's most important duties should be to set forth, clearly and in detail, to what extent the problem of our program difficulties could be solved by correlation. The Subcommittee on Correlation of the Committee of Fifteen did not solve this problem, however, nor did they attempt it-altho they did something of as great or greater importance, as I shall point out later on; and to this day we are without the guidance that a thorogoing study of the interrelations of the elementary-school studies would afford. I mean such a study as would show to what extent parts of any one of them are naturally, necessarily, and adequately covered in the satisfactory pursuit of another or others. This important study is still awaiting the leisure and inclination of broadminded students willing and able to devote a long period of time to it. By this time we had attempted "enrichment," "elimination," and "correlation;" this had effected a more or less thorogoing revision of the program of elementary studies from beginning to end; and the result. was chaos. There is no better term to describe the infinite variety, complexity, and instability that resulted from the successive tinkerings to which the elementary-school programs had been subjected. And chaotic they remain. But it is no longer a discouraging confusion. Before this stage had been reached, we had gradually come to see that what we needed was guiding principles. Without them, it was clear that we should only make confusion worse by further changes. Out of this demand for guiding principles arose the Committee of Fifteen on Elementary-School Studies, the duties of which, it soon appeared, must transcend even the principles that underlie programmaking. To make our educational endeavor effective, good teaching and wise organization and administration are needed, as well as good programs of study based on sound educational doctrine. Hence, the Committee of Fifteen divided its work into three sections, covering respectively educational doctrine, the training of teachers, and the organization and administration of school systems. Before the elementary-school programs had been transformed to any considerable extent, and while they were still substantially what they had been since the beginning of the last century, strong dissatisfaction had been felt with the narrow training furnished by our secondary schools. Altho designed to meet the needs of all who could prolong their school education beyond the elementary-school stage, our secondary-school programs were determined chiefly by the small fraction of this number who could go beyond the secondary school to the college. Until within the last ten years, preparation for a college course leading to the bachelor of arts degree was everywhere either strictly limited to little else than a drill in the elements of Latin, Greek, and mathematics, or such modifications of these requirements as made it more difficult to prepare for college with the alternatives than with the traditional requirements; and, as just stated, these subjects occupied the lion's share of time and. attention in secondary education nearly everywhere. The narrow and formal character of such a secondary education was gradually perceived to be, like the elementary education that preceded it, chiefly preparation for education, not education itself. The elementary school deferred the pupil's real education to the secondary school; the secondary school deferred it, once more, to the college. 66 Consequently we began to transform the secondary-school program as well as the elementary-school program-by enrichment. All this was gradual, but none the less real. As it proceeded, it became evident that no pupil could do serious work in the modern subjects and at the same time continue his classics. Twenty-five years ago we already had a bifurcation of the program into classical and non-classical divisions or courses of study," dating from 1821, when the Boston "English High School" was established for those boys who were not going to college; and this bifurcation gradually developed into a division of the program into several parallel groups or "courses of study," each group or consisting of a combination of studies comprising both, or To obtain the diploma of the group or course of study," and adhere "' course |