a teacher in the department of physics, for example, who has specialized along such lines, rather than one who has made a special study of Latin or Greek.

THE NEWARK METHOD

ADDISON B. POLAND, superintendent of schools, Newark, N. J.-I am asked to describe briefly the system employed in Newark, N.J. At the present time our board employs over fourteen hundred teachers. A rule provides that all appointments, promotions, and transfers shall be made only upon the recommendation of the superintendent; also, that the superintendent's recommendation shall be based upon the experience, merit, and fitness of candidates, to be ascertained as far as practicable from the records filed in his office. This necessitates a careful inquiry into the scholarship, merit, and fitness of all teachers in the employ of the board, as well as of candidates seeking positions. The first step toward providing an efficient merit system was the creation of a city board of examiners. This board consists of the city superintendent of schools, the principal of the city normal school, the principal of the high school, and four others. The city superintendent is chairman ex officio of this board. By a provision of the state law, this board has the sole power to issue teachers' licenses in and for the city of Newark. Eligible lists have been created by this board from time to time for positions of every grade. From these lists the superintendent makes his nominations when vacancies occur. Candidates are usually rated by the board of examiners upon the following basis: scholarship, 50 per cent.; experience, 25 per cent.; fitness, 25 per cent.

Candidates for the lowest grade license who are graduates of a four-year high-school course and a two-year normal-school course, or of a college course, are exempt from written examination. All candidates, however, are required to pass an oral examination to determine experience and fitness.

In order to secure reliable information as to class-room efficiency of teachers, reports are called for twice a year. Principals are required to send to the superintendent their estimates (ratings) of the efficiency of their teachers under two heads, namely, (a) instruction and (b) discipline. Supervisors, both general and special, are required to make similar ratings. Teachers are grouped (rated) under the following heads: "excellent," "good," "satisfactory," "poor," and "failure." The first three groups of teachers are entitled to a stated increase in salary. About 95 per cent., generally speaking, of our teachers are included in the first three groups.

Our salary schedules are based upon years of experience and grade of license. The maximum salary is reached at the end of five years. This salary is $750 for kindergarten teachers and teachers in grades I-VI, inclusive.

To teach a seventh or eighth grade a candidate must obtain a first assistant's license. This license is given to those only (college graduates excepted) who pass a written examination in certain academic studies. All must possess a satisfactory record for class-room efficiency. The maximum salary of this grade is $800 to $1,000. The next promotion

grade is that of vice-principal, which is obtained in the same manner. The maximum salary in this grade is $1,200. In all elementary grades men and women are paid alike. We have also a head assistant's license—a teacher in charge of a floor-who receives a maximum salary of $900.

The introduction of this system met with some opposition at first on the part of both principals and teachers; but it has steadily won favor, until today few, if any, of our teachers would be willing to go back to the old system, namely, "to get a promotion is to get it.”

Rarely, if ever, is the justice or wisdom of the superintendent's nomination from the eligible list challenged either in the board or outside the board. If a board of examiners is careful and impartial, so that its records of experience and fitness are to be relied upon, the superintendent will be able to make his nominations with impartiality and with reasonable certainty of general approval.

THE NEW YORK METHOD

WILLIAM H. MAXWELL, superintendent of schools, New York city-Let us not attempt to settle questions by a show of hands.

At the close of Superintendent Poland's remarks the question had been asked whether teachers in higher grades should be paid higher salaries. A large majority indicated that there should be no distinction in salary with regard to grade below the high school.

In New York there are three grades of salaries: the lowest, from the kindergarten to the sixth grade; the second, in the seventh and the first half of the eighth grade; the highest, in the upper half of the eighth grade. The lowest salary is $600 and increases annually by $40 thru the seventh year of service. The progress of the teacher and her work is then inspected, and the board of superintendents determines whether the particular teacher shall be advanced to a higher grade and salary. This is done again at the end of her twelfth year. The last advance is to $1,240.

We believe that teachers do better work when confined to a specialty; therefore in the higher grades we have one teacher for English, another for history, etc. Our teachers are thus stimulated to aspire to broader knowledge and a higher grade of service. What we want in the teachers of today is knowledge of matter quite as much as knowledge of method. We must hold out the hope of advance and betterment to teachers; otherwise they are a disheartened lot. I desire to state that in New York, as in Kansas City, with a merit system of promotion there has come a revival of learning. I was impressed with the suggestion of Mr. Van Sickle, that there may be a better way of securing scholastic advancement of teachers than by resorting to the ordeal of protracted written examinations.

DISCUSSION

CLARENCE F. CARROLL, superintendent of schools, Rochester, N. Y.-Superintendent Maxwell has described the system of promotion in the schools of the city of New York. If I understood Mr. Maxwell correctly, he stated that the tendency is for teachers to seek promotion from the lower grades to the higher grades in the elementary schools. The higher salaries paid in the upper grades would naturally have this effect. In consequence, the primary teacher would always be inclined to look forward to the day when by examination and by promotion she might leave the service of little children and aspire to teach children of the grammar grades: I must assume that the primary teacher in the New York schools regards herself from the first as performing only a temporary service, and that the best talent cannot therefore be retained in the primary grades, for the ambitious and artistic teacher would eventually, attain her aim and secure her promotion.

This proposition will, I am sure, appear to the average superintendent as a menace to the work in the early grades. It has been my experience, and I am quite sure it has been yours, that the first-grade teacher ought to be a good teacher. That is stating it mildly. I may put it in stronger terms and affirm that no service rendered to any human being is higher than that of the successful primary teacher in the public schools and kindergarten.

I should be interested to know if Mr. Maxwell would place the same stimulus before kindergartners to lead them constantly to seek "advancement'' from their work. Certainly in every community in which I have ever labored the work in the kindergarten and early grades has been regarded as a post of honor. This work calls not only for skill, but for culture, for insight, and for consecration. I should be compelled to say that any propo sition to discount the importance of this early work, any influence which would tend to make teachers doing such work dissatisfied and discontented, would be a public calamity.

Under the influence of such a system as Mr. Maxwell has described it would not be just for us to blame teachers for seeking this so-called "advancement." The theory itself

appears to me to be vicious, first, in that it places this service to little children relatively below that rendered to the older children, and, second, in that it would tend to destroy in the lives of a host of noble women the highest impulse ever given to woman, and to blight the sentiment that has so long dignified the kindergarten and primary schoolroom. It would, I believe, tend to put back the progress of the public-school system and the progress of civilization indefinitely, if these principles were to be generally adopted and acted upon.

There are present many women supervisors, who are authorities in their work. They are our dependence and strong support, and their work is done more especially in that part of the school system where the highest efficiency and the finest results are usually attained, namely, in the primary grades. It is my earnest hope that some of these ladies may be called upon to carry forward this discussion. If we should hear oftener from the lady members of this department, especially when there is anything to be said that really has anything to do with the schoolroom, we should get much nearer to the heart of the question at issue. So much of our time is given to organization, and to other parts of the mere shell of our habitation, that it is comparatively seldom that they have the opportunity of joining in our discussions. I am certain, Mr. Chairman, that you will not fail to take advantage of their presence and of their wisdom.

MISS ELLOR E. CARLISLE, Supervisor, public schools, Boston, Mass.-Primary teachers should be made to feel that they have the highest, noblest, and best-paid work that their qualifications open to them. All teachers should continue their habits of academic study, for inspiration in their work, and for the renewal of their youth. I should like to see primary teachers receive an increase of salary after some years of work, on giving evidence of efficiency and scholastic advancement. The greatest thing this association can do is to forward the idea in the public mind that appointment and promotion should be only thru the merit system.

AARON GOVE, ex-superintendent of schools, Denver, Colo.—Our agreement upon the desirability of the appointment of teachers upon merit is pronounced. It is difficult to understand how the superintendents can approve any other method. The larger part of the discussion relates to the application of such machinery as is necessary to execute the plan of appointment upon merit, chiefly upon examination, followed by confirmation based upon successful trial, according to the report of inspectors.

Most of us are engaged in administering school systems of cities of a hundred thousand people or less. The greater cities, which latterly are so admirably conducted, are scarcely profitable examples for the superintendents in smaller communities.

The impersonality of the superintendent in Greater New York or Chicago has no place in the smaller jurisdictions. In a city of fifty thousand people the superintendent is a distinct personality, known socially and politically to every inhabitant. In the initial examination of a candidate, failure is met by individual remonstrance from the friends; then after a year's trial, if the reports concerning the novice do not justify a confirmation of the appointment, the superintendent is forced to meet people and discuss each case. How many of us are obliged to hear unanswerable questions from dear and influencial friendsquestions from which the superintendent of the great city of New York is far removed: "Why was she not confirmed?" "Is not her scholarship proved by her certificate?" 'She has a good room; I have been in it." "Miss B. and Mr. C. tell me she is superior." mothers asking that she be retained."

"Here is a petition signed by thirty of the “The other candidate, who is the daughter of an alderman, was confirmed. My friend has no aldermanic relation." One also hears from the judge, the senator, the ward "captain, and so on. Each one knows personally the superintendent; and so I submit that we need most, at a time like this, to hear how to remove the obstacles in the way whereby the superintendent of the small city seeks to base appointments upon merit.

Inalienable rights are assumed to belong to the daughters and kinfolk of several classes found in each community. Of such are "the man who has always paid taxes for the

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schools," "the man whose daughter went thru the schools, the man whose home is there, and who must have a living for his daughter,” “the clergymen of the great churches,” “the leading politicians," and the large class whose methods of intrigue are wickedly powerful when assaults are to be made upon the school management, and who threaten seriously to harm the whole structure, unless the given candidate be assigned to a position.

These intimations will be recognized in some smaller cities as obstacles in the proper execution of appointing teachers upon merit and they are not encouraging. Greater New York stands as the shining monument today of proper methods of appointment successfully accomplished, but even there frequent threats are already heard from unfriendly political powers.

VERNON L. DAVEY, city superintendent, East Orange, N. J.-A large majority of the members in attendance are from cities having a population of less than seventy-five thousand. To be of value to them, the discussion should embrace the following points: (1) the source of supply; (2) the method of selection; (3) the appointing power; (4) promotion of teachers.

I. It is not customary or necessary for small cities to maintain training schools. The product of the state normal schools should be sufficient in quantity and much better qualified. The source of supply should be unlimited as regards area. Each schoolroom is for the benefit of forty-five children, not for the benefit of one young woman. Home talent should receive equal consideration with that from other localities, but not greater.

2. All appointments should be made on the nomination of the superintendent, who should be given unlimited control. In the smaller cities he should be expected to nominate only those persons of whose ability and qualifications he is morally certain. To insure this, he should be given the privilege of visiting candidates in their schoolrooms, and should be expected to use the privilege.

3. The nomination of the superintendent should guarantee appointment by the board of education. This in effect gives him appointing power.

4. Promotion may be in salary or grade, or both. If salaries are equal in all grades up to the highest in the grammar schools, as I think they should be, but few teachers will care to be advanced in grade. Increase in salary should, in my opinion, be by schedule, with the consideration that there shall be no advance at the end of any year if the principal and superintendent do not agree in recommending the teacher as having done at least good average work.

The above plan is in operation in East Orange, a city of 25,000 people. The chief obstacles are two: first, the overcoming of the demand for places for home talent; second, the increased cost if nonresident teachers are employed.

A judicious and well-balanced superintendent should be able, by his own efforts and the influences that he can bring to bear, so to mold the sentiment of the members of the board of education, and thru them the community, that these methods of appointment will be approved by the taxpayers and the necessary funds will be provided.

A. B. BLODGETT, superintendent of schools, Syracuse, N. Y.-It is certainly gratifying to find the merit system in such general use; it is still more gratifying to find such remarkable unanimity of sentiment in favor of it. I rise to question whether a system that seeks to reward merit can rely wholly on examination, even in first appointment. Scholastic attainments and professional preparation are good, but they are not all. The personality. and character of the candidate are to be considered, and that fine thing called teaching power which cannot be weighed in the scales of an examination, whether oral or written.

It seems to me that there are three things to be considered in rating teachers for appointment: (1) scholastic and professional preparation; (2) character and physical fitness; (3) efficiency in the schoolroom; and two things for which teachers should be rewarded by promotion: (1) marked and increasing efficiency; (2) professional improvement by scholastic advancement.

JAMES L. HUGHES, inspector of schools, Toronto, Can.—In Canada we have not this problem. It is solved for us by the government. Everything there is on the civil-service basis. Teachers are trained in government schools, and inspected and graded by educational experts in the employ of the government. There is no outside influence whatever.

MANUAL TRAINING IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JAMES PARTON HANEY, DIRECTOR OF MANUAL TRAINING, BOROUGHS OF MANHATTAN AND THE BRONX, NEW YORK CITY

The term "manual training” has no well-defined meaning, and in consequence no well-defined practice. Some think of it only as constructive work; others, as motor training in general. At the present time, in the higher councils of its advocates, there is an active debate on the question of how far the natural activities of the child shall determine the industries he pursues in the elementary school. Both sides agree that the child must have manual work in abundance, if he is properly to develop. Both sides agree also that his natural interests must be consulted in determining what special phases of manual work he is to do. But one side holds that his natural activities form a reliable guide to the industries which he should undertake, while the other protests that no activities seen in school are really natural. All rise more or less, say they, in response to the stimulus of the teacher; therefore they urge that stimulus be given to lead to interest in those activities which now make up the world's work. The first would give the child insight into the history of man's rise; the second would prepare him for future work in the world.

Faint echoes of this discussion have reached the class-rooms wherein elementary teachers are essaying to present the different phases of manual work. As a discussion they look upon it as theoretic and of small concern, while they turn to their immediate superiors for specific directions as to the manner in which they are to treat the practical problems which the arts present. Whether they solve the latter well or ill depends largely upon the teaching of these leaders and upon the standards which they erect.

But leaders are fallible. Many a superintendent regards all motor work as "special," and is content to turn it over to a special teacher to organize and develop as best she may. But special teachers, as a rule, come to their task with training limited and one-sided. They are ill advised as to the underlying principles of the curriculum, and believe that success lies in keeping their special subject intact. To this end they labor, striving by isolation to magnify its importance. Thus there results much manual work taught in a manner not justified by sound pedagogy. Often there is an attempt to distinguish sharply between related activities. Art and manual training are held apart, despite the fact that they are to the little child common means for expression-concrete, graphic expression. Thus the first canon in the manual