Holiday

The school teachers of the U. S. made out the term grades, dusted their blackboards, shut their desks, drew their pay, boarded trains for Washington, D. C. There they swarmed upon the steps of the National Capitol for a vesper service that opened the 62nd annual meeting of the National Education Association. That organization now has 140,000 members, of which 80% are classroom teachers.

The National Congress of Parents and Teachers had been invited to meet with the N. E. A. Many of its members did so.

Speeches. President Olive M. Jones (New York) was determined that the gathering should concentrate upon teachers rather than upon those taught. She keynoted: 1) Retirement; 2) Tenure; 3) National Recognition of Education. "I believe the time has come when the educators of the country must stand solidly united and resolved to obtain rightful recognition of education in our government." (Miss Jones repudiated the idea of an educational "bloc"; urged the Sterling-Reed Bill for a Federal Department of Education.)

Prof. VV. C. Bagley, Teachers College, Columbia University, staunch worker for the Sterling-Reed Bill, evoked "a storm of applause" by denouncing Democratic and Republican discourtesies to education. He was for supporting a Third Party en masse if its platform carried the proper plank.

Points by other speakers:

Experts are needed to plan the organization of high schools and classify high school pupils.

Ten types of accrediting agencies now pass on college candidates. All are faulty.

Over 4,300,000 illiterates will be entitled to vote in November. "The effects on commerce and labor are highly deleterious."

One-fifth of the 5,000,000 teachers in the world are now enrolled in the World Federation of Education Associations, founded 1923 at San Francisco.

In teaching arithmetic, criteria of social utility should supplant old formal doctrine. "Useless processes": derivation of cube roots; common divisors and least common multiple beyond the power of inspection, metric system, troy and apothecary weights, complex and compound fractions, annual and compound interests.

High schools cram students with useless English.

Education should begin in the cradle.

"Tax-dodgers, heartless rich, big interests and an arrogant aristocracy" are violently opposing support of schools.

The following suggestions were made:

Compile a list of educational films.

Watch malnutrition.

Teach more music.

Provide women coaches for girls' athletics.

Resolutions. After attending committee meetings, listening to speeches, studying reports, the delegates resolved:

That parents should have the right of choice between public and private schools for their children so long as the institutions meet the approval of state authorities. (This was held significant in view of controversies that have arisen over school laws in Oregon and other States.)

That the proposal for a Federal Education Department receive the backing of the Nation's educators.

That a Tenure Committee of the Association be authorized to assist any state group in protecting individuals from political machination.

That the retirement (pension) system be improved.

Against sex discrimination in appointments.

Against war; for U. S. leadership toward international tribunals.

That teachers shall inspire respect for law and law enforcement, especially with respect to liquor-selling, cigarettes for children, obscene literature, posters, pictures.

That home, school, church shall train character.

That the Constitution be taught in upper elementary grades.

That literacy tests be prerequisite for voting.

That the states be encouraged to ratify the Child Labor Amendment.

That the District of Columbia schools be made models for the Nation.

Officers. Jesse H. Newlon, Superintendent of Schools of Denver, was elected President of the N. E. A. The new Treasurer is Cornelia A. Adair, Richmond. Vice Presidents were chosen from Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, South Dakota, Wyoming.

Coolidge. Business over, the teachers "spent a glorious Fourth making patriotic pilgrimages to historic shrines." But not until they had jammed the Central High School Stadium and been addressed by President Coolidge, whom they presented with a huge basket of birthday flowers.

Cheers greeted the President's major points, which were two:

1) "We are coming to give more attention to the rural and small village schools, which serve 47% of the children of the Nation. It is significant that less than 70% of these children average to be in attendance on any school day, and that there is a tendency to leave them in charge of undertrained and underpaid teachers. The advent of good roads should do much to improve these conditions. The old one-room country school such as I attended ought to give way to the consolidated school with a modern building and an adequate teaching force. . . ."

2) "Pending before the Congress is the report of a committee which proposes to establish a Department of Education and Relief, to be presided over by a Cabinet officer. Bearing in mind that this does not mean any interference with the local control and dignity but is rather an attempt to recognize the importance of educational effort, such proposal has my hearty endorsement and support."