PRESENT PROBLEMS OF THE SCHOOL 115 



work is apt to be a better teacher than the male fledgeling who takes 

 up teaching as a makeshift, and whose mind is set, not upon education 

 as a career, but upon law or medicine. In short, to increase the 

 efficiency of the public school-teaching force by increasing the number 

 of efficient men teachers - - men who would devote their lives to the 

 work - - would involve a largely increased expenditure of money in 

 order to induce such men to make teaching their life-work. And this 

 brings me to my last problem - - the problem of finance. 



If we are to have school-houses properly equipped for the training 

 of the body as well as the mind - - for manual training, play, gym- 

 nastics, and athletics; if all children are to enjoy their God-given 

 right to education; if schools are to be equipped for scientific as well 

 as literary studies; if salaries are to be paid to teachers that will 

 attract men and women of breeding and refinement to the teaching 

 profession; and if all the teachers are to be thoroughly trained, so 

 that they will be models to imitate and persons capable of arousing 

 interest and inspiring effort if all these things are to be accom- 

 plished, it is evident that the sums devoted to education in America, 

 enormous as they are, must be very greatly increased. For effective 

 purposes, the revenue of a public school system ought to possess two 

 characteristics: first, it should be ample; and second, it should be 

 stable. It should be sufficiently ample in each community to pro- 

 vide schooling for all children in classes not to exceed forty to a 

 teacher, and in adequately equipped buildings; to pay teachers 

 reasonable salaries, so that they may be able to live in refined sur- 

 roundings and take advantage of opportunities for self-improvement; 

 and to provide pensions after retirement, so that while in active 

 service they may be relieved of anxiety regarding provision for old 

 age. It should be stable, so that the educational authorities may be 

 able to carry out a consistent and progressive policy. It should not 

 be subject to the whims and caprices of the politicians who control 

 the municipal administration of our large cities. It should not be 

 fluctuating from year to year, and thus lead to the establishment of 

 activities one year which must be abandoned for lack of funds the 

 next. 



I have selected from among the innumerable problems in school 

 administration which now confront the people of the United States 

 those that seem most important and most urgent, and I have ventured 

 in each case to suggest a solution. Every solution proposed involves 

 an increased expenditure of money. Immeasurably more effective, 

 however, than money --vital though money is --to uplift the 

 school, are the love and skill of the devoted teacher. Love for 

 children and teaching skill are the greatest things in the school. 



