42o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



would become practical. There is hardly any question that many of 

 the generous spirits who give their lives to the amelioration of social 

 conditions would gladly work through the agency of public education 

 if they could. The school is so dominated now by the idea of formal 

 education, and " what the colleges require " that considerations of the 

 physical and spiritual welfare of people seem merely incidental. More- 

 over, the administration of school systems is so autocratic, and the 

 officials often so overbearing, insolent and petty, that finer spirits pre- 

 fer to ally themselves with other movements. The loss to organized 

 democracy of these finer men and women is great, but more serious 

 still is the loss in a supposedly democratic country of the opportunity 

 to encourage the development of democracy by teaching the principles 

 of human right and duty in the schools and practising them in the 

 administration. No amount of knowledge learned as the result of per- 

 fect machinery of organization can justify the neglect to develop 

 democracy through our system of public education. 



The officials of administration in school systems in cities in Amer- 

 ica consist usually of a board of education appointed by the mayor of 

 the city and one or more superintendents elected by the board of edu- 

 cation. The members of the board of education are business men 

 representing any profession except the teaching profession. Their 

 absolute ignorance of educational ideals is not considered a bar to their 

 usefulness and probably is seldom taken account of at all. The idea 

 is that the board of education represents the citizens, and supervises 

 the financial business of the system, while the superintendent looks after 

 purely professional or technical affairs. But the effects of the acts of 

 both sets of officials can not possibly be kept distinct. Every town and 

 city in the land has its bitter quarrels between the board of education 

 and the supervising officers. Each side is more or less ignorant of the 

 point of view of the other and indifferent to the point of view of the 

 teaching staff. All this is loose administration because there is no 

 unity of purpose and no centralization of responsibility. 



Now, there is a very evident centralization of responsibility in the 

 hands of technical experts in our fire departments, boards of health, 

 and frequently in our police departments. What is the reason that 

 intelligent teachers may not hope for promotion to positions of admin- 

 istrative opportunity, if firemen may? Is it not true that citizens 

 generally would prefer an honest and able policeman as chief of police 

 to any able but untrained and hence ignorant citizen? 



The assertion is often made that teachers are not practical, that 

 they know nothing about business. Even if that were true, it would 

 be an argument against the average teacher and not against the idea 

 of giving trained citizens the opportunity to direct those affairs they 

 know most about. With the agency for training ready at hand, it 



