PUBLIC-SCHOOL TEACHER IN A DEMOCRACY 421 



would be strange if we could not develop men with initiative to plan 

 and skill to direct, equal to the combined abilities of those who now 

 control our school systems. 



An arrangement by which teachers might advance as they prove by 

 their constructive ideas and their efficiency that they are fitted for 

 something else that the service requires, would be of enormous benefit 

 to the educational movement. The certainty that, for example, the 

 supervisor of manual training in a large city would be a man from 

 anywhere who could show from his published contributions to the 

 thought on his specialty that he was a master in it, as well as a teacher 

 and a man of unquestioned quality and ability — this would encourage 

 the young teacher to develop to the limit of his powers. When a career 

 of study and effort carries a man to a position of great trust and re- 

 sponsibility, the individual has obtained due recognition, and the cause 

 profits by having an efficient servant. When the position is obtained 

 without full proof of fitness, the individual gets what he does not 

 deserve, the administration deceives the public, and insults every fit 

 person in the service. 



Assuming that the people will in time care enough for public edu- 

 cation to want it administered for the best results obtainable, it ought 

 to be feasible to establish a system which would be effective and not 

 become selfish with age. If systems of taxation can be submitted to 

 the consideration of the electors, systems of education ought also to be 

 within the range of the average intellect. We should scorn to employ 

 a board to do our thinking and acting on the tariff question; it is the 

 privilege of our American manhood to do that ourselves. Why should 

 we be so willing to accept continually the judgment of educational " ex- 

 perts," and thus cut ourselves off from greater proof of our claims to 

 social and political freedom. 



There are questions of large import in education that could grow 

 into national issues, and be crystallized into shape by the collective 

 thinking of all the people. It is not inconceivable that some of these 

 might occupy the attention of congress to the exclusion of the usual 

 petty private interests of importunate individuals and communities. 

 Other issues of a purely local nature, state or municipal, would fall 

 for settlement to the sections interested. 



There could be a member of the President's Cabinet, a Secretary 

 of Education, who would be presumed to represent the judgment of 

 the majority on national issues in education, and with his department 

 could have clearly defined relations to the state and to the municipal 

 or other local officials. The state and inferior boards of education 

 that touch intimately the privileges of parents, teachers and children 

 should be elected, and subjected to the will of the people through the 



