422 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



principle of initiative and referendum. That development of demo- 

 cratic government would make it impossible for officers of education 

 to command arbitrarily the inauguration of policies about which neither 

 the people nor the teachers had been consulted. 



The power of initiative and referendum resting with the people 

 entirely, or in part with the teachers, would not necessarily be a 

 hindrance to the work of the local boards, but it would keep the interest 

 of all alive to the welfare of the schools. It would encourage and 

 demand greater knowledge of educational questions among the people. 

 It would crush for all time the autocratic spirit that rules sullenly in 

 the seats of a democratic institution. The existence of the officious, 

 overbearing and dictatorial superintendent and principal, and the 

 timid, sycophantic teacher would become impossible. Not only must 

 the relation of the boards to the schools be a democratic one, but the 

 school within itself must be organized on the basis of the same idea. 

 Teachers and pupils have rights which the autocratic principal of 

 to-day tramples upon with impunity, and he is upheld by the officials 

 who created him. The safety of the republic demands the abolition of 

 such a tyrannical condition. 



A rehabilitation of organized public education along the lines of 

 the open and just recognition of the rights of all concerned, seems a 

 necessary prerequisite to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of 

 all persons engaged as agents of education. The fair, honest and 

 public-spirited administration of the schools is a necessary preliminary 

 guarantee to the people that public education is a movement for human 

 progress, and for nothing less. 



