334 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 715 



that pupils from the schools are inaccurate in 

 results and careless of details is a criticism 

 that should he removed. The principles of 

 sound and accurate training are as fixed as 

 itatural laws and should be insistently fol- 

 lowed. Ill-considered experiments and indis- 

 criminate methodizing should be abandoned, 

 and attention devoted to the persevering and 

 continuous drill necessary for accurate and 

 efficient training; and we hold that no course 

 of study in any public school should be so 

 advanced or so rigid as to prevent instruction 

 to any student, who may need it, in the essen- 

 tial and practical parts of the common Eng- 

 lish branches. 



3. We assert that the individuality of the 

 pupil should be carefully considered, to the 

 end that he may be instructed in the light of 

 his limitations and capacity; and we com- 

 mend to all local authorities the necessity of 

 greater care in the arrangement of courses 

 of study, that they may be adapted to the 

 pupils to be instructed, rather than that pu- 

 pils should be adapted to fixed courses of 

 study and an inflexible system of grading. 



4. The public high schools should not be 

 chiefly fitting schools for higher institutions, 

 but should be adapted to the general needs, 

 both intellectual and industrial, of their 

 students' and communities, and we suggest 

 that the higher institutions may wisely adapt 

 their courses to this condition. We also sug- 

 gest to school boards and superintendents the 

 importance of securing for their high schools 

 teachers who have not only abundant scholar- 

 ship but also successful experience in teach- 

 ing or efficient and practical training in peda- 

 gogy. 



5. There is concededly a grave moral de- 

 pression in our business and social atmos- 

 phere. The revelations of the financial and 

 legislative world for the past two years de- 

 note a too general acquiescence in question- 

 able practices and standards. We earnestly 

 recommend to boards of education, principals 

 and teachers the continuous training of 

 pupils in morals, and in business and profes- 

 sional ethics, to the end that the coming gen- 

 eration of men of affairs may have a well- 



developed abhorrence of unfair dealing and 

 discrimination. The establishment of the 

 honor system in schools, the ostracism of the 

 dishonest or unfair pupil, the daily exempli- 

 fication in the routine life of the school of 

 the advantage of honest and truthful meth- 

 ods, are commended to the especial attention 

 of teachers as a partial means to this end. 



6. The Bureau of Education at Washing- 

 ton should be preserved in its integrity and 

 the dignity of its position maintained and in- 

 creased. It should receive at the hands of 

 Congress such recognition and such appro- 

 priations as will enable it not only to employ 

 all expert assistants necessary, but also to 

 publish in convenient and usable form the 

 results of investigations; thus making that 

 department of our government such a source 

 of information and advice as will be most 

 helpful to the people in conducting their cam- 

 paigns of education. We are of the opinion 

 that the importance of the subject under its 

 control, and the dignity of this country re- 

 quire that this Bureau be maintained as an 

 independent department of the government. 



7. The National Education Association 

 notes with approval that the qualifications de- 

 manded of teachers in the public schools are 

 increasing annually, and particularly that in 

 many localities special preparation is de- 

 manded of teachers. The idea that any one 

 with a fair education can teach school is 

 gradually giving away to the correct notion 

 that teachers must make special preparation 

 for the vocation of teaching. The higher 

 standards demanded of teachers must lead 

 logically to higher salaries for teachers, and 

 constant efforts should be made by all per- 

 sons interested in education to secure for 

 teachers adequate compensation for their 

 work. 



8. It is the duty of the state to provide for 

 the education of every child within its bor- 

 ders, and to see that all children obtain the 

 rudiments of an education. The constitu- 

 tional provision that all tax-payers must con- 

 tribute to the support of the public schools 

 logically carries with it the implied provision 

 that no person should be permitted to defeat 



