Superintendent of schools

“ Under the American system a county superintendent of schools invariably has to be a school politician, and almost invariably has to be a political politician as well. His school gang is made up of his assistants and clerks and principals and other numerous appointees, all of whom depend upon his favor 225and are looking for promotion; also those teachers who serve him as bell-wethers, leading the flocks of teacher sheep. ”

“ For the town or city district is of small area, and the schools few and close together. If the number of teachers is large, the superintendent is assisted by principals of different schools, and by deputies. The teaching force is better prepared, and hence requires less close supervision. School standards are higher, and the coöperation of patrons more easily secured. The course of study is better organized, the schools better graded and equipped, and all other conditions more favorable to efficient supervision. ”

“ Nearly everywhere, Sunday-school conventions are available; and to [Pg 208] these, as gathering up in his own experience whatever his school has learned and accomplished, the superintendent should carry his freshest inspiration and his wisest plans. No superintendent can live—can be a live superintendent—to himself.
One thing should be said, to close this hasty sketch. If the superintendent is all this, or even part of all this, in his personal motives, and in his relations to officers, teachers, scholars, and other schools, he will always be a paid superintendent. He may have no salary ”

“ Add to this the fact that cities attract the strong teachers—the professionally trained teachers, the output of the professional schools—and we can see again how effective supervision becomes in the city as compared with that in the country. In the country we find only one superintendent for a county often as large as some of the older states, and the possibility of visiting each school only about once a year. ”

“ There may be, it is true, a district board, but these are laymen, much better acquainted with the principles of farming than with those of teaching. They have no standards for judging a school and seldom visit one. The selection known as the "Deestrict Skule" illustrates fairly well the ability of the old-time school board to pass judgment upon the professional merits of the teacher.
Nominal Supervision.—In other states there is a county superintendent on part time who has a kind of general but attenuated supervision over all the schools of a county. ”

“ What can a supervising officer do for a school or for a teacher under such circumstances? Practically nothing. The county superintendent is usually elected to office by the people and frequently on a partisan ticket. This method of choosing naturally tends to make him give more attention to politics than he otherwise would think of giving. So the supervision or superintendency of country schools is too often slighted or neglected—and who is to blame? ”

“ He should be a person of sympathetic attitude, of high qualifications, and of experience in the field of elementary education. The assistants should be carefully selected by the board on the recommendation of the county superintendent. Poor supervision is little better than none.
The Schools Examined.—The county superintendent and his assistants should give, periodically, oral and written examinations in each school, thus testing the work of both the teacher and the pupils. These examinations should not conform in any perfunctory or red-tape manner to a literally construed course of study. ”

“ In a large proportion of cases the county superintendent is only required to hold a middle-class certificate, and has enjoyed no better educational facilities than dozens of the teachers he is to supervise. The author has conducted teachers' institutes in the Middle West for county superintendents who had never attended an institute or taught a term of school. The salary and professional opportunities of the office are not sufficiently attractive to draw men from the better school positions ”

“ The Superintendent is charged with and held responsible for the good order and discipline of the Academy, and it is made the duty of every officer, professor, and instructor, having knowledge of any violation of law or regulation, or of any crime, irregularity, neglect, or other improper conduct, of which any student or any other one has been guilty, to report the same without delay to the Superintendent. ”

“ Your Committee believes that in many systems of elementary schools there is injury done by too much formality in ascertaining whether the pupils of a given class have completed the work up to a given arbitrarily fixed point, and are ready to take up the next apportionment of the work. In the early days of city school systems, when the office of superintendent was first created, it was thought necessary to divide up the graded course of study into years of work, and to hold stated annual examinations to ascertain how many pupils could be promoted to the next grade or year’s work. ”

“ Then, too, a county should be divided into districts and more assistance given the county superintendent in the supervision of schools. In other words, supervision should be persistent, consistent, and systematic; visits should be more frequent. In the city a superintendent or principal has all his schools and teachers either in one building or in several buildings at no great distance apart. In the latter case he can go from one to another in a few minutes, staying at each as long as he thinks necessary. Little time is lost in travel. ”

“ The superintendent, with diagram in hand, remains at his desk, the assistants being his aides. He first calls the names of the Old Folks' Class and asks them to go into whatever room is assigned them; next the Young Married Folks' Class, the Reserve Corps, and Young People's Class, each in order will be asked to retire into the rooms or apartments assigned them. The teachers assigned for these classes will at once be asked to take charge of such classes. The Normal Class members will be asked, with their teacher, to remove into the room assigned them. ”

“ And in the increasing number of schools which are employing graded lessons, not uniform in the departments, the superintendent should have at least a general knowledge of the subjects studied in each department. The more thoroughly the superintendent fills his own mind and heart with the truth, the more efficiently will the truth be taught in his school. ”

“ Within the system are employed supervisors who visit the schools, observe the teachers and advise with them in their work, assist them in improving their teaching methods, and who report to the superintendent their observations and suggestions for improvement. At the request of the superintendent or board they make rating sheets, on which they rate the individual teachers under their supervision for certain qualifications and abilities. ”

“ Compulsory education the city superintendent pronounces a complete failure, while those who are paid to enforce it consider it successful. In the discussion some interesting facts are brought to light. The city superintendent states: “Many parents, finding that our schools are unable to govern their wilful and unruly children, send them to the parochial schools. ”

“ The school is regularly organized and governed by the constitution, as approved by the General Conference, and placed in the Church Discipline. Teachers are selected and placed by the superintendent, with the concurrence of the pastor, in the departments to which they are, in the superintendent's judgment, best adapted, and remain with the scholars or class through one department only unless specially changed by the superintendent. Promotions are made only once a year; exceptional individual promotions may occur in some instances. ”

“ And as the superintendent in each city is practically, though not theoretically, the doer of all that is done in the general management, and is responsible for the condition of all the schools in the city, his office is, in fact, second in importance to none. ”

“ They were to use their influence to establish school libraries and promote the cause of education. District superintendents were limited to one hundred schools each, and were to receive one pound per annum for each school, [152] besides necessary travelling expenses. The Superintendent was no longer the custodian of school money, but gave orders to the Township Treasurer to pay to teachers their proper allowances. The Superintendent was to visit every school in his District once each quarter, and to deliver a public lecture in every school section once each year. ”

“ When it is remembered that the county superintendent must also attend to an office that has a large amount of correspondence and clerical work, that he is usually commissioned with authority to oversee the building of all schoolhouses in his county, that he must act as judge in hearing appeals in school disputes, that he must conduct all teachers' examinations and in many instances grade the papers, and, finally, that country roads are often impassable, it is seen that his time for supervision is greatly curtailed. ”

“ The main floor is occupied by the pupils of the Junior Department, who sit on chairs grouped around their class tables. The Normal Class sits at one side and the Reserve Corps at the other side, behind the Junior Classes. The superintendent, from his platform, commands a view of the entire school. He can see everyone and everyone can see him and the blackboard behind him. The rooms are so arranged that at the opening and closing exercises the schoolrooms can be made one audience room. The visitors' gallery is behind and over the head of the superintendent, facing the school. ”

“ In this capacity he was also ex officio the superintendent of common schools, and rendered valuable services to his state in perfecting and expanding the free public school system, and in establishing state normal schools. ”

“ Students will be appointed to the Normal Schools by the Superintendent, upon the recommendation of superintendents and school commissioners. These officers will be relied upon to properly represent to possible candidates the needs of the public schools for well-qualified teachers, and the necessity of professional and technical training on the part of all who intend to teach. No students can be admitted who have not already acquired a substantial elementary education. ”

“ The next step is to remove the supervising office as far as possible from "practical" politics by making it appointive by a non-partisan county board, who will be at liberty to go anywhere for a superintendent, who will be glad to pay a good salary, and who will seek to retain a superintendent in office as long as he is rendering acceptable service to the county. The third step is to raise the standard of fitness for the office so that the incumbent may be a true intellectual leader among the teachers and people of his county. ”

“ Seeking Workers. In nearly all Sunday schools there is a constant need of helpers, to fill the places of withdrawing or absent teachers; and the work of supplying the demand generally falls upon the superintendent. He may find relief in the work of an associate superintendent, as will be seen in the next chapter. Both the superintendent and his associate should always be on the alert for new teachers and for new scholars. ”

“ The superintendent appoints the teaching force, the director all other employés; appointments are subject to confirmation by the board, and all employés are subject to removal by the executive officials alone. The “Cleveland plan,” in force in the public schools, minimizes school routine, red tape and frequent examinations, puts great stress on domestic and manual training courses, and makes promotion in the grammar schools depend on the general knowledge and development of the pupil, as estimated by a teacher who is supposed to make a careful study of the individual. ”

“ Provision for such assistants, who should, like the superintendent himself, be experts, is based upon the assumption that [Pg 135] supervision is worth while, and in fact necessary in any system if success is to be attained. If the supervision of thirty-five schools is an important piece of work it should be well done, and a person well qualified for that work should be selected. ”

“ The sooner the high school suits its work to the needs of fourteen and fifteen-year-old boys and girls, the sooner it will be filling its true place in the community.” Such opinions, voiced in this case by a man whose national reputation is founded on his splendid work as superintendent of the school system of Newton Mass., bespeak the attitude of the most progressive American high schools. ”

“ Fifthly and finally, the superintendent and other schools. He has been getting from them all he can, if he is enterprising; he should give to them all he can. The large cities have their superintendents' unions, composed of those that hold now, or have held, this post of honor and responsibility,—and few associations are as delightful. ”

“ If the pastor possesses the gift of terse, crisp speaking, this practical talk may be given by him. In the schools adopting the graded courses of lessons this review should be given in each department by the department superintendent. Here again the adaptation to the point of view and needs of the pupils of each grade can be made much more effective than in the ungraded school.
(6) Closing. The superintendent should so carry out the program as to close the session at the time appointed. An hour and a quarter is as long as is profitable for the school ”