SCHOOL LIFE

Published monthly

except August and September Federal Security Administrator WATSON B. MILLER

U. S. Commissioner of Education JOHN W. STUDEBAKER

The Congress of the United States established the Office of Education in 1867 to "collect such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories;" to "diffuse such information as shall aid in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems;" and to "otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country." SCHOOL LIFE serves toward carrying out these purposes. Its printing is approved by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget.

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Publication Office

U. S. Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington 25, D. C.

Editor in Chief-Olga A. Jones.

Attention Subscribers

If you are a paid-up subscriber to Education for Victory you will receive SCHOOL LIFE until the expiration of your subscription as indicated on the mailing wrapper.

During the war, the U. S. Office of Education increased its free mailing lists extensively in order to serve the war effort as widely as possible. It is not possible to continue these extensive free mailing lists for SCHOOL LIFE, but the periodical is available by subscription as indicated above.

Everybody Can Help

Even though nearing the end of their terms and with some already clo schools throughout the Nation are enlisting in their local communities for kind of teamwork that means life itself to multitudes of children through the world.

Our country is helping and will continue to help in the prevention of star tion abroad where men, women, and children scarcely feel anything but horrors of war; scarcely know anything but the sorrows of human suffer. Yet the world is trying to turn from war and suffering to peace and h happiness. Broad, long-range vision for these desirable goals is imperat but barriers will come and as they come each one must be met and conque! Famine for a half billion people in many countries looms as an immed desperate barrier to peace and happiness. Every community in this cou can share in conquering this barrier.

With an understanding of human relations and a desire to serve, the schoo administrators, supervisors, teachers, students, and others can help save t sands of lives by putting forth their maximum effort toward:

1. Producing food.-Every plot of ground-at home, at school, on va lots wherever available-if properly planted and tended, can add its bitt sum total of the world's food supply. Keep "food" growing.

2. Conserving food.-Every reasonable saving should be made, particl.. of wheat, fats, and oils. These are foods most needed in famine areas ī

not.

3. Sharing, not hoarding.-Keep in mind that whatever food one buy may directly or indirectly be shared with those whose need is im ably greater than ours. Help in the sharing.

4. Giving leadership.-Effective contributions can be made by school of and teachers everywhere in the country through their intelligent leadership encouragement of home, school, and community programs and efforts to duce, conserve, and share food until famine has been conquered. Put le ship to work.

The Famine Emergency Committee states that "every active advocate of conservation who can convince other people of the importance and pr cality of determined effort to make more food available for relief is do job that needs to be done."

The next few weeks will mean life or death for millions who face fam that is immediate. What happens within those few weeks will mean the ing forward or backward of the goal for world peace, for human happ and that affects us all.

To Maintain A Lasting Peace

In addressing the Governing Board of the Pan American_Union ! observance on April 15 of the 16th anniversary of Pan American Day, Prex Truman said in part:

"In the years that lie ahead, it will be the task of the American Rep to do their part in creating and maintaining a system of world peace w will eliminate the fear of war and establish in its place a rule of justic world cooperation.

"To maintain a lasting peace, the peoples of the world have now st their willingness to use force, if necessary, to prevent aggression or the t of aggression.

"We all realize, however, that the exercise of this kind of force, wh may hold aggressors in check, will not of itself eliminate the deep caus unrest such as those responsible for World War Two. Underneath the madness were the material distress and spiritual starvation born of pos and despair. These evil forces were seized upon by evil men to launch program of tyranny and aggression.

"The danger of war will never be completely wiped out until these econ ills which constitute the roots of war are themselves eliminated. To do we must achieve the kind of life-material, cultural and spiritual- to w the peoples of this world are entitled. To that objective we must all ded our energies and resources."

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With respect to social-civic education, the Japanese have a high level of insight. To a marked degree, they want the kind of education they need in this Most of the school men and women of the country appear to want Japan to become a peaceful democracy, to recognize that education and appear is the crucial instrument for reaching that goal. They know that many changes in the curriculum and methods of instruction and a new direction and spirit in the education of teachers are necessary even for a beginning in learning the ways of democracy.

In science and technology, also, the Japanese recognize their need and plan to meet it with the requisite schooling. The speed with which they adopted Western science, the thoroughness with which they applied technology to the industrialization of their country, and the quality of the original contributions they have made to certain sciences show that they believe in science and want their children educated along scientific and technological lines.

In relation to the individual-artistic side of education, the Japanese are not very conscious of their needs. A few of them recognize the uniqueness of the individual and the role that artistic experiences can play in developing that uniqueness. Many of them still tend to regard conventionalized pictures, music of regular and accepted pattern, and formalized literature as most desirable. In this respect their educational insight is low. They do not want what they need for the development and expression of the individual personality. Specific Changes

These are the educational needs and wants of the Japanese people. What are they doing now and what can they do in the future to meet these needs and wants?

At the present time the Japanese school system provides 6 years of pri

is devoted to instruction in reading and writing the highly complex ideographs of Chinese origin, supplemented by the elaborate Kana syllabary. The Ministry of Education is now pledged, moreover, to teach Romaji, the Western alphabet, in the primary schools. About 1,400 Kanji ideographs are taught in the primary school, and the average primary school graduate is said to remember about 600 of them. A knowledge of 2,400 is required to read a newspaper readily.

The use of Kanji is now under attack by liberal Japanese who maintain that it serves feudalism by keeping culture away from the common people; that like the saber it has been used by militarists and policemen as a symbol of authority; and that if the Confucian classics are necessary they can be written in Romaji and read by all the people. Opposed to these views are those of literary scholars who hold that cultural losses would result from revision of the language and that reading Japanese in Romaji alone would cause a decline in the patriotic spirit.

I am convinced that this question of the reform of the written language is one of tremendous moment for the future of the Japanese school and the Japanese nation. It seems clear to me that Romaji or some equally phonetic alphabet should be adopted for the writing of Japanese and that this reform will have to be carried out decisively under national control. To attempt a gradual change from Kanji to Romaji over a10-year period, as has been advocated by some Japanese, will serve only to increase the confusion and difficulty of the reform.

The middle schools, higher schools, and universities of Japan are designed to select the best brains of the country and train them for national service. They do not achieve this end. They are too restricted in enrollment and in curriculum to find and develop the abilities which the new Japan must have to live.

The Japanese must first of all expand the secondary schools and enrich their curriculum. They should have at least five times as many pupils of ages 13 to 18 in the secondary schools as are now

enrolled. Manpower is one of the most plentiful commodities in Japan. The country can find no better employment of its adolescent boys and girls than universal secondary education.

The new Japanese secondary school must be one of the best secondary schools in the world, or it will not be adequate to the needs of the new Japan. It must be thoroughly Japanese and not an imitation French lycée or American high school. It must provide education for the most effective citizenship possible both for Japan and for the world. It must discover and develop every scientific, artistic, vocational, and personal trait which its pupils can use for their own good and for the welfare of their country.

For the next 10 years, the expansion and improvement of secondary education in Japan, the selection and preparation of teachers for the new secondary schools, and the necessary betterment of the administrative machinery to do this job will be a "number one" project for the country. The accompanying democratization and advancement of college and university education and the improvement of elementary school services will be made with relative ease if the secondary school task is attacked and carried through with daring and determination.

An Article of Faith

With the memory before us of our men who suffered in the Pacific War, and particularly of those who did not return from Attu, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, or the other fields of that cruel struggle, it is admittedly hard for us to look upon the Japanese and their problems with the calm tolerance which in our hearts we know the world situation demands, which we know we must give to the world if it is to survive, and which I am persuaded we Americans will give to the world.

The famous quotation of John Donne which furnished the title of Hemingway's novel concerning another war tells us never to ask "for whom the bell tolls," since it always tolls for each of us. We who defeated the Japanese in a war so rugged that it made the throat-cuttings of Jenghis Khan look like tea parties, who sank their Navy, who shot their airplanes out of the sky

who broke their Banzai charges with M-1 and BAR, who burned them out of their holes, and who razed their cities to the ground-we above all people must not now make the mistake of thinking that a bell of disease and starvation, degeneracy and despair, can toll for the Japanese children without tolling for our children too. Every city or county, every town or hamlet of our country is not only a part of its State and of the United States; it is also bound up with the fortunes of Japan, of Asia, and of all the world.

This is an article of faith, of course, and not susceptible to proof, but I believe it is the faith which, put into practice, will eventually help remove the mountains of international ill will and cause the bells of peace to sound always and everywhere for all men.

"Swords Into Ploughshares"

The findings of a field study of the schools of the armed forces made during the summer of 1945 has been published under the title, Swords into Ploughshares-What Civilian Education Can Learn From the Training Program of the Armed Forces. The study was made by Dr. Raleigh Schorling, professor of education, University of Michigan, and 27 students enrolled in a graduate course at the University.

The foreword of the study states: "The project illustrates what may become a common practice in the years ahead. Perhaps in the postwar years experienced school people, both men and women, may be banding together to study a common problem where the data are most readily available. Perhaps they will be flying to Los Angeles to study the counseling system, to Australia for a study of comparative education, or to Washington to inventory the resources of that city that may be used to enrich the curriculum of our schools. In brief, here is a workshop with a single clearly defined problem."

Copies of the report may be obtained from Eugene B. Elliott, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Lansing 2, Mich.

Commissioner Studebaker receiving the Silver Medal for Distinguished Service in W Finance, from Vernon L. Clark, National Director of U. S. Savings Bonds Divise Treasury Department.

Commissioner Awarded Distinguished
Service Medal

As the representative of a million teachers in 225,000 American schools wit 30,000,000 pupils, U. S. Commissioner of Education, John W. Studebaker has be awarded the Treasury Department's Silver Medal for Distinguished Service War Finance.

Honor Million Teachers

In presenting the medal, Vernon L. Clark, National Director of the S Savings Bond Division of the Treasury Department, said: "During the the schools of the Nation sold more than two billion dollars worth of U.S.ings stamps and bonds, at the same time teaching thrift and forming habits regular saving and wise money management. We are gratified that schools in a States are continuing this program in peacetime, for its value to the Nation h been too great to measure only in dollars. Through you we are honoring th million teachers who made it possible."

Lesson of Thrift

"On behalf of the Nation's schools," Commissioner Studebaker stated on r ceiving the medal, "I accept with thanks this token awarded by the Treasur Department in recognition of the splendid patriotic contribution made by t teachers and pupils of our country. I, too, pay tribute to them. The lesson thrift learned in wartime by the children and youth of America will stand the in good stead in time of peace. It is my earnest hope that the schools w continue with unabated enthusiasm their participation in the School Saving program, sponsored by the Treasury Department with the cooperation of th Office."

ECOVERY of America's schools from wartime teacher shortages has been unexpectedly slow. The majority of the men and women in the armed forces have returned to civilian occupations, industrial reconversion is well advanced, and several million persons are on unemployment rolls. Yet most States report little or no improvement in the teacher shortage situation. In fact, the quality of teacher personnel, which suffered greatly during the war, continues to deteriorate in many sections of the country.

More Emergency Permits Issued

The first and most important of the available measures of teacher shortage is the number of teachers who cannot meet the legal requirements for regular teachers' certificates. Reports received by the U. S. Office of Education in January and February, 1946, from nearly all State departments of education, show that the number of public-school teachers who do not meet the regular prewar certification standards, and who are permitted to teach upon emergency permits or "certificates" issued for one school term only, has increased approximately 57 percent over the number of teachers who were issued such certificates in 1943-44. The number has increased at a phenomenal rate every year since the war began, as shown by the following data: 1940-41, 2,305; 194142, 4,655; 1942-43, 38,285; and 1943-44, 69,423. In 1944-45 the National Education Association reported a partially estimated total of 78,665 persons teaching on emergency permits. During the present year, 1945-46, reports to the Office of Education show that a partially estimated total of 108,932 teachers in service hold these substandard credentials. This huge number approximately equals the total inflow of all new teachers normally beginning service each year in American public schools. It represents a 38 percent increase over the number of emergency permits held last year, as reported by the National Education Association.

Throughout the war period to the present time, relatively few changes have been made in regular certification requirements, although the enforcement of minor requirements has been liberalized somewhat. Certification officers have been reluctant to suggest changes in statutory regulations governing requirements. They realize the danger of losing, for a long time to come, their hard-won prewar gains.

The nature and extent of the losses in the quality of teacher personnel through emergency certification cannot be stated precisely, but they are serious at best. So great are the variations in the qualifications of teachers among States and between rural and city schools, that thousands of holders of regular certificates may be found who have no more than a high-school education; whereas, in other places, emergency teachers may be found who have 4-year-college or higher degrees. Moreover, in most places where studies of the qualifications of emergency teachers have been made, their average preparation as a group has been found to be about 1 year short of regular minimum requirements. Although some emergency teachers were excellent instructors, a large proportion are immature young people, teachers past the retirement age, instructors with no professional training, and many other persons hired as a last resort to keep the classrooms from closing.

The teacher-turnover rate of about 10 percent before the war had practically doubled in 1943-44, reaching 20 percent in that year, according to reports to the Office of Education. There was some improvement in 1944-45, according to the National Education Association, which estimated that the turnover rate had then dropped to 14.7 percent. Many of the teachers with the greatest mobility had entered military service or war industry by that time, and the marriage rate had dropped somewhat. However, part of the increase in stability, if a loss of one teacher in every 7 can be called stability, was due to the continuance of war emergency teachers

into their second or third year of employment. Continued persistence in teaching of the least qualified members of this group threatens further to retard the postwar advancement of teacher personnel standards.

There are still too many overcrowded classrooms. Furthermore, the prewar decline in the school population has stopped temporarily, and elementary school enrollments are beginning to reflect earlier rises in the birth rate.

Causes for Heavy Outgo and Light Inflow of Teachers

The immediate causes for the continuance of severe shortage conditions include a combination of unusually t heavy withdrawals of teachers from the schools and an increasing shortage of replacements for those lost. The most important factor in bringing about these conditions is the unfavorable competitive position of teaching in the employment market. This is plainly indicated by the relatively higher wages and salaries paid in industry, and in other nonteaching occupations which demand college preparation.

Although probably less than 85,000 teachers of every kind served in the armed forces of World War II, such service was the next most important wartime factor in teacher shortage. At this time, it is no longer a major factor. Probably marriage now has second place; but this is an important factor at all times. The return of veterans to their former teaching positions is being offset to some extent by the resignation of married women to reestablish homes disrupted by the war. However, marriage, death, retirement, and involuntary separation from positions are always relatively stable factors in the situation.

The growing shortage of newly prepared replacements for teachers separated from the profession, which is the second major cause for the prolongation of the teacher shortage, is affecting materially both the number and quality of the teaching staff. This shortage of

newly prepared teachers has been forecast for several years by huge drops in the enrollments of teachers colleges and in teacher-preparation curricula in colleges and universities. During the war there was also a large decline in the percentage of college graduates placed in teaching.

The American Association of Teachers Colleges, whose membership includes the majority of the teachers colleges of the country as well as some liberal arts colleges, and university schools and colleges of education, reports that the October enrollment in 156 member institutions has varied as follows: 1941, 106,960; 1943, 52,869; and 1945, 66,803. Thus, the decrease in enrollments from 1941 to 1943 was 50.6 percent, a loss equalled in no other type of 4-year institution. A substantial 26.3 percent increase from 1943 to 1945 compares favorably with the increase in other types of institutions of higher education, but the enrollment in teachers colleges in October 1945, still constituted only 62.4 percent of the enrollment in October 1941. There has been not only a heavy loss in enrollments over a period of several years, but also losses in student quality, as indicated by the relaxation of selective admission requirements in nearly all teachers colleges having them. Since the preparation of the typical elementary school teacher legally requires about 3 years of college work, and of the typical highschool teacher, 4 years, the continuing deficits in enrollments in the teachers colleges and teacher-preparing curricula of colleges and universities forecast continuing deficits in the number of graduates.

Recent reports from the National Institutional Teacher Placement Association indicate not only that the most critical teacher shortage of the war was reached in 1945, but that the shortage will continue for at least 2 more years. The 245 universities and colleges reporting prepared 5 percent more teachers than they prepared in 1944, and placed 9 percent more of their graduates into teaching positions for 1945-46, than they did in 1944-45. The State teachers colleges reporting prepared 7 percent fewer graduates for teaching positions in 1945 than they did in 1944, and placed 13 percent more of their

qualified graduates into teaching in 1945-46, than they placed the preceding year. Proportionately, more graduates are being turned out in the field of highschool teaching than in the field of elementary-school teaching, where the shortage is greater. Substantial increases in the number of new teachers in both fields are expected next year, but the increases will constitute only a small part of the total number needed and will not bring up the supply even to the usual normal demand.

An appreciable number of veterans are entering teachers colleges and schools of education, and many more will enter next year. It is easy to overemphasize the effects of this movement on teacher supply, however. A vastly greater proportion of the spectacular inflow of veterans into higher education. goes into technological colleges and schools and into nonteaching curricula of colleges and universities than into teacher preparation. Even in teachers colleges, a high percentage of the veterans are entering lower division general curricula, preprofessional or terminal vocational courses, or other nonteaching work. Whether or not a sizable percentage of these can be induced to continue or transfer into teacher-preparation courses remains to be

seen.

Estimates made by various authorities concerning the time necessary to reach approximate normalcy in the college output of teachers usually range from 2 to 5 years. A factor that is not taken into account in most of these esti. mates is the loss of nearly a million high school pupils-nearly 1 in every 6-during the first 3 years of the war. Many, if not most, of the potential teachers who then left high school will never return.

Some of the differences in estimates may be accounted for by the fact. that the supply of newly qualified teachers of academic subjects in high schools and of teachers in large cities, highly urbanized areas, and high-salary States, will reach approximate normalcy some time before a normal supply is provided for elementary school grades, vocational and special subjects, and rural schools.

Further Action Necessary

What remains to be done? Not only are wartime ravages on teacher person

nel to be repaired, but the promising advances in teacher qualifications made before the war are to be resumed and new gains achieved. More than 100.00 emergency teachers should be brought up to prewar standards or replaced Tens of thousands of oversized clas rooms should be put on a more effectivworking basis, discontinued educations. services restored, and new ones intro duced. Enrollments in approved teaci er-education institutions and curricu should be increased temporarily to th full capacity of the institutions and per manently increased by at least one-thin The courses of action necessary t complete these tasks are general known. The main thing is for those wh support the schools to continue the vig orous use of the means they have alread found effective in holding and recruit ing competent teachers. By far the most effective action that can be the is to give teaching a favorable petitive place in the employment mar ket for professional workers. Ther has been progress in this direction b not enough progress. The average an nual salary per teacher increased frot $1,441 in 1939-40, to $1,728 in 1943-44 In 1945, it was estimated as $1.7% Somewhat more than $1,900 is paid to day. This increase of more thar one-fourth since 1940 is encouraging But it is not to be forgotten that th amount was inadequate to start wit that workers in private industry, met of them noncollege trained, earn an s erage of at least $500 more per year than the typical teacher; and that crease has not yet overtaken the increased cost of living, even before taxe are deducted. Moreover, current at contemplated adjustments in wages ar prices throughout the country threat: to outmode even the most progressiv among the currently revised teach salary schedules.

With the raising of salaries, effor: to improve working conditions in tead!" ing should be continued with more vig Since 1940, several State and large c school systems have introduced teach retirement systems or strengthened of ones. The number of teachers schedule to receive old-age assistance through re tirement and pension provisions in creased from 76 percent in 1940, to mot than 99 percent in 1946. A number f