Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]
[graphic]

LOS

Introduction

The Division of Educational Research of this city school department is less than two years old. It seems scarcely necessary to explain the need of such a division in any modern school system. The work accomplished by the Los Angeles Division under its present Director offers abundant evidence of the wisdom of its establishment.

For a precise knowledge of the work undertaken by the Division, the reader is referred to this and a subsequent report. It is pertinent, however, to mention certain other considerations not contained therein.

Many of the statements alleging defects or excellencies of instruction in the public schools of a community are expression rather of opinion than of fact. Frequently such opinions are the result of superficial observation, of judgments based on experience with a few individuals. They may be little more than an oral utterance of personal interests friendly to the schools or the reverse. Yet in education, as in every other form of human activity, the truth of conditions cannot be determined by mere affirmation. Truth is a matter of inquiry, observation, study. "General impressions" are deceptive.

The notable improvement that has been made in certain branches of elementary instruction in the schools of Los Angeles would scarcely have been possible unless there had been first established a profound conviction that improvement was very necessary. Nor could this improvement now be affirmed were it not that evidence showing it is now available.

Quite aside from whatever valuable results have been accomplished in teaching, there is the even more valuable reflexive influence on the members of the supervisory and teaching corps. Extravagant attacks by individuals or groups outside of a school system create an attitude of aggressive defense, strengthened as people of the schools are by the consciousness that they are doing a tremendous amount of good work. Similarly, extravagant selfassertion from within the school is bound equally to provoke public criticism. Under either condition, very little headway toward bet

[ocr errors]

ter schools is made. When the educational staff, that is, the principals and teachers in the public schools themselves, take upon their own shoulders the labor of examination, analysis, and criticism of conditions in the schools, they can do it more intelligently than can any one else. When they undertake this labor, we have the professional attitude. Such an attitude is as intimately concerned in the defects of education as in its merits. It seeks to discover what must be done in order that conditions can be made better. Even when it discovers that conditions are very good, it is less interested in proclaiming that fact than it is in devoting its energies to making a good condition yet better.

This is the professional attitude inspired by the labors of such a Bureau as the Division of Educational Research. It would have been impossible to complete even a small part of its work had it not been for those principals and teachers who have had the vision and understanding to appreciate the significance of their function. This coordination of effort to a purely professional end is perhaps the happiest result of the work of the division.

ALBERT SHIELS, Superintendent.

« PreviousContinue »