high schools with a little pedagogy thrown in. The majority of them remain the same to this day. There is a strong movement, however, toward purely professional schools to which no student who has not had a reasonably liberal education is admitted, and in which he shall devote his entire time to learning how to teach—how to observe, understand and exercise children both mentally and physically. Welcome and necessary as this movement is, if all teachers are to train for efficiency, we are still far from precise scientific notions as to the best methods of training teachers. I commend this subject to the National Council as one of the next investigations it should undertake.
To secure training for efficiency, the conditions of teaching must be such that each teacher shall be able to do his best work. By common consent one of these conditions is that teachers shall not be subjected to the ignominy of seeking political or other influence, or cringing for the favor of any man, in order to secure appointment or promotion. During the past year, two events have occurred which seem to be full of promise for the establishment of this condition. The public school teachers of Philadelphia have been freed from the bondage to ward politicians in which they were held for well nigh a century; and the one-man power, beneficent as such a system proved under a Draper and a Jones in Cleveland, has been supplanted by a seemingly more rational system. Independence of thought and freedom of initiative are necessary to the teachers of a nation whose stability and welfare as a republic depend upon the independence, the intelligence and the free initiative of its citizens. Independence of thought and freedom of initiative may be throttled by bad laws, but under the best of laws they will be maintained only by the teachers themselves. By making it unprofessional to seek appointment or promotion through social, religious or political influence, the teachers of this country have it in their power to establish one of the most essential conditions of education for efficiency.
Under the conditions that confront us, particularly in the large cities, with the rapid increase and constant migration of our home population, with the influx of vast hordes of people from abroad, alien in language, alien in modes of thought, and alien in tradition, the character of our elementary work is undergoing a profound transformation. We are beginning to see that every school should be a model of good housekeeping and a model of good government through cooperative management. What more may the schools do? They can provide knowledge and intellectual entertainment for adults as well as for children. They can keep their doors open summer as well as winter, evening as well as morning. They can make all welcome for reading, for instruction, for social intercourse, and for recreation. But I for one believe they may do still more. When I look upon the anemic faces and undeveloped bodies that mark so many of the children
