By INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERA TION IN EDUCATION WILLIAM BISHOP OWEN, President of the National Education Association, Principal of the Chicago Normal College Delegates to the World Conference on Education Ladies and Gentlemen: A CTING in my official capacity as as President of the National Education Association of the United States, I extend to you the greetings of the Association coupled with the sincerest wish that this Conference may give you all great personal satisfaction and achieve results for the good of the countries you represent, of America, and of the world. As we enter on the work of the Conference as planned in the published program there are two facts that I should like to bring before you. The first is that the National Education Association is a voluntary organization of the teachers of America incorporated by Act of Congress. The Act of Incorpora tion declares "that the purpose and object of the said Corporation shall be to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching and to promote the cause of education in the United States." Education in America is not under the control of the Federal Government, but by the Constitution remains a state function. America has a national school system without national control. To our guests from abroad this may seem a strange anomaly. To us at home it seems a wise arrangement, from which we should be unwilling to depart. The fortyeight states control each its own state system of schools and education. The National Education Association welcomes to membership all teachers whether of public or private schools. The public school teachers are under state and local control. Law and custom have limited this control in practice to such matters as the general public can and should pass upon. The more strictly technical and professional management of the schools is left to the judgment of the administrators and teachers, who are guided in their acts by professional standards evolved by the formal and informal co-operation of their professional colleagues. Because of the absence of federal control and the actual limitation of state and local control the scope of work of teacher organizations is very great. In the course of a hundred and fifty years America has created a great public school system, which has been unified, standardized, and lead by the cooperative endeavors, not of a remote and autocratic bureaucracy, but by a selfgoverning profession. As American teachers we are mindful of and loyal to our governmental authorities. But we are conscious and proud of the responsibilities that rest on us as teachers, and are confident that our freedom and opportunity are a challenge to our initiative, wisdom, professional knowledge, courage, and patriotism. It is this professional organization, ladies and gentlemen, that has taken the step of calling this World Conference on Education. The second fact that I would mention is that the holding of this conference at this time is the fulfilment of a plan formed as the World War was drawing to a close. It seemed to the members of the National Education Association that the governmental authorities that were charged with the great task of setting the disturbed world on its new course were too occupied *Opening address of the World Conference on Education delivered in Native Sons' Hall, San Francisco, Thursday evening, June 28, 1923. or too hurried to provide a place for the consideration of education as a practical instrumentality for the creating of a new world order. Or was it that statesmen and diplomats, generals, and economists naturally regard education as dealing pri marily with children and of a nonrealizable value? Whatever the reason, education was left to put in its own claim. The National Education Association took steps to call such a conference as this. But a careful inquiry convinced the officers that many of the older states and most of the new ones could not arrange to send delegates who could bring to or take from such a conference the advantage that should be gained at such a world gathering. This meeting is the final realization of the plan formed five years ago. The conference could not be held earlier. It is early enough for a great beginning. I believe that the outcome will prove that it was not called too soon. There is an urgent need that a World Conference on Education should be held. The world is one. Science, invention, industry, commerce, communication, transportation, contemplate and act on this view. Government, imperialism, diplomacy, militarism, have all tried to unify and hold in subjection the life of the world. Human nature is more powerful than any external form of institutional control that society has produced. The one outstanding possibility that has never been given a fair and full trial is Education. Why not try it? This is the reason for calling this conference. We would not belittle or ignore the unifying and fundamental function of government, nor of diplomacy in its place, nor of a system of national defense in the world of present reality. But while we utilize other traditional forms of social control, we want to try what can be done through education. As a means of developing and insuring peaceful international co-operation no one can claim that it has ever been tried. We are going to begin here and now. ence is laid in some fundamental assump tions in regard to education that should be explicit. These assumptions underlie all modern endeavor in the field of education. May I venture to formulate some of them? (1) The aim of education is the con-trol of individual life, of national life, of international life. The control that it seeks is one of knowledge, wisdom, skill, resulting in happiness. Mastery of the forces of human nature and the world is the instrument of this desired control. But education as a form of social control will not come of itself. Men and women must organize, and labor to effect an education that will realize the individual and social values that we seek. It is astonishing to observe in all the literature on world recovery the pathetic confidence in education as a sole remedy for our ills and to contrast with this diagnosis the feeble efforts made to apply the one approved remedy. In spite of what we write and say, the world does not believe that education as a form of social control is comparable with armies, navies, diplomacy, and statecraft. It is idle for professional educators to lament this traditional view. We should spend our time and efforts in shaping a constructive educational program that will demonstrate what education can do. This conference marks the beginning of an effort to do this. (2) Educational method is in its very nature experiential and experimental. In this day of all days when we are just gaining the assurance of achieved results that scientific experiment is possible, and practical in the field of education, this conference should found its proceedings and conclusions on this fundamental method. Dogmatism and doctrinaire theories have no place in educational deliberations. Each of us is acquainted with an educational system that in some fashion represents the life of his own country. Progress is to be made by beginning where we are and proceeding by experimentation however broad or narrow to recreate the old and establish the new. We shall learn of The foundation of this World Confer- one another all that can be gathered here and return to our own countries to try out the new, holding fast to that which is good. (3) The organization and administration of education is, or ought to be, a professional task. The day of mere tradition, of amateur improvisation, of external domination has been brought to a close by the achievements of the developing science of education. Again, progress in each country and the world will depend on the development of an organized body of teachers scientifically trained to secure progress by professional methods, a body of professional men and women intellectually equipped to serve the nation as experts and protected by public opinion and legal safeguards in the performance of their duties. The National Education Association of the United States is taking every legitimate means to build such a profession in this country. A world conference under the professional guidance of the world's educators can inaugurate a new world education. (4) Education is national. The sciences underlying education are universal in their validity. Geography, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, recognize no boundaries of peoples and nations. Education is personal, social, human. For the individual, education is founded on peculiar talent, taste, interest, and inspiration. It aims to develop and conserve individual personality through the use of universal principles and laws. In this respect the comparison between the individual and the nation is more than a mere extended analogy. A fair dispas. sionate realism in education will start with the nations and peoples of the world as they are. It will recognize the value of what each nation is and has to offer to the life of the world. It will seek world betterment, not in the dissolving of national life into a hypothetical and doctrinaire internationalism, but in an international cooperation that will preserve and cherish the personality of each nation while it contends against blindness, ignorance, retarding hate, and mutual suspicion. The National Education Association of the United States is composed of teachers passionately devoted to their country and deliberately patriotic in the service they render. But they want to co-operate with all teachers from all lands in the effort to make war and international injustice perish from the earth and make understanding, appreciation, mutual self-respect, and fair play control men's conduct at home and abroad. This conference, ladies and gentlemen, will be what we make it. If we undertake or expect too much, we shall accomplish little. There are things that education can do, if educators but resolve to see that they are done. This first World's Educational Conference should be the beginning of a series reaching out into the future. It should not adjourn without planning for the next one. At any time and at any place the teachers of America will meet you through their representatives with modest but determined resolution to see what education can do to make of us brethren in mind and heart and act. May this spirit rule and mold your deliberations. TYPES AND PRINCIPLES OF CURRICU LAR DEVELOPMENT OTIS W. CALDWELL, The Lincoln School of Teachers College HIS discussion deals with efforts to improve the school subjects of study, as they are being changed to meet modern conceptions of education. Two types of curricular improvement will first be outlined; then an outline will be presented of certain principles which need to be kept in mind in developing or using new types of curricular content. The types presented are illustrative rather than complete in their support of the principles to be presented. At a meeting held in connection with the Department of Superintendence one year ago, a preliminary report was made of an investigation to determine what use the public is now making of subject matter related to one of the school subjects of a study. This investigation has now been completed, and an extensive monograph based upon it has just been printed. So much has been said regarding the need that education shall fit people better to engage in affairs in which common life is concerned, that it seemed wise to initiate a series of investigations to determine relations that do now exist between school subjects and the situations which arise in affairs out of school. The subject of this investigation was chosen in order to determine to what extent and in what ways biology is used, and at the same time to see to what extent such methods of investigation may contribute to curricular reorganization in this and other subjects. The investigation therefore deals with the extent and nature of the use of biological material in the public press. That is, what kinds of biological information is the citizen now regarding? In what ways is this information related to school work in biology? Do public press articles make any valid implications as to needed changes in content or method of the school subject? Do such articles provide significant bio logical stiuations or needs which are available for use in school instruction, either as introductory or foundational concerning applications related to the topics of school instruction. This so-called "case system" or use of a specific occurrence with its problem and the methods and principles by which it is met, has been found to be a valuable means of beginning studies of work in law and medicine, and to a limited extent has been used in general education. Probably it should be much more widely used. The briefest summary must serve our immediate purpose. Seventeen full months' issues of representative daily newspapers were secured, making a total of 492 different papers and approximately 14,000 pages. These papers ordinarily reach several millions of readers. Each of the pages was examined, and all biological articles other than those which were paid advertisements or regularly recurring commercial stock reports were collected and classified. Mere biological allusions were omitted, since mere allusions are not thought to be especially significant. The study is thus limited to the collection of articles clearly biological and of news or editorial value. A total of 3,061 such articles were thus secured, these having an average column length per article of over 8 inches. Careful study of all articles resulted in a classification of 8 main divisions, each main division having secondary and tertiary sub-divisions. Thus "Health Biology," which includes 897 of the 3,061 articles, is represented by articles classified under eight sub-headings: Biology of infectious diseases, hygiene and sanitation, health education, non-infectious diseases, dietetics, drugs, first aid, and physiology. The sub-division, "Infectious Diseases," is itself represented by nineteen further sub divisions. The other main divisions beside health, in the decreasing order of their numerical representation, are "Animals,' "Plants," "Food," "Organizations of Producers," "General Nature," "Evolution," and "Fictitious Biology." A study of the tabulated number and length of articles shows the outstanding importance of the first four groups health, animals, plants, and food. The average length of articles upon general nature and evolution is slightly greater than that of the first four groups, but the total number of such articles is relatively quite small. Fictitious, or make-believe, or spurious biology is surprisingly small, since but 14 of the 3,061 articles belong to this group. Furthermore, the average length of fictitious articles is less than one-half the average length of all articles. This is a remarkably creditable change from a few decades ago when so many fictitious articles appeared in the newspapers. If this study is representative, one may now read 200 newspaper articles based upon biological information, and in doing so would probably encounter but one fictitious article. There is not time and it is not appropriate in this connection to present statements of details concerning the contents of articles under different biological headings. It is by no means claimed that frequency of appearance is final evidence of educational importance of the topics mentioned. A few statements in summary of the results of the investigation will show the significance of this type of study, while those desiring further details are referred to the printed monograph." Of the 492 issues of newspapers studied, no issue was without one or more biological articles. The articles found are of the same general types in all parts of the country, with local variations readily accounted for by special local situations. The proportion of biological material to the number of pages issued monthly by different papers does not vary greatly, thus indicating a fairly well recognized need and use of newspaper copy from this field. Health biology, which appears in largest quantity, thus relates interestingly to recent conclusions reached by National Educational Committees to the effect that health is the first aim of education. The largest proportion and greatest length of health articles appear in communities in which, from other sources, it is known that greatest effort is being made to conserve and improve human health. Whether improved health and greater interest cause the larger number of health articles or whether the improvement in health is brought about by greater publicity cannot now be decided. Biology pertaining to health, animal life, plant life, and food are easily the dominant biological interests of the public, so far as the numerical aspects of this investigation present dependable data. A surprisingly small amount of fictitious biology appears in the papers studied, thus showing a most wholesome respect for biological truth. This does not mean that erroneous statements do not appear. For example, it was stated that the germ causing yellow fever has not been discovered. It has been discovered, but the writer of the erroneous statement was not so informed. He did not wilfully deal in fiction. Newspapers are more nearly up-to-date in biological accuracy than are many textbooks, since their articles are "news," preferably direct from the producer to the consumer. consumer. At the best, text-books cannot entirely keep up-to-date, and many of them do not make earnest endeavor to do so. A biological text-book which is one or two decades old carries more fiction than do most of our leading newspapers. Since the advocacy of social and industrial controls, depending upon modern biology and the types of biological information which appear in the representative press, are so widespread and constant, *Biology in the Public Press. Finley, C. W., and Caldwell, O. W., Published by The Lincoln School of Teachers College, New York City. |