Show LOCALISM IN 161 SCUOOlS S tLakeWomans Correspond ce wUh Foremost Educa lors of the ountr A number of Salt Lake women who are much Interested in the upbulding of the schools ad the contInued im pro ment of their stand r have plac d themselves 1n orreohdence with the prominent educatonists in tho country to obtaIn their view of the Queston of localism CorInne l Allen Emily S Richards Mar F GlJer Antoinette B Kinney director general Federation of Womens clubs Julia A Farnsworth state chairman chair-man of correspondence for Utah Ge eral Federation of Vomens cubs Eliza KIrtey Boyle honorary vice president Genera Federation of Worn ens clubs Priscia J Tier Blanche P Taylor president Council of Worn ens clubs Margaret A Caine score tary Council of Womens clubs Ana G Hyde Olive S Y Dart Lulu F StJehl chairman home and education section Ladles Literary club Mar A Parsons and Blanche T Lee are the ladies who addressed communications to the educatpr Tile question asked of the various educators whose letters appear was Is it your opinion that it is best fort for-t e schools of a city to be taught ex elusively by those educated in that locaity The question was put in ex treme Igit form simply to bring out opln Igitrhe Ihe replies follow G verslty Stanley Hall President Clark Cal r In answer to your letter I have a er pronounced opinion I is in the long rUI simply disastrous that the schools Of a city should be taught ex elusIvely by those educated In that locality This question has been abund nUy discussed at educational meetings meet-ings and in literature and so far as I know there Is only one opinion among edpcators who are entitled to have oplIQl vlz that breeding in and in caUSes narrowness and stagnation and that a good proportion ot teacher from a distance Is one ot the most Invigorating in-vigorating tonics that can be applied to school systems Were there time I cold cite plenty of Instances both in smaI towns dnd large cites where this sloga of Smlthvle teachers for Smih yule schools has been raised some v1e Limes for political effect and sometimes by teacher who arc alarmed at being subjected to comparison and competition I competi-tion The motto should always be The best teacher wherever they can be obtaIned Where other quaJfca Hons are equal hometaent is to be preferred Albert H Ttte Professor of Biology University Of Vlrgnln My opinion Is asked taste whether the schools ef acltyshould be taught ex elusively by persons educate in the same locality In reply IwH say that if the matter were let to me to de cide most emphatically they ghoJJ not I exteSEI thlsoplnon after an eperi once of over tllrtfve years a a teacher in shooIS ot aU grades from 1 the district school to the universty Ii I have in that tmo seen such a course I as you refer to pursued in country anti city os F In the normal C7 col I loge and the university and always I with the result of producing narrowness narrow-ness a Jaw ideal and a marked deg or resistance to new ideas and methods I believe that a large proper ton of the teachers of the schools of a ity may with propriety be found I within the community but I also think that the governing boar or the person lcponsible for the selection of a staff I of teaclerswhCther for school college or univesiywi if wise purposely go I away from home for quite a number of them wih the express Intention of continually con-tinually introducing new life and new ideas into the system I practice what I I preach I do all that 1 can to place I my own special students advantageously I advantageous-ly In other Institutions and In other i state and In the selection of my own I assistants give the preference as fa as may be to men with whose training I have had but little to do or else tome 1 1 to-me who having been my students have afterwards been away from here and under entirely different influences As a mate of fact I have with meat me-at this time a my chef assistant a young man who Is a graduate of your own state universiy he is one of the I best assistants I ever had and he is I aU the more valuable because his experience ex-perience his training and his ideas carry him beyond our own limits I trust that those having charge of those maters In your iy wH for the sake ot the welfae of the children whose Interests are mos deeply involve seethe the wisdom of a liberal policy in this mos important regard E Benjamin Andrews Superintendent I of School Chicago I think I would be a very unfortunate and dangerous thing for a Ctys schools to be taught aU of them by people born reared and educated in that city Time Chicago policy is a good one to hold each year an examination for out Hide applicants and blend the successful success-ful candidates with our own normal school graduates Thomas D Seymour Professor of Greek Yale College In colleges and in universities the truth is acknowledged noW that the sysoem of breeding In and in is thoroughly oughly bad The college which has for its teacCrl none but its own graduates lssure son to have a narrow spirit and to lack other essentials of sound and high schdlarshlp New blood has to be brought in from without This leads to an interchange of ideas and to prevent tagnaton Yale and Harvard aTe s liberal In this mate of select log professors from the graduates of other colleges that their alumni are almost Inclined to think that the peel orence is given to outsider I have no doubt tat there colleges are the braced e and better because of this liberality For myself I do not ace why the same prInciple should nat apply to schools and I should bo wry sorry to see our schools taught by none but Connect cut teachers Our superintendent of schools came from western New York The principal of our high school came from New Jersey the head classical master came frcm Illinois the head teacher of English came from Omaha 90 the list runs Some of the New Haven Ha-ven people think that the board of cii ucaton has not taken enough teachers from Connecticut and New Haven but on thf whole the boar is sustained by public sentiment Henry Wade Rogers President Northwestern North-western University I do not approve of a policy that requires re-quires teachers to be chosen eclusie ly I or even largely from the graduates of their own schools I is of very great importance that the best cachets should be secured A rule which lUres them to be selected from n particular school or aDaicular city or state is a re strcton which might prevent a selec ton of the most competent instructors instruct-ors orsIn some or the universities the policy wait at one time pursued ot selecting Instructor chiefly from their own grad uates It has however come gra looked upon as a very unwise policy I Is now thought to be wlsa to have professors Who have been trained in various universities brought Into a foe ul inasmuc as they come with new vIews as to methods of InstructIon An Institution is less apt to get Into a rut and run along in the old way It new blood is thus brought In My advice would be to get your teacher from the best schools where the most advanced ad-vanced method and best instructors are employed without any reference to IQcaly Schools are not maintained for the purpofe of giving employment to persons who mty be residing within tile locality but the are established I for the purpose of offering the best pee sIble hstrcton to the youth In or I der that this result may be attne the appointing power should be fre pwer from restrictions ad to the localityj a loaUy I from a h1cl the teachers a to bo seI sured James B AngellPresidont Unverty of MichIgan I I think i would be very uwise t establish a policy of choosing teachcr exclusIvely Irons the state fin which tha city or town is situated Were th plan is followed there is great danger of what is called breeding in and in That is or perpetuating whatever de feds there a In the educational eye tem already established Of course t1 is natural and proper that the Inhabit oats of a place should have a far chance of appointment but the cholc should turn I should say enerJy upon the superiority In gifts and education edu-cation of the applicants New and better bet-ter ideas may often be brought Ire from the outside than would be famil ia to those who had been acquainted only with the methods In theIr OWI schools William H Maxwell Superintendent at Schools City oC New York In reply to you question I beg to say that while I believe that every encouragement en-couragement and opportunity should be provided for the pupils of the city school system to become teachers in that system after completing a proper academic and professional course of work yet I should regard I a a great calamity Were the teaching force to be drawn entirely from the local schooL system The appointment of teachers thoroughly trained and equipped from outside is a source of inspiration to the home teacher while i lends to an emulation that is altogether wholesome whole-some William R Harper President of University Uni-versity of Chicago In my opinion i Is very important that a large proportion of the teachers in the schools shall be chosen from among students educated In the schools at a distance from the city In which the work is done I is simply the old principle of breeding In Nothing Is more Important than that fresh Fod I should be introduced aU the time John VT Cook President of the Illinois State Normal University I think it a bad thing to employ any veoconsiderable number of the grau atesoUtheir own high school It Is n system of inbreeding whIch In the cndmustrbe disastrous in Its result I the graduates of the local high school are to beteachers In the grade which they have left a few years before they should at least be sent aa for training train-Ing elsewhere The best schools in IU nois are adopting the method oC employing em-ploying the great majority of their teachers from other localities D C Gilman President Johns HopkIns University I Is my opinion that it is unwise to restrict the selection of teacher in any locality exclusively to those whO have been educated in that locality Salt Lotte City should secure the best teach cr5 possible without regard et the place of nativIty or the place of prevIous education A E Winship Editor of the Journal of Education I Is the universal judgment of all educational leaders that it is a calamity to have the leading teacher as a whole born and educated in the city in which they teah Intellectual Inbreeding is morn debasing than physical inbr ding d-ing There is not a farmer of tenthrate intelligence who does not know that his stock runs down and runs out In a short time if he does not bring in new blood frnrm other dorIes Td herds Fn the sowing of land with seed raised on It wl run out both croi and suit The child who would be content to learn all he knows from his parents through conversation would be little better than an Ignoramus There is not a reputable college or normal school In the coun try that would fill Its faculty constantly con-stantly from Its own graduates with no other training There is not a city of any local standing to say nothIng of national reputation which could be induced to piats i elf on record as an educational inbreeding champion Indeed In-deed every progressive city and town with which I tm acquainted has a written writ-ten or unwritten law that a certain percentage of its teacher shall come from outside In ome cities the percentage per-centage has been ao high as 50 per cent and I have kn0vl one in which it was less than 75 per cent Of course the lower prade worc is usually done by home talent and this is not so harm ful because these teachers work under the direction of the principals and su perjntenlents Bosten has always gone outside of the city lImits for more than 75 per cent of theIr school leader Charles W Skinner State Superintendent Superinten-dent of Public Instruction of New York Replying to your Inquiry I advIse you that 1 many cites of the country the boards of education have taken sperial pains to secure his teachers rep rsentatives from different normal schools of time country or other educa tlonal Institutions for the professional equipment of teachers with the very best results I Imave in mind non a large city In which the superintendent of schools advises me that lie has among his teachers representatives from nearly near-ly all the best normal schools in the country His excellent schools shrw time good results of the policy adopted In my opinion it is unwise for the school authorities of any city to Insist that the schools shall be taught enclu tively by those educated in that partic uiar locality Such a policy Is narrow and weakening The vitality of the school system depends upon fresh blood Charles F Thwing President Western Reserve University In respect to the question which you ask me I beg to give a very strong negative answer It is not best for the teachers In anY one locality to be trained train-ed exclusively in that locality The main element In the choice of a teacher or in the choice of any body of teachers is to secure the absolutely best If the teachers who are best have been trained train-ed in one locality and in only one still choose them or If those who are best have been trained ire ten or a thousand localities still choose them Amerkaa education in many cities is sufferln roam inbreln3 The method too cciii narlly followed Is for the graduates of the high school to enter a normal train log school for six months or a little longer time and from this training school to go back into the grammar schools as teachers whence they have come i15 graduates only four or five years before The method results in narrowness In the teacher and narrowness narrow-ness In the one taught Suffer me to llustrate my suggestion as to the wisest wis-est method by reference to the colleges of western reserve university I be hove that time persons on the faculty of these two undergraduate colleges have taken their degrees It some thirty different institutions Whenever we wish to add to our teaching force we search so to speak the world over to find the best In case the best proves to be one of our own graduates we are mf course glad but In case the best proves to be the graduate of another college him we choose first last and all the time the best Nicholas Murray Butler Professor Ca lumbia UnlveteItY I can imagine no greater Injury to the children of a comnmunlty or to the life of the community itself than to an sTem 3Our f2U5O1 lii tlss affirmative The children and the community are entitled to tIle best wherever they may be found Even when this principle Is Granted the > ctlcal limitations upon Us application Ire such that the major Ity of the teachers In any larGe city are certain to be residents of it but br any act or policy to attempt to con fine the selection of teachers to such res idents would be a step in the direction of obscureantIsm that no progressive community can afford to take Frances W Parker Principal Chicago Normal School The schools are for the children and we should do at all times for the chil dren just what we do in everything or a business or a professional nature We get the best for the money It docs not make any difference to us who males our shoes clothes tools provid lag they are the best The plan of tal lag those teachers only who are residents resi-dents of a city Is unwIse impolitic and wrong in every war The children the hone of the future should have the very best that It Is possible to give them It seems to me that there should be no question In regard to this matter in the mind of any intelligent verson Whenever a candidate as teacher resident resi-dent of a city shows ability to do the york eQual to a candidate from the outside I should choose the resident but only In such cases It Is n very different matter indeed to get efficient teachers Many arc called but few arc chosen There arc thousands of candidates and out of them It i5 ex ceedlngl3 difficult to get the competent teacher The school board of a city should throw open its schools for the candidacy of all efficient teachers In any part of the country or the world Excellent schools mean the draln of the best people to a city It means the raising or the price of real estate it means the acquirement of both spirItual spir-Itual and material wealth I am aware that you have In Salt Lake City an ex l1cnt school system confine the choice of teachers to your residents only and that system will decline must inevitably Inevit-ably I can pmy repeat that which no one will deny that your little children should be taught by educated refined cultured trained teachers and the question of locality or where the teachers teach-ers were born or trained docs not enter into account t tI I E A Gastman Superintendent of Schools Decatur Ills I am altogether willing to go on record rec-ord and to be Quoted on the Question that You ask For the thlrtvscen years that I have been superintendent in this city I have fought that position I nuth more 01 less vigor What are the I schools maintained for Certainly not to afford a chance for anybody to make mney The education of the children us I understand it the only reason for maintaining a system or pUblic freeS free-S So far as I know all educators agree that the supreme want or any school Is a good teacher Everything else is subservient to that one thing I Surely I the bet Is none too good for the children Now If these things arc true why should we place a geographical I limit on the selection of teachers Is It not reasonable to secure the best teacher wherever she can be found if you have money necessary to pay the I salary to get her It certainly makes no difference where she fives nor where she was educated provided she has thf required scholarship and has the ability to teach I would not go Quite so far us some and say that no teachers teach-ers should be employed who lived in districts where she was to teach If good teachers can be found at home I would say take them of course but it Js sometimes true even In that case teachers will rely upon political church or personal friendship rather than upqn good solid work for their success In my experience the demand for the em loment of home talent comes from one or the other of two classes of people peo-ple In the community First those who wIsh to use the schools for their own individual benefit by putting in workers work-ers and relatives and havIng them sup ported at pUblic expense and second the class of sentimental gushing phil anthropl who would lUte to see all the poor girls In the community taken care of br the public schools It cannot can-not be too often repeated that the public pub-lic schools are not a charitable institution Institu-tion 10 one but the children deserves any attention from school offi ers It requires considerable backbone to standup stand-up against the pressure but woe to the man or woman who hasnt a good supply sup-ply or that necessary article he had better resign and go into other business busI-ness where the Interests at stake are not such vItal ones to the welfare of the community B H Hinsdale UnIversity of MIchigan MIchi-gan I beg leave to answer this question distinctly and emphatically In the negative neg-ative So far ani I from thinking that the schools of a city should he taught exclusivelY by teachers educated in that city or In the neighborhood that It Is my opinion It Is most desirable to draw Into such schools teachers from different sections of the country educated edu-cated in different schools No doubt a certain amount of unity and homogen ity Is desIrable ina system of schools but It is easy to overdo In that direction direc-tion The result of overdoing is too much uniformity routine and educational educa-tional mechanism Good education means life and life Is developed from diverse and to a certain extent con dieting clements In my opinion no educational policy could be more mistaken mis-taken to draw the teachers of a system of schools especially a large system of schools exclusively or to a largely preponderating degree from the locality here the schools are situated F Louis Soldan Superintendent of Schools St Louis In our own city a normal training class Is maintained which supplies more teachers than we at present need I believe that every large city should provide for the education nod training of its own teachers The school maintained main-tained for this purpose should aim however to graduate the best material and not aim at graduating the large number In fact 1 consider it advisable to leave enough room In the schools to appoint a few bright teachErs from other cities as occasion requires Nathan C Schaeffer Superintendent of Public Instruction Pennsylvania To select the teachers from the real dents of the city and never from the outside Is a policy that cannot be condemned con-demned too severely It Is like the process pro-cess of inbreeding on the farm and leads to degeneracy Teachers should be selected on the hasis of meritsex creed nationality are of secondly importance im-portance The best schools are round in cities which employ teachers by reason rea-son of their skill and efficiency and regardless of the fact that they may have n residence elsewhere at the time oJ their election Charles W Eliot President Harvard University It is a natural and almost inevitable thing that the majority of teachers In a given state or city should be taken from the population of that state or city but It Is a great misfortune that any school system should be limited to the people of the locality in the selection I of Its teachers A place as large and welloff as Salt Lake City can always I draw into its service well proved men and women from other cities and towns I and it would be a great advantage to Salt Lake City to do so Massachusetts towns and cities arc constantly on the I lookout to get successful teachers from outside their own limits In selecting prIncipals or superintendents they pay much more attention to the places or their education than they do to the places of their bIrth or most recent residence and that is as I believe the only wIse way Exactly the some principle prin-ciple applies In universities It would be a calamity to Harvard university If it should adopt a policy of employing employ-ing its professors only Its own graduates gradu-ates or only residents of Massachusetts or New England A university gets the best teachers it can without reference whatever to the place of birth Out of the first thirty names of the liseof em cers of Instruction and administration of Harvard university I find twelve who were not educated In Harvard university uni-versity and ten who were born outside of Massachusetts Certainly the highest high-est places In any educational staff whether of school college or university should ahas be absolutely fret from any local restrIction The lower places will ordinarIly take care of themselves by a wholly natural process without any need ot any restrictive law or rUle James H Canfield President of Ohio University Any college or university of any high standing would not for a moment think of returning to Its classes as Instructors Its more Immediate graduates Colleges and universIties Insist that their graduates grad-uates must get out into the outer word must learn something of the method and thought of other instructors must gaIn that bread of outlook largeness or horizon that comes from a change or environment and from the attempt at least to accommodate oneself to new conditions A stream turned In upon Itself becomes be-comes stagnant All real Inspiration comes from that which is higher It is no more safe for higher Institutions of learning to breed In and In with themselves them-selves than it Is for farmers to breed in and In with their stock we all know what this process means eventually If this be trueand I take It to be one of the most settled and unquestioned unques-tioned truths In educational pollcyIt is certainly equally true If not more true In the policy of the high schools There Is not as wide difference between the graduate of a college and his preparation prep-aration for his work and the elementary elemen-tary work to which he would be entrusted en-trusted as there Is between the graduate gradu-ate of a high school and her preparation prepara-tion for her work and the work to which she would be assigned It is avery a-very natural desire and In many ways a perfectly proper ambition on the part of graduates or high schools to receive recognition at home There is nothing I evil In the desIre or parents to retain them at home nor In the desire of school officials to recognize in this way I the excellence of the work of the schools over which they are presiding but there can be no real question that this I class of appointments weakens rather I than strengthens the schools Of course It is entirely possible that careless selection se-lection may brIng from the outside those who are weaker than those who have graduated from your own schools but this Is simply a question of careless care-less selection and is not the necessary result of the employment of those from the outside All other things being equal I believe ill givIng usual recognition recogni-tion to the graduates of ti home school but to make aH other things entirely equal It seems to me absolutely necessary neces-sary that such graduates shaH have time and opportunity for maturing and for further study and especially for experience and I am very sure that the best educational sense of thIs country coun-try concurs In the opinion that this time ought to be spent otherwhere and not under the same local and home Influences In-fluences that have thus far marked the I educational work of the high school pupIl I David Starr Jordan President Leland Stanford Jr University There Is no question that to limit the teachIng force In a city exclusively to those educated in that locality Is to work great evil in the schools No system I sys-tem of schools can be progressive In which provision Is not made for proper competition and for the Introduction of outside talent and with It new ideas George A Gates President Iowa College lege I can conceive of few things more fatal to the best educational interests i lof a city community commonwealth or even section than that teachers I should be selected on a basis of geographical geo-graphical considerations The question I of where they live Is as irrelevant as is the matter of the color of their eyes |