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Show Army of School Children In Step With War Effort Shortage of Teachers Is the Most Serious Handicap of New Academic Year. Willard E. Civens, Executive Secretary National Education Association of the United States. The 30,000,000 school children who march back to school this month keep step with another army an army burdened with the equipage of battle, whose units march in Australia, Ulster, South Carolina, Dutch Harbor, Colorado, Midway. Doth armies are enlisted in the same "total war," both have the same objective victory. This is to be a story of the army that is answering the schoolbell. of the rebuffs it faces, or its part in the fight. The school army is not as large this autumn as it usually is; some of those who would have marched with it are in the other army, or stand beside assembly as-sembly lines, or pore over drafting boards, or are busy in laboratories. The hinh school, especially, will have fewer students, fewer teachers; teach-ers; for the teachers, too. have gone to the fighting fronts, to the factories. 100,000 Fewer Teachers. The most serious handicap which the schools face due to the war Is the loss of teachers. It is estimated that up to 100,000 of them, a tenth of the total number, are not In their schoolrooms school-rooms this fall. Many of the men teachers have. Joined the colors. Newly created auxiliary forces will take many of the women teachers, too. Many of those still with their school classes find that their incomes as teachers are not within reaching distance of the croeerv basket. A teacher whose salary is $1100 a year the average salary paid to the teachers of a large midwestem state accepts ac-cepts a war industry job that may net him three times as much money. He may not wish to leave his profession pro-fession but he and his family must cat. There are many thousands of teachers whose salaries are not $!3U0 a year, but $-100 or $.r()0 a year. A teacher who receives $300 a year will look longingly at a position in a government olllce paying $1,600 a year. She is quite likely to be qualified quali-fied for it and quite likely to take it. The shortage of teachers is naturally nat-urally the most serious where the salary schedules are lowest, as in a southern state where the state average last year was $!59 for all teachers and school officers, but there is a trek from schoolroom to factory all over the nation. The most alarming phase of the teacher shortage is that it is greatest great-est in the school subject areas that are most vital to the war effort. Teachers of physics, chemistry. mathematics, manual arts and certain cer-tain of the biological sciences are in great demand in war industries and laboratories. When they leave the classroom for such work, they cease to train the thousands of students stu-dents of mathematics and the sciences sci-ences who are so urgently needed by the "armed forces. Between three and four million school children this fall will, therefore, there-fore, find the school door closed when they arrive, or their educational educa-tional opportunity considerably curtailed. cur-tailed. Measures are being taken to minimize, as far as possible, the ill effect of the teacher shortage. Where students who have lost teachers teach-ers are in the same school with those who still have teachers, classes are combined. This Is usually usu-ally not possible in rural areas where it may be many miles from a school without a teacher to a school which has one. Even where classes are combined, they often become be-come so large and unwieldy that ef fective teaching is impossible. Former Teachers I'rged to Return. Former teachers are being urged to return to the schoolroom. The ban against married women teachers teach-ers is being removed in some communities. com-munities. All of these measures, however, offer only temporary relief, as was proved by the experience of World War I when the supply of teachers became so inadequate that the quality qual-ity of education was greatly reduced. It is well worth considering, nevertheless, nev-ertheless, that efficient instruction depends largely upon the teacher and that fully trained teachers are now, and always will be, hard to get at a salary which will employ a clerical worker who can be prepared pre-pared for her work in a few weeks. The army of 30.000,000 is entering schools this year that are geared as fully as possible to the war effort. ef-fort. Whether or not there is a lack of teachers, the organization, administration ad-ministration and instructional meth- Kffwtive Remedy Only one remedy has much promise of being continuously effective. Teachers must be paid well enough to enable them to remain at teaching. This is impossible in some states unless the federal government participates partici-pates in financial support of schools. Educators and friends of the schools arc trying desperately des-perately to secure such aid. That, however, Is another story. ods employed will be adapted, within with-in the limits of available stall and facilities, to war needs. In many communities the students stu-dents of 1942-43 will find a whole new division of education the nursery school. The Man Power commission of the federal government gov-ernment is thinking in terms of woman power as well as man power. It asks for 3,000,000 additional ad-ditional women in the war industries indus-tries by January 1, 1943. A large percentage of them will be married women who have young children. The nursery school is being established to take care of these children while their mothers are in the factories fac-tories and offices. The nursery school is already a fixed educational level in many of the better school systems, and the necessities of war will likely increase in-crease the scope and efficiency of learning in the earlier years of childhood. 'Speed lTp' School Army? The school army will face the demand de-mand for speed made in every field of preparation for this war. The United Nations have until recently recent-ly found themselves everywhere equipped too late with too little. Consequently the cry, "Hurry, hurry!" hur-ry!" It is aimed at the assembly lines, the cantonments, and field op-erations. op-erations. The urge has not missed the schools. Battles are fought by men who use machines; therefore rap .xJ. . J-- .: ...is.-- frlTTi ' i R H JUL-. J? J iC31 L IW Mini Hill,, i..vW nm. M.lill.MiMill ti ll Fortunately, many high schools throughout the nation had well developed de-veloped technical courses in their curriculum before United States entered en-tered the war. Xow, throughout the land, such scenes as this one taken of the aviation, technical course in a ltrooklyn IN. Y.) high school arc common. Reading, writing, and repairing is the theme today. |