Show army of school children in step with war effort shortage of teachers Is most serious handicap of new academic year willard E givens executive secretary national education association of the united states the 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 both 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 of the rebuffs it faces ol 01 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 lines or pore over drafting boards or are busy in laboratories the high school especially will have fewer students fewer teachers for the teachers too have gone to the fighting fronts to the factories 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 of them a tenth of the total number are not in their schoolrooms 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 grocery basket A teacher whose salary is a year the average salary paid to the teachers of a large midwestern state accepts a war industry job that may net him three times as much money he may not wish to leave his profession but he and his family must eat there are many thousands of teachers whose salaries are not a year but or a year A teacher who receives a year will look longingly at a position in a government office paying 1600 a year she is quite likely to be qualified for it and quite likely to take it the shortage of teachers is naturally the most serious where the salary schedules are lowest as in a southern state where the state average last year was 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 in the school subject areas that are most vital to the war effort teachers of physics chemistry mathematics manual arts and certain 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 of mathematics and the sciences who are so urgently needed by the armed forces between three and four million schoolchildren school children thi this gfall fall will therefore find the school door closed when they arrive or their educational opportunity considerably curtailed measures are being taken to minimize as far as possible the ill effect of the teacher shortage where students who have lost teachers are in the same school with those who still have teachers classes are combined this is usually 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 so large and unwieldy that ef teaching is impossible former teachers urged to return former teachers are being urged to return to the schoolroom the ban against married women teachers is being removed in some communities muni ties all of these measures however offer only temporary relief as was proved by the experience of world war I 1 when the supply of teachers became so inadequate that the quality of education was wag greatly reduced it is well worth considering nevertheless erth eless 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 for her work in a few weeks the army of is entering schools this year that are geared as fully as possible to the war effort whether or not there is a lack of teachers the organization administration and instructional meth effective remedy only one remedy has much promise of being continuously effective teachers must be paid well enough to enable them 0 to o remain at teaching this is impossible in some states unless the federal government participates in financial support of schools school sl educators and friends of the schools are trying desperately pera tely to secure such aid that however is another story employed will be adapted within the limits of available staff and facilities to war needs in many communities the students of 1942 43 will find a whole new division of education the nursery school the man power commission of the federal government is thinking in terms of woman power as well as man power it asks for additional dit ional women in the war industries by january 1 1943 A large percentage of them will be married women who have young children the nurse nursery ry school is being established to take care of these children while their mothers are in the factories 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 the scope and efficiency of learning in the earlier years of childhood speed up school army the school army will face the demand for speed made in every field of preparation for this war the united nations have until recently found themselves everywhere equipped too late with too little consequently the cry hurry hur ry it is aimed at the assembly lines the cantonments canton ments and field operations erat ions the urge has not missed the schools battles are fought by men who use machines therefore 77 2 f if fortunately many high schools throughout the nation had well developed technical courses in their curriculum before united states entered the war now throughout the land such scenes as this one in a brooklyn N V Y high school taken of the aviation technical course coarse are arc common reading beading writing and repairing is the theme today technician K y to carry on the war to a successful completion industry Is requiring more and morer more youth with technical training this young lady intently studying an object through a high powered microscope will be well prepared to take one of the thousands of jobs which will be open to her when she leaves high school hurry the preparation of men is a logical demand it has been proposed that high schools continue during the summer on saturdays and holidays that the school terms be reduced in length in order to give those who will soon be under arms as much education as possible in general educators have strongly opposed universal acceleration of high school pupils the attitude of the wartime commission of the united states office of education way may be taken as typical its recent report points out that hastening the progress of students through school will enable them to go into defense jobs defense training classes non defense jobs to replace persons who have left for defense jobs or into the armed forces or to enter college earlier these purposes are commendable thinks the commission but it rules against general acceleration in favor of stepping up the rate of progress only for pupils who are physically and intellectually able to speed up with profit to the war effort and DO damage to the pupils themselves because this opinion is so widely held by educators there is little likelihood that the school year will be shorter than the years preceding it another policy will be followed by colleges and higher institutions where the maturity of students and the exigencies of war make acceleration feasible and profitable different courses emphasized the students who are entering school this month will find some outstanding shifts of emphasis in the courses of study since september 1941 these do not represent radical changes only a few of these changes can be offered by way of illustration geography is an excellent subject with which to begin since unlike current events and history it is usually thought of as not changing much from day to day I 1 the continents and oceans the mountains and rivers are more or less constant in size and position these physical facts however are not of great importance except as they affect the lives of men the geography textbook therefore which includes a chapter on the rubber plantations of sumatra and the malay peninsula is due for some revision war has considerably altered the political status of great portions of the map world commerce has found new trade routes and trade itself is heavily in commodities modi ties little sought a few years ago methods of travel are changing the character of the maps which students will use aviation has made the flat map or mercator projection of secondary importance the globe is taking its place those of us who visualize japan due west of the united states find it difficult to realize that airplanes on their shortest route from tokyo to the panama canal would first strike the united states somewhere on the canadian border the need for mathematics mathematics another study that is often thought of as fixed in nature since the same two numbers number s always add up to the same total will see its change also for many years the schools have been adjusting arithmetic to the daily needs of a people at peace the textbook problems therefore have had to do with matters like life insurance income taxes budget making home management and bookkeeping suddenly there comes a demand for skill in the use of the mathematics needed by the bombardier and gunner |