Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/49

Rh is seven; for women, it is four. These figures represent the total years of teaching and take no account of the number of positions occupied by each teacher. Tenure of position in city schools is much longer than in the country. Of 1,248 teachers in city schools, Dr. Coffman finds that the median city school man has taught twelve years in the city; the median city school woman has taught seven years in the city. Commissioner Harris in his report for 1904 published the results of reports from a much larger number of teachers from 398 cities of 8,000 inhabitants and over, including twenty-nine cities of over 100,000 inhabitants. He found that, in cities of 8,000 inhabitants and over, the median man had taught eleven years and the median woman nine years, and that both the median man and the median woman had taught seven years in their present positions. In cities of 100,000 inhabitants and over, the median teacher had taught ten years and had occupied the same positions eight years. It is obvious that even under the most favorable conditions the average tenure of position is short. Dr. Coffman also has statistics bearing on the youthfulness of teachers, showing that 52.9 per cent, of men teachers and 73.8 per cent. of women teachers are under thirty years of age. Sex has a potent bearing upon the question of tenure in position. German secondary teachers are all men, while in this country a very large majority are women. No exact material is available to show the effect of this constant changing of teachers. It is apparent that it greatly lowers the efficiency of our schools. The short tenure of superintendents and high-school principals hardly allows them to become adjusted to the new conditions in each position filled, not to speak of the possibility of working out any constructive educational policy, which must require years to be of real value.

Having discussed the causes of waste, there remains for us to consider the means by which it may be eliminated. I shall consider such remedies as are involved (1) in a readjustment of our school organization, (2) in a change in the methods and (3) in a reorganization of the materials of instruction.

Many experiments have been tried in the reorganization of the elementary and high schools and are in more or less successful operation in various parts of the country. These involve such combinations as a six-year elementary school followed by a six-year high school; a seven-year elementary and a five-year high school; and a six-or seven-year elementary school, a junior high school of one to three years, and a senior high school. All of these combinations, however, still include a total of twelve years in the period of elementary and high-school training and are based upon the assumption that these new types of organization are better adapted to the physical and psychological development of the child. Whatever benefits are claimed as a result have not been in the saving of time in elementary and secondary education.

As of practical bearing upon the solution of this important problem,