Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 57

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 57

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A holder of professional certificates who teaches successfully five years in Rhode Island public schools, and who accomplishes the equivalent of a year of graduate professional study in approved normal school or college, may receive special citation, and be granted a life pro- fessional certificate with the designation "Master Teacher." To persons who have not met fully the requirements for professional certification, but who have achieved enough to war- rant it, provisional certification may be granted conditional upon an undertaking to achieve complete qualification. All teachers are required to sign and swear to or affirm the Teacher's Pledge of Loyalty, which was first prescribed in 1918, as follows :

I. as a teacher and citizen, pledge allegiance to the United States of America, to the state of Rhode Island, and to the American public school system. I solemnly promise to support the Constitution and laws of nation and state, to acquaint myself with the laws of the state relating to public education, and the regula- tions and instructions of my official superiors, and faithfully to carry them out. I further promise to protect the school rights of my pupils, to conserve the democracy of school citizenship, to honor public education as a principle of free government, to respect the profession of education as public service, and to observe its ethical principles and rules of professional conduct. I pledge myself to neglect no opportunity to teach the children committed to my care loyalty to nation and state, honor to the Flag, obedience to law and govern- ment, respect for public servants entrusted for the time being with the functions of government, faith in government by the people, fealty to the civic principles of freedom, equal rights and human brotherhood, and the duty of every citizen to render service for the common welfare. I shall endeavor to exemplify in my own life and conduct in and out of school the social virtues of fairness, kindliness and service as ideals of good citizenship. I affirm, in recognition of my official obligation, that, though as a citizen, I have the right of personal opinion, as a teacher of the public's children I have no right, either in school hours or in the presence of mv pupils out of school hours, to express opinions that conflict with honor to country, loyalty to American ideals, and obedience to and respect for the laws of nation and state. In all this I pledge my sacred honor and subscribe to a solemn oath that I will faithfully perform to the best of my ability all the duties of the office of teacher in the public schools.

Under the progressive plan for gradually raising standard qualifications for certification, covering a period of thirty years, Rhode Island has achieved unique distinction among Ameri- can states for the excellence of the personnel of the profession of education. Over eighty- five per cent. of all teachers have attained professional rating, and the average education of Rhode Island public school teachers extends more than three years beyond completion of high school, a standard nowhere else attained.

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TEACHERS' SALARIES AND PENSIONS-As part of a program for improving Rhode Island public education announced after he had served one year as Commissioner, Walter E. Ranger recommended pensions for school teachers. Legislation in 1907 provided that any person sixty years old, who for thirty-five years had been engaged in teaching as his principal occupa- tion, twenty-five of which, including the fifteen immediately preceding retirement, were in the public schools, or such other schools as are supported wholly or in part by state appro- priations, might be retired or retire voluntarily on an annual pension equal to one-half his average contractual salary during the last five years before retiring, but in no case could the pensioner draw more than $500 per year. Administration of the pension law was entrusted to the State Board of Education. After 1909 a teacher in service thirty-five years need not have reached sixty years of age before retirement. In 1914 provision was made for the retirement on pensions of teachers regularly employed not less than twenty years who become physically or mentally incapacitated, the pension to be a proportionate part of the ordinary pension determined by the ratio of his total years of service to thirty-five years. Through later legislation the amount of the pension has been increased to not less than $500 nor more than $700 for long service or disability. The Rhode Island teachers' pension law is the most generous in the United States, besides being state-wide and universal in the sense that it cov- ers all persons engaged in teaching or supervising public education in public schools main- tained by towns or cities and in schools maintained by the state. No teacher is compelled, asked or permitted to contribute to his pension, and no assessments are levied. There is no suspicion that the pension is deducted, in some mysterious way, from salaries, for the pen- sion is paid from the general treasury, whereas teachers' salaries are paid from town or city treasuries. The pension is, therefore, a public measure to improve the economic status of the public school teacher by provision for old age; at the same time it serves the means of pro- viding for honorable retirement, in a manner worthy of the state, of veteran teachers whose years for efficient service have passed.

Rhode Island's first minimum salary law was enacted in 1909, when the state estab- lished $400 as the lowest permissible salary for regular employment and offered to assist towns to attain the minimum by paying one-half the amount necessary from the general treasury. Four years later, partly because the lowest salaries had been brought to the minimum, the State Board of Education reported $618 as the average salary paid in Rhode Island public schools, adding "an annual salary of $400 is too low to command, in general, the services of teachers of average ability. Many defects of public education, without question, are due to low salaries. Nevertheless, the minimum salary law has remedied the worst conditions due to ridiculously low salaries, and was a measure of great importance." A by-product of the minimum salary law was an increase in some towns of the town school year, under circum- stances in which the school committee undertook to make the teacher earn the increase required by the minimum law, by teaching a few extra weeks, thus holding the teacher to the same rate per week. The minimum salary was raised to $650 in 1922. Average salaries have improved steadily in the past fifteen years, from $714 in 1915 to over $1500 in 1930. In the meantime the actual minimum salary has exceeded the legal minimum; no salary at a rate lower than $700 has been paid in Rhode Island since 1925. It will be noted that the increase in salaries has been contemporaneous with the improvement in the qualifications for teaching required by the State Board of Education. Rhode Island is paying more for instruction principally because Rhode Island is employing a superior type of teacher, and is insisting upon better preparation. Higher salaries may be interpreted as compensation for better service.

TRAINING TEACHERS --- While the paragraph above dealing with certification has indi- cated an improvement in the education of teachers, it omitted reference to the means pro- vided by the state of Rhode Island to assist teachers in attaining initial standards, and in keeping pace with advancing standards. Rhode Island College of Education, with unsur-

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passed facilities for training elementary school teachers has been the most important agency, both for initial training in regular courses preparatory for teaching, and for assisting teachers to improve themselves professionally after entering service. In large part the latter work has been accomplished through extension courses offered on Saturdays, and in the afternoon at hours after school that are convenient for teachers, and through a summer session from 1917 to 1928, inclusive. For several years the enrollment of teachers in extension and sum- mer courses at the College attained 1800 or forty-five per cent. of all the public school teach- ers. Rhode Island State College also offers courses in professional education to meet the requirement for certification for high school teaching additional to graduation from college. In recent years the department of education at State College has been conducted by the Direc- tor of Vocational Education, the State Supervisor of Agricultural Education and the State Supervisor of Home Economic Education, all professors in the college faculty, in a plan for cooperation by the college with the State Board for Vocational Education in preparing teach- ers for vocational classes. Rhode Island School of Design has conducted a normal arts course for preparing teachers of drawing and design for the public schools, which was organized at the request of the Commissioner of Education. At Brown University a graduate department of education is encouraged and aided by a state subsidy of $5000 annually, all of which is at present available for free state scholarships on appointment by the State Board of Education. These scholarships are for graduate study only in education, and are intended to assist in pre- paring teachers for high schools, or to become principals or superintendents. The Brown department continues a plan for training high school teachers inaugurated by Professor Wal- ter B. Jacobs and modelled on the plan for practice teaching used in Rhode Island College of Education. Other devices for improving the education of teachers in service are teachers' institutes, conducted under the direction of the Commissioner; lectures and addresses, sub- sidized by the Commissioner and State Board of Education; educational publications, issued by the state division; an educational library, maintained in the Commissioner's office, from which loans are made to teachers. The Commissioner offers to supply from this library any book on education requested for loan by any public school teacher. The teachers themselves have been interested in professional improvement, and have had recourse to the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction, established in 1845 and the oldest state teachers' association in the United States; the "Quarterly Journal of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction," pub- lished by the Institute; voluntary associations for improvement in towns and cities, which conduct significant programs through each school year; such state associations as the Barnard Club of Rhode Island, enrolling the men teachers, and also state associations for groups of teachers, such as the Rhode Island Vocational Society, the Home Economics Association, the Physical Education Association, Music Supervisors' Association, and others.

SUPERVISION-The invention of the office of superintendent of schools is attributed to Thomas Wilson Dorr, who, as chairman of the Providence school committee, suggested the service that might be rendered by a public school officer charged with responsibilities similar to those that appertain to an overseer or superintendent in industry. The first superintendent was appointed in Providence in 1839; the school statutes mentioned the office in 1851, and in 1871 a statute required a school committee to appoint a superintendent if the town failed to do so. Commissioner and Board of Education, in annual reports, urged the importance of supervision, and recommended state support to encourage towns to engage capable officers and pay reasonable salaries. School committees were given exclusive right to appoint super- intendents in 1884, and to fix the superintendent's salary in 1902. The General Assembly in 1903 and 1904 made provision for annual appropriations to be apportioned to towns to sup- port supervision, and in 1908 extended the teachers' certificate law to require superintendents to qualify by state certification. Under the two state plans for supervision in practice the state reimburses a town employing a professional superintendent to an amount not exceeding

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PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

one-half the salary paid or not exceeding $1000; or the State Board of Education may pro- vide supervision on request of a school committee, at an expense to the state of not exceeding $1000 per town. In 1930 all but one town school system was under professional supervision. The school committee may employ a superintendent of schools without the restriction of residence or qualification for suffrage usually attached to public office, a provision which per- mits seeking a properly qualified candidate from beyond the borders of Rhode Island if desired ; may establish reasonable tenure, and may pay the salary that may be necessary to obtain an efficient officer. The superintendent of schools in Providence is paid a salary that equals that of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the highest paid office in state service in Rhode Island.

OTHER MODERN IMPROVEMENTS-While the statute of 1898 to promote a uniform high standard in the public schools offered a bonus for consolidation of one-room rural schools, little progress was achieved until, in 1904, school districts were abolished, and the administra- tion of town public schools was entrusted exclusively to town school committees. The aboli- tion of districts and the elimination of district officers tended to decrease sectional autonomy within towns, which, while it continued, was an outstanding obstacle to closing "the district school," in spite of the assurance that a central school, properly graded, might achieve more efficient educational processes. Gradually, but reluctantly, opposition has been overcome in many towns. South Kingstown was one of the earliest to go forward with a plan for consoli- dation. Narragansett and Little Compton have achieved consolidation that gathers all children attending public schools in each town under a single roof. The plan for consolidation includes transportation to and from convenient assembling places along the highways in automobiles designed particularly for school service. The surveys of the town schools of New Shoreham, Little Compton, North Kingstown, Richmond, South Kingstown, Exeter, and Glocester have included recommendations of closing one-room schoolhouses accommodating only small groups of pupils, consolidating and furnishing transportation.

The fire escape law of 1890 included seminaries, colleges, academies and schoolhouses in the list of buildings for which equipment must be provided. It was amplified in 1908 to require outswinging doors and outswinging windows giving on fire escapes, and inspection. Five years later, the Commissioner published a pamphlet to assist teachers in meeting a new requirement that fire drills be conducted monthly to assure prompt and orderly dismissal of classes in the event of fire. The Commissioner has also published a pamphlet entitled "Safe- guarding the Home Against Fire," and an outline of a course of study in fire prevention, the latter to meet a requirement that fire prevention be taught in the public schools at least one hour monthly.

Medical inspection of schools had been introduced in Rhode Island before legislation was enacted in 1911; the latter made provision for three measures: (1) "Proper standards of lighting, heating, ventilating, seating and other sanitary arrangements of school buildings and proper regulations concerning the same," to be adopted by the State Board of Education and communicated "to the school committee of each city and town and to any committee hav- ing charge of the erection, alteration, equipment or furnishing of any school building." The board approved a code in 1917, which had been drafted after several years of careful study and investigation. The statute does not make the code mandatory; a school committee, how- ever, which finds the construction of a new building unsatisfactory as measured by the board standards, may refuse to accept the building for use as a school, and may thus compel suitable changes. (2) The statute of 1911 requires an annual testing of eyes and ears for defects, and notification of parents of children found to be defective. The effects of this legislation appear in a decreasing ratio of defective eyes and ears to total enrollment, which is interpreted as indicating attention by parents, and proper treatment in most instances. (3) The statute of

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19II offered reimbursement of part of a town's expenditure for medical inspection by doctors ; after 1926 "medical inspection" might include the services of trained school nurses. More than ninety per cent. of public school children attend schools in which medical inspection is regular. In several towns and cities public inspectors visit private as well as public schools, as a measure for safeguarding general health. More than 100 doctors and nurses are engaged in this service.

Physical education, twenty minutes of instruction or practice daily for children over eight years of age, was required after 1917; to assist classroom teachers the Commissioner pub- lished a "Syllabus for Physical Education," which outlined instruction in physical education and hygiene. Physiology and hygiene "with special reference to the effect of alcoholic bever- ages and narcotic drugs upon the human system," had been a part of the required course of study from 1888. Dental inspection became a part of medical inspection in 1917, with provi- sion for professional examination of teeth, reports to parents, and public clinics for treatment at the option of the school committee if parents neglected notice. Under the age and employ- ment provisions of the compulsory attendance and factory inspection laws, children fifteen years of age and under sixteen applying for release from school for employment are examined by doctors. The statute permits the establishment and maintenance of open-air schools for delicate children, with provision at public expense of "such medical, food or other supplies as are necessary." The first open-air school in America was established in Providence in the old brick schoolhouse on Meeting Street. The safety and health program in public instruction is significant not only for the prevention of disease by proper safeguards, but also for future welfare. The physical education plan has ripened into a program of school-directed athletics, with emphasis upon the benefits of abundant physical exercise in the open air, while the les- sons in attention to cleanliness and avoiding disease unquestionably are carried home and into life after leaving school.

PATRIOTIC INSTRUCTION-The public schools of America always have taught patriotism if only in connection with history, while the closing of schools for patriotic holidays in early days accomplished a purpose of emphasizing the importance of the events of which these were anniversaries. In the schools of Providence opened in 1800 Christmas and the Fourth of July were observed as holidays. School policy has been modified in recent years by a ten- dency to substitute for holidays observance of important anniversaries by suitable school exercises. Arbor Day was the first day selected for school observance, and in connection with it the Commissioner of Education for forty years has published an annual program of mate- rial for school exercises and concerning trees and nature. For thirty years, Grand Army Flag Day, February 12, and for twenty-three years, Rhode Island Independence Day, May 4, have been observed in schools, and the Commissioner has published annually a program for the observance of each. For ten years the Commissioner has published annually a program for the observance of September 17 as Constitution Day; occasionally he has issued a program for Columbus Day. Grant Day was observed on an important anniversary, and in 1929 Pulaski Day was honored in memory of the Revolutionary hero. School holidays, on which schools are closed, include New Year's Day, Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. Armistice Day is a banking holiday, which usually is made a school holiday also by proclamation. School committees are required to provide a national flag for every schoolhouse for display on a flagstaff or other- wise in some appropriate way, and the Commissioner prescribes a uniform salute to the flag to be used daily in the schools. No national flag other than the flag of the United States may be displayed on a public schoolhouse. Since 1922 the law has required as part of every public and private school course of study instruction in the principles of the American plan of government with particularization of the Constitution and history of the United States, and the Constitution and history of Rhode Island. Three years earlier emphasis upon the

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teaching of the English language appeared in the Americanization law, which required the opening of evening schools for instruction in English in towns in which more than twenty persons under twenty-one years of age could not read, write and speak English. This work was carried forward systematically in a dozen years under the supervision of Agnes M. Bacon. In 1926 home classes for teaching English were authorized on state initiative.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION-The State Board of Education urged the establishment of a textile school in the basement of the Rhode Island Normal School shortly after the first per- manent building was erected in 1898. The Commissioner by direction of the General Assem- bly in 1910, made an investigation of the conditions and needs of Rhode Island in respect to "industrial education, including agricultural education," his report being a printed document of more than 100 printed pages. On his recommendation legal provision was made for state encouragement and promotion of industrial education by subsidies for the purchase of equip- ment and payment of salaries. An appropriation of $5000 was made available. Central Falls, Pawtucket, Warwick and Westerly were the earliest towns to take advantage of the new legislation. Commenting upon this, the State Board of Education, in its report for 1913, said : "The criticism so frequently made that the work of the public schools is in no way related to the outside interests of the child cannot be made of the schools in these places. The time appears to be approaching when it will be more and more difficult to justify, in any of our schools, criticism of this sort. With the increased opportunities for choice in studies made possible by the more general introduction of industrial education in the schools, it will be possible to determine with greater certainty just what the individual needs of each child are, and to offer him what will contribute most to his highest development." A fresh impetus to extension of vocational education was given in 1917 by the enactment by Congress of the Federal Vocational Education Act, and the acceptance of the provisions by Governor Beeck- man on the last day of the year, with ratification by the General Assembly in 1918. The fed- eral legislation offered cooperation with state programs for vocational education on the basis of contribution from the federal treasury to an amount not exceeding fifty per cent. for expenditures for instruction in agriculture, in trades and industries, and in home economics. In connection with the joint federal-state program provision must be made for teacher- training, including supervision. The Rhode Island program organized under a contract with the federal government includes the four lines indicated. Administration rests with the State Board of Vocational Education, as which the State Board of Education is organized. The Commissioner of Education is the executive agent of the state Board, and the board employs a Director of Vocational Education, a Supervisor of Agricultural Education, a Supervisor of Trade and Industrial Education, and a Supervisor of Home Economics Education. Except the training of teachers the work in vocational education is of less than college grade, and restricted to persons over fourteen years of age. The work in agriculture is in high schools, seven of which-Bristol, East Providence, Little Compton, South Kingstown, Warren, War- wick and West Warwick-offer courses. Besides instruction in school, every person enrolled in a day agricultural class is required to carry on a home project in agriculture and to keep careful accounts. Reports indicate that pupils average earnings in agricultural projects approaching $100 annually. The work is so planned that it need not interfere with prepara- tion for college if the pupil wishes to continue. Evening agricultural classes have also been organized in places convenient for gatherings of farmers; for these members of the profes- sional faculty of the department of agriculture at Rhode Island State College are engaged as teachers. Trade and industrial education is offered in all-day and part-time classes, and also to adults in evening classes. In this division the Providence Trade School has been developed by joint cooperation of state and city, and is recognized as a school of unusual merit. The organization is on the continuation plan, for boys and girls who are regularly employed, and who are released from employment for instruction. Under an arrangement preferred for this

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 57

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716