(6) The Teacher.-We thus find that the American public school is a very complex institution. The State, school officers, taxpayers, parents, pupils, and teacher are all necessary factors in the school, but the real teaching process is not possible until pupils and teachers are brought into vital contact with each other. All the other factors contribute to this result, have this for their purpose. The teacher's function in the school is so important that "as is the teacher, so is the school," is a very common saying. In a negative sense this statement is true, for an incompetent or immoral teacher may defeat the whole purpose for which the school exists. Such a teacher may bring to naught the effort of the State to train worthy and useful citizens, defeat the plans of school officers to provide the proper training for the children of the community, waste the money of the taxpayers, render futile the sacrifices of parents to keep their children in school, and convert welldisposed pupils into idlers and law-breakers. No one can measure the evil effects of the influence of a bad teacher or compute the loss to the community when ignorance and stupidity are intrusted with the instruction of its children.

We shall attempt to show, however, in the next chapter that the proverb "as is the teacher, so is the school," is not true in the positive sense. The other classes represented in the school cannot thus shirk their responsibility. School officers, taxpayers, parents, and pupils all have a work to do, and if they neglect their duties no teacher can entirely make good all deficiencies. This will appear more clearly when we consider the nature and aims of the school. From what has been said, it will be apparent that the fundamental law underlying all school organization is the law of co-operation. How to secure the willing and

hearty co-operation of all the classes that make up the school is the great problem of organization. Ability to do this is the true test of the teacher's power as an organizer.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Dutton, "School Management," chap. XVI; Raymont, "The Principles of Education," chap. IV; Page, "Theory and Practice of Teaching," chap. XII; Parker, "Talks on Pedagogics," chap. XVI; Sogard, "Public School Relationships," pp. 1-34 and 60-83; Dutton and Snedden, "Public School Administration," chaps. IV, V, VI; Gilbert, "The School and Its Life," chap. XXII; Gordy, "A Broader Elementary Education," chap. III; Hinsdale, "Studies in Education," chap. XV.

CHAPTER VII

NATURE OF THE SCHOOL

I. The School as an Organism.-It has been said that the school can exist with a Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a Garfield on the other. Such a statement is a confusion of terms. It assumes that the teaching process is all there is to a school. It ignores the fact that the school is an institution formed by the union of many classes, or elements. To say that the teacher and the pupils alone constitute the school is to say that a part is equal to the whole. It is to single out instruction, or teaching, as the one and only function of the school. But without proper organization, instruction is wellnigh impossible. It often happens that the teacher's most difficult and perplexing problems are outside of the school-house. The school is not a mere process, nor is it solely a mechanical or material thing. It does not cease to exist in vacation, nor is it destroyed when school-houses burn or crumble into ruins. Pupils and teachers come and go; taxpayers die; patrons move away; school officers are constantly changing; yet the school survives. The real school is a spiritual thing. It is a fundamental principle embodied in an institution. This fundamental principle is co-operation of all the forces of the community for the systematic training of children.

Co-operation the Life of the School.-Co-operation is the life of the school. The real school is the union of all

the classes composing it for the purpose of educating the child. The very best school that any community can have is found where the State, the school officers, the taxpayers, the parents, the pupils, and the teacher all work together harmoniously and effectively to accomplish the aims for which the school exists. On the other hand, the worst school that any community can have is found where there is the least co-operation among these classes. Between these two extremes there are all grades of schools, good and bad.

The great problem of school organization is to secure the efficient, hearty co-operation of all the classes represented in the school. That teacher is the best organizer who secures this intelligent co-operation and uses it wisely for the improvement of the pupil. What life is to the plant or the animal, co-operation is to the school. In this sense the school is an organism. The classes represented in the school are the organs of which it is composed. Each organ has its own work to perform, and all work together for the good of the whole.

Paul's Illustration.-The illustration that Paul uses in I Cor., chap. 12, is just as appropriate when applied to a school as to a church: "For the school is one body and hath many members. And the teacher cannot say to the parents, 'I have no need of you'; nor again to the school officers, 'I have no need of you.' Nor can the school officers say to the taxpayers, 'We have no need of you.' And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it." A poor school is the result of a lack of helpful co-operation among the several members, or organs, of the school, just as a diseased body is the result of some one or more organs failing to do the work for

which they are designed. The daily work of the most efficient teacher is crippled wherever there is a failure on the part of school officers to provide a good school-house, comfortable seats, proper heating, good ventilation, and decent out-buildings. No teacher, however faithful and capable, can entirely overcome the injury to the school caused by quarrels among patrons and by the indifference and carelessness of parents who take no pains to have their children regular in attendance and obedient to the rules of the school. In this sense it is not true that "as is the teacher, so is the school."

The Teacher's Work as Organizer.-We have spoken of the school as an organism, like the human body. Now just as there is in the body one organ whose special function is to bring into co-operative relation all the other organs of the body, so in the school there must be one member whose duty it is to bring all the other members of the school into unity of purpose and action. In the body this organ is the brain; in the school this member is the teacher. The teacher as an organizer must unite, inspire, and direct all the educational forces of the community. While he must always conform to public sentiment in school matters, he must, in fact, shape and re-form that sentiment. While he must obey strictly and in good faith the school officers from whom he derives his legal authority, he must, as a matter of fact, suggest and carry out the policy to be pursued in educational progress. While he must secure the good-will of his pupils and plan all his work for their good, he must, nevertheless, shape their ideals, direct their work, and set up their standards of scholarship and conduct. Thus it will be seen that while the school has many organs, or members, and that all of them are necessary to the work of the school as a whole,