LIBRARY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
IN MEMORY OF
STEWART S. HOWE
JOURNALISM CLASS OF 1928
STEWART S. HOWE FOUNDATION
B
Y712m
cop.S
I.H.S.
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG
AND A HALF-CENTURY OF THE
CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS
By courtesy of Chicago Normal College
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG
From the portrait by Louis Betts in the Chicago Art Institute
Ella Flagg Young
And a Half- Century of the
Chicago Public Schools
BY
JOHN T. McMANIS, Ph.D.
PORTRAITS, ETC.
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1916
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1916
Published September, 1916
W. P. HALL miNTINO COMPANY, CHICAGO
PREFACE
A T A HE difficulties encountered in writing the life of
* another are more than technical difficulties. To
interpret the spirit so as to make it common property
requires sympathy, grasp, and insight, balanced with a
judgment of values that is rare in all of us. In the
case of Mrs. Young the difficulties are particularly
great. Almost no help in such an undertaking can be
derived directly from her or from her immediate
friends. In the one case, her interest is in her work
and not in herself, making it impossible to secure per-
sonal touches needed to understand the meaning of her
acts; in the other, friends are jealous of relationships
and guard them closely. Many persons, however, have
placed their best efforts into this work and made it pos-
sible to write her life. To such I am under the greatest
obligation and should like to acknowledge their sym-
pathetic and invaluable help.
It must be evident that the worth of any benefactor
of the race is to be found in the principles for which he
has stood rather than in merely personal facts and pecul-
iarities. I have endeavored to write of the forces and
the interests for which Mrs. Young has labored, and
only secondarily of the persons who have worked with
her. If I have succeeded, in any measure, in the following
pages in showing the strength and the human effective-
ness of Ella Flagg Young, it is due more to a sympathy
for her efforts for the children of Chicago than to any
other qualification. "Institutions are but the length-
Preface
ened shadows of great men," and it is to the institutions
that we must look for the test of the part played by
each human being. Judged by this test, Mrs. Young
should have a high place among those who have
touched the bonds of ignorance and tradition and loos-
ened the spirits of the youth of a great city. Her real
biography is written in the hearts of those with whom
she has striven to make the public schools democratic
in reality and truth.
J. T. McM.
JUNE, 1916.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I A HALF-CENTURY OF CHANGE i
II EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION 15
III TEACHING SCHOOL FIFTY YEARS AGO .... 29
IV EARLY TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN CHICAGO AND
MRS. YOUNG'S PART IN IT 44
V A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF BUILDING A CITY
SCHOOL 56
VI SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION FROM 1887 TO 1899 AS
SHOWN IN THE WORK OF MRS. YOUNG . . 73
VII A CLASH OF IDEALS IN SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 87
VIII HIGHER EDUCATION FOR A WOMAN PAST FIFTY 101
IX ADMINISTRATION OF THE CITY NORMAL SCHOOL 123
X REORGANIZING A TIME-HONORED INSTITUTION 144
XI DEMOCRACY AND THE SUPERINTENDENCY OF
CHICAGO SCHOOLS 156
XII MAKING OVER A CITY SCHOOL SYSTEM . . .175
XIII C-H-I-C-A-G-O SPELLS OPPORTUNITY .... 200
XIV ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 212
APPENDIX
I ELLA FLAGG YOUNG'S WRITINGS AND ADDRESSES 227
II COURSES IN THE CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN
1861 AND IN 1916 228
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG Frontispiece
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG WHEN SHE BEGAN TEACHING . . 30
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG WHEN PRINCIPAL OF PRACTICE
SCHOOL 30
THE OLD BROWN SCHOOL 42
SKINNER PUBLIC SCHOOL 70
CHICAGO NORMAL COLLEGE 124
THE CARTER H. HARRISON TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL . 156
CARPENTER APPRENTICES IN THE LANE TECHNICAL
HIGH SCHOOL 184
THE WILLIAM W. CARTER SCHOOL 202
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 214
Those who live on the mountain have a
longer day than those who live in the valley.
Sometimes all we need to brighten our day
is to climb a little higher.
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG
CHAPTER I
A HALF-CENTURY OF CHANGE
life story of Ella Flagg Young requires its
background of events and forces in which she has
lived and wrought. The half-century since the Civil
War in America is fraught with social, economic, intel-
lectual, and educational transformations. Contempo-
rary with such changes, Mrs. Young has labored in the
public schools of Chicago. More than is usually given
to one person, she has actively influenced the course of
these changes in the Middle West. Since an account of
her life that neglected the educational and social history
of the time would be unintelligible, a brief survey of
conditions which have obtained in American cities and
in Chicago in particular must precede the attempt to
trace her life or to estimate her achievements as a
teacher and educational leader.
Nothing is more significant in all this period than
the growth of cities. Chicago has sprung from com-
paratively a village to a metropolis covering almost an
entire county and occupying second position in size
among American cities. From east and west, north
and south, populations have poured into the close con-
fines of the city. Older lands across the sea have so
emptied their people into tenements that some of
the centers of foreign populations in our cities are
Ella Flagg Young
greater than the capitals of the fatherland. A babel
of tongues meets us wherever we turn, and a city school
may contain more than two score nationalities and
races.
It is difficult to realize the far-reaching significance
of a transformation of peoples from rural to urban
conditions, especially when this takes place within the
lifetime of workers in the fields of public service. Of
this growth of Chicago no one has been a keener stu-
dent than Mrs. Young. It has fascinated her. One
question has been in her mind for many years: "How
can the school fuse all these diverse elements so as to
produce the unity essential to a democracy?" Greater
efforts seem to have been made toward coining alluring
phrases than toward sober thinking of how to bring
about a union into a harmonious whole of this mass of
people dwelling in the closest physical proximity, but
separated by gulfs of racial traditions, standards, and
prejudices, institutional forms and practices, and per-
sonal interests. Against the actual difficulties of bring-
ing about an amalgamation, few leaders have been able
to fight and still retain their faith in the ultimate tri-
umph of popular control of institutions. To call the
public school"a "melting pot," for instance, as Mrs.
Young unweariedly reiterates, is to miss the essence of
the matter in reducing these elements to a democracy.
That end can only be attained by spreading intelligence
and a sense of responsibility for the control of the
social whole.
How few men and women have realized their oppor-
tunities of aiding the growth of a social solidarity in
cities is shown by the readiness with which they have
A Half -Century of Change
been drawn into narrower fields of personal gain and
individual aggrandizement. A character, therefore,
like that of Mrs. Young stands out conspicuously
against this background of individualism and self-
seeking.
Connected intimately with this growth of cities has
been the revolution in the status of women. Machin-
ery has transformed home life and its surroundings and
taken home industries of a couple of generations ago
to factories, thus depriving woman of her share in the
world's work. Contrary to 'the accepted belief that
woman has followed these industries out into the world,
Mrs. Young pointed out in an address before the
National Education Association in 1915 that
The work has been taken from her, but she is not doing it in the
world outside the home. We teach girls sewing, we teach them
cooking. Do they go out into the world and manage the great
restaurants, the kitchens of the great hotels? Certainly not.
Men cook in the large establishments. And so with sewing.
Girls are taught to sew. But if you or I want a tailor-made
dress, we look around and find a man to make it. Even in the
exercise of the two occupations which industrial education
assigns to woman as hers by unquestionable right, she is not
permitted to follow her work out into the world. There are
some lines of designing and millinery to which she is admitted,
but after all, in the great industrial world woman seems to have
nothing to do, excepting to wrap bundles and address them,
to make boxes, and to do small things like that.
But occupations are now open to woman not known a
half-century ago. When Mrs. Young began her work,
teaching was the only profession accessible to woman,
and even that was new to her. Freedom of women for
self-support in industry and in professions has been
developed in this generation.
Ella Flagg Young
From scattering agitations by "Blue Stockings" in
1862 for the rights of women to full-fledged voters at
the close of a half-century marks a progress of events
hardly surpassed in any other period in the history of
America. Legal restrictions following social and con-
ventional restrictions have been removed and woman
has been given the position of a self-directing person
in the state. A life cast within this period of history
has been compelled to readjust itself to an ever-shift-
ing social valuation of the place and importance of
women, and such has been the history of the life of
Mrs. Young.
Not only has the entire fabric of economic and social
life undergone a revolution during this period, but the
status of children has likewise been transformed. In
changing from rural to urban homes, child life met the
reverse fate of that of woman. In the country the
child was free to come and go and to do his " chores"
of farm life, but in the city he has lost the wholesome
duties and outdoor activity and has been bound by hard
conditions of city life. Servitude in the South, while
more spectacular as a principle to fight against, was no
more a crime upon the heart of a nation than the rush
of industrialism of the city to subjugate childhood to
spindle and machine.
During the last half-century the doctrine of " rights
of children" has been written in this country. In the
fight to free children from early labor and to give them
free opportunities for education, one legal act after
another was necessary. And the transformation in the
legal rights of children has been wrought mainly
through a sympathy for childhood and an understand-
A Half -Century of Change
ing of its needs that did not exist before. The first
swing of the pendulum away from the rod as an educa-
tional method carried to a freedom amounting to
license. In the meantime, however, an insight into the
needs of childhood brought play, constructive work,
and motor outlets as food on which children are to
grow to strength of manhood and womanhood. We
no longer permit "the lash on the tender bodies of
growing children," nor do we turn them out to their
own devices to run wild at pleasure. Our playground,
community garden, and school shop and gymnasium
provide for the demands of growing boys and girls.
No pen can picture this growth in democracy, in
humanity, and in intelligence of the sentiment for chil-
dren that has sprung into existence during a brief half-
century. Parents doubtless loved their children as
much then as now and were often as intelligent in their
treatment. But they did not see children as social
assets and did not treat them from the point of view
of this social relationship. In proportion as the home
has been compelled to surrender to the factory its
place in the industry of the world, its power over the
control and education of children has been surrendered
to the school and other agencies of the state. With this
surrender" of children has come the appreciation of a
broader civic view of the individual. He belongs to
society, to the state, to humanity, and only indirectly
to the narrow bounds of his own individual demands.
Emphasis upon bodily health and efficiency, upon order,
upon morality and intelligence, has changed from indi-
vidual health and morality and intelligence to social
efficiency and service. "All children must be in the
Ella Flagg Young
public schools, the schools provided by society for its
own necessities," says Mrs. Young. During her half-
century of teaching she learned this lesson from changes
wrought by the life of the city.
In the light of the history of the status of children in
cities during the past generation it is clear that city life
falls most heavily upon the shoulders of the young.
The highly technical principles of business and industry
on the one hand, and mechanical processes forced upon
operatives by modern machinery on the other, crush the
child as between an upper and nether millstone. Com-
pulsory school regulations have served mainly to post-
pone the entrance of the individual into this chaos of
occupations and interests. Instead of merely raising
the age of turning children loose to become a prey of
modern industrialism, the demand is growing for
direct and comprehensive training in the processes, the
demands, and the possibilities of life.
But a democracy of education and culture that meets
the demands of such modern conditions is a recent
growth. Fifty years ago it was a vision of the far-
sighted^ written into constitutions and declarations, but
unborn in its applications to the needs of all classes and
types of children. Unheralded, academic and scholas-
tic ideals of education have been gradually giving place
to ideals of caring for and training all classes in all
lines of human endeavor. Such a change, commensurate
with the upheavals in social and industrial life, is of
slow growth. The theory is spreading and becoming
fact that the school shall become shop, laboratory
miniature state, agricultural experiment station, office,
manufacturing plant, industrial center, social organism,
A Half -Century of Change
center of domestic activity, in fact, all things that men
and women find it necessary to study and become
expert in handling.
Schools can no longer be the silent halls of dark and
mysterious book lore for the few, as they were a gener-
ation ago, but are to become living, striving social
groups where the young learn the parts they are best
fitted to play. Avenues are opening to all classes and
all degrees of capacities and interests. Recognition
that the " Little Red School House " failed to fulfill
the mission proclaimed for it is generally, if vaguely,
accepted. When children worked alongside their par-
ents in home or field the three R's may have had an
excuse for being considered the " fundamentals " in
education, but even then, in view of the fact that such
methods ruined the soils of farms from one end of the
country to another, produced poor farm stock and
inadequate methods, and that boys and girls rushed
away to cities to take up unskilled or clerical and pro-
fessional positions, bare academic instruction evidently
failed to meet the needs of society.
With the idea that all classes of children should be
put to school has come the responsibility of providing
facilities and opportunities for crippled, blind, tuber-
cular, anemic, epileptic children, as well as for children
with healthy bodies and minds. A comprehensive his-
tory of modern education will show the dawn of this
appreciation of the right of each to the training that
best fits him to live his life in society and the consequent
necessity for broadening the work of the school to meet
such a condition.
Changes in social and economic life, in the place of
8 Ella Flagg Young
women in society, in the treatment of children, and in
the educational institutions of this period are paralleled
by a transformation of the status of teachers in the
public schools and of the ideal of what teachers should
be. Trained teachers, regarded now as essential fix-
tures in the school, have not always been thought nec-
essary. At the beginning of the period training was
regarded as necessary for teachers by only the very few
who saw the failures resulting from ignorant and
careless teaching.
Through the tireless efforts of this minority of great
leaders the city organized a normal school so as to pre-
pare young women to teach. When, at a later time,
this school was closed by political influences, the ideal
for which it stood was not lost. After the closing of
this school, teachers were, for a number of years,
selected from high-school graduates who, of course,
had not been trained in teaching. Though it was evi-
dent that this practice was inadequate, several years
intervened before another attempt to train teachers
was made by the city. In the history of this movement,
therefore, there has been no uniform practice. The
result has been that at some times more trained teachers
were available than could be used in the schools, while
at others the schools were clamoring even for substi-
tutes. The practice of drawing teachers from outside
communities through examinations has been a common
one, but that, too, has never given an adequate supply.
The normal school of recent years has been crowded
with young people training for service in the schools,
and the professional standard has been continually
advancing.
A Half -Century of Change
Specialization of work in teaching has been going on
increasingly and will doubtless continue. Very recently
a plan of selecting men and women from the trades to
teach special industrial processes has been practiced.
Encouragement of ambitious teachers by offering in-
ducements for further study and preparation is also
found in Chicago. Adequate preparation and advance-
ment of teachers in the professional spirit have been
questions of great concern to leaders in education. For
a half-century Mrs. Young puzzled over this problem.
Her special interest always lay in securing the best
teaching for the children of the city, and this she real-
ized could only be had where life and energy, backed
up by training, found expression in the teacher.
Far from being unorganized individuals as they were
fifty years ago, teachers have come to represent a highly
organized community. They have come to feel that
they have interests in common. With this feeling has
come a sense of responsibility to society not felt a few
years ago. Furthermore, they are now demanding
the standing in society which belongs to them in their
important work. Mrs. Young has been so active in
both the professional training of teachers and the fos-
tering of community spirit among them that she has
involved herself in many fights at great sacrifices to
herself. Among the forces controlling the public
schools, none is more important than organized teach-
ers. Such organization has made impossible the thrusts
aimed at individual teachers in times past. At the same
time, teachers' interests have come to be quite clearly
identified by the public with the interests of the schools,
and attacks on them must be by way of subterfuge.
io Ella Flagg Young
Through organization and through cooperation and
contribution to common causes, the teacher has become
a force in determining public policy both inside and
outside the schools. It is this change, unrealized by
many in the city, that has precipitated the conflict be-
tween school management and teachers during the past
few years. Such friction will doubtless continue until
people generally estimate justly, on the one hand, the
genuine allegiance of teachers to the interests of chil-
dren, and on the other, the sham professions of politi-
cians and representatives of private interests seeking
to control the schools through representation on politi-
cally constituted school boards.
All these changes in institutions and practices have
been wrought through much opposition. Government
by the people has not always furnished most effective
results. It was fondly hoped by the founders of the
public schools that the people should receive in them
the rudiments of training necessary for all practical
purposes. With the growth of cities and complex mod-
ern demands the problems of such training have grown
far beyond the conceptions of the founders. Every
change in school work and school organization has
been so bitterly fought that effectiveness of teaching
has been very seriously retarded and even menaced.
Educational history for the past half-hundred years,
therefore, has been a continuous fight for a broadening
of the school, a liberalizing of its methods, and an
emancipation of its teachers.
Art, science, and nature study have literally pushed
their way into the schools. The graded system, opposed
strenuously as an innovation, was, when once adopted,
A Half-Century of Change n
fought in turn because of its iron grip on school organi-
zation. It has already been made clear that profes-
sional training of teachers and organization of teachers
have met antagonism. In the same way the movement
for vocational education has encountered this fire of
opposition. "Cultural" and "practical," as applied
to education, have been words to conjure with for many
a year, and the fight still goes on with parties lined up
on two sides demanding concessions of the schools. All
sorts of forces are found combined to fight progress or
change in any direction, sometimes within and some-
times without the school.
In Illinois, during the past few years, this wrangle
has been going merrily on. Vocational schools, modeled
on those of Germany, run as separate institutions, are
urged upon the people. Opposed to this plan stands
the work of the schools as they exist, with a demand for
the broadening of their facilities to meet industrial
needs. One of these plans is called "dual," undemo-
cratic, and un-American, while the other is proclaimed
a "unit" system, and democratic because it keeps all
the children in one set of schools. In reference to this
scheme, Mrs. Young said in one of her reports:
The difference between the prevocational classes and that
proposed by the manufacturers in a bill offered in the state leg-
islature in 1913, lies not in the degree of skill acquired but in
the appeal to spirit. When the fourteen to sixteen-year-old
children of the working classes are cut off from everything in
education except that which bears directly on shop work, the
life, the character of the American workman will lose the stimu-
lus that comes through the humanities. All our classes pre-
vocational, apprentice, and vocational are breathing the breath
of life in schools where skill and science are well taught, not,
12 Ella Flagg Young
however, for personal or trade ends only, but in an atmosphere
in which an industrial career is dignified as an element in the
social movement of the American people.
A summary of this antagonism to progress will
reveal that its forces have been of two sorts : tradition-
alism on the one hand, and special or political interests
on the other. Traditionalism in one form or another
has acted as a drag on the wheels of progress. Both
within and without the schools this force has thwarted
efforts to improve educational practice and discredited
suggestions as " theoretical." The most fatal form of
traditionalism has been a narrow academic interpre-
tation of education. Advances in work, for example,
to improve English teaching, to introduce nature study,
art, song-singing, and whatever has given life to chil-
dren, have met traditional teaching as an almost insur-
mountable obstacle. Doubtless everyone can recognize
the difficulty of bringing a great body of teachers and
principals, educated under a past regime of scholastic
and academic discipline, to meet the demands of a
changing and a scientific age.
Inertia and reactionism of society, and of teachers
in particular, are formidable foes to progress; but
active special interests, represented by our political sys-
tem, must be reckoned as more formidable foes. The
fight that has been waged over school matters in Ameri-
can education for fifty years has in no small measure
come from the demands of special and selfish interests.
Intrenched in our political system, they dominate boards
of education. Power is placed, either by election or
appointment, in the hands of a body of u representa-
tive" men and women, and with this body rests the
A Half -Century of Change 13
welfare of the schools. One of the interesting facts
in the psychology of the ordinary American is that no
public problems are too difficult or too technical for
him to undertake. Accordingly, during the past, one
board has introduced a number of innovations and the
next has swept all these aside with the contemptuous
designation of " fads." Lack of training in educa-
tional matters on the part of the board is surpassed
only by too great expertness in the field of city politics.
Though school boards have grown smaller in size
of late years in many cities, in the more cosmopolitan
centers they are still far too large for effectiveness, and
are composed of representatives of various nationalities
powerful in the city, and of various special or insti-
tutional interests business, religious, and political.
When such " influences " bring about appointments, it
follows that these will serve first the forces which put
them there, and secondarily, the schools. It is known
both within and outside the teaching body that no
matter how needful or how beneficial some proposed
educational policy maybe a textbook to be adopted,
the teaching of some particular subject, the purchase of
equipment for a school, the selection of a site for a
school building, the fashioning of a school budget, or
the appointment of some subordinate administrative
officer it must run the gauntlet of special interests
irrespective of its merits for the schools. A board so
constituted compels a superintendent to be a politician.
He must know when to push matters and when to let
them drop; must know which forces are to be appeased
and which to be ignored; must, in a word, be able to
lead the issues through the agency of men without
14 Ella Flagg Young
special intelligence in respect to schools but at the sam
time creatures of many interests.
In the light of the tremendous revolution in socia
and economic life during this period, any weakening o
men and women through pressure of tradition an<
politics is destructive to progress. To keep educatioi
abreast of the times, even under the best conditions, re
quires constructive genius of a high order. In no lin
of work has it taken greater strength of character
keener intelligence, more adept management, an<
greater sacrifice of self-interest than it has to teach am
administer the public schools of great cities in thi
country. The same amount of talent and investment ii
training in any other line of business would doubtles
have made many men and women more noted in th
community and given them greater ease than that founi
in teaching. That Mrs. Young has been content t<
work for the children of the city and devote all he
power to that one problem regardless of personal gain
is a mark of a spirit of unselfishness unsurpassed. Th
great army of men and women with whom she ha
worked have for the most part sustained the same en
during and far-reaching devotion to the welfare of th
young of Chicago and other communities. Their worl
has gradually brought the dawn of a new day for boy
and girls of the city. In the half-century of Mrs
Young's work the world of childhood has gained ai
importance commensurate with its value to the state
and the life given to this work is worthy a place wit!
the statesmen of the world.
. CHAPTER II
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
'IpHAT " life prepares her actors behind the scenes "
-*- is peculiarly true of the early life of Ella Flagg
Young. Born in Buffalo, New York, January 15, 1845,
the daughter of a mechanic, her early years a continual
fight for life, Ella Flagg gave little promise of becom-
ing the leading woman educator of her time in America
and the world. She was the youngest of three children,
of whom one was a boy. The eldest was quickest of
wit and a ready observer of everything in her environ-
ment. The boy was a healthy, sturdy youth with a
remarkable aptitude for sketching and illustrating with
the pencil. Ella was a delicate child and grew up know-
ing little of other children. Her mother said that her
chief aim was to make Ella as well and happy as
fresh air and sunshine would help to make a delicate
little girl.
The home in which she grew up was an inconspicuous
American home of the highest type, simple and whole-
some, a place where freedom and self-control were
practiced and taught. From the beginning she was
accustomed to the religious, social, and intellectual
advantages that go with the culture and the refinement
of such a home. Her people were Presbyterians. But
tolerance and liberality found a conspicuous place in
this home, where the father refused to accept some of
the rigid dogmas of the church, such as that of "pre-
destination." In later years Mrs. Young describes her
15
1 6 Ella Flagg Young
home thus: "My mother was a religious woman, but
she believed that religion should not be so strict as to
drive young or old from the home in order to find
amusements." For this reason, card-playing, dancing,
theater-going, and reading books of the day were per-
mitted and encouraged by her parents. To the spirit
of tolerance thus bred in her, Mrs. Young undoubtedly
owes much of her freedom from cant and dogmatism.
"Blood will tell" is a fact that makes lineage the
most important clue to the character of men and
women. Of Mrs. Young this is conspicuously so. Her
father and mother, Theodore and Jane Reed Flagg,
were of Scotch descent, though both born in America.
They came of a clean, hard-headed race, thrifty and
industrious, given to abstract and philosophic thinking.
Both of her parents possessed these qualities in re-
markable degree, and both were highly individual in
their characters.
That her mother came of the Highland clan of
Cameron is the one bit of personal pride in her history
of which Mrs. Young will converse freely. The mother
is described as a handsome woman, with a merry laugh,
and a readiness to assist a friend in trouble or sickness.
Her skill in caring for the sick was well known and she
was often called upon when the illness was not sufficient
to demand the care of a physician. Occasionally Mr.
Flagg remarked that it would be well for other mothers
to learn to care for their children when ill, and so not
be obliged to take his wife from her own duties and
increase her labors. "There is nothing strange," says
Mrs. Young, " in the fact that I have taken so readily
to practical affairs and have had ability to manage. My
Early Life and Education 17
i
mother was the manager of our household, and we
always looked to her for guidance. She attended to
household finances and directed practical matters. Her
mind was practical and forceful in business details, and
from her I learned to face situations squarely."
The father was a man endowed with a keen and sen-
sitive mind and a thoroughly democratic spirit. An
only child, left an orphan in infancy, apprenticed by a
cousin to the sheet-metal trades, he received the train-
ing common to boys of his time. When the apprentice-
ship had been completed to within three years, the
youth went to his foreman and asked what extra work
would be received in lieu of the work of the last two
years of an apprenticeship. After a week's considera-
tion, the foreman handed him a list of the things addi-
tional to the work of the year then under way. He
laughed as if the impossible had been laid down, and
walked off. Day and night, out of working hours, the
young apprentice labored at the job and completed it,
thus freeing himself two years before he otherwise
would a full-fledged mechanic. As a man he was
known as the swiftest workman in the sheet metals
throughout the cities on the Great Lakes.
Although his life at school closed at the age of ten
years, he was well read in history, current affairs, and
science. Illustrative of his interest in reading is his
advice, in later years, to his daughter, on the occasion
of her entrance into the normal school, not to take his-
tory, for, he said, she could get this knowledge by her
own reading advice, as we shall see, that bore fruit
in one of her most permanent habits. Some of the
books which her father found time to read conflicted
1 8 Ella Flagg Young
with the beliefs of his church, and, as already remarked,
formed one of the early recollections of Ella of relig-
ious discussions between her father and his friends.
His knowledge of affairs was often sought by men
in all lines of business. His chief strength lay in mathe-
matics, a capacity which was transmitted to his daugh-
ter. At one time in later years he did a piece of work
requiring great exactness in computation and in exe-
cution. After it was completed the firm responsible for
the contract became uneasy and believed that for its
own security the covering should be opened and exist-
ing conditions determined. Mr. Flagg told them it was
unnecessary but that if they were determined to exam-
ine, he wanted them to make note that they would find
the work done as indicated in his calculations and draw-
ings, and each part securely supported in its place. His
statement was found to be correct.
The sensitiveness of his nature was shown by the
effect of an unfortunate business venture. Through an
unprincipled partner he lost the business he had spent
years in building up, and this experience crushed all de-
sire to enter business again for himself, though on more
than one occasion he was urged to do so and at one
time was offered a partnership in a large firm of which
he had the management in Buffalo.
It was from him that the daughter came by a certain
readiness of illustration. The evening of the day when
she began the study of geometry, she said to him, " I
can't see it, and I said so in class today. The teacher
talked, but I couldn't see anything in what he said."
She then explained her difficulty, which lay in the fact
that every string, or thread, or even a chalk line on the
Early Life and Education 19
blackboard had breadth and thickness, though the defi-
nition of a line stated that it had length only. Her
father asked, " Can you start from where you are and
think in a bee-line to the top of the flagstaff on the
courthouse ? " She then caught the bearing of the later
definition of a line the path of a moving point.
Through a consideration of these strains in the in-
heritance of Mrs. Young we are enabled to understand
some of the dominating traits of her character. The
retiring, almost shy, disposition which makes publicity
distasteful to her, on the one hand, and the forceful
handling of whatever problems meet her, on the other,
are characteristics most noticeable in her life. Her
Scottish ancestry runs through all the relations of her
professional and private life, makes her reticent about
herself and her personal affairs, gives her a keen, prac-
tical mind filled with a sense of humor, and, at the same
time, appears in her serious and relentless pursuit of an
idea or an issue.
As a child, she was accustomed to sit for hours watch-
ing her father at his work at the forge and to ask
questions about the processes he followed. " In this
way," she says, " I got an early training in handiwork
and industrial processes. I had manual training before
such things were thought of, especially for girls." So
well did she learn the trade of her father, with its prac-
tical bearings, that many years later, when she was dis-
trict superintendent in Chicago, she was offered the
management of a large manufacturing plant because,
as the owners said, " she knew more about its affairs
than anyone else." The fact that her mother and
father took so deep an interest in treating her in an
2O Ella Flagg Young
open and frank way, and in giving her insight into what
they thought and did, is of itself evidence that her par-
ents were unusual people. The training in affairs which
they gave her showed itself later in her interests and
activities. No one is more quick to see the value of
this early influence than Mrs. Young herself, and her
loyalty to the memory of her parents is a thing sacred
to her.
No one seems to have thought it necessary to teach
Ella Flagg the use of books; in fact, she was about
eight or nine years of age before she learned to read,
and then she literally taught herself.
At the breakfast table one morning there was much
excitement over an account in the morning paper of the
burning of a schoolhouse. Ella was especially im-
pressed by her mother saying, in a horror-stricken tone,
"Think of it, little children of Ella's age threw them-
selves out of the upper-story windows ! " After the
family had left the table, she asked her mother to
read it to her. Then, taking the paper into her arms,
she went weeping into a room by herself and tried to
read. She remembered the exact beginning, and fitted
it with her finger to the words in the newspaper. She
soon became aware that she did not know the words
after the first few lines, and she went to the kitchen
and asked the "girl" to read it. In this way she was
able, finally, to read the whole acount, which, fortu-
nately for her, was not long. She became interested
immediately in learning to read. If her reading was
late and untaught, her penmanship was still later, for she
refused to learn to write until she was ten years of age.
No further notice was taken of this acquisition until
Early Life and Education 21
me day when there was a quilting bee at the house,
ind in the course of conversation she spoke out, utter-
ng some positive ideas. What she said she does not
:now, but she remembers distinctly the looks on the
'aces of the quilters, and her mother's putting her arm
iround her, saying, " I don't know how this little Cal-
r inist got into the family, but we are all glad she is
lere." The quilting was resumed, and Mrs. Cameron,
ler mother's aunt by marriage, called the little girl to
it by her. Soon the aunt spoke out, " Jeannie, do you
:now what this child is reading? Baxter's Call to the
Jnconverted" The ladies started to laugh, but her
nother's tone and manner were so calmly dignified
yhen she said, "Ella, put on your sunbonnet and go
o your garden," that Ella went in silence from the
oom. The next day her mother took her down town
,nd the little girl returned with Mother Goose in her
land. In the meantime, Baxter had disappeared, and
iccause of a sensitiveness about the ladies and some-
hing not understood, she did not enquire about the
iook. Years later, when breaking up the home after
ter mother's death, she came across the Call to the
Jnconverted at the bottom of a trunk filled with maga-
ines and books.
Most of her early reading, however, was serious-
linded material, such as she found in the family
ibrary, and hardly fitted, according to present-day
tandards, to the mind of a child. Before ten she had
ommitted to memory the Westminster Catechism and
lost of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Epistles to
be Corinthians, and the Psalms.
On account of illness, Ella was not sent to school
22 Ella Flagg Young
with the other two children until they were in the gram-
mar department, her mother adhering to the plan of
developing her physical strength. Each year she was
given a piece of ground and was obliged to cultivate this
flower bed, and also to care for certain garden vege-
tables. When gardening became a subject of instruc-
tion in the schools, after she had taught many years,
she was an ardent supporter of the work, but more than
once she quietly remarked to her friends that personally
and practically she detested gardening, although pro-
fessionally and theoretically she believed that every
child should like it, should love plants and their
ways.
As a child, after learning to read, gardening was
made less objectionable by means of a plan which she
and her brother adopted. He would bring her chair
to the garden bed, and, making herself comfortable,
she would read to him and expound the text while he
would weed and hoe. Many were the times when her
book learning was brought to a sudden pause by a
criticism or a question raised by the boy pulling weeds
or hoeing. She has said that these remarks and ques-
tions taught her early to be sure of the gist of what
she was reading, and to avoid verbose explanations
when she really did not know, in the full sense of know-
ing, what she was explaining. Such was the relation
between the mother and the children that this garden
study plan was submitted to her for approval and not
practiced surreptitiously.
As soon as she entered school, the management and
the recitations interested her deeply. She did not find
the strangers among the children interesting. In short,
Early Life and- Education 23
a child life spent with her mother had resulted in the
usual condition preference for the society of grown
people.
That quite early she saw the desirability of stating
an answer independent of illustration, is evident from
her reply when asked by her mother, as she was get-
ting ready for school, why she was so uneasy : " Today,
as you know, is public examination day, and when some-
body asks me, ' Why do you invert the divisor in divi-
sion of fractions?' I can't reply." Her mother asked,
"What can you do?" "I can show it by going back
to one." Her father's democracy was shown when he
detected a developing priggishness in her, after she
was made a monitor and given a desk by the side of the
principal. One day at dinner he said, " She talks like
a little prig. What is she doing in school?" The
reply that she sat on the teacher's platform and taught
a class in Colburn's Mental Arithmetic, brought in-
structions that she was to have a desk on the floor
with other children, though she might continue to teach
arithmetic.
Upon her parents making their home in Chicago
just after her thirteenth birthday, she was greatly dis-
appointed to learn that she would not be eligible to
enter the examination for admission to the high school
until she had attended a Chicago grammar school one
year. She entered the highest grade in the Brown
School, but found it very wearisome to hear the class
going over what was known to her, and naturally, in
a few months, she dropped out. Five years later, after
she had taught eight months in the Foster School, she
was made head assistant of the Brown School.
24 Ella Flagg Young
In 1860 she was invited by some young woman to
go with her to the teachers' examination, which she
passed successfully but was too young to be awarded
a certificate. In dismay as to what to do with her, the
superintendent asked if she would like to enter the
Normal School, and she was entered.
Schools were endeavoring to effect an organization
that would make them alike in scholarship and disci-
pline. The Normal School was looked upon as the
chief instrumentality for forwarding the plans for sys-
tematizing the schools. Miss Flagg saw the aim, and
fell in with the means for securing it. With no reflec-
tion upon the principal of the Normal School, she
thought in later years that it was most unfortunate for
her that she loyally supported the school and its me-
chanical methods. Posture was thought to be a funda-
mental in a good school not a posture that was suited
to develop each one's body, but a posture in which each
child sat so exactly like the others that they all seemed
more like copies of a model than living individuals.
Many methods were like the mechanics in military
drill but wholly unsuited to the play of thought
Written examinations were the tests by which all were
measured.
Miss Flagg discussed her work and her lessons fre-
quently with her father. He was seldom entirely satis-
fied with the work of the schools, and always insisted
on her finding out the reasons back of things. One
evening she was looking at a cut of an hydraulic press
when her father asked her about it. After she had
finished, she knew from the look on his face that he was
annoyed. She left the room and returned as her father
Early Life and Education 25
was saying to her mother, " She had a fairly good mind
to start with, but if she continues under such teaching
she won't have any mind after a while." Greatly
depressed, she returned to the hydraulic press and,
carefully studying it step by step, discovered that a very
important piece was not in the cut. The next day a
written examination was given and one question was
on the advanced lesson the hydraulic press. All
papers except hers were marked zero on the press, the
important piece not having been inserted. In the talk
among the students about the zero, the opinion was
general that they should be expected to learn what
was in the textbook, not to find mistakes therein.
Through such thoughtful and sympathetic guidance
and such careful reading and thinking, she grew into
habits of reflection and scientific accuracy and appreci-
ation for the finer qualities of human life. Luckily her
mental energy was not frittered away by being ex-
pended on an endless list of namby-pamby child-books.
Her mind and body grew, free from the external dis-
tractions which are so common in our own day, and her
habits of study and self-control grew at the same pace.
In the professional study of the Normal School,
Wayland's Mental Philosophy was used simply to
develop the " Mental Faculties," and the theory of
" Formal Discipline." In commenting on this work,
she says:
I accepted the theory of the faculties, but I remember dis-
tinctly telling my mother that I thought if the whole object in
learning a subject was simply to get discipline out of it, that the
subject was not worth much. It would better be omitted. She
remarked that she hoped I would have an opportunity to put
my ideas into operation some day.
26 Ella Flagg Young
Her mother, who had noted the impression that
methods and system were making, felt greatly dis-
turbed, but not in the same way that the father was irri-
tated. The course was two years in length. In the
vacation before the beginning of the second year, the
mother had a talk with the prospective teacher, telling
her that it was probably best that she leave school,
abandoning the idea of becoming a teacher; that being
the youngest child, she did not know young children,
and having always dealt severely with herself for hav-
ing done wrong or blundered, she would deal with
other children as severely, which would be a mistake.
The daughter thought over the suggestions and then
planned to visit lower primary rooms once a week to
determine whether they would not interest her. None
of her classmates felt willing to enter on the plan of
visitation of schools, so she went alone. The first two
visits were made on hot afternoons in small recitation
rooms in which everybody seemed dull and sleepy. The
prospect was not encouraging. The third week she
went to a school a mile distant. Walking rapidly,
almost running at times, she knocked at the door of the
schoolroom of Miss Rounds. Upon explaining that
she was in the senior class of the Normal but didn't
know anything about young children, she was made
welcome and the children were given the information
which had been given the teacher. They smiled a wel-
come and she took a seat on the platform. In speaking
of that first-reader room, she says:
In the course of an hour, I was conscious that here was a
relation between teacher and children, an atmosphere envelop-
ing all, that I had never known in a school. The next week
Early Life and Education 27
found me again in that wonderful schoolroom. Soon after I
entered, the third week, Miss Rounds asked if I would like to
teach a class. From that time a part of every visit was spent in
teaching.
Later the mother told the daughter that her objec-
tion to her becoming a teacher was gone ; that the influ-
ence of association with real children was evident.
Two weeks from the day when Miss Flagg began
teaching, the mother died, but in that expressed doubt
and that observed interest she had awakened the sense
of responsibility acting through a personal interest and
a consciousness of what that interest may achieve,
which remained active through more than a half-cen-
tury of life as a teacher.
One by one the family ties of her early life were
severed by death. Charles Theodore Flagg, the
brother, was in many of the great battles of the Civil
War but received no wounds. He was killed when
traveling on a railroad train in 1868 in an accident
which brought death to him only. In 1868 she married
William Young, who had been a friend of the family
for ten years. Her work as a teacher was not aban-
doned, because of the uncertainty of Mr. Young's
health, which was precarious even at the time of their
marriage. Later he left Chicago on this account for
the West, where he died. Shortly afterwards, her
father and sister succumbed to pneumonia, and so the
family relationships were all closed by death long
before her work in the schools was ended.
It is worthy of comment, in concluding this brief
sketch of Ella Flagg' s early life, to note the insignifi-
cance of the school in her education as compared with
28 Ella Flagg Young
the influences of her home. Home occupied a larger
place in the education of children than it does at the
present time. She was not thrown at the tender age
of four into a crowd of children in the kindergarten
to be " socialized," but was left to grow up in seclusion,
learning life's lessons directly from parents and the
few other children of the home. She worked out alone
the questions of nature and of self-control. The home
in which she grew was fitted to build a strong, self-
directing life. In all the years of service in schools, she
recognized the dangers to children of the excitements
of modern city life which she saw in the light of her
own more primitive, quiet, sympathetic world of home.
CHAPTER III
TEACHING SCHOOL FIFTY YEARS AGO
ASKED what element of strength lies at the foun-
dation of her success in life, Mrs. Young replies,
" systematic work." All her life has been molded by
continuous application to definite lines of work, not in
a haphazard fashion, but in a carefully prepared plan
rigidly adhered to from the beginning. Few people
have been able to stick to a program more consistently
than she has. One of the plans formulated by her the
first year she taught was for the disposition of her time
outside of school hours. According to this plan, three
evenings each week were given to study; three were
devoted to social interests and to meeting people in
her community; and Sunday evening was reserved for
church.
Her first task on her study evenings was to review
to herself in an oral way the work of the previous eve-
ning, and then to go on with the advanced work. Out
of this systematic use of her time she has acquired
the ability to concentrate herself on the task at hand
and accomplish a great deal in a short time. She has
adhered to this plan of study all her life, so that her
mind is always posted on the latest books and ideas in
her work. Undoubtedly the plan of meeting and asso-
ciating with people has kept her in touch with others
and prevented her from becoming a book-worm and
recluse. In her selection of material for study, she
followed the advice of her father and began with his-
29
30 Ella Flagg Young
tory. Commencing with Hume, she studied ancient
and modern European and American history. In this
work she acquired a large library which later she used
to furnish books for her pupils in school.
When Mrs. Young began her teaching in 1862, the
world of education and society was propitious for an
ambitious young woman. Like all periods of modern
history, this was an age when great forces were operat-
ing social, economic, religious, intellectual. It was
an age of revolution in industrial interests, an age of
application of science and machinery to industry and
transportation. It saw the beginnings of the impetus
to great cities and city interests. Professional life was
rapidly broadening into wider fields than the classical
ones of ministry and law. This opening up of new
fields of professional life gave women greater oppor-
tunities in the work of teaching. New interpreta-
tions of education, new forms of schools, normal
schools, colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts,
were making their appearance at this time. In two
particulars this age was unique: it was the period of
the Civil War in America; it was an age of scientific
discovery.
The effects of the Civil War as an epoch-making era
in every phase of American life are too well known to
need elaboration, but in none of these phases were the
effects greater than in education. It was an age to
try the strength of men and women. Thousands of
America's young manhood were giving their lives in the
cause of an idea. Chicago, like every other section of
the country, was feeling the stress and strain of this
great strife. Not only was brother divided against
Teaching School Fifty Years Ago 31
brother, but end to free government was fully assured
in the minds of many men. The struggle for the per-
manency of democratic institutions made this age criti-
cal in the life of the race. Bitterness, sorrow, selfish-
ness, and even cowardice walked the streets beside
patriotism, enthusiasm, and self-sacrifice. Financial
depression, though keenly felt, was not the hardest of
the social problems. The effects of this war on the
minds of men are hard to determine. In camp and on
battlefield, men from all walks of life were brought
together on a common level to defeat or to be defeated.
In spite of the evils spread by the war, association of
men from all quarters of the country tended to break
up provincialism and to form a cosmopolitanism not
existing before. The power of local church and politi-
cal ties was broken and in their stead came laxity of
dogma and freedom from the domination of domestic
discipline.
The war made calls upon the schools in two direc-
tions, both of them extremely important in their bearing
upon the life of Ella Flagg Young. In the first place,
the young men who left the schools of Illinois and
other Northern states for the battlefields had to be
replaced by young women. Reluctant school directors
were compelled to employ women as teachers in order
that the schools might continue.' In the second place,
the war produced new demands upon the schools for
training in patriotism, in history, and in civics. A new
conception of the school as a preparation for citizen-
ship and as a public bulwark against internal strife and
external aggressions was born. American orators
waxed eloquent over free schools for a free nation.
32 Ella Flagg Young
Hereafter, "mental discipline" shares the place of
honor with training for citizenship.
It is thus evident that Mrs. Young began her teach-
ing at the outset of the modern " feminist move-
ment," just at the time when the war made it necessary
for women to take a larger share in the professional
life of the community. That position of prominence
in the woman movement she has held throughout her
career, always taking a step in advance with every open-
ing for women. Her work as a leader of this move-
ment has never been that of the advocate, but rather
that of the demonstrator of the capacity of woman for
places of responsibility in the affairs of the society.
From the agitation during the 'war and immediately
succeeding that period for school-training in citizenship
Mrs. Young received an inspiration which has been one
of her strongest motives in dealing with public educa-
tion. Her faith in the power of the schools to mold
men and women for the duties of the state has been a
dominant factor in shaping the work she has done in
this city. To her Chicago has been a great opportunity
for practicing the ethics of citizenship. It was the
insight that came to her during the very first years of
her teaching that led her to adopt as the foundation
of her educational philosophy the doctrine of the
responsibility of the school to society.*
* That Mrs. Young felt the value of education for citizenship and
studied diligently on the problem is evident from one of her earliest
addresses before the National Education Association which met in
Chicago during the summer of 1887. Her subject was "How to teach
parents to discriminate between good and bad teaching." She says
the day has passed when even a minority of parents can be induced
to visit schools. The school must stand on its ability to hold children
Teaching School Fifty Years Ago 33
As an age of scientific interest and discovery, the
period when Mrs. Young began to teach was unique,
and the influence on her entire life profound. Darwin
had but recently published his treatise on the Origin of
Species, and Spencer, in 1860, his book on Education.
The world was ablaze with controversy over concep-
tions long since considered finally settled. A British
writer quoted by E. L. Youmans* in 1867 says:
There have been, in consequence of revelations by scientific
research in this direction and that, some most notable enlarge-
ments of our view of physical nature and of history en-
largements even to the breaking down of what had formerly
been a wall in the minds of most, and the substitution on that
side of a sheer vista of open space.
However slow the profession of teaching to give
more than lip service to the new doctrines of science,
still, during the period under discussion, minds and
hearts were quickened through the efforts of the great
leaders of thought. Scientific interests and investiga-
tions could not long go on without attempts on the part
of those in the schools to carry over to educational
activities the questions raised by scientists. For the
most part the movement of science became effective in
education through its utilitarian bearing on the ques-
to ideals and habits of honesty, work, clear thinking, and this can be
done only as teachers possess these habits. " Parents who have seen
the influence of a high-grade instruction will need no suggestion re-
garding the difference, when a weak teacher or a sham assumes
charge of their children. . . . Although the patrons have done
but little visiting, it has long been evident that they not only appreci-
ate, but are keenly alive to the merits of the superior teacher." She
insists upon teachers making themselves felt in the community as
forces for control, a view that showed a clear recognition of the
social significance of the school.
* The Culture Demanded by Modern Life. D. Appleton & Co.,
New York.
34 Ella Flagg Young
tions of preparing the young for society. The Morrill
Act of 1862, establishing colleges of agriculture and
mechanic arts in various states, was an evidence of the
influence of scientific interests working out into school
life. As summarized by Youmans, " deeper than all
questions of reconstruction, suffrage, and finance is the
question what kind of culture shall the growing mind
of the nation have?" And the answer was given in
terms of the new realism being propagated through the
teachings of science.
To summarize the movements of the time when Mrs.
Young began to teach, we may say: Democracy at last
was demanding that the schools take account of the
resources of society, the needs of the community and
individuals, and the capacities of those being educated.
In this new movement of democracy the doom of aca-
demic culture, of religious and of aristocratic training
was sounded, and the schools were called upon to pre-
pare men and women for the actual life of the times
in a state where efficiency and initiative and moral
strength were the powers demanded. Discipline and
culture had concerned themselves previously with train-
ing the few in the classics, in mathematics, in philosophy
and logic, and had prepared only for the learned pro-
fessions. Henceforth education must concern itself
with the activities common to the people. Industry,
labor, agriculture, and all interests were now to be
considered as essential factors in the determination of
an educational scheme. Practicality and utility were
the tests that were to be applied relentlessly to the
schools from this period forward, no matter what the
grade of work.
Teaching School Fifty Years Ago 35
As already pointed out, Mrs. Young had been
brought up in a home where an open-minded attitude
towards scientific and philosophic questions was encour-
aged. That she readily took hold of the great questions
of the day is not surprising from such a^training as that
given her by her father. She insists that she was nar-
rowly academic in her practice and theory when she first
entered the schoolroom. But her mind was full of the
ideas of the time, and she was striving to understand
the problems of education as she found them in Chicago.
That she understood the needs of new work and new
practices is clear from her interest in the course of
study formulated by Superintendent Wells of the city
schools the year she began to teach. This course was
based on the Object-Lesson plan, the form which ele-
mentary science took in the schools of the period.
During her first year of teaching she wrote out all
the knowledge involved in this Object-Lesson, or oral,
course throughout the ten grades. This course in ele-
mentary science was in line with her early training and
her interests in the movements of the day.
Mrs. Young was first appointed to teach in a primary
grade of the old Foster School. , After six weeks in
this grade she accepted against the advice of all the
teachers in the school, because of the difficulty of the
class an upper grade, one known as the "cowboy"
class. It derived its name from the fact that most of
the boys in the class spent their time outside of school
"herding" the cattle belonging to the families of the
neighborhood on the prairies outside of the town. As
might be supposed, such a group of boys, like the
present-day "newsies," had a reputation that made
36 Ella Flagg Young
them undesirable in the schoolroom. In this room,
with many of the boys older and much larger than the
young teacher, she found no difficulty in meeting all
requirements of a good school. Only once during the
year she spent in the room did she have to resort to
harsh measures, and the effects of her treatment seem
to have been appreciated by the overgrown boy in the
case. A story is told of her custom of staying regu-
larly until dark in the schoolroom finishing the work
of the day. On one occasion one boy who had caused
her most trouble as a disturber in the room remained
after the others had gone, to remonstrate with his
youthful teacher for staying so late and going out on
the dark streets alone. Evidently her work with the
boys and girls had made some impression, since one of
them wished to see that she ran no risk in the neighbor-
hood after dark.
Like most beginners, doubtless Mrs. Young took up
her work in the school imbued with the "methods"
which she had been taught in the Normal School.
Doubtless, also, she was imbued with the spirit of
success, for, as already pointed out, she made her own
practice school while still a student at the Normal.
Unlike most beginners, however, she had few school-
room traditions to guide or hamper her, since most of
her education had been gained outside of the schools.
It was largely this lack of experience with the tradi-
tional school practice that enabled her from the start
to succeed in dealing with boys and girls, because she
never had any of the formality of teaching to overcome
in meeting children. She met her pupils openly and
frankly on their own level, without any of the conde-
Teaching School Fifty Years Ago 37
scending or stilted habit of the school-ma'am, and she
was able to hold them without force.
When Mrs. Young began her teaching the "pro-
fession" was not in very high standing. Normal
schools had not long been in existence, and few of the
teachers had made any special preparation for the
work. Chicago and Illinois were like the rest of the
country in this respect. A picture of the conditions in
Cook County is given in a letter of the late John F.
Eberhart, school commissioner of the county in 1859,
who says:
There was little interest in education outside of Chicago.
The county schools were without system and were very ineffi-
cient and neglected. There had been no school supervision,
because the pay for such service was only two dollars a day.
Certificates had been given indiscriminately at the request of
the directors, and many were teaching without certificates. . . .
There were then fifty-five teachers in the city, and one hundred
and ninety-eight in the county outside of the city. . . . The
situation was not inviting at first. Much of the territory about
Chicago was occupied by "squatters" and renters, mostly of for-
eign birth, who had but little interest in schools except to get
money out of them. In one district adjoining the city one
director was paid fifty dollars a month to superintend the erec-
tion of a two-room school ; his son got five dollars a month as
janitor, and his daughter fifty dollars a month as teacher, al-
though she had no certificate. In another district two of the
directors signed the teacher's schedule by making their mark.
... In another district there was a complaint that the teacher
got drunk. I visited the school and found two or three children
playing outside the schoolhouse and no one inside. I inquired
whether school was in vacation. They said it was not, but that
the " teacher was down at that house," and one of them volun-
teered to go for him. While the messenger was gone I plied
the other children with questions and learned that the teacher
spent most of his time with friends out of school and in sa-
loons, and that attendance was irregular though his last
38 Ella Flagg Young
schedule showed not a single absence for the whole term. They
also said that he kept a bottle locked up in his desk, from which
he frequently took a drink. His salary was fifty dollars a
month and he and his friends felt much aggrieved when his
certificate was revoked. (Quoted from Cook's Educational
History of Illinois, p. 263.)
Much as has been said in recent years about women
teachers, because of their unstable tenure of the posi-
tion making the attainment of a high professional
standing for teaching impossible, the fact remains that
until they entered the schools as teachers there was no
pretense of a profession of teaching. The men who
took up such work were either incompetent or were
ambitious young fellows striving to get on to some
other occupation and found teaching the easiest means
of securing a little ready money. Any man could teach,
no matter what his preparation or standing. Mrs.
Young entered the work just at the turning of the way,
and, as already pointed out, when women were becom-
ing the teachers. She was deeply interested in the
professional side of the work and set about learning
how to do the thing in the most effective way. In this
respect she was not unlike a great many other young
women of her time, though she proved unusually
successful in learning to do the work effectively.
She found the schools of the city striving to keep
room enough for the rapidly growing population. In
1860 Superintendent W. H. Wells reported that
It is well known that the greatest evil from which the schools
have heretofore suffered has been the crowded state of the pri-
mary rooms, and the large number of pupils necessarily given
to a single teacher. In this respect there has been some improve-
ment. One year ago the average number of pupils belonging to
Teaching School Fifty Years Ago 39
each teacher in the primary schools of the city was eighty-one.
The average number belonging to each primary teacher at the
present time is seventy-seven. The number is still too large by
at least seventeen, and fully seventeen-sixtieths of the efficiency
and value of the schools are sacrificed on this account.
The next year the president of the board of education
recommended legislation to raise the school age from
five to six years in order to relieve the overcrowded
conditions of the schools. In 1862 the superintendent
reports a large number of "branches," one school hav-
ing four rooms rented, all of which were reported unfit
for school children. It was estimated that year that
three thousand children between five and fifteen were
running the streets, and no relief was in sight for the
following years.
Not only was the profession of teaching in a low
state at the time Mrs. Young entered the work, and
not only were the lower schools overcrowded, but with
few exceptions schools were not equipped with appli-
ances now considered essential for teaching. Black-
boards were just coming into general use. Most rooms
in the city schools were heated with stoves, and teachers
were required by rule of the board of education to look
after the ventilation by opening windows. Into some
schools, of which the Foster was one, steam heating
had been introduced. Mr. Wells remarks that "it
must be confessed that in the art of heating and venti-
lating schoolhouses we have not made much progress."
State Superintendent Bateman said regarding this sub-
ject in 1860 that
The reckless indifference and cruel neglect of this essential fea-
ture of a good schoolhouse in many parts of Illinois surpasses
4O Ella Flagg Young
belief. . . . The disregard of the laws of health manifested in
the style of seats or benches often provided for young children
can hardly be too earnestly deprecated. Children at that tender
age, when curvature of spine or distortion of limb may be pro-
duced by slight and almost imperceptible causes, are required to
sit for hours daily in seats so constructed by ordinary house
carpenters as not only to be unpleasant and inconvenient, but
absolutely to do violence to every bone in their bodies. And
children immured in these spine-bending, chest-compressing fix-
tures are required to be as still and patient and sweet-tempered
as if their chairs were models of physiological adaptation and
anatomical skill. And when they grow restless and irritable
and stifled cries escape them, the sharp reproof often reveals
the truth that the cause of the irrepressible uneasiness is not
understood even by the teacher.
In Chicago matters were not much better, though the
new school buildings were furnished with single seats
and desks.
The course of study, as noted above, had been a
matter of active reorganization under the leadership
of Superintendent W. H. Wells. In reorganizing the
work utilitarian and scientific interests were kept in the
foreground. Mr. Wells said in 1861 that
The regular course of school studies, in most cities and towns,
is already sufficiently extended, and yet it is notorious that pupils
leave the public schools lamentably deficient on a great variety
of subjects connected with a sound, practical education.
It was with a view to furnishing sound, " practical "
education that the course was changed to give emphasis
upon physiology, mineralogy and geology, natural phi-
losophy, and chemistry " of common things." To thrust
upon the schools such a scheme of education at a time
when academic and book training was the only kind to
Teaching School Fifty Years Ago 41
be had by the teachers, was a sure way to add another
load of facts to be gained from books. Such was the
fate of the "object lessons," of the elementary-science
course, as it was called. It turned out to be a series of
lessons for language, most of which were committed to
memory by the children from the books. Nevertheless,
the efforts to change the course so as to make it more
"practical" and more in accord with newly awakened
interests in science were valuable and were fruitful of
stimulating the younger and brighter minds among the
teaching force to growth. It stimulated Mrs. Young
to know in detail the demands of this new line of edu-
cation, and from her work in connection with it she
soon outgrew the purely academic training which she
had received in the Normal School. In her criticism,
in later years, of this work in the schools Mrs. Young
has called it a "bottled science" course because of the
kind of material used to illustrate it.
From this brief summary of the social and intellec-
tual conditions of the time, of the poor preparation of
teachers, of the entrance of women into the schools,
of overcrowding, of poor equipment, and of the new
course of study, it must be evident that Mrs. Young
began to teach at a time when education was a live
element in the affairs of the city. Indeed, the period
marks a turning point in the history of American public
schools. Whether a free people can continue without
free schools was considered seriously at this particular
time. In her later activities and words on this subject,
it is evident that Mrs. Young learned very thoroughly
during these first years her lesson of the public and
social responsibility of the schools. Whatever the
42 Ella Flagg Young
equipment, and whatever the requirements of the course
of study, one thing she realized should be accomplished
by her school, and that was the preparation of the
young for participation in free institutions.
After one year in the grades as teacher, Mrs. Young
was made head assistant in the Brown School. Although
still a young girl, she remained here for two years. The
position enabled her to become acquainted with the con-
ditions and needs of the school as a whole. She was
untiring in her study of the management of the school,
of the course of study, and of the needs of children
and teachers. One of the most apparent needs, as she
soon found, was that of training the teachers for ele-
mentary schools. In every grade the work was an
exact counterpart of the intelligence and training and
sympathy of the teacher. Her interest in this subject
led her to prepare herself to help train them for service
in the schools. At the end of two years as head assist-
ant she was selected as the first principal of the new
" practice school " of the Normal. In order to pre-
pare as completely as possible she got permission from
the board of education to visit the Oswego (New
York) Normal School, where elementary science had
been worked out more fully than elsewhere in the form
of the "object lessons." Because of restrictions at
the school she failed to gain her desired end, and came
away no wiser on their " methods " than she went. But
her failure in no way dampened her intention to pre-
pare for the work of supervising the practice school,
and she set about making her own method of work.
In her own normal-school days she had succeeded in
making a practice school for herself, and now that the
Teaching School Fifty Years Ago 43
opportunity came for her to help train others she was
equal to the occasion. In this respect Mrs. Young
revealed one of her striking qualities by her " fore-
handedness," her readiness for the job calling her.
CHAPTER IV
EARLY TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN CHICAGO AND
MRS. YOUNG'S PART IN IT
THE conception that teachers are made, not born,
developed in this country only a short while before
Mrs. Young began to teach. Founded in 1856 as an
adjunct of the high school, the normal department had
been preparing "young ladies" to teach in the elemen-
tary schools of the city. Not all of the teachers, nor
even a large percentage of them, had come from this
school. Examinations held regularly provided most
of the teachers for the schools, and these examinations
were such that a person with the ordinary grammar-
school education, with or without experience in teach-
ing, might get into the occupation of teaching. The
normal department of the high school was not re-
garded highly at the time and its students were not
always of the better grade. But the importance of the
normal department was not entirely in the number or
the character of the students it turned into the schools
as teachers. The fact that it kept alive the idea of pro-
fessional training as an ideal for the teacher when such
an idea was vague and meaningless to most people, was
sufficient excuse for its continued existence. Profes-
sional training was becoming a recognized part of the
equipment of teaching, as well as of other branches of
learning.
It was well that such training was emphasized in a
tangible way at this particular time, because the func-
44
Early Training of Teachers 45
tion of the teacher was undergoing a rapid modification.
Vaguely held as was the new meaning then being given
to education as a preparation for a democratic society,
it was developing new lines along which teachers must
direct their energies. Ability to control children
through fear of the rod was giving place to control
through understanding the nature and needs of the
person being taught. Superintendent J. L. Pickard
says in his report to the Board of Education in 1870:
From time immemorial the teacher's acquaintance with arith-
metic, grammar, and geography has served as a passport to the
teacher's desk. It is but very recently that a knowledge of the
structure of the human body, and of its hygienic laws, has had
any weight in determining a teacher's qualifications.
No regard had been paid to the mental and moral
being of the children except so far as these were con-
cerned in pursuing academic studies. He continues :
The next step in our progress must be the requirement of
knowledge of the laws that govern man in his physical, mental,
and moral being. But in our path lie the obstructions of long-
established usage, and the lack of a really professional spirit.
. . . The impression has prevailed that the things taught were
of more value than the person taught. For the prevalence of
this impression teachers are themselves largely responsible. Rela-
tively too much stress has been laid upon the ability of the child
to stand the test of an examination in reading, writing, and
arithmetic too little upon its ability to meet the hard work of
life with resolute will, self-reliant and patient. . . . Our most
successful teachers are those who are keeping themselves abreast
of the times, who are constantly studying into the mental needs
of their pupils, and who spend more hours upon the " How to
teach " than upon the " What to teach," or rather, who, know-
ing well what to teach, are busying themselves constantly with
the discovery of the real powers of the child and of better
methods of application of means to the development of the mind
of the child.
46 Ella Flagg Young
One other agency besides the normal school was
instrumental in developing and keeping alive the newer
notion of teaching and the necessity for preparation
for the work, namely, the Saturday meetings and the
Teachers' Institutes. Much more was made of this
form of instruction then than in later days; in fact, this
was the only professional training many of the teachers
ever got. Through lectures on subjects and the teach-
ing of them, ideas were disseminated of a more modern
and humane nature. The better grade of teacher was
always faithful in attendance upon these meetings.*
In order to foster the training of teachers in the
normal department it was found necessary to establish
a school of practice. In 1865, at the age of twenty,
Mrs. Young was placed at the head of the newly
formed school. Superintendent Pickard reports at
length on the reasons for establishing this school and
for selecting Mrs. Young as its first head:
Intellectual qualifications alone are not sufficient to insure
success in the teacher, nor will mere theorizing, however thor-
oughly comprehended, add much to the worth of the young
teacher. Some actual practice is needed during the preparatory
Normal course. Our best Normal schools have their schools
of practice called " Model Schools." These considerations led
me to examine into the feasibility of adding this important
feature to our Normal school. That the school of practice
might be of the greatest value, it seemed to me that it should
be as near like the actual school as possible. So far as my obser-
vation had extended, the Model schools attached to the Normal
schools of the country were not the same in character as the
actual school for which teachers were being trained. The
pupils were generally the children of parents in easy circum-
*Among the instructors in these institutes in 1868 is the name of
Miss Flagg, who discussed the subjects "The Human Body Parts and
Uses," and " Common Objects."
Early Training of Teachers 47
stances who could afford to pay the tuition fee charged, and
very generally children who were well governed at home; so
that the discipline and instruction would be very uniform and
comparatively easy; while there was not variety enough to
develop to the fullest extent the tact of the teacher, not enough
of the worst element to lead the teacher to cultivate the graces
of patience.
Fortunately for us, the immediate proximity of one of our
grammar schools to the high school opened the way for just such
a school of practice as would meet our actual wants. The sug-
gestion made was most heartily accepted by the board of edu-
cation, and two rooms in the branch of the Scammon School
were set apart for this school of practice, without in the least
disconnecting them from the rest of the school. Pupils found
in these rooms are just what they would have been had no such
change been made, their course of study the same, their promo-
tions from class to class and from grade to grade the same.
These two rooms have been placed under the charge of the
training teacher, Miss N. Ella Flagg,* while the immediate work
of instruction and of discipline is devolved upon the senior
Normal class, each member having charge for two weeks during
the year. This school of practice has also been a school of
observation, for the oral instruction and nearly all the general
exercises have been conducted by Miss Flagg in the presence of
the whole senior class. The fears expressed at first that this
frequent change of teachers might affect injuriously discipline
and the progress of the school have been proved entirely ground-
less. There have been one or two instances only of marked dis-
obedience, perhaps no more than would have occurred under any
other circumstances, while the examinations for promotion have
showed progress unexcelled by any school of the same grade
under the constant care of one teacher. The experiment, for
such it was felt to be, has proved more than successful, and
the wisdom of the board in the selection of a teacher has been
fully established. The hearty cooperation of the principal of
the Scammon School merits commendation. Thus far the school
of practice has touched but two grades the sixth and seventh
grades. So far as discipline is concerned, which is the principal
* The N which here precedes Ella was a part of Mrs. Young's
name but never used by her.
48 Ella Flagg Young
thing to be considered, little more is needed, but in the work of
instruction its advantage may be gradually and profitably ex-
tended. The work of oral instruction in these two grades may
be in part committed to some Normal student who shows special
fitness for this work, and some time of the training teacher be
given to the oral instruction of one or two other grades, so that
the school of observation may be extended into the work of
other grades. The greater value of this new feature is yet to be
felt, as the teachers who have for the past year been combining
practice with theory shall enter the schools for which the trial
to which they have been subjected has proved them best fitted.
From year to year the reports are uniformly favor-
able on the work of this department of the Normal
School under its first principal. The president of the
board the next year says that the school under Miss
N. Ella Flagg has
Proved a very satisfactory success, and I do not say too much
when I say that this is not excelled by any similar school in our
country. The practical knowledge, the tact in teaching, and
discipline here gained by those preparing to teach is of more
real value to the young teacher than any gained in the same or
much more time in any other way. Many and perhaps most of
our teachers would be benefited and improved by a term in this
school.
The president of the next year says that
the Training Department, inaugurated some two years ago,
has been steadily growing in excellence and value since that
time, and is now an indispensable part of the Normal School.
(Report, 1867, p. 12.)
He further states that
The benefits flowing from the school of practice have been
plainly observable during the year. The graduating class of
1 866 have, with the exception of one who was physically unable
to teach, found employment, and success has uniformly at-
tended them. Their drill in the school of practice has had a
marked influence upon their teaching.
Early Training of Teachers 49
In 1868 Superintendent Pickard declares that
The success of the school of practice is established beyond a
question. Our schools owe more to this agency than to any
other I am tempted to say than to all others. The labor
imposed upon the two teachers of the Normal School and school
of practice is more than is just. An assistant teacher should
be provided Mr. Delano, that he may find a little more time to
give to the school of practice; and that Miss Flagg may be
relieved from the necessity of hearing recitations in the Normal
school, in addition to her duties in the school of practice, of
themselves arduous enough. I feel that I should urge the
appointment of an additional teacher, because our necessities
enjoin upon us the enlargement of the school in numbers. The
classes might well be larger. ... I would be glad to see the
time when no teacher, unless of some experience elsewhere, shall
be able to find a place until graduated from the school of
practice at least. (Report, p. 184.)
Again in 1869 the school of practice is highly com-
mended by the superintendent:
This school has maintained its standing, and has given addi-
tional proof of its great value to our work. Not one who has
passed successfully through this school has failed in the regular
work of the schools when assigned to duty after graduation. It
is not to be expected that all should exhibit equal power as the
result of training, for the school does not create, it simply
develops talent. It affords means for the cultivation of what-
ever power the pupil-teacher possesses. It gives direction to
power that might otherwise be misapplied, or fail entirely of
application. All who graduate from the Normal School know
what they can do, and set immediately about it with energy and
with increasing success as age gives experience. (Report, p. 196.)
In this statement of the superintendent there seems
to be implied the complaint of persons who had been
found lacking in ability to take on the training of the
school. It is out of this complaint later that difficulty
arose for the principal of the practice school.
50 Ella Flagg Young
In 1870 the normal primary building was erected
and the Normal School transferred to it from the high
school. The special committee of the board on high
school reported this year that
The first and second floors (eight rooms) of the Normal pri-
mary building are used for the school of practice. The members
of the senior class of the Normal department teach the pupils
attending this school under the charge of Mrs. Ella Flagg
Young, principal of the school of practice (a graduate of the
Normal department), thus saving no inconsiderable expense for
teachers who would otherwise have to be employed.
The same year the superintendent reports that " the
most responsible of all positions, that of the principal
of the school of practice, is filled by a normal
graduate."
In the same report the superintendent states that the
standard established by the committee on examination
of teachers had been gradually raised:
The average attainments of our corps of teachers is higher
than formerly. Our normal course is substantially the same
as it has been for years past. Is it not well to consider the pro-
priety of enlarging this course of study, or of advancing the
requisites for admission to the Normal school ? Since the estab-
lishment of the high-school classes it has seemed to me that our
Normal school might be made more efficient by taking the pupils
from these classes instead of from the grammar schools, as at
present, and thus give a more thorough course in mental science,
natural history, general history, and in the history of educational
systems, than we can at present furnish. The work of our
Normal graduates is good, but might it not be made still better
by a little higher degree of culture, especially in the direction
indicated above? A diploma of graduation should be a pass-
port to any place that may be vacant in our schools. But, to
this end, a broader and deeper culture is necessary. In our
present system some very important topics are touched very
Early Training of Teachers 51
lightly; others, not at all. An advanced standard of admission,
or an extended course of study, will meet the requirement, and
advance materially the interests of our schools.
Undoubtedly this demand for more advanced stand-
ards and extended course of study had grown out of
the complaints voiced in the previous year. The prin-
cipal of the practice school had found it impossible to
"create talent" and had been unable to make teachers
out of the children placed into her classes after only
a grammar-school training. She herself was studying
educational problems, and realized the need for making
a higher demand of the girls entering upon the prepa-
ration for teachers' courses. Since there had been no
separate " committee " for the Normal School or the
school of practice, all matters of scholarship and effi-
ciency devolved upon the two teachers in the school.
In undertaking to follow out the recommendations of
the superintendent for raising the standard of work to
meet the new conditions of the city, there was sure
to come friction somewhere, especially in a school
governed by the board of education as constituted in
Chicago.
On February 7, 1871, after the superintendent had
vainly striven with her to retain her place, Mrs. Young
asked to be transferred from the principalship of the
school of practice to the high-school class at the Haven
School. Characteristic of her whole career, she refused
to remain in a position which hampered her and gave
her no freedom for growth. The demand for fully
equipped teachers from a two-year training course
given to a lot of inexperienced girls just from grammar
school had compelled considerable weeding out of
52 Ella Flagg Young
incompetents, and in doing so, to use Mrs. Young's
own words, this " often hit the friends of the poli-
ticians." At the time of her withdrawal Mr. Walsh
of the board of education offered the following resolu-
tion, which was adopted :
RESOLVED, That the committee on examination of teachers
and the committee on the Normal primary school be, and they
are hereby requested to investigate, conjointly, and report to
this board at its next regular meeting, what changes, if any,
are necessary to be made in the management of the school of
practice to insure to the ladies attending said school necessary
instruction, and a fair and impartial consideration of their quali-
fications to teach in our public schools, and to promote among
the pupils an ambition to attain a higher standing in deport-
ment, and greater proficiency in scholarship than now prevails.
It is quite evident that Mrs. Young had tried to weed
out those persons whom the superintendent said lacked
" talent," and in doing so had run foul of the constitu-
ents of some of the board members, one of whom, Mr.
Richberg, remarks incidentally that
This question [he does not explain what the question is, and we
have no other evidence in the Proceedings] belonged to the com-
mittee on examination of teachers. There was no authority
lodged with either principal to remove unpromising pupils.
The committee not having attended to this matter, the two
principals had acted on their own responsibility.
And as a result of their action, Mrs. Young as prin-
cipal of the practice school had been the one to suffer,
while the principal of the Normal School had not been
mentioned or "transferred."
At this same meeting the superintendent suggested
" an extension of the Normal-School course for half a
Early Training of Teachers 53
year, in order to obtain a little more culture on the part
of the ladles who graduate there." His suggestion was
referred to the committee on examination of teachers.
At the next meeting of the board of education the
following is found :
The committee appointed at the last meeting to investigate
and report what changes, if any, were necessary in the manage-
ment of the school of practice, and also to report upon the super-
intendent's recommendation for an extension of the course of
study in the Normal school, report the following:
That, after the close of the present school year, the Normal
be made an independent school, and a committee of three mem-
bers be then appointed as a committee on the Normal school;
that hereafter a higher standard of scholarship be required for
admission to the Normal school, and two examinations for
admission to the same be held each year, and that the course
of study therein be revised and enlarged ; that the Normal
primary school be discontinued and the pupils thereof be trans-
ferred to the Scammon school; and that the pupils of the
Scammon school in the ninth grade be placed in rooms most
convenient to the Normal to form the school of practice; that
the pupils of the school of practice be, as to instruction and
discipline, in charge of the Normal teachers, and examinations
for promotions be made by the principal of the Scammon
school; and that in selecting special teachers for the school of
practice the following order be observed when practicable: ist,
members of the Normal senior class ; 2d, members of the special
class who are graduates of the high school; 3d, members of the
special class who have been connected with our public schools;
4th, members of the special class who have never attended our
public schools.
The progress made by the pupils of the school of practice is
reported as favorable. During the period since its establishment
until the present time 176 young ladies have passed successfully
through it as special teachers and have been appointed as regu-
lar teachers.
The regulation that required the Normal School to
push through inexperienced and occasionally incompe-
54 Ella Flagg Young
tent girls and make of them full-fledged teachers broke
down, and Mrs. Young was influential in breaking it.
If teachers were to be trained for the public schools
she insisted that they should get real training.
But she saw clearly that the board was not willing
to furnish the freedom necessary to carry on satisfac-
tory work, and refused to remain. Political influences
were at work in the board making it impossible for the
principals to keep incompetent students from gradua-
tion, when such students could secure the ear of a
member of the board of education. That such was
the case is clearly evident from the rule passed by the
board in 1873, brought about by the agitation over the
resignation of the principal of the school of practice.
This rule gave authority to the committee on examina-
tion and the committee on the Normal School to re-
move " any pupils who do not give promise of success
as teachers in the public schools." This provision, if
it had been lived up to by the board, would have se-
cured the demand which Mrs. Young made and would
have made of the Normal School a real training school
for teachers.
Mrs. Young's withdrawal compelled the board to
put the school on an independent basis and to organize
it so that it had the power to do its work without inter-
ference from outside influences. When she left the
school she promised the superintendent that she would
return to the Normal in another capacity should an
opportunity offer. In June, 1872, a year and a half
after having left the headship of the school of practice,
she returned to the Normal and taught mathematics
and helped direct the work of the school of practice.
Early Training of Teachers 55
She remained in this position until she became principal
of the Scammon School, in 1 876. Her work in training
teachers produced lasting effects in Chicago, and her
own success in school work has come in no small degree
through her work in this direction at that period. She
had become a student of professional literature and had
begun her interest in outside improvements that made
her a leader in the work. The reports of William T.
Harris, then superintendent of schools in St. Louis,
came to her and she used these to good advantage.
In 1877, the year after Mrs. Young left the Normal
School, it was closed by the board of education. Os-
tensibly the reason for closing it was that it was " grad-
uating more teachers than were needed," and that the
standard of teaching could be elevated by the examina-
tion system of admitting candidates to the schools. The
real reason for the closing of the school was that poli-
tics had again got possession of the situation and had
used this means of curtailing the influence of the public
schools. In spite of the efforts that had been made by
leaders in education to establish professional prepara-
tion for the teachers in Chicago, the board of educa-
tion was opposed to any system that was likely to
produce too great efficiency in the public schools.
CHAPTER V
A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF BUILDING A
CITY SCHOOL
TN 1876 Mrs. Young, unexpectedly to herself, was
* elected principal of the Scammon School. This
position she held for three years, and then went to
the principalship of the Skinner, one of the three larg-
est schools in the city. In this place she remained until
she was made assistant superintendent in 1887.
The Skinner School was situated in a cosmopolitan
district on Aberdeen and Jackson streets, very near
Tilden Avenue. Many well-to-do people lived in it,
but one part was occupied by a rough, uncouth class of
Italians whose children were under no control what-
ever, and with no idea of respect nor what was due to
others. For a long time Mrs. Young hesitated about
taking the large school, but finally decided that she
could do it. Before making up her mind about the
place she went over the district from one end to an-
other, many times, until she was familiar with the
people and the activities of the community and with
what was demanded by them of the school.
When Mrs. Young came to the principalship women
had taken the greater number of all subordinate school
positions in the city. There were nearly a thousand
women teachers in the schools, half of the high-school
positions were held by women, and half of the prin-
cipals of elementary schools were women. The move-
ment of women into the school inaugurated during the
56
Building a City School 57
war had gone on with increasing rapidity each year.
Practically every position except principal of high-
school and the superintendency had come to them.
Mrs. Young's place in the woman movement de-
mands further consideration because of its bearing on
the problems of education throughout the country.
Everywhere in America girls' and women's education
was being patterned on the basis of that given to men.
Women's colleges adopted curricula used in men's
colleges. In the intellectual training of women no
differences were made between mental capacities and
interests of the sexes. The reason for pointing out this
fact here is that Mrs. Young took the work of educa-
tion at man's level and held as a standard of excellence
the demands and attainments set up by the schools at a
time when higher education was for men. For the
most part, all her work has been influenced by this
doctrine, early fixed in her character, of the essential
similarity of minds, whether in men or women.
In consequence of this viewpoint she has refused
to accept favors on account of her sex. One of her
first acts as principal was to put herself on record as
being able to earn any honor given her. Women prin-
cipals at that time were holding positions without
having passed examinations for certificates, a practice
which had already been held up to ridicule by a con-
temporary educational writer. On the very first occa-
sion she came up for examination as principal. Her
experience as a high-school teacher stood her in good
stead as a preparation and she passed the examination,
standing first on the list of candidates. As Superin-
tendent Howland expressed it at the time, she held a
58 Ella Flagg Young
certificate "by right and not by courtesy," and the
board of education passed a regulation then that all
future principals were to secure certificates through
examinations.
Another instance of this independent spirit of the
woman is related in connection with her election to
the chairmanship of a large committee composed of
principals. After the election and before the first
meeting, a friendly man principal offered, because of
her probable unfamiliarity with parliamentary prac-
tice, to carry the discussion for her, but she thanked
him and said she preferred to try it herself. When the
committee had completed its work the same gentleman
reported her direction of the discussions as remarkably
successful.
Her schools were noted for the best in current and
accepted educational procedure. She had a masterful
grasp upon the problems of the day, and she drew
upon the leaders in school work throughout the country.
She was not a "reformer." While full of the most
advanced ideas of the time, she was always unwilling
to impose them upon others. She did not wish them
accepted unless understood and indorsed by those
working with her. She was never radical, and struck
out no new and extravagant paths, but accepted and
utilized the best ideals and practices as she found them.
At the same time she refined and humanized these
practices to fit her own teachers and pupils.
One may quite truly say of her at this period in her
life that she represented the sanely feminine conserv-
ator of forces, as she found them, rather than the
innovator or reformer in school and society. Her teach-
Building a City School 59
ing and reading represented the solid elements in cul-
ture and educational theory, for as yet she had not
attempted the experimental and the speculative either
in thinking or in the management of her school. Yet
so keen and clear was her grasp of the problems of
the day that Mr. Rowland, then superintendent of
schools, held her judgment in very high regard and
consulted her on vital matters.
But it is necessary to see more than a conservative
principal in Mrs. Young's work at the head of a school.
Her achievement as a principal rested mainly on her
organization and her management of the school. In
the sense in which we use these terms in modern city
education no such things existed as organization and
administration, or they existed only in rudimentary
forms. They are the result of more recent develop-
ment and work in large city schools. There was then
no place to go for models in directing large school
plants. Large schools already existed, but they were
rather loose aggregations of parts, and had little
definite cohesion.
The rapid growth of the city, with its cosmopolitan
population, had brought together all sorts of children
and thrown them into the schools. Mrs. Young's
objection to the use of the term "melting pot" in
describing the work of the public school was an out-
growth of the efforts she made to handle in a definite
form the various elements in her own school. Today
we think nothing of handling a school representing a
dozen different languages and races, but at that period
the problem was a new one and one concerning which
many most intelligent persons entertained grave doubt
60 Ella Flagg Young
of an adequate solution. To make the difficulty still
greater, this was the beginning of the attempt to sub-
stitute for the " rod," as a means of managing children,
school government based on intelligent and sympathetic
appeal to children. Mrs. Young rigidly opposed
corporal punishment as a basis of control, and notices
circulated to the teachers of her school from her office
requested "hands off" in the management of the
school.
While others were teaching and preaching " democ-
racy and freedom " with blare and great noise, the
Skinner Elementary School in 1885 was carrying on its
work with an eye to the independence and cooperation
of each individual child and teacher within its walls.
Class-work was organized in such a way that each one
felt himself a contributor to the whole. In arithmetic,
for example, Mrs. Young's method was distinctively
democratic. Instead of having " a method " of solving
problems, a common practice among principals in teach-
ing this subject, she had as many methods as there were
teachers in her school. " No one can work in another's
harness," was a favorite expression of hers to her
teachers, and as a consequence she insisted that each
one was to make her own contributions to the life and
interests of the school. Visitors remarked that they
found as much value in going through the rooms of the
school as they could have found had they gone to many
schools, because each teacher worked out her subjects
in her own way.
In faculty meetings Mrs. Young insisted on discus-
sions giving free play to ideas of each person, and
never attempted to dominate the minds and independ-
Building City School 61
ence of the teachers. She was always exceedingly
generous in her appreciation of new ideas and acknowl-
edged her obligations to the teachers who presented
them to her and the school. "What new ideas have
you today in this work?" was a common question of
hers, and the person called upon for such help felt that
she was really a part of the creative force of the school.
Mrs. Young's school stood out in the community as
an influence in affairs of the people. She had become
thoroughly acquainted with her neighborhood and tried
to serve it. Former Mayor Harrison, Sr., remarked
on several occasions that this school was the most
effective social institution in the city. The demands
upon the schools to meet the needs of society in a more
effective way, which had been growing for several years
in intensity, found an open statement in the acts of the
legislature of Illinois in 1883 and 1887 "to secure to all
children the benefits of an elementary education." Mrs.
Young had been doing all she could long before the pas-
sage of these acts to make her teachers feel the responsi-
bility for keeping children in school. She had attempted
to follow up the children and keep in touch with them
and their homes in order to hold them in school until
they were old enough to meet the demands of society
upon them. In the work she did in her schools to
secure to children the benefits of elementary education
she was a pioneer in the vocational guidance of children.
It is easy now to look back in the light of present
school administration and see the work of that time as
incomplete and transitory. But when one sees how
slowly, out of prejudices, traditions, mixture of national
and race elements, and varied interests of the city,
62 Ella Flagg Young
school organization has gradually been wrought, one
can appreciate the enormity of the task of that period
in trying to put a public school into active and effective
touch with the community. There is no doubt that
Mrs. Young made her school stand out prominently
as a social force and as a well-organized institution,
because visitors, both from within and without the city,
were numerous and reported the great value of the
work as they found it. In her school she held firmly
to high ideals of scholarship. She was rigid with her-
self and required a high standard of efficiency from all
with whom she was associated. Her teachers believed
in her and were loyal to the school.
As in her work in the practice school, Mrs. Young
came into intimate contact with politics and with
political methods in the city schools. A few instances
of this contact will suffice to show that she learned to
deal with political forces at this early period. Shortly
after leaving the Normal School for a principalship
she saw the Normal closed by the board of education.
As already noted, the school was said to be an un-
necessary expense. " Influences," evident in the move-
ment, pushed it through over the protests of educational
leaders. In this act Mrs. Young gained a new lesson
as to what schools had to expect from politics in school
boards, and years later she found the fruits of closing
the Normal in Chicago's poorly prepared teachers.
Mrs. Young also faced the necessity of selling her
pay-warrants for several years at a discount because
the board of education had no money to provide for
payment of the teachers. As late as 1881 teachers
were compelled to accept whatever merchants were
Building a City School 63
willing to give them for these monthly warrants. It
was to the credit of the Skinner School that business
men in the vicinity bought the warrants of the teachers
of that school at their face value. Politics and poor
management were alone accountable for such a condi-
tion in the finances of the schools.
One of the close friends of Mrs. Young, Superin-
tendent Pickard, was ousted from that position through
the same kind of policy. " Influences " brought into the
assistant superintendency a man from the outside for
the purpose of ridding Chicago of Mr. Pickard. This
man made life miserable for the superintendent and
later supplanted him, but was from the first wholly
incompetent and lasted in the position barely two years.
Another instance of political influence which came close
to Mrs. Young during the period of her school prin-
cipalship was in her own school. Her engineer had
proved incompetent and unreliable, and she had asked
for his removal. A president of the board of education
interceded for him and attempted to force her to retain
him in the position. The character of Mrs. Young was
shown very clearly in her reply to this demand: "I
shall do what is best for the Skinner School," and this
reply settled the matter in favor of efficiency and justice
in the management of the school.
Scholarship and classical culture were making a last
stand against science and utilitarianism in education
during this period. Mrs. Young was deeply interested
in both sides of this issue, but during the period of her
principalship she emphasized the former as an ideal,
both for her pupils and her teachers. Superintendent
Howland was a scholar interested in literary and aca*
64 Ella Flagg Young
demic ideals, and his influence on Mrs. Young was
marked during this time. Among other evidences of
her interest in literary and classical culture, the estab-
lishment by Mrs. Young of a "club" for the study
of English grammar was in direct line with this tend-
ency. It met every two weeks, at first in the school but
later at her home. From reports gathered from mem-
bers of that club it is evident that the leader tried
harder to inspire her teachers with a love of learning
than in a mere correct use of grammar. From gram-
mar the club soon branched into the study of Shake-
speare and the modern dramas. Plays were read and
presented by members taking each a part for the occa-
sion. Greek drama, Dante, and other forms of great
literature were studied and discussed. Mrs. Young
made it a practice to suggest books to be reported on
by members of the club. Long after she left the princi-
palship the club took up psychology, ethics, and philoso-
phy, work in which Mrs. Young became more and
more interested.
The study of English became an important part of
the curriculum both in high and elementary schools
during this period. In 1883 Superintendent George
Rowland says in his report to the Board of Education
regarding the high school:
I have often thought, though I have never found my idea
fully realized, that a course in English might be prepared and
successfully carried out, which should be worthy to take its
place by the side of our classical courses; which should include
both a critical study of our language, and a large and thought-
ful reading of some of our best authors, familiarizing the pupils
with all the classic study so needful for the appreciation of our
prose and poetical writers. With this should be a thorough and
Building a City School 65
systematic training in composition. The usual study of rhetoric
seems comparatively futile, save in the knowledge acquired of a
few terms, and the time devoted to English literature is often
largely expended upon the history of unimportant and forgot-
ten authors, with little appreciation or knowledge of our real
literature.
Mrs. Young took a deep interest in placing the best
literature in the hands of elementary-school children.
She was not satisfied that they should read the text-
books, which often contained meaningless material and
little of the best authors. Several years later she out-
lined in an address before the National Education
Association her notion of the kind of literature to be
placed in the course for lower schools, and her ideas
expressed at that time were the fruitage of her years
as principal. She secured permission from one of the
large publishers to reprint some of the classics for
supplementary reading in her school. This was one
of the earliest attempts to give children in the grades
the benefit of the best literature. In connection with
the reading she developed the idea that children should
read for meaning, that there should not be the two or
three years of parrot-like mumbling of meaningless
symbols in the early grades of her school. In provid-
ing a library for her school from money obtained
through giving concerts and from donations by Judge
Skinner, she further enlarged the opportunity for
children to become acquainted with good literature.
This was one of the first school libraries in the schools
of the city.
In other respects the curriculum of the Skinner
School partook of the same advanced character as
66 Ella Flagg Young
reading and literature. As John D. Philbrick pointed
out in 1885 :
The old standard subjects of instruction are uniformly re-
tained, namely, reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, grammar,
geography, and history of the United States: comprising the
trivium, or three R's, of the ancient school for the people, and
the quadrivium, which is the accession of a more advanced era,
and yet an era preceding the modern school revival, dating back
about fifty years. The last half-century has witnessed a very
considerable increase in the subjects of instruction. These sub-
jects are object-teaching, singing, drawing, gymnastics, vocal
culture, English literature, the metric system, physical geography,
physiology (including anatomy and hygiene), geometry and
mensuration, bookkeeping, astronomy, the German language,
Constitution of the United States, general history, sewing, and
perhaps some others.*
Such an array of subjects gave rise to the demand
for "shortening and enriching" the curriculum. Of
the older subjects thus enumerated, Mrs. Young secured
most satisfactory results. Her work was valuable not
merely from the point of view of the scholars, but as
an epitome of the conflict of the old and new curricula
as pointed out by Philbrick. By this work the three R's
were developed to the highest standard of effective-
ness, a condition brought about by the necessity of
showing their right to be continued in the schools in the
face of the demands of newer and more modern sub-
jects. As already pointed out, Mrs. Young was a
conservator of the best of the time, and in the matter
of the curriculum she brought out the very best in the
material found in the course of study. A brief state-
ment of her work in this direction will make the point
clear.
* City School Systems in the United States. U. S. Bureau of Educa-
tion, Washington, 1885.
Building a City School 67
In penmanship she broke away from the practice,
common in the lower grades, of having the children
print, and placed writing in every grade of the school,
introducing pen and ink from the first. "Arm move-
ment" was practiced, which with the use of pen and
ink overcame the cramped pencil work of the lower
grades complained of so generally at the time. Prizes
offered for the best penmanship in the schools of the
city were awarded to the Skinner School each year of
her principalship and for the year following her
withdrawal.
Arithmetic was one of the subjects which she took
most interest in and worked on hardest. It delighted
her heart to find a child quick in figures. Often she
would step into a room, call the attention of the chil-
dren for a minute, ask one or two questions in arith-
metic pertaining to their grade, receive a quick answer,
and pass on to another room. She laid stress on
"mental" arithmetic and on work having a practical
bearing on the other interests. She particularly dis-
couraged assignment of home work because the child
needed help of the teacher and in home work he did
not get this, nor could it be told how much was his
own endeavor. Great emphasis was placed on the
individuality of method in arithmetic, each teacher and
each pupil being urged to use the method that served
him the best.
Grammar Mrs. Young taught herself. The course
was given in the eighth grade and emphasized the
understanding and correct use of language. In history
two or three distinctive features of her method need
attention. Since the upper grades in her school were
68 Ella Flagg Young
taught departmentally, a decided innovation then, the
work could be more highly organized. A miniature
house of congress gave opportunity for the necessary
instruction in the United States Constitution; debates
were used to good effect by children, often drawing on
the aid of prominent men from the outside; and sev-
eral books used as sources of material gave the children
opportunity to select and judge in their study.
Of the newer subjects singing, drawing, clay-
modeling, and gymnastics much was made in the
school. "Shortening and enriching" the course of
study appealed to Mrs. Young only in so far as they
added life and interest to the work of the children and
teachers in the school. Drawing, which at the time
was regarded as a bridge between academic work and
the "practical" life, was taught in every grade. It
had been optional in the schools until 1884 and was
then placed on the regular list of subjects to be taught.
So well was the work done that the Skinner School
was awarded the "W. K. Sullivan Prize" in drawing
each year, over all the schools of the city. One way
of making drawing effective was in having pupils use
it in all their work as a means of illustration, giving
rise to the term " graphic recitation."
In addition to the regular work of the school as
ordinarily regarded then, the physical welfare and com-
fort of children and teachers were carefully guarded.
Both ventilation and lighting were subjects of great
concern by the leaders in education. The " fan " system
and steam heating had both been introduced into the
newer schools. But Mrs. Young decided that only
"window" ventilation could be made thoroughly ade-
Building & City School 69
quate, and she devised a scheme of using a board
inserted at the bottom of the window for this purpose.
She likewise studied in detail the system of heating
until she was as competent as a trained engineer to run
the machinery for heating the school. Wherever pos-
sible the children were arranged so as to get the most
value from the light of the room. She was one of the
first to follow the suggestions given by eye specialists
as to protection of children's eyes in school work.
In common with educators of the day, Mrs. Young
believed that children came to school to work and not
to play. The kindergarten influence had not yet pene-
trated school discipline. Much was made, therefore,
of gymnastics, but play was confined to the hours out-
side of school time. On the playground she was active
for cooperation and kept a close watch over the children
in their activities.
Very little handwork was done at this time in the
elementary schools, and manual training did not make
its appearance until the very close of the period. Mrs.
Young gave some attention to handwork, but she had
not yet seen the value of this form of education. In
this respect she was not unlike other educators in ele-
mentary education. Superintendent Rowland did not
rank handwork with mental work. In his report to the
Board of Education he says :
Our schools are to educate, not servants, but citizens; and
whenever the darning and frying, the starching and stewing
become important parts of the school work, t~he wealthier classes
will send to private schools, and the public school, to which
we look for the preparation of our children for responsible
places in our business and social life, will become but an indus-
trial school for cooks and second girls, instead of intelligent men
yo Ella Flagg Young
and women ready to act well their parts in whatever pursuits
their inclinations or necessities may lead them to engage.
Because of her early training, Mrs. Young never
accepted quite this extreme view, but that she was aca-
demic and emphasized the literary side of the curric-
ulum is evident from the character of her school. More
and more she saw the necessity for using all of the
energy and capacity of her children, and her school
kept up with the movement of introducing such sub-
jects as were considered possible for that purpose.
Drawing and clay-modeling were the ones most gener-
ally accepted, and they were both taught in her school.
No one was ever in doubt in her school as to the
position Mrs. Young held in matters of conduct. She
meant business always. In discipline she was severe
but just, permitting no half-way measures, yet allowing
each one as much freedom as he knew how to make
use of in his work. Noise never troubled her in a room
if by it children were getting something done. " Her
power to know what was going on within the school
was uncanny," says one of her former teachers. Appar-
ently without effort she always knew where trouble was
or where things were moving smoothly.
Her severity was intellectual. Beneath it all was
the deepest sympathy and humaneness. She felt her
own incapacity to express adequately her feelings, and
on many an occasion asked some of her intimate friends
in her school to do some mission of kindliness because
she had not the power to do it herself. If a teacher
or a pupil was in trouble she was the first to help in
some direct or indirect way. The loyalty felt by all
members of the school for its interests was one of the
8S
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i-j u
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P-I
72 Ella Flagg Young
then and still love her. I wish you could see her as she stands
before me in my mind's eyes; a little bit of a woman, about
five feet tall, all vim, push, and go-ahead. My, how she would
make those boys fly; she with her jet black hair parted in the
middle, combed back smooth, and her clean olive skin and even,
white teeth. She always dressed in black, very plain. And her
eyes, such eyes that looked you through and through. When
she was transferred to the Skinner School I asked her if she
would allow me to go there without a permit from the board
of education, but she told me she could not, and as my mother
was always too busy to go and I was not old enough to know
how to go for myself, I consequently lost all interest in the
school when we lost our beloved principal, and I quit after
going all those interesting years. I lost my beautiful little knife,
too, the only thing I had to remember our principal by, except
her picture engraved in my heart, which will last forever.
Her power as a principal was thus not merely a
great organizing ability, nor an insight into educational
needs and educational problems, neither was it wholly
in her incomparable capacity for work; but rather in
her fine appreciation of efforts on the part of others.
She was unselfish, loyal to her friends, undemonstrative
in her decisions and appreciations, firm for the right,
and, above all, imbued with a broad and deep love for
children. Her school was found always a united,
cooperating group, finely organized to live and work
on a high plane.
CHAPTER VI
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION FROM 1887 TO 1899 AS
SHOWN IN THE WORK OF MRS. YOUNG
"TTT'E received a decided shock," said one of Mrs.
Young's teachers then in the Skinner School,
"when Mr. Brenan, a member of the Board, told us
that our principal was too big a woman for her present
place and was wanted for a bigger job." With two
other persons she was elected to the position of
Assistant Superintendent in 1887.
Her election to this position was not the first time
she had been considered for a bigger job. Mrs. Young
had been growing rapidly in her grasp of educational
affairs, and she had become one of the most trust-
worthy as well as keenest persons in the system. It is
desirable to review some of the persons and influences
entering into her life and thought up to the time of
her appointment as assistant superintendent. She had
come into contact with one after another of the promi-
nent leaders in education in the city and country, whose
points of view she eagerly grasped and made her own.
As we have already pointed out, she had been academic
and formal at the opening of her career as a teacher,
relying religiously on the training she had received;
but by 1887 she had changed to an open and free mind,
quick to see all sides of every question.
Of the persons influencing her professional life
during the early years, the first was W. H. Wells,
superintendent of schools when she began to teach.
73
74 Ella Flagg Young
To him she owed her earliest interest in the movement
to modernize the schools through object-teaching. Mr.
Wells' faith in science and in systematic organization
of the curriculum was shared at an early date by Mrs.
Young. At about the same period she came into con-
tact with the intellectual influence of William T. Harris,
for many years superintendent of the schools of St.
Louis. Mrs. Young says his reports, which were
remarkable educational documents, were the first pro-
fessional literature she ever read. Harris undoubtedly
had a marked influence on her philosophical point of
view. His was one of the most effective attempts to
introduce the doctrine of Hegel into this country and
apply it to educational theory. His writings were an
outgrowth of Hegelian idealism. The reports which
he wrote were based on this philosophy, and Mrs.
Young was so diligent a student that her thinking and
writing show its influence.
Another important influence on her educational
career was that exerted by Superintendent Pickard,
with whom she was closely associated during his entire
administration in the Chicago schools. He was keen
and clear in his own thinking and could not help influ-
encing people with whom he came in contact. His
interest in Mrs. Young's professional work was more
than passing, as shown by his efforts to keep her in the
Normal School. Pickard was one of the best organ-
izers that the schools of Chicago have possessed. In
the matter of organization his greatness lay in his
ability to use intelligence in system. He refused to
allow the schools to become formal and dead through
a rigid system of gradation and classification. Mrs,
School Administration from 1887 to 1899 75
Young has always shown in a marked degree the effects
of Pickard's teaching in this direction and has used
system as a means and not as a final result of efforts at
improvement.
To Superintendent Rowland, who was at the head
of the high school when she graduated and began her
teaching and when she went back into the department
of practice, Mrs. Young owed much of her interest in
fine scholarship. His culture and his training in class-
ical literature always appealed to her. In her paper
before the National Education Association in 1896 on
literature in the grades she shows very clearly the
effects of this association by her interest in literary
scholarship. She has always referred to the work of
Mr. Howland as the most significant in Chicago schools
in developing a right sense of language and its relation
to grammar teaching.
But the real teacher of Mrs. Young during these
interesting years was life itself. Systematic study and
unwavering service to the schools of the city gave her
strength and poise and self-confidence. She was not a
servile imitator nor follower of anyone, but had inter-
preted for herself problems as they had arisen in the
course of duty. She says of her own thinking that for
many years she was a close student of mathematics
because of its exactness and clearness of demonstra-
tion. But there came a time when she realized that
its exactness was its own limitation; that it was too
mechanical. From the study of mathematics she turned
to that of human nature, where free spirit could be
followed in its own self-determined course in realizing
itself through growth. To a remarkable degree she
76 Ella Flagg Young
had developed faith in other people. Hers was the
true teaching spirit; the confidence in other persons
that begets self-confidence. Above all else, she became
constructive in her thinking and her work. In an ad-
dress delivered in 1887, she says: "A lecturer who has
nothing but a battering ram for existing systems, thus
throwing the educational world into a state of chaos,
would do well before taking the field, to prepare some-
thing definite to suggest in place of the things to be
demolished."
Thus Mrs. Young entered upon the work which
engaged her for twelve years. She had grown into a
commanding personage in school affairs in Chicago,
and from henceforth her influence is felt in growing
measure in the educational policy of the city. Her
appointment came at a time when the superintending
force of the city was being reconstructed. The follow-
ing report shows the kind of reorganization being
undertaken :
First. All educational departments should be under the con-
trol and direction of the superintendency, not only in theory, but
in fact. In this category I would embrace music, drawing,
German, and physical culture, as well as the ordinary features
of the course of instruction.
Second. The superintendency should be enlarged by the
addition of at least two assistant superintendents, in order to
reduce and subdivide the present enormous labor of visiting
schools which rests on three earnest and faithful men.
I believe . . . there would spring better methods of instruc-
tion, better discipline in the corps of teachers, better and higher
attainments among the teachers, better supervision of all the
departments of special instruction, and, last but not least, bet-
ter and more mature and confident advice and assistance to the
members of the Board in fixing the course of instruction and in
School Administration from 1887 to i8gg 77
adopting textbooks and other educational appliances. (Report of
Board of Education, 1885, pp. 19-20.)
In reorganizing the superintendency in accordance
with this plan, two of the new superintendents were
women. A woman had been made a member of the
board in 1889 because of the demand made by women's
organizations based on the grounds of the prominence
of woman in the teaching profession, though this was
not accomplished without opposition.
The first and most obvious reason for increase of
the supervising force lay in the growth of schools and
the inability of the superintendent to cover the ground.
There had been a constant growth in the area to be
supervised and in the numbers of pupils and teachers.
In 1887 there were over twelve hundred teachers and
principals, and all of the supervising was done by the
superintendent and two assistant superintendents with
the aid of special teachers in subjects like music, draw-
ing, and German. In 1889
The territory embraced in thirty-three entire school districts,
and in parts of eight others, was declared annexed to Chicago.
In this territory were over one hundred schoolhouses, cared for
by an equal number of engineers and janitors, and accommodat-
ing over thirty thousand pupils. There were nearly eight
hundred teachers employed in its schools, and these schools were
supervised by about two hundred and thirty school officers.
(Report of President of Board. Proceedings, 1890, p. 12.)
But a more important reason for the increase in
supervision was to be found in the character of the
teaching force. Complaints of the system of provid-
ing teachers were chronic. In 1885 the superintendent
says that the high-school graduate " is well-nigh help-
78 Ella Flagg Young
less when first placed in a room of fifty or sixty pupils."
The cadet system placed about seventy new teachers
in the schools each year who had received no training
for their work.
If the superintending force were sufficient to allow one of
the assistants, perhaps, to call these together three or four times
a week for instruction in the plainer principles and methods of
education, and specially to supervise the application of these
principles and methods in the daily work of the schoolroom,
an earlier and higher success would undoubtedly be secured ; and
a great waste of effort on the part of both teacher and pupil
be avoided. The instruction would give a new life to the teach-
ing, and the teaching assist to a better comprehension of the
instruction. (Report of Board of Education, 1885, pp. 52-53.)
After the close of the Normal School several years
previously, the teaching force gradually deteriorated.
Graduates from the high schools were admitted with
no preparation for teaching aside from the academic
courses, at first on an examination, but later on a grade
of ninety per cent in scholarship. Examinations for
admission to outside teachers were very superficial,
hardly exceeding the requirements given for entrance
to the first year of the high school. This deplorable
condition had its explanation in the politics which, as
already noted, closed the Normal School. It was not
to be wondered at that critics found Chicago teaching
about the poorest in any city in the country. J. M.
Rice, writing on the subject in 1893, sa ^ there was a
very small percentage of teachers who were Normal
graduates, and qualifications were very low. The work
he found unscientific and on a low standard.
Some of the teaching was by far the most absurd I ever wit-
nessed. The amount of objective work is extremely limited,
School Administration from i88j to 1899 79
even in the lower grades, and the sciences are not included in
the curriculum. The education of teachers after appointment
is devolved on the superintendent and his assistants. In Chi-
cago, however, but little has been done by them, thus far, sys-
tematically to instruct the teachers in educational methods and
principles. (Public School Systems of the U. S., 1893, p. 170.)
Rice's article stirred up wholesale criticism, but we
find the board and the superintendent making excuses
or defending the situation.
The president of the board thus expresses himself:
Much has been said in the public press about incompetent
and inefficient teachers in our public schools, but I was much
pleased to learn from the special reports required under our
rules to be made by the superintendent of schools and his assist-
ants to the committee on school management just before the
close of the school year, so that incompetent or inefficient
teachers may not be reappointed by the Board; that last year,
out of over 3,500 teachers in our public schools, only the names
of about twenty incompetent teachers were presented by the
superintendent for the consideration of this committee. Surely
this speaks well for the extraordinary ability and efficiency of
our teachers. I do not think any other city could make such a
record, but perhaps the standard of our superintendents does
not quite come up to the expectations of the members of the
board or of the public press. (Report of Board of Education,
1893.)
Later in the same report, the superintendent points
out that there had been a great amount of criticism
about the schools made by both competent and incom-
petent critics, saying that "after several months of in-
vestigation and inspection of every department of the
school work a few changes have been made." (Ibid.,
p. 58.)
8o Ella Flagg Young
In a teachers' meeting in Chicago shortly after this,
Mrs. Young stated that
A few weeks ago, if I had been told that the old-time recita-
tion in history, formal question and memorized answer, was still
to be found in Chicago schools, I would have resented the
slander. But I can not deny the testimony of my own eyes
and ears. Lately I have actually listened to recitations of just
that kind, and in the fifth, and sixth, grade rooms, too, where, of
all places, they ought not to be found.
The failure of the teaching body was largely due to
the fact that conditions and demands were rapidly
changing and the teachers were not forced to prepare
for the new work. As noted in the last chapter, the
ideal of educational excellence had been academic and
literary. The work along these lines had been empha-
sized to an extent that had shut out the growing no-
tions of science, art, and construction. While the course
of study had been simplified, and language and litera-
ture had replaced, in large measure, the dry-as-dust
work of the grades, there had not been a corresponding
growth of knowledge on the part of teachers of the new
demands made for activities as parts of education.
The needs for improvement were so urgent that in
1893 a Teachers' Training Class was organized and
put in charge of two instructors who gave their entire
time to the work of fitting young women for the grades.
In the " class," which at first ran for only half a year
but later was extended to a whole year's work, Mr.
Rowland's recommendation that assistant superinten-
dents be required to lecture to the young teachers on
educational principles and methods was at last put into
operation. Here Mrs. Young came back into the work
School Administration from 1887 to 1899 81
of helping to prepare teachers for the schools by giv-
ing lectures on psychology and education.
The consequences of poorly trained teachers showed
themselves in a more vital way in changing the course
of study. In 1893 there began a strenuous fight in and
out of school on " fads." At first thought this fight may
seem to have little connection with increased supervi-
sion or a deteriorating teaching body, but as a matter
of fact the fight is a logical and necessary outcome of
both problems. Of course the popular cry against
" fads " usually may mean anything whatever, but back
of the demands at that time for a return to simpler
forms of instruction there lay legitimate grounds. We
have already noted the cry set up for " shortening and
enriching the curriculum." As the untrained teachers
became less and less competent to keep up with the
growing demands of modern practices, there came to be
greater dependence upon special teachers and trained
supervision. We have already seen how Mrs. Young
as principal had fought for scholarship and freedom
among her teachers. She felt more keenly than most
leaders of the period this tendency of the schools to
depend upon the specialists for the new subjects that
were becoming popular, and she felt that the welfare
of the schools depended primarily upon the intelligence
and independence of teachers, and therefore devoted
more time and energy to this problem in her school
than to all others. In spite of the work of individual
principals, however, the special teachers became promi-
nent in the schools, and their work was necessarily em-
phasized in proportion to their ability to present it.
Art, music, physical culture, German, all received direct
82 Ella Flagg Young
attention by trained specialists. Mrs. Young stated
this point in connection with another subject in an ad-
dress in 1899. She says:
Have you ever thought of the difference between the con-
ditions surrounding kindergartens, manual-training rooms, and
vacation schools, and those surrounding the regular school-
rooms? The former were established in recognition of the
failure of the regular school to meet certain needs. If they
should merely duplicate the old, the very reason for their exis-
tence would proclaim them failures. They must be, not varia-
tions on the established schools, but radically different. The
more innovations they introduce, the nearer they fulfil their
mission. The public school, on the other hand, is bound to the
past. Back of it are thousands of parents, demanding that their
children shall give evidence from day to day that they are
learning what their parents before them learned. Back of it
are the taxpayers, feeling the burden of taxation and demand-
ing that the simple, inexpensive curriculum of long ago be
substituted for the extravagant course of study of today. Back
of it are the traditions of the school, which made its life some-
thing distinct, aloof from the life of society. In this environ-
ment are the voices calling to the teaching corps to act as the
great conservator of a past theory of culture.
The consequence of this separation of the newer sub-
jects under specialists as supervisors was to pull them
apart and leave the three R's behind, losing even the
strength they had acquired during the previous period
of growth.
And then the fight on "fads" broke forth. The
school report for 1893 shows the effects of various
criticisms on conditions in the schools. German was
eliminated from the primary grades. Music was uni-
fied by the adoption of a graded course of books, and
all technical study of the subject was eliminated from
the early years of the school. Drawing, likewise, was
curtailed in primary grades, and clay-modeling, pasting,
School Administration from 1887 to i8gg 83
and paper-cutting dropped. The president of the board
in 1894 says:
The warfare against " fads " has resulted in their elimination
from our schools. No longer are scholars required to defile their
hands, without strengthening their intellects, by the creation of
mud pies or clay-modeling. Paper-cutting and all kindred
innocuous, time-consuming fads have, with their authors, disap-
peared from the common-school service of the city. Upon the
superintendent and his assistants there should be lodged no
censure, either for the creation or maintenance of any of the
fads mentioned. Their paternity is chargeable to a few mem-
bers of the board who have resigned or whose terms of office
have expired, and whose authority was more potential than that
asserted by the superintendent and his aids. In the kindergarten
department clay is used for the purpose of illustration and in
object studies, and its use there is proper for the reason that no
books whatever are used, the work being of a creative and con-
structive nature. The horizon of drawing has been circum-
scribed and within the limits of its present confinement good
results have been obtained. Considerable money has been saved
to the school service by reason of the abatement of the fads,
and is now being used in teaching the children things which will
be of service to them when their school days are over, and when
they are called upon to earn a living. (Report of Board of Edu-
cation 1894. P- 1 6.)
All her experience in the schools of Chicago led
Mrs. Young to feel the need of well-trained teachers.
Conditions as she found them in her wider field of
supervision convinced her that the most important work
of the assistant superintendent was in helping to secure
such training. We find most of her energy directed
along this line during the twelve years of her office in
the schools. First of all she took up the work opened
by the new Teachers' Training Class, as already noted.
On every occasion she talked and lectured to the teach-
ers on the desirability of better preparation. She
84 Ella Flagg Young
carried along the club organized years before and
increased its scope by other efforts at improvement.
The institutes which had been a part of the system of
teacher training for many years she made a real force
in that service; one writer says they were enjoyed
because the leader herself was the best learner in attend-
ance. Besides her own efforts in the monthly meetings
she secured the best available talent to help in directing
these institutes. William James, of Harvard, and
John Dewey, of The University of Chicago, both came
to help her. That she succeeded in some measure in
bringing her teachers to a higher level of appreciation
for their work is evident from the reports coming both
from individuals and official sources. James said at
the time of one of his lectures before the teachers:
I came expecting to find bare walls, and I find pictures and
statuary adorning the school rooms. I came expecting to talk
to an audience untrained to think in abstract terms and I was
compelled to reconstruct my entire series of lectures to meet the
demands of the teachers.
In her efforts to improve the teaching force, Mrs.
Young resorted to her practices as principal of going
about hunting for good teaching and commending every
evidence of independent work or conscientious en-
deavor. Wherever she found work that was unsatis-
factory she did not hesitate to condemn in no uncertain
terms. The careless, slipshod shirker found little sat-
isfaction in Mrs. Young's visits to her room. In all of
her supervision she was fair and honest, praising effort
but condemning lack of effort.
That the task of raising the standard of teaching in
a large city was a difficult one, Mrs. Young appreciated
School Administration from l88"j to 1899 85
fully. She gave herself without reserve to jthe work
and met with a large measure of success. But such an
undertaking under the conditions of the professional
standing of teachers at the beginning of her work was
sure to bring with it opposition and criticism. Her
experience was not an exception to this rule. She was
called hard, cold, severe, mannish, without sympathy,
and in general, very critical. Even her enemies, how-
ever, acknowledged her power and fitness for the posi-
tion she held. Her decided views and her positive
statement of her judgments without any preliminary
apology may have led often to such opinion of her
character. Usually those who occupied the unenviable
position of " time-servers " were the persons who found
her " hard and unsympathetic."
On the other hand, her quick appreciation of the
right spirit in a teacher was her power to win and hold
the great mass of the teaching body. She was popular
with the children as well as teachers. As a lecturer,
she had a large following. "Her lectures are largely
attended, not from duty, but from pleasure. She is a
fascinating speaker, knows her subject thoroughly, and
always gives us something to carry away." These
words were spoken by one of her adverse critics. An-
other writer says, regarding a sense of humor, "That
is one of the reasons we all flock to hear Mrs. Young,
and sit on the steps of the hall for an hour to be sure to
get a seat." (School Journal, October 22, 1898.) In
another place in this article the writer says :
Mrs. Young has been appointed supervisor of the domestic
arts, and we are beginning to think she is being imposed upon.
She is so capable, so willing, and everything she undertakes is so
86 Ella Flagg Young
well done that it would surprise nobody if she were appointed
head of manual training and gave a practical demonstration of
the way to make a chair. She is an inspiration to the teachers
who feel themselves incompetent to manage household affairs
owing to their exclusive attention to intellectual work.
Her work and attitude endeared her to the great
mass of teachers in the system.
Next in importance in improving the schools to that
of raising the standards of teachers, Mrs. Young held
that a broad, flexible curriculum was essential. In this
work she insisted on the necessity of greater power and
intelligence on the part of teachers. She had decided
ideas on the rigid gradation with hard-and-fast lines in
the promotion of children. She took every occasion to
change this system in her own district. Many of her
early addresses before the teachers were on some phase
of the inflexible course of study and how it could be
remedied. A brief resume of one or two of these
addresses will show how strenuously she labored to
secure greater freedom in the course of study for the
grades.
CHAPTER VII
A CLASH OF IDEALS IN SCHOOL GOVERNMENT
TV/I" RS. YOUNG'S growth from a narrow, academio
*** bound vision in her earlier career to that of a
broad-minded believer in all forms of education was
completed during her period in the superintendency.
The evolution of a great mind follows the flow of life
in the world at large, or rather epitomizes the inter-
ests of the age. Educationally, the world had for more
than a third of a century been moving away from classi-
cal and literary ideals and towards scientific and in-
dustrial culture. Great leaders were imbued with this
vision of a new day for the training of the young, but,
as yet, only the faintest impressions of it had been con-
veyed to the rank and file of teachers and superintend-
ents throughout the country. Mrs. Young's grasp of
this movement and her efforts to set it in concrete form
before her teachers show her as one of the coming
leaders of the period. Briefly summarized, her in-
terests and activities in this direction indicate the trend
of modern education for that time.
In a previous chapter, Mrs. Young's interest in liter-
ature for the elementary schools has been noted. A
further discussion of her position is necessary to show
her growth in the grasp of the subject over her earlier
viewpoint. Brief extracts from her paper delivered
before the National Education Association in 1896 will
suffice to illustrate her conception of the subject.
87
88 Ella Flagg Young
Although the young are still given the ordinary in both
thought and expression with which to acquire the so-called me-
chanics of reading, yet the teachers are few who have the
hardihood in theory to restrict those little ones to a diet of the
commonplace. . . . Though the schools are moving slowly,
often halting on the way, hindered here by deplorable theories
based on custom, weakened there by the cause of nature stories
and adaptations of the classics written by the non-literary, yet,
thanks to those who have blazed the way to a broader and
higher view, no time need now be spent in presenting the claims
of literature as an element in child life. ... A prescribed
course in literature is not necessarily arranged with an eye single
to a logical sequence of subjects or to culture-epochs. It may be
planned with but one object in view, that of making the best
a definite and developing part of the curriculum. It may con-
sist of such prose and poetical, such descriptive and dramatic
works that one in whom are combined literary tastes and a deep
sympathy with child life can find no adverse opinion to pass
upon it.
She then shows how a hard-and-fast course of study
may defeat this object.
Literature reveals the possibilities of the human soul. Run-
ning through every literary production is some one of the
fundamental principles underlying the higher life, and this
principle woven into the warp and woof of the narration, the
novel, the poem, the myth, the drama, suggests to the reader
something farther and higher reaching than the soul itself has
yet attained. In all this there is an appeal to the nobler self.
It makes that self realize its personal, its individual responsi-
bilities. By putting a prescribed course into the hands of the
teacher, this permanent element, the arousing of the sense of re-
sponsibility through a selecting activity, is ignored. The book,
the essay, the poem, may be appreciated, but the teacher goes
to the class as the bearer of another's choice ; as an inferior acting
for a superior; not as one who, having found a joy, a life-giving
thought, must share it with the children. . . . The necessity for
courses of study in some subjects has been conceded in this
paper; yet, today, that necessity demands not half so much
attention from those who are close to the elementary schools,
A Clash of Ideals 89
as do the narrowing and benumbing influences of minute details
in those outlines. . . . Loud are the complaints made by the
secondary schools, colleges, and universities, to the effect that
students come to them weak in spelling, weaker in punctuation,
and weakest of all in their use of the mother tongue. So faint
of heart are we as to the propriety of admitting the interesting
and the beautiful into our schoolrooms that the first breath of
adverse criticism makes us disown them as interlopers. The
complaints, coming at a time when faith in literature in the
schools is just beginning to germinate, tend to weaken that faith,
and to concentrate attention on the form side of language, before
its use and power as an instrument for the expression of thought
have been felt. . . . The spelling, the punctuation, and more
than these, the diction of the young should be improved, but in
the right way. Spelling, punctuation, forms of words, choice
of words, construction of sentences, all may be grouped under
the head of the technique of language. The same law holds
here that prevails in other subjects. Empty forms will not gen-
erate content. The resurrection of the meaningless or stilted
sentence set for spelling and punctuation, or paraphrases that
kill the thought and imagery of the original, and retain the
phrases and clauses arranged in reverse order, will not develop
beauty and vigor of thought and expression. The seeds of
thought must be implanted in the young minds and then the
technique be developed out of the resulting imagery and reflec-
tion. (Proceedings of the National Education Association,
1896, pp. 111-117.)
On another occasion she raises the problem of read-
ing and literature and, as she had done in the Skin-
ner School, deplores the dry and mechanical reading of
the elementary school, demanding good results by intro-
ducing children as soon as possible to the best in liter-
ature. "Having acquired power in translating the
printed symbol into the spoken word, a child should not
have reading and literature as distinct exercises." Com-
menting on the recommendation of the " Committee of
Fifteen," which enunciated the doctrine that three years
90 Ella Flagg Young
of a child's life should be occupied in mastering a
printed and written vocabulary, Mrs. Young insists
that children can be taught so as to get thought from
their reading from the first day. Learning to read thus
becomes an intelligent process and not a drill in symbol
learning. She insisted on the child being allowed to put
his own interpretation on his reading. Because of her
wish to make reading intelligent and an organic part of
other studies, she championed, on all occasions, an
open list of books for reading and history so that chil-
dren could have opportunities to weigh various points
of view.
The subject of teaching reading is discussed again in
1899 in her address, The Outlook for the Schools of
Chicago, published in the School Weekly. She criticizes
the report of the " Committee of Fifteen " with refer-
ence to its recommendation on reading, saying:
In it was enunciated the doctrine that three years of a child's
life, beginning at the age of six years, must be occupied mainly
with acquiring the mastery of the printed and written forms of
his colloquial vocabulary. It is true that in some schools of
Chicago the method of reading is an endorsement of the com-
mittee. It is also true that in some schools reading as an exer-
cise for the mastery of the forms of familiar words has been
superseded by reading as an exercise for getting at thought
through the mastery of the forms of the words in which the
thought was expressed. In these schools the first word or sen-
tence read is read in order to get at the thought expressed by it.
To see a class of children from non-English speaking homes
three months after beginning to learn to read take each a piece
of paper fresh from the press on which the teacher has printed a
Series of different things to be done, look them through intently
and then carefully obey the printed instructions, is to know what
is meant by the theory of reading that has distanced the theory
of the famous Committee of Fifteen.
A Clash of Ideals 91
In season and out, Mrs. Young advocated manual
arts and drawing. During this period a few elemen-
tary schools of the city were fitted out with complete
equipment for manual training, at first furnished by
private funds but later by the board. Work of this
nature she considered opened up new avenues for
expression and creation by growing minds. In an ad-
dress before the Teachers' Club and Ella F. Young
Club, February 12, 1898, she said:
Drawing has given the children more means to express them-
selves. Scissors, blocks, and various implements have released
the little hands from the slate and pencil, which Mr. Rowland
called " the modern pillory and thumbscrew." The aim of
manual training is not to drive boys to trades, and keep them
away from the overcrowded professions, but to increase the
value of their work in every department. Girls are not taught
the domestic arts in the public school to train them for servants,
but for the purpose of teaching them the values of foods and
hygiene.
With the growth of interest in nature study, Mrs.
Young had kept pace, and had always been an advocate
of the subject. The old object-lesson had appealed to
her at the beginning, but that had degenerated into lan-
guage lessons and on the object side into what she called
"bottled science." Upon the establishment of the
teachers' training class in 1893, Mrs. Young was influ-
ential in securing a science teacher from the high school
as one of the two directors of the work of preparing
teachers. She had seen that the failure of the old
object lessons and all other attempts to introduce nature
study and science into the elementary schools had been
due to the lack of intelligence in the matter on the part
of teachers and principals as to the ends to be accom-
92 Ella Flagg Young
plished by these subjects and the resulting tendency to
mechanize them.
In her emphasis upon these subjects, Mrs. Young
did not lose sight of the academic branches, the tradi-
tional three R's. Arithmetic was shortened at both
ends of the course of study during this period, and the
recommendations of the Committee of Fifteen pre-
vailed in some respects as to the material of the course.
Algebra and concrete geometry were introduced into
the seventh and eighth grades, and Mrs. Young advo-
cated the reduction in the number of examples which
children were required to solve. The craze for vertical
writing was not shared by her because, as we have
already pointed out, she had developed a most pro-
ficient system of free movement in penmanship in her
own school, so that this idea seemed wholly unneces-
sary. But in spite of reluctance to admit the value of
vertical penmanship, she saw in it a breaking up of the
previous burden of written work required of children.
Mrs. Young's work as assistant superintendent
brought her into contact with all classes of schools and
children. In one school, made up of the foreign and
poor, located in the midst of the Chicago "vice dis-
trict," she found the greatest need was for bodily
cleanliness. Here, in spite of opposition on the part of
board members to schools assuming the functions of
the home, was established the first school bath in the
city. Many children at this period spent four and five
years in the early grades of the schools without even
learning to read. In rooms where such things occurred
teachers were trying to handle sixty and seventy chil-
dren. The board tried the plan of raising salaries of
A Clash of Ideals 93
the primary grades to a level with the grammar grades
in order to secure teachers able to deal with these large
numbers, but this was a failure in more directions than
that of primary grade work. One of the first remedies
which Mrs. Young applied to the situation was to
reduce the seating capacity of the rooms. On the West
Side, where she first went as assistant superintendent,
she had all but fifty-four seats taken from the primary
rooms. The story is told of the attempt of one of the
principals to return the seventy seats to his rooms as
soon as it was known that Mrs. Young was to be trans-
ferred to a district on the South Side, but his order was
never executed.
Through all of her active work as a teacher and
administrator to the close of her work as assistant
superintendent in 1899, Mrs. Young had been officially
connected with the public schools of the city. In the
meantime, however, her mind had been employed on
the current problems of education of the world outside
of Chicago. She had made the acquaintance of men
and women of America and Europe and had been
studying her work in the light of their influence. It is
not strange, therefore, that "down state" she became
an active factor in education. In 1889 the Governor
appointed her a member of the State Board of Edu-
cation, a position she held for twenty years, being
reappointed each time until she became so deeply en-
grossed in Chicago schools that she had to give it up.
While a member of the body, she was continuously on
the Committee on Course of Study, and for most of the
time on that of teachers. As we have seen in connec-
tion with Chicago schools, her deepest interests were
94 Ella Flagg Young
in these two problems. A prominent man of the state
said of her work on the state board that she was the
"best man on the board."
But her influence was not confined to an official posi-
tion on a board of education. She became prominent
in the club known as the "School-Mistresses' Club."
Political interests of some of the women of the state
led them to attempt to establish a separate association
for women. In 1888 Mrs. Young was invited to pre-
pare a paper on the aims of the club. She took a stand
against the separate association, but was strongly in
favor of a club for the educational and humanitarian
advancement of its members. As Miss J. Rose Colby,
a member of this club, writes,
Her influence carried the day. The School Mistresses' Club
has had a long and useful existence. I have more than once
heard Mrs. Young say that its meetings and its work were the
most valuable meetings and work she had ever shared. She was
president of the club for as many years as we could win or force
her consent to hold that office. As leader she did for us what
she has everywhere done as leader she stimulated us to many-
sided reading and growth, to a greater intellectual curiosity,
and a new sense of the significance of intellectual life. More
than anyone else I have ever known she had and has the power
of a great leader if she asked any woman of us to do any-
thing, we wanted to do it, and even though we doubted our own
powers, she managed to give the doubter courage. More than
one undeveloped and possibly crude woman grew visibly from
year to year in the work. And the spirit of good fellowship
and comradeship that grew up in the club I have never seen
equaled in any other organization, whether of women alone or
of men and women, that I have been connected with.
Mrs. Young for many years was a prominent figure
in county institutes of the states, where she was unusu-
ally successful. One of the teachers from Peoria who
A Clash of Ideals 95
attended many of her institutes says of her that " she
has few equals in her power to inspire teachers to
make more of themselves and live up to the best that
is in them." While still in the office of assistant super-
intendent, Mrs. Young's reputation among educators
became national. She became a prominent figure in
the National Education Association, on the programs
of which she frequently appeared.
Chicago schools have never been completely free
from some more or less active political influence. In
the nature of the organization of the schools they lend
themselves to power-seeking interests. Such was the
case in 1897 when business interests made demands for
better and more efficient organization in schools. As
a matter of fact, the management had not previously
been effective in many respects. The superintendent's
power was not great, and methods of administration
were not modern. In compliance with the demands of
the time, the Board of Education was reorganized. An
educational commission was appointed of which W. R.
Harper, president of the University of Chicago, be-
came head. This commission reported in favor of
more centralized administration and more effective
business management and drafted a bill for a law to
make its recommendations effective. This bill became
a law. Over its provisions the most bitter fight waged,
and charges of all kinds were made against the inter-
ests back of the commissions and the law. It was said
to have been another attempt of big interests to use
the public schools in their own behalf.
In reorganization the board selected a man from the
outside for superintendent, a man of wide experience
Ella Flagg Young
as an administrator, and one who was thought capable
of introducing modern business methods into the
schools. When it is remembered that "home talent"
had been employed in the superintendency for many
years, first in the person of a former high-school prin-
cipal, and later in that of a Cook County superintend-
ent, it was evident that an outsider might find difficulties
in entering upon the position. As a matter of fact, the
new superintendent was never able to get the schools
into his hands. On the one hand, he was too demo-
cratic for the " forces " employing him, and on the
other, teachers distrusted his power. He was a misfit
from the first. While many of the measures which he
introduced and fought for were later accepted and
became parts of the administrative machinery, he him-
self was unable to put them into operation.
But teachers were opposed to his ideals of centrali-
zation. At once Mrs. Young championed the cause of
the teachers and democracy as opposed to methods
which administered schools from the top, regardless
of ideas of the teachers. She refused to work under
a regime which reduced school work to the lines of a
business corporation and made mere tools and clerks of
teachers and principals and assistant superintendents.
Her resignation was abrupt but fully thought out.
Newspapers were filled with the controversy because
the matter was thought to involve a vital issue in public-
school government. The following letters were incor-
porated in the annual report of the board, and show the
kind of fight Mrs. Young put up for the freedom of
teachers and their independent cooperation in the
management of schools.
A Clash of Ideals 97
In regard to the letter, the president of the board
wrote:
Mrs. Ella F. Young severed her connection with the Chicago
Public Schools after a service covering a period of twenty-five
years. Her reasons therefor appear in the following letters
which I received from her and which were made public at the
time. They appear on page 654, Proceedings of the Board of
Education of June 14, 1899.
Chicago, June 3, 1899.
Graham H, Harris, President of the Board of Education'.
Dear Sir It is my intention to sever my connection with
the public schools of Chicago at the close of the current school
month.
The Board of Education has undergone many changes since I
entered its service, yet it has ever generously recognized what-
ever of merit has been in my work. I take this opportunity to
make acknowledgment of the courtesy and encouragement
extended me by the Board.
Respectfully yours,
ELLA F. YOUNG,
District Superintendent of Schools.
Chicago, June 13, 1899.
Graham H. Harris, President of the Board of Education:
Dear Sir The announcement in the daily papers regarding
meetings to be held Saturday, June loth, by the Teachers'
Federation and the Teachers' Club, necessitated a statement
from me concerning my future in the schools. My information
was received so late, June gth, that it was impossible for me
to write you before writing to the teachers.
I beg pardon for sending you a clipping from the newspaper
as a statement of my conclusions, but I can add nothing thereto,
and the clipping is a correct copy of my letter.
Thanking you for your personal, as well as official, courtesy
to me, I am
Very truly yours,
ELLA F. YOUNG.
98 Ella Flagg Young
Miss Goggin, President of the Chicago Teachers' Federation;
and Miss Mary E. Lynch, President of the Chicago
Teachers' Club:
I have learned through the city press that the Federation and
the Teachers' Club will meet Saturday, June 10, to prepare a
petition to the Board of Education in relation to my resignation.
While warmly appreciating the friendly attitude which leads
some of the teachers to take such action, I owe it to them,
because of their confidence in me, to declare my position.
As you well know, I hold positive views regarding official
courtesy and official discipline. Only after careful considera-
tion of all the conditions did I take this important step. To
withdraw my resignation would imply either that the conditions
had not been duly considered by me or that the conditions had
been changed. Neither of these implications is true.
Let me present the subject in another light. When a sub-
ordinate in interviews, which she knows will be published in the
daily papers, expresses herself as being in disaccord profession-
ally with her superior in office, the relations of the subordinate
and chief should be severed. Under the circumstances it would
not be in accord with my theories of discipline for me to con-
tinue as a district superintendent.
Promotion in the Chicago public schools is made impossible
for me by the events of the past week, not because of inability
on my part to meet heavy responsibilities, but because my resig-
nation and the published interviews would furnish ground for a
misunderstanding as to my motives in resigning.
You are sufficiently familiar with my methods of speech to
know that when I state I had absolutely no new position under
consideration at the time of notifying the President of the Board
of my intention to leave the schools, the statement means
exactly what appears on its face. Equally clear and direct is my
statement that I intend entering into the duties of another edu-
cational position when a satisfactory one shall present itself.
That no doubt shall exist as to my attitude, the above is
summed up as follows: First, I cannot withdraw my resigna-
tion; second, I cannot continue to serve as a member of the
teaching corps of the public schools of Chicago.
With earnest wishes for the welfare of the schools and the
teachers of Chicago, I am yours very truly,
ELLA F. YOUNG.
A Clash of Ideals 99
The superintendent under whom she refused to work
reported in this connection as follows :
By declining re-election for another year Mrs. Ella F. Young
has severed her connection with the public school system of
Chicago. Mrs. Young is a woman of rare talent, untiring
energy, large acquirements and ripe educational experience,
who has deservedly won a host of admiring and devoted friends.
As teacher, principal, and superintendent she has served the
city for thirty-seven years. I deeply regret her withdrawal from
the position she has so ably filled, yet congratulate the educa-
tional public on the promise that her professional labors, though
in another field, will still be continued. (Report of Board of
Education, 1899, p. 119.)
A petition signed by thousands of teachers and school
patrons was sent to the board at the time Mrs. Young
resigned. The petition was addressed to the working-
men of the city and was headed by a st; cement of the
reasons why the petition should be signed. . In part it
said:
In order that the citizens of Chicago may understand Mrs.
Young's reason for resigning, it is necessary to state that she
has been deprived of the educational influence which she had
exerted under former school administrations. Mrs. Young is a
graduate of the Chicago public schools and has filled with honor
and ability every place in the school system from the lowest to
the highest, and her work has contributed in a large degree to
the excellent reputation which our public schools enjoy among
the cities of the Union. She has a national reputation as an
educator and has the faculty of inspiring with the highest ideas
of manhood and womanhood every teacher and pupil who comes
within the sphere of her influence. . . . Mrs. Young has taken
this noble and courageous course in order to place the matter in
its true light, and also to impress on the minds of the citizens
of Chicago the danger that lurks in the present movement of
Mr. Andrews.
ioo Ella Flagg Young
This petition bore no fruit so far as recalling Mrs.
Young to the position she had left. Once her mind was
made up in matters of this kind it could not easily be
changed.
CHAPTER VIII
HIGHER EDUCATION FOR A WOMAN PAST FIFTY
TN 1904 the late William James wrote: "Chicago
* has a chool of Thought! a school of thought
which, it is safe to predict, will figure in literature as
the school of Chicago for twenty-five years to come."
Mr. James characterized the philosophical work of Mr.
Dewey and his co-workers in the University of Chi-
cago as an "evolutionism," as an "empiricism."
Taking it en gros, what strikes me most in it is the great
sense of concrete reality with which it is filled. It seems a
promising via media between the empiricist and transcendentalist
tendencies of our time. Like empiricism, it is individualistic and
phenomenalistic ; it places truth in rebus, and not ante rem. It
resembles transcendentalism, on the other hand, in making value
and fact inseparable, and in standing for continuities and pur-
poses in things. It employs the genetic method to which both
schools are now accustomed. It coincides remarkably with the
simultaneous movement in favor of " pragmatism " or " human-
ism " set up quite independently at Oxford by Messrs. Schiller
and Sturt. It probably has a great future, and is certainly some-
thing of which America may be proud. (Psychological Bul-
letin, I, i, January 15, 1904.)
One of Mr. Dewey's associates at the time of this
statement was Mrs. Young. She became a member of
the department after leaving the assistant superintend-
ency in 1899, and remained a part of the faculty until
her resignation in 1904, when Mr. Dewey left the
University. On the side of the application of this
"school of thought" to the problems of education she
had a large part.
101
IO2 Ella Flagg Young
Long before Mrs. Young left the public schools she
had interested herself in the work of the University.
Her first connection with it was to enter a seminar in
1895 conducted by Mr. Dewey. At that time she was
fifty years of age. She tells this interesting incident of
her entrance of this work, saying it shows how small
are some of the things of life that decide one's course.
When she entered the hall where registration for the
opening of the year was taking place she was met by
the hum of voices and the bustle of figures of young
women and men intent upon entrance routine.
I was told that in order to enter Mr. Dewey's course I should
have to present a permit signed by him. I looked up the long
flight of stairs of Cobb Hall and watched the eager faces of the
young people and decided that it was a plac* for young people
and that I should not take up the work. As I turned to leave,
some young man who knew me by appearance stepped up and
offered to go up stairs to Mr. Dewey and get his signature for
me. So that's the way I happened to enter the University of
Chicago.
She continued in this afternoon seminar for four
years, studying logic, ethics, metaphysics, and Hegel's
philosophy. During this period she had opportunity
to work out the application of the philosophical theo-
ries as she studied them in her supervision of schools.*
* One of the members of the seminar during the time Mrs. Young
attended it speaks of her as follows: "My impressions of her then
were that she was a serious student, alert to what was going on, had
opinions of her own, and was able to express them. In this latter
respect I used to feel that she went too far; she seemed inclined to
run things somewhat. I could see that she was acquainted with
Dewey, and he appeared to let her have a good deal of rein per-
haps on account of their acquaintance. She was not of the tiresome
talker variety, who monopolizes things and rides over you. What
she had to say was good. There were no indications of verbo-mania
Higher Education 103
That she profited by this association of theory and
practice is evident both from the effects of her work
on the schools during these years and from her state-
ments made before various bodies of teachers in the
city. The first public mention Mrs. Young makes of
the work of the University was in an address delivered
in January, 1899. In this address she said with refer-
ence to the work:
The University of Chicago has recently opened what it calls
a college for teachers. With a warm appreciation of the frater-
nal attitude of the University towards the public-school teaching
corps, I must express my pleasure in the new department. I am
forced, however, to say that the title of the new department is
confusing. There are two gains to teachers in the opening of
the college, but neither of these in any way warrants the phrase
" college for teachers^" The first gain is in the lessening of the
distance to be traveled by persons, not necessarily teachers, living
in the north and west divisions of the city and wishing to study
under some of the best teachers in the University. The second
gain is the definite understanding as to the conditions under
which teachers work in order to obtain a degree. Neither of
these gains, as has been said before, has any relation to the ideal
for which " teacher " stands.
To the inquiry, "Would you have the college simply a nor-
mal school or a school of pedagogy for experienced teachers ? "
I reply, " By no means." The contention is that there is nothing
in the method of study of languages or sciences that makes for
better teaching in the elementary schools, any more than there
is in the departments " not for teachers." Judging by the
expressions of some who are enrolled as students in the college,
it is looked upon as a ladder by which teachers in the elementary
or the sort of egotism that bores one to death. It was rather, if any-
thing, a case of her and Dewey discussing Hegel to the neglect of the
rest of us. I do not know that her views were ' way yonder ' ahead
of the average of the class, but she was disposed to 'get into the
game ' about all the time, and of course she was giving her own views
and not absorbing those of others."
IO4 Ella Flagg Young
schools may climb into the secondary-school corps, and members
of the high-school corps into college and university faculties.
It is not desired that the instruction shall be diluted to the com-
prehension of young children, but it is desired that the work
shall be so related to life that students in the college for teachers
shall not share with university graduates in a distaste for teach-
ing the young below the high schools. The outlook for ele-
mentary education is not brightened by the present attitude of
the student class toward the child under fifteen years of age.
The present treatment of subjects makes one almost understand
the objection to giving women a higher education, as it takes
them away from the children, and somebody must teach the
children. The narrow limits within which the vast majority
of teachers pursued their studies have restricted both their
method and their theory of education. But those offering ad-
vanced courses to teachers should make sure that the elements
of the deepest and highest forms of life are in what they offer.
The manner in which the University has thrown open its
doors to the Chicago teachers commands our admiration. It
meets our ideal of a university as a great educational force,
shedding its light throughout an entire city. That the teachings
of the department of philosophy and pedagogy have not been
concreted in the department termed the college for teachers sur-
prises and disappoints us. It is to be hoped that the plan of the
college will receive further consideration in time, giving to its
students an equipment that will elevate the teaching corps in
all the departments of its work. With the University faculty
and other competent lecturers on the subjects of arts, science, and
literature in this city, the public-school teacher who can calmly
look on, taking no part in class or club organized for study,
must regret the hard fortune which forces her to mingle with
the great body of Chicago teachers a body of students.
With this statement it is evident that Mrs. Young
had seen clearly the influence which the University was
exerting and would continue to exert. Two direct influ-
ences were felt coming from the school. In the first
place, President Harper was a man whose ambition
to organize and systematize institutions with which he
came into touch led him to undertake such a task with
Higher Education 105
the public schools of Chicago. Whether, as he was
accused at the time, he had any notion of making a
great educational "trust," using the city schools as
feeders for the University, need not be considered. He
did undertake to centralize and control the adminis-
tration of schools as was pointed out in the last chapter.
"The school system requires radical improvement,"
reads the report of the Harper Commission. It recom-
mended that the board of education should be made
up of eleven members who were to be " only men of
the highest character and enlightenment." The board
should be alone responsible for the purchase of sites
and the erection of buildings, and not dependent upon
the city council in these matters. Committee govern-
ment of school affairs as practiced by the board was
condemned. The superintendent of schools " should be
granted much larger power" and elected for a term
of six years. All educational questions, course of study,
text-books, apparatus, examination, appointment and
dismissal of teachers, devolves upon him. There should
be a capable business manager " free to apply the same
methods as in a well-conducted business," and he was
to have the same salary and length of service as the
superintendent. Teachers should be required to possess
higher standards, and to secure such the normal course
was to be lengthened from one to two years. Salaries
were to be based on promotion gained through efficiency
rather than on length of service. A more flexible course
of study was demanded, reduction of some of the sub-
jects in the course was called for, with the introduction
of "constructive work" into every grade. The commis-
sion recommended the establishment of kindergartens,
io6 Ella Flagg Young
vocational and evening schools, more manual training
in the high schools, and a four-year "commercial high
school." It recommended also the use of school yards
as playgrounds and a wider use of the school plant.
The commission discussed forms of parental schools
and recommended the establishment of one in Chicago.
In order to stimulate them to further advancement the
teachers in service were to be formed into faculties or
councils to discuss educational problems.
The law proposed by the commission to secure these
changes was the object of the most bitter attacks.
Several teachers' organizations in the city opposed the
idea of a reduction in the number of members on the
school board and argued that it should be larger rather
than smaller. Such discussions as the following were
common in the clubs of teachers :
1. Should the board of education be representative, espe-
cially, or is it to perform a service to society as a unit ?
2. Is this service such as requires numbers or may it be per-
formed best by few with wisdom, skill, and integrity?
3. Should candidates for appointment to the board be re-
quired to give evidence of qualifications as to age, skill, wisdom,
and character?
4. ShouJd the board be expected or permitted to decide ques-
tions involving professional skill and knowledge?
5. Is it wise to trust the school interests of this great city
entirely to one person ?
6. Would it not be wise to have a board of superintendence
to decide regarding general policies relating to all parts of the
city?
7. Can we not have a law that may give due freedom and
responsibility to superintendent, district superintendent, prin-
cipal, and teacher?
Most of the complaints against the bill proposed by
the Harper Commission were of too great centraliza-
Higher Education 107
tion of power in a few hands. A superintendent and
business manager appointed for six years with power
over the educational and business affairs were greatly
feared. In the report of one committee of teachers are
found the words :
We object to the centralization of power in the superin-
tendent in the matter of hiring his assistants, principals, super-
visors, teachers, and other officials, and the selecting of text-
books. We feel that the idea of democracy should be encour-
aged. It is necessary in a city like Chicago for the people to be
in close touch with the work of the school, made up as it is of
a mixed population.
In spite of opposition to the recommendations of the
Harper Commission great strides were made in the
direction of greater efficiency in administration. At the
same time the conflict between a more highly centralized
administration and greater freedom among teachers
was raised and became so acute that Chicago schools
for several years presented a continual commotion,
sometimes with the school board and superintendent on
one side against the teachers, and sometimes with super-
intendent and teachers standing together for greater
freedom. The Harper Commission marks an epoch in
school history in Chicago, and through it the University
exercised a powerful influence on the schools.
The second direction through which the University
of Chicago came into the school life and thought of the
city was in the influence of the department of philosophy
under the leadership of Mr. John Dewey. The essen-
tial contribution of this department had been to turn
philosophical interest and thought towards the prob-
lems of society of the present day. As Mr. James put
io8 Ella Flagg Young
it, this was a new school of thought. Instead of making
philosophy a dry-as-dust digging up of the thoughts of
the ancients and devoting time to philological disser-
tations, Mr. Dewey and his associates turned towards
the problems of human life. Since thought is dynamic
and pragmatic, its province is in a living, acting world
of people.
It is not strange, therefore, that Mr. Dewey turned
his attention to problems of elementary education.
Education gives opportunity for putting into effect the
ideas and principles which thinking brings to light.
There, also, is found opportunity for testing and devel-
oping, through experimentation, theories of human
conduct. As pointed out by Mrs. Young, the depart-
ment of philosophy had already been strongly felt in
the awakening of a higher and more intelligent concep-
tion of the work of education. Other evidences of Mr.
Dewey's influence on the schools of the city are not
wanting. Many of the more ambitious teachers and
principals had taken advantage of the courses which
he offered, such as that attended by Mrs. Young. In
the course of study adopted for the elementary schools
of Chicago in 1897, not only were the ideas of Mr.
Dewey clearly evident, but even phraseology used by
him found a place, such as his statement that "the
school is not a preparation for life, but is life." Most
significant for the schools at large was the new " lab-
oratory school" founded by Mr. Dewey in 1896. This
school attempted to "concrete," to use the expression
of Mrs. Young, some of the ideas and plans promul-
gated by the department of philosophy at the Univer-
sity. Visitors were attracted to this school from all
Higher Education 109
parts of the country, and its influence was widespread,
even though the school lasted but a few years. In 1900
Mrs. Young became a " supervisor" in this school.
The spirit of this school was stated by Mr. Dewey
in his book, School and Society.
A recent writer speaks of a revision of the book thus :
When Professor Dewey brought out the first edition of
School and Society, in 1899, he found a very eager audience
for the doctrines of innovation which he had to teach. From
a broad sociological and ethical point of view Dewey called
attention to radical economic changes which have been going
on in society and outlined the corresponding changes which
must be made in the organization and course of study of the
schools. He called attention, in his second chapter, to the neces-
sity of making all of these changes with due recognition of the
child's intellectual and physical and moral nature. In the third
chapter he pointed out the fact that our present school organiza-
tion is very defective because of its failure to bring together the
different educational agencies in any unified way. In the earlier
edition, the fourth chapter contained a sketch of the history of
the laboratory school which Dewey founded. The questions
that were to be investigated by that school were outlined, and
one derived a clear understanding from that chapter of the
reasons why Dewey called his school a laboratory school. Fur-
thermore, the questions raised by Dewey made it evident even
to the inexperienced reader that educational experimentation Is
very much needed in order to improve both the method of
instruction and the organization of the curriculum. . . . Cer-
tainly Professor Dewey may rest assured of the very great
influence of his book. It is given only to a few men to write
educational classics. Since Spencer wrote his essays there has
not been a more important contribution to educational reform
than Dewey's School and Society. (The Elementary School
Journal, October, 1915.)
From a position as superintendent in the public
schools Mrs. Young went into Mr. Dewey's depart-
ment in 1899.
no Ella Flagg Young
At the time of her resignation from the schools of
the city she planned for a year abroad, to travel and
study. The night before her departure, in June, Presi-
dent Harper of the University of Chicago sent his
secretary to interview her on the subject of her taking
a place in the faculty of the University. She refused at
first to consider the matter, and he sent his secretary
a second time asking for the interview. He offered
her a full professorship in the department of pedagogy,
but she could not bring herself to accept such a position
without ever having taken any college degree. " How
could I go before my students and urge them on to
higher education without first having even a bachelor's
degree myself? " President Harper offered her a posi-
tion which he said he would "create on the spot" for
her "associate professorial lecturer in pedagogy"
and give her an opportunity to study during the first
year for her degree. This position she accepted and
cut her visit to Europe short, returning to the Univer-
sity at the opening of the fall quarter. For a year she
pursued courses in philosophy and psychology, continu-
ing the work begun in Mr. Dewey's seminar. At the
end of that time she was granted a degree in philosophy
and education. She became a full professor of educa-
tion after having obtained her degree. A story char-
acteristic of Mrs. Young's lack of formality she tells
giving her experience in the examination for this degree.
It was a blistering hot day and we were garbed in cap and
gown and sitting about the long table in impressive style. I
took off my cap and said I guessed it would be safe on the table,
and then slipped my gown back onto the back of my chair. My
act, though a breach of the dignity of the occasion, at least made
Higher Education in
me much more comfortable for the prolonged questioning of the
august committee.
Mrs. Young and Mr. Dewey became associated in
the closest unity in their work during her five years
in the University. Her wide range of experience and
her wonderful grasp of the details of school work
complemented his philosophic insight into the under-
lying principles of the subject. Her adaptability and
power to learn gave her the benefit of this new prag-
matic interpretation of life and education. Their work
together was made the more effective because of their
mutual appreciation of each other's power. Both were
fundamentally democratic in thought and character,
and, as a consequence, they could lay aside all sham
dignity and enter at once into the heart of the problems
of philosophy and education. One of the products of
such discussion was the joint authorship of six mono-
graphs called by them Contributions to Education
(The University of Chicago Press, 1902). Mrs.
Young wrote three of the six Isolation in the School,
Ethics in the School, and Some Types of Modern Edu-
cational Theory. In the first of these essays she takes
up, first, " The parts of the social institution," secondly,
" Some recent constructions of psychological, ethic, and
logical modes that must be recognized in a rational
conduct of the school," and, thirdly, " The function of
a school in democracy." Mrs. Young stated most fully
her philosophical point of view in this essay and shows
very clearly how she had been influenced by modern
biological conceptions of psychology and philosophy
in her thinking and writing on educational questions.
Imitation and invention as shown in children are two
112 Ella Flagg Young
sides of the same activity, and this activity, as the author
points out, is controlled by the organism which pos-
sesses the " original impulse which selects and reacts.
The modern psychologist has thus shown the growth
of mental power, even in so primary an activity as
imitation, to depend upon the modification which the
mind of the imitator originates." Again, in discussing
the formation of habit, she has pointed out the biolog-
ical aspect of this form of growth. She criticizes both
Carpenter and James, saying:
The chapters written by these brilliant men are decided
contributions to psychological and ethical theory; and yet, in
neither does the writer rise to the command of the subject which
shows that the imitative and the habit, the cause that makes the
nerve-current traverse a certain path the first time and the
repetition of the act, are the two aspects of a unity.
She finds in Baldwin's Mental Development an an-
swer to the question of "What made the current
traverse the path for the first time?" and quotes:
Habit expresses the tendency of the organism to secure and
retain its vital stimulations. On this view, a habit begins before
the movement which illustrates it actually takes place ; the organ-
ism is endowed with a habit, if that be not considered a contra-
diction.
But she finds Baldwin's biological view of habit for-
mation contradicting the doctrine of mind set forth in
modern psychology, and so sets up another view in
which she follows Dewey's doctrine of "the reflex arc
concept"* of habit formation in education. This new
* Psychological Review, vol III, 1893.
Higher Education 113
conception, instead of presenting destruction as the out-
come of reformation, strengthens the self-respect by
the requirement to search for the elements of power
and then utilize them in the new mode. The dull rou-
tine of trying to form habits by wearisome repetitions,
the discouraging process of trying to overcome the
enemy, the old habit, only to find it upon the first lapse
of vigilance reinstated in full sway, must give way to
a higher type of activity.
When Mrs. Young made this statement she was
thinking of the fossil type of school grind through
which children are passed in order to form habits.
She had in mind the fruitless repetitions, known as
" drill," which young children are compelled to endure,
while all this wasted energy might be turned into useful
channels of learning both for children and society.
A third illustration in this essay of the psychological
characteristic and tendency of Mrs. Young's writings
is shown in her treatment of attention. Attention is
always a function of the person's purposes, according
to the author, and is controlled by the ends he sets out
to accomplish. Inattention, therefore, is merely an-
other waj of saying that the person is attending to
something else or has purposes in other directions from
those immediately apparent.
If the general consensus of opinion as to the relation between
mind-wandering and attention were taken, it would be found
to embody the idea that in trying to follow oral discourse the
mind of the listener can often be kept from wandering by the
mechanical repetition of the words of the speaker. Here, in a
nutshell, is the perversity of the theory which often makes
dullards of the young. What value is it to keep the mind from
wandering if it is tethered to words, not intelligence? The
114 "Ella Flagg Young
failure to distinguish sharply between the discriminating alert-
ness of attention and the undistinguishing passivity of the mere
repetition of words is due, probably, to the non-recognition of
the activity of feeling, as well as of intellect, in the process of
attention.
To attempt to secure attention of children by stirring
up fictitious kinds of interest is to destroy their capacity
to follow through serious problems which they may
have to meet. The modern psychologist is more fully
concerned in the capacity of the organism to pick out
and hold up ends which are of value to life than he
is in any other aspect of behavior. While Mrs. Young's
statement of this problem is very brief, it opens up the
entire field of application of attention to school work.
It is in the direction of the use of these psychological
concepts in teaching that she has been of most service
in this essay.
The second study of the Contributions to Education
was her Ethics In the School (The University of Chi-
cago Press, 1902, pp. 44). In style this essay is the
freest and most popularly written of Mrs. Young's
works, and sets forth clearly her position as to the
function of the school in forming character in children.
In her ethics as well as in her logic, Mrs. Young is a
democrat. Moreover, her democracy is for each
person, whether that person be adult or child.
Without depreciating the value of the experience of the adult
in weighing conditions that are often new and perplexing to
the boy or girl, one sees in this assumption of a command of all
that is right and reasonable by the adult, an ignoring of men-
tality in the child. The conduct of a home or a school on the
theory that it is the parent's home, or the teacher's school, and
hence the child must conform to the laws, rules, or customs
Higher Education 115
which the parent or teacher has decided to be satisfactory to
him, is hostile to the growth in the mind of .the child of an ideal
co-partnership in and responsibility for the order and care of
that home or that school. (Ethics in the School, p. 31.)
Her respect for the right to think and for the person-
ality of others is the most fundamental part of the
ethical teaching in this as well as other statements.
In her essay already quoted, Isolation in the School, she
says: "The most difficult line of action to pursue is
that which respects the rights of other minds; not the
rights of property, but of thought." (p. no.) In the
same essay she quotes Mill's words that " intellectual
power and practical love of truth are alike impossible
where the reasoner is shown his conclusions and in-
formed beforehand that he is expected to arrive at
them." (p. 72.) Freedom and democracy are the two
principles which run through all the writings of Mrs.
Young on ethics.
Some Types of Modern Educational Theory is the
title of the third study of the Contributions. In it the
author discusses the views of Arnold Tompkins as set
forth in his Philosophy of Teaching, a book published
in 1891; of Mary R. Alling-Aber's Experiment; of
W. W. Speer's theory of education; of Francis W.
Parker's Course of Study ; of John Dewey's educational
doctrine. She analyzes fairly, though briefly, the point
of view of each doctrine, and states the directions in
which it conforms to modern psychology and philosophy
of education.
Another essay written while a member of the Uni-
versity faculty and appearing as one of the papers
furnished by the several departments for the Decennial
1 1 6 Ella Flagg Young
Publications was her Scientific Method In Education
(First series, vol. Ill, Decennial Publications, The Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, 1903, pp. 15). Here a strong
plea is made for the application of scientific method in
matters educational. Criticizing modern educational
method and its unscientific attitude, she says :
Educational method has, however, disclaimed the name of
science, and rightly, too. It started with the expressed aim of
setting conditions that would be conducive to the development
of the child according to the law of its being. Its terms have
been those of evolution and development, but its meanings have
been meanings of pre-Darwinian times. With the magnification
of the teacher as the external force, whose chief office was to
prepare the nutritious food in layers so that it should be taken
in accord with the determined laws of nature, there has been a
steady growth of non-scientific method in the schools. To plan
and conduct a recitation so that the learner shall neither hesitate
nor stumble have been the alpha and omega of so-called educa-
tional method, (p. 5.)
The courses of Mr. Dewey and Mrs. Young in the
University were developed so as to complement each
other, and students in the department felt the force
of these two great minds coming at problems from
distinctly different points of view yet developing a com-
mon underlying philosophy of the subject.
Mrs. Young was dissatisfied with the name of the
department into which she went, and her objections
changed the department of pedagogy to that of educa-
tion. Her courses included work in psychology and
education, social aspects of education, the history of
the arts, the philosophy of activity in education, and
handwork as an educational instrument. As a teacher
in the University Mrs. Young was particularly stimu-
Higher Education 117
lating. She never lectured to her classes. Her great
power lay in her ability to draw out her students and
make them take stands on questions at issue. In her
questions she cut both to the heart of the matter in
hand and to the deepest and often hitherto unexpressed
beliefs of her students. But the recitation was not
merely a debate on some question. It was rather a
many-sided symposium, involving the contributions of
each one in the class. Her stimulating power came
from her democratic respect and faith in each person
in her work, or, as someone else has put it, in her power
to make each one believe in himself. Each felt called
upon to do his best and felt his power to do the subject
justice. All this did not come from an exhortation to
her class, but from her power to present the subject in
a way that compelled the student to lose himself in it
as it opened up under the leadership of an active mind
and spirit. Whether the course was a history of the
arts, or method in history and grammar, her work was
always effective and stimulating. Said a former stu-
dent years afterward: " Do you know that the work I
had with Mrs. Young carried farther Into practical
teaching and administration than anything I took at
the University?" He himself was a man of mature
years and experience at the time he attended her classes.
Always outside the problem, like a scientist with his
material before him, she never set up her own opinion
or position between the student and the subject itself.
She never obscured the issue by a preliminary disserta-
tion nor limited it by her own immediate vision. Often
persons in the class expressed dissatisfaction that she
did not express definitely the ends she expected them
1 1 8 Ella Flagg Young
to arrive at, but she always kept in the background so
that one was never quite sure of her deepest thoughts
on the matter. Whether she was herself groping for a
deeper meaning and was striving for further enlighten-
ment and was thus unwilling to commit herself and
her students to an unfinished and imperfect viewpoint,
or whether she merely held back in order to bring them
to their own formulation, was never quite clear to her
students. Undoubtedly her hesitation in such cases was
the act of a teacher seeking to throw the responsibility
upon the judgment of those she was trying to teach
and refusing to bind them to a doctrine of her own.
Her ability to set one doctrine over against another,
to make the student carry on these doctrines to some
objective goal of their own making, while she stood
on the outskirts of the struggle, helping here and there
with a suggestion, was likely to obscure to those in the
midst of the discussion the fact that she really had a
principle at stake and was deeply committed to a par-
ticular philosophy back of the problem.
As matter of fact, however, she was continually
growing in her own viewpoint and mastery of modern
thought at the very time she carried on her classes in
the University. One need only read some of her earlier
and her later essays and speeches to note the tremen-
dous growth of the author of them during these years.
Probably the most remarkable aspect of Mrs. Young
was her power to grow during the years from her
entrance to the University to the time of her with-
drawal. For a woman of her age to take up courses
in the University and grow through the entire time is
a criterion of Mrs. Young's character.
Higher Education 119
While in the University her heart, as always, was
in the problems of elementary-school teachers. In her
address on the University before she entered there,
Mrs. Young pointed out the danger of higher educa-
tion drawing teachers away from elementary grades.
Upon her entrance into the University she attempted
to put her ideas into practice and developed her work
as far as possible for the elementary-school teachers.
She kept in touch with the schools by having a club of
teachers meet at her home once each week during all
her residence at the University. This was the continua-
tion of the club which originated in her own school
while she was principal, though it had grown in num-
bers and changed somewhat in personnel. Not only
were her courses planned for the elementary teachers,
not only did she keep in touch with them through per-
sonal association with them, but she became the editor
of a magazine planned directly for that class of read-
ers, The Elementary School Teacher. Her essays and
addresses published during this time dealt with elemen-
tary-school problems and were addressed to them.
When Mr. Dewey left the University in 1904, Mrs.
Young felt that she could not remain with conditions
as they were at the time. She was asked to stay and
continue the work of the department of education, but
she declined.
Mr. Dewey's estimate of Mrs. Young is set forth in
the following letter, quoted at length because of its
clear and sympathetic analysis of her character:
Regarding my relations to Mrs. Young : First, it is hard for
me to be specific, because they were so continuous and so detailed
that the influence resulting from them was largely insensible.
I2O Ella Flagg Young
I was constantly getting ideas from her. In the reorganization
of the laboratory school after certain weaknesses in its original
scheme of administration had become apparent (due largely to
my inexperience in administrative matters) her influence with
that of Mrs. Dewey were the controlling factors. It is due to
these two that the laboratory school ran so much more system-
atically and definitely free from a certain looseness of ends
and edges in its last three or four years.
In my opinion, what Mrs. Young got from her study of
philosophy was chiefly a specific intellectual point of view and
terminology (the two things can't be separated, for terminology
with a person like Mrs. Young is a very real thing, not a verbal
one) in which to clear up and express the practical outcome of
her prior experience. This gave her in turn a greater com-
mand of her experience and a greater intellectual assurance.
This led her in many respects to overestimate the explicit content
of my own teachings. That is, she gave me credit for seeing
all of the bearings and implication which she with her experience
and outlook got out of what I said. As a student (in the class-
room, I mean) I should say her chief mark was the ineradicable
tendency to test all philosophic formulations by restatement of
them in terms of experience and this not the conventional
"experience" of philosophy, but a very definite experience of
what the doctrine would mean if attempted in practice the
difference it would actually make in the way of looking at other
things than just philosophy. She had by temperament and train-
ing the gist of a concrete empirical pragmatism with reference
to philosophical conceptions before the doctrine was ever formu-
lated in print. Another thing that impressed me was the range
of her experience its scope, and her habitual attitude of open-
ness to everything which would enrich it. To say that I have
never seen a student of her age who had retained the flexibility
and open-mindedness of younger students is to understate the
fact very much her experience had, instead of closing her
mind, made it more eager and more competent in growth. She
hadn't retained flexibility and open-mindedness; she had culti-
vated and acquired them to an extraordinary degree.
Apart from the suggestions, which were so numerous that I
couldn't name them, what I chiefly got from Mrs. Young was
just the translation of philosophic conceptions into their empir-
ical equivalents. More times than I could well say I didn't see
Higher Education 121
the meaning or force of some favorite conception of my own
till Mrs. Young had given it back to me I am referring even
more to association with her as a colleague than when she was
a student. And as I have already intimated, she generally
assumed as a matter of course that I had the point in mind from
the start. I can give two examples.
I think what Mrs. Young chiefly got from her philosophic
courses was an intellectual systematized justification of her prac-
tical and experimental belief in and respect for the intellectual
procedures of the pupil as a pupil. I have to confess that I had
never appreciated this aspect of my own logical theory till I
found it so emphasized by her. Putting it in another way, it
was from her that I learned that freedom and respect for free-
dom mean regard for the inquiring or reflective processes of
individuals, and that what ordinarily passes for freedom
freedom from external restraint, spontaneity in expression,
etc. are of significance only in their connection with thinking
operations.
The other point is this. I hardly ever have seen anybody
who had such an habitual and keen sense of the influence of
one person's associations with others upon mental habits as
had Mrs. Young. And I have never seen any one with such a
keen sense of it as applied to classroom procedure the reflex
effect of the teacher's habits upon the pupil in all kinds of subtle
but pervasive ways. As a consequence, her sense of intellectual
life as a " give and take " process was practically instinctive.
I owe chiefly to association with Mrs. Young the depth of
my conviction that all psychology which isn't physiological is
social. And this leads me to add a third point. Mrs. Young's
experience in teaching had forced home to her the importance
of the mental and moral influence of physical and organic condi-
tions. At the same time she had her enormous faith in spirit,
I.e., the act of thinking, of reflection.
In general, I should say that I have hardly known anyone
who made the effect of genuine intellectual development the
test and criterion of the value of everything as much as she.
I have known but one other person also a woman: who
so consistently reflected upon her experiences, digested them,
turned them into significance or meanings for future use. Her
readiness, her intuitions in dealing with new situations, were
not the result of falling back (as administrators are wont to
122 Ella Flagg Young
do) upon preformed practical habits or by continued medita-
tion and turning over in mind, into a net meaning special prece-
dents, but of the translation of prior experience. Thus her
experience was at her finger tips when needed. I often think
that Roosevelt's knowledge of politics is the only analogue of
Mrs. Young's knowledge of educational matters with which
I am acquainted. And I should be inclined to guess that the
latter's was the more reflective of the two. Her belief in mind,
in spirit, in thinking, and her consequent belief in freedom for
teacher and pupil, were consonant with her personal practice.
CHAPTER IX
ADMINISTRATION OF THE CITY NORMAL SCHOOL
Tj^ROM the University Mrs. Young left for a year of
* travel and study abroad, carrying into effect the
plan she had given up some years before. This was
not her first trip abroad. On two former occasions she
had made trips to Europe during the summer holidays.
In this trip, however, she went leisurely through many
of the European countries: England, Scotland, and
Wales ; she studied schools in France, Germany, Switz-
erland, and Italy. She was not only busy with schools
and study of life and history in these countries, but she
kept in touch with Chicago through an extensive corre-
spondence. Her friends in Chicago continually sup-
plied her with newspaper clippings on political and
educational affairs in the city, and in addition wrote
what came within their own experiences. When she
returned at the end of her year she was up to date in
affairs of the schools as fully as if she had been at
home.
Soon after her return from Europe Mrs. Young was
asked by the superintendent of schools to take the
principalship of the Normal, which at that time was
left vacant by the death of Arnold Tompkins. She
accepted the offer and took up her work at the opening
of school in September, 1905, six years after having
severed her connection with the city schools. Like other
positions which she had occupied, this one came un-
sought, but, like them also, it found her fully prepared
123
124 Ella Flagg Young
to do the work required. A careful study of the records
of the school during her four years of service shows
the power of her personality and the breadth of her
grasp of education in city and nation.
It may be important to note casually the history of
the institution of which Mrs. Young was made prin-
cipal. As a county normal, and for some years after
it was taken over by the city,- the school had been under
the management of Francis W. Parker. It had attained
a wide reputation during this time as a school of ad-
vanced ideas and practices. Following Parker the
work was taken up by Arnold Tompkins, whose doc-
trines of education were based on idealistic conceptions
which had much to do with keeping the school on a
high plane of accomplishment. Under the leadership
of these men "The Child" had been apotheosized.
More emphasis had been placed upon the ideal aspects
of education than upon the education of children as
they really existed in street and tenement of the city.
Under such conceptions of education the Chicago
Normal School had come to occupy an almost inde-
pendent place as a college apart from a great city
system, its faculty and course of study developed from
ideal scholastic considerations. The superintendent is
reported to have said in 1902 that after having given
an address to the school on its responsibilities to the
city members of the faculty held an indignation meet-
ing because of his suggestion.
That an effort was being made by the Normal School
and the superintendent to bridge this gap between
theory and practice may be seen by the report of the
superintendent in 1903.
Administration of Normal School 125
During the past year the Normal School has been brought
into closer connection with the work of the elementary schools
than ever before. The heads of the various departments have
visited the elementary school, have worked with the committee
of principals in preparing courses of study and selecting material
for work, and have conducted most of the institutes given to
the elementary teachers, besides working in the Normal exten-
sion classes. . . . The Normal School faculty are sure to acquire
a more complete knowledge of the school situation in Chicago,
and to be thereby the better prepared to undertake the work of
training teachers. . . . The increase in the responsibilities of
the Normal School must inevitably lead to the employment of a
very high grade of teachers there. The instructor who has
merely a book knowledge of academic and professional studies,
and who might succeed in giving graduates of the high school a
knowledge of educational theory, cannot successfully stand the
test of undertaking the instruction of trained and experienced
teachers in the city schools.
In a school of this sort, under the control of men
with strong ideas, there is always the danger that the
faculty may become indoctrinated and thus merely
exponents of particular theories and points of view.
A school dominated by a personality and a highly indi-
vidual philosophy of education may become effective
within a limited and a preconceived realm of work,
but it is probably not qualified to meet the needs of a
cosmopolitan city.
When Mrs. Young entered the Normal School she
found a faculty thus developed, and one of her most
difficult tasks was to break through the crust of philo-
sophical and educational doctrines dominant at the
time. That she should succeed in completely remaking
a faculty, with new outlook and more independent con-
trol, was too much to expect in a period of four years,
but that she did improve matters is beyond question.
126 Ella Flagg Young
From her first day as principal she offended the sense
of many members of the faculty by refusing to state in
some concise way "her point of view," her philosophy
of education. From bitter experience with the futil-
ity of these statements she refused to make any such
formulations, " for," said she, " all that people desire
me to do is to give them some stock phrases which
they can use on all occasions instead of doing their
own thinking." Her patience was tried by the con-
tinued appeal to "the pedagogical child," and finally
she resorted to sarcasm and sharp words to have ideas
and ideals of real children dominant in faculty dis-
cussions.
During her work as principal of the Normal School
Mrs. Young, unlike her predecessors, refused to become
the mentor of her school, and demanded free and inde-
pendent judgment on the part of both faculty and stu-
dents. A characteristic statement of this demand is
taken from minutes of a faculty meeting:
It is the desire of the principal to consult freely with members
of the faculty concerning matters about which there are any
questions, but, on the other hand, when persons are appointed to
work out plans in committee or otherwise, they should not expect
the principal to formulate a plan so that the report will be from
the principal rather than the true representative belief of the
committee. A faculty meeting which consists merely in endors-
ing something propounded by a member of the faculty or by the
principal, is no faculty meeting at all. The faculty meeting
should be a place for free discussion of all objections. Objec-
tions need not be thrown out in a combative way, and objections
need not be entered only when doubts are felt; but when any
proposition is not thoroughly understood it should be expressed
in the meeting. Our attention is often misdirected : we are apt
to ask ourselves what is wanted, rather than what should be.
Administration of Normal School 127
In another connection she says:
There is danger of the departments of the College outlining
the work in such a way that the critic teachers will become
mere agents of the departments. It must rather be cooperative.
In the last few years many changes have been talked about, and
most teachers can speak fluently of developing the subject-matter
in a natural way, but, in really doing the thing, the same old
formal work exists, and the only change is in the close relation-
ship between teacher and child.
Intellectual freedom meant more than the formal
recognition of the right of a person to speak on ques-
tions. In discussing educational principles in the faculty
at one time it had been necessary to drop the plan
already formulated, because "the mixture of elements
is so diverse among the individuals of the faculty that
there are some who know the whole subject and can
talk glibly on it; and these individuals, by their assert-
ive form of argument, shut off discussion before the
matter was well started."
Students were to have the same freedom in their
judgment and work as members of the faculty. Mrs.
Young was afraid that supervising teachers might inter-
view the student-teachers more frequently than neces-
sary. She said it would be better for the students not
to feel that teachers were continually trying to improve
them. Students would be better off if they were not
spoken to every day about their work, but in this matter
the critic teacher was to feel free to use her judg-
ment. In another connection she points out that the
student-teacher is not a child and must be accorded
consideration due her power to assume responsibility.
She is to be considered for the time being as the teacher
of the room, and must be given the same support
128 Ella Flagg Young
and encouragement as the regular teacher. Student-
teachers go to their work with the benefit of academic
and pedagogical instruction, and do not go as " girls,"
but as " if they had something important to deliver for
which they are responsible teachers." This attitude
can only be obtained by treating the students with the
spirit that goes with that of the teacher. She took the
position in regard to the college teacher and critic
supervisors of practice students that the same custom
should obtain in the schoolrooms that governs the inter-
course of well-bred people outside the school : that for
two supervisors to discuss a student-teacher in the room
where she was teaching a class would be an exhibition
of rudeness and ill-breeding that would not be tolerated
in well-bred society; that to discuss a child's mentality
in his presence and the presence of classmates was
unpardonable ; that to mention the poverty or wealth,
the home conditions, the physical peculiarities, or any
handicap in such a way that the child knew the remark
referred to him, showed either a lack of judgment or
an unsympathetic nature in the speaker.
In one of the faculty meetings Mrs. Young discussed
individual differences and the necessity of giving oppor-
tunity to each one to grow in his own way. Teachers
tend to usurp the power of the child to grow. They
have little faith in his native impulses to grow in the
right direction, therefore they spend too much time
teaching and directing.
Some consider it necessary only to plant the germs of thought
in such a way that the individual student can tend their growth
according to his own needs, while other teachers think it neces-
sary to stop and tend the growth of each germ planted, leaving
Administration of Normal School 129
little for the individual to do. Probably it might be well to cut
down the length of time for recitation and attempt to do more
germ planting.
Her attempt to throw upon others the responsibility
for thinking and for formulating each his own doctrine
of education was only one of her aims in the school.
Year after year she persisted in her endeavor to bring
the school into harmony with the needs of the city. As
already pointed out, the policy of the school had been
undergoing a transformation during the previous year
or two, but no one had ever been in the school who
understood the needs of the city as did Mrs. Young.
In each of her reports to the superintendent she strikes
at some phase of this problem. In 1907 she says the
elementary-training course has a double duty, the first
being the preparation of students to teach every subject
in an elementary school, and the second being a neces-
sity to give students opportunities to go ahead along
some line of special interest. The course prepared had
both required subjects to meet the former need, and
elective subjects to provide for the second. In 1908 she
is more explicit in her views of the relationship between
the Normal School and the city:
For many years it was the custom of the Chicago Normal
School to conduct its practice work upon outlines of study pre-
pared by the several departments of the College. While much
might be said in favor of this plan, it unconsciously creates in
the student body an attitude of depreciation toward the course
of study in use in the city system. If there are deficiencies in
the course of study for the city which time will make plain
and doubtless there are the Normal School should carefully
analyze them and suggest to the superintendent the best reme-
dies for them, and so develop a closer relation between the pre-
paratory work of the student and their work as teachers.
130 Ella Flagg Young
Following this line of thought, the regular course of study for
the city has been made the guide for the practice schools.
It is doubtless evident from her emphasis upon this
relationship between the Normal and the city schools
that one of the first undertakings of Mrs. Young would
be that of the course of study in the Normal itself.
Each year she injected new questions and suggestions
and set new committees to work on special problems
in connection with it. Work which she had striven years
to get into the elementary school as an assistant super-
intendent she now found possible to give as preparation
for the young teachers of city children. Nature study,
art both graphic and industrial English, and music
were the objects of most careful reconstruction and
improvement.
In respect to nature study, increased demands in
the course of study for the elementary schools gave her
an opportunity to effect much-needed reforms in the
teaching of that subject in fact, a double opportunity.
In order that the Normal School might be able to pre-
pare teachers adequately for the new demands an
important change was made in its course. The required
major in science which had before been interpreted as
a major in physics or biology was now divided equally
between physics and biology. Reform is equally appar-
ent in the nature-study outlines that began to be issued.
Emphasis was placed upon the scientific character of
the material and mode of approach, and upon the kind
of courses of most value for children in the city. All
work in nature study was organized to take the form
of occupations for children. Work with plants and
animals and with physical and chemical materials was
Administration of Normal School 131
put within reach of the grades, giving opportunity for
study in the school garden and for experiments with
electricity. A definite attempt was made to use the
activities of other departments, particularly along the
line of construction.
To effect improvement in the conditions of English
teaching in the schools Mrs. Young had recourse to a
drastic move. She cut in two the classes in English in
the Normal School. Each department, moreover, was
asked to contribute, through conferences and commit-
tees, to the improvement of English. Mrs. Young her-
self studied the English in use in the practice schools.
Her report in 1907 foreshadows her introduction into
the schools, several years later, of special teachers for
defective speech. She says:
A command of the mother tongue should be a sine qua non
of every young man and young woman receiving a diploma from
a normal school. Children with slovenly enunciation and
incorrect and meager English pass from the elementary into the
high school, and with but slight improvement graduate into
the normal school, and finally, with some advance but with
the careless, defective speech still characteristic, from the normal
into the teaching corps.
In relating the graphic to the manual arts Mrs.
Young exerted a most marked influence in the school. An
incident of her first year illustrates how fully she appre-
ciated the value of good work and was determined to
secure it. Some window-boxes made by students in a
manual-training class had been placed in a conspicuous
place in the building. They evidently represented poor
workmanship. Upon request for an explanation for
the display of such work she was told that it represented
the efforts of the students. "Take them down," she
132 Ella Flagg Young
said; "things here should have beauty as well as use."
Her efforts at getting beauty into construction necessi-
tated a reorganization of the art department and the
bringing in of people who had notions in this direction
and competency to put them into practice. In her report
to the superintendent for 1907 she says:
To render efficient service in helping solve the problem of early
training for the eye and the hand, leading to a training in the
technique of different arts and industries, the departments of
the graphic, the manual, and the industrial arts in the Normal
School have made a determined and, it is hoped, an intelligent
effort to work in cooperation. It has been said that to propose
a scheme of cooperation of artists is to launch oneself on a
stormy sea, but in this instance the teachers of art, manual train-
ing and construction in the college and practice schools were
highly cooperative, not because they were trying to work
amicably, but because of a comprehensive grasp of their prob-
lems. In present conditions, however, there are difficulties
almost insurmountable. The chief obstacle lies in our limited
knowledge of the beginnings of art in the immature mind. A
fondness for using the hand and for bright-colored material in
making things does not, perforce, develop the artistic sense. It
may lead to a pagan form of art such as that of the American
Indian. Yet, notwithstanding a strong feeling that the problem
is still before us, the departments prepared and printed, in
June, 1907, an "arts course" which testifies to the gain arising
from the harmonious work of the different arts.
Of the teachers she had selected she speaks, in 1909 :
This school is fortunate in having for teachers of arts those who
are each intimate with the subject matter of their special arts,
and are also clear as to the blending of individuality and social
service that must inspire the ideal and its realization if that 1
art is to be of genuine worth to the schools of the city and to
education. In physical education effort has been directed toward
that higher degree of sure, graceful control of the body which
increases health and the power of endurance. In musical educa-
tion the acquaintance with good music has been enlarged;
Administration of Normal School 133
meanwhile note-reading, technique, and interpretation have been
developed beyond the standard of chorus singing only. The
things constructively and decoratively designed in the depart-
ment of graphic arts, and made in the departments of manual
and industrial arts, bear testimony to the continuous endeavor to
combine skill and the artistic in every product.
Departments of the college were made responsible
for the educational bearing of their courses. In this
respect Mrs. Young's work was distinctively profes-
sional and pedagogical and produced most marked re-
sults. Each head of a department was required to give
a "special method" course to students practicing in
his particular subject, and in this course he advised
students as to the work in the grades. The plans of stu-
dents for their teaching thus came to be influenced
directly by the college department. In addition to this
arrangement the courses in general psychology and
education were changed. General psychology was
added to the curriculum, and gradually the amount of
time given to it was lengthened. A course in the prin-
ciples of education took the place of an older course
in the ideals and the history of pedagogy. Mrs. Young
herself taught classes in what she called "The School,"
meaning by it the practical, social bearing of the sub-
ject. She also gave a course in practical ethics to the
freshmen. She saw to it that students were trained
both in theoretical and practical ethics, a "mark" in
social efficiency attesting the latter aspect of the train-
ing. Conduct of student and teacher came to take the
place of a theoretical consideration about "the child"
or " the school." In order that full opportunity might
be given students to gain a practical insight into teach-
ing, Mrs. Young reconstructed practice schools, select-
134 'Ella Flagg Young
ing for the purpose typical schools of the city. She
dropped a school in an American district and took up
one where foreign children predominated, in order that
students in practice might understand one of the big
problems of the city, with the result that " an encourag-
ing element amid the difficulties of the situation is that
the faculty, in its endeavor to make the Normal School
an efficient force in the city, is brought closer than
before to the problems confronting cities in America."
In short, in every department such reorganization of
courses took place. Mrs. Young's effort everywhere
was to make the work fit the needs of teachers entering
the city schools and at the same time serve to stimulate
students to further educational efforts. Her ideal was
that of efficiency in practical teaching. Actuated by
modern educational theory based on science, she in-
sisted that teachers understand the problems of educa-
tion and the needs of the city in particular, and then
be trained to execute their ideas in practice. Her feel-
ing of responsibility of the Normal School for ideals
to be applied in the city was expressed clearly in her
speech at the dedication of the new college building
in 1906.
The ideals of well-warmed, well- ventilated, and well-kept
school buildings, developed by the conditions in this Normal
School must be effective in the various schools to which its
graduates are assigned. The care of materials used in class
teaching in the college and the practice schools affects the atti-
tude of the student body toward the means furnished by the
city for the use of pupils and teachers in making the work of the
school concrete.
When Mrs. Young entered the Normal School she
found the practice work in charge of a general super-
Administration of Normal School 135
visor or head critic. She found that many of the
teachers in the college never visited their students in
the practice school. Students in practice were respon-
sible primarily to the head critic, and wherever any
conflict arose between college department work and the
classroom teaching in the practice schools the college
department was ignored. In order to make the in-
structors of the college responsible for the bearings of
their own teaching she set about to reorganize this
condition. In the first place she required .that plans
prepared by students for their class work in the practice
schools should go to college instructors for approval
as well as to critic teachers. At her first faculty meeting
on entering the school she brought up this matter in the
form of questions which led to the reorganization.
Should the lesson plan be corrected by the critic teacher only,
or is the college faculty to be considered in the criticism of
plans ? What is the point of union between the college and the
critic department? Is the college to teach certain subject-matter
without in any way ripening the knowledge of the critic depart-
ment? Is the critic department to teach the pupils without in
any way affecting the experience of the college instructors in
adapting the subject-matter to the pupils?
Likewise, marking the success of students in practice
was thrown upon the joint judgment of college in-
structor, critic teacher, and practice principal rather
than the individual judgment of the head critic. Finally
the head critic was replaced by the departments of the
college as supervisors of work in the practice schools.
The tendency of this arrangement was to make the
departments responsible for the outcome in practice of
their teaching in classroom, and, at the same time, to
emphasize the departmental idea and organization.
136 Ella Flagg Young
Administration of a highly departmentalized school so
as to keep work evenly balanced in the practice school
is much more difficult than it had been where the entire
responsibility for supervision rested upon the head
critic. During Mrs. Young's administration of the
school she succeeded in bringing about harmony among
the various departments so that their supervision of the
practice work was at all times effective.
Practice-school work was to Mrs. Young a constant
problem and study. To keep the entire system of inter-
ests in practice schools and college together was on her
mind always. She regarded the name " practice school "
as unfortunate. She insisted that it was misleading to
understand this school as one to which students added
nothing and in which they practiced or experimented
" hit or miss " with classes of children.
No greater contradiction could be found than the identifica-
tion of mediocre practice schools with advanced methods and
ideals of teaching. It would be parallel with the futile attempts
made sometimes in the endeavor to cultivate in children a nice
perception of the quality of harmony of musical tones through
practice on instruments that have lost their tone and are out
of tune.
She assumed it as her first duty as principal of such a
school to effect an organization of forces that would
develop a high degree of cooperation between all the
various parts and with the schools of the city. She was
fully aware that it was possible for each division of the
Normal School to move along, using the language of
cooperation and social efficiency, and yet committing
itself to isolated details which were not the true embodi-
ment of the normal-school ideal. "A comprehensive
Administration of Normal School 137
view of the Normal School and its fullest life can be
founded on a true social life only a life involving a
' give and take ' activity of all divisions."
Mrs. Young never forgot the personal interests and
welfare of her teachers and her students. In the old
Normal Training Class, formed while she was assistant
superintendent, she secured pay for the students sub-
stituting in order that they might partly defray their
expenses in traveling about the city to the schools in
which they went to work. When she came to the
Normal School as principal she found much being made
of the general assembly hall. From two to four in the
afternoon of each day students met here for their study
of lessons for the next day. The arrangement which
brought a great crowd together without the direct influ-
ence of any one in particular was by no means pleasing
to Mrs. Young, and she set about ridding the school
of it. In doing so she arranged for the school to close
its afternoon session at two, thus releasing many stu-
dents coming from distant parts of the city which had
compelled them to travel home late at night. By cutting
off two hours at the close of each day she was com-
pelled to rearrange the hours of students in the practice
schools. The arrangement was made for all teaching to
be done during the first two hours of the morning ses-
sion in the practice school, thus giving the regular critic
teacher the rest of the day to handle her own room to
the satisfaction of parents sending their children to
these schools. These two acts of shortening the day of
students and confining practice to the morning hours did
more to add efficiency to the work of students and
faculty than any other act of her administration.
138 Ella Flagg Young
In 1906, departmental work was introduced, of
which she says :
a successful introduction of the departmental plan was made in
the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades of the practice schools. The
plan is vertical, not horizontal, since the teaching of a subject in
successive sections in the same grade is even more stupefying
than that of instructing in every subject taught in the grade.
The change of rooms by the classes affords mental and physical
rest for the children. The establishment of a room as the head-
quarters for history, or art, or geography, or literature, tends
to make that room a museum and library of the subject in its
elementary-school phase.
One further effort of Mrs. Young in her short four
years at the Normal School deserves attention. She
originated and edited, with the aid of the faculty, the
Educational Bi-Monthly. Her ideal in this magazine
venture was twofold. In her own words, " the maga-
zine serves as a clearing-house for those who are work-
ing along special lines, and also as a means for con-
veying to teachers some of the latest thoughts on the
theory of education and on subject-matter." As already
pointed out, the school had during most of its history
been dominated by the theories of some principal. Mrs.
Young wished the faculty to become independent con-
tributors to educational thought and work, and a
magazine, written and edited as well as printed by
the school, would serve for such an incentive to inde-
pendence. The continuation and growth from year to
year of the magazine is evidence of whatever of value
it had for the faculty or the city elementary schools.
In addition to establishing and writing for the Edu-
cational Bi-Monthly, the only literary work of Mrs.
Young during her principalship of the Normal con-
Administration of Normal School 139
sisted in reports to the superintendent and addresses
before educational bodies. In 1907 she delivered be-
fore the National Education Association an address on
"The educational progress of two years, 1905-1907."
Her discussion of persons and movements in social and
educational institutions showed careful reading and
deep thinking. She was clear and keen in her discus-
sion of higher education, especially on the relation of
college and university to the individual. She quoted
President Wilson of Princeton in saying the "object is
to get the college instruction into the lives of the under-
graduates." The curricula of higher institutions showed
a more liberal attitude than formerly toward scientific
study. In the preparation of teachers she insists that
progress in professional training is being made. Her
faith in coordinating vocation and academic education
under one roof in high schools foreshadowed her efforts
some years later in fostering "cosmopolitan" high
schools.
Great progress is reported in health work among the
schools of cities. Likewise, social work and social
responsibility for children in cities are reported as
growing. Questions of advancement of salaries of
teachers, consideration of freedom of teachers, and
output of educational literature are dwelt upon at
length. On one of these questions she says: "If the
public-school system is to meet the demands which
twentieth-century civilization would lay upon it, the
isolation of the great body of teachers from adminis-
tration of the schools must be overcome." With this
address, and particularly with the sentence quoted, it is
evident that Mrs. Young had carried her doctrine of
140 Ella Flagg Young
the freedom of teachers much farther than when she
resigned from the district superintendency and was pre-
pared to take up administration on this platform should
opportunity offer.
At a conference on "Secondary Education" at
Oberlin College, June 19!, 1908, Mrs. Young gave an
address on the subject, " Reciprocal relations between
the subject matters in secondary education." (Educa-
tional Bi-Monthly, vol. Ill, pp. 75-84.) She discusses
recent tendencies in industrial education in high schools
which she says seem to foster a caste system in educa-
tion. A statement of the history of efforts to unify the
curriculum of the schools shows that the efforts were
expended mainly on elementary schools, leaving second-
ary education untouched. The tendency in high-school
teaching has been to keep courses narrow and segre-
gated, so that experience gained in one subject was not
consciously made to function in other lines of endeavor.
A paragraph from the address will show how the
author attempts to give life and unity to the elements
of the course.
There must be some standard by which the value of the
academic work can be tested, and in that test the duration and
effectiveness of the knowledge acquired should be large elements.
If the power to use anything connected with a subject disappears
soon after the completion of the work in it, then it cannot be
that the study gave either culture or discipline. If a boy is
headed toward medicine and he shuffles off everything learned
in geometry and yet becomes a cultivated man, the cultivation is
not due to time wasted in geometry. If a girl becomes a cul-
tured woman the culture is not due to time spent on biology,
long since forgotten. The fanciful notion that things of which
one has not been conscious, or that generalizations upon which
one has not reflected, influence the intellectual and moral judg-
Administration of Normal School 141
ments, making the character of the mind and of the individual
truer, is not based on any data that will stand analysis. Educa-
tion is activity in the process of growth. If the young people
in the secondary stage of education are not each reinterpreting
his or her individual experiences, readjusting knowledge already
gained, to new and broader and deeper questions that arise out
of conditions peculiar to other departments of systematized
knowledge, then the judgment is not becoming truer, keener.
Another address of this period, given before the
National Education Association, at Cleveland, Ohio,
in 1908, was called "The school and the practice of
ethics." In this address the plea is made for the devel-
opment of ethics through the " cultivation of the judg-
ment of values in conduct." The notion one must ac-
quire is "that character develops in childhood through
the exercise, the activity of the ethical judgment." As
in all forms of life, Mrs. Young insists that the child
grows through actually doing deeds and being respon-
sible for his own conduct, and not by being directed in
all vital matters by outsiders. This application of
ethical teaching is in line with the author's earlier
treatise on the subject already noticed.
From the personal standpoint Mrs. Young took her
work at the Normal School as the most serious business.
She felt it as a personal obligation to see that principles
and habits of action should be established on a firm
foundation. At the same time she insisted that the
Normal School, like the individual, should never be-
come a closed system. There should always be openness
to conditions in the changing social environment com-
bined with a flexibility that would result in a progressive
adaptation to the new. The school should have that
poise which comes through the consciousness of a " rich
142 Ella Flagg Young
and subtile activity in enlarged aims." It should be
abreast of the best thought on educational theory and
practice. The men and women in its college and
practice-school faculty should be strong in their special
work, and " the principal must be singularly effective
in arousing that spontaneity of action which will give
an upward and onward movement not only to the whole
school but to the whole school system."
As in all other positions in the school system, Mrs.
Young's administration of the Normal School was fear-
less and positive. She was always outspoken in her
convictions and did not hesitate to tell the individual
or the faculty what she thought on questions at issue.
She was so bent on things she considered worth while
that she spared neither herself nor others who were
responsible for them. Lack of willingness to devote
one's entire energy to the problems and the welfare of
the school on the part of faculty or student branded
such a person as wanting in loyalty to the cause.
Toward such a person she showed neither patience nor
sympathy, often indicating her disapproval by sharp
and blunt word or rebuff. She acquired among many
in the school a reputation for being hard because of
her outspoken attitude toward persons who seemed to
lack loyalty to the interests of the school, which ab-
sorbed her entire energy and time. On the other hand,
she encouraged and helped most graciously and ten-
derly both teacher and pupil struggling to do a duty.
For independence, for initiative, for loyalty, and for
devotion to the school shown by others, her most active
cooperation was never wanting.
Even after leaving the principalship for the superin-
Administration of Normal School 143
tendency of schools she kept an active interest in the
Normal School and appeared on the platform at nearly
every commencement exercise. She fostered its work
and its interests to the very end of her official connec-
tion with Chicago schools.
CHAPTER X
REORGANIZING A TIME-HONORED INSTITUTION
FOR nearly twenty-five years before her election to
the superintendency of the Chicago schools, Mrs.
Young had been taking an active part in discussions
and deliberations of the National Education Associa-
tion. She once said: "When I first began to attend
the meetings of the National Education Association
women were permitted to sit in the gallery and listen
to discussions carried on by the men." The meeting
referred to by Mrs. Young in this statement was held
at Ogdensburg, New York, in 1867, the year that
Mr. W. H. Wells was president, before the Associa-
tion had changed its name to a national organization.
From this obscure position as a listener to an active par-
ticipant in affairs, and finally to the most prominent
place in the Association, is the story of Mrs. Young's
rise in the educational world. She had come to occupy
a place in the intellectual movements of the country as
a whole, and she was known to have a message when-
ever she appeared on the program of public meetings.
Her progress during the time of attendance of the
National Education Association kept pace with the rec-
ognition of women in affairs of the country. The story
of this progress will be told briefly in the following
pages.
Mrs. Young's first appearance as a speaker on the
program of the Association was at the Chicago meet-
ing in 1887. At that time she spoke on the topic,
" How to teach parents to discriminate between good
144
A Time-Honored Institution 145
and bad teaching," a subject which grew immediately
out of her experience as a principal of schools. In
1893 she appeared again on the general program on
"Grading and classification," showing in this address
the tendency in the schools and offering suggestions
which she was trying to put into operation as assistant
superintendent. "Literature in elementary schools"
was given in 1896, a subject on which she had been
working for many years. It is interesting to note in
all the addresses which Mrs. Young made on various
occasions that she always discussed problems in which
she was then actively engaged in the schools. In 1903
she talked on the subject, " Saving time in education."
This subject had its origin in her work at the Univer-
sity in the elementary school. Her next address was
given in 1906, a year after she became head of the
Chicago Normal School, on " Influence of the city
normal school or training school," which was again
an expression of immediate and pressing experience.
In 1907 she discussed the question of "The proper
articulation of technical education," and in 1908, "The
school and the practice of ethics," and also "Utiliza-
tion of experience in home environment."
It will thus be seen that Mrs. Young was a familiar
figure in the circles of the Association. Her influence
was strongly felt along the lines of her interest, and
people had come to have a high degree of confidence
in her ability and integrity. That she took for her
topics of discussion in all her formal addresses matters
in which she was vitally interested was in itself a com-
mendation of her sincerity and her qualification for
leadership in educational ideas. Up to the time she
146 Ella Flagg Young
became superintendent of schools she had not been very
influential in molding the policies of the Association,
though she was a well-known figure among the active
membership.
In order to understand the influence of Mrs. Young
in the history of this organization it is necessary to
point out briefly the career of the National Education
Association. The institution is almost as old as Mrs.
Young's work in the schools of Chicago. For many
years it struggled along with only a small membership,
kept in existence by the energy of a few leading men
in the service of the schools. By and by its member-
ship grew into large proportions and its power as an
organization grew at the same time. A permanent
fund was established and a corporation formed. For
several years many important investigations were un-
dertaken and reports made which have been of tre-
mendous influence in the schools of this country. The
reports of the "Committee of Ten" and the "Com-
mittee of Fifteen," issued during the nineties, have had
the most widespread influence. After a time the policy
of the Association as regards investigations seems to
have changed, and the money of the institution to have
been conserved. A permanent secretary was appointed,
and affairs were managed by a board of trustees. More
and more power was taken over by this board, until the
members of the Association had little to say about
affairs of vital import. Investment of money of the
corporation, essential matters of meetings and pro-
grams, and selection of officers, while ostensibly in the
hands of the members of the Association, were in
reality in the hands of the board of trustees.
A Time-Honored Institution 147
Out of this arrangement grew a very powerful body
of managers, an oligarchy, controlling the Association.
Opposed to its growing power were the individuals who
believed in democratic principles of government. The
consequence was that there grew up two factions in the
Association and occasional " revolts "- against the domi-
nation of the board of trustees, or at least of certain
members of that body, in the management of the Asso-
ciation. One writer, opposed to the board's control,
says:
This company of men managed matters very shrewdly. They
occasionally placed an eminent educator in the presidency of
the Association and took pains to have a number of prominent
men and women upon the program for its annual meeting. They
kept down opposition and insurrection by the usual methods of
the political boss. Objectors were usually snubbed and rele-
gated to obscurity. When an " insurgent " gathered sufficient
strength to promise real trouble he was usually " seen," prob-
ably given an office or taken into the "clan," and the revolt
quelled. The " good " were rewarded with offices, with assign-
ment to committees where they had the privilege of sitting
beside the great and voting " right " on matters presented, and
by places on the program. A study of the programs for the
past years will repay the student for the time consumed, and
will reveal the names of a limited number of these " faithful "
appearing regularly on the platform of the Association in com-
pany with the distinguished educational speakers who were also
asked to appear.
Before 1910 there had been several minor " revolts,"
both within the board of trustees and in the organiza-
tion at large. A notable case of the former was that
led by Pearse, of Wisconsin, against the action of cer-
tain members of the trustees in attempting to oust him
from that body. His success and the notoriety of the
case formed backbone for the uprising in Boston which
148 Ella Flagg Young
resulted in the election of Mrs. Young to the presi-
dency of the Association. Quoting from the writer
mentioned above, we find that
The spirit of insurgency was so strong that the members took
the matter upon the floor of the Association at its annual meet-
ing where the election of officials is consummated. The name of
Superintendent Young of Chicago was substituted for that of
the regular nominee and she was elected by an overwhelming
vote. This was the first time in the history of the Association
that the report of the committee on nominations had been turned
down. Every possible political trick and every ounce of political
pressure were brought to bear to prevent Mrs. Young's election
by the nominating committee and to prevent her friends from
taking the matter to the floor of the convention. Threats,
flattery, and denunciation of those who were supporting Mrs.
Young and of the methods used in advancing her candidacy
(methods which had throughout been perfectly open and frank),
and promises of future advancement, all were used wherever it
was thought possible to mollify the progressives, or to induce
them to come into camp and "be good." It was all without
avail The membership was for Mrs. Young and they were not
to be denied.
In the face of this bitterness engendered by the older
element resenting a break in its power, Mrs. Young's
name was presented by a minority of the nominating
committee. Preparation for this event had been made
by the friends of Mrs. Young for several weeks. The
moment was tense. In presenting her name, the speaker
said:
I understand that the presentation of such a report as I am
making is without precedent in the annals of this Association,
and I am glad that this woman, who has been breaking records
ever since she started, is breaking the record of this Association
now. . . . For the first time in the history of this organization
a woman has been mentioned for the high office that has been
filled for so many years by so many distinguished men, and for
A Time-Honored Institution 149
the first time we have a woman who stands, frail and little as
she is, towering above those that are about her. She has not
merely a national reputation, she has an international reputation.
I regret any mention of a sex line in any contest. We are
presenting the name of Mrs. Young as the best human being
for this position. She has the record of having taught from the
primary school to the university. She has done something that
thrills every one of us ; when you can say that man or woman
past fifty starts in and obtains a university education, it is some-
thing to thrill one with admiration. . . . We have a woman
to speak for us in Mrs. Young who will not speak the word
wrong. It has been said that too many presidents come from
Illinois. . . . Mrs. Young comes not from Chicago, but from
this whole country. There are women and men from north
and south, from east and west, and from the center, all anxious
to see her given a chance to do in this Association what she has
already done in Chicago.
When the vote was called for, out of 993, 617
favored the substitution of Mrs. Young's name for that
of the majority candidate. The domination of an
oligarchy had been broken. Bitter words grew out of
this act on the part of the meeting. These words were
echoed and re-echoed in various forms in newspapers
and educational magazines and in some of the speeches
of men in the Association. An editorial in a leading
educational journal said that
To take this action [nomination of Mrs. Young from the floor
of the convention] in the interest of a particular candidate who
had not received the support of a majority of the committee
duly chosen to select a president, and in the face of the fact that
the committee had nominated a man of national reputation and
of long and devoted service to the Association, was injudicious,
to say the least.
This entire editorial was an adverse criticism of the
convention's action. In the same journal at a later
time an editorial writer criticizes Mrs. Young severely
150 Ella Flagg Young
for indorsing all that was done for her election and the
methods resorted to. The writer says there were even
threats of vengeance upon any one who dared to oppose
her. She had an all-absorbing ambition and determi-
nation to win at any cost. The appeal, according to
this writer, was made to a house packed by members of
the Association from Chicago, New York, and Boston.
If such a policy were to be pursued, the writer suggests
that the constitutional provision for a nominating com-
mittee should be repealed. In another educational
journal an editorial says the atmosphere of the Asso-
ciation was like that of a political convention. It claims
that Mrs. Young was elected in spite of over-zealous
efforts of would-be friends and would make an excellent
president. " The only regret is that her election could
not have been more dignified."
Such words represent the death throes of a system
intrenched behind narrow partisanship and not the atti-
tude of the vast majority of people. Two editorials,
one from a daily paper of the time and the other from
a western educational journal, express the more general
feeling:
If the duties of president of the National Education Associa-
tion require an administrator possessing preeminently the highest
faculties of the profession of teaching, then the organization has
voted wisely in electing to its highest office Mrs. Ella Flagg
Young, the superintendent of the Chicago public schools. In a
year's service in the latter capacity Mrs. Young has disclosed
characteristics and abilities manifold and admirable endow-
ments sufficient to overcome all the perplexities of her difficult
position and to make her the most successful and progressive
executive the system has ever had. If there were no doubts a
year ago as to her fitness for the task, there were at least preju-
dices. But with the certain evidences of her achievements in the
A Time-Honored Institution 151
various functions of her office, even these prejudices have dis-
appeared, and there exists a comforting satisfaction that the
direction of the schools is in the proper hands. The National
Education Association will find that its chief officer is a woman
of the utmost tact a tact which has soothed and reconciled
conditions of petulant insurgency in the Chicago schools after
years of annoying turmoil. It will find her a woman of fine
mental strength, clear of view, just and sympathetic, guided by
principles instead of arbitrary rules, flexible but guilty of no
craven concessions. Her educational qualifications, her pride in
her calling, her capacity for administration, her experience in
various branches of instruction, are a rich equipment and one
which should add definitely to the prestige and power of the
association of which she is head.
In the Nebraska Teacher, the editor wrote :
The election of Mrs. Ella Flagg Young as president of the
National Education Association is another victory for good
government in that organization. Mrs. Young has made a
good record as superintendent of the second largest system of
schools in this country. She was the popular choice of a very
large majority of the teachers of the country. There was every
reason why she should be chosen for the great honor which this
position carries with it. Her election emphasizes the principle
so well established in Nebraska, that such honors should go
unsought to the one who will honor the position because of
great service to the educational cause. Mrs. Young's election
is fitting not only on these grounds, but because of the opportu-
nity to recognize the great service of women to education in this
country. It is fortunate that the active members of the National
Education Association at Boston had the courage of their
convictions.
Upon her election to the office, Mrs. Young uttered
the words that crystallized the opposition into the " old
guard," a name based upon the control exercised by
the board of trustees for many years. She expressed
not only the hopes of men and women who had been
fighting for a more democratic form of government
152 Ella Flagg Young
in the National Education Association, but expressed
again the spirit that had animated every act of hers
in educational administration. When called to the
platform and introduced, she said:
It is with a deep sense of the honor you have conferred upon
me and the responsibility I assume in accepting the presidency
of this Association that I enter upon the duties of the position
to which you have elected me. I am well aware that in one
short year a president may not influence the character of the
Association in a marked degree. The president may, however,
conserve the good which has been developed in the past and
assure one advance step in the future. I hope to assist in abolish-
ing the distinction in membership between those who can and
those who cannot pay comparatively high dues. This will never
be a truly democratic organization while it shuts out from active
membership the men and the women who receive small salaries
teaching in a cramped environment where people have not yet
learned the value of the teacher. Something certainly can be
accomplished toward advancing the spirit of fellowship among
teachers so that all will be interested in education, not only in
the rural district, the village, or the town in which their
personal work is carried on, but throughout the land.
During her year as president Mrs. Young made her
position as to democratizing the Association felt to a
degree that it did take " one advance step." From the
very first she was opposed and fought. The legality of
her election at Boston was questioned, and her own
part in that event was made the object of criticism by
the powers that had been controlling the organization.
The board of trustees and the secretary undertook to
run affairs without consulting the president, not so
much out of disrespect for her, as for the reason that
this had been the custom. Before the year was over
they were fully aware that this custom would have to
be changed and it would be necessary to include the
A Time-Honored Institution 153
president as an active, though ex-offido, member of that
body. Mrs. Young thought that good business man-
agement required full and technical intelligence as to
the disposition of the permanent funds of the Asso-
ciation. In expressing this idea she was voicing the
demands that had been heard from individuals for sev-
eral years. But her statement of this need brought
abuse and an effort to discredit her as president on the
part of opponents of progress.
In spite of opposition the meeting at San Francisco
the next summer was a successful meeting. A move-
ment was set under way at that time to put the Asso-
ciation's affairs as completely as possible out of the
hands of any political body and to make the active
members responsible to a degree not possible before.
Officers were elected who had been known as fighters
for the principle on which Mrs. Young won at Boston.
Mrs. Young's address on "The hypothesis in educa-
tion," already referred to, was devoted to a discussion
of an educational and not a political subject.
Of course, the fight which Mrs. Young had got into
did not cease with her year as president of the Asso-
ciation. The following year in Chicago the whole issue
was raised again and she was brought into it in the most
bitter kind of fight. In Boston teachers from New
York City had been active leaders for Mrs. Young.
In fact, one member from that city had presented the
minority report which nominated her. It seems that
this had been done with a distinctively partisan and
political object, as the course of events in Chicago dem-
onstrated. Long before the meeting took place every
effort possible was made to draw Mrs. Young into a
154 "Ella Flagg Young
deal whereby she should return the favor to a New
York woman which had been shown her. She was
accused of not playing the game, and her friends were
criticized in private and on the floor of the convention
at Chicago. In spite of all pressure and all bitterness
,of a personal nature against her and Chicago teachers,
Mrs. Young refused to be drawn into the struggle. It
was her influence more than any other force, though
she exercised this by withholding from the controversy,
which brought through the issues before the Associa-
tion: The adoption of the changes to the constitution
of the Association.
It is evident that the time was ripe for a revolution
in the management and the ideals of the National Edu-
cation Association. Changes made in the constitution
liberalizing the conditions for active membership; new
impetus given to investigations and leadership in move-
ments of the day; greater appeal to the "men and
women who receive small salaries teaching in a cramped
environment where people have not yet learned the
value of the teacher"; and, finally, the rehabilitation of
faith in democratic control, were some of the accom-
plishments of this revolution. Mrs. Young's great help
came through the power she had to throw on the side
of the teachers of the country against a narrow oligar-
chical institution.
That her election to the presidency of the National
Education Association came during the first year of her
work as superintendent of Chicago schools shows the
general esteem in which she was held throughout the
country. Her fight for democracy in that organization
was merely the application of the principles she had in
'A Time-Honored Institution 155
mind to put into operation in the city schools of Chi-
cago. As the following chapter will show, conditions
in the National Education Association were consider-
ably less intricate and less permeated by selfish interests
than were the affairs of the city schools. By far the
larger problem of administration lay in the city, and it
is to that problem that Mrs. Young devoted the best
of her energy and constructive powers.
CHAPTER XI
DEMOCRACY AND THE SUPERINTENDENCY OF
CHICAGO SCHOOLS
TII7"HEN Mrs. Young left the assistant superintend-
ency in 1899 the schools were in a turmoil over
the question of the teachers. Salaries, study, promo-
tion, and tenure of office were questions agitating the
minds of teachers and board and superintendent. To
Mrs. Young the most important question was that of
the efforts to reduce teachers and supervisors to mere
clerks, to automatons under the direction of a respon-
sible head, of a superintendent and the board of edu-
cation. For the first time in the history of Chicago
schools, teachers began to agitate over organization for
mutual protection and to secure ends of their own.
Mrs. Young left because the situation was in confusion
and there seemed no immediate hope of securing relief.
From the day of her resignation from the schools
until her re-election to the superintendency ten years
later, this agitation over the status of teachers and
teacher-organization was kept up. Her immediate
predecessor in the office of superintendent inherited the
controversy from his predecessor, but instead of being
able to bring order out of the chaos, he added fuel to
the fire. To questions of salary and promotion, he
added that of a secret marking system which made the
teachers' standing dependent wholly upon the will of
principal or superintendent with no intelligent recourse.
Teachers were driven for self-protection to affiliate
themselves with labor organizations having ends out-
156
, Democracy and Superintendency 157
side those of the school. During these years of con-
troversy between superintendent and teachers' organi-
zation the public was given to understand that the
difficulty rested upon the fact that the teachers' federa-
tion was composed of professional agitators. Not once
was it made clear that this organization was the result
of the conditions under which Chicago schools were
governed. At any rate, the city grew sick of contin-
ual friction in the management of school affairs, and
demanded relief.
It was with satisfaction to the public that quiet was
restored from the day that Mrs. Young was elected
to the superintendency. Teachers at once felt that
they could count on a fair deal because they knew and
trusted the superintendent. Secret markings were abol-
ished, teachers were heard in their own defense, and
very shortly were called into councils to advise the
superintendent on vital affairs in the schools. They
were consulted in the making of courses of study and
selecting of textbooks. Salaries were readjusted, and
promotional work reorganized so as to give each one
a fair chance for advancement and growth. Instead of
fighting the organizing of teachers, Mrs. Young en-
couraged it because she believed, as she expressed
before the so-called Senate Committee in 1915, that
the growth of the grade teachers in a general civic sense, and
recognition of the rights of the human being, has been remark-
able since the organization of the teachers' federation. . . . Not
only the federation, but the various clubs are beneficial. What-
ever makes teachers appreciate the life of the community, the
spirit of the nation to which they belong, helps the school. The
great drawback in education in the past has been that teachers
knew their books and didn't know life outside.
158 Ella Flagg Young
From the point of view of history the work of Mrs.
Young as Superintendent, obscured by the recent con-
troversies so bitterly waged, cannot be rightly judged.
Only time can tell how permanent and how strong are
the changes and the institutions for which she was
responsible. But, judged from the standpoint of the
unity of spirit prevailing among the elementary-school
teachers of the city during her administration, her work
was unique. In one place in her testimony before the
committee mentioned above, she remarked in passing
that "when I was a teacher we went meekly to the
institutes that we were summoned to attend by the
superintendent." In the teachers' councils which Mrs.
Young called together, there was none of this meek
coming together because summoned by the superintend-
ent. Instead, the councils were the livest and most out-
spoken of meetings, and each teacher was anxious to
get her position before the superintendent and was
encouraged in this effort.
But Mrs. Young did not find the administration of
schools a bed of roses. As pointed out in the opening
chapter of this book, she reached a point where every
move she made was fought. The last two years of her
term as superintendent were comparatively ineffective
because of the determined opposition and efforts to rid
the schools of her service. A discussion of this con-
troversy in all of its details would involve too extended
a treatise and would be without value in showing the
position Mrs. Young occupied at the time. So many
interests and so many aspects of the questions are in-
volved that a clear and unbiased statement is difficult
to make. It is the burden of this chapter, however,
Democracy and Superlntendency 159
to set forth this controversy in as brief and fair a way
as possible, even though it be at the expense of com-
pleteness. Of one fact there is no doubt in all this
controversy, and that is that every act of Mrs. Young
can be given the widest publicity without any fear of
finding it questionable or dishonorable. Her purpose
to serve the schools never wavered through the entire
time, and from a "heckling" board meeting she would
hasten to some piece of work providing for the better-
ment of schools, or children, or teachers.
" Interests " represented on the school board lie at
the foundation of most of the ills of city schools, in
Chicago as elsewhere. This point has already been
made clear in the first chapter and so is here referred
to only to introduce the elements of interests that fig-
ured in the troubles which beset the superintendent of
schools during the past two or three years. Probably
in last analysis, financial influences have been back of
the political machinations in the controversy. More
specifically, these took the form of the selection of text-
books, dealing with organized teachers, and the selec-
tion and purchase of building sites. In addition to
these questions, which are essentially financial, there
arose, in common with the movement throughout the
country, a question of religious and sectarian influences
in school matters. All of these elements were present
in the fight on Mrs. Young during the last years of her
office, and a discussion of some of them will show the
position she took. Some form of organization and
amalgamation of these forces finally succeeded in driv-
ing her from the superintendency.
The first matter that broke the calm of administra-
160 Ella Flagg Young
tion was the question of the selection of textbooks
in reading and spelling. Under oath, Mrs. Young
stated before the Baldwin Committee in 1915 the facts
of this controversy, a brief summary of which follows.
In June, 1912, she recommended to the school man-
agement committee that a series of readers should be
adopted. She made her recommendation of the series
she had selected and then says : " In connection with the
adoption of those readers I had my first experience of
what almost every superintendent in the United States
has met before going out of office." An agent of one
of the books not adopted threatened to " get" her, and
was one source of trouble for her. In adopting a
spelling book at the time she says :
Unfortunately, I said to some members of the committee on
school management that board members were trying to influence
me. . . . When we got into committee I was asked for the
names of members trying to influence me. Of course, I had to
say "yes," and stated who they were. From that day the
intention was to move me out of office.
Mrs. Young's experience in dealing with textbooks
had up to that time been singularly free from entangle-
ments that are common in school administration. At
that time it was not so much a matter of the direct
action of any company as it was a demand on the part
of board members for union-made books. Without
doubt, pressure was being brought to bear on these
members by the interests that had put them in their
position for just such emergencies. Largely out of
this controversy over textbooks grew the bitterness that
led Mrs. Young to withdraw from the superintendency
in 1913.
Democracy and Superintendency 161
The second element in the fight between Mrs. Young
and the board was over the teachers being affiliated
with organized labor. The attitude of Mrs. Young on
this matter has been pointed out in connection with her
testimony before the Baldwin Committee. Again, the
issue was probably at bottom a financial one. Organ-
ized teachers were becoming too strong for the
recognized " interests " in the board itself and were
demanding consideration as to living conditions that
the board found it expensive to meet. Mrs. Young's
first split with the members of the board over the fed-
eration came when the board and the teachers had
separate bills before the legislature for a system of
pensions. One member of the board expressed fear
that teachers federated with labor might be a menace
to the schools because of a provision of such organiza-
tions to use the strike as a means of gaining their ends.
Mrs. Young refused to accept such an interpretation
of the teaching force of Chicago. Again and again
this matter came up in one form or another until finally
a rule was introduced making it illegal for a teacher
to belong to outside-controlled organizations, though,
as explained at the time, the rule was aimed specifically
at the teachers' federation. The fight in the lower
courts over this rule has gone in favor of the teachers,
but in the meantime Mrs. Young left the superin-
tendency.
As an essential part of this controversy over the
organization of teachers came the fight to reduce sal-
aries in order to meet a deficit in the board's funds for
schools. One of the things, as already explained, for
which Mrs. Young contended during her superintend-
1 62 Ella Flagg Young
ency was for better salaries for teachers. When the
question of retrenchment arose during 1915 she said
she thought the teachers of the city would be willing
to contribute a part of their time that the schools might
hot be closed on account of a shortage-of money. Her
plan in this suggestion was to forestall any cutting of
the salary schedule for the coming year because she
feared, from her previous experiences with such mat-
ters, that the cut might be permanent. The committee
handling this question accused the federation of block-
ing the move and blamed Mrs. Young for abetting
them in this. The finances of the board are so man-
aged that no one seems to be able to tell where a deficit
is likely to arise, or why. In her testimony already
referred to, Mrs. Young explains the system in vogue,
of transferring funds from one department to another
to meet the demands of the time. She also pointed out
that the so-called deficit in the educational department
was not as great in proportion as that in the adminis-
trative department, yet the latter had been reported
without a deficit. The idea she intended to convey
was that her opponents were trying to show that her
work and her department had been run into debt be-
cause of poor management, while as a matter of fact
no such condition existed. In connection with this
struggle over the so-called deficit, Mrs. Young believed
that with the increased taxation voted by the legisla-
ture the board should borrow money for current ex-
penses until such increase became available for the
schools.
Whether irregularities existed in selecting building
sites has not been conclusively proven, though the gen-
Democracy and Superintendency 163
eral public believes such to have been the case. News-
papers and committees of investigation have gone over
the evidence, but have never gone far enough to show
what was the real situation. In this matter, as well as
that of leasing school-board property, the practice in
Chicago has been uncertain because it has always de-
pended upon the makeup of the board from time to
time. Mrs. Young was consistently opposed to a slip-
shod policy, and gained much of the enmity against her
in this way.
Mrs. Young's fight for the unit system as opposed
to the dual system of vocational education was one of
the most important forces in making her a target for
some of the interests back of the school board. She
was undoubtedly one of the greatest individual factors
in forestalling the scheme to divide the educational
system and fund of this state and city. At the same
time all prominent teachers' organizations took an
active part in this struggle, and among them the most
active was the federation, which thus gave its enemies
one more incentive for its elimination.
Religious issues injected into school affairs of Chi-
cago were partly the result of a general agitation in this
country against mixing religion with public policy. Ar-
guments against Mrs. Young based on this agitation
were common. In her testimony before the Baldwin
Committee she said:
There are people who have intended to injure me. They said
from one end of this country to another that I am a Catholic.
I am a Presbyterian, and yet I have been called a Catholic, and
it is not a week since I was told that I ought to get the word
out that I am not a Catholic. I said " No." I cannot say any-
164 Ella Flagg Young
thing, for I respect many Catholics, and for me to come out in
the papers with this announcement would indicate that there was
something disgraceful in being a Catholic. Yet it has been
said that I go out of this hotel every morning to early mass ; that
I have an altar in my room ; that I have a son a Catholic priest.
The first open break in this matter, though religion
was not explicitly mentioned, came in the refusal of the
board to confirm one of Mrs. Young's nominees for a
responsible position. Her own religious views were
always liberal, for, though she classed herself as a Pres-
byterian, she followed David Swing in his formation of
the Central Church. Opposition against her on religi-
ous grounds could only have been originated by persons
with selfish purposes. That she has been open-minded
in dealing with so delicate a subject as religious and
political beliefs, all her dealings with men and women
prove. Her belief in the integrity of the public schools
was so strong that she lamented the intrusion of sec-
tarian and political and social issues. White or black,
native or foreign-born, believer or unbeliever, were all
to her human spirits and were given such opportunity
as citizens of a democracy were entitled to. She pro-
claimed in public on numerous occasions her conviction
that every child in this country should be educated in
the public schools of the country.
All these factors entered into the fight against Mrs.
Young as superintendent during the last two or three
years of her term. In July, 1913, she presented her
resignation to the board of education. A great amount
of agitation sprang up against this action and the board
refused to accept her resignation. She was given every
assurance of support by the board at the time, and she
Democracy and Superintendency 165
consented to go on with her duties as superintendent.
But she lived to regret her action. In this act she vio-
lated a principle that had governed her official record
from the beginning, and that was to leave a place that
she felt she could not fill without being hampered by
bickering. Ostensibly, the reason she gave was that
she could not work while a part of the board stood
against her policies. She was accused of playing poli-
tics by her move in resigning. Undoubtedly, most per-
sons in such a position would have to put up with a
divided board at some times. Mrs. Young felt, how-
ever, the force of the divided board, and she knew that
no constructive work could be done under such condi-
tions; therefore, she refused to trade by political
maneuvering in the position. As one writer puts it:
They didn't like her, first, because of the stand she took against
the schoolbook trust (she would not be manipulated by it), and
they didn't like her because she seemed to have too high an
ideal of her office. She stood as a complete obstructionist to
all efforts to speculate in school sites and to create real-estate
situations that any one might have private gain. And there was
also opposition on the part of the board because of the increasing
interest which the women of Chicago took in the schools over
which Mrs. Young was placed.
After the board refused to accept her resignation,
Mrs. Young again took up the work with her usual
earnest effort for the betterment of the schools. Mat-
ters seemed to move very smoothly, all too smoothly,
as events showed later on in the year. At the annual
election of superintendent in December of that year,
the board suddenly developed an opposition candidate.
Mrs. Young was taken by complete surprise. One of
her friends on the board came to her on the morning
1 66 Ella Flagg Young
of the election to say that there would be opposition,
but she rested so securely in the belief that the action
in the previous July in asking her to reconsider her
resignation had been genuine, that she supposed oppo-
sition to her would amount to nothing. It seemed, how-
ever, that there had been a secret intrigue during the
previous few months which had built up a combination
to elect someone else to the superintendency. Some of
the principal movers in this opposition had been appar-
ently her friends, and not those who had openly fought
her in the board. So taken by surprise at the opposition
and the nomination of another candidate was she, that
in chagrin and anger, partly at her own stupidity, as
she has said, as well as at the double dealing of some
of the members, she left the board rooms at once. This
was the first step in her repentance for having been
persuaded to recall her resignation. Later she said:
Two years ago last July I violated one of my pet theories,
and I have always regretted it. I have always thought that
when a person resigns he should never go back to the position.
I have seen it work out a number of times. I resigned then, and
two weeks later the board of education refused to accept the
resignation. I thought the members meant what they said. I
was mistaken. If I had not gone back I should have escaped all
the trouble.
By a sudden and dramatic uprising, men and women
throughout the city demanded her return to the super-
intendency. Among many editorials in daily papers
this one gives the temper of the city:
Chicago never before gave such a testimonial to any citizen
as the meeting at the Auditorium, Saturday, in behalf of Mrs.
Ella Flagg Young. The vast hall was jammed, not with people
to see a show, but with solid citizens bent on showing their
Democracy and Superintendency 167
confidence in the city's foremost educator and on righting the
wrongs done by politics to the city's schools. A native son who
had been elected president of the United States might feel
flattered at such a demonstration. The gathering of Saturday,
and the universal outcry from all parts of the city, show that a
democracy is not ungrateful for services rendered its children.
The mayor of the city took a hand in affairs and the
city witnessed the spectacle of two sets of officers trying
to fill the places on the board of education. Although
another superintendent had been elected at the time
Mrs. Young left the rooms, the board reconsidered its
action and put her back into the place. There was
nothing else the board could do. Pressure from newly
enfranchised women in Chicago was so insistent that
political forces were compelled to recognize the inter-
ests of the schools, at least ostensibly. But the two
years from the time of this action in December, 1913,
until her announcements of her resignation were one
continuous turmoil in board management of schools.
Hitherto unexpressed opposition on the part of the
men principals and some of the men teachers in the
high schools found more and more clear expression in
various ways against a woman superintendent. One of
the daily papers, up to this time a staunch supporter of
Mrs. Young, now by insinuation and by open attack
editorially proclaimed the necessity for a change in the
superintendency. Many persons of unbiased judgment
saw the hand of " interests " in the published state-
ments of the newspapers and the moves made to
" investigate " the schools.
In every way possible efforts were made to compel
Mrs. Young to leave the schools. It was generally rec-
ognized that she was the storm center about which all
1 68 Ella Flagg Young
the controversy revolved. Political interests found it
difficult to handle the situation as long as she occupied
the superintendency. Some of these activities need
stating in detail. In the first place, in connection with
the deficit in school appropriations, an " efficiency" com-
mittee was appointed that undertook to cut teachers'
salaries in order to meet the shortage. Because, as al-
ready stated, Mrs. Young opposed this, and because
the teachers' federation opposed it, the fight ostensibly
against the latter organization was in reality a fight
against the superintendent, who figured so largely
as an exponent of organized teachers as against the po-
litical interests on the board. For several months this
committee wrangled, and ended by simply having made
matters unbearable for Mrs. Young. Not a single posi-
tive recommendation was made and carried out by this
committee, except to foster the attack directly on the
federation and to hasten the growing disgust of the
superintendent with a heckling policy. The attempts
of the common council to " investigate " the finances of
the school board were not aimed at Mrs. Young, though
even here the meaning was undoubtedly a political one.
A second aspect of this effort to drive Mrs. Young
from the schools was the policy of the mayor elected in
1915. Instead of making the appointments to the
school board in July, as was the requirement of the
case, he neglected to do so, and thus left the board as
it was then constituted to fight it out against the super-
intendent. Undoubtedly, he was unwilling to assume,
for political reasons, the responsibility of appointing a
board that might continue the task of making life mis-
erable for the superintendent, and, on the other hand,
Democracy and Superintendency 169
he was unwilling to offend the powers back of this
fight by appointing a board that might favor her work
and retention. As evidence for this statement it is
merely necessary to call attention to the fact that as
soon as Mrs. Young's intention to leave the schools
was made public, the mayor immediately named seven
people for the vacant places on the board.
One other " investigation " of school affairs was
undertaken by a committee of state senators. The
resolution creating this committee was entered after
the adjournment of the senate, and, judged by its activ-
ity and history, was undoubtedly a part of the move-
ment to get rid of Mrs. Young. The author of the
resolution creating this committee was a close political
friend of the mayor, thus tying up more closely the
political interests back of the movement to rid the
schools of her influence. Testimony taken by this com-
mittee, as already pointed out, centered mainly about
the superintendent and the attack against the teachers'
federation. Openly the committee showed the greatest
respect to Mrs. Young, giving the widest publicity to
her statements and encouraging the public in believing
the investigation was for a real purpose of furthering
the schools of the city. Within the committee dissen-
sion arose because of the evident purpose of a majority
to carry on matters in behalf of the " interests " of
Chicago which offered "philanthropically" to defray
the expenses of the committee. Moreover, no further
indications of the meaning of this committee are nec-
essary when it is understood that the moment that Mrs.
Young made her announcement that she would not be a
candidate for re-election, it dropped out of existence
170 Ella Flagg Young
and has not been heard from since. Opposition within
the committee itself could not have accounted for its
complete cessation, because a majority of the commit-
tee was in favor of the policy for which it had been
appointed. Politics back of the city government of
Chicago and the board of education was undoubtedly
the moving force in this investigation as well as other
activities mentioned, and the object of them all was to
rid the city of Mrs. Young without seeming to the
public at large, particularly the women voters, to be
fighting her. The methods of politics to cause friction
and dissension and yet keep in the background are so
well illustrated in the work of the last two years of
her superintendency that nothing further is necessary to
a complete understanding of her resignation.
In her resignation Mrs. Young wrote as follows:
Persistent discussion of the superintendency of schools in the
daily papers leads me to write you officially of the subject.
When I was re-elected, December 9, 1914, I intended to com-
plete the plans made for the school year ending June 30, 1915,
and on that date to sever my connection with the Chicago public
schools. When the school year closed a most perplexing situa-
tion existed. The board was confronted by a prospective deficit
varying from $600,000 to $1,350,000, according to the opinions
of different persons. In order to reduce the sum as much as
possible the board had adopted certain restrictions that were to
be effective until December 31, 1915: (i)the employment of
no extra teachers; (2) the non-increase of additional teachers;
(3) the non-recognition of increases in salaries because of pro-
motional credits ; (4) assignment of pupils to teachers of manual
training and household arts. Knowing that the enforcement of
these restrictions would subject a superintendent to adverse
criticism, I believed that my responsibility in recommending
higher salary schedules for principals and teachers placed on
me the duty of administering these restrictions, and I therefore
decided to remain until December 8, 1915. No deficit will con-
Democracy and Superintendency 171
front the schools for 1916, and I shall gladly see my succes-
sor enter upon the duties of the office with the prospect of an
educational field cleared for work upon the problem of the
schools and their interests.
Mrs. Young did not release her hold on the affairs
of the schools even up to the very day of her departure.
Her last report was one defending the morals of the
high schools against charges made by persons whom she
considered enemies of the public high schools. Every
item of estimate for the following year was gone over
by her as painstakingly and conscientiously as if she
were going right on with the work. In this act the most
characteristic attribute of Mrs. Young came out She
would not give up an office with the work disorganized
and confused. Even though her friends continually
urged her to let up on the amount of energy she was
putting into the place during the final days, she was
always there and always busy finishing the duties as she
found them pressing upon her. Her successor did not
need to spend weeks trying to catch up with the slack
of official matters. It was not that her successor might
be relieved, however, but that the schools might not be
left with some period of inattention and neglect. Her
interest was ever in the schools, and this interest lasted
to the closing day of her connection with them.
With her withdrawal from the Superintendency the
tension that had existed for several months was at once
relieved. The interests that had fought her at once
turned attention to a reorganization of management in
harmony with their own demands. The feeling of
unrest and expectancy was notably absent from the
board meetings. This relief in tension was noticeable
172 Ella Flagg Young
in the speeches and pledges of good-will at the meetings
immediately following Mrs. Young's departure. Un-
fortunately for the schools of Chicago, however, the
fight through which she had just gone seemed to bear
very little immediate fruit in the reorganization.
Merely to secure peace and good-will in management
is no sign of progress in school administration. The
difficulty had been in a politically organized board of
education, in the dominance of interests responsible for
appointments to that body. All that happened in the
new organization was a rearrangement of affairs suit-
able to these interests, so that harmony and peace
appearing were those of a temporary nature. The po-
litical board remains political. In time Chicago must
witness the same kind of upheaval in school affairs that
it has in the past. The present management is based
on exactly the same kind of uncertain status that has
always been the case, and no amount of ability and con-
scientiousness on the part of a superintendent can ever
make his tenure of office secure. In spite of the most
extensive publicity given through Mrs. Young to the
weaknesses of the school board during the past few
years, the public does not generally seem to realize the
necessity for changing matters. American faith in turn-
ing out one set of officers and electing another is the
only remedy employed in handling school affairs.
After the withdrawal of Mrs. Young the recognition
given her by citizens of Chicago in public meetings and
receptions inspired some of the members of the board
of education to offer a permanent and substantial recog-
nition of her years of service to the city. The sug-
gestion was that she should be made superintendent
Democracy and Superintendency 173'
emeritus with a salary of five thousand dollars a year.
Mrs. Young stated to her intimate friends that she
would not accept such a position, even though it might
be offered her, and no one who had known her well
would have expected her to do so. When the matter
came up for consideration in a committee of the board
it was found to have considerable opposition. There
was a feeling on the part of some that it would be safer
for the interests of the board to be completely rid of
all of her influence. Arguments that this would be
without legal sanction and an expenditure of the public
money needed in other directions were made, so the
proposition was dropped and nothing further done
about it, except the passage of the following resolution.
On May 24, 1916, the board voted unanimously
that in humble acknowledgment of the unpayable debt of our
citizens to the wisest, the greatest, the most devoted teacher the
schools of our city ever have known, this simple record of the
official service and positions in public life of the first woman
superintendent of schools of the City of Chicago, Ella Flagg
Young, is spread upon the proceedings of this board of educa-
tion.
Mrs. Young retired from the office of superintendent of
schools January I, 1916. Her withdrawal from the system
terminated a period of service which started in the year 1862,
when she began as a grade teacher. In one year she was a head
assistant. Two years later she became the first principal of the
school of practice upon its creation as a part of the Chicago
Normal School. At the end of six years she was given charge
of the high-school class which developed into the South Divi-
sion High School. After three years she returned to the Nor-
mal School as professor of mathematics, for two years. She
then became principal of the Scammon School, which was fol-
lowed by her principalship of the Skinner School.
In 1887 she was made a district superintendent, which posi-
tion she held until 1899, when she left the service and became,
174 Ella Flagg Young
first, an associate professorial lecturer, and later, upon earning
her doctor's degree, a full professor in the department of edu-
cation of the University of Chicago. In 1905 she re-entered the
school system as principal of the Chicago Normal School, which
position she held until the year 1909, when she was elected
superintendent of the public schools of this city.
Mrs. Young was a member of the state board of education
of Illinois for twenty-five years. She was elected president of
the State Teachers' Association of Illinois in December, 1909,
and in the year 1910 she was elected president of the National
Education Association.
Be it resolved, That an engrossed copy of this resolution be
given to Ella Flagg Young in token of the highest esteem and
fullest appreciation of this board of education, as the represen-
tative of the citizenry of the City of Chicago.
Mrs. Young's immediate power thus passed out of
the school system which she had served for over fifty-
three years. By the action and enthusiasm shown in
the public receptions given in her honor during the last
month of her term of office, it was evident that her
efforts for the school children of Chicago had left a
permanent impress on the history of the city. And
while the plan she hoped to see put into operation to
take the school board out of politics as far as possible
was not realized, the city has a more adequate notion
of the problems and the dangers that beset the public
schools than it has ever had before.
Education of the public to its responsibility to watch
and to guard the interests of its children has gone on
at an increasing speed. So also has been the spirit
of unity among the teachers of the elementary schools.
Without an official connection with the schools, Mrs.
Young's influence cannot be removed from this in-
creased enlightenment of the community and a closer
comradeship among school teachers.
CHAPTER XII
MAKING OVER A CITY SCHOOL SYSTEM
the occasion of Mrs. Young's election to the
superintendency, July 30, 1909, one of the Chi-
cago papers wrote editorially as follows :
Her election to the superintendency of the Chicago public
schools comes as a fitting reward to one who has given her life
to their advancement. There is no phase of their work with
which she is not perfectly acquainted. There has been no
development which she has not watched closely, if indeed she
has not had a part in it. ... The election of a woman to be
superintendent of schools in the second largest city in the United
States is in violation of precedent. If any man among the can-
didates had possessed all the qualifications recognized in Mrs.
Young her sex might have been against her. The board of
education tried faithfully to select the best equipped individual
for the important place. The training, experience, and admin-
istrative ability of Mrs. Young were strong points in her favor.
That they were strong enough to win in spite of sex and in the
face of competition of a number of men of exceptional qualifica-
tions makes the honor shown her all the more notable. The
choice of a Chicago candidate is gratifying. There is some
advantage, at times, in introducing a leader from the outside.
But every such choice is distinctly discouraging to the ambitious
teacher or principal already in the ranks. The selection of
Mrs. Young has a twofold interest. It is a recognition of
faithful service in the Chicago schools. It will bring fresh
inspiration and encouragement to women teachers all over the
United States. The new superintendent has a great task before
her. The wise administration of Chicago's educational plant
demands the best that is in any individual. That Mrs. Young's
career may be marked by wisdom, harmony, progress, and
unquestioned success will be the wish of every citizen as she
takes up her responsible work. 1
175
176 Ella Flagg Young
That the board of education made a thorough search
for a competent person for the position is evidenced
by the length of time spent in making the selection and
the number of persons examined for the place. Fur-
thermore, that her election to the position was partly
felt by many as an honor to her long service in the
schools is clear from the statement of a prominent citi-
zen and a man in an official position in the city at the
time. " We expected the board of education to honor
Mrs. Young," he said, "by making her superintendent
for a year while looking about for a man fully fitted
for the place. But imagine our surprise when the
schools began to move with unprecedented smoothness
and rapidity in the right direction and we were com-
pelled to recognize that instead of honoring Mrs.
Young, we were actually learning for the first time how
well the position of superintendent could be managed."
We have already pointed out the years of experience
and growth of Mrs. Young during her connection with
the public schools of Chicago. From the time she left
the schools in 1899 until the time of her election to the
superintendency she had been going forward in the
study and interpretation of educational thought of this
country and Europe. Her career at the University, as
we have already pointed out, brought her into connec-
tion with John Dewey and his work as an educational
thinker. From her year of travel in Europe she had
gained insight into the practice of education in the
principal cities of the world which in turn she could use
for the administration of schools. In the Normal
School she concerned herself directly with the teaching
force of the city and found many occasions even before
Making Over a City School System 177
she entered into the office of superintendent to help
mold the trend of affairs in the schools. At no time
after leaving the schools ten years before had she lost
touch with the work, so that she needed to spend no
time learning her position after being elected.
The work done by Mrs. Young during the six years
of her office as superintendent cannot be told in a brief
chapter. Like all of her other work, the great thing
she did as superintendent was to mold and influence
character. From the office boy or girl in her depart-
ment to principals, from pupils to teacher, her influence
was continually going out and touching vital spots and
making life brighter for each one. In spite of the
breadth of the problems and the intricacy of the tasks
which Mrs. Young undertook during her administra-
tion, it is necessary to summarize in some fashion the
main events of the period. The first chapter of this
book gave a general summary of the period and showed
that the movements in Chicago were really nation-wide
tendencies. In the present chapter appear in some
detail the actual accomplishments of Mrs. Young as a
superintendent.
During the six years that Mrs. Young was superin-
tendent the schools of Chicago grew very rapidly in
numbers and in scope of work. A bare outline of the
principal items of growth will suffice to show how great
was the task of keeping up with needs of the city, to
say nothing of making headway in improvements.
However, Chicago schools have always had this race
to keep abreast the growing needs of the population, so
that the period from 1909 to 1915 is not unique in this
respect. It is unique, however, in that it actually made
178 Ella Flagg Young
many revolutionary provisions in the education of the
people. All of this will be mentioned as we proceed.
The following table may serve to give some of the facts
in the case :
MEMBERSHIP OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
1909 1915 .. INCREASE
Primary grades Primary grades
135490.3 147,473-8 11,983-5
Grammar grades Grammar grades
86,514.7 101,630.7 15,116.0
Total increase in both grades 27,099.5.
It is worthy of notice in this connection that the
increase in membership during the six years is larger
in the upper grades than in the primary grades. Un-
doubtedly, many of the improvements made in the
schools during this period account for the continuance
of children into the upper grades. The most significant
thing of the work of Mrs. Young as superintendent
was her insistent appeal to keep the children going on
into the higher grades. A record of retardation dur-
ing this time shows the same facts as to success of chil-
dren in advancing as that of the table above. In a still
more effective way the membership of the high school
shows this point:
MEMBERSHIP OF HIGH SCHOOLS
1909 1915 INCREASE
15,687.6 25,322.3 9,634-7
Making Over a City School System 179
The increase, in other words, of the primary depart-
ment during the six years was eight per cent over that
of the date previously, seventeen per cent in the gram-
mar department, while in the high schools the increase
during this period was sixty-one per cent. Such an
increase in high schools was unprecedented in the
city, though throughout the country high schools have
been growing at a very rapid rate during the past ten
years.
In the number of schools the city was acquiring there
was also a rapid increase. In 1909 there were 239
elementary schools, while in 1915 there were 306; in
1909, seventeen high schools, and twenty-two in 1915.
The number of rooms in the elementary schools in
1909 was 5,552, while in 1915 it was 6,815. Teachers
in all schools in 1909 numbered 6,284; in 1915, 7,825,
a gain of 1,541 during the six years. Manual-training
rooms and cooking classes were added as rapidly as
money could be found for them; in 1909 there were
159 manual-training rooms, 61 cooking rooms; in 1915
there were 231 of the former and 199 of the latter.
During the same period the cost of education, like
the cost of everything else, increased. The fact that
education in industrial and vocational lines requiring
expensive equipment was growing so rapidly during this
period, and the fact that, as shown above, attendance
in higher grades grew so much more rapidly than that in
lower grades, are further sufficient reasons why the cost
of education in the city should go up at this time. The
table showing relative percentage of membership in
primary, grammar, and high schools and the total cost
per pupil is here given:
180 Ella Flagg Young
Percentage Percentage Percentage Cost per pu-
YEAR in primary in grammar in high pil in whole
grades grades school system
1909-1910.... 56.9 36.5 6.6 36.11
1910-1911 56.5 36.5 7-0 37-52
1911-1912 55.5 37.0 7.5 39.6i
1912-1913 55-9 37-4 7-6 40.85
1913-1914 51.3 34.7 7.5 42.82
1914-1915 50.21 34.6 8.62 42.38
In addition to all the work of the office of superin-
tendent of schools, and in addition to the personal and
professional work with teachers through regularly visit-
ing schools and lecturing on educational matters, Mrs.
Young found it possible to carry out a tremendous
amount of constructive measures in all lines of admin-
istration. A mere list of her recommendations which
were adopted by the board shows in some measure her
activity during the six years of her connection with that
office. Many other measures and improvements during
the time were fostered by her and owed their success
to her energy and foresight, so that the list here given
of accomplishments represents only a part of her con-
structive work. Taken alone, however, the scope of
recommendations in this outline marks Mrs. Young's
work in the schools as an epoch. There is no attempt
to systematize the recommendations, except that they
are given in chronological order in time of their intro-
duction to the board of education. They are as
follows :
Recommendation to limit the amount of promotional work
of a teacher in one year to two courses, a recommendation
aimed against cramming, prevalent when she became superin-
tendent.
Making Over a City School System 181
Change the system of rating teachers frorr percentage to
descriptive words superior, excellent, good, fair.
Added oral reading to the subjects in examination for admis-
sion to Chicago Normal College.
To furnish teacher, equipment, books, educational supplies
for the first open-air room.
To furnish teachers whose sole duty is to assist children to
overcome speech defects.
To appoint extra teachers (principals' clerks) in all high
schools and all elementary schools with a membership of 1,125
or more.
To appoint assistants to principals of high schools.
To limit the number of seats in classrooms of new buildings
to forty-five (a recommendation which has not been followed;
number now forty-eight).
To reduce the number of seats in classrooms in old buildings
from fifty- four to forty-eight. (Some principals have held on
to the fifty- four in order to keep up total membership. )
To adopt new sentence in the rule concerning deduction from
salary on account of absence because of personal illness; pay
refund of difference between regular salary and amount paid
substitute from third to twelfth week of absence.
To introduce two-year vocational courses into high schools.
To introduce muscular system of penmanship.
Revise course of study in elementary schools.
Establish substitute centers in different parts of the city,
instead of gathering substitutes in superintendent's office daily.
Grant one-year certificates to teachers of the industries with-
out examination.
Appoint women teachers of physical education for girls in
high schools.
Permit special social workers to study the causes of absences
in one of the elementary schools.
Add a modern language that has a great literature to lan-
guage course in any high school that has twenty-five pupils
applying for the language.
Establish Lucy S. Flower high school vocational school
for girls.
Establish review summer-classes in three high schools.
Establish industrial course in grades 6, 7, 8 in certain
1 82 Ella Flagg Young
schools number increased from three to twenty-five in three
years.
Organize prevocational classes in technical high schools.
Elect councilors (deans) for girls in high schools.
Organize teachers' councils.
Submitted plan for presenting subject of personal purity to
high-school pupils.
Recommended conducting high schools on six-hour- a-day
plan.
That all schools be supplied and equipped with divided
window shades.
Recommended the adoption of a rotary (modified Gary) plan
in crowded schools.
Revised elementary course of study aiming to have greater
concentration of effort revision work done by committee of
principals and elementary-school teacher and superintendents.
That high school gymnasiums be kept open ninety minutes
after close of school, and elementary gymnasiums thirty minutes.
Reported on educational methods in Europe.
Submitted plan by which change in salaries would take place
on either January or June first. (Recommendation was not
adopted.)
That the bureau of vocational guidance be taken entirely into
the school system.
Many of these recommendations were far-reaching
in their effects upon the life of the teachers and children
in the schools. Mrs. Young's ideals of reducing the
numbers of pupils to a teacher, of keeping the children
and teachers well physically, of placing handwork in
all grades, particularly a kind in the upper grades that
would have a vocational value for the children, of
raising the intelligence of teachers by making them feel
free to express their own ideas and needs, the increase
of salaries to a point where teachers and principals
were economically competent to live all these ideals
found expression in the acts which she advanced and
fought for during her term of office. To say that the
Making Over a City School System 183
schools have been transformed in some respects by her
work is to put the gains of the city mildly.
As already pointed out, no change was greater than
that of vocational work in the schools of the city.
Advocates of vocational training under a separate sys-
tem of schools, " a dual system," cannot realize in
Chicago that the secondary schools here are already
more largely vocational than they are anything else.
In numbers, students pursuing vocational and technical
courses outnumber those taking the purely academic
subjects. Cost of equipment alone has stood in the way
of pushing this kind of work far beyond its present
status. A report made in March of 1914 showed the
relative numbers of students pursuing the various
courses offered in the high schools.
COURSE MEMBERSHIP
Academic 1 3,063
Two-year college 276
Four-year vocational and technical 5,878
Two-year vocational 7,oio
Prevocational 624
Apprentice 482
Unclassified 167
Total membership 27,500
Total vocational 14,270
Per cent vocational 5
Per cent two-year vocational 25
In the above table the two-year vocational member-
ship is shown as including one-quarter of the entire
high school population. These courses were estab-
lished in 1910, showing that they had grown with
amazing rapidity to a place of such importance. A
184 Ella Flagg Young
summary of the vocational and technical courses in the
school will show how completely Mrs. Young covered
the entire field in the preparation of children for their
life work. The list follows :
1. Industrial centers in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades
in twenty-five elementary schools as enumerated above.
2. Prevocational courses in the technical high schools made
for boys and girls over age but behind in their grade. Children
might enter these courses after having completed the fifth grade
of academic work.
3. Two-year vocational courses in the twenty-two high
schools of the city. These courses number eleven, as follows:
accounting, shorthand, mechanical drawing, designing, pattern-
making, carpentry, machine-shop, electricity, household arts,
printing, horticulture. Two or more of these courses are given
in all the schools, and most could be given by practically all.
4. Four-year vocational and technical courses, as follows:
commercial, ofHce preparatory, technical, general trades, house-
hold arts, arts, and architecture. These courses are given not
only in the technical high-schools, but also in most of the schools
where the general, the science, and the normal-school prepara-
tory courses are given. There are eight high schools in the city
where the four-year technical courses are given. Mrs. Young
believed very strongly in the so-called " cosmopolitan " high
school, a school giving all lines of work, from Greek and art to
cooking and agriculture.
5. Appienticeship courses in many lines of industry, such as
carpentry, electrical workers, plumbers, machinists, sheet-metal
workers, bakers, and druggists.
6. Two-year college courses, or junior-college work, for
technical education and engineering, in several of the high
schools.
7. Evening school courses in more than twenty vocational
lines of work.
Sufficient detail has been given in discussing the work
of Mrs. Young for vocational training to show what
the public schools can do under proper management to
handle the preparation of children for industrial and
Making Over a City School System 185
social demands of the time. In all this movement no
one has grasped more fully than she the demands of
the times for practical education and the responsibility
of the public school to meet these demands. Her faith
in the possibility of the school to do such a task seemed
unlimited. In answer to the criticism of opponents of
the school as it now exists, that it had been established
for the narrower purpose of giving children power to
read and write, she always insisted that the school
belonged to the public and should be made to supply
the needs of the people as they arose, rather than, to
try to hold to some supposed scheme held by men gen-
erations ago. It was this feeling that led her to build
up, as far as money and school board would permit, a
really modern educational institution during her six
years as superintendent.
Not only did Mrs. Young work to advance voca-
tional education, but she attempted to reorganize the
academic work of the schools. In 1910 she called
together committees of teachers, principals, and super-
intendents and gave over to them the charge of rewrit-
ing the course of study for the elementary schools, first
outlining the ideas which she hoped to see advanced by
the work. She arranged her committees by subjects in
the curriculum. By this means she secured a course
made out by a set of persons specializing in a particular
line of study. For thoroughness the course surpassed
anything done in the schools since the days when Super-
intendent Wells wrote out his course, based on oral
instruction, in 1862. Each committee systematized the
material in a given subject from the kindergarten to
the end of the curriculum.
1 86 Ella Flagg Young
After a trial of three years on this course of study,
Mrs. Young again called together principals, teachers,
and superintendents and outlined a plan for concentrat-
ing effort in the grades upon particular lines of work.
The plan was an " intermittent" one whereby a subject
could be used intensively for a year and then dropped
for a year, or rather used in connection with other
subjects. Arithmetic was not to be studied as a separate
subject every semester for eight grades, but was to be
made auxiliary to constructive or handwork in some
of the grades. The same was true of penmanship and
some of the other branches. If a course could be
worked out on this principle and thoroughly under-
stood and appreciated by teachers, there is no doubt
that much time might be saved and the work made
more effective and real for the children. It follows the
recent discussions of a locus for each particular study,
making the material correspond to the interests and
needs of the growing children, rather than following
some preconceived logical arrangement of subjects.
In connection with her effort to make the academic
as well as vocational work effective, Mrs. Young made
the most systematic and tireless search for the best
books for the teachers and children. Reading and
spelling and penmanship were subjected to the most
careful revision. After many years of experimental
work on penmanship, she went back to the "muscular"
form of writing which she had used and advocated at
the time her work in the Skinner School won an annual
prize in the subject. She set a committee to work on a
set of school readers, after herself going over a large
number of them. This committee selected a set of books
Making Over a City School System 187
for the school which have proved adequate in teaching
the subject in the grades. The unsatisfactory condition
of spelling led, through her efforts, to the selection of
a committee of teachers and principals to compile a
book on the subject for the schools. It is evident that
Mrs. Young in her zeal for vocational and technical
education did not forget the academic needs of the
schools at any time.
Even more anxiety was shown by Mrs. Young for
the physical welfare of children and teachers of the
schools. Her belief that health is a pre-requisite for
learning and intelligence drove her to work at all times
for this cause. Not only did she plan for those afflicted
with diseases or with maimed bodies, but her greatest
interest was to keep the sound child well and strong.
In her lectures before the teachers of the city she was
accustomed to say that " children come to school in
September ruddy and strong and leave the schools in
June pale and broken." It was her greatest wish that
this condition might be remedied, that the school might
itself be a place where the sick child might be made
well and the weak child strong. She encouraged open-
air rooms, furnishing teacher and equipment ; she
fought with engineers for a sensible arrangement of
ventilation and for a chance to have the windows of
the rooms opened frequently enough to furnish pure
air. In the arrangement of windows for lighting she
not only provided for the best kind of blinds, but in
all the new buildings she insisted on the construction
of a room that protected, as far as possible, the eyes of
the children.
In the conduct of her office Mrs. Young's adminis-
1 88 Ella Flagg Young
tration was unique in the history of the Chicago
superintendency. From her first day in office she
opened her door to teachers and the public, and during
the entire six years she was always accessible to anyone
at almost any time. Not only did she keep open house
in her office, but her policy was one of open publicity.
The newspapers of the city were given every opportu-
nity to print news of interest to the people on school
affairs. Her belief that the best interests of schools
were identical with those of the people led her to
encourage in every way possible the general intelligence
on public-school affairs. Her policy as an administrator
was to keep in the open in all of her dealings. She
refused to do anything that she could not freely discuss
through the newspapers with the people whose children
were in the schools.
Whether such a policy was easy every one can judge
who has had any experience with an office hedged about
as the superintendency is by political and private inter-
ests. A policy of publicity, of open dealing, is the most
disconcerting arrangement to the management of
politically controlled institutions. (Mr. Dewey's com-
parison of Mrs. Young and Mr. Roosevelt as to
preparedness on the lines of their interests might well
be continued in this matter of keeping the public in-
formed as to policies through the daily press.) In
Chicago the people know more about school affairs
now, have a keener sense of the inside of affairs by far
than they did six years ago. Bodies of public-spirited
citizens have been taken into the responsibility for
the welfare of the schools as they never were before
in the history of Chicago schools. All of this spread
Making Over a City School System 189
of intelligence has been a part of the effort of Mrs.
Young in dealing with the educational problems of the
city.
If one of the marks of leadership is the power to
delegate responsibility to others and secure active and
intelligent cooperation, Mrs. Young was a leader of
high degree. She entrusted work to others and gave
them free rein in doing it. Her democratic principles
credited others with judgment and self-control, so, when
she had assigned some person with a task to perform,
she delegated responsibility for the finishing of that
task. Hers was always the teaching spirit that asked
for independence and loyalty in those with whom she
dealt, always placing greater emphasis upon the worth
of spirit shown in the performance of the work than
in the job itself. But her confidence in the integrity of
others often led her to make appointments to positions
that failed to live up to the trust she reposed in them.
She was not always fortunate, therefore, in the people
she chose to do particular tasks. A politician binds his
appointees to him personally, but Mrs. Young never
tied strings to the jobs she filled. It happened more
than once that she found herself beset by some of the
persons she might have had reason to expect loyalty
from in critical moments in the management of schools.
Mrs. Young herself would be the last person to hold
up to such a one his failure to live up to his obligations
either to her or to the place for which he was selected.
She hated the shirker and refused tolerance for work
half done. In some cases where she made sacrifices to
advance another to a post of prominence she found she
had to count on enmity and sometimes treachery.
190 Ella Flagg Young
From the standpoint of current political practice
Mrs. Young's management of the superintendency
might be considered unique in its failure. Instead of
building up a machine from her friends that she could
rely upon, she even went to the other extreme in
appointing to places of responsibility men and women
who were opposed to her point of view and were often
her antagonists. All persons were treated on the same
level throughout her administration, so that at no time
could she count on an official clique in her undertakings.
Her own integrity and her own industry gave her con-
fidence in herself to meet and handle above board all
the problems of the office.
She failed even to provide herself with a secretary,
as her predecessors had done, until the last year of her
term of office, when the press of work became so great
that she was compelled to have help. Her failure to
build up a machine left her without that support needed
to keep in touch with all the forces at opposition with
the policy of an administration. The failure to provide
adequate assistants for the carrying out of her ideas
led directly to the attacks made upon her toward the
close of her term of office. What Mrs. Young accom-
plished as superintendent of schools she did almost
single-handed. No body of strong men and women
advised her on financial and educational matters, except
in friendly and disinterested ways. As pointed out by
one of her political enemies a year ago, the greatness
of Mrs. Young showed most clearly in her handling
the tremendous load of financial, political, and educa-
tional sides of the administration without a single
helper at a time when every ounce of energy of united
Making Over a City School System 191
influences was against her. Doubtless with party organ-
ization she could have held her place of power with
greater ease and for a longer time, but at no time in her
life did Mrs. Young ever assume the role of dictator or
boss. Her strength of character lay in her own integ-
rity and her unwavering confidence in the integrity of
others, a confidence that was often taken advantage
of by those not deserving of it.
In the summer of 1914 Mrs. Young was sent as a
member of a commission to Europe to study education
and other conditions. Her investigations were con-
fined in the main to vocational training in the public
schools of England. On account of the outbreak of the
war during the summer the investigation was cut short
before reaching the Continent, except, briefly, Copen-
hagen, Christiania, and Stockholm. From the stand-
point of broadening the scope of vocational education
and suggestion for new lines, this report was very
valuable, though its influence has not been marked on
the schools of Chicago.
It is not alone in the United States that manufacturing and
commercial interests have in the last twenty years aroused deep
interest in industrial and vocational education. It is the sub-
ject that is uppermost in the minds of school boards and edu-
cators in England and Scotland.
For the day elementary schools and high schools
the report gives only woodwork for boys and domes-
tic economy for girls, though none of these offered
the technical training of Chicago high schools. More
attention was given to experimental physics and chem-
istry than in our schools. Some attention is given
in day and evening schools to technical training, but
192 Ella Flagg Young
influences of employers have been against much exten-
sion of this work. It says :
To counteract conditions leading to dissipation of human life
and power, trade or continuation schools are increasing in
number and multiplying the facilities for city boys and girls to
enter the skilled industries. Courses are offered in subjects that
are close to the every day demands of society. The following
courses have not as yet been included in our trade or industrial
schools for boys between twelve and sixteen years of age:
bakery and confectionery; carriage and motor-body building;
hairdressing; professional cookery; professional waiting; silver-
smithing, jewelry, and engraving; tailoring; training for metal
trades. In evening continuation schools for apprentices work
similar to that in our schools is found, but in addition the
following courses are given: brass finishers' work; tinsmiths'
work; mining; motor-car engineering; plaster work; uphol-
stery; wood carving; coach trimming; bread baking and con-
fectionery; tailors' work; tailoresses* work; flour millers'
work; hairdressers' work; art metal work; stone and marble
carving ; forestry ; ambulance ; sick nursing.
During her superintendency Mrs. Young found time
to write and lecture extensively. She gave several
addresses before the National Education Association,
among which her presidential address delivered at San
Francisco in 1911 is the most conspicuous. In this
paper on " Hypothesis in education," she contends that
since science had moved from the conception of a static
to a dynamic world, so education must move from
" final determination of the ideal of education, which is
destructive of life," to " the large ideals of education,
with its many complexities, and the tentative conditions
for which we watch and through which we adjust our
ideals." Nowhere has anyone stated more clearly or
comprehensively than in this address the demands of
modern thought and conditions on education. In this
Making Over a City School System 193
brief paper Mrs. Young shows that she had grown
both in adequacy of expression and grasp of the modern
point of view over some of her earlier writings. Her
utterances on education 'are those of the pragmatist.
In her statement of the evolution of life and reality
she says:
In classic and mediaeval times, nature was a world of perma-
nent things, the problem of science dealt with essences, and
even so late as the early part of the nineteenth century, heat was
supposed to be an imponderable substance, and light to consist
of luminous corpuscles. In the world of mind, the human race
was supposed to be a special, final creation, and the problems of
knowledge dealt with the fixed, the determined, the unchanging.
And so the problem of education dealt with the acquisition of
the formulations, the statements of great minds that had written
and spoken. . . . With the introduction and dissemination of
the hypothesis of evolution there is general appreciation, in
varying degrees, of the fact that theories of nature and knowl-
edge, that institutions of state and of social life, that methods
in industry and in commerce, that ideals of education and of a
worthy life, are all subject to change in a changing world ; in
brief, that finality both in the natural world and in the spiritual
world is death ; that change, adjustment, is life. ... I believe
that if we would rise above the idea of finality in things spiritual
we might have the term the educational imagination, with a
significance corresponding to that of the scientific imagination.
Probably the most important writing Mrs. Young
has ever done is found in her annual reports as superin-
tendent of schools. She spent a great deal of time in
constructing these reports, and her ideas and recom-
mendations form important landmarks in city school
reports. As educational documents they rank with those
of Wm. T. Harris when superintendent of St. Louis
many years ago. Each year she takes up a new phase
of the problem of administration and develops it in
194 TLlla Flagg Young
such a way as to make it effective to teachers and pa-
trons of the schools. It is impossible to give in detail
the material written by her in these reports during her
six years as superintendent, but a brief analysis of each
one can be set forth.
For the year 19091910 Mrs. Young discussed ques-
tions of salary adjustment, revision of the course of
study, and flushing the rooms with fresh air regularly.
In the revision that had been made during the year
under her direction she had tried to get a balanced
amount of time for handwork. She says :
Every elementary school should be equipped with a manual-
training shop, a kitchen, and a sewing-room. The work of the
teachers in the classrooms and of the teachers of industrial arts
can never be integrated so long as the pupils are sent away from
the building to a distant school to be taught one phase of the
integration, while the teachers, busy in their separate buildings,
have no opportunity for conference and, at times, for cooperative
work in class instruction.
Manual training and household arts, promotion and
retardation, fresh air, physical education, athletics,
technical training for girls, training in morality, ade-
quate superintendence, and course of study are topics
developed by Mrs. Young in her reports for 1910
1911. One sentence under the head of "Superintend-
ence " reveals the belief of the writer in a democratic
form of management: "Schools are unified, methods
are harmonized, not through over-supervision by super-
intendent or principal, but by a truly democratic
supervision which would make conscious and effective
in every member of the education department the truth
that the public school exists to strengthen character
and efficiency in the individual, citizenship and activity
Making Over a City School System 195
in the nation." She endeavored to make moral educa-
tion a live issue in the schools, and emphasizes the
value of environment of children. " In many of the
day schools the social atmosphere has become natural
and attractive to children, though there are yet schools
in which the old type of repression holds sway."
In 1911-1912 the superintendent discussed the uni-
fication of the school system of the city, kindergartens,
the course of study, the three R's, children with de-
fective speech, high-school course of study, maximum
membership of a school, use of the building during
school hours, and sex hygiene. She returns to the ques-
tion of integrating the academic and the industrial :
When our schools are so organized and equipped that the
industrial and academic work enlighten and strengthen each
other, the vague, the indefinite, will be almost an unknown
element in our class work. That they shall enlighten and
strengthen each other, the industrial equipment must be in
every school and the teachers of the industries must be recog-
nized cooperative members of the school's faculty in which they
teach not peripatetics, who are rarely, if ever, seen by the
academic teachers of the children whom they instruct.
She tried to bring about a closer relation betwe.cn
the kindergarten and the work of the grades than had
existed before. Many of Mrs. Young's ideas as su-
perintendent were too advanced for the schools of the
city. The reconstruction of the three R's advocated by
her, while criticized rather severely at the time, has
been heralded as an " innovation " very recently in the
work of educational writers like that of Abraham Flex-
ner in the Modern School. Of arithmetic she says
that
196 Ella Flagg Young
The value of rapid, abstract work with whole numbers and
fractions within the limits of the demands in the counting-
house, the shop, and the factory, seem not to be esteemed in
the American school. One who would clarify the American
teaching mind so that the difference would be appreciated be-
tween drilling drill and enlivening accuracy would deserve
lasting recognition.
In the English of the schools she found that teach-
ers were very generally teaching grammar as an exact
science rather than the living language.
If study of the native tongue does not lead to pleasure in test-
ing its possibilities in conveying ideas, the school, through adher-
ence to the study of a dead language, has undoubtedly failed
to make the young learner conscious of the richness of life in the
growing, changing, living language. Thus far, the teaching of
English grammar in the public schools of America has been of
slight value in developing an appreciation of shades of meaning
as expressed through a nice use of auxiliaries and prepositions.
In 1912-1913 Mrs. Young deals with such subjects
as modernizing and developing a school system, phys-
ical education, education for efficiency, textbooks,
teachers' councils, and salaries. Her effort to concen-
trate attention of pupil and teacher on a few subjects
during a semester is characteristic of her work. She
wished to cut all subjects studied at one time to five,
three of which should be " basic," a fourth to be phys-
ical education, and the fifth "cultural, recreational, oc-
cupational." She summarizes the progress of the year
by stating the fight over vocational education. One
party to the fight had extolled placing occupations in
the school and insisted that academic subjects would
take care of themselves, while the other party refused
to entertain any ideas except of the traditional subjects,
Making Over a City School System 197
and rejoiced over the recrudescence of the three R's in
the schools. " Paradoxical as it may seem, the schools
permeated with the spirit of progress have responded
more quickly, more intelligently to the call for rejuve-
nation of the three R's than have the schools that arc
under the domination of the past."
Most significant in this report is Mrs. Young's posi-
tion on the value of organization of teachers:
The evolution of group consciousness in the members of an
educational body seven thousand strong brings to the surface
tendencies sometimes ideal, sometimes dangerous. Chief among
the latter is that of disintegration of the teaching forces into
units so independent of each other that they become what
Gompers terms "specialists in industry" and defines to be
" those who know but one part of a trade and absolutely
nothing of any other part of it." Chief among ideal tendencies
is that of appreciation of the value of the work undertaken by
the group.
Her insistence on democracy in school organization
was common throughout her reports. She says in her
report for 1913-1914 that
Out of the custom that gave principals and superintendents the
right to set standards there has evolved an ideal of administra-
tive power as that which embodies the right to set all standards
for everybody coming within its jurisdiction. This ideal was
admissible in the formative stage of a great governmental insti-
tution, before an analysis of democracy in that institution was
undertaken. That stage has been passed. We are now face to
face with the fact that a democracy whose school system lacks
confidence in the ability of the teachers to be active participants
in planning its aims and methods is a logical contradiction of
itself. A school principal talking about the desirability of con-
structing larger buildings, said "There should be forty-five
divisions in a school. That would mean forty-five teachers for
the principal to direct, just as each teacher has forty-five children
to teach." This was the reasoning of a member of the ruling
198 Ella Flagg Young
class in an aristocracy. That teachers should be active in
planning the course of study or the improvement of relaxation
periods, was not written in the books of that principal ; neither
was the power of initiative written in the categories of school
children's minds, as he would list them.
On the other hand, the long-accepted definition of the social
duties of teachers the development in their immature pupils
of a spirit contented and willing, regardless of their desires and
their intelligences has tended to create a feeling of unrest in
teachers when called upon to initiate, to construct educational
plans outside of their individual classrooms. Sometimes they,
like principals, superintendents, and board members, have
feared anarchy as a resultant of the individual ideals clashing
in the children upon transference from one teacher to another.
That is exactly what does result under conditions in which
teachers work out their individual preferences under regulation
by the administrative officials. It is not a good-natured patting
on the back, nor words of commendation given by a superior
being to an inferior being that will make for a social harmony
in a school or a system of schools. What must come, and is
coming rapidly in the more progressive systems, is the contri-
bution of the successful experience, the theories, and the doubts
of teachers, in frank, open discussion in councils organized for
freedom of thought and speech. Why talk about the public
school as an indispensable requisite of a democracy and then
conduct it as a prop of an aristocracy ?
The report issued during the last year of her super-
intendency shows Mrs. Young at her best from the
standpoint of a constructive thinker in education. In
her discussion of the course of study she throws over
the hackneyed arguments for enriching the work of the
upper grades and plunges into the heart of the needs
of children in the democracy as it exists now, over-
shadowed by the industrialism of the city. The difficulty
with the over-age boy and girl, the misfits in schools,
all lie in the fact that we are sending all children to
school and therefore need a diversified curriculum. In
Making Over a City School System 199
.discussing the failure of Latin and algebra in "the lost
effort to enrich the grammar-school course," she says:
This change is not so much a yielding to the preference for
modern over classical study as it is the recognition of the differ-
ence in the type of mind which today is seeking an education.
With the solution of the problem of education which America
is attempting the development of the endowment through
initiation and individual endeavor the difference in values of
subjects exists not so much in the traditions of the subject as in
its integral relations to all that is involved in the work which
this type or that type of mind is carrying on. Vocational work
will help to stimulate and strengthen the minds of children in
upper grades.
But she says also :
The vocational departments in high schools, or any portion of
them, should not be transferred to elementary schools. It is not
for limitation of children to commercial or trade training that
I plead; it is for fit preparation of our children before they
narrow, as in time they all must, to the routine demands of
trades and professions; it is for such an awakening of young
minds to the laws of nature, the needs and possibilities of
humanity, that in their future work they shall keep free from
the limitations of bread-earning, and spirit shall never fail to
catch glimpses of life and its meaning.
In recognition of the work she was doing for edu-
cation, the University of Illinois honored Mrs. Young
in 1910 with the degree of LL.D.
CHAPTER XIII
C-H-I-C-A-G-O SPELLS OPPORTUNITY
"/^-H-I-C-A-G-O spells opportunity." With these
V^ words Mrs. Young closed her work as superin-
tendent of schools in Chicago. The sentiment expressed
in these words was not a mere passing emotion, nor a
sudden desire for trite saying. As stated in an editorial
column of a daily paper
Her final words of farewell are colored with the same good
sense, courage, and hopefulness that have marked her entire
life-work. Her message to the people had no resentful sting
in it for those who at times opposed her administration. It
contained none of the pessimistic sentiment which so often
clouds the outlook of old people and makes them believe that
the golden days all lie behind us. It had no tincture in it of
the bitter spirit of social unrest and rebellion which obstinately
refuses to see good and magnifies the evil aspects of the times.
Speaking of the schools, for instance, she is confident that the
school discipline and ideals are far better than they were fifty
years ago ; that the courses of study are now much better adapted
to qualifying children for actual life than they used to be ; and
that an immense advance has been made in the schools in taking
care of the physical condition of the children a field wholly
neglected when she began to teach. In fine, this veteran of the
public schools is confident that Chicago's school system is steadily
improving in practical efficiency. Her notion of the possibilities
of the coming generation who will live and work in Chicago is
equally encouraging. She says " C-h-i-c-a-g-o spells opportu-
nity." It is a fine saying worthy of becoming a municipal
maxim. And it is a true saying. Mrs. Young's own career is
but one of innumerable examples going to show that a brave,
patient, and rightly aspiring spirit can always find an honorable
career in Chicago.
200
C-h-i-c-a-g-o Spells Opportunity 201
Not only has Mrs. Young worked in Chicago for
more than half a century, not only has she found a
home within the limits of the city, but her professional
career and her very personality have been wrought
upon by her love of Chicago. Time has turned her
head gray in the service of the public schools of this
city. Whatever grade of work in the schools she under-
took has given her a new chance to serve the city she
loved. Her faithfulness to the schools and the interests
of the children of Chicago was not born of a mere
sense of duty held in some exalted mood, but based on
a real and abiding affection for the city itself and her
desire to serve its interests. When she suggested to the
board of education that rather than have salary sched-
ules cut in order to meet a deficit in finances she would
ask the teachers of the city to donate two weeks of
time to keep the schools open, she had no doubt that
such a request would meet with the teachers' approval.
And her basis for thinking so was her own devotion to
the welfare of the schools and her feeling that the
teachers she had been working with for a lifetime
would respond in the same spirit.
This love for Chicago has not been a matter of
emotional effusion and gush. It was based on an exact
knowledge of the life and growth of the city. From
the very first of her teaching to the close of her super-
intendency she had kept in close touch with every social
and civic movement of the time. When she first took
charge of a school as principal, as already pointed out,
she spent days and weeks studying the people and
homes and industries and surroundings of her district.
Every play place for children outside of the home was
2O2 Ella Flagg Young
known to her, and so was every place that might offer
a lure for the youth of her neighborhood. Later on
she kept in the same close touch with the movements
of populations within the environs of the city, knew the
new districts added, the foreign peoples, and the needs
of each for accommodations in the schools.
No one appreciated more fully than she did the
efforts of the crude overgrown hulk of a city to keep
its clothes big enough to cover its growing body. When
it was charged by members of the board of education
that the demands for new school accommodations by
those who were attending only part time could be satis-
fied if all available rooms in buildings were used, Mrs.
Young pointed out that the empty buildings were in
districts from which people had moved because they
did not like the neighborhood, and it would therefore
be impossible to force them to send their children back
to those places. Encroachments of manufacturing and
business were driving people to seek new quarters, and
the schools would have to follow the people. "Until
the city dies and remains at a standstill, this movement
will go on, and we shall be compelled to meet it by
building new schools." Even though the city was grow-
ing all during her period of service at an almost incom-
prehensible rate, and even though this meant uncouth-
ness, still she found it a city where growth was in the
air and there was a genuine effort at all times to com-
pass the physical bounds set by the prairies and the lake.
This visible effort at growth offered to Mrs. Young
a great problem, a game of the mind and the energies.
She liked to see the struggles of wave after wave of
population for a stable hold on life in the city. What
C-h-i-c-a-g-o Spells Opportunity 203
Miss Jane Addams has said about people in cities not
having learned to live together, Mrs. Young followed
day by day for fifty years and strove with all her might
to help them to learn. It was a struggle of social and
industrial forces to adjust themselves to the limits of
life in a new city, a city not much older than the life
of a generation, and this struggle typified her own
growing consciousness of the schools^' share in bringing
order out of chaos. Probably no one element in the
education of the human mind has a greater place than
that of space: to cover a large area with the mind
means a real broadening of the mental horizon. The
same thing is true of a growing social group where all
is flux and undetermined. It was into this double kind
of problem that life threw Mrs. Young. Her mind
was ever alert for its solution. How could the schools
bring nearer to the people the lessons of regularity and
the message of service? Night after night she came
back to her room after the day of work and set herself
to find the answer. No one has ever devoted himself
with greater singleness of purpose to the solution of
this problem of wholesale education of people into a
new kind of social responsibility a problem in which
foreign-born children were no more conspicuous ele-
ments than native people coming to Chicago from rural
and smaller localities and struggling to adjust them-
selves to city life where standards of city life were in
the making. With an almost feverish energy Mrs.
Young devoted herself to the conversion of all such
diverse elements into citizens and neighbors, not only
of Chicago but of America at large.
Speed and energy in a great industrial center are
204 Ella Flagg Young
matters of marvel. Probably these two forces in Chi-
cago had more influence in the formation of the ideals
of Mrs. Young than any other. Unhampered by the
traditions of an older and more formal civilization,
Chicago pushed to the limit of her strength processes
of competition and construction, often crude and in-
effective, but nevertheless always at work. Minds are
built out of the material on which they feed, and Chi-
cago's growth since the beginning of the Civil War
has been so stupendous that anyone keeping in active
touch with it must have felt himself expand with the
decades that have passed. Inventions and transporta-
tion have meant drains on the power of human minds.
Calls upon an institution like the school for ever-new
batches of human ore for the crucible of life have
searched the ingenuity of teachers and superintendents
at every moment. To a mind like that of Mrs. Young
such an atmosphere could act only as a spur to great
exertions. One can imagine her mind tingling with
energy as she looked upon the accomplishments of the
tremendous tasks of Chicago, the tasks of building a
city out of the mud banks of a great lake and putting
it in touch with all the streams of commerce passing
from one ocean to another every moment. In her
ability to keep pace with such a demand is shown the
measure of Mrs. Young's power. In her love for the
task she set herself is the measure of her singleness of
purpose and her success in the undertaking.
That life close at hand is of most worth to each one
was one of the fundamental tenets of Mrs. Young's
philosophy. In Chicago she found all that men and
women strive for the world over. Her writings and
C-h-i-c-a-g-o Spells Opportunity 205
her addresses and her work all point to her belief in
the value of the immediately present experience as the
object of life. She never sought outside her work for
big, formal topics on which to write or speak, but found
her material always close at hand. The growth of
society, not in general terms, but in its human and
direct sense, she found in her own school and city.
Like the trained scientific worker, her mind probed into
the material before her, but continually reached out
for new tools and for every available idea to clear up
the problems she was trying to solve. Because of her
feeling of the value of the present, she always had time
to stop to consider each detail carefully. No matter
how busy she might be over administrative affairs, she
kept herself open to every applicant for attention and
listened to what each had to offer on the business at
hand. She exemplified in practice the saying of Carlyle
that "here, in this poor, miserable, hampered, despi-
cable actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or
nowhere is thy ideal ; work it out therefrom ; and work-
ing, live, be free." Often in conversation her face lights
suddenly at some passing remark of her interviewer
which has struck out some suggestion of solution to a
problem over which she has been brooding.
Chicago has meant so much to Mrs. Young, there-
fore, just because it has shown the way of life in its
intricate organization and demands. It has been so
sufficient that, no matter how tempting the opportunity
offered elsewhere, she has not been attracted from her
work. The attachment was more than merely working
among one's friends. It was really a belief in one's
own efforts rather than in place or opportunity. Doubt-
206 Ella Flagg Young
less if Mrs. Young had been reared and had worked in
some other city in the world she would have had the
same regard for that place that she has had for Chicago
and its life. But it is difficult to separate her from the
surroundings in which she has worked. In fact, her
love for Chicago is peculiarly fitting to her own char-
acter and temperament. Wherever she has gone she
has carried the needs and the desires and shortcomings
of this big living embodiment, of human strivings with
her. In Europe she saw new movements in terms of
the measuring-rod of Chicago practices and ideas. It
was to bring back impetus for her own schools that she
took trips. In other cities she found improvements for
Chicago in Tuskegee Institute she found posture and
carriage of students an antidote for slovenly habits of
high-school pupils of Chicago. Her life was centered
on bringing back to her home the best available every-
where. The report of her last trip to Europe is directly
bent on solving one of the hard problems of vocational
education as practiced in the schools of Chicago. Her
work in the University of Chicago never removed her
from an active participation in bettering the teaching
force and the school practice of the city.
During the past half-century, as already pointed out
in this work, there have been vast changes in operation,
transforming the forms of social forces in Chicago that
this western civilization alone could furnish. The
progress of these changes has made life for Mrs. Young
the most fascinating game. Individualism has run riot
in many forms in this period. Industrialism has raced
after immediate and material rewards. Its eagerness
for results has cheapened human life and at times
C-h-i-c-a-g-o Spells Opportunity 207
placed property above men. Administration of human
interests has largely been in terms of economic stand-
ards, and each one has sought to place his own value
at the highest point in the market of life. In contrast
to this western individualism of Chicago the older
world of the East has ordered the life of each one
and rated him in terms of traditional standards. It has
reduced men and women to items in the business of the
state. Individuals have existed only to further the ends
set by the overlords of society.
Between these two ideals of society, the one of rank
individualism and the other of complete subjection of
each to the demands of a superior, the past half-century
has witnessed a third form of social organization in-
compatible with both. Mrs. Young has followed with
the keenest study this conflict of social forces in her
immediate community, and has perceived for many
years the growing germ of real social control, a control
based not on dictation of an outside governing class
nor on self-seeking individualism, but a control growing
out of the organization of the people themselves. In
all her work in Chicago she has admired the push and
initiative of the people. This initiative she has sought
to cultivate in the young. Her belief that Chicago
offered opportunity to the young was her faith in its
encouragement of initiative in each one. But she did
not stop with the encouragement of initiative. She has
persistently insisted that children must be taught their
responsibility to society. Each one must be made to
feel that he owes to his city and community the best he
has in him. Instead of merely seeking his own ends,
he must be made to feel that there are forces bigger
208 Ella Flagg Young
than himself to which he owes allegiance. Chicago to
Mrs. Young meant the balance between these two
forces of initiative and responsibility in human affairs.
Even the politics and politicians of Chicago occupied
a fascinating position in the mind of Mrs. Young. In
her long experience with " influences " in school and
social affairs she came to regard the play of these forces
as a game. Moreover, she looked upon the political
situation as a part of the education of men and women
in self-control and self-government. The necessity for
misunderstandings and for self-seeking formed a part
of this scheme of things. Only when the vital inter-
ests of children were at stake did she rebel at the
unwarranted assumption of power of some faction or
person. Her interest was always a public one, and
never for private aggrandizement, and she found it
hard to reconcile herself to the predatory spirit in
others. During the last two years of her superintend-
ency, when she found political interests so strongly
intrenched that every move she made for the welfare
of the public school was blocked, her faith in our
system of government was sorely tried but never
broken. Only her long experience and her ultimate
faith in the triumph of self-government held her to the
end. The tragedy of her immolation and of her final
withdrawal from public life will never be known, but,
in spite of all her rebuffs at the hands of self-seeking
forces, her love for the welfare of Chicago and its
children kept her sane and single-minded throughout
the struggle.
Mrs. Young never became lost in the maze of mate-
rial growth and accomplishment, vast as such progress
C-h-i-c-a-g-o Spells Opportunity 209
has been. It was not to external forces, nor size, nor
wealth that she gave her best energies and allegiance.
Back of her love for Chicago lies her love for the
human spirits of little children and the men and women
who so unreservedly gave themselves to helping these
children. The countless generations of young people
leaving the schools to enter the work of life year by
year stood for positive individuals to her, and she pro-
jected into them her own aspirations to conquer ignor-
ance and immorality. That she remembered the names
of her former students for many years afterwards was
not an accident of memory, but a part of her real
interest in keeping in touch with the work and lives of
those she had taken some part in forming. Her love
for Chicago thus had a large share of the personal
element in it at all times. It was not the houses and
streets and beauty of outlook that held her to this city,
but the feeling that kindred spirits were striving, and
it was her business to help them in their struggles. In
her love for Chicago there was always this yearning
of the mother-heart. She strove to make the way plain
for the children of Chicago. Human souls constituted
the Chicago that Mrs. Young loved, and all her work
in education was in answer to her love for them.
This spirit of love for the young of Chicago led her
to assume official positions in the schools. Office-
holding was to her never an end in itself merely
holding an attractive job and drawing a good salary
but was for what she could do for Chicago in that
position. In her readiness for the place to which she
was appointed, already pointed out, her preparation was
for the work she saw was needed to be done rather
2io Ella Flagg Young
than for the position of power. Her custom of leaving
a position that had become restrictive was based on this
principle of leaving the place that cut off avenues of
service to the city. Opportunity to serve Chicago was
never separated from a deep sense of responsibility for
the welfare of its people.
Before Mrs. Young gave up her position as superin-
tendent of schools she presented her worldly goods to
the public. In comparison with the service of a life-
time which she has given, this act seems paltry. But
it is markedly characteristic of her thoughts for Chi-
cago that she should turn her books on education and
philosophy over to the public library, there to be used
by citizens and students. Her household goods she sent
to the Mary Thompson Hospital. The intrinsic worth
of the gift lies in the giving of her own personal and
cherished goods, gathered during many years as treas-
ures, to the public. That she should select public insti-
tutions to which to give her personal possessions is
evidence that her interests in the welfare of Chicago
were uppermost in her mind.
Her closing words to the newspapers when she left
the superintendency sum up Mrs. Young's love for the
children of Chicago and her inspiration in her years of
service. They might well apply to any city and any age :
I believe that every child should be happy in school. So we
have tried to substitute recreation for drill. We have tried to
correct bad physical conditions. We have tried to abolish severe
evening work. We have tried to recognize types of mind as a
mother does among her own children. We were losing the
majority of children at the fifth grade. By letting them do
things with their hands we have saved many of them. In order
that teachers may delight in awakening the spirits of children,
C-h-i-c-a-g-o Spells Opportunity 211
they must themselves be awake. We have tried to free the
teachers. Some day the system will be such that the child and
teacher will go to school with ecstatic joy. At home in the
evening the child will talk about the things done during the day
and will talk with pride. I want to make the schools the great
instrument of democracy.
I
CHAPTER XIV
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG
N an editorial on October 23, 1915, the Chicago
Herald said:
" Children and dogs know their friends," runs an old and
true saying. The children of Chicago, so far as it has been their
good fortune to come into any sort of personal contact with her,
know they are losing a friend indeed from among the ruling
powers of their daily lives, because after December 8 Mrs. Ella
Flagg Young will be no longer head of the public schools.
About a year ago a certain small boy came home with
shining eyes to tell about the lady whose acquaintance he had
made while waiting at a suburban station for a train. He is
a small boy, by no means humble of mind and not easily im-
pressed with anybody's greatness. But that five-minute inter-
view enrolled him as Mrs. Young's devoted admirer.
The incident excited curiosity and prompted enquiry. The
judgment was found to be uniform. While it isn't easy to
break through the reticence of childhood, this was found a
subject on which expression was prompt and decided. From
scores of children who had happened to meet her and she
seemed never to overlook a child anywhere near came the
verdict: "She's all right!"
From the day, over half a century before, when her
mother had advised her against entering upon teaching
as a profession, to the time when children instinctively
knew her for their friend, there had been a marvelous
transformation in character. The steps by which Mrs.
Young grew from a retiring girl to a big-souled woman
have already been pointed out. Likewise, the growth
from the obscure teacher to the educator with national
and international fame has been set out stage by stage.
But the qualities that have given her fame in her line
212
Ella Flagg Young 213'
of work, and for which she is recognized among her
countrymen, should be known.
How has she attained eminence among people?
Why is she pointed out among the crowd and kept in
the public eye? Certainly not by the mode adopted
by the headline-seeker after notoriety, for there is
nothing more distasteful to her than to be conspicuous,
and she craves to be let alone with her work. Many
guesses as to the secret of power of great men and
women leave us still in the dark. Intellectual suprem-
acy, social standing, political acumen, wealth, heritage,
democracy in spirit and practice, all have been offered
to explain the preeminence of people under various
circumstances. In the case of Mrs. Young one might
apply several of these descriptive terms with certainty
to the explanation of her character. Her intellectual
power is unquestioned, her foresight in administration
has been recognized as of high order, her courage and
self-possession, her outspoken manner of expressing
her convictions, her judgment in affairs, all belong in
the first rank.
Whatever the secret of Mrs. Young's greatness may
be, the fact that she is known through her efforts in
education the length and breadth of the country gives
evidence of her power. A summary of her activities
as they are known will show a wonderful versatility of
character and endeavor. As teacher, as administrator,
as writer, student, club-woman and citizen, democrat
in all these capacities she has made herself felt by the
age in which she has lived. She has had interests
enough to have earned the title of "educational
statesman."
214 Ella Flagg Young
As teacher Mrs. Young stands out conspicuously in
the annals of American education. She loves teaching.
Men and women hold her in cherished memory for
the thrill of strength and ambition she stirred within
them. She knows how to bring the latent power to
effective realization in whatever subject she undertakes,
whether with young or older people. To her students,
it always appears that they themselves are developing
the subject, so subtle is her power to draw forth their
thoughts and feelings. No one could miss the tonic
effects of her confidence. She speaks to the spirit and
the response is complete. In her later years her zeal
for teaching has increased rather than diminished, as
is so often the case, and she lamented that duties of
administration kept her from the direct work of the
classroom. Her judgment of the school is always from
the point of view of the health and happiness and
response of the pupils. No matter what the grade of
work, kindergarten or university, no matter what the
circumstances attending the work, her eye is always
clear to see the student's attitude toward life and its
problems. The marvel expressed at her power to size
up a schoolroom vanishes when one applies this simple
test of the freedom and happiness of children to the
teaching.
Next to that of teacher, Mrs. Young is known best
to the world as an administrator. Sufficient has been
said to make more than a reference to her position in
this respect unnecessary. One class of administrators
sees the big issues and principles, another holds the
minutiae of details. Rare is the combination in one
person of both of these powers in great degree. Mrs.
Photograph by .larvis Weed
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG
When Superintendent of Schools
Ella Flagg Young 215
Young was strong in both respects. She never lost the
large perspective of public education in American cities,
and at the same time she kept facts and figures at her
finger-tips in the most intricate matters. In the finances
of the Chicago schools she knew where every expendi-
ture within her department went. Her handling of
people was also masterful. Once she had assigned a
task to some person, he was held responsible for that
task. Her failures may be accredited to an over-
estimation of the reliability of an agent whom she had
selected, but the failure was always on the side of too
great rather than too little trust. In all her work as
an administrator she combined the power of a seer with
the adroitness of a politician. That she, a woman, was
allowed by the politicians of Chicago to hold a position
of such value as that of superintendent for six years
is the most searching test that can be applied to her
ability to deal with difficult situations. She found it
necessary many times to take "half a loaf" in improv-
ing the schools, but she never gave up a goal because
it happened temporarily to be submerged by immediate
difficulties. Her ideal of her office as an administrator
led to a complete sacrifice of personal affairs and of
all things except her ideals of what the office meant to
the public good. Those she stuck to under all circum-
stances, to the point of giving up the job rather than
compromise. In energy, in honesty, in fearlessness, in
large-mindedness and public-spiritedness, Mrs. Young
stands in the front ranks of great public servants of the
present generation.
Mrs. Young is better known for her work as a
teacher and administrator than as a writer. Since she
216 Ella Flagg Young
has never been a person of many words, her production
is not voluminous, and consists of essays and public
addresses on educational subjects. In these essays and
addresses she is always the student, combining pains-
taking labor, profound and keen insight, and broad,
critical reading. It will be found on examination of
her work that she has considered in large measure the
most vital of the questions which have arisen in the
course of recent educational history problems of
school, theory and practice, management, of child- and
teacher-welfare. Very little of what Mrs. Young has
written has been put into an available form for general
readers. Most of her addresses and contributions are
found only in the proceedings of various associations
or in official reports, and the collection of her papers
into a single volume would be a distinct service to the
progress of educational theory and practice.
Mrs. Young's style is that of the scientist. Because
her grasp of her subject is detailed and definite, she
speaks in a more or less technical way. She says all
she has to tell in as few words as possible. On the
other hand, it must not be supposed that her writings
are formal or abstract because they are dealing with
technical, scientific material. There are no bare general-
izations nor formal declarations in her language. She
never "preaches." To her the subject she deals with
is as objective and plain as the experiment is to the
scientist, and her descriptions of the material have all
the definiteness and simplicity of scientific discussions.
When she speaks or writes Mrs. Young is not doing
so to take up time, to conceal her identity, or to hide
her position on matters at issue. She expresses always
Ella Flagg Young 217
definite and deep convictions, though she is never par-
tisan or narrowly personal in what she says. Her
thinking is clear and to the point, and her language
says exactly what she thinks. As one who has known
her for many years says, " Mrs. Young has a very
clear, logical mind and a fine command of language.
The logical mind is the more important, for one can
have a good command of language without the clear
mental action, and give only words; one can talk, and
talk pleasantly, but give one's hearers nothing to carry
away." People always carry away something after
having listened to Mrs. Young or having read one of
her essays. One difficulty, however, often presents
itself to the average hearer or reader in getting her
meaning. Her method of stating what she has to say
is so simple and direct that she is likely to impress one
with the feeling that she is dealing with mere common-
place matters, and even careful readers may pass over
most significant material without noting its full value.
There is nothing of the spectacular or sensational and
dramatic, and people who expect this sort of thing are
usually disappointed in reading her essays or addresses.
Four stages in the history of Mrs. Young's writings
are well marked. The first covers the time before she
entered the University of Chicago as a teacher, and
includes several published addresses. The second
covers the years spent in the faculty of the University,
during which she wrote several essays and edited one
of the magazines of the school. The third extends
over her connection with the Chicago Normal School,
where she established and edited the Educational Bi-
Monthly. Finally, since becoming superintendent of
218 Ella Flagg Young
schools she has written annual and special reports and
delivered frequent addresses. Each of these is a dis-
tinctive period in her literary work.
As a club-woman and advocate of the woman move-
ment Mrs. Young is well known in Chicago and
throughout the country. Her idea of equal rights for
men and women has been clear and unmistakable for
many years, though she has never been a "preacher"
of the cause. What she has undertaken to do was to
show the power of women in positions of public respon-
sibility, work that she considered more important than
talking in behalf of "votes for women." She said, in
commenting on her position in the suffrage movement,
"I have been too busy to talk about the equality of
men and women, but what I have done ought to help
secure for women recognition in civic and political
affairs." Wherever given opportunity to vote on any
public question she has exercised her prerogative. As
a member of an active and powerful woman's club she
has for years participated in movements for the im-
provement of civic affairs. Her position in this club
and her work in the schools of Chicago and of Illinois
have both been factors in the argument for suffrage.
The fact that women were already doing some of the
most responsible of public work was an incontestable
argument in behalf of the plea for votes. Mrs. Young
had been pointed out as the highest-salaried woman in
public affairs in the state of Illinois some years before
she became superintendent of schools, and in the latter
position she still held that place. In all her work for
votes, as well as. for education, she felt herself merely
a representative of the great cause of public welfare.
Ella Flagg Young 219'
She merged herself into the public movements of which
she was a part, and never once undertook, through
writing or through speaking in public, to exalt herself
before the eyes of the country. What she did was
always directed toward some definite movement and
was not some side issue to bolster up her own interests
or bring herself into prominence.
It was thus as a citizen of the commonwealth that
Mrs. Young regarded her own work and her own
place in society. When the attack of the board of edu-
cation was made on the teachers' organizations, she
fought it on the ground that teachers were citizens of
the community and no one had the right to infringe
upon their standing as such. She jealously guarded her
own freedom in matters of public opinion and public
activity. That she never became merely an advocate
for votes for women was explained by the fact that she
saw a wider field of cooperation in public affairs where
men and women should be equal in the sense that sex
should not serve as a bar against any kind of public
work for which one is fitted. Being a citizen meant
neither one nor the other sex, but a human being with
the right to help in the direction of affairs of interest to
all. By years of patient endeavor she built up an im-
pregnable fortress for loyal citizenship in Illinois. Not
only, therefore, can she be appropriately called " an
educational statesman," but she deserves the title of
leading citizen.
It has already been pointed out that Mrs. Young is,
above all, a democrat. Without a clear understanding
of this democratic character one is not in a position to
understand her power as a leader. Democracy, of
22O Ella Flagg Young
course, is a word to be conjured with. It undoubtedly
involves freedom to act. But, to Mrs. Young, freedom
to act is only an external manifestation of freedom of
intellect and spirit. That the democratic spirit of Chi-
cago was the principal element in her love for the city
has already been shown. Here she found it possible
to belong to a society that did not place an iron band
about her head. Each one is given his chance to feel
his own way to reality and stand on a foundation of his
own building. He is an essential part of the social
whole and finds every avenue open to him to do his
share of the work needed, yet he is free to determine
his share. It was in this freedom that Mrs. Young
placed her deepest faith. Education meant to her just
such a plan for giving freedom to the minds of children
that they might go forth fully aware of their power of
mind and responsibility in life. From democracy as
she found it in Chicago she projected a democracy of
the spirit. To her this spirit was never a tame thing,
but was full of fight and energy. She, herself, was a
lover of fighting, providing the fighting was the " give
and take " that develops the spirit. People have won-
dered that she was not embittered by the opposition she
met in the working out of the plans she had cherished
for years. As a matter of fact, she felt that democratic
principles demand such opposition and foster this possi-
bility for each to carry his ideas to the bar of public
necessity and there fight for the issues he considers
most essential to the well-being of the whole. Her
philosophy of life, therefore, kept her sane in the face
of most vicious attacks on her personal as well as
professional integrity.
Ella Flagg Young 221
Back of all this wonderful wealth of objective accom-
plishments as teacher, administrator, writer, citizen,
and as exponent of democracy, lies the fountain of
Mrs. Young's strength in her devotion to study. She
is always the student. Her mind is ever busy with
some immediate or remote question. She has kept in
touch with the latest books and ideas on literature and
science. She began as a young woman to read history
as a part of her weekly program, and that habit has
persisted. When the recent Balkan difficulties arose,
she said one day to a friend, " If you want to under-
stand the meaning of this trouble, read the new book
of Professor Bury." At the time of this utterance she
was in the midst of most trying difficulties in the admin-
istration of schools. She was able through her marked
power of concentration to see at a glance the mean-
ing of the written page. Her power to carry over for
a period some conversation or some piece of thought
was the acquisition of years of practice in this direction.
Months after a conversation or a request for informa-
tion, she would come back at one with, "I have not
forgotten your question. It seems to me," and then
would follow an exposition that showed that she had
brooded over the case during the interval. Besides
being a student of books and ideas, she was a student
of human nature. Her interpretation of people was
undoubtedly a feminine intuition, but was also the
result of most careful study and analysis of individuals.
Her continued insistence upon "types of mind" was
not an academic consideration, but was the result of
watching individuals and their mode of reacting. Above
all, Mrs. Young was a student of society. She applied
222 Ella Flagg Young
all her powers of mind to understanding the group
with which she had to deal. In her classroom she was
constantly watching group-psychology, the effects of
people on each other, and the values set by the class
upon affairs.
Doubtless the effect on persons, be they individuals
or groups, measures in large degree the worth of a
man or woman. Mrs. Young has succeeded in impress-
ing people with her strength and has won respect for
her power. In her long career she has made enemies.
To many she has seemed hard and unsympathetic, a
person whose mind was made up and determined at any
cost. Often such an estimate has been made through
a misunderstanding of her motives or her manner;
often, of course, as the result of opposition to her
policies; often as an echo from past days when this
feeling was more common than in recent times.
For it is true that time has softened Mrs. Young
and has made her a more highly social person. There
was a time when she was diffident about attempting to
speak or act openly to others for whom she might feel
the keenest sympathy, merely because she found it hard
to show her feelings. The change observable in her
bearing is typical in her dress. All descriptions of her
as a young woman emphasize the severity of her dress.
No doubt styles affected by women have softened; no
doubt a girl desiring to succeed then in a business
career preferred a severer style. But neither of these
considerations is sufficient to explain the metamorphosis
that has taken place. Diffidence of manner has given
way to ease and cordiality, and the severe business
woman is now the well-dressed woman of the world.
Ella Flagg Young 223
This estimate by the world, based on accomplish-
ments as teacher, administrator, and woman of affairs,
is incomplete without the view Mrs. Young holds of
herself and her career. Were one to ask her the secret
of what she has done, one gets the wholly unexpected
answer that her success is due to the help of others.
So keen is her sense of obligation that it is akin to
gratitude to others and to Chicago for the opportu-
nities she has had. Deepest of all, perhaps, lies her
regard for the help of her mother, a feeling almost of
reverence. The men and women who in the course of
her life have been closest to her and have helped her
are never forgotten, and to them she gives more credit
than the ordinary person does. Even politicians of
Chicago, she feels, have put her under obligation for
her chance to serve the city and accomplish her work.
To the women of the city and the country she feels a
deep debt of gratitude. More than once she has uttered
the words, " I'd like to do for the women of Chicago
what they have done for me in the past in giving me
my chance." From step to step in the history of her
work in various walks of life Mrs. Young has been
able to inspire friendship, and to such friends she has
turned in later years as the source of her power.
Nothing in her lies deeper than the sense of loyalty
which she shows to such persons.
In her private life Mrs. Young has had time, aside
from her busy professional activities, to surround her-
self with intimate friends who have stood by her loyally
in all of her trials. To many people she has given the
impression of being masculine. Her strength of mind
and her tremendous executive capacity and indomitable
224 Ella Flagg Young
courage have appeared to the observer more than
feminine qualities. To her friends, however, she has
always stood for the distinctively feminine. There is
almost a pathetic note of dependence upon others shown
in some of her characteristic moods. She is, in fact,
moody at times, and extremely sensitive about her own
private interests. All her life she has devoted every
ounce of her strength to her work. It is embarrassing
to her, therefore, to have people turn back to ask
about her personally. She eludes her interviewer and
turns his attention to the things she is interested in.
Her absorption in her work has on many occasions
led her to seem hard, and has alienated people from
her, when, as matter of fact, she has meant nothing
more than a desire to be let alone or to have others
see the problems as she sees them. This retiring and
sensitive spirit in matters where her private life is con-
cerned is one of her striking characteristics. When her
friends, during the last days of her superintendency,
dined her and praised her for what she had done, she
continually reiterated, " People will soon forget me.
My head is not being turned by what you say." Then
her sudden departure from the city, when she left the
office without a word to anyone as to her destination,
served again to mark her distaste for publicity. The
strange contradiction in her open public life and her
intense desire for privacy is explained in the habit of
a lifetime of devoting herself to the consideration of
her work and the interests of others. Her mind had
been trained to handle affairs, consequently she resents
any attempt to turn this faculty to the study of what
she considers petty personal matters. In most of such
Ella Flagg Young 225
questions, however, her keen sense of humor prevented
her from becoming morose or suspicious.
Mrs. Young's nature is intensely religious. In a
mind like hers, religious beliefs are closely akin to
aesthetic feeling. The order and perfection of life, the
entirety of human endeavor, are really founded on a
faith in the Tightness of the world of man. Her re-
ligion was closely akin, also, to her doctrine of democ-
racy. Unity of mankind is found in the independent
judgment of each in matters that concern all. One of
her beliefs was that of the sacredness of the individual's
right to judge and to live according to his judgments.
This brief review of the interests of Ella Flagg
Young must suffice to show the multiplicity of her
interests and, at the same time, the singleness of her
purpose. Seldom does one find a character of man or
woman that represents the devotion of a long life to
one end as in the case of Mrs. Young. From whatever
angle she has worked, she has seen ahead for the inter-
ests of the public schools. Her whole soul has been
wrapped up in the solution of the question of the edu-
cation of the young in Chicago and the nation. A
tremendous variety of human interests, a multiplicity
of lines of work and investigation, and a diversity of
experiences, but with all these interests and variations
the possession of a completely unified purpose and out-
look upon life which have never wavered in whatever
situation she found herself, characterize her life. Her
success is to be measured in terms of civic enlighten-
ment of the future, but her efforts of more than half a
century have a directness and a vision that point to
a great mind and a strong heart.
APPENDIX
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG'S WRITINGS AND ADDRESSES
That Mrs. Young has thought out and discussed some of the
most vital modern educational issues, the following bibliography
of her addresses and books will show. While the list is not a
long one and while the individual contributions are usually brief,
each one is packed with the thoughts and the struggles that go
to solve new problems.
Beginning in 1887, Mrs. Young has a long series of addresses
delivered before the National Education Association. These
are arranged in chronological order. In addition to these ad-
dresses she has contributed a great number of speeches and short
papers to other educational bodies, all of which jiave appeared
in newspapers and educational magazines, only a few of which
are listed here.
The most ambitious of Mrs. Young's writings consist of the
four monographs published in 1902 while she was in the Univer-
sity of Chicago. And, finally, her reports as superintendent of
schools form an important unit in her educational writings.
"How to Teach Parents to Discriminate Between Good and Bad
Teaching." Proceedings of National Education Association,
1887, pp. 245-249.
"Grading and Classification." Proceedings of National Educa-
tion Association, 1893, PP- 83-86.
"Literature in Elementary Schools." Proceedings of National
Education Association, 1896, pp. 111-117.
"Isolation in the School." Proceedings of National Education
Association, 1901, p. 363.
"Saving Time in Elementary and Secondary Education." Pro-
ceedings of National Education Association, 1903, pp. 322-
328.
"The Influence of the City Normal School or Training School."
Proceedings of National Education Association, 1906, pp.
121-124.
227
228 Appendix
"The Educational Progress of Two Years." Proceedings of
National Education Association, 1907, pp. 383-405.
"Reciprocal Relations Between Subject-Matters in Secondary
Education." Educational Bi-Monthly, Vol. iii, p. 75.
"The School and the Practice of Ethics." Proceedings of Na-
tional Education Association, 1908, pp. 102-108.
"Hypothesis in Education." Proceedings of National Education
Association, 1911, pp. 87-93.
"Present Status of Education in America in Elementary
Schools." Proceedings of National Education Association,
1911, pp. 183-186.
"Vocational Training of Girls." Proceedings of National Edu-
cation Association, 1915, p. 125.
"Democracy and Education." Journal of Education, July 6,
1916.
"The Secular Free Schools." School and Society, July 15, 1916.
Ethics in the School. The University of Chicago Press. 1902.
Some Types of Modern Educational Theory. The University of
Chicago Press. 1902.
Scientific Method in Education. Decennial Publications of the
University of Chicago, Vol. iii. The University of Chicago
Press.
In the Proceedings of the Board of Education for the years
1910 to 1915, will be found the reports made by Mrs. Young
while Superintendent of Schools.
II
THE CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND COURSES OF STUDY
IN l86l AND IN 1916
The following exhibit makes clear the remarkable progress
made during the last half-century in the opportunities for edu-
cation provided by the Chicago schools. The extraordinary
development was one in which Mrs. Young shared, and which
she did much to initiate and develop.
In 1 86 1 Chicago had one high school; today she has twenty-
two. The total number of the different courses given in the
high schools today is twenty-one, whereas in 1861 there were
Appendix 229
but three, and they but partially differentiated. In 1861 there
was no laboratory or shop work offered in any of the schools,
while now equipment represents an expenditure of many
thousands of dollars.
HIGH SCHOOL COURSES IN CHICAGO IN 1861
FOUR-YEAR COURSES TWO-YEAR COURSE
English or General. Normal Training Course.
Classical, differing from the
English by offering Latin in
the first two years.
Work in all courses was wholly academic and required. There
was no laboratory or shop work.
HIGH SCHOOL GENERAL COURSE IN 1861
FIRST YEAR
First Term Algebra, German or Latin, Descriptive Geog-
raphy.
Second Term. .Algebra, German or Latin, English Grammar.
Third Term . . . Arithmetic, German or Latin, Physical Geog-
raphy.
SECOND YEAR
First Term Algebra, German or Latin, Universal History.
Second Term .. Geometry, German or Latin, Universal History.
Third Term . . . Geometry, German or Latin, Universal History,
Botany.
THIRD YEAR
First Term Geometry, German or Latin or French, Phys-
iology, Rhetoric.
Second Term. .Trigonometry, German or Latin or French,
Natural Philosophy, English Literature.
Third Term . . . Mensuration, Navigation and Surveying, German
or Latin or French, Natural Philosophy, English Literature.
230 Appendix
FOURTH YEAR
First Term Astronomy, German or Latin or French, Intel-
lectual Philosophy, Constitution of United States, Bookkeep-
ing.
Second Term . . Chemistry, German or Latin or French, Logic,
Political Economy.
Third Term ... Geology and Mineralogy, German or Latin or
French, Moral Science, Political Economy.
Note. A limited amount of English Literature was provided for
two terms. All science was taught from textbooks. The course was
well named " general " and was planned to offset the narrow classical
course.
GRADED COURSE OF STUDY ADOPTED IN 1861
This was the first graded course in Illinois. It was much in
advance of the times and was largely merely a paper course,
expressing theory of a course rather than the actual practice.
Grades ten to one, beginning with the tenth or lowest
primary
Tenth grade, primary, required six months to complete:
Oral instruction, talk about objects.
Reading, charts.
Arithmetic, numerals I to 10, addition.
Drawing from tablets, printing.
Physical exercises.
Ninth Grade, required eight months to complete:
Oral instruction.
Reading, primer.
Arithmetic, numerals i to 100.
Drawing as above.
Physical exercises.
Eighth grade, required eight months to complete:
Oral instruction.
Reading, spelling.
Arithmetic to subtraction.
Drawing.
Physical exercises.
Appendix 231
Seventh grade, required nine months to complete :
Oral instruction.
Reading, first reader finished.
Spelling.
Arithmetic, addition and subtraction.
Drawing.
Physical exercises.
Sixth grade, required nine months to complete :
Oral lessons.
Reading, including spelling, half of second reader.
Arithmetic, first book finished.
Script and drawing from tablets.
Physical exercises.
Fifth grade, required one year to complete:
Oral lessons, including some unorganized history and geog-
raphy.
Reading, spelling, second reader finished.
Arithmetic, Colburn's First Lessons; multiplication to 12x12;
division to 144-12.
Drawing.
Physical exercises.
Fourth grade, required one year to complete:
Oral lessons, mainly talks about physical facts and objects.
Reading, portions of third reader.
Spelling.
Arithmetic to long division.
Drawing.
Physical exercises.
Construction of sentences, beginning grammar.
Geography.
Third grade, required one year to complete:
Oral lessons, historical and physical facts.
Reading in third and fourth readers.
Colburn's Arithmetic.
Drawing.
Physical exercises.
Grammar.
Geography and history, map drawing.
232 Appendix
Second grade, required one year to complete :
Oral lessons.
Reading, fourth reader finished.
Colburn's Arithmetic finished.
Grammar.
Geography, map drawing from memory.
History of United States.
First grade, required one year to complete:
Oral lessons, collection of general facts from astronomy to
manners and morals.
Reading, analysis of words.
Arithmetic reviewed.
Grammar, parsing and composition.
Geography.
History of United States finished.
Music once a week in all grades.
Note. Work in this* outline was wholly academic. The names of
courses given here mean much less than they do now. For example,
drawing was very elementary and mechanical. Reading, too, was
confined entirely to the, text and did not include a wide acquaintance
with literature as it does now.
HIGH SCHOOL COURSES IN CHICAGO SCHOOLS IN
1915-1916.
FOUR- YEAR COURSES Two- YEAR COURSES
General course.* Accounting.
Science course. Shorthand.
Normal preparatory course. Mechanical drawing.
Commercial course. Designing.
Office preparatory course. Carpentry.
Technical course. Pattern making.
General trades course. Machine shop work.
Household arts course. Electricity.
Arts course. Household arts.
Architectural course. Printing.
Pharmacy, college preparatory. Horticulture.
* In addition to the above twenty-two courses, Chicago high schools
offer two-years' junior college courses, thus adding two years to the
regular four-year high school work ; courses for apprentices in many
lines of industry; prevocational courses, offered for children over age
for grades.
Appendix 233'
GENERAL COURSE, 1915
REQUIRED
FIRST YEAR
First Semester Per. Cr.
English 5 .5
Foreign Language (a) 5 .5
Algebra 5 .5
Physiology \ 5 .5
Drawing 2 .1
Music 2 .1
Physical Education 2 .1
26 2.3
Second Semester
English 5 .5
Foreign Language (a) 5 .5
Algebra 5 .5
Physiography 5 .5
Drawing 2 .1
Music 2 .1
Physical Education 2 .1
26 2.3
SECOND YEAR
First Semester
English 5 .5
Foreign Language (a) 5 .5
Geometry or Ancient History 5 .5
Drawing 2 .1
Music 2 .1
Physical Education 2 .1
21 1.8
Second Semester
English 5 .5
Foreign Language (a) 5 .5
Geometry or Ancient History 5 .5
Drawing 2 .1
Music 2 .1
Physical Education 2 .1
21 1.8
234 Appendix
Pupils in the General Course must take at some time in their
course Algebra or Plane Geometry, and a year of History.
At the beginning of the third year the pupil may select either
of the two courses given below.
THIRD YEAR
(a) Language and History
First Semester
English 5 .5
Foreign Language (a) 5 .5
Foreign Language (b) or History 5 .5
Physical Education 2 .1
17 1.6
Second Semester
English , 5 .5
Foreign Language (a) 5 .5
Foreign Language (b) or History ,. . . . 5 .5
Physical Education 2 .1
17 1.6
(b) Science
First Semester
English 5 .5
Choose tv/o sciences or one science and math-
ematics, or one science and technical work
14 or 12 or 17 i.o
Physical Education 2 .1
21 or 19 or 24 1.6
Second Semester
English 5 -5
Choose two sciences or one science and math-
ematics, or one science and technical work
14 or 12 or 17 i.o
Physical Education , 2 ^i
21 or 19 or 24 1.6
Appendix 235
FOURTH YEAR
(a) Language and History
First Semester
English , 5 .5
Foreign Language (a) or (b) 5 .5
Foreign Language (b) or (a) or History
and Civics 5 .5
Physical Education 2 .1
17 1.6
Second Semester
English 5 .5
Foreign Language (a) or (b) 5 .5
Foreign Language (b) or (a) or History
and Civics 5 .5
Physical Education 2 .1
17 1.6
(b) Science*
First Semester
English , 5 .5
Choose two sciences, or one science and
mathematics, or one science and technical
work 14, 12 or 17 i.o
Physical Education 2 .1
21 or 19 or 24 1.6
Choose two sciences, or one science and
mathematics, or one science and technical
work .14, 12 or 17 i.o
Physical Education 2 .1
16 or 14 or 19 i.i
In addition to the required studies given above, students must
complete satisfactorily enough optional studies to make seven-
teen credits at the close of their high school course.
*The elective work in this course is large. All science courses
include laboratory work.
236
Appendix
ELEMENTARY COURSE FOR CHICAGO SCHOOLS FOR
1915-1916
ACADEMIC COURSE
SUBJECTS BY GRADES AND HALF-YEARS
FIRST GRADE
FIRST SEMESTER
English, Spelling
Song Singing
Art-Construction
Physical Education
English, Spelling
Song Singing
Art-Construction
Physical Education
English, Spelling
English, Spelling
Mathematics
Song Singing
Art-Construction
Physical Education
English, Spelling
Mathematics
Song Singing
Art-Construction
Teacher's Selection
English (a)
Spelling
Mathematics
Music
Art and Industrial Arts
Physical Education
SECOND SEMESTER
English, Spelling
Song Singing
Art-Construction
Physical Education
SECOND GRADE
Number through Art-Construc-
tion
Song Singing
Physical Education
Teacher's Selection
THIRD GRADE
English, Spelling
Mathematics
Song Singing
Physical Education
Teacher's Selection
FOURTH GRADE
English, Spelling
Mathematics
Song Singing
Oral Geography
Physical Education
FIFTH GRADE
English (b)
Spelling
Geography
Music
Physical Education
Teacher's Selection
(a) Emphasis upon oral and written composition.
(b) Emphasis on Literature.
Appendix
237
SIXTH GRADE
English (a)
Spelling
Mathematics
Art and Industrial Arts
Boys' Woodwork
Girls' Cooking
Physical Education
Teacher's Selection
English (a)
Spelling
Geography
Penmanship
Music
Physical Education
Teacher's Selection
English (b)
Spelling
Oral Arithmetic
Geography
Music
Penmanship
SEVENTH GRADE
English (b)
Spelling
Mathematics
Art and Industrial Arts
Boys' Woodwork
Girls' Cooking
Penmanship
EIGHTH GRADE
English (a)
Spelling
History and Civics
Geography (Including Chicago
Course)
Music
Physical Education
English (b)
Spelling
History and Civics
Mathematics
Art and Industrial Arts
Boys' Woodwork
Girls' Sewing
Teacher's Selection
German optional in grammar grades.
Humaneness and Moral Training incorporated in English
and History.
A two-year kindergarten course precedes this elementary
course.
There is departmental work in the upper grades.
238 Appendix
THE INDUSTRIAL COURSE
FOR SIXTH, SEVENTH, AND EIGHTH GRADES IN SELECTED SCHOOLS
Classes taking this course will devote approximately two
hours a day to industrial work, two hours a day to academic
work and one hour a day to physical education, music, study,
recesses and general work.
The industrial work is under the supervision of the Depart-
ments of Manual Training and Household Arts. Details of
projects to be undertaken and plans of work will be determined
by the Supervisors of these Departments.
Art is transferred to the industrial work.
In the academic subjects the teachers are directed to follow
the outlines in the elementary course, making treatment in each
subject less detailed. They give special attention to penmanship
and the writing of business letters. In arithmetic, the problems
are connected closely with the work in the industrial subjects.
The commercial phases of geography and history are em-
phasized.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA
?1 Y L 7 AF 2 L M AGG YOUNG AND A HALF-CENTURY OF 1
