ANNOUNCE PLANS FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION HERE

That a crisis has been reached in educational affairs in this country is the belief of Henry W. Holmes '03, Professor of Education at the University. No longer can the United States continue on its shipshod course; hereafter a definite plan must be followed or the present educational system will come to ruin. With this in mind a Graduate School of Education is now in process of formation at the University.

"I feel," said Professor Holmes, "that a disaster, fatal to national education, is impending and will crush it out unless steps are taken immediately to ensure its safety. This is a time when the services that can be rendered through the schools should be brought to the attention of all college men.

Disastrous Lack of Teachers.

"Because of the high cost of living, there is a disastrous lack of teachers for the schools of the country. Six hundred thousand teachers are needed in the United States to teach the 20,000,000 pupils in our schools, and 100,000 new positions are open every year; yet the teacher-training institutions of the country do not turn out more than 25,000 graduates to fill them.

"Half of our teachers have no training whatever for their work, and half of them have no education beyond the high school. Half of them again do not stay more than five years in the work, and half of them are not over 25 years of age. Yet without question the teacher is the most important factor in education. Nothing else can count so much. No money the country can spend and no perfection of school organization or administration can compensate for the lack of trained teachers.

Salaries Must be Raised

"Under these circumstances, it is of the utmost importance that the salaries of all teachers be raised. The salary of the teacher be raised. The salary of the teacher today has risen to $689, but that is a pitiful sum to pay for the work that any teacher ought to do, even in the lower grades of a remote rural school. That administrative salaries in education are often large does not help in national progress.

"The intelligence of the nation cannot be raised, we cannot expect wise action on the part of the whole people in the complicated problems of modern democratic life, if their schooling is meagre formal, and sterile. At present, the vast majority of the children of this country receive less than six years of schooling, and what they receive is often not well ordered or given by effective, modern methods.

Task of Training Difficult.

"The task of training teachers is difficult and cannot be conducted without the development of something much nearer an adequate science and philosophy of education than we now have. Trained teachers are already infinitely superior to untrained teachers, but much remains to be done before teacher-training institutions can hope to be reasonably successful in their own effort.

"It is therefore especially important to develop university schools in which the study of educational problems may be carried on by those who are to become the educational leaders of the country. In view of all these facts, the establishment of a Graduate School of Education at Harvard may be considered a great step in advance.

Would Be Like Other Graduate Schools.

"For these reasons, the Division of Education plans to establish in the near future a Graduate School for the training of teachers and school officers. This school would put professional training for school work on a level at the University with the professional training for the law, the ministry; architecture, medicine and so forth.

"The fund for this Graduate School of Education was started last year by a gift of $500,000 from the General Educational Board, and other gifts brought the fund to nearly $1,200,000 by the middle of last July, when the campaign was merged with that for the general Endowment Fund under an agreement whereby the school is to receive from the Endowment Fund enough to bring its own fund up to $2,000,000 as soon as the Endowment Fund reaches a total of $11,000,000.

"The purpose of this Graduate School of Education will be to train both the inexperienced students intending to teach and experienced teachers who wish professional improvement. Its most advanced students will be candidates for the Doctor's Degree in Education and will take posts as city, school, or state superintendents, principals of public and private schools, normal school teachers, and college teachers of education. The Division of Education has already trained considerable numbers of such students, and has sent out, since 1905, 18 students who have secured the Doctor's degree in preparation for school work.

Laboratory in Educational Psychology.

"The Graduate School will also conduct research and investigation in education. It will maintain a Laboratory of Educational Psychology as at present, and in addition a clinic for the special study of children. School problems will be studied both in the schools and in the laboratory, and members of the Faculty will undertake surveys of schools and school systems. Work of this character has been conducted at Harvard since 1891, but has not developed as rapidly as at some other universities because of lack of means. Members of the present staff of the Division of Education have contributed in various ways, however, to the solution of school problems throughout the country."