Omaha Sunday Bee
PART TWO
EDITORIAL
TAGES ONE TO TWELVE
PART TWO
SOCIETY
PAGES ONE TO TWELVE
VOL, XLV-NO. 20.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOREK 31, 1015.
SINdLK COPV 11 VK CENTS.
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Omaha's
Professor Masters Has Some
Positive Ideas of His Own on
Education and How to Apply Them
to the Conduct of the Great and
Growing School of Which He Has
Recently Been Put in Charge
By A. II. OROn.
THE new principal of Central High school,
Prof. Joseph G. Masters, is the average
man In personal appearance. One looks
in rain for an outstanding physical
characteristic. He has no Marlborough
twak. of a nose. His nose is average. He has no
ftOrabean month. His mouth is pleasantly average.
He t neither bald nor prematurely gray, nor has
fca an enormous shock of hair. His hair is average,
tfarfc brown and sanely combed. He hasn't an Abra
ftaxn Lincoln figure. His figure is average, neither
Irery fat nor very lean. He isn't careless about his
gran, nor is he foppish. He dresses in the neat
The wise and experienced painter of men in
fords doesn't attach much importance to outstand
ing characteristics of this kind in gauging a person.
IWe once saw a most Impressive man in a hotel
lobby. He had a "strong" nose, a "firm" mouth,
beetling brows. His raiment was of the most
costly. He moved with the air of a king. We
figured he must be president of half a dozen rail
roads and a general of industry. That afternoon
we saw him on a street corner beneath a large red
umbrella selling a sure corn cure "at the special
advertising price for today, gentlemen, of 10 cents.
Who else wants a package? All supplied?"
Personal Appearance of the Principal
Prof. Masters' manner isn't "impressive." He
doesn't look at you with "piercing eyes" nor from
beneath "beetling eyebrows.'' He doesn't pose as
though upon his shoulders jested the burden of
tmplres. He doesn't pose at all.
At first appearance he strikes his visitor as
thoroughly honest. His manner Is almost diffident
and his ready smile is as ingenuous as that of a
schoolboy. His clear eyes and healthy color be
speak the man who lives out of doors as much as
possible. His speech is tolerant. He never says,
"We must do so and so. It is the only solution of
the problem." He has the Judicial temperament
which weighs questions in the scale of a well
balanced mind and then decides them. And he has
the energy which puts practical ideas Into execu
tion. It's a way these country boys have, the boys
who grow up on the farm, trudge through the snow
to the rural school after the morning chores are
done and they've husked half a wagonload of corn,
finally manage to get to "normal" and then teach
school and get money to go to college and travel
abroad. All this Prof. Masters did. He became
principal of the Council Grove (Kan.) High school,
next was superintendent of schools in Tulsa, Okl..
for five years, and then principal of the Oklahoma
City High school for three years, coming from there
o Omaha.
High School Problems Ahead
Asked about his plans and Ideals for the Omaha
High school. Prof. Masters smiled and said:
"One of the biggest problems we are coming
face to face with hero is the problem of room. We
are using every foot of space in this fine big build
ing. If we had another teacher I don't know where
ve would put her. Next term we will have 200
or 300 new pupils from the eighth grade and I
don't see where we will accommodate them."
"What is your attitude toward the so-called
practical' studies compared with the 'classical? "
"This is decidedly a classical high school," he
6aid with a smile. "The manual training equip
ment is decidedly poor, compared with what we
had in Oklahoma City. Here woodwork is about
tie only thing taken up. There we bad carpentry
and cabinet-making, forge, foundry and machine
work. I have seen a boy take an ordinary file, take
the temper out of it and' shape it into a carving
knife and fork, temper these utensils and fit them
uith artistic handles. Our equipment here in cook
ing and sewing is good.
"Another problem that I consider important is
vocational guidance. We must consult with the
pupils who are doubtful and study their aptitudes
S3 as to guide them as swiftly and surely as pos
sible to concentration of their energies on their
life occupations."
Supervised Better Than Outside Study
"What Is your observation of outside study?
Do the pupils do enough of it?"
"Some decidedly do not," smiled Prof. Masters.
"And as the solution of that problem we are seri
ously considering supervised study. We have, even
row, a special study room supervised by a teacher
every afternoon, but attendance on this is volun
tary and those who really need it are often not
there.
"Another method of overcoming this laxity of
rutslde study which we are considering for adop
tion i a change of the school periods from forty
five minutes to sixty-five minutes. There would be
five such periods in a school day in place of the
present six periods of forty-five minutes each. It
Mould increase the school day by about fifty-five
minutes and it is possible that under this program
N
ew
Professor
Joseph O. Masters
at his desk.
we would begin school at 8:30 a. m. instead of 9,
as now.
"Under this plan the first twenty minutes of
each period are devoted to study of the lesson to
be recited. Such study has the advantage of being
under the supervision of the teacher. The pupil
does not grope blindly, but Is shown by the teacher
just how to 'attack' the problems of the lesson.
"The great mass of students do their studying
well. But the fraction who do not are the ones to
he considered. Moving pictures and automobiles
and a general laxity of discipline In some homes
make this a special problem of the day.
Question of Separating Boys and Girls
"Segregation of boy and girl students is an
other possible Innovation In the Omaha High school,
though the faculty at present is opposed to it, about
two-thirds voting against it at a recent meeting. I
urn inclined to look upon co-education as best. The
boys need the example of the girls in hard study
and application, while the girls need the example
the boys in practical application. Girls study
harder and learn more by memory or rote. There
are far fewer failures among girls than among
l oys. In Seattle, where segregation was tried, the
toys distanced the girls. In certain studies like
chemistry it would be a good idea to have separate
courses of study beyond the elementary course, so
that girls, for example, could take up the chemistry
cf foods and boys could study chemistry in other
lines."
Prof. Masters Is "strong" for scientific man
agement, card systems and the like.
'I am hoping to get time for working out the
high school's problems in a scientific and statistical
vay," he said. "We ought to get the comparative
cost of educating a student here and la other high
schools and so on. We should systematise the giv
ing of grades as far as we can, taking into con
sideration the respective personal equations of the
Jeachers. We should determine, by the law. of
averages, how many 'A's and 'B's' and 'C's' should
,he earned in a class that is doing satisfactory work.
Tome teachers give too many, some too few. We
must get a standard by which all can work."
Believes in Corporal Punishment
Listen, fellers, Principal Masters believes In cor
poral punishment.
"Application of the rubber hose once in a while
's very effective," he said, smiling. "I used to
think it ought never to be done, but there are cases
which seem to yield to no other treatment I be
lieve in the policy of 'watchful waiting' with a stu
dent. I try to impress on him self-control and to
rous him to exercise that valuable quality. I get '
etui" -its tt sign cards promising to live up to the
idh of t uool efficiency and these are filed away
Hi
Nebraska
FROM a little organization of a dozen, or
maybe two dozen, teachers, in a meeting in
1865, the Nebraska State Teachers' associa
tion has grown to a magnificent educa
tional body of 4,565 members.
This great body of educators of the state of
Nebraska is to hold its fiftieth annual convention
at Omaha this week. The half century mark has
been reached and a great march of progress in the
educational system of the state has been recorded
in that length of time.
Yes, the institution was founded back in 1865,
although the records really begin with the meeting
of 1867,. when the association met at Urownville,
Neb. Robert W. Furnas, principal of the Brown
Vile school. at that time, was president. Next year
it met at Nebraska City. In 1869 the little organ
ization first made its appearance in Omaha. Im
tnedltely afterward It returned again to Brownville
for its next meeting, and the following year again
ventured out from the shell and met at Lincoln,
both 1871 and 1872 meetings were held in Lincoln.
Then the association went to Fremont, Tecum
reh; Omaha and Nebraska City for a series of
years, and back to Lincoln again. Then the
smaller towns got a chance at it again for a few
years, until in 1884 it went to Lincoln, and was
beld there successively until 1903, with the excep
tion of two years, when it went to Fremont ani
Hastings, respectively. In 1904 Omaha got the
convention again. Then it went back to Lincoln
until 1911.
Following this date the convention went to
Omaha and has been meeting here regularly since.
The democratic principle injected into the associa
tion with the referendum vote on officers and place
of meeting has kept the meeting place In Omaha.
Yet, after all, in the half century of its exist
ence the association has met in Omaha only nine
times, and five of the nine have been the last five
successive years. The small towns are now out of
the running in this matter, as the association has
grown too large to be accommodated by anything
ihort of a metropolitan city.
Some figures along this line are interesting.
Before the convention came to Omaha the highest
attendance it had ever attained was 1,800. The
high mark in attendance was reached two years
at'o, when 4,565 active teachers of tb state were
enrolled for the convention in Omaha.
Today the association rsnks with the best In
the western hemisphere In point of numbers and
importance of work. Iowa has recognized this
fact to such an extent that its teachers are allowed
.
' ttCTX . VJ
f
ii.ii ' iii I '
chool
nnd produced if there is a repeated fracture of
the rules."
Prof. Masters specialized in sociology and so
cial problems in college. Ho did practical work,
too, in the South Clark Street mission, Chicago,
where the lowest dregs of humanity are helped.
Ho was always a strong Young Men's Christian
:tssocltlon man. Such sturdy training in the
fundamentals of human brotherhood has mado him
a most democratic man.
High School Must Be Democratic
"And the high school must be a thoroughly
democratic Institution," he declared. "Organiza
tions of snobbishness have no place here. Statistics
show, anyway, that members of fraternities in high
schools do decidedly inferior work. Of course, it
in necessary and desirable to have club life, but
such organisations must bo based on something
firmer than social preference or prestige. We have
dubs now and encourage them and help them."
I-ct it be known, too, that the new principal be
lieves in athletics.
"Athletics are a necessary part of a high school's
vork of developing sound minds in sound bodies.
The cadet drill here is a splendid thing, too. Foot
ball is a beautiful and spectacular game, good for
blood and bone and muscles. It
is good in other ways. It builds
the school spirit, strengthens
1
Teachers5
to attend either the Nebraska or the Iowa associa
tion at their own option and are given credit
equally at either place.
The Nebraska association has been instrumen
tal in lifting the standard of the schools of the
state, and it Is to the State Teachers' association
that much of the credit is given for the low per
centage of illiteracy for which Nebraska haa long
leen famed. The Influence of the association has
leen for a better grade of teachers throughout the
t-lale.
The presidents-of the association have been
pretty well distributed over the state. Among the
former presidents are a number of men who have
since grown to some eminence in their field. The
l ite Dean C. E. Bessey of the University of Ne
Iraska was a past president of the association, as
1
1
n t v- a, v.
vov UlP vo9 VT K cip
Principal
loyalty, makes for democracy and breaks up
cliques. Under our regulations it even encourages
study, for a boy is barred from the team if he falls
below the mark in his studies."
Of Course He Has a Hobby Trampping
Mr. Masters has a hobby. Kvery evening he
hitches up his hobby, drives It around to the front
door of his home at Thirtieth and Cass streets and
be and Mrs. Masters and the two little Masters go
put on the hobby.
This hobby is wslktng, "tramping" the prin
cipal prefers to call it. "Every evening my wife
ud the two children and I go for a tramp," ho says.
"We walk from half a mile to three or four miles.
Walking la great. Have you ever been In the
Vosemite valley? Well, If you ever go out there,
be sure to walk through. Don't tako the stage.
That spoils it. When we were there we walked
rnd we sat down among the giant trees. Oh, we
rpent five or six hours there. You have to spend
a while among them to get the spirit of the trees.
They have a spirit Just as much as if they were
teople."
Dy which it will be seen that Prof. Masters Is
cne "who in the love of nature holds communion
with her visible forms" and to whom "she speaks a
various language." He is also a mountain climber
fcnd haa negotiated the heights of the Rockies,
Sierras and Alps. He likes hunting and generally
ta an ages to get away on at least one trip a year.
- .j:.r - - .... , ,.; i , ; - .
Association
was also C. O. Pearse, former head of the Omaha
schools, now head of the Milwaukee normal, and
J. W. Crab tree, former head of the Peru State nor
mal, now head of the normal at River Falls. Wis.
W. W. W. Jones of Lincoln, J. M. McKensie
and C. K. Palmer of Beatrice are the only men
who ever succeeded themselves in the presidency;
Jones was president from 1882 to 1886, McKensle
from 1871 to 187S, and Palmer from 1870 to 1877.
In all the history of the association there have
been but two women presidents. Only one of these.
Miss Kate Mcllugh of Omaha, was elected to the
office, while Miss Edith A. Lathrop of Clay Center
succeeded to the presidency from her position of
vice president, when the then president, William
A. Davidson of Omaha, resigned to go to Washing
ton, D. C.
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