Superintendency Of Schools

There is a well defined rumor about to tbe effect tbat onr school board bas come within one vote of etecting a superiDtendent of schools. Ir is to be boped that when tbe matter is oonsummated tbe beet man obtainable will bé tbe winner. Also that be will be an experiencedman in tbe work of supervisión. Wfrat Aon Arbor needs is not a bigb sohpol principa] but a superintendent in all that term signifies in its modern acceptation. We already bave an able high school principal and corps of assistants and that department of oor scbools would, no doubt, manage to go along Tery well if we had ijd superintendent at all. Tbe grades below tbe bigb ecbool, however, need oarëful supervisión by one who is from experience familiar with every detail of grade work. The opinión is quité general that the lower grades of oor schools are weak in comparison witb tbe high school ; that tbe corps of teachers is made up too Jargely of garduates of onr own bigh school, without teohnical preparation for tbeir work and that tbis process of inbreeding has gone on until an endleas obain of wornout metbode and inecbanical routine bas fastened itself opon our scbools. A careful examination of the list of lower grade teachers shows that nearly one-balf of them graduated from tbe high school, took do farther preparation and bare done all their teaching here. Had suco a process been followed in the make up of the high school faculty, the intruotion there would be, no doubt, of no higher quality than tbe average in tbe grades. Tbat there are some excellent teachers in our grades, no one will deny. That tbere will always be some weak ones in any large sohool system is to be expected. Bnt that the average sboold be no bigher, tbe Argus believes is just cause for oomplaint. The educational interests of Arm Arbor are the city's greatest interests. Tbe eduoational atmospbere here ougbt to be the best in the state. People wbo contémplate moving to qdi oity tosend their children to the university should nnderstand tbat our publio scbools, also in every grade, offer instruction second to none. With the educational surroundings here, tbis coold be easily brought about. But that sucb is not the condition now is weli understood and reruarked by many of our own oitizens and by educators from otber Mich igan cities who have visited bere. The Argus does not make these oritioisms because it desires to disparage any of the oity 's interests, but because it believes them to be trae and tbat rhey Bbould be elimenated and tbat now, when a new superintendent is soon to be elected, is the time to cali attention to these tbings. To tbeend tbat the instrnctiou in tbe lower grades of onr schools sball be improved, it is essential tbat tbe uew snpeiintendent be, not a man whose experienoe is limited to high sobool work alone, but one who is tborongbly famiüar with the work of every grade and who sball bot aoquire tbat experienoe at tbe expense of tbe good people of Ann Arbor. The city's school interests are too great to risk tbem with any superintendent wbo bas had no experienoe in supervisión below bigh sobool. There is as wide a differenoe between tbe work of the present day superintendent and a high school principal as between tbe work of a high sohool teacher and a primary teacher. Of oonrse a man whose experienoe is limited to high school work ruay develop into a fine superintendent, but the s.ilary paid the superintendent of onr schools is snfficient to ruake the trying of snch an experiment wbolly nnneoessary.