she then leaves her position she can not secure another teaching position in the State that year. Since the enactment of this law some boards in that State have refused to accept resignations on the theory that a contract between the board and the teacher is just as binding upon the one as upon the other. Most boards, however, release teachers when it is evident that the teacher is securing a better position. It often happens that boards would increase the salary of the teacher asking permission to resign, but can not do so for financial reasons. The general opinion of school men on this question is that, if an excellent teacher is resigning and it is impossible to secure one equally as good for the same salary, it is the part of wisdom to increase this teacher's salary in order to retain her. One rule that meets with the approval of practically all superintendents is that teachers be granted one or two days' leave of absence on pay in order to visit other teachers either in their own or in other cities. Most boards are now granting teachers this privilege.

Boards of education are not so unanimous in their agreement that teachers should be granted sick leave for a definite period on full pay or part pay. Sick leave is granted by 619 cities, however, on the following bases: Full salary; half salary; full salary less salary of substitute; a specific amount, as $1 a day. Leave not to exceed 5 days is granted by 134 cities; 10 days in 115 cities; 1 month in 55; and 3 days in 39 cities. In 98 no period is specified, while in other cities the period ranges from 1 day to 40 days. Leave on pay is usually granted only for sickness of teacher or for death in immediate family.1

TENURE.

The problem of teachers' tenure has confronted many school boards. It is very doubtful whether many teachers in the smaller cities have within the last few years failed to be reelected when they were rendering efficient service. Good teachers, however, should be made to feel secure in their position and not be placed under the necessity of canvassing the school board or interviewing the superintendent each year in regard to her reelection. In other words, the burden of annually getting reelected should be shifted from the teachers' shoulders; the burden of showing why a teacher should not be continued in the service should be put upon the school board and

1 School boards seeking for a precedent in granting sick leave may find one in the United States Government, which grants, as a rule, 30 days sick leave to civil-service employees. This leave is granted to the employee only when he himself is sick. It would seem only just that teachers similarly be granted a certain amount of sick leave, 2 weeks, possibly.

the superintendent. Four States have enacted laws on the subject of tenure.1

The following is a brief statement of the provisions:

The law of California provides that teachers may be elected on or after June 1 for the next ensuing school year, and each teacher so elected shall be deemed reelected from year to year thereafter unless the governing body of the school district shall, on or before the 10th day of June, give notice in writing to such teacher that his services will not be required for the ensuing year.

In New Orleans, La., teachers are, under the law, elected annually for three years, and thereafter their tenure becomes permanent upon a favorable recommendation by the superintendent.

The Massachusetts law, enacted in 1914, provides that after three consecutive years of service a teacher or superintendent (except in Boston) shall be employed "at the discretion of the school committee," but in order to dismiss such employee said committee shall give 30 days' notice, exclusive of vacations, of meeting at which dismissal will be voted on, and shall give to such employee a statement of charges against him; in the case of a teacher, the superintendent shall have given his recommendation regarding the proposed dismissal. Pending action on dismissal, a teacher or superintendent may be suspended for conduct unbecoming a teacher.

The New Jersey law likewise provides for permanent tenure after a probationary period of three years. But it is added that no principal or teacher shall be dismissed or reduced in salary except for cause and after written notice stating the charge and after a hearing is had before the school board.

The new law of Oregon, enacted in 1913, is different in two or three particulars. After a two-year probationary period teachers shall be considered permanent employees and shall not be dismissed except after due notice and an opportunity for a hearing before the school board; during the probationary period teachers whose names are to be dropped from the list at the expiration of a term must be given 24 months' notice. This law applies to districts having a population of 20,000 or more (city of Portland).

SALARIES.

Salaries paid teachers in the elementary grades, particularly in the smaller cities, are so low that capable teachers are not attracted. A girl to prepare herself for teaching must complete a high-school course, and in a number of instances a normal-school course, all of which means the expenditure of time and money. The average salary paid elementary teachers in cities between 10,000 and 25,000 population is $602, and in cities between 5,000 and 10,000 population, $533. The average for high-school teachers is somewhat higher, but more time and money are required for preparation. The average salary of high-school teachers in cities between 10,000 and 25,000 population is $897, and in cities between 5,000 and 10,000 population, $795. The following table presents a summary of salaries paid officers and teachers in cities of less than 25,000 population:

1 In the city of New Orleans, La., etc.

Salaries of officers and teachers in cities of less than 25,000 population.

For detailed statistics regarding teachers' salaries the reader is referred to U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin No. 16, 1914, The Tangible Rewards of Teaching, and to Bulletin No. 31, 1915, A Comparative Study of Teachers' Salaries.

One of the complaints superintendents often make is that the school board in their cities will employ only home talent. In a small city this is undoubtedly bad policy. Dr. Frank A. Manny, principal of the Baltimore City Training School, who has made a study of the subject of teacher training, says:1

No greater misfortune can come to any school system than to have a steady inbreeding of home talent. The board of education should insist upon the selection of at least one-third of the new teachers each year from outside the city

1 See U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1914, No. 47.

limits. The preference in appointment for local graduates is not always in the interest of the school system. To say that a teacher must suffer the penalty of being accounted less worthy because she has graduated from some other training school than the one in the city where application is made for a position is to strangle healthy competition among teachers. Inbreeding is to-day the blight of a great many school systems in this country.

This study included only those cities that maintain a teacher training school. If inbreeding is injurious in these cities, where attention is given to the correct training of teachers, the evil results of inbreeding in the schools of the smaller cities is undoubtedly much worse. This evil can not and will not be overcome until school boards come to realize that teaching positions are not necessarily for home talent, but for the very best talent wherever found.

HEALTH INSPECTOR AND SCHOOL NURSE.

One of the problems that have not been entirely solved in the smaller cities is health supervision. Of 1,300 cities reporting (see table, p. 109), only 516 have medical inspection, and more than half of these are in those States making medical inspection compulsory. Of these 516 cities, only 86 employ a school nurse, and only 12 a physician for the entire time. In many of the smaller cities medical inspection is perfunctory, even in those cities where it is compulsory. Many school boards in cities in States not requiring medical inspection refuse to employ a medical inspector on the ground that an examination by a physician paid only a few hundred dollars a year is usually superficial. The salaries paid school physicians in most of the cities range from $100 to $500 a year. In a few the salary is as much as $1,500. The average for 175 cities reporting salaries paid the school physician is $370 a year. Of the 175 reporting, 33 receive less than $200 a year; 80, from $200 to $399; 32, from $400 to $599; 20, from $600 to $800; and 10, more than $800 a year. The average salary paid the school nurse in 35 cities reporting on salaries of school nurses is $752 a year.

It has been discovered that, even if the examinations are carefully made, parents often do not heed the advice of the school physician. Boards of education and others now realize that before medical inspection can produce results school nurses must be provided. Dr. Ernest B. Hoag says:1

Without an effective follow-up service conducted by visiting nurses, medical inspection is ineffective. Until 1908 New York City relied upon postal cards sent to parents of defective children, and was able to secure action in only 6 per cent of the cases where treatment was recommended. Immediately upon

1 U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1913, No. 44, p. 11.

placing the follow-up service in the hands of school nurses, the percentage increased to 84.

The nurse effects what no other agency could accomplish. She not only secures action in the case at hand, but she becomes a permanent advisory influence in the homes where she visits.

By virtue of her room-to-room visitation and her opportunities for observation, the school nurse also becomes the ideal sanitary inspector. She notes temperatures, ventilation, seating, cleanliness of room, toilets, blackboards, and the clothes of children. Her hospital standards of sanitation tend to follow her into the schools.

The school nurse is first and last a social worker. She instructs ignorant but fond mothers in the best methods of feeding, clothing, and caring for their children. She is received in their homes as no other official visitor could possibly be. Dr. Osler does not overstate the case when he says that the visiting nurse is "a ministering angel everywhere."

If it is not possible to employ both a school physician and a school nurse, the nurse is undoubtedly to be preferred. This has been demonstrated in several small cities. Dr. Hoag says:1

Physicians for less than an hour a day cost about half what nurses cost for full time five and a half days a week. A well-trained nurse who has the study habit can also make physical examinations and record findings on a historical card for each pupil, especially for ailments and defects of ears, eyes, nose, mouth, throat, skin, scalp, malnutrition, and nervousness, including about 97 per cent of the ailments. Nurses usually lessen professional jealousy among the doctors, get satisfactory response from children and from parents; obtain cures, the great object of medical supervision; open the eyes of teachers to the symptoms of ailments and defects; follow up children they themselves examine; cooperate with woman's clubs, dentists, dispensaries, and occulists, get back the truants and absentees; keep down impetigo, lice, and infant mortality in the summer, distribute literature on care and prevention in the homes; and, in general, are on duty all the time as a life work, not as a perfunctory side issue. With three hours in the morning for inspection and examinations, and the afternoons for inspection and home visiting, a nurse can care for about 1,000 to 1,800 children.

The plan of having teachers supervise the health of school children in towns and small cities which have no means at hand for the employment of a school physician or a school nurse has been proposed and is in operation to a certain extent in some cities. This plan is considered far from ideal, but better than nothing. In a few instances physicians cooperate and provide free inspection. This plan has been in successful operation at Jeanette, Pa., for five or six years. The difficulty experienced in another city attempting the plan was that petty jealousies arose. The plan succeeded the first year, but the second year it was given up because of misunderstandings and the lack of cooperation on the part of some of the physicians.

1 U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1913, No. 44, p. 16.

2 For a plan of health supervision by teachers, see p. 16, U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1913, No. 44.