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The Bookman As An Educator

STEPHEN G. RICH, VERONA, N. J.

UE to the fact that he is avowedly an agent of a business house, seeking as the basis of his livelihood to secure business for his concern, the fact that the bookman is actually a functioning unit of the organization of education is often overlooked. That the bookman is not intended to be an educator, and that he is employed for strictly commercial reasons, is doubtless true. In this article I hope to show that, willy-nilly, he is actually an educator of one or another sort in almost every case.

The school-book business is today in the most actively competitive condition in which it has ever been. There are, for example, no less than thirty-odd houses which have at least one bookman giving at least half his time to work within New Jersey. A similar condition exists in New York state and in Pennsylvania; presumably it exists everywhere. This results in the existence of a body of men who see educational problems as they exist in many school systems, and one or more of whom is likely to visit a superintendent or a principal each week.

Since taking up the work of a bookman, I have increasingly noticed, as my range of information about educational problems and their solutions in the various systems that I visit has grown, that I am asked for information on what is being done elsewhere, by the men on whom I call. Others of the bookmen have told me similar experiences: in fact, one high-school bookman says that he sells his product mainly on the strength of the advisory service that he incidentally supplies, despite the fact that his line has eminent merits of its own on which to secure sales.

As bookmen are for the most part former teachers, and usually former principals or supervisors as well, their own

experiences as well as what they hear when at work, are at the service of those whom they visit. Thus the clan of bookmen, incidentally to their activities in selling textbooks, actually form a group of travelling consultants, to whom the harrassed schoolmen can turn and often do turn for aid in solving their problems. In a sense, therefore, the bookmen of each state form a sort of "first-aid" corps, ready to aid when asked, but not forcing their aid upon any one lest it harm their prospects of business.

In a second way the bookmen are contributing to the improvement of education. We in America are far more dependent upon the textbook than are educators in many lands. Without an adequate text, no syllabus or code of work, however carefully and scientifically devised, can be put into operation by the vast majority of American teachers. Under the highly competitive condition that exists in the schoolbook business, almost every firm finds it advantageous to offer at least one basal text that is fully in accordance with the results of the most recent and most adequate studies of method and content in that field. Here and there, where friendship or political considerations cause the retention or adoption of a text not in consonance with improved educational procedure, the bookmen involved may be held to be standing in the way of educational progress. But in the majority of instances, the bookmen, bringing conspicuously to the attention of school executives the improved texts that are continually appearing, are aiding in the advancement of education.

Not only are the bookmen contributing to the improvement of education by bringing improved texts, fitting improved methods and curricula to the attention of school people; they are in many cases actively aiding in producing such improved texts. A bit of personal experience is, I believe, typical. The physics text that I sell is to be revised within a year or two. Requests for information as to what needs, felt by users, exist, have been sent to all us agents of the house; and we gather these needs from the reports of users

and former users. The author of a mathematics text that I sell came to me for first-hand reports of what the users in the territory I serve would desire to have added, when an enlarged edition was to be produced. Even if we limit ourselves to the problem of eliminating erroneous statements of fact from textbooks, the bookmen in the field, who hear of every little error or fact in their books, sooner or later, are channels for contributing to correctness of information taught.

Incidental and momentary aid, not in any one item of great value, but cumulatively and in mass decidedly worth while, is rendered in a number of ways by bookmen when visiting schools. There is the classic case of the portly New Jersey bookman who acted the part of "Deputy Fire Chief" in inspecting and approving a fire-drill at a high school, when the man expected was out on a call to a fire. Many is the time that a bookman, arriving early in the day, has been the acceptable speaker at a school assembly. One bookman, who had the training, was asked by a principal to undertake a psycho-analytic study of a problem-child, while visiting that school. He not only did the analysis, but did it sufficiently well to start the child on the way to a cure. The numerous occasions on which the bookman's automobile has been the vehicle coming just at the right time to provide some bit of transportation service needed or welcome, but not otherwise available, will be familiar to most principals.

Certain bookmen, who had the legal knowledge necessary, are known to have been of material aid to one superintendent in preventing ousters that would have seriously crippled the organization that this superintendent was laboring successfully to build up within his schools. Conversely, a neighboring superintendent, who had not become friendly with the bookmen, did not have the benefit of this service, and was ousted-presumably to the disadvantage of the system.

The bookman is, moreover, often an active agent in placement of teachers and principals. He is often appealed to

for early knowledge of desirable opportunities for professional advancement; he is often asked for teachers by superintendents; he is sometimes able, without underhand work and in a genuinely honorable manner, to influence those in authority towards the selection of a really adequate candidate for some particular position.

The necessities of his calling lead the bookman to render many kinds of educational service. He is not an official part of the organization of education; but he is actually an important part of the functioning organization. The educator of innovating temperament, who is restive within the slow-moving machinery of school systems, may therefore find wider service, wider influence on education, as a bookman. The work of the bookman is as truly educational work, though conducted for commercial reasons, as that of any individual in the whole field of activities touching the schools.

School Publicity-A Necessity

EVERETT M. HOSMAN, INSTRUCTOR IN SCHOOL PUBLICITY, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA

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✨UBLICITY for the public school service is of very great importance, especially in these times when there is a tremendous competition for good will and public funds. To most people, the school is just a cause for high taxes, a place to send children and a teacher. The school is a good thing to have in the community, but just

why? Perhaps because it is indigenous, just like sunflowers, Russian thistles, street cars, or policemen. To most people, schools are here by reason of tradition, and, fortunately, by a simple faith that they are good for society. Notwithstanding the constantly increasing school budgets, frequently understood as evidence of a continuation of this faith, the future holds some unpleasant possibilities unless those in charge of the schools, realize the need of interpreting this rapidly growing function of public education.

Within recent years, the demands for public funds have increased by leaps and bounds until the tax voting legislatures are confronted by the frequent charge that the limit has been reached, and any addition to our already overloaded tax burden must necessarily result in slowing down business, if not disaster. Editorial writers, without exception, refer to the present tax situation as "staggering," "stupendous," "an orgy of spending," "almost unbelievable," and other such phrases calculated to strike fear in the heart of the man who wants votes.

Even more than the competition for public funds, is the extended and studied effort to secure "good will," that intangible asset which frequently is worth more than the entire capital stock and surplus of a going concern. Public utilities, private business concerns, reform organizations, political