ational progress.

II An Educational Creed

Let no one infer from what has been said that the people of Cincinnati
are agreed upon all of the details of educational policy, nor upon the
fundamentals either, for that matter, but they have adopted an
educational creed which runs about as follows:

1. I believe in making the schools provide for the educational
necessities of every child.

2. I believe that this can be done when all work together.

3. I believe that new ideas are the life-blood of educational advance.

That simple creed adopted by teachers, principals, mothers,
manufacturers, dentists and trade unionists has become a great motive
force in the upbuilding of the Cincinnati schools.

The most evident thing about the Cincinnati school organization is its
democracy. The feudal spirit of lordship and serfdom existing in many
schools between superintendents and principals on the one hand, and
teachers on the other, is nowhere evident in the Cincinnati schools;
instead, each teacher, thrown upon her own initiative, is a creative
artist, solving her particular problem as she believes that it should be
solved, and abiding by the consequence of her failure or success.

Early in his work Mr. Dyer made it clear that he would not tolerate a
mechanical system of education. "Up here on the hill, in a wealthy
suburban district, is a grammar school. Its organization, administration
and course of study must necessarily differ from that other school,
located in the heart of the factory district. The principal of each of
these schools has a problem to face--each will succeed in proportion as
he grasps the significance of his own problem and the readiest means for
its solution." Is not that a refreshing sentiment from a superintendent
of city schools? Note this other delightful touch: "My teachers soon
learned that I regard the teacher who works exactly like another teacher
as pretty poor stuff." Before the axe of such incisive radicalism, how
the antiquated structure of the old school machinery came crashing to
the ground, to be replaced by a system which recognized each teacher as
an individual builder of manhood and womanhood, working to meet the
needs of individual children. It is not an idle boast which the English
make when they glory in the absence of a curriculum; for even the best
curriculum, if mismanaged, is speedily converted into a noose, the knot
of which adjusts itself mechanically under the left ear of