Evidences of Inefficiency in School-Building Control

Abstract

The administration of a school plant is a profession demanding a practical knowledge of psychology, an understanding of human nature, a keen appreciation of educational values, a knowledge of educational needs, and a basic, functioning philosophy of life. The administration of a school plant is at the same time a business requiring executive ability, the power to organize efficiently, and the faculty to eliminate waste, lost motion, duplication of effort, loafing, and various evidences of perfunctory attitudes toward work. Hence, it follows that the administrator of a school-the principal-is both a professional man and a business executive. On the one hand, his duty is to supervise the educational activities in the building to which he is assigned; on the other, it is to demand that the work be done with a minimum of waste. In industry, where one is dealing with material substances which can be combined, placed on the market, and converted into dollars and cents, it is relatively easy to calculate the cost of production and the net profit or loss. In any given school, however, where human nature, the mind, and the intellect constitute the subject, the situation is different. It is impossible to estimate from day to day the cost of production, the quality of the product, and the net profit to society. Consequently, a school may be managed with gross inefficiency without the fact being known to the patrons or to the community. It is argued that one can measure the cost of production in educational procedure. True, one can measure the cost of sending a child through any given grade, or of sending him through the elementary grades, etc., but, since children learn as much in one grade in some schools as they learn in three grades in other schools, the problem becomes more complicated than many are willing to admit. Again, 336