PROMOTDlG :MORALE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION A Thesis Presented for the Degree ot Kaster ot Arts by Harvey Eugene Badertscher, B. s. \I THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 1947 Approved by~ ' . TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. KORALE AND ITS ACHJE1iEMENT 5 m. PROMOT'ING STUDENT MORALE 29 IV. PROMOTING TEACHER MORALE 52 V. PRO}f:OTING CODUNITY MORAIB 79 V:I. EVALUATING MORALE 112 vn. SUDARY 137 BIBLIOGRAPHY 142 CHAPTER I THE TERM "MORALE" In American life morale ia a word which has come into general use only within the last several years. The word first appfared in titles of American periodical lit­ erature in 1918 toward the close of the first World War. In that year Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature listed two titles on morale, and in 1919 two more were listed. Then in t~~ period trom 1920 to 1940 o~ly ten articles on morale were listed. Yt can thus be seen that tor the two deoades following World War I the term was almost forgotten. With the outbreak of World War II, and especially in connection with the tall ot France, morale became an im­ portant word in American thinking, writing, and discussion. It appeared ~ billboard posters, in the daily papers, in . l . all kinds of advertising, in educational periodicals, in connection with industry, and in describing the condition of our armed forces at home and overseas, as well as con- ditions on the home front. Many committees were organized to promote morale in one torm or another. Ill 1942 alone, over 150 articles were listed under the heading of "morale" in Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. This new emphasis on morale is indicative of a new trend in the thinking of many countries of the world. It emphasizes the tact that, whether we are at peace or at war, all ot the people are participants, and that how they feel, powerfully af'teots what they do. THE PROBLEM Overview. How pupils in school feel about their work has a tremendous effect on how they work and on how they con­ duct themselves in school. How the teachers feel about their work will have an important bearing on the kind ot work they do. In t~rn, the attitude ot the faculty will be reflected in the work ot the pupils. It, tor one reason or another, the morale ot the faculty is low, the same attitude will without tail make itself shown in the student group. Af­ fecting both students and faculty is the attitude ot the community toward its schools. ·Statenient o't the Problem. Within recent years much has been written concerning the task ot the school in pro­ moting national morale. It was the purpose of this study (1) to determine the factors which influence student, fac­ ulty, and ccmmm.nity morale; (2) to discover means ot pro­ moting morale in these three areas; and (3) to study tech­ niques and devices which can be used in morale measurement. Scope and Delimitation. The problem ot morale is one which vitally af'tacts each individual, each group, each each organization, industry, and the nation ae a whole. The number of factora which affect morale 1s large, and those taetora influencing one person or group may in no wise atfect another. Wevertheleas, there are certain factors which more or leas affect all individuals, and there are other factors which peculiarly atfeet students, teachers, and community. This study has been lim.1.ted largely to (1) a consideration of those elements which affect morale in the public schools, and (2) ways and means of promoting morale in the public schools. · While .frequent reference is made to areas outside of education, this ls done only because significant advances in the study of morale-building have been made in those areas. Treatment of the Problem. In chapter rI are given def1n!t1ons ot morale as they have been developed in various '1 fields of endeavor. An effort has been made to give briefly the psychology underlying morale. Also set forth in this chpater are certain essentials tor high group morale and a discussion of techniques and devices for achieving it. Chapter :rII is a study ot the problems having to do with the promotion of student morale. Chapter IV 1a a consideration of common conditions which are 1n1m1cal to good teacher morale, with an emphasis on the role of the administrator in the correction of such conditions. Promotion of commun- lty morale through school-community interaction is taken up in chapter v. Chapter VI is a study of morale-measuring methods. A suggested test for measuring teacher morale is also presented in this chapter. Sources of In.f'ormat1on. Sources of intorm.a.t1on tor this study have been cont"ined to: 1. Pertinent literature in the fields of morale building and attitude measurement. 2. The experiences or this writer. CHAP'l'ER II MORALE AND I'l'S ACHIEVEMENT America is not anything 11' it consists of each of us. rt is something only it it consists of ~ ot us--and it can consist of all of us only as our spirits are banded together in a common enterpr1se.--Woodrow Wilson. In writing of the importance of morale, Pope, as Chairman of the Committee for National Morale in World War II said: Morale wins wars, solves crises, is an indispensable condition ot a vigorous national lite and equally essential to the maximum achievement of the 1nd1v1dual.l In war it is a well known fact that the outnumbered, ill-equipped, or even outmaneuvered army may triumph if their morale is markedly superior. The triumphant armies of Joari of A~~ found their strength in a morale of maximum intensity. In the .American Revolution, Valley Forge was largely a victory ot morale. The recent war demonstrated, even more forcibly, the tremendous power which morale may have. The British re­ covery after Dunkirk was a triumph of such magnitude that even the Germ.ans, expert as they were 1n psychological 1Arthur Upham Pope, •The I.m.portance of Morale," The Journal ot Educational Sociologx, XV (December, 1941), P• 195. 6 warfare, could not conceive it. The magn1f1eent resistance of Russia to the powerful German war machine was 1n no small part due to the unwaivering morale ot the Russian people. Again, the unity of purpose witnessed in Holland during the German invasion can be accounted tor only by morale of the highest degree. On the other hand, the col­ lapse of France was, as every one knows, a morale collapse. '!'he greatest secret weapon which the Germans had during the war was their thorough and comprehensive use ot psychological factors. The tact that they made no effort to keep 1t secret turned out to be one of the best methods of concealing it. The last shot of the First World War had hardly been tired before the Germans began a systematic study to determine why they were defeated. This revealed to them that their morale and propaganda service had not sufficiently penetrated the home front. Psychological re­ sources had net been tul1y mobilized and exploited. Evidently the German High Command was convinced that morale and propaganda torces would play no sma11 part 1n the next war, and psychological preparation began almost at once. Thus, when the Second World War began, the German people were prepared for it 1n a way never before seen in history. Lacking their great morale and propaganda prep­ aration they could never have gone as tar as they did. 7 DEFINITIONS OF MORAU!! Getting a task accomplished successfully depends, among other things, upon the skill of the person or group working at the task. ait skill 1n itself is not enough to bring the utmost out ot the group or out ot the individual. 'l'h.ere is required that something else which is called morale. Webster defines it as "condition as affected by, or depend­ ent upon, such moral or mental factors as zeal, spirit, hope, confidence, etc.; mental state, as of an army." 1t can be seen from this definition that morale is not a thing but a condition. The achieving or this condition is dependent upon certain mental factors which in turn are affected by pJychological, physical, and economic factors. The influence of these factors on morale will be discussed later in thia chapter. Tead,'\ in 'writing about morale tor the field ot in- dustry, has this to say about it: There is that zeal ot whole-hearted and single minded activity which makes the ditference between an organization that merely operates and one that cooperates. That quality, that attitude and spirit, are what we mean by morale.2 Again he says: Morale is that attitude which results from the mobilizing ot energy, interest and 1n1t1ative in 2ordway Tead, Buman Nature and Management, p. 173. 8 the enthusiastic and effective pursuit ot a group's purposes.3 As implied in the tirst ot Tead's det1n1tiona, morale 1s more than a condition of interest. It is pos­ sible tor each worker in a group to be intensely interested 1n his part ot the work, and still have a group morale that is miserably low. The morale factor begins to develop onl.7 as the individual !a interested in his relation to the organization. An effective getting together ot human wills, and the development of a singleness ot purpose, which is the purpose ot the organization, are necessary tor cultivating high morale. Where such getting together ot human wills baa taken place, the working power ot the organization is considerable greater than the sum of the working powers ot an equal number ot individuals which have not been so involved.