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William Jansen |
William Jansen Superintendent of Schools, New York City (1947-1958)
Edited by Peter Y. Chou |
Out of the Blue— an Email Request from a Swiss Stranger:
Searching for William Jansen: On Nov. 18, I went to the South Stacks in the basement of Stanford Green Library where they keep the back issues of Time Magazine (051.T583). There I found the October 19, 1953 issue of Time: Superintendent Jansen: For New York's melting pot, a schoolroom catalyst. The cover story was featured in the Education Section (pp. 72-74, 77-78, 80). I was hoping to find a birth year on Jansen in the article, but there was none. There was a nice photo on page 74 with the caption— "Superintendent & Mrs. Jansen: With compassion and delicate balance". Here's an excerpt from the write-up in Time: Dedicated Endeavor. Few men symbolize the system as well as Superintendent Bill Jansen, who has stood steadily, even stolidly at its helm since 1947. Like many of his students and many of his teachers, he is the son of an immigrant himself. His father, a Danish cabinetmaker from Kiel settled in The Bronx, toiled diligently at his exacting trade (Jansen's Park Avenue apartment boasts a collection of intricately inlaid tables fitted by his father's hands), endured hard times and planned better lives for his children. Jansen, a big, strong boy, knew what he wanted to do soon after he entered Grammar School No. 60 in The Bronx. He liked school. He decided to stay there. New York's first daytime high schools had been completed for only three years when he finished grammar school in 1900. He went to Morris High School. He went on to Columbia University's Teachers College, the academic nest in which John Dewey hatched his theories of progressive education (theories which the New York school system began adopting after World War I and from which Middle-of-the-Roader Jansen still cautiously borrows today). He went back to the public schools as a teacher, married a fellow teacher— a vivacious physical education instructor named Frances Allan— and in 45 years of ambitious and dedicated endeavor has risen to the top of the system's intricate hierarchy. It took Mayor Bill O'Dwyer ten long months to get around to giving Bill Jansen his blessing to run the schools back in 1947— ten months in which the Board of Education scoured the whole country to find a superintendent from another city. This executive reluctance— something which has done the superintendent no harm at all in the years since O'Dwyer tumbled from public esteem— was understandable enough. So was O'Dwyer's final decision. Jansen has all the basic virtures. He is a strong, calm, kindly man, able to soak up work like a sponge, make endless speeches, and never offend anyone. He understands the school system, its people, its aspirations. He is not a crusader, a scholar or a showman. He still likes and understands children. Delicate Balances. Bill Jansen fits his job well, for his most trying task is that of preserving a delicate and highly disconcerting series of political balances. By an unwritten law of New York politics, the mayor's Board of Education— to which Jansen answers— consists of three Protestants, three Catholics and three Jews (at present also, one of the nine is a Negro). The schools cannot afford to risk the veto of any group. In picking his own board of superintendents— the general staff which executes his commands— Lutheran Jansen likewise keeps a balance of 3 Protestants, 3 Catholics and 3 Jews. Despite this rigid top hamper, the innate cumbersomeness of the school system, and the enormous tasks to which it has addressed itself, Jansen feels well justified in pointing with modest pride to dozens of its accomplishments. He makes no apologies for its elephantine proportions. "New York," he says simply, "is a fact. Your can't break it into smaller cities." New York's very bigness has enabled it to accomplish near-miracles of specialization in courses of study. Its adult education classes (currently attended by 75,000 grownups) offer everything from ceramics to amateur magic. Its four special high schools, open only to elite students who qualify by stringent entrance exams, are educational show places which offer high-level training for aspiring engineers, chemists, biologists, physicians, musicians and artists. Its trade and vocational schools offer a more dazzling variety of study. One whole high school is devoted to instructing would-be garment workers, another turns out printers, another automobile mechanics. A meat merchandising course produces embryo butchers, a catering course trains embryo cooks. More Searches: The reference librarian at Stanford told me that there are no books on "American Educators" or "Famous New Yorkers". While I was searching for the Time magazine article, she tracked down the NY Times Obituary on William Jansen online because Stanford subscribes to the ProQuest database service. I'm documenting the search steps below for those who have access to this service. The Stanford Library Databases are listed alphabetically. Clicking the New York Times Historical (1851-2001) fulltext link, a ProQuest Advance Search Page appears. Typing "William Jansen" and died in the search boxes gave 14 results, the last being "Dr. Jansen Dead; Led City Schools", NY Times Obituary: February 23, 1968, p. 30. Unfortunately, this is a PDF file, so can't be copied & pasted here. Who's Who in America volumes are located on the second floor of Stanford's Green Library (E663.W5612). Browsing for William Jansen in these volumes, I found entries in Volume 25 (1948-1949), Volume 30 (1958-1959), and Volume 31 (1960-1961). Here at last is the bio data on William Jansen, not on the Web or Internet, but in a hard cover reference work that should be available in university libraries. Jansen, William, educator; b. New York, N.Y., Nov. 16, 1887; s. John and Mary (Siemon) J.; B.S.; Teachers Coll., Columbia, 1908, A.M., 1913, Ed.D., 1940; LL.D., Union Coll., June 8, 1947; m. Frances Allan, June 30, 1925; 1 son, William Allan. Teacher pub. sch., New York, 1910-14, Jr. H.S., 1914-19, asst. to prin., 1920-22; prin. pub. sch., 1922-27; asst. dir. in bur. of reference, research and statistics, Bd. of Edn., New York, N.Y., 1927-30; prin. assigned to supt. of schs., 1930-35; asst. supt. since 1935, assigned as chief administrative aide to supt. of schs. to Aug 31, 1947; supt. of schos. City of New York since Sept. 1, 1947; lecturer sch. of edn. New York Univ., 1946-47. Coordinator in Met. Sch. Study Council New York, N.Y. since Oct. 1946. Recipient 30-yr service badge for service to scouting, 1946... Author: (with others) series Instructional Tests, 1934; (with Nellie B. Allen) Textbook series, How We Live, 1936-38; (with Isaac Bildersee & Eugene Colligan) Modern Spelling Method, 1934-38; The Social Agencies and Public Education in New York City, 1940; author of articles in bull. of N.Y. Soc. for Exptl. Study of Edu., 1930-42. Contbr. to various ednl. publs.; editor bulls. of N.Y. Soc. for Exptl. Study of Edu., 1930-36. Home: 1165 Park Av., New York 28. Office: 110 Livingston St., Brooklyn 2, N.Y. (Who's Who in America, Vol. 25, 1948-1949, p. 1254).
Additions to Later Editions of Who's Who in America:
Web Links to William Jansen:
Afterthoughts
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