Beauty Is in the Eye of the Superintendent

By Evan J. Albright

In the 1920s, the Cape Cod town of Falmouth was ahead of its time. The school district had begun implementing "education reform" a half century before the term was ever invented..

Leading the charge for Falmouth schools was the district's progressive superintendent, Paul Dillingham. At a summer conference of Cape Cod school superintendents in 1925, Dillingham was clearly the youngest and, at least according to one observer, the "nattiest" dresser.

He also offered the most radical proposal for improving Falmouth schools: hire ugly teachers.

"No more 'flapper' teachers in my schools," Dillingham said. "I've tried them out patiently enough, but found them sadly wanting. I have several vacancies in the Falmouth district this year, but I'm looking for some good homely teachers to fill them, the homelier the better."

Young American women during the Roaring '20s were declaring their independence by adopting the so-called "flapper" dress and lifestyle. A flapper could be identified by her outfit - the long, shapeless and sleeveless dress with a hem that ended provocatively just above the knee. Underneath it, the flapper wore next to nothing - no petticoat and no brassiere, and silk stockings which matched the natural color of her legs. Their faces were heavily made up and their hair was bobbed.

Flappers danced to jazz and smoked cigarettes. Prohibition gave them no inhibition about drinking alcoholic beverages. They supposedly went to "petting parties," and as the name suggests, their lifestyle contained more than a hint of the philosophy known as "free love." The did not marry, nor did they "settle down." Even though it was a man's world, flappers held jobs. And one of the most common means of employment open to women was teaching.

"The flapper's extreme style in dress, her cigarette and her petting parties cannot but compromise discipline," Dillingham said. "The flapper teacher is a definite problem in our school system. The normal school (a teachers college in Hyannis, housed in what is today home of Barnstable Town Hall) might correct the tendency of the high school graduate during her teacher training but does not.

"The flapper's technique may be better because newer, but the old-fashioned schoolma'am is rapidly acquiring the newer methods in the summer school. I expect to find some excellent teachers during our conference, but believe me they will be only homely ones.

"The boy or girl in our high school cannot but learn that the teacher has been out at unconventional hours, at unconventional places and has acted in an unconventional manner. Sometimes it happens that pupils and teachers meet in the same questionable dance pavilion. Surely that teacher cannot return to her class work the next day without having lost some her respect, without having compromised her efforts in no small degree."

What Dillingham failed to realize was that the flapper was simply a product of the times. "We are the Younger Generation," wrote Ellen Welles Page, a self-described flapper, in an essay entitled "A Flapper's Appeal to Parents" published in 1922. "The war (World War I) tore away our spiritual foundations and challenged our faith. We are struggling to regain our equilibrium. The times have made us older and more experienced than you were at our age. It must be so with each succeeding generation if it is to keep pace with the rapidly advancing and mighty tide of civilization. Help us to put our knowledge to the best advantage. Work with us! That is the way! Outlets for this surplus knowledge and energy must be opened. Give us a helping hand."

Superintendent Dillingham was not listening. "To my mind the old proverb of 'Handsome is as handsome does' holds in the case of the comparison of teachers," he said. "How often the child will worship her old-maid teacher and think her the most lovely and lovable character. It is the teacher with the personality that is worthwhile, with or without good looks. Personally I prefer the teacher without the good looks, because she will have fewer distractions and more time to cultivate personality."

Good teachers did not have to be ugly, Superintendent Dillingham admitted. They could be old, he said, although the supply of women with those qualifications was limited. "There are not enough middle-aged women who remain in the teaching profession. Too many marry young. Their gain is education's loss. I wish that it might be made more profitable for the good teacher to remain at her work after the next several years of rich experience which she usually gains before quitting for the married state."

Just in case there not enough ugly or older women available to work as teachers, Dillingham had come up with a third, more desperate solution to his teacher shortage. If push came to shove he could just hire men.

© 1999 Mystery Lane Press

rev. 4/17/01