MAY, 1931 ip I ieee = — > S = S gill TI's “ lie 78 | — a i the JOURNAL ¢ the NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION <({ i) i 4 =e L_] ih rte hi = 7 t_] A G jw Nita : 5. Phased nt { 4 Se —_—— — i) om | L__{} | Twenty-five Years of Prophetic Achievement , \ | Citizenship in the Junior _ School—A. Helen Anderson Letters to Byrd ; ; Children’s Books of 1930 The Teachers College Scans Its Press—C lara .. Ewalt In Research of a Chair , A Better World Thru Education ; Trails of the High Sierras—Photo Feature. Opportunities in Teaching Young Children— Margaret fe ‘ook Holme s New Schools in Old Mexico—Marvin Summers Pittman His First Birthday—Randall J. Condon Remedial Cases in Reading—William S. Gray The Law of Good Health—Classroom Poster Topics for Class Study in Rural Schools Liquor’s International Balance Sheet The freedom of the Air—Paul Hutchinson Presidents of 1931 Senior Classes in Teacher Training Institutions— Photograph Feature : Schools That Are Prophecies Office of Education The Nationwide School Printing Project Everyday Problems of the Everyday Child— Douglas . 1. Thom Current School Legislation—W illiam G. Carr : Horace Mann and Beverage Alcohol—Classroom Poster r Two-Bits—Monica Krawczyk ; ‘ A County School System Meets an Emergency—E. 5. Richardson Vitalized Group Study and Faculty _— Recent Verse for Children Ryral School Superintendents—Statistics Master Builders of Our Profession Builders of Our Profession Notes and Announcements a Wi: "IK ip, Sj 1X ___} aE MONTHLY, EXCEPT JULY, AUGUST, AND SEPTEMBER, BY THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1201 SIX- TEENTH STREET NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C. ENTERED AS SECOND- CLASS MATTER OCTOBER 28, 1920, AT THE POSTOFFICE AT WASHINGTON, D. C.,. UNDER THE ACT OF AUGUST 24, 1912. ACCEPTANCE FOR MAILING AT SPECIAL RATE OF POSTAGE PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 1103, ACT OF OCTOBER 3, 1917, AUTHORIZED JANUARY 26, 1921. Oils it WITS WIT) TT. TI wy TT aa. Mmmeur ANNOUNCING General Business Science PART Ill by Lloyd L. Jones, B. B. A., A. B., Cleveland, Ohio, and James L. Holtsclaw, A. B., Director of Commercial Education, Detroit, Michigan Parts I and II of General Business Science (Jones & Bertschi) are bringing a new type of business education to thousands of students The main objective of General Business Science, Part III, is to give every student a clear understanding of the financial transactions of the home and business and a simplified system of recording these transactions. No bookkeeping rules to be learned. No attempt to train bookkeepers. The treatment is decidedly original, non-technical and yet strictly practical. A one-semester course, filled with busy work of real life value to every student. General Business Science, Part III Projects in Business Science, Part III____ 1.00 The Gregg Publishing Company New York Chicago Boston San Francisco Toronto London Sydney For Primary Grades NATURE ACTIVITY READERS By PAUL GREY EDWARDS Supervisor of Science, Chicago Public Schools and JAMES WOODWARD SHERMAN Author of ‘‘Out in the Kitchen,” “The Gay Kitchen,” Lavishly illustrated in color BOOK I - OUTDOOR LAND - ° BOOK Il THE OUTDOOR PLAYHOUSE /76c BOOK Ill . THE OUTDOOR WORLD - 88c For Grades 1, 11, and 111 respectively. A Series Planned: to meet the usual courses of study. to suggest abundant and continuing activities in nature-study and ele- mentary science. A Series Based Upon: examination and comparison of all State courses of study and of many city courses of study. modern activity methods, attractively presented and carefully graded. a lively and animated approach, with numerous and beautiful illustrations the best means of awakening real child- interest. ' LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY 34 Beacon Street 221 East Twentieth Street Boston Chicago. WINSTON W HICH of these basal series will you be using in September? All of them merit consideration READING ARITHMETIC ENGLISH THE NEW THE TRIANGLE ARITHMETICS Brueckner— Anderson— Banting— Merton WINSTON READERS Primer to Third Reader, inclusive. Manuals and complete accessory ENGLISH FOR USE A 3-book and a 6-book edition for Published in both a 3-book edition and a 6-book Grades 3 to 8. Manuals. edition for Grades 3 to 8. Answers optional. material. HISTOR Y If you are not already using . THE READING HOUR h “del 4 1] Stories of American Pioneers. Gr. 3 New Trails............ cr.4 Umese widely accepted texts let — Hero Tales from History. .Gr. 4-5 Treasure Trove........... G.5 wus acquaint you with them. ©% Bedasing & Euope Tho Bechains Road. | “Se ° Send for the Winston Catalog. — The Making of Our Country Gr. 7-8 Wings of Adventure........Gr.8 Jt contains complete infor- GEOGRAPHY THE NEW mation about all series and SILENT READERS A Child Activity Series titles (Pre-Primer to Plane Home Folks.............. Gr. 3-4 Geometry) and their prices. World Folks..............Gr. 3-4 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY Pre-Primer: Tots and Toys to It will help you solve your Book I Peoples and Countries Gr.5-6 Book VIII: The Round-Up, inclu- Book II Countries, Regions sive. Manuals. textbook problems. a”! Gr. 7-8 THE JOHN C.WINSTON COMPANY ac DP RS WINSTON BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA 2) CHICAGO ATLANTA DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO FOR TEXTBOOKS — = ff «4s a8 6S bee OS Ure lUCUrhAHlUCUCUTLHUC MHCULTOUCUCUrPE UL SUlUC SMC tl CO Editorial for May, 1931 Twenty-five Years of Prophetic Achievement MERICA IS on the eve of a great A future. The foundations for that future have been laid in the homes, in the schools, in the churches, and on the playfields. Happiness is the very soul of a noble home life. The free, creative spirit and selfimposed responsi- bility which are associated with play are great resources of the schools. The wise church cherishes beauty—beauty of spirit, of manner, of purpose, of music, of language, of architecture, and of na- ture. Play, therefore, is supremely im- portant in the future of American life. It is one of the things that can help to keep life sweet and worth living amid all the welter, noise, and dirt of cities; amid the maze of mechanized industry and the subordination and rush that seem to go with our increasingly larger units of production, distribution, and management. On the playfields, in community drama, in the planning of beautiful cities and countrysides, in the immeasurable resources of noncommercialized recrea- tion, we shall find the motivating power for the nation of tomorrow. Leisure is upon us and our wise use of it will do as much to determine the national char- acter during the next century as the de- velopment of the common school has done during the past century. How fortunate it is, therefore, that the seeds have been sown, that there have been men and women among us who, like Johnny Appleseed of frontier days, have gone on ahead of the main procession to plant the seed which shall grow to gladden the hearts of those who are now establishing themselves on this new frontier of leisure. Just as the early settlers of Ohio and Indiana owed a vast debt to Johnny Appleseed who had started the fruit trees a generation ahead of them, so America owes a priceless debt to the men and women who in 1906 organized the recreational forces of America into a group that has been carrying on thru the years for the im- provement of our common life. What the establishment of the National Edu- cation Association in Philadelphia in 1857 meant to the educational life of the nation the organization of the recreation leaders in 1906 has meant to that larger education which we associate with lei- sure. The purpose of the recreation lead- ers is admirably stated in the letterhead of the Association: That everybody in America, young or old, shall have an op- portunity to find the best and most satis- fying use of leisure time. Born in dreams of such prophetic spirits as Luther H. Gulick, Jacob Riis, Blank-Stoller, Inc. im LEE, president of the National Recrea- tion Association and philosopher movement for creative recreation. of the Jane Addams, and Joseph Lee, the rec- reation movement received at the White House just 25 years ago in April the blessing of that dauntless and uncon- querable spirit who loved play as per- haps no other American president— Theodore Roosevelt. Those who are fa- miliar with the lives and writings of these founding spirits appreciate the timber of which the recreation movement in America has been builded. Luther H. Gulick, with his love of youth, with his appreciation of the outofdoors, and with a heart big enough to love all races and creeds and kinds, laid his bit upon the altar. Jacob Riis was close to human need and aspiration. He understood the immense resources and the folk games and plays of peoples from the corners of the earth. He knew that play is a mighty force. Jane Addams, immortalized by her pioneering social service described in “Twenty Years at Hull House,” had been close enough to the poor and the weak and the unfortunate to know that play offers one of the open doors to a hap- pier situation. Joseph Lee, the quiet philosopher who has been the president of the National Recreation Association [147 ] since 190, understood the manysided contribution which play makes to the life of an individual or a nation. He saw clearly, as L. P. Jacks has seen, that it is under the warm motivation of play im- pulses that the highest creative skills are incubated and born; that these skills have a value not only in the play life but that they carry over into what we customarily consider the more serious and difficult aspects of life—that they carry over into home life, into civic en- terprises, into industrial activities, and into the very foundations of character. President Roosevelt must have had a peculiar satisfaction in receiving such a group at the White House and in wish- ing them well in the enterprise which they proposed: That everybody in America, young or old, shall have an opportunity to find the best and most satisfying use of leisure time. This organization has worked in season and out of season for the development of recreation, primarily under the auspices of local governments. It has had the feeling that a force so vital to our life as recreation should not be left to chance or the exploitation of persons who would subordinate the human values to money making. For 25 years the National Recreation Association has been pouring into the stream of American life the vital services of its growing membership aiid its expert headquarters staff. It has developed a group of able field secretaries who, at the request of communities, help to plan and establish recreation systems and to make existing programs more effective. It has organized and trained specialists in physical education, park recreation, community music, community drama, activities for women and girls, recrea- tion in real estate subdivisions, play in- stitutions, and recreation for colored peo- ple. It has developed thru research and publication a literature of leisure. Its volumes on parks, community drama, and play areas are invaluable in their fields. The Association answers a steady stream of letters thru its Correspondence and Consultation Bureau. This constant contact with thousands of eager local workers is helping to start new centers of interest and enterprise. The National Recreation Association maintains a Na- tional Recreation School giving a nine- months graduate course in recreation leadership. This school, with its member- ship of fifty, is small enough to keep alive the friendly, pioneering spirit. 148 THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION The National Recreation Association now has a membership of 14,538 in nearly a thousand communities. It has reached a stage of growth which cor- responds to the position of the National Education Association in 1917. Not- withstanding its glorious history the great years lie ahead. The membership may be expected to go up and up and up to keep pace with the increasing need in the United States. About a century ago when the great educational leader, Horace Mann, came upon the scene of his farreaching service, the working week was approximately 100 hours in length. Between then and now this period has been gradually shortened to approxi- mately 50 hours per week, an average yearly reduction of 30 minutes. It is rea- sonable to suppose that with the power- ful instruments of modern science and industry the reduction of hand labor will go forward even more rapidly dur- ing the years ahead and that we shall be able to reduce the working week by at least one hour a year. This would mean the forty-hour week by 1940, the thirty- hour week by 1950, and the twenty-hour week by 1960. This increasing leisuremay become a national resource of incalcu- lable proportions or it may lead the way toward national decay and destruction. Whether society shall take the one road or the other will depend primarily upon our attitude toward the use of leisure; will depend upon the way we run our homes and our schools and our commu- nities; will depend upon our provisions for playfields and parks and summer camps; will depend upon the character and spirit of the leadership which comes into charge of this significant phase of our life. The foundations have been laid. In 1906 forty-one cities had organized playgrounds. Nearly a thousand com- munities now maintain public recreation. In 1906 an acre of play space was thought sufficient for a thousand or 1500 children. Today the best school practise demands a minimum of seven and one- How S. BraucHeEr, secretary of the Na- tional Recreation Association since 1909. half acres for an elementary school, ten acres for a junior high school, and fifteen acres for a senior high school. Careful city planning works out a close correla- tion between the school areas and the park areas of the city. In 1908 the Na- tional Recreation Association had one field secretary loaned by the Russell Sage Foundation. Today it has 14 field secre- taries. In 1906 it had 408 members; to- day 14,538 members. In 1906 it had an income of less than a thousand dollars; today nearly half a million. In 1906 our cities spent less than a million dollars PEAK TO US OF PLEASURE—Then a S hermit, who visited the city once a year, came forth and said: Speak to us of Pleasure. And he answered, saying: Pleasure is a freedom-song, But it is not freedom. It is the blossoming of your desires, But it is not their fruit. | It is a depth calling unto a height, But it is not the deep nor the high. It is the caged taking wing, But it is not space encompassed. Ay, in very truth, pleasure is a freedom- song. And I fain would have you sing it with fuliness of heart; yet I would not have you lose your hearts in the singing. May, 1931 for playground operation; today they spend approximately $25,000,000. The parks were looked upon as spaces to be preserved for passive recreation and rest; today they have tennis courts, wading pools, golf courses, and other provisions for those who wish active play. By 1909 there were fewer than 4000 recreation leaders. Today there are 23,000. In 1906 expenditures for play were looked upon as expenditures for schools had been a century earlier, as objects of charity. Today recreation has its recognized place among the activities supported by all the people thru taxation. In 1906 the play movement stood largely by itself. Today it is working hand in hand with the schools, parks, and the public commis- sions in our various cities and states. The one organization that has done most to bring this about is now known as the National Recreation Association. Since 1910 it has been under the presidency of Joseph Lee. Since 1909 it has been under the secretaryship of Howard S. Braucher whose life has meant to the recreation movement what the life of J. W. Crabtree has meant to the profes- sional movement among teachers. To de- scribe these 25 years of achievement as prophetic is merely to apply the one term that accurately describes a move- ment which has been laying foundations, discovering leaders, creating literature, and pointing the way toward the main development which lies ahead. It was highly fitting that on April 11, one day before the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the National Recreation Association, President Hoover, also a great lover of childhood and of the play spirit, should receive at the White House, as Roosevelt had done before him, the men and women who are carrying on this creative, prophetic enterprise for the en- richment of life—Joy Elmer Morgan. Some of your youth seek pleasure as if it were all, and they are judged and re- buked. I would not judge nor rebuke them. I would have them seek. For they shall find pleasure, but not her alone; Seven are her sisters, and the least of them is more beautiful than pleasure. Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found a treasure? And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs com- mitted in drunkenness. But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement. Knopf, Inc., authorized publishers. ] | They should remember their pleasures with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer. Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted. And there are among you those who are neither young to seek nor old to re- member; And in their fear of seeking and re- membering they shun all pleasures, lest they neglect the spirit or offend against it. But even in their foregoing is their pleasure. [Reprinted from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, by and with permission of and special arrangement with Alfred A. Character Education Citizenship in the Junior High School A. HELEN ANDERSON Supervisor of Publications, Denver Public Schools HAT PROGRESS has been made \X/ by the junior-high-school or- ganization in the direction of citizenship—that distant Mecca glitter- ing on the educational horizon toward the attainment of which methods, with- out number, have been formulated, tech- nics developed, and devices pursued? Home-room and club programs are built upon its theme; student councils are organized to provide experience with its responsibilities; activities are planned to stimulate an appreciation of this necessary attribute of a functioning de- mocracy; and awards—symbols, letters, gold pins, what you will—are presented, in an atmosphere of pomp and cere- mony, wherever the school can find tangible evidence of approved attitudes and practises in this liberally defined field we call citizenship. To what end? “All we heard for a week was citizenship, citizenship, citi- zenship. In all our discussions we talked about it—and agreed—but down in our hearts we keep our own ideas about it.” This remark from a 9A student officer. Hence the question: To what end? Per- haps: What price, citizenship? The diaries kept by a selected group of junior-high-school teachers during the week in which a survey of character education in the Denver schools was made reveal significant facts; for in- stance, that of the 472 incidents de- scribed, 256, or 54 percent, grew out of situations peculiar to the junior-high- school organization, thereby proving rather conclusively that the junior high school has not only at least doubled the work for character education, which might have existed in the traditional seventh and eighth grades and the freshman year of high school, but that this type of school organization is, in itself, a formal direct approach to char- acter education. However, a story more applicable to the question of results in the work for citizenship is told in the interviews held with various student leaders in the junior high school. The doubling in quantity of character-build- ing situations, the doubled effort on the part of the teacher in educating for character, the creation of a school or- ganization whose aim seems to be the development of character, are signifi- cant facts; but they do not answer cer- tain questions. Does the mere doubling, in quantity,,of character-building situa- tions guarantee a proportionate growth F THERE WERE no education there would be no business. As important as business may be to learning, there could be little business, if any, were it not for education. The cave- man feels no need of an elec- tric refrigerator. But lift him up, better him, inspire in him the first feeble spark of curi- osity, send him to school. When he emerges he will want an ever-increasing number of things. As he seeks to improve himself, the marts of the busi- ness world will expand. Most costly of all things in the world is ignorance.—President Wil- lis A. Sutton. in the character of the child? What effect does the junior-high-school organi- zation have on the thinking of the child? Does the pupil grow as a result of his adjustment to the organization, or is his adjustment a matter of superficial con- formity, of an expedient acquiescence? The interviews mentioned have some- thing to say in answer to these ques- tions, while the diaries are, of necessity, silent on the subject. It will be recalled that in addition to the survey made, in diary form, by a selected group of teachers, an intensive study was con- ducted by the graduate student who participated in the work of the central committee. The technic of the standard- ized interview was employed. One junior high school was chosen for intensive study and a selected group of pupils in this school, for the most part student leaders, was interviewed. Two hundredand sixty-five specific answers were recorded. [Questions illustrative of those used in the interviews were included in the first article of this series in December. ] All the questions have to do, of course, with school policy; and most of them were framed in such a way that the pupil must commit himself in some { 149] way with regard to that policy, if only in such answers as, “Yes, we have a fine homeroom spirit,” “The student councils are great,” or “We all think good citizenship very important.” It was hoped, of course, that the reactions of the pupils would be more specific than general and that a few of the children, at least, since they were a select group, would give detailed opinions. Now the careless thinker might anticipate some heresy from a recalcitrant minority; he would expect a few apathetic spirits and assume, rather naturally, that the girls interviewed would be comparatively docile and that any belligerent expres- sion would probably come from the boys. In the light of any such precon- ceived ideas the results of the inter- views become increasingly interesting. Of the 265 answers catalogued 238 expressed a ‘definite opinion with re- gard to the policy and organization of the school. One hundred and twenty-nine of the 238 answers which involved opinion were positive in their nature and 109 were negative. By positive is meant answers which indicated an _ indorse- ment of the procedures of the school; by negative, those answers which indi- cated a disapproval of the school’s policy or a questioning of its effective- ness. Thus a majority—a comfortable one, however—wholeheartedly agreed with the program of the school and its administration. Fifty-five percent of the answers re- corded for the boys was positive and 45 percent was negative; 53 percent of the answers recorded for the girls was positive and 47 percent was nega- tive. Thus an almost fifty-fifty division of opinion is indicated so far as boys and girls are concerned and any idea of sex differences in indorsement of school procedures must be promptly dispeled. The figures given and the candor of the answers of these pupils might be the source of a good deal of dismay—even something of a rude jolt—to an indi- vidual who, having created a machine beautiful to look upon, has blissfully assumed that he could drive it smoothly along, a brilliant float in a parading pageant of pedagogical paraphernalia accompanied by the plaudits of a curb- 150 THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAI stoned laity and the rah-rah hoo-rah’s of American school spirit. A study of some of the answers and comments made during these interviews with the pupils of a selected junior high school, together with some analysis of the question, “What is citizenship?” should serve to quiet the fears of those persons to whom anything but an obei- sant submission is suggestive of riot and sedition. Perhaps successful teaching for citi- zenship is indicated by the presence of disagreement and questioning. Question: “Is there danger of having too many laws?” Answers: “Yes, there is danger that we may have too many laws and that the students will get disgusted and quit trying to observe them.” “It is better to get the children to do things without laws—just have it understood that things are to be done in certain ways.” Question: “What do you think of prizes and awards ?” Answers: “Never anything comes up but the Americans jump for the prizes. That’s what’s in back of our use of them here. If it weren’t for prizes there wouldn’t be much in- terest.” “We should be interested in school spirit. If you once get the prize idea you go out into the world thinking that somebody ought to give you a prize whenever you do anything well—when the real reward is in doing the work well for its own sake.” “They should give prizes to get you interested, so you will get the habit of doing things and get the experience and fun of doing them.” “Awards are a good thing. They show you, thru life, the evidence of something you have accom- plished.” “I disagree. I think the students work just for the awards.” Question: “Do some of the homerooms get so far down that they give up hope of making good?” Answers: “There are no homerooms like that.” “I have been in a homeroom like that. It all depends upon the teacher—whether she urges you to make good.” Question: “What do you think of the coun- cils ?” Answers: “Some of them are useful but we don’t need so many.” “The councils develop responsibility.” “The first few officers—presi- dents, vice-presidents, and _ secretaries—are proud of their offices and are proud to be on councils; but deputies are not proud to be on them because of the pehalties they have to en- force. There are too many deputies.” “You can see that on election day the students don’t want to be elected to councils.” “The councils give a chance to the fellows who don’t get other offices.” Question: “Which do you consider more im- portant—scholarship or citizenship?” Answers: “Scholarship and citizenship go together.” “You can make an ‘A’ in scholar- ship and a ‘C’ in citizenship.” “I think a student attaches more importance to his own scholarship but that others think more of citizenship. A ‘D’ in citizenship disqualifies you for office.” “I think that the students think more about scholarship. Citizenship will come if you are made of good stuff.” . EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Question: “Can you say too much about citizenship ?” Answers: “You can run anything into the ground.” “After our class acted up when the HECITIZEN’S PART— I he pub- lic school is the greatest common service which citizens maintain for themselves. It is the finest example of efficiently managed business in all his- tory. How rarely does one hear of graft or corruption in con- nection with this enterprise which occupies the full work- ing time of nearly one in four of our vast population. It is the privilege of the citizen to see that this enterprise is kept in charge of officers blessed with integrity, vision, courage, and energy. It is his privilege to see that financial support is ade- quate to meet the huge and in- creasing demands for school service. [Four dollars for crime to every dollar for edu- cation is not wholesome]. It is the citizen’s privilege to see that community influences which surround the child do not tear down health or char- acter. It is his high personal privilege to see that his own child comes to school day by day in physical, emotional, and mental condition to profit by what the school has to offer.— Joy Elmer Morgan. teacher was out of the room, citizenship was talked about for a week—and I got kind of disgusted.” “It is a good idea to talk about citizenship if it isn’t a lecture. The students don’t like that.” Question: “How does the class organization work when the teacher is out?” Answers: “I am president of a homeroom and if there is anything I hate it is to tell the boys to keep quiet. It is not fair for the teacher to ask the president to do this. The class should take care of itself.” “If there is definite work most classes will take care of themselves.” “There are some people in all classes who think they are privileged charac- ters.” “The teacher who allows you freedom when she is in the room gets the best order when she goes out. Things go on about as usual.” Question: “Tell me about your clubs. What do you do and how do you like them?” Answers: “We like them when we can select our own.” “Any boy or girl ought to know already what they taught in the Health and Personal Appearance Club.” “The Magazine Club was no help to me.” “It was to me. I learned how to discriminate between the good and bad magazines.” May, 1931 Question: “Are there some pupils in your homerooms who do not take part in your discussions and activities?” Answers: “I do all I can to get everyone in my homeroom interested but there are many who are not interested, who just sit back and let others talk. I ask what they think and they say, ‘I don’t know.’” “Most everyone discusses something in our homeroom. The president asks for opinions.” “If you have all boys you get better discussion.” “The students should conduct a homeroom for their own good and not for the teacher.” “Our home- room teacher doesn’t speak often but when she does she speaks on the level of the pupils. We get good discussion.” “In our homeroom, whenever a question is asked by the teacher that she doesn’t want to talk about, she says, ‘Sit down and don’t argue.’ It is hard to bring up a question that is not on the bulletin.” Here is neither acquiescence nor sub- mission. Unanimous approval of the junior-high-school’s intricate system of clubs and councils, homerooms,’ and discussions? No. But why should there be? A generation ago the child of eleven, twelve, or thirteen years paid homage to the educational system by either a passive obedience accompanied by the smug formula, “Yes, Miss Jones,” or an outward obedience accompanied by a constant inward plotting against the peace of the pedagogical sanctuary. A water snake for the teacher’s desk—a bag of asafetida to vie with the lilacs in the room—a mirror wherewith to send a piercing ray into the eye of teacher’s pet, the passive, obedient one—and, by all means, spitballs. Today this same child is evidently thinking. With no idea of disobedience he questions the order of things, its wis- dom and effectiveness. He knows that he may do so. He has ideas about laws and their number, about councils and offices, about the principles of citizenship, about motives for right conduct. He has learned that there is such a thing as a sympathe- tic adult listener. The child who faces the school’s prob- lems with such candid questioning will not develop into an adult follower of the school of “laissez faire.’ He is not likely to become the unintelligent voter, the kowtowing servant of things as they are, the defender of a static and stagnant civilization, the “yes man” of the eco- nomic and social organization. The important thing in this character- education problem is not that the child agree with adult procedures and poli- cies but that he think, that he be willing to state his thought and act upon it. And thinking he is—if the 265 answers to standardized queries may be taken as indications. And all because of home- room discussions. _—_— Oe See msm _—- tom a- ans On O THE CHILDREN of the United “| state a dog was the common de- nominator of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition. When school children wrote the let- ters—more than 5000 of them—which were bound and presented to Rear-Ad- miral Richard E. Byrd when headdressed the Department of Superintendence at Detroit, they showed a remarkable inter- est in the scientific aspects of the expedi- tion. But the majority of the letters ex- pressed a keen personal interest in the ex- plorer’s pet dog, Igloo. Some of the letters were written under supervision of teachers as a part of a project upon polar exploration; others were spontaneously penned by pupils and sent in upon their own initiative to the headquarters of the Department of Superintendence in Washington. There was no contest feature or prize award in- volved in the letter writing; so that the 5000 letters, bound in ten handsome volumes, and the exhibits, such as a soap- carved model of the expedition’s ship, “The City of New York,” a panorama of “Little America,’ the expedition’s base, illuminated manuscripts with scenes of the expedition’s adventures and pictures of its airplanes, form a sincere tribute to Admiral Byrd, and an index of school interest in presentday geog- raphy. Admiral Byrd is having a special book- case constructed at his home in Boston where he will keep the collection which, he said, is one of the most valued honors he has received. Following the conven- tion, at Admiral Byrd’s request, the volumes were placed on display at the Washington, D. C. headquarters of the National Geographic Society so that they might be viewed by members of the So- ciety, by members of the headquarters staff of the Nationai Education Associa- tion, and also that Admiral Byrd might inspect them further when he visitéd Washington to lecture. A girl of Palestine, Texas, wrote: I was sorry to learn of your little dog’s death [the writer is probably referring to the Eskimo dog which had to be shot in the Ant- arctic]. I understand how it feels as I have experienced losing three. I am inclosing a pic- ture of myself and my last puppy. I guess the winters seem warm here since you got back from the Pole. I saw the pic- ture “Byrd at the South Pole” and nearly froze when they had the blizzards. The picture was so interesting I went each day it was shown. I must stop now. I have to study arithmetic. Another letter, from Dalhart, Texas, is even less formal: I’m writing you this letter to show you how much we appreciate what you did for Admiral Byrd and his pet terrior, Igloo our country. I hope you had a nice trip up to the North and South Poles. Did you have a nice airplane ride? I read a book about you and it was very interesting. A girl from Du Pont, Wash., wrote: It pleases me greatly to have the honor of writing a letter to the commander of a suc- cessful expedition with his companions to the Antarctic. Our school has heard of your wonderful flight to the South Pole. This has helped our study of that polar region and has made it very interesting. We know you will succeed in yournext expedition, and extend our best wishes. Several of the children have memories of personal meetings with Byrd. A Yakima, Washington, girl recalls: It certainly made me feel good when I was appointed out of my whole school to write you a letter. Do you remember when you were in Yakima and three children and a man stopped and talked to you? Clarence Brown, Ralph Vick, and Charlotte Vick? Well, this is Charlotte writing. I sure felt proud when I showed my school teacher, Mrs. Kerr, a newspaper clipping saying when I shook hands with you. I enjoyed your lecture and picture very much, and am sending you the newspaper clipping. Often a note of unconscious humor crept into the student letters. A school- boy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wrote: We are interested in your work of explor- ing the South Pole, by which you were made famous, It must have been a difficult jour- ney. I admire your flight over the South Pole. It must have been exciting and thrilling. I read [151] Letters to Byrd in my school paper that one of your dogs was killed by an auto. His name was Unalaska. Wonders never cease. And this from a Seattle, Washington, youth: I followed your exploits in the newspapers and current events and found them very in- teresting. One of my friends said that you only had to wash your face and hands once while you were down there. If it were not so cold, I think it would be a splendid place to live. A fifth-grade girl in a Lakewood, Ohio, school wrote: I am very sorry I did not hear your lecture at the Cleveland Auditorium. Some of the children in our room heard you and told me about you. At the time of your lecture our class wrote a Christmas play called “Christ- mas in Many Lands.” We had a hard time finding an ending for it, but when we heard that you sighted the Ross Barrier on Christ- mas Day we wrote a few verses about you Perhaps you would like to know that I was an Italian dancer in the play. I wish Ff had known you when you went to the South Pole. Do you know why? I would have gone with you. One night I dreamed about you. I dreamed that I froze to the ice and you came and rescued me. Sincere hero-worship from a_ sixth- grade boy in Huntington Beach, Cali- fornia: I am just an ordinary American boy and, as every boy has an ideal, it is natural that we choose some one to be our hero. Some may choose Lindbergh, others the master Einstein, but I choose you. Your ad- ventures and exploits have been wellplanned and every bit of courage needed in your brave flights to the North and South Pole. You have set a wonderful example that all true Ameri- can boys may follow. I might never have the pleasure of talking with you but I will always remember the brave and wonderful deeds you have done. I have followed your adventures by paper and radio when you were at both the North and South Poles. In some cases the entire grade of a school would send a letter as a group, expressing the joint sentiment of the grade. One of these was a letter from the fifth-grade pupils of the Leeds Avenue school, Pleasantville, New Jersey. It dis- closes that aviators have repla ed fire- men, engineers, and policemen as boy- hood idols. We are reading your book Skyward, and all of the boys are greatly interested in aviation. All of our future aspirations to become avia- tors have been strengthened. After seeing the moving picture and magazine pictures of “Little America” in the National Geographic Magazine we made one of our own on the school sand- table. We are sending you a picture of it. We think it a very great honor to write to you. More evidence of youthful aspirations skyward is contained in this letter, writ- 152 ten in a large, flowing hand, by a Con- cord, New Hampshire, girl in the second grade: I hope you are well and happy. I hope you had a happy Christmas. I think that what you did was just fine. I have never been up in an airplane but I have seen one. I would like to go up in one very much. I hope you will like my letter. Many of the letters reveal genuine appreciation of the scientific value of the discoveries made by the expedition. High-school students of Madison, New Hampshire, wrote: Just when adventurous spirits were bewail- ing the lack of new haunts, you came forward with the wellsupported assertion that there are yet new worlds to conquer. To the geographer this means remodeled maps; to the school child, a new country to locate; but to scientists it means something very different. I mean fresh impetus in old scientific fields, material for new. The data compiled by your competent men will be invaluable in the study of glacial movement; it will add immeasurably to knowledge of Children’s Books of Tis List of children’s books of 1930 has been selected and prepared by Jessie Gay Van Cleve, who has been actively engaged in library work, especially for and with children, for more than 15 years. Miss Van Cleve graduated from the Carnegie Library School in 1916 and was appointed as a member of the staff of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Between that date and 1921, when she joined the staff of the American Library Association headquarters as publica- tion assistant, she was successively children’s librarian of the Howe Library, Hanover, N. H., the Public Library of Galveston, Texas, and Wilmington Institute Free Li- brary, Wilmington, Del. She is at present Specialist in Children’s Literature, American Library Association, at the headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. This list will give school librarians suggestions as to the new books which should be placed on their shelves. For Younger Children Besxow, E.sa. The Tale of the Wee Little Old Woman. Harper. $1.25. A charming Swedish-picture book for which the simple text has been translated. Brock, E. L. To Market! To Market! Knopf. $1.75. Delightful illustrations full of action and humor ere used in this stery of the Dutch duck and the Dutch mouse who went to Op-Zoom to. market. Bronson, W. S. Fingerfins. Macmillan. $2. This story of a little Sargasso fish is interest- ingly told in simple text and graphic illustrations. Cuaries, R. H. A Roundabout Turn. Warne. $1.50. A most amusing tale in verse of a toad who wanted to satisfy himself that the werld is round. It is illustrated with Leslie Brooke’s inimitable draw- ings. Coatswortn, BE. J. The Cat Who Went to Heaven. Macmillan. $2. The story of a Japanese artist whose compassion fer his cat wellnigh brought about his own ruin. Seldem do an artist’s illustrations so exactly suit a story as in this beek. Everson, F. McC. The Secret Cave. Doubleday, Doran. $1.50. Nine-year-old Sammy Andy had a truly exciting adventure that boys of his age will enjoy reading about. THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EpUCATION ASSOCIATION northland animal and bird life; the mystery of the long night in “Little America” will soon be revealed. When you returned to America with every man whom you took, you proved the superior- ity of modern equipments—the potentialities of airships and modern machinery. In fact, you proved to the world the accessibility of the in- accessible. There is yet another recognition due you, Commander Byrd. It is one which would not originate in a practical mind but is tremen- dously important to us—the youth of America. We are hero-worshippers from the cradle to the college, if not to the grave. Since the day your ship left America, millions of pairs of youthful eyes have followed you. Your name has been on every pair of lips in current-event hour, your picture on every bulletin board, in every ‘hero’ scrapbook. Since we must have heroes, I am glad the world produces such men as you—and Lindy—men with clean char- acters, high ideals, modest conduct, and, above all, men who are doing something for the prog- ress of the world. Budding scientific curiosity is indi- cated in a letter from a West Newbury- port, Massachusetts, boy: FLack, Marsorir. Angus and the Ducks. Doubleday, Doran. $1. A picture book which portrays the doings of a young Scotch terrier full of energy and curiosity. Grimace, Perer. The Picture Book of Ships. Mac- millan. $2. All kinds of boats and ships are pictured and described in simple text. INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN UNION. Told Under the Green Umbrella. Macmillan. $3. Acceptable versions have been used for these 26 familiar stories which range in length and difficulty oom “The Pancake” to ‘‘The Princess on the Glass i Rd Martin, M. S. The First Book. Harcourt. $2. This book has been especially designed for the very young child. It consists of photographs of familiar objects such as a crib, balls, a clock, and teddy-bear. as - gee Mrs. ExizasetH. The Painted Pig. Knopf. A very simple story revealing the life of the Mexican Indians, illustrated with many unusual pic- tures in black and white and in color. Pam, Amy. Wanda and Greta at Broby Farm. Long- mans. $2 A gay, lively story, with illustrations to match, of two little girls who live in Sweden on a farm at the water’s edge. ParrisH, ANNE. Floating Island. Harper. $3. Herein are recounted the adventures that befell a family of dolls shipwrecked on Floating Island. Delightful for reading aloud to children of eight and nine. Wiese, Kurt. Liang and Lo. Doubleday, Doran. $1.50. This story of two little Chinese boys is simple and direct and the numerous pictures in color are clear and vigorous. For Older Boys and Girls ALBERT, Epona. A Little Pilgrim to Penn’s Woods. Longmans. $2. This is a story of homemaking in the early days of our country and of the long journey from Ger- many that preceded it. Will be most enjoyed by children of eleven and over. Best, Hersert. Garram the Hunter. Doubleday, Doran. $2. The author, from an intimate knowledge of the African hill tribes, tells this story of a chief’s son. Cnase, M. E. The Silver Shell. Holt. $1.75. This will not be a popular book but many girls will catch the beauty and sincerity of the island life of young Judith Crane. Ev Cm, Campgapor. The Tale of the Warrior Lord. Translated by Merriam Sherwood. Longmans. $2.50. An interesting rendering of the adventures of that invincible warrior of Spain, commonly known as “‘The Cid.”’ May, 1931 I hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. My best Christmas present was a camera and I am sending you a picture I took myself. The picture is of our dog in front of my house. Did the thermome- ter break when you got to the South Pole? One of many samples of student verse, from New Bedford, Massachusetts: Who was so brave and courageous, With courage filled to the brim, Oh! how I'd love to have courage, And be exactly like him. The commander is the shepherd The crew is the shepherd’s herd, T’ll tell you the name of the shepherd: Rear-Admiral Richard E. Byrd! A number of the letters express sym- pathy for the loss of Igloo, the pet ter- rier, the writers evidently confusing Ig- loo with one of the Eskimo dogs that died or was killed since the expedition. Igloo is very much alive, and is still the Admiral’s favored pet. 1930 CoatswortH, E. J. The Boy with the Parrot. Mac- millan. $1.75. ‘ ’ A story of Guatemala in which the boy Sebastian journeys far to peddle the wares he carried in a pack on his back. Gray, E. J. Meggy MacIntosh. Doubleday, Doran. $2. Meggy was a brave and winsome lass and her story is told against a wellconstructed background of Scottish and early North Carolina history. Hewes, Mrs. A. D. Spice and the Devil’s Cake. Knopf. $2.50. _The scene of this welltold, dramatic story is Lisbon in the days when nations were striving to find the sea route to the East. Hype, M. P. The Singing Sword. Little. $2.50. Here is told, as a connected narrative, the story of the famous hostage, Ogier the Dane. Ketty, E. P. The Blacksmith of Vilno. Macmillan. $2.50 A tale of Poland in the year 1832 in which mys- tery and adventure are strong elements. Lue, A. A. Ood-Le-Uk. Little. $2. A story telling of life in the far north before the boats of the white man had come thru Bering Strait. McSpappen, J. W. How They Carried the Mail. Sears. $3 Information as to how this task has been per- formed thru the ages is graphically presented. Mason, ArtHur. The Wee Men of Ballywooden. Doubleday, Doran. $2.50. This contains two long tales, rich in humor and imagination, which will appeal to a wide range of ages. Meaper, S. W. Red Horse Hill. Harcourt. $2.50. A fine story of a boy, a dog, and a roan colt, all of whom respond to hardy New Hampshire life and the guidance of kindly Uncle John. Smit, Free.ove. Trading East. Little. $2. This story, based on Hakluyt’s voyages to Rus- sia, Tutkeman, and Persia, is replete in adventure and occasion for high daring. Situ, Susan. Made in Mexico. Knopf. $2. : A book about Mexican decoration and handi- craft, enlivened with stories and legends of early Mexico. The illustrations add much te its interest. Suitable for any reader; sufficiently simple for fifth grade. Sterne, E. G. Loud Sing Cuckoo. Duffield. $2. In which a girl masquerades as a boy and jeins 4 band of strolling players in the days of the great poet Chaucer. Teas, E. W. Book of Gliders. Dutton. $2. ’ Interesting and uptodate information about this special phase of flying. WituaMs-E..is, Mrs. AMABEL. Men Who Found Out. Coward-McCann. $2. Interesting accounts of scientific discoveries and of the research that led to them. The Education of Teachers The Teachers College Scans Its Press Ciara C. Ewart School of Education, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio HE TEACHERS COLLEGE president of [| toaey has his eye on major trends in education that he may adjust his school to changing needs. He realizes that the success of the program of any department involves comprehension of its possibilities by the president. Thus many executives are scrutinizing the work of the school of education news- paper to see that it bears the proper relation to the larger purposes of the teachers college. He is finding time to direct his interest toward understanding, himself, and seeing that others compre- hend the relation it may bear to the public press and, thru the public press, to the people. He is insisting that it cease serving merely as a means by which the student may dissipate valuable hours in turning out weak-kneed editorials based on half-baked ideas. The teachers college newspaper is not thought of today as an entity in itself. It is the nucleus about which centers a department of moment in the general scheme of education. Together with the courses built around it, it should: Train teachers of journalism Train future directors of publicity for pub- lic school systems Teach future teachers that the public press is a broad avenue toward public understand- ing of modern education Show future teachers the type of story which the press will use Give at least a few graduates the power to read the public press discriminatingly Show elementary teachers the possibilities of the mimeographed newspaper as a unit of work Serve as a medium for the most intensive teaching of English The purpose of the school of educa- tion is to prepare teachers; therefore the school of education authorized to give degrees should train teachers of journalism. It probably has the ma- chinery—a newspaper; but that ma- chinery may not yet be adjusted to its newer, broader work. To the end that the paper become the center of this wider field in the curric- ulum, it is necessary that students be taught the technic of journalism. They must know, for instance, about leads, heads, and makeup, for the simple rea- son that teachers must be taught not only how to get out a newspaper but how to get out a good one and these tech- nicalities have been worked out by news- paper men of hard commonsense who HE NEWSPAPER is one of the | great forces of our day. It | is pervasive. It reaches almost | every home. It is definitive. It | determines largely the infor- | mation and the ideas that enter our lives. Everything that goes into the mind comes out. The newspaper not only measures | the quality of our existing life. | It helps to determine the qual- ity of tomorrow’s life. The phi- losophy and ethics of newspa- | perdom are therefore highly | important to everyone inter- | ested in the elevation of life, | which is the primary function of education.—J. E. M. have proved that putting the who, what, when, and where into the first para- graph pulls more readers; they have demonstrated that attractive page make- up invites attention to the news. As to the second purpose of the course: hundreds of city school systems will, in the future, join the search for directors of school publications or direc- tors of school publicity. Men and women who can fill such positions satisfactorily are scarce. Getting them from news- papers is not so easy as it would seem. Many newspaper men will not abandon what they consider the most fascinating profession in the world. Moreover, the salaries may not lure the best ones. Educators feel themselves in a strange and chilling medium when thrust into the publicity field. One of the first city systems to look to a teachers college for a director of publicity is Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Guiding future teachers to a sane atti- tude toward the town or city newspaper, showing them that the public has a right to know what is going on, since the school belongs to the people, is another vital part of this program. Such guidance opens up a new vista to a student whose eye, fixed in imagination on his ap- [ 153 ] ne proaching days in the schoolroom, has reached no farther than the principal as the judge of his accomplishment. Asking students to gather news and photographs for city papers helps along this line. By this means they also gather the fact that every article about the school helps to tell the whole story of education—that even stories that pick flaws may arouse discussion and thus indirectly serve a good purpose. As to teaching students to sense the tide of world events from newspaper reading, so far as I know it is not yet being done by a teacher of journalism in any school of education. Perhaps it need never be done, for it may be that the course in “World History Today” be- longs in the department of social science. It is being taught well there in many colleges and universities where the courses do not deal merely with current events but show today as one dramatic scene in the continuous tale of mankind. It may be, however, that in the future a study of specific newspapers will be made by the teacher of journalism who will offer a course in interpretation of the public press in which he may ask stu- dents, among other things, to compare the policy of different papers in their attitude toward significant movements and to account for the policy of each paper studied. Has the policy changed with the years? If so, why? The presidents in many schools of edu- cation today also have their own ideas as to whether the paper is offering the rig- orous training in English which it should. Those who write for the wellmanaged paper get the urge to put words to- gether exactly, so that good writing is a thing sought for and discussed almost passionately. The newspaper office comes to be a place where a vivid stroke is singled out and admired, where the stu- dent strives for the deft phrase, and longs and works for the gift of style. “She said that just right. I wish I had written it,” says the student who has learned to recognize honest expression. Newspaper technic will make over a producer of long editorials filled with worn generalities into a writer of curt and pointed comments. Writing of straight news may transform the student who ordinarily wanders deviously to- 154 ward his destination into a person who says directly what he has to say—no small accomplishment, as those who attend public dinners or meetings of business and professional men or even conventions of teachers will willingly testify. Writing of heads will also teach the student to pack much thought into smal! compass. It will increase immeas- urably his vocabulary. Teachers of journalism are the best— or the worst—teachers of English com- position. If they insist that soundness of idea and deftness of phrasing in which co clothe the thought be sought even in the smallest news story, they are indeed priceless. But if they permit slipshod writing they have a chance to ruin irrepa- rably what the teacher of English labo- riously struggled to inculcate. How are all these desirable objectives to be accomplished? The larger schools of education will offer courses with proper credit—perhaps an introductory one, and one or two more advanced, in which the paper is the laboratory. Teach- ers in service as well as students will be interested. In the smaller schools the college newspaper may be the mainspring THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION with all the theory taught incidentally. Here, too, the work, after it is on the plane which it deserves, will be accredited. There ought to be a trained teacher with ample time on his schedule in which to think out how best to accom- plish these ends and then to accomplish them. “Trained” does not necessarily mean graduated from a college of jour- nalism but it does imply a person with a broad view of what he is setting out to do and an abiding interest inthe work, gained thru courses or by actual expe- rience on a newspaper. A teacher from the English department may not know how to do this work. It is too much to expect that many of them have had training in this very specific field, though some of them have entered it doubtfully, yet unprotesting, at the sug- gestion of an executive hard put to it to find somebody ‘“‘to look after the paper.” If the instructor who is responsible for the work be not trained, the newspaper may still be of interest to the student body. It may help to unify the school, but it will not be notably useful in this larger sense in which it might well be. Training School Building, Eastern Kentucky State Normal School and Teachers College, Richmond, Kentucky May, 1931 This trained teacher will have vision —he will lead students to formulate a policy, to set a goal each year [city dailies speak of this as their “platform”’ which will guide them in every point that may arise, that they may look at actual accomplishment, not merely at 18 or 36 issues gotten out. That policy will not be to spread glad whoopee about the team or to publish tales of pleasant plays and of good assembly talks, though it will do these things. What it will be, will differ with conditions. It must be decided after profound thought based on a wise under- standing of the school and its relation to its surroundings. It will concern itself with the most real problem of the college —perhaps bringing a better understand- ing between the school of education and the training schools, perhaps looking to cooperation of the townspeople in the work of the normal school, perhaps hastening the time when the school of education in a great university will be- come really university-minded. The decisions as to what to write in order to bring such a purpose to fruition will offer students a training in judgment which it will be hard to surpass. mth Pr) 4 ang han, ee Pnats In Research of a Chair research. Men impressed me who had strings of capital letters after their names and their findings, always ex- pressed copiously and in tongue-trouble- some words, seemed to bear authority’s own seal. I still believe in research, but I remember also the matter of my folding chairs. E We have a small library of some ten thousand volumes, the largest our town can afford. This library is in my charge, and in most respects I am wellcontent with it. In most respects, I have said. The children’s room of the library is not satisfactory. During the Story Hour you will find all the children sitting on the floor. Six years ago I set out to buy two dozen folding chairs. It was in June, 1925. The Board had given me full au- thority, leaving even the price to my dis- cretion, and making only one stipulation. This was that I should consult with Dr. John Littlejohn, a research specialist and a friend of one of the Board mem- bers, and buy nothing without his thor- ough approval. I had never met Dr. John Littlejohn until the day I went to him full of enthusiasm about my chairs. He re- ceived me most cordially in a study lined with books, census reports, and statis- tical analyses. Portions of the wall not beetling with bookshelves were covered by charts with mercuric red lines going places. He heard with a superior, smiling patience my brief story of the need for chairs in the children’s room, the Board’s favorable action, and my desire to go down to the furniture store that very afternoon, if he could be induced to ac- company me, and order them. It was at this point that Dr. John Littlejohn broke in. Folding chairs, he assured me, were more of a problem than that. Did I realize that not only the present comfort but much of the future health and wellbeing of our citizens de- pended upon obtaining the right kind of folding chairs? How could I suggest buy- ing the chairs until the whole subject had been thoroughly examined? First, there was the matter of the age and height of the children. Would I please tell him the exact ages, by the year and month, of the children who had at- tended the Story Hour sessions for the last year? I told him that I had no such exact record, but the ages ranged gen- erally between five and eight, and, of I HAD always been a great admirer of course, we should have to see that the chairs were low enough so that the chil- dren might have their feet comfortably on the floor. Dr. Littlejohn was really very polite about my lack of definite statistics, but he pointed out that, aside from the desirability of getting the chairs for exactly the right present age, a still more serious question was_ involved. Were children who came to Story Hour sessions today of the same age as those who came five years ago, or was there a general tendency for younger children, or older children, to attend? We were not buying folding chairs for a day, and it would be necessary to know present tendencies in Story Hour practise in order to plan for future needs. I had to admit that I had no definite figures on the subject, but simply the general impression that the age remained about the same. Dr. John Littlejohn pointed out that this was a dangerous ignorance. For example, the growth of kindergartens was tending to bring younger and younger children up to ap- preciational standards suitable for the Story Hour, and before I knew it I might come to be needing cribs more than folding chairs. On the other hand, there was the increased use of the story as a teaching medium for older scholars and the whole adult education move- ment. Perhaps grandfathers, too, might need to be provided for. Since I lacked adequate figures, he would have to com- pile them from other sources. I might return in a month. When I came back early in July Dr. Littlejohn had compiled his age statis- tics, but on further reflection did not consider these adequate. How were they to be correlated exactly with height, which was the important matter with regard to folding chairs? Nothing was clearer from anthropological studies than that the height of the human race had varied considerably in the course of hu- man development and climatic change. Ten years from now, would the height of a six-year-old child be greater or less than at present? More specifically, would a change, supposing there were any, be evenly distributed over the whole body, or might children’s legs—which chiefly the folding chairs had to fit— change independently or perhaps even in opposition to the torso or head? The next time I visited Dr. Littlejohn he was absorbed in the question of color. [155] I had taken the usual yellowish-brown for granted, but he pointed out the enormous psychological influence of color. Now what attitude did we wish to induce—cheerfulness, repose, warmth, coolness, or passion? I decided against passion. There was the possibility, too, of alternating two different colors of chairs. One had to remember also that the primary colors appeal to the child mind, while to the adult the more com- plex mixtures and pastels are more at- tractive. This in turn raised the ques- tion of whether we should cater to the child mind as it is, or endeavor to edu- cate it toward adulthood by painting our chairs green, or purple, or ashes of roses. I think it was early the next year when the question of the wood to be used came up. It would be desirable to have cost figures on the various woods, to compare them for appearance and for wearing quality, with due allowance for the altitude, moisture, and _ general temperature of our particular library room. The amount of paint the various woods would absorb was also a factor, as was the season when they were cut. I began to be disturbed at the growing amount of research required before my children could sit down. At the next meeting of the Board I presented again the problem of the folding chairs with developments of the last two years. I re- spectfully begged that something might be done speedily—say within the next year or so. They inquired further into Dr. Littlejohn’s investigations in our be- half, and agreed among themselves that he was doing a fine and thoroughgoing piece of research. They remained per- fectly willing that I should order the chairs, but, since we ought to be sure we had the best possible chairs for the pur- pose, it was necessary to await Dr. Little- john’s findings. I think it was in 1928 that we finally got around to the design of the chairs. This proved to be a problem of enormous importance. There was the artistic side. Should they have Duncan Phyfe legs? What period in furniture would be most appropriate for folding chairs for a library Story Hour? Perhaps we should investigate the average period and ap- propriate setting for the stories we ex- pected to tell. More practically, there was the question of width. It was essential that as many chairs as possible be got into the room without undue crowding. ; %" 156 JHE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION How thin or how fat is the average child? Is our civilized diet tending to make chil- dren steadily more anemic, so that the width might be decreased? What was the relative percentage of boys and girls? Girls were wider at the hips, boys at the shoulders. We had almost decided on a design when Dr. Littlejohn began delving into the subject of posture. Because the back of a folding chair is continued into the forward legs, these backs are usually slant. From considerations of health and the future erectness of the race, ought not the children to sit upright? More- over, should not the back of the chair undulate to fit the curves of the normal spinal column? What was the normal spinal column at the required ages? Again I reported to the Board, in some desperation, that I did not have the fold- ing chairs. I suggested that, although of course we should not think of buying per- manent chairs until the conclusion of Dr. John Littlejohn’s investigations, we might purchase cheap ones for tempo- rary use. Possibly they would be worn out by the time Dr. Littlejohn had completed A Better HE EDUCATIONAL CAPITAL of the = will have to move to Denver, Colorado, July 27 to August 1, 1931, when the fourth biennial confer- ence of the World Federation of Educa- tion Associations assembles delegations from 40 nations to participate in discus- sions, the central theme of which is: Buildinga Better World Thru Education. No more beautiful city could be se- lected than Denver. Situated on a mile- high plateau at the base of snow-covered mountains, with a delightful climate and hospitable people, Denver lends itself admirably to the scene of labors which nave for their purpose the attainment of high ideals of justice for individuals and harmonious relationships between na- tions. Denver will be the most popular stopover on the homeward trip of thou- sands of teachers who will attend the sixty-ninth annual convention of the National Education Association at Los Angeles, June 27 to July 4. After par- ticipation in the professional discussions which affect particularly American pub- lic schools, followed by a period of study in western colleges and universities, or zest-restoring vacations in the High Sierras or Rocky Mountains, teachers will climax an unusual summer with an his studies. My suggestion was not taken in the helpful spirit in which it was offered, and the children continued to sit on the floor. I forget many of the other questions which came up after that time. There was the matter of whether the braces at the bottom of the chairs should be left square or rounded; whether the screws should be countersunk to avoid tearing clothes, or left open to teach the cardinal virtue of carefulness; whether—but after all I may as well omit several years of dis- cussions and jump at once to the one which brought about our final disagree- ment. Early in 1931 Dr. Littlejohn began proposing extensive tests for durability and strength in connection with all ma- terials entering into the chairs. ‘For,’ said he, ‘there is no use putting a thirty- year screw in a ten-year chair, or a seat that will outlast a leg. We must be care- ful to have everything wear out at pre- cisely the same time.’ ‘Like the one-hoss shay, I com- mented. May, 1931 ‘Shay? Shay? I never heard of shays,’ said the doctor. Then, waxing enthusiastic, ‘But that is our ideal! We must bend all our efforts toward getting materials of the same strength and du- rability. For efficiency, every part ofthese folding chairs must collapse at once!’ ‘However perfect such a collapse is as an ideal,’ I said, asserting myself for the first time, ‘for the person sitting in the chair it would be disconcerting.’ That sentence brought my downfall. I had not known before how thoroughly upsetting the introduction of a practical consideration may be to your real re- search enthusiast. I emerged from that session a humbled person. Meanwhile, during Story Hour, the children still sit on the floor after the old Japanese custom, of which I do not ap- prove. Twelve national surveys are being undertaken and two of international scope. Perhaps the world will be the bet- ter for all of this, but I wish I had my two dozen folding chairs—From the “Contributors’ Club” in the Atlantic Monthly, March 1931. Used with cour- teous permission of the publishers. World Thru Education outlook upon world relationships as they are being modified thru education. To promote friendship, justice, and goodwill among the nations of the world, and to bring about worldwide tolerance of the ideals and rights of all nations re- gardless of race or creed are among the principal purposes of the World Federa- tion of Education Associations, organized at San Francisco in 1923. Three bien- nial meetings held to further these ob- jectives have convened at Edinburgh, Toronto, and Geneva respectively. Among the topics for the general meetings of the Denver convention is International Understanding and Coop- eration. Delegates from different nations will discuss the effects of business, diplo- macy, the press, labor, education, and travel upon the promotion of understand- ing and goodwill between nations. The practical application of methods pecul- iarly adapted to the promotion of mu- tual appreciation between countries will be discussed as they affect occidental and oriental nations, Europe and America, the United States, Canada, and the Spanish American countries. An important event on the World Fed- eration convention program will be the special reports of the Herman-Jordan Committees on education for interna- tional understanding and goodwill. These Committees were organized following the San Francisco meeting in 1923 when Dr. David Starr Jordan, president emeritus of Leland Stanford, Jr. University, re- ceived the award offered by Dr. Raphael Herman for the best plan calculated to bring about harmonious world relation- ships thru better understanding. Dr. P. W. Kuo, Shanghai, as chairman of one of these committees will report on Educa- tion for Peace. Miss Laura Ullrick, Win- netka, Illinois, chairman of another com- mittee, will report on Social Sciences. Daniel Chase, New York City, will re- port for the committee on J/nternational Relations of Youth. E. J. Sainsbury, London, will report for the committee on Military Training, and chairman Frank A. Hoare will report for the committee on Attempts of Diplomacy to Obviate the Necessity of War. Other speakers in- clude Angus Roberts, M. C., president, National Union of Teachers in England; W. Lloyd Pierce, Wales, member, execu- tive committee, National Unionof Teach- ers in England and chairman, rural life division of the World Federation of Edu- cation Associations; and Madame Rad- linsky, member of the faculty of the Free College of Warsaw, Poland. A catch in the Fall River, Horseshoe Park View from trail in Sequoia National Park Rocky ridges to the north of Mt. Whitney Ts LURE OF THE MOUNTAINS will keep many teachers on trails to snow-capped peaks and trout-filled streams and lakes long after the close of the sixty-ninth annual convention of the National Education Association at Los Angeles June 27-July 4. One of the most beautiful and yet most accessible mountain ranges to be found anywhere in the world is the Sierra range in California. The Sierras are as rugged and rocky as the famous Alps. For scenery and for geological study they are unsurpassed. A mountain pack trip, properly planned, is inexpensive and the wide, wellkept trails make travel by foot or horse delightful and safe. The vacation land of the High Sierras offers an ideal rest for the teacher who has just closed a busy school year with an intensive study of the significant educational problems which are to be considered on the convention program prepared by President Willis A. Sutton. California teachers are planning numerous camping trips for convention visitors. One of them will lead to the summit of Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the United States. From this 14,500 foot peak, reached by horse trail, the visitors will look across Death Valley, the point of lowest elevation in America, where the blazing sun drives the mercury to 135 degrees F. on an average summer day. Other trips will take the visitors to Sequoia forests, thru snow-lined passes, to cold lakes stocked with game fish—a camper’s paradise. Guides, packers, cooks, pack mules, and mountain-bred saddle horses may be obtained at reasonable rates to serve groups of teachers, organized under the direction of members of the faculty of the Los Angeles and suburban schools. Complete information as to costs, what to wear, etc., may be obtained by communicating with C. W. Gray, Hollywood High School, Los Angeles, California. Photos, courtesy of the National Park Service. [ 157 ] The Young Child Opportunities in Teaching Young Children . Marcaret Cook Ho.mes President, Association for Childhood Education HE past fifteen years have brought significant changes in the status of the kindergarten-primary teacher. During this period the kinder- garten teacher has emerged from an isolated teacher of a preschool grade to a teacher holding an integral place in the lower elementary school, while the primary teacher has developed from a teacher who placed all her emphasis on teaching the school skills to one who guides her pupils thru purposeful activi- ties to wholesome living, to social de- velopment, and to a mastery of the school skills by means of these activi- ties. This has brought strength to the kindergarten teacher and joy to the primary teacher. The kindergarten, while steadily ex- panding in its care of children between the ages of four and six, has not yet approached the place held by the pri- mary grades in their care of children between six and eight. This is no doubt due to such factors as lack of financial state support in the majority of the states and the lack of comprehension by parents and many educational leaders of the value and importance of group experiences for children at this stage of growth. However, the growth toward more universal acceptance of the kin- dergarten as the first step in school edu- cation is steadily upward. From 1924 to 1926 there was an increase in kin- dergarten enrolment of 11 percent. [ De- partment of Interior City School Leaflet No. 30, 1928]. In the states that adopted a mandatory-on-petition law for kindergarten maintenance, the in- crease in kindergarten enrolment has been very great, indicating that the financial difficulty is after all the prime reason for the slow expansion of kin- dergarten education. In the field of actual classroom prac- tise we find a steady merging of kinder- garten-primary methods as indicated by the activity programs, similar equip- ment of kindergartens and primary rooms with movable furniture, the same type of supplies for manual activities, the same apparatus for physical activi- ties, the same opportunities for health guidance and protection and many other mutually inclusive practises. Most im- portant of all we find in many progres- sive school systems the teachers in this unit of work teaching one term in the kindergarten and the next term in the primary grades. Many of the state normal schools, the teachers colleges, and the private train- ing schools now give the kindergarten- primary training as one unit of work. The teacher who has secured this broader type of training will find many more opportunities open to her for ad- vancement in her profession than the teacher who has limited her training to either one of the two fields. She will also enjoy the stimulus which comes from variety in teaching experience. The young woman planning her train- ing for the teaching profession will have no difficulty in securing this broad training as there are many institutions open to her which will prepare her for the kindergarten-primary field. The teacher of experience who was trained solely as a kindergarten teacher or as a primary teacher will find that her work will be benefited and that her interest will be quickened and her knowledge of children strengthened if she takes gradu- ate courses to prepare herself for the broader field of work. The fact that there are many summer-school courses and extension courses offering this work makes her preparation easy to obtain. The junior-high-school organization is demonstrating how it is possible to convince administrators and teachers to accept a new and better organiza- tion for a certain period in child de- velopment. In the same way the kinder- garten-primary leaders and classroom teachers should work together to estab- lish the kindergarten-primary unit as the accepted organization for the lower part of the elementary school. This field offers increasingly greater inducements to the young woman of today because we are rapidly approach- ing the acceptance of the belief that teaching is not to be evaluated in terms of the age of the child taught. The ad- vance in child psychology has brought a realization of the great importance of the early formative years of child growth and the necessity for having strong teachers in this strategic posi- tion in the school system. [158] Slowly but steadily administrators are more and more accepting the pre- mise that teachers should be judged in terms of teaching performance and teacher training. While the inducements today between the kindergarten-primary field and the high-school field cannot be considered equal from the salary standpoint there are many reasons why the kindergarten- primary field offers superior induce- ments to the creative teacher. The kindergarten-primary field of education is today passing thru a stage of intense growth. It is actively engaged in fostering and aiding research in the nursery-school movement and is promi- nently identified with the new stress placed on adult education with its well- known activities in the realm of parent education. It is stimulating and inter- esting to be working where new methods and a living philosophy are so. active. Children are being observed and studied as never before. The teacher of the young child has the opportunity, if she but avails herself of it, to make a valu- able contribution to the science of edu- cation. To the teacher who has had efficient training there are many opportunities for experimental classroom work as a demonstration teacher or as a research worker. Research in child study and re- search in classroom procedure offer stim- ulating and creative opportunities for the teacher fitted to avail herself of those op- portunities. The great advance in preparation re- quired by the kindergarten-primary teacher increases the number of teachers needed in this division in the teacher- training institutions. There is also an increasing demand for the supervisor who is an expert in this field to super- vise the work in the lower part of the elementary school. Research, supervision, teacher train- ing, and, most fundamental of all, teach- ing the young child demand sympa- thetic, efficient, intelligent, and earnest workers. The rewards of educational recognition are many and to the young woman to whom the young child appeals there is promise of many opportunities for useful and inspiring service in this field of education. — in ~ —_ > -~ = _ mh —-~ KTr New Schools in Old Mexico Director, Training Department, Michigan State Normal College, HEY ARE BUILDING schools in Mex- ico. Schools of every sort—elemen- tary schools, high schools, and col- leges; ordinary, special, and unusual. Schools for the tillers of the soil, schools for the tradesmen of the cities, and schools for the artists who transfer form, color, and atmosphere to the innocent canvas. There are schools in old aban- doned palaces, schools in old adobe huts, schools in chapels once used for religious worship, and new school buildings in the course of construction in thousands of villages and on the slopes of faraway mountains. Out at Amalowa I saw one of these new buildings of adobe coming into be- ing. There, within three miles of an at- tractive little town of 3000 people, was a community of 300 families who had never in the history of Mexico had any opportunity for what we in America call education, but, under the inspiring lead- ership and stimulation of a Traveling Cultural Mission which was being held at Amalowa, a new school building was being erected and a new school was be- ing instaled. We walked out to the vil- lage and as we approached it we saw the magic power of a new vision and a new purpose in operation. Coming like ants from various directions were men bearing on their backs adobe blocks which they were contributing to the school. In one place where the soil was peculiarly suited for the purpose a num- ber of men were cooperatively making adobe blocks, others were transporting them on the backs of their burros, while still others placed the blocks in position and gave form to their school building, the design of which had been worked out for them by the faculty of the traveling mission. Far out across the plain we saw approaching five men carrying on their backs large logs which were to serve as the rafters for the building. All of this was donated cooperative labor, selfserv- ice on the part of the local citizens of that community. Mexico has little money with which to build but it does not need much money when it has a gigantic pur- pose and a thirst for education which has never had, in its entire history, a chance to be satisfied. Revolution and _ counter-revolution have been in progress in Mexico for twenty years. The bang-bang of the ban- Marvin SUMMERS PITrMan dit, the rat-a-tat-tat of the sniper, the booming guns of the righteous crusaders, and the eternal clatter of the counter- revolutionists have occupied the time A thirteen-year-old boy teacher in one of the Circuit Schools and thought of the nation’s upper four hundred. But the submerged peons— the millions who knew not that they had the right to know—did not know what it was all about. They heard as if in a dream and saw as if in a blinding fog. They had hopes, but they were the hopes of very young and inexperienced chil- dren. They dreamed, but their dreams were incoherent. They knew not for what to hope. They could not dream for they had no mental content out of which to weave a vision. They could not plan be- cause they had no pattern by which to measure. No wonder that revolution has meant material ruin and that life in Mexico since 1910 has been a continuous nightmare. But in spite of the blunders, mistakes, and injustices incidental to, and inevita- ble in, all revolution, chaos is being trans- formed into order. The cruel masters of the past, the unsympathetic and tyran- nical, have been overthrown, often ban- ished, and sometimes killed. The selfish revolutionists, who were in the revolu- tion only because they loved revolution and profited from it, are being rapidly [159] Y psilanti eliminated from leadership and in their stead the men who fought for righteous and intelligent causes are in control. The men who are now participating in Mexican leadership recognize that if Mexico is ever to succeed, nationally, it must be welldirected. If it will no longer tolerate a dictatorship, however enlight- ened, then it must produce and insure an intelligent democracy. If it will no longer tolerate a centralized, formalized reli- gion, then it must substitute a reliable, democratic, selfadministered morality which will function in the everyday life of all of the people. If they are to elimi- nate the danger of the army by dissolv- ing it, then they must make an army un- necessary thru a citizenship that neither carries nor fears a gun. Mexico is having considerable diffi- culty at present in its efforts to readjust the relationships between master and servant, employer and employee. Old systems have been discarded. New sys- tems are being established. They are be- ing set up by persons who have evolved from, or are in sympathy with, the sub- merged classes of the past. As a conse- quence the new systems have a tendency to be as unwise for the general welfare and as unjust to the employing class as was the old autocratic system of the past. To correct the situation, to create a state of equilibrium in which justice to all prevails, requires legislators whose sympathy embraces all classes and whose sense of justice cannot be warped by fear of being misunderstood. Furthermore, there must be a body of public opinion which will support sane administrative and legislative progress. All this means one thing and only one in Mexico—more and better educa- tion for all classes of people and par- ticularly for the formerly submerged groups. Fortunately this is realized by those who are responsible for educational leadership in Mexico. The leaders constitute a new type of missionary in Mexico. The spirit and ideals of these modern missionaries are being made objective in a variety of ways but more particularly in new school buildings. Mexico is dotted with cross- crowned chapels, the result of the zeal- ous missionaries who have served Mex- ico. Many of these chapels are now aban- 160 THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION May, 1931 NS ial Logs for the rafters of a new schoolhouse, being carried to the village doned as places of worship and the new wine of education is being poured into the old casks of religion. In a far greater number, though, new structures are be- ing erected especially designed to fit the purposes of education. The greater por- tion of these are crude adobe structures in keeping with the humble houses in which the people of the village dwell. Many of them, though, are artistic in appearance and welldesigned. Whether they be built of adobe blocks, crude rock, kiln-burned bricks, or polished stone, each is invariably the best among the villagers’ houses—proof of their edu- cational aspiration, their cooperative spirit, and their artistic skill. In their poverty and thru their faith in the fu- ture, they build out of their dreams and out of the materials at hand their new temples of hope. The federal inspector of schools serves as the stimulating missionary, as the messenger of the new faith, but the peo- ple themselves, unaided by outside fi- nancial assistance, erect their school building, equip it in such a fashion as their circumstances permit—often very simple and crude—employ their teacher, paying such salary as is possible, dem- onstrating their purpose and their evi- dence of good faith. So long as the schools dre in this primitive and begin- ning state they are designated “Circuit Schools.” When this has been done and as rapidly as the federal government is able, the Circuit Schools are taken over by the gevernment and they become Federal Rural Schools. The village of Boxaxni in the state of Hidalgo is a good illustration of the Cir- cuit School. Inspector Carmen Solis made the contact with the people of this vil- lage. They are among the poorest tribes of Mexico. They live on the slopes of a mountain range where limestone and cacti of the most thorny varieties are the rule. To an American, human exist- ence in such barren surroundings seems impossible and a visit among the natives convinces one that life even for them is only a bare existence—and yet these peo- ple have established their school. They have employed their teacher, the school is going, and their new school building —welldesigned—is rising thru human magic out of the stones that infest the land. The following agreement will illus- trate the spirit of these people and will serve as a typical instance of the new educational purpose of Mexico. We, the neighbors of Boxaxni, belonging to the municipality of San Salvador, in the state of Hidalgo, assembled together near the chapel of our village, solemnly promise in the presence of Professor Jose del Carmen Solis, the representative of the Department of Pub- lic Education, to establish and maintain our own school in accordance with the following conditions: Every one of us will pay the teacher one cent daily; we, being fifty-three in number, will pay consequently fifty-three cents daily; this amount will be regularly collected by the treasurer of the school committee and de- livered to the teacher precisely on the last day of every month. ; We will, by turns, give the teacher meals of the quality which our poor economic cir- cumstances will permit, promising to deliver these meals to him in such hours as not to interfere with his school work. We promise to give the teacher a house which he may use as his residence. We will give a location for the school and, little by little, we shall erect the annexes which it may require later on. We promise to send to the said school all our children of school age, both boys and girls, and we, the adults, will also go to the school in so far as our work permits. Professor Solis solemnly promises on_ his part that the teacher, appointed by him, will comply with his duties as a good teacher, teaching the children and the adults, advising all the neighbors in all the affairs of vital im- portance. He also promises to visit our school frequently for the purpose of ascertaining that it is running with regularity without encoun- tering any difficulty on its way. As security for constancy of our obligations, we enter into this agreement on Saturday, February 9, 1929, at five oclock in the afternoon, signed by those who know how to sign, and the names of those who do not know how to sign‘ appear on the list. The Circuit School serves as the pio- neer agency in the Mexican educational program. It is followed by federalized rural schools which are better equipped, better taught, and better administered. The Circuit School is taught by such persons as are available for the task. Naturally the salaries are low, often as low as five to ten dollars per month. If there is any one among the people who knows more than the others, that one is drafted into service as the teacher. At A new schoolbuilding being built of rocks taken from the fields — Vol. 20, No.5 Boxaxni a woman, one of the neighbors, was chosen. Her salary stated in the con- tract was fifty-three cents per day, Mexi- can money. In the next school visited, Dexthos, the teacher was a boy of thir- teen, Elpetio Cruz, and his salary was six pesos or three dollars per month. Poor school? Yes, but a beginning some- what better than nothing, which has been their unhappy lot thruout the past. Few trained teachers are available for these thousands of new rural schools. A program for teacher training is there- fore necessary. While fifteen new nor- mal schools have been established in various parts of Mexico for the training of rural teachers, necessity will not wait for the training. Something must be done at once to help such persons as are avail- able to carry on while better teachers are being prepared. For this purpose thirteen Traveling Cultural Missions have been established and are operating to train the teachers who are already in service. Each travel- ing mission consists of a faculty of six or eight instructors. There is a capable director, a teacher of household arts, a teacher of petty industries, a teacher of music, a teacher of physical education, a teacher of agriculture, a teacher of arts, a teacher of school organization and methods of instruction, a physican, and a social worker. The rural schools of Mexico are ac- tivity schools. They do not exist merely for the purpose of teaching the tools of knowledge but also the activities of life. They teach reading, writing, and arith- metic, of course, but they also teach gar- dening, animal care, food conservation, house construction, and a large number and variety of petty industries suited to THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EpUCATION ASSOCIATION % A pigeon roost built in the school the needs of the primitive life of the rural people of Mexico. For this reason a visit to a Traveling Cultural Mission is a most interesting experience. At one time one may imag- ine himself in a conservatory of music, where everyone not only can sing but also can play almost any musical in- strument. Thirty minutes later the pro- gram is changed so that all participate in the petty industries that must be taught —canning, tanning, furniture-making, and home industries. Beautiful pottery is being fashioned at a wheel that was old when Cortez was in knee breeches. An- other shift in the program and all the teachers are creating paintings of mar- velous beauty, original in design and harmonious, though odd, in color and composition. The scene changes again and one hundred men and women are playing ‘“drop-the-handkerchief” or are enjoying the dancing of a “jarabe” or Gardening—one of the activities found in every Federal Rural School 161 yard, its occupants, and their keepers will be participating in or observing a truly American basketball game. From one month of attendance in a cultural mission of this type the teachers go back to their own communities and to the difficult problems that await them to apply their newly learned arts with rekindled enthusiasm. Their schools are community institutions which function seven days and seven nights in the week and for ten months in the year. We find a school committee of five of the best men in the village serving as the chief allies of the teacher. They guide the erection of the new school building, the teacher’s residence, the open-air theater, and the community medical dispensary. They see to it that land is provided for the flower garden, the vegetable garden, and the field crops. They direct the con- struction of the rabbit warren, the pig sty, the chicken house, the bee hives, and the pigeon roost—part of the equipment of a modern Mexican rural school. A group of five mothers constitutes the health committee of the community and works under the guidance of the teacher, the doctor, and the nurse of the cultural mission for the betterment of the community health. The children also learn democratic citizenship thru their school activities. There are committees responsible for all types of service within the school— health, sanitation, beautification, food, water, and animal care. Out of these group duties both parents and children are learning cooperation. If the present intelligent and purposeful program of education is continued for a generation, Mexico will be a land of enlightenment, the center of a cultured democracy where a people of noble spirit, beautiful hos- pitality, and gentle manners dwell. His First Birthday T was the third of April, and I had | stopped over in New York for a half day to help celebrate the first birth- day of my only grandchild. Just a year ago his grandmother and I had received a telegram saying “Randall Foster has arrived.” I was now on my way from my home in Maine to attend the‘international lunch- eon of the Progressive Education Asso- ciation in Washington, and the annual conventions of the Oklahoma and Ari- zona branches of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers. From an early train I had reached the home of my daughter in time to see the little fellow at his morning bath. He was to have his first breakfast, sitting in his high-chair, at the table with the grown-ups—he and his grandfather sit- ting beside each other. We had our orange juice together, the only differ- ence being that he had his from a bottle, while I had mine from a tumbler. We had some of the same kind of cereal, for | ate some of that which had been pre- pared for him. One year old, happy, smiling, sturdy little chap, he was just beginning life, while mine was drawing to a close. What would life mean to him when his years should have numbered mine? What would he have been able to contribute to the moral, spiritual, and social welfare of society as he lived thru these unfolding years? He was beginning where I should leave off. How I longed to be able to give him something of the experience, and to inspire him with some of the ideals of service that had come to me along the way. I asked not that he should be spared the struggle and hardships of life, but that he might be able to face them with courage and good cheer and an unconquered spirit; that he might love flowers and trees, the sky and stars, brooks and birds,. and all the gentle things of life; that ‘he might learn to serve mankind with a sympathetic and understanding heart; that he might be able to do much more than I had done to help make this a good world in which to live. Thinking on these and other things somewhat, after this fashion I went back to his room to play with him, as his mother put him in his crib after break- fast. As he was standing looking up at me, he noticed the National Education Association emblem of life membership in the lapel of my coat. As he reached Condon up and took hold of it I said, ““Do you like it, little chap? Do you want one like it? I think that would be a good birth- day present for me to give to you; I'll do it. I’m going on to Washington this afternoon and I'll make you a life mem- ber of the National Education Associa- tion.” All of which, of course, he under- stood; at least he smiled back at me, and continued to play with the gold but- ton having on it the picture of a little country schoolhouse, with the dome of the national Capitol in the background. As soon as I reached Washington I went into the office of the secretary of the Na- tional Education Association and said, “Mr. Crabtree, I have a new life mem- ber for you, my grandson, Randall Con- don Foster. He is one year old today, and I want to give him a life member- ship and its emblem as a birthday pres- ent. You may send to his home address the certificate of membership, inscribed as a gift from his grandfather, but let me have the emblem, for I want to send mine to him that it may bring to him some of the associations and experiences it has brought to me, and the joy I have had from my life membership in the Na- tional Education Association. I will wear his that I may gain from it more of the spirit of childhood and the joy of youth.” Then I went up to the next floor and into the office of the secretary of the National Congress of Parents and Teach- ers and said, “I want to enrol my grand- son, Randall Condon Foster, as a life member of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers. You may send the certificate of life membership to him, but give me the key of life membership, for I want him to have the one I have worn as the emblem of life membership, that was given to me by the Ohio Con- gress of Parents and Teachers—a gift greatly prized—and I will wear his, for Bachrach [ 162] I want him to have something of the love and devotion that I have for the Na- tional Congress of Parents and Teach- ers, whose fundamental principles have to do with child welfare; and I will re- new my faith in childhood and rededi- cate myself to its welfare as I wear the key of my little grandson.’ The next day, riding west on the Cap- itol Limited, as we neared Harper’s Ferry I took my two emblems and en- closed them in a letter to his mother to be presented as my first birthday gift to him. In their place I now wear those that were obtained as an evidence of his life membership. When I am thru with them they, too, will go to him. He does not know what it is all about now, but he will learn later, when he is old enough to understand the letter that his mother will read to him, telling him what these two great national organizations stand for, and how his grandfather loved them, and gave to them such service as he was able; and how he desired the little grand- son, bearing his name, to love them as he did, and to give them in the years to come even finer and better service than he could give in his day and generation. He may not be a teacher—that is not important—though I could wish for him no finer opportunity if his inclination and ability lead him in that direction. But whatever his work in life may be, I want him to be deeply interested in these two associations that mean much for the future of America and of the world. I want him to begin early to de- velop that interest that shall become a permanent part of his life. I want him to be a life member in reality—a mem- ber from the beginning thru childhood, youth, manhood, even down to old age, growing in strength and devotion, and in giving service of increasing usefulness as the years bring experience and a fuller knowledge of the meaning and impor- tance of these associations with the home and school—parents and teachers united for child welfare. Dear little grandson, happy, smiling boy. May all your years bring to you the joy of unselfish service, and may you find thru your life membership in the National Education Association and the National Congress of Parents and Teach- ers, incentives for such service and large opportunities to invest your life in work as shall mean much for child welfare and for the welfare of our country and of the world.—Randall J. Condon. Better Teaching of Reading Remedial Cases in Reading WILLIAM S. Gray Dean, School of Education, University of Chicago URING THE LAST ten years the dif- D ficulties and needs of poor readers have been discussed with increas- ing frequency in the literature relating to reading. The apparent increase in the number of poor readers may be attrib- uted to several facts. First, the greater feeling of responsibility for the welfare of each child that has developed recently has made teachers and research workers more sensitive to deficiencies in reading. Second, new standards of promotion have been adopted in some schools which make it possible at times to promote pupils who are deficient in one or more subjects. As a result, poor habits of read- ing often become more conspicuous than if the pupil had been retained in the pre- ceding grade. Third, the enrichment of the course of study has made it necessary for pupils to engage in more forms and applications of reading than were form- erly required. Hence many deficiencies are exhibited today which were not re- vealed formerly. Fourth, many school systems have attempted recently to re- organize both the content and methods employed in teaching reading. As usually happens during a period of transition, certain phases of a subject are neglected or not emphasized effectively. Fifth, the early studies of remedial cases stimu- lated broader interest in diagnosis and remedial instruction with the result that many valuable studies have been made and reported during recent years. The types of poor readers may be classified roughly into several groups, namely: non-readers, including those who encounter unusual difficulty in learning to read; those who can read to some extent but who are notably de- ficient in all phases of reading; those who encounter difficulty primarily in recog- nition, in comprehension, in rate of reading, or in oral interpretation; and those who are not interested in reading or who have narrow rather than diverse reading interests or who exhibit undesir- able tastes in reading. The difficulties encountered by poor readers are usually associated with specific causes, as: a second-grade boy who had made very little progress in learning to read be- cause of malnutrition, extreme nervous- ness, and lack of interest; a fourth-grade girl who was greatly retarded in the me- chanics of reading and somewhat re- tarded in interpretation due primarily to careless reading habits, inadequate at- tention to the content of what is read, and limited experience; a sixth-grade girl who was inaccurate and erratic in interpretation due to a limited meaning vocabulary, to an overcultivated imagi- nation, and to poor habits of thinking while reading. These examples show clearly that the causes of deficiency are just as real and concrete as is the nature of the deficiency, although they are often more difficult to determine. As various types of poor readers have been recognized, steps have been taken to make adequate provision for them. In some schools chief responsibility has been placed on the classroom teacher for diagnosis and remedial training. The ad- vantage of this plan is that the teacher who takes such steps is familiar with all the reading deficiencies that have been exhibited in the classroom and can study them carefully in normal learning situa- tions. The disadvantages are that con- siderable time is required and many teachers lack the technical training necessary for diagnostic and remedial work in unusual or complicated cases. In some schools, special remedial teach- ers are provided who relieve the class- room teacher of this obligation. The ad- vantage of this plan is that special teach- ers are often more skilful in diagnosis and remedial work than are regular teachers. The disadvantages are that ad- ditional expense is involved, that the special teacher is often unable to make her diagnosis in normal learning situa- tions, and that classroom teachers often have a tendency’ to reduce the amount of time and attention given to poor readers when special remedial teachers are available. In many school systems clinics have been established in which detailed diagnoses can be made and remedial training given. Such agencies make possible the diagnosis of unusual types of cases and the study of technical difficulties. It is obvious, however, that clinics are expensive and should be re- served for use in extreme cases. We are concerned in this article with the provisions which should be made in classrooms for preventing as well as cor- recting serious deficiencies in reading. Unless we can greatly reduce the num- ber of poor readers in the near future, [ 163 ] far too large a proportion of the energy of the school will be devoted to correct- ing defects rather than to promoting normal growth. In order to achieve the desired results at least three types of teaching with respect to reading are es- sential in most elementary-school class- rooms. These may be distinguished by the terms developmental, corrective, and remedial. In addition, one or more tech- nically trained workers are desirable in each population unit of 10,000 or more. Developmental teaching is funda- mental and important. It insures the systematic and orderly development of all essential reading attitudes, habits, and skills. Experience shows clearly that, as a rule, schools which do not provide a carefully planned program of reading instruction have many more poor read- ers than do schools which give attention daily to the orderly development of read- ing habits. There are many desirable characteristics of a valid program of reading instruction which merit em- phasis. Owing to the limitations of space only one such characteristic will be de- scribed. This relates to the fact that a wellplanned reading program for elemen- tary-school pupils may be divided into at least seven specific periods with defi- nite aims and objectives. The first is the period of preparation which occurs during the kindergarten and early part of the first grade. The in- struction given broadens experience, stimulates facility in thinking, develops command of simple English sentences and a wide speaking vocabulary, culti- vates good habits of enunciation and pro- nunciation, and stimulates keen interest in reading. The second period is often called the preprimer period. At this time the pupils are introduced to reading as a thought-getting process thru reading ac- tivities based on their experiences or on materials relating to familiar experi- ences. The goals to be achieved are keen interest in reading, a thoughtful reading attitude, and a mastery of a sight vo- cabulary of frequently recurring words. During the third period, pupils learn to engage in continuous, meaningful read- ing from books. This is often called the primer stage. During the fourth period, pupils are introduced to various types of reading material and lay the founda- tion of appropriate reading attitudes and 16+ habits. They also begin to engage in in- dependent reading with obvious interest and absorption. During the fifth period, which includes the second and third grades, pupils make very rapid progress in the fundamental reading attitudes and habits involved in both oral and silent reading. The sixth period, which includes the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, has for its chief purpose the development of increased power, efficiency, and excel- lency in various forms and purposes of reading. The seventh period refines read- ing interests and habits. Definite provi- sion for specific types of training at vari- ous levels of advancement, as indicated by the foregoing comments, insures rapid and wellbalanced progress, and eliminates to a large extent the develop- ment of corrective and remedial cases. Corrective teaching includes steps that correct or eliminate errors or dif- ficulties before they become serious. Such steps are in reality an essential part of developmental teaching. They are de- scribed here under “corrective teaching” for purposes of emphasis. Many reme- dial cases develop because teachers fail to observe the difficulties and errors of pupils carefully and to apply appropri- ate corrective measures. Types of diffi- culties which require specific attention at different levels of progress are: inac- curacies in enunciation and pronuncia- tion, limited vocabulary, and inability to use simple English sentences in the kin- dergarten or early part of the first grade; lack of interest in reading activi- ties and failure to direct attention to meanings during the preprimer period; dependence on irrelevant cues in word recognition, pointing with the fingers while reading, and wandering attention during the primer period; lack of inter- est in the content of what is read, failure to recognize and apply the elements of words, and lack of interest in independ- ent reading during the latter half of the first grade; slow, halting reading or rapid, careless reading, and guessing in the second and third grades; and failure to grasp essential meanings, inability to read well for specific purposes, and little or no power of independent recognition in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. Such difficulties and inaccuracies as those which have been listed should be pro- vided for regularly thru corrective teach- ing. In order to do this, teachers should be constantly alert to evidences of de- ficiencies and should take steps at once to provide corrective training for indi- vidual pupils or small groups. THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION May, 1931 Remedial teaching implies that pupils have acquired bad habits which are dif- ficult to correct or that they encounter Goodwill Day Created HEREAS, One effective means of promoting the spirit of inter- national goodwill is to set aside a day in the year to be observed in the schools of the world as “Goodwill Day”; and, Whereas, This day should in itself be a significant landmark in the movement for international friend- ship; Therefore, Be it resolved: 1. That the eighteenth of May, which commemorates the opening of the first Hague Conference—the first gathering of the nations in time of peace for the consideration of means of settling international differences by peaceful methods—is especially ap- propriate for concentrating upon the ideals of justice and world friendship. 2. That on the eighteenth of May instruction should be given concerning the results of the Hague Conference and also the later efforts to bring the world together in a cooperative body, and that this instruction should be accompanied by songs, both national and international, plays, and pageants, which carry out the spirit of the day. —Resolution adopted by the World Conference on Education at San Fran- cisco, July, 1923. unusual difficulty in learning to read. In all but very exceptional cases, major responsibility for diagnosis and remedial training should be assumed by classroom teachers. The first problem faced in this connection is to recognize poor readers and to determine the nature of their de- ficiencies. A practical procedure which may be followed in locating and diag- nosing cases involves at least three steps: locating possible remedial cases by de- termining thru observation the poorest readers in a class; defining the general nature of their deficiencies thru the use of a diagnostic silent-reading test and an oral-reading test; and securing de- tailed information concerning their de- ficiencies by keeping a careful record of the errors made and the difficulties en- countered during a period of two weeks in regular classroom activities. The writer has found such data as valuable, if not more so, in making an accurate diagnosis as the information secured in a laboratory. In either case the discovery . of the nature of the difficulty must be followed by studies of its causes. If all teachers of the elementary grades would adopt the practise of keeping exact rec- ords of the difficulties of the three poor- est readers in their rooms, the needs of a surprisingly large percent of the poor readers in a school would soon be under- stood. In exceptional cases the assistance of a technically trained diagnostician is necessary in order to determine the nature of a pupil’s difficulty and its causes. In some cities a remedial teacher who assists in the diagnosis and in the remedial treatment of pupils en- countering difficulty in different sub- jects is provided for each building or group of buildings. In other cities spe- cial rooms or clinics are established to which pupils are sent. The former plan has the advantage that pupils may be studied in normal learning situations by the remedial teacher; the latter plan has the advantage of providing facilities for very elaborate studies of difficulty. The treatment of remedial cases is as important as their diagnosis. Unfortu- nately, many teachers believe that un- usual methods are required with which they are not familiar. In a few types of cases, methods not usually employed in classrooms are essential. Ninety percent, or more, of the poor readers, however, are in need of kinds of guidance which skilful teachers employ in both develop- mental and corrective training. Those which are valuable in the case of specific difficulties are used repeatedly to the exclusion of others until the special diffi- culty which the pupil encounters has been corrected. Experience shows that teachers who make a list of the most effective devices which they employ, or which they can find in methods books on reading, for dealing with specific difficul- ties in recognition, in comprehension, in rate of reading, or in oral interpretation are able to provide appropriate training for most of the poor readers in their classrooms. This article has purposely emphasized the importance of providing in so far as possible for diagnostic and remedial activities in each classroom. This pro- cedure is valid from a pedagogical point of view and is imperative economically. Each teacher should study carefully her responsibilities with respect to develop- mental, corrective, and remedial instruc- tion and should endeavor constantly thru these means to prevent and elimi- nate the problem of the poor reader. The Law of Good Health ‘Pine AMERICANS try to become strong and useful, worthy of their nation, that our country may become ever greater and better. Therefore, they obey the laws of right living which the best Americans have always obeyed. Good Americans try to gain and keep good health. The welfare of our country de- pends upon those who are physically fit for their daily work. Therefore: [1] I will try to take such food, sleep, and exercise as will keep me always in good health. [2] I will keep my clothes, my body, and my mind clean. [3] I will avoid those habits which would harm me, and will make and never break those habits which will help me. [4] I will protect the health of others and guard their safety as well as my own. [5] I will grow strong and skilful. [From the Prize Morality Code which is widely used in schools.] , Rural Education Service Topics for Class Study in Rural Schools HE RURAL TEACHER has an unparal- "| tees opportunity to achieve. Farm life today stands at the threshold of a great adventure. The next decade will see the reawakening of the social and economic structure of agriculture as a way of living. Science has made a great contribution to rural progress. It has abundantly increased the possibilities for production. It has reduced the length of the work day which was observed by the pioneers. Science has made the farm an integral part of national life with ties of com- munication and transportation. It has brought conveniences and comfort to farm homes. The next step in the improvement of rural living is a fundamental reorganiza- tion in its economic relationships. Co- operation in crop and live-stock raising will be achieved within the next decade. Farmers will merge their production units, measured in terms of fields and herds, just as manufacturers have merged their production units measured in terms of factories and mines and stores. A new system of farm finance based on cooperative management is now developing. Cooperative selling is now almost past the experimental stage. The early achievement of this farm rev olution will depend upon trained men and women more than upon any other factor. Here is work for the rural schools. New objectives, new methods, new courses are needed. Teachers of vision and ability will lead the way. They will know and love farm life. They will find in its perplexing problems the challenge to serve which has always inspired those whose lives have made a difference in human prosperity and happiness. At what appears the darkest hour in farm experience, the future of the rural teacher offers the brightest hope. There is work to do of the highest order. It is the work of educational statesmen. The future of agriculture, based upon the solid rock of human necessity, already advanced by. science and invention, waits upon the efforts of trained men and women. Rural schools will train them. The rural teacher will need every available help to meet the challenge. He en LEADERSHIP must make its first objective the cultivation of Brains. The amazing economic comeback of Denmark was due to the fact that it worked out a system of folk high schools that stimulated and disciplined the brains ‘of the young adults of rural Denmark who then created the enormously success- ful cooperative system of Denmark. | Rural leadership must make its second objective the conquest of BREAD. This is the problem of the economic) forces. And the gist of this problem is | that the country must organize as the city has organized to hold its own in this | | corporate age. Rural leadership must make its third | objective the capture of Brauty. As we achieve rural prosperity we must bring beauty into rural life thru the cultivation of a folk literature, folk art, folk theater, and so on. Here is the triple task of rural leader- ‘ship !—Glenn Frank, president, University of Wisconsin. will employ every resource. He will find the publications of the United States Office of Education and the United States Department of Agriculture of great help. These publications have been prepared by outstanding special- ists. They may be secured at nominal cost. Every rural school library should be supplied with them. The publica- tions on the following topics are espe- cially good. They may be obtained without cost unless otherwise indicated. Health and safety—More effective conservation of the human and material resources of rural life will mark the new economy of the farm. Certain diseases are more prevalent in the country than in the city. Examinations of selective service boards during the war did not disclose in farm youth the superior phys- ical health which outdoor living, plain food, and clean habits led physicians to expect. Nor is our problem one solely of the city child. We have grave responsibilities to the rural child. Adequate expert service should be available to him from maternity to maturity. Since science discovered the cause of communicable diseases, protection from these diseases for the child of the farm is as much an obligation to him as to the child of the city. The child of the country is handicapped by lack of some cultural influences extended by the city. We must find ways and means of extending these influences to the children of rural districts—Herbert Hoover. The principles of sanitation, appreci- ation for scientific medical care, greater precautions for safety are being taught in the rapidly modernizing rural schools. The result will be elimination of wast- age of life and property. The teacher will find these publications helpful: Safety education in the rural school. Educa- tion Division, National Safety Council, 1 Park Avenue, New York City. Cost 25¢. Preventing farm fires. National Fire Protec- tion Association, 40 Central Street, Boston, Mass. Safeguarding the home against fire. [(Pre- pared with the assistance of the U. S. Office of Education.| The National Board of Fire Underwriters, 85 John Street, New York City. Safety at home. National Safety Council, 108 East Ohio Street, Chicago, II. The rural fire department. National Fire Waste Council, 1615 H Street, N. W., Wash- ington, D. C. Safety posters. The American Automobile Association, Washington, D. C. Apply to your local club if there is one in the com- munity. Protection of buildings and farm property from lightning. U. S. Department of Agri- culture, Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1512. Suppression of the house fly. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1408. Sewage disposal in rural homes. U. S. Depart- ment of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin No. al $27. General references for the rural school library: Gee, Wilson. The country life of the nation. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Cost $2. Special problems in the education of rural children. Department of Rural Education, National Education Association, Washing- ton, D.C. Cost 25¢. Gaumnitz, W. H. Availability of public school education in rural communities. Bulletin, No. 34, 1930, U. S. Office of Education, Washington, D. C. Cost 10¢. Rural America. A monthly magazine of rural life. The American Country Life Associ- ation, Inc., 105 East 22nd Street, New York City. Cost $2 per year. For geography teaching. Back numbers of the National Geographic Magazine may be purchased by rural teachers in packages of ten at 50¢ per package. This price to schools only. The National Geographic Society, 16th and M Streets, N. W., Wash- ington, D. C—Belmont Farley. [ 166 J Liquor’s International Balance Sheet fortunes of prohibition in this coun- try that many of them fail to per- ceive the bearing of the Eighteenth Amendment on international affairs. Even drys habitually talk of national pro- hibition. In one sense the term is correct. But in another sense it is really an inter- national prohibition which the United States has established—a prohibition against participation by any of its citi- zens in the distribution of liquor as an international commodity. When the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect it immediately took the United States out of one of the most debauching traffics in the field of international trade. No one contends that that portion of the liquor trade—the international portion—has not been effectively prohibited. But re- peal of the Eighteenth Amendment, or thrusting back of the issue into the con- fusion that reigned when each of 48 states was trying to work out an individ- ual policy for dealing with it, would im- mediately revive the American export liquor traffic. This has been one of the most vexing of the problems which has confronted Canada since the swing back toward a license system. To be sure, Canada never had national prohibition, just as today she has no single system of “controled” sales. As a result, the exporting of liquor from Canada has never been illegal. But so scandalous became conditions along the border between the Dominion and the United States after the large eastern provinces went wet that the Canadian government was finally glad to listen to the unofficial plea from Washington and to make illegal the shipping of liquor to ports in any dry nation. To some degree Canada did this to prove its friendliness toward the United States; but to a greater degree it did it to rid itself of the stigma of a business which was an affront to Canada’s own moral convictions. The Eighteenth Amendment has taken the United States out of the international liquor traffic and that is a good traffic to be out of in these days. A period of vast political and racial readjustment, which will involve the relations of all Asia and Africa with the white world, is just open- ing. And a part of that readjustment will involve settlement of the issues which have grown out of this traffic whereby the tinted races allege they have been subjected to physical and moral destruc- S' ABSORBED are Americans in the tion in order to increase the profits of the white man’s sale of intoxicants. These tinted peoples regard with a deep scorn —————=———=== DRY LAW SETTLED Dispatch from Balboa, Canal Zone, March 29, 1931 PEAKING tonight from the pulpit of the S Union Church here, Senator Smith W. Brookhart, of Iowa, said prohibition is a | settled question in the United States and_| most people are not even thinking about | it any more. Criticising newspapers which | oppose the prohibition laws, the Senator | ‘asserted: “They joined the agitation be- cause they would get advertising revenue from the booze business. There was noth- ing for them in prohibition. ‘Editorial op- position to the Eighteenth Amendment,” he said, “is the widest system of falsehood and deception ever put out by any people in the world.”"—From the Washington Post, March 30, 1931. the nations which have contributed to their debauching. As the days for the re- dressing of the international balances draw near the United States will be for- tunate not to have to assume part in the defense of such a traffic. This is not to say that America has had no share in the growth of this traffic in past years. The rum which has turned so much of the African coast into a bog of human misery came for generations from New England. The hard liquor that did so much to destroy the beauty of life in the islands of the South Seas came from American distilleries. Alongside the story of the heroic devotion of the mis- sionaries who went out from the meet- ing-houses of New England to the evan- gelization of the Sandwich Islands must be put the ceaseless and often losing fight which they were forced to wage with American liquor agents. And along- side the splendid service which Christian missionaries have given in Africa must be placed the disparagement of their gospel by the contrast between white rum dis- tributors and temperate Moslem traders. In Asia the case is even more acute. Japan is proud of her “modernization.” But there are phases of her copying after western modes which fill thinking Japa- nese with dismay. Foremost among these is the rapid rise of her liquor traffic. Japan had forms of alcoholic stimulation before Commodore Perry forced open her doors 77 years ago. But Japan had no such commercialized traffic in liquors, [ 167] no such widespread and increasing drunk- enness as today constitutes a social prob- lem of the first order. All this has come in the train of the westerner. Some day Japan will repudiate it together with some other western gifts. Except in the port cities the rapacity of foreign liquor interests has made little impression on the settled sobriety of the Chinese. The poverty of China’s masses may have had something to do with this; a people who live so close to want offer little attraction to the industrial pirate. But it has been enlightening to see to what extent foreign interests have tried to encourage a liquor trade in China. Wherever foreign colonies or concessions have been established, there have been erected breweries and distilleries and all the paraphernalia of the traffic. All the world knows that liquor is to- day one of the fighting issues in India. It knows that Mahatma Gandhi has made the establishment of national prohibition one of the planks in the Nationalist plat- form on which he will not yield. It knows that tens of thousands of Indian women and girls, thrusting aside the taboos of purdah, have undertaken the picketing of the liquor shops. It knows that the British government has been reduced to defending the traffic solely on the basis of the revenue involved. As a result, the Nationalist demand for a free India now includes within its meaning an India free from this debasing commerce. More than three years ago “Pussy- foot” Johnson pointed out in these col- umns these disquieting facts: In every nation on earth where the drink traffic is in power, there you will find a ‘Chris- tian’ nation, and in nearly every case some form of Christianity is actually the state church. More than that, every nation that is now foist- ing the drink upon a people against their will is a ‘Christian’ nation. Every mandate given by the League of Nations for the government of a ‘child race’ has been given to a ‘Christian’ power. In every case this mandate has been used to exploit the people in the interest of the liquor traffic and over the protests of the people governed. There are over 700,000,000 people in the world whose religion is aggressively for total abstinence ‘Christian’ nations have gone among these people with ships and can- non compeling them to submit to the intro- duction and encouragement of drink. And after having conquered these races and intro- duced the drink traffic into every corner of the world, they credit this accomplishment to the ‘Christian’ civilization ! This, in its main outlines, is the record. It is not a pleasant record to contemplate. 168 One wonders, for example, whether the Moslem slave merchant in Africa, against whom the power of all the rest of the world has been mobilized, has done greater social damage than the Christian rum distributor. Has there been more human debasement in the idolatry of Japan and India than in the ravaging of the youth of those two lands by alco- hol? And as one contemplates the awful destruction which has followed in the wake of the white man’s liquor and its derivative excesses, it is not hard to un- derstand why a sensitive soul like Dr. Albert Schweitzer should feel himself under moral bonds to enter the equato- rial jungle in order, at his hospital in Lambarene, to make a sort of racial ex- piation. ‘THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION The physical and moral disintegration which liquor exported from western lands has wrought all over Asia and Africa and the islands of the seas constitutes a moral indictment against the nations of the West. It imposes solemn obligations. The past cannot be wiped out. The wrong that has been done cannot be undone. But the further exploitation of these people in the interests of this murderous traffic can be stopped. The West can give proof of its genuine sorrow for the damage which it has fostered in the past by pro- viding that there shall be no further damage of that sort in the future. The growth of an international conscience de- mands this. The prohibition of the manufacture, sale, transportation, or exportation of in- May, 1931 toxicants by citizens of the United States has proved an effectual method whereby this nation has extricated itself from this miserable business. Other nations may follow other methods; that is for them to decide. It is enough for us that our method has succeeded. Under the terms of the Eighteenth Amendment America is no longer joining in the debauchery of the emerging peoples. Let those who would weaken or destroy that Amend- ment realize that they would thereby not only let loose a horde of new evils on our own soil, but they would put this nation immediately back into the business of ex- porting death to lands that look to us for leading—From the Christian Century, April 1, 1931. Denver, May 23, 1930. February 26, 1931. HOME AND SCHOOL STAND TOGETHER \ N y® REAFFIRM our stand in favor of the Eighteenth Amendment and of the Volstead Act and other laws enacted thereunder, and urge their vigorous and impartial enforcement.—Resolution adopted by National Congress of Parents and Teachers, The National Education Association reaffirms its stand in favor of the Eighteenth Amendment and of the laws enacted thereunder. It urges their vigorous and impartial enforcement and pledges its support to an active educational campaign in the schools in behalf of habits of living for which the Eighteenth Amendment stands.—Resolution adopted by the National Education Association, Columbus, July 3, 1930. We recognize the baneful effects of the use of alcohol as a beverage upon the human organism and upon the morale of our citizenry. We believe that this fact should be im- pressed lipon the children and youth of our landandthatthis responsibility rests especially upon teachers. We reaffirm our belief in the Eighteenth Amendment as the most effec- tive means yet devised to curtail the distribution and use of alcohol. We, therefore, call upon teachers to cultivate both by their personal attitude and their direct teaching a re- spect for this law as well as for all other laws of our country.—Resolution adopted by the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association, Detroit, The T IS THE CONTENTION of opponents I of the present radio policy that there is being built up in this country an interlocking oligarchy of favored bank- ing interests, power companies, public utilities companies, electric equipment manufacturers, wire and wireless com- munication companies, talking-picture producers and distributors, vaudeville and moving-picture theaters, and broad- casting stations which, once it is legally as it now is financially established, will have a monopoly control of the most effective means of public discussion and propaganda. Once this monopoly is es- tablished, it is claimed, control of the popular mind by the powers which stand behind this monopoly can be maintained virtually without challenge. Are we to have freedom of the air? Or are we not? I have spoken of the radio industry as a giant. How big a giant is it? The answer seems to be that it is so big a giant that nobody has yet been able to measure its size with absolute certainty. And every financial estimate advanced needs to be accom- panied by a statement making clear what is included. Thus, on the occasions of his appearances before various governmental investigating bodies, Oswald F. Schuette, executive secretary of the Radio Protec- tive Association—the organization of in- dependent manufacturers of radio equip- ment—has been in the habit of referring to the “radio trust” as a six-billion-dollar combine, much to the annoyance of the officers of the Radio Corporation of America. What Mr. Schuette has had in mind, as he has explained when pressed, is the combined assets of the companies behind the R. C. A.—General Electric, Westinghouse, Western Electric, Amer- ican Telephone & Telegraph, United Fruit, R. C. A.-Victor, General Motors. A recent article in the New York Times, explaining the newly awakened interest of John D. Rockefeller, jr., in the industry, states that the expenditure for radio instruments in 1929 was ap- proximately $850,000,000. If the radio Freedom of the Air industry is interpreted to mean the man- ufacture and use of all products which are dependent on the vacuum tube and N THE FACE OF THE SITUA- TION it is inevitable that we cannot mix education and | commercial stations on the same frequency. That isn’t an opinion; it is based upon plenty of evidence. Our good commercial friends tell us they are willing to devote some of their time to educational work. That is probably true, but they do it, of course, not from a missionary point of view, not from a standpoint of educa- tion per se or their interest in it, but because it builds up goodwill and indirectly influ- ences the returns from their commercial work.—Charles A. Culver, Carleton College, rep- resenting the Ass’n of College and University Broadcasting Stations, at the Chicago Radio Conference, Oct. 13, 1930. the photo-electric cell, then the annual volume becomes much larger. Probably ‘the best estimate available of this total business is that made by O. H. Caldwell, a former member of the Federal Radio Commission. Mr. Caldwell holds that the annual expenditure for all forms of radio equipment in the United States reaches the stupendous sum of $1,142,000,000! No wonder that Mr. Rockefeller is in- terested in such an industry to the ex- tent of building for it a headquarters costing $250,000,000 and covering three blocks in the heart of New York City. The value of wave lengths has never been commercially determined, but if a vested right in a wave length could be established—it being remembered that there are only 90 available channels, or r THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS are going to be thrown on the mercies of the Federal Radio Commis- sion, we can’t make a beginning. So far as my experience has gone, we can’t even get the Commission | to acknowledge receipt of letters. It may be that some commercial programs are educational and that some educational programs are commercial. But the subject is clearly different—Herman G. James, president, University of South Dakota, at the Chicago Radio Conference, October 13, 1930. [ 169] wave lengths, in the broadcasting band— the value would certainly be very large. Hundreds of broadcasting stations have already definitely ceased to function, while there are many more which are broadcasting barely enough to hold their licenses. Contrasted with this disappearance of units on the “independent” side of the radio situation is the rapid growth of the resources and interests on the “trust” side. The “radio trust” is the Radio Corporation of America, a child, as has been seen, of General Electric, Westinghouse, and A. T. & T. But R. C. A.—to give it its customary trade name—has in its own turn become a parent. It has, for example, given birth to the National Broadcasting Company, with its “red” and “blue” chains. It has acquired the largest share of the coun- try’s vaudeville, Radio-Keith-Orpheum, and thru Radio Pictures and _ the recent purchase of Pathé it is moving into the king row in the motion-picture industry. Radio-Victor has the lion’s share of the phonograph record busi- ness. R.C.A.Photophone practically con- trols the manufacture and distribu- tion of the equipment which makes pos- sible the talking pictures. Radio Music is a new subsidiary, and is seeking to dominate the popular music trade. Gen- eral Motors Radio, one of the latest de- velopments, combines the immense re- sources of the two corporations named for the manufacture of radio equipment in automobiles and receiving sets. The full list of subsidiaries of R. C. A. must now reach to at least 20 corporations. When it is noted how large a portion of the “propaganda” agencies in a coun- try—press, pulpit, school, stage, screen, radio, popular music—is included in this R. C. A. business empire, the social im- portance of the issue here discussed will be clear——From an article by Paul Hutchinson in the Christian Century, March 11, 1931, the first of seven. on “The Freedom of the Air” to appear in that periodical. Jacksonville, Alabama Lonnie G. McPherson Natchitoches, La. Jack R. Gamble Newark, New Jersey Isabel O. Harvey Edmond, Oklahoma Harland B. Mitchell Commerce, Texas Troy C. Bond Bellingham, Wash. Charles H. Dowell Presidents of 1931 Senior Classes in Our Profes: Arkadelphia, Arkansas San Francisco, Calif. Albion, Idaho De Kalb, Illinois Macomb, Illinois Lyle Brown Myrtle H. Saxe Ross V. Freer John Robert Wise Ada Burkholder & es , : 3 Boston, Massachusetts Boston, Massachusetts Salem, Massachusetts Kalamazoo, Michigan Mt. Pleasant, Mich. Catherine A. Keniry Rosemarie Neagle Barbara T. Nutter Frank Householder George N. Lauer Trenton, New Jersey Silver City, N. Mex. Albany, New York Brockport, New York Fredonia, New York Maurice Mershon M . L. Casey Russell W. Ludlum Chester Casey Lloyd Bremer \ La Grande, Oregon Monmouth, Oregon Bloomsburg, Penn. Clarion, Penn. East Stroudsburg, Pa. Hazle M. Williamson Robert E. Lewis James B. Davis Wm. H. Flanagan ¥. llen i THE RESPONSIBILITIES of educational, civic, 2 their associates, numbering tens of thousands, women are, what they believe, what they do—their citizenship, their willingness to take responsible ‘le La at Denton, Texas Huntsville, Texas Emmett L. Yant Doyle Coe implies, their power to grow—are supremely imp It would be well if, during his senior year, every can in state and national associations the meaning of part profession. The member of a senior class who be activities of the educational leaders in his state an to build his own professional life. He is more likely professional achievement with such a background of Eau Claire, Wis. La Crosse, Wisconsin Arthur L. Anderson Gordon Hulnink [170] Cedar Falls, Iowa Hays, Kansas Pittsburg, Kansas Bowling Green, Ky. Murray, Kentucky Richmond, Kentucky Emmett Van Cable Lawrence Saylor Floyd W. Ooley G. Robert Boyd Herbert Allbritten Floyd Gaines Mankato, Minnesota Jefferson City, Mo. Maryville, Missouri Warrensburg, Mo. Kearney, Nebraska Jersey City, N. J. Carl E. Frankson A. Leedy Campbell Lois Ann Carroll Robert H. Clark S. L. McCaig Angela C. O'Brien Plattsburg, New York Greenville, N. Carolina Minot, North Dakota Valley City, N. Dak. Cleveland, Ohio Alva, Oklahoma Claude A. Wood Martha Whitehurst Edwin Roedel Jacob Carlson Ethel Sears J. Allen Murry ¥ - . Shippensburg, Penn. Slippery Rock, Penn. West Chester, Penn. Providence, R. I. Johnson City, Tenn. Canyon, Texas Cyrus L. Oyer Henry Ott Robert H. Ax M. Alice Gore Frank Bryant Bartow Johnson vic, and moral leadership these chosen citizens and inds, are about to enter. What these young men and their art in life, their skill in service, their ideals of le leadership which the high office of teacher clearly a Nacogdoches, Texas Castleton, Vermont East Radford, Va. Bryan Maxey Vera Inez Putney Mildred C. Logan - candidate for teaching learned by actual membership | Srrtii | important to the happiness and advance of America. f participation and cooperation in the world’s greatest o becomes familiar with the names and ideals and e and in the nation has a good foundation upon which ikely to translate the promise of college days into sound id of aims and accomplishments.—Joy Elmer Morgan. — — Menomonie, Wis. Platteville, Wis. Stevens Point, Wis. Paul L. Schoenoff Lowell Kindschi Fred A. Hebal [171] Schools That Are Prophecies OU ASKED if it can be done. I can VY ua you one thing—if you do not try you will never know.”—Charles H. Judd, University of Chicago. The information on this page is gath- ered from letters, educational magazines, bulletins from state, city, and county departments of education, and the like. Will you not help by sending in brief descriptions of the best practises? Such cooperation from many readers in schools of all types is invited. Elementary schools—The division of art education of the Baltimore schools maintains a series of two traveling ex- hibits of pupils’ work in art, one exhibit available outside of Baltimore on re- quest, the other sent out in exchange for similar exhibits of work from cooperat- ing cities. A new course in health education for all grades in elementary schools, expos- ing deceptive medicinal advertising and quackeries of various kinds, is being in- augurated in New York City. High schools—Redmond, Washing- ton, high school has a weekly program of vocational addresses during assembly followed by personal conferences with students. An evening class for adults is spon- sored by the high-school agriculture de- partment of Brookings, South Dakota. Colleges—Taking the position that the degree of bachelor of arts should be conferred only on those who have dem- onstrated the capacity for independent creative work, all work in the senior col- lege of the University of Buffalo will be conducted on the tutorial plan. Vassar College has adopted a plan of group insurance for its faculty and ad- ministrative staff. Morris Harvey College at Barbours- ville, West Virginia, instituted a People’s College this year for persons over 18 years of age. Some of the basic ideas are the same as in Danish folk-schools. Universities—The Municipal Uni- sity of Wichita, Kansas, offers a four- year course in aviation engineering. The entire athletic system of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania has been sub- jected to sweeping changes in an effort to eliminate overemphasis from competi- tive sports. A new course to encourage social poise in students of Temple University, Phila- delphia, is being inaugurated. A weekly radio singing hour, spon- sored by the University of Nebraska in cooperation with the state department of public instruction, is the first attempt to teach Nebraska rural children by radio. Spring concerts in county-seat towns follow the eleven weekly broad- casts; a statewide chorus at Lincoln will be held in the fall. An extension school conducted by the School of Mines of West Virginia Uni- versity enrols nearly 1200 men in the various coal fields representing 34 oc- cupations connected with the mining in- dustry. Teachers colleges and normal schools — Students of Northwestern State Teachers College, Oklahoma, have organized a gliders club to teach the art of flying. Iowa State College announces a new course of psychology and sociology,. on such subjects as the mother-in-law, the favorite child, spiritual development of individuals within the family, and the attitude of parents toward children. City departments of education— Teachers in Cedar City schools, Iron District, Utah, donate one day’s salary each month to hire unemployed men to beautify the school grounds, make scen- ery for school stages, etc. Teachers in Fargo, North Dakota, are required to furnish satisfactory health certificates once a year—a progressive step for safeguarding teachers and chil- dren. Cleveland, Ohio, is reducing mate- rially the cost of high-school graduation by eliminating many special features characteristic of such exercises in former years. The first thorough-going recreational program that has been adopted for peo- ple of all ages in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, has its beginnings in the opening of five junior high schools for such rec- reational and instructional activities as the communities may desire. County departments of education —The rural schools of Grand Forks County, North Dakota, are sponsoring a pioneer-day program in which the pio- neers of each school district are honored at a special celebration. After the pro- gram the children continue the work thruout the year by collecting facts con- cerning their own districts, to be com- piled into a county history. [172] Every school district in Buffalo County, South Dakota, has a parent- teacher association organization. In Morgan District, Utah, music in- struction for all children has been placed on a year-round basis. Children in the schools of Dickenson County, Virginia, under direction of the rural-school supervisor, assembled and dramatized traditional stories and bal- lads from the older members of their families, centering about the typical life experience of early settlers. State departments of education— Wisconsin, Delaware, and Maryland are the only states which have statewide supervision of rural schools; in Cali- fornia, New Jersey, and Connecticut it is practically statewide. Thirteen states have no county supervisors, according to U. S. Office of Education Bulletin 1930, No. 31. For the benefit of teachers, librarians, and others the state historical society of Wisconsin has prepared a suggested list of subjects of which photographs ought to be preserved for historical reasons. The Pennsylvania state department of public instruction has prepared a bulle- tin setting forth suggestions for vitalized commencements in secondary schools. The tentative plan is for ten years, out- lined to coincide as far as possible with the seven cardinal principles of educa- tion. Other topics as they relate to Pennsylvania are: industry, commerce, agriculture, one hundred years of public education, recreational opportunities, social welfare, natural resources, etc. Teachers associations—The teacher welfare committee of the Utah Educa- tion Ass’n is making a special study of group insurance. The California Teachers Ass’n has a legislative committee which studies all measures covering education presented in the state legislature. The committee’s approval or ‘disapproval of legislation is brought to the attention of teachers thru the state education journal. Grant County ,Washington, Principals Ass’n is conducting a survey of English usage in the county. A new project this year by the educa- tional council of the Iowa State Teachers Ass’n is the securing of information re- garding independent studies of a research nature made in schools thruout the state. of - fA SS ef AO hh P Oe The United States Office of Education To SILK STOCKINGS IN FORTY-FIVE YEARS— Rental, bathing suit $ .45 Stockings 1.50 ee eee 05 Powder puff 05 1 Odyssey Be 1 Gates Psychology ; 1.35 Uncle Sam paid for those items. They were on the expense account of a girl of Russian and Eskimo parentage. Yes, Uncle Sam rented a bathing suit for an Eskimo! She was born in Alaska but she is now | in the United States, studying in a west- ern teachers college, and the federal gov- ernment is paying part of her expenses with the assurance that she will return north wellprepared to train the children of her people. Forty-five years ago, when the Office of Education first was given responsibil- ity for education in Alaska, this girl’s Eskimo forebears lived in damp, odor- ous skin huts with windows made of stretched intestines. Moreover, her Es- kimo grandparents were dying from slow starvation that accompanies a diminish- ing food supply when the Office of Edu- cation, to save them, introduced 1280 reindeer. Those reindeer have increased to 700,000 animals which now support half the native population of Alaska. To enable Eskimos and Indians to compete with the white man, the Office of Education introduced schools. In 93 schools nearly 200 teachers are now training 4000 children of natives scat- tered over a territory twice the size of Texas. Natives are becoming teachers. Klawock School, the second largest for natives in Alaska, is entirely manned by native teachers. Almost an entire people has been moved up from nomadism to civilization, one complete stage in 45 years. To its 4000 Alaskan native pupils the Office of Education bade goodby on March 16, for on that date the Alaska Division was transferred to the Indian Service. With the transfer the Office of Educa- tion is restored to its true function—re- search in education and collection of sta- tistics. Its task finished in Alaska, the Office drops its administrative functions that ill became a federal educational bu- reau in a democracy, to concentrate its energy on studies which enable states, territories, and communities to solve their local problems. School finance survey—A third great “expedition” into the unknowns of education in the United States will be rk. FrepericK J. KEtty, higher education, cago, has been named chief of the Section of professor of University of Chi- Colleges and Professional Schools, United States Office of Education, to succeed Dr. Arthur J. Klein, who is now professor of school administration, Ohio State University. launched in June when the Office of Education begins a National Survey of School Finance. This study to discover exactly how and where America spends the $3,000,000,0U0 it annually pays for public education was authorized by the last Congress which appropriated $50,- 000 for the first year’s work. The sur- vey will probably extend over four years and cost $350,000. It will be, in the main, an educator- less educational survey in respect to the personnel of the advisory committee which will be recruited from state tax commissions, finance staffs, and taxpay- ers’ associations. There will also be representatives of the state superin- tendents and city superintendents, as well as college professors of educational administration and finance. One factor which prompted Commis- sioner Cooper to recommend school finance as the next national survey was the National Education Association re- search study which revealed that 84 per- cent of school legislation in 44 states in 1930-31 dealt with school revenue and [173] taxation. Yet basic comparative data to guide the respective legislatures in draft- ing and deciding on the school finance legislation are sadly wanting. Forthcoming publications—Educa- tional Boards and Foundations, Bulletin 1931, No. 20. This is Chapter X XI of the Biennial Survey of Education for 1928- 30. It reveals that educational boards and foundations are making increasingly large contributions to American educa- tion, public and private [5 cents]. Art Education, Bulletin 1931, No. 20. This is Chapter VIII of the Biennial Survey. Royal Bailey Farnum, the author, gives not only the highlights in art education during the last two years, but also de- scribes its remarkable growth and di- versification during the last century. H y- giene and Physical Education, Bulletin 1931, No. 20, Chapter X of the Bi- ennial Survey. Outstanding recent devel- opments in public school medical and dental work, health and physical educa- tion, athletics, research in play, etc., are reviewed by Dr. J. F. Rogers and Dr. Marie M. Ready, both of the Office of Education [5 cents]. A Symposium on Home and Family in a Changing Civili- zation, Bulletin 1931, No. 5. “Children come into the world at considerable ex- pense, contribute little or nothing to the family income, and, at present price levels for food and clothing, represent a serious outlay of capital.” This and other straight-from-the-shoulder facts came out in a joint regional meeting of home economics leaders, sociologists, psychol- ogists, college presidents, and deans of education called at Ames, Iowa, by the Commissioner of Education. The revi- sion of home economics courses to meet new social needs suggested by Dr. W. H. Lancelot, and three other papers are printed in the symposium [10 cents]. New bulletins—Medical Education, Bulletin 1931, No. 20, Chapter XV of the Biennial Survey. “There is growing appreciation,” says Dr. Willard C. Rap- pleye, the author, “that medical educa- tion must be integrated more closely with general education on the one hand and the medical needs of the community on the other.” This review lists medical schools in the United States [5 cents]. Bibliography on the Honor System and Academic Honesty in American Schools and Colleges, Pamphlet No. 16, 1930 [5 cents ].—William D. Boutwell. The Nationwide School Printing Project OR SEVERAL YEARS the JOURNAL has spon- sored the Nationwide School Printing Project in order to encourage the art of fine printing and to disseminate each year one great educational ideal. The copy chosen for the 1930-31 project was The Pact of Paris, which is especially fitting at this time. Two copies of each poster from each school have been taken from the files and gathered into two large identical volumes, beautifully bound in library buck- ram. One of these volumes will be presented to former Secretary of State, Honorable Frank B. Kellogg, who was so largely respon- sible for the adoption of the Pact by leading nations. The other volume will be kept on display at the headquarters office of the Na- tional Education Association. The quality of craftsmanship exhibited in the posters submitted in this project was higher than ever before. Posters by each of the schools listed on this page are fine ex- amples of the printing art. Many of the schools printed a sufficient supply of posters to supply the schools of their respective cities. The Pact of Paris has thus been placed in hundreds of schoolrooms. The schools whose posters de- serve special mention are listed below. The uniformly high quality of these posters made it seem undesirable to attempt to select the best posters from this list. High Schools ALABAMA Birmingham, Paul Hayne School, R. F. Jarvis, principal, H. C. Elliott, teacher of printing. Mobile, Murphy High School, K. J. Clark, prin- cipal, R. D. Houser, teacher of printing. ARIZONA Bisbee, Bisbee High School, J. A. Diffin, principal, Harry G. Thompson, teacher of printing. Phoenix, Phoenix Union High School, E. W. Mont- gomery, superintendent, Harry L. Crockett, teacher of printing. CALIFORNIA Berkeley, Berkeley High School, C. L. Beiden- bach, principal, Guy F. Street, teacher of printing; Garfield Junior High School, D. L. Hennessy, prin- cipal, S. J. Leland, teacher of printing. Inglewood, Inglewood High School, George M. Green, principal, Fred T. Travis, teacher of printing. Los Angeles, Frank Wiggins Trade School, How- ard A. Campion, principal, John M. Murray, teacher of printing; Riis High School, Homer K. Watson, principal, A. C. Krupar, teacher of printing. San Francisco, Presidio Junior High School, C. A. Anderson, principal, Walter E. Brock, teacher of printing. ILLINOIS Chicago, Senn High School, D. M. Davidson, prin- cipal, Martin H. Kehoe, teacher of printing. Rockford, Rockford Senior High School, James E. Blue, principal, George A. Berg, teacher of printing. INDIANA Fort Wayne, Central High School, Fred H. Cro- ninger, principal, W. W. White, teacher of printing. Gary, Horace Mann High School, Charles D. Lutz, principal, Otto Reising, teacher of printing. KANSAS Salina, Salina High School, W. W. Waring, prin- cipal, W. H. Woodhouse, teacher of printing. KENTUCKY Covington, Holmes High School, John L. Goble, principal, Henry A. Breucker, teacher of printing. MAINE Portland, Portland High School, Arthur W. Lowe, principal, Cecil C. Farrar, teacher of printing. THE PACT OF PARIS ARTICLE I.— The High Contracting Par- ties solemnly declare, in the names of their respective peoples, that they condemn re- course to war for the solution of interna- tional controversies, and renounce it as an instrument of national policy in their rela- tions with one another. ARTICLE Il. — The High Contracting Par- ties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts, of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means. £83 The young people of the entire civilized world have an interest in thie Pact because it will help to determine their lives. War cxpeoditures require money that might be spent for education and war service de- s@roys the best life in its prime. The Pact was ratitied by all the leading astions and officially inaugurated July 24, 1929, in Washington, D. ( Let every studeat memorize this Pact and resolve to appreciate and un- derstand the gifts of all races and ostivoalities. Future generations may took beck upon this simple document as we now regard the Magns Charta and the Declaration of lndependeace. This Copy was set and printed in the shop of the State Normal School Practical Arts Press, Fitch- burg, Massachusetts. Charles M. Herlihy, principal, State Normal School; Willis B. Anthony, director, Practical Arts Department; Frank S. Livermore, in- structor in printing; Arthur L. Harper, student. MARYLAND Baltimore, Ottmar Mergenthaler School of Print- ing, Allan Robinson, principal, Joseph N. Galley, Ernest F. Homberg, Gerald L. Lund, Theodore A. Sweetland, teachers of printing. MASSACHUSETTS Holyoke, Holyoke Vocational School, Matthew S. Herbert, principal, John K. Magrane, teacher of printing. Wakefield, Wakefield High School, Charles Peterson, principal, S. Morton Sherman, teacher of printing. MICHIGAN Battle Creek, Vocational School, G. G. Price, prin- cipal, L. W. Heydon, teacher of printing. River Rouge, River Rouge High School, H. M. Rosa, principal, R. H. Carrington, teacher of print- ing. — MINNESOTA Chisholm, Junior High School, A. F. Drotning, principal, Earle H. Meyer, teacher of printing. NEW HAMPSHIRE Laconia, Laconia High School, Verne M. Whit- man, headmaster, Rolland R. Gove, teacher of print- ing. NEW JERSEY Audubon, Audubon High School, Grace N. Kramer, principal, Paul M. Dare, teacher of printing. East Orange, East Orange High School, Ralph E. Files, principal, Frederick R. Price, teacher of print- ing. Jersey City, Dickinson High School, F. A. Tib- betts, principal, R. A. Loomis, teacher of printing. Montclair, Montclair High School, Harold A, Fer- guson, principal, Frank A. Baker, teacher of printing. Paterson, Central High School, Joseph F. Manley, principal, Charles E. Temple, teacher of printing; Eastside High School, Francis R. North, principal, Nicholas Ihrman, teacher of printing; Public School Number 4, H. Cornish, principal, W. Smith, teacher of printing; School Number 10, Earl W. [ 174 ] * Barnes, principal, Henry L. Bissett, teacher of print- ing; School Number 15, William H. Wilson, prin- cipal, Michael Greengrass, teacher of printing. Rahway, Rahway High School, Eugene G. Smeath- ers, principal, Ernest DeWick, teacher of printing. Trenton, Union High School Number 3, Paul Loser, principal, Joseph W. Hills, teacher of printing. NEW YORK , Rochester, Washington Junior High School, George Eddy, principal, George T. Hart, teacher of print- ing. OHIO Akron, Central High School, Curtis Bowman, prin- cipal, Rupert Jones, teacher of printing; East High School, O. C. Hatton, principal, Frank D. Grant, teacher of printing; Fraunfelter School, Miss House- holder, principal, Ben Hurst, teacher of printing; Garfield High School, A. D. Ladd, principal, M. A. Clark, teacher of printing; Hower Trade School, H. M. Jellison, principal, Rupert Jones, teacher of printing; North High School, Hugh R. Smith, prin- cipal, T. E. Cutler, teacher of printing; South High School, C. E. Bryant, principal, L. W. Cole, teacher of printing; West High School, John W. Flood, prin- cipal, Howard A. Sargent, teacher of printing. Cleveland, John Adams High School, E. E. Butter- field, principal, M. J. Eck, teacher of printing. Columbus, Central High School, W. M. Townsend, principal, George Anderson, teacher of printing. _ Youngstown, East High School, J. W. Smith, prin- cipal, Stewart M. Seidel, teacher of printing. OKLAHOMA Okmulgee, Okmulgee High School, Guy B. Blakey, principal, T. M. Shearer, teacher of printing. Shawnee, Senior High School, C. F. Bradshaw, principal, Walter L. Ross, teacher of printing. OREGON The Dalles, The Dalles High School, K. R. Blakes- lee, principal, W. R. Buchanan, teacher of printing. PENNSYLVANIA Abington, Abington High School, Joseph C. Wei- rick, principal, Emelus G. Wortman, teacher of print- ing. Williamsport, Thaddeus School, H. E. Stabler, teacher of printing. Stevens principal, Junior High C. A. Weaver, RHODE ISLAND East Providence, Alfred J. Maryott, teacher of printing. Central Junior High School, principal, Hubert A. Slater, TEXAS Beaumont, Senior High School, E. C. McDanald, principal, R. G. Babb, teacher of printing. El Paso, Vocational School, J. T. Reynolds, prin- cipal, W. Van Gasbeck, teacher of printing. WASHINGTON Spokane, North Central High School, F. G. Ken- nedy, principal, E. E. Green, teacher of printing. WISCONSIN Milwaukee, Boys’ Technical High School, James L. Cox, principal, Maynard R. Stewart, teacher of print- ing. Other Schools ILLINOIS Chicago, School of Apprentices, R. R. Donnelley and Sons Company, Logan Anderson, supervisor of training, Otto Forkert, A. H. Schlag, Jerry Stepanek, James Varallo, teachers of printing. MASSACHUSETTS Fitchburg, State Normal School, Charles M. Her- lihy, principal, Frank S. Livermore, teacher of print- ing. SOUTH DAKOTA Brookings, South Dakota State College, A. A. Applegate, department head, G. Lynn Hollen, in- structor in typography. Mental Health in the Classroom Everyday Problems of the Everyday Child’ HE TEACHER’S RESPONSIBILITY in | ming the personality of the child is second only to that of the parent. The teacher is not infrequently called upon to act both as moral advisor and as educational director. The school often seems to the child a God-given refuge, and the teacher a kind and sympathetic counselor. One need not be a profound student of education to ap- preciate the magnitude of the teacher’s task and the difficulties under which she has to labor. The teacher is confronted with the problem of dealing with a group of in- dividuals whose intellects, emotions, and volitions are all as varied and con- stantly changing as human life itself. These varied and ever-changing emo- tions of humanity must pass thru the same mill. The teacher tries to devise a daily routine that will best serve the largest number; but she often finds it impossible to meet the individual needs of some children who do not lend them- selves to education on the plan of mass production. The task of the teacher would be difficult enough were she concerned only with the intellectual side of the child’s life, but the teacher who is to play the part of friend and counselor has also many other problems to meet. She cannot let the child pass by whose emotional life is twisted and warped by unhappy environmental situations, whose lack of interest in his studies is, perhaps, due to fear or worry. She has learned, from her own experience, that sullenness, resentfulness, deception, and often the more serious types of delin- quency, can be understood and corrected only when they are interpreted in terms of the child’s experiences and his re- lationships outside the school. The prob- lems are all fairly welldefined and it may be but a matter of securing time to get parental cooperation to work them out satisfactorily. But there are innumerable other situations, problems that are vague and intangible, which she is called upon to meet daily. New ‘This article is reprinted from Everday Prob- lems of the Everyday Child, the chapter on “Teacher and Pupil,” by Dr. Douglas A. Thom, published by D. Appleton & Company, New York City, and is used by courteous permission of the publisher. Douc.ias A. THom Director, Habit Clinics of Boston and baffling character traits are con- stantly presenting themselves in the various members of the heterogeneous group of the classroom. In one child a friendly, cooperative spirit is replaced by negativism, or perhaps by shyness. Another child becomes tremendously concerned to receive approbation at every turn, while his neighbor develops an attitude of indifference toward praise or blame. One group of pupils, whom she looks upon as belonging to the pur- poseful type, is primarily concerned with the objective for which they are working and willing to undergo the nec- essary hardships in attaining the goal; while, in contrast to this group, are always some who take an interest only in pursuits that give them satisfaction. These are only a few of the individual and group problems with which the teacher has to deal. Such are the re- sponsibilities that the parents turn’ over to the teacher. It is not necessary to call your attention to the fact that the person who assumes these obligations and who measures up to the demands that are made of her, must be superior in many ways. Not only must she know the subject that she is teaching but she must also know the individuals whom she is teaching. As the physician no longer treats disease but the person who is suffering from the disease, so the teacher is more concerned with teaching the pupil than the subject. The teacher, in order to conserve her mental energy, must be so stabilized that she will not suffer a nervous col- lapse when she finds some obscene note a student has written. She must appre- ciate the fact that stealing, lying, tru- ancy, and other asocial types of con- duct are not evidences of moral degra- dation; they are symptoms that occur in the life of many children in the process of growing up. It is the underlying factors, whether they be intellectual, physical, or environmental, that produce these symptoms, with which we are most concerned. The teacher has an opportunity that is given to no other professional group to save many children from drifting into irresponsible, shiftless, asocial, and often delinquent tendencies. This may not be an inopportune time to point [175] out the importance of cooperation be- tween parents and teachers. Often par- ents do not have sufficient interest in the school life of their children; or they feel that the children are too busy, for they entertain the idea that they would be intruding if they became too much concerned about their activities at school. Another group of parents of the hypercritical type is extremely ambitious for their children and some- what envious of the intellectual prog- ress of their neighbors’ children. They develop an antagonism toward the school and the teacher which has no basis in fact. Teachers, thru lack of understanding of the heavy responsibilities that many mothers have to carry in looking after a household with three or four children, to say nothing of the marital and eco- nomic difficulties with which they have to contend, develop an unsympathetic and hostile attitude which cannot help being reflected in their bearing toward the child. In fact, it is always the child who suffers most from the emotional conflicts of adults. We must keep in mind that if the child learns that he can play the teacher against the parent and rush from the discipline of the school to the oversolicitude of the home, he will not be likely to conform to the routine of school life with the same spirit as if he knew that parent and teacher stood together in matters concerning his wel- fare. A whole volume might be written on this subject which might be sum- marized in the statement that for par- ents and teachers to cooperate and not to compete is to the interest of the child. Perhaps the most common problem that concerns the child, the parent, and the teacher is that of the child’s failure to meet the academic requirements of the school. This is often caused by failure on the part of the school author- ities to determine the intellectual load that the child is capable of carrying. In both private and public schools many children are making an attempt to per- form intellectual tasks that are well be- yond the limits of their capacity. The following case is a good example of what is meant. Robert, a boy ten years of age, was in the third grade of a private school and was doing 176 poor work. He had been encouraged and tutored, finally pushed, prodded, and ridiculed in an attempt to improve his scholastic stand- ing. His mother was called to the school and told by one of the faculty that there was no excuse for his failure; that he had a brilliant mind. Careful physical examination, with the history of the boy’s ability to adjust the every- day problems of life, his previous medical history, which included convulsions at an early age, and a psychological examination all indicated that the boy had rather an inferior intellectual equipment; and, in view of his in- tellectual limitations, one was surprised to find that he had succeeded as well as he had in school. In this particular case the diagnosis did not please the parents. He was sent back to school and more pressure was exerted, until he finally had to give up, completely broken down in health. Here we find overambitious parents, illadvised by school authorities, and the unfortunate boy suffering the consequences. All children who fail at school, how- ever, are not inferior intellectually. Not infrequently, in spite of efforts on the part of the teacher and a kind, sympa- thetic attitude on the part of the par- ents, continued failure in_ scholastic endeavors and humiliation before the other students produce a state of mind T HE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL E DUCATION AssociaTIo ION where intellectual accomplishment and a satisfactory social adjustment are well- nigh impossible. Joseph, a boy twelve years of age, came under my observation because of a rather marked, though gradual, change in his attitude towards his parents and the other children in the household. He became extremely domi- neering and disagreeable toward those whom he felt to be his inferiors, and whining, fault- finding, and irritable toward his parents. He was so unbearable with the other children of the neighborhood that they began to avoid him. These undesirable traits had become manifest only during the past two years. In searching for some environmental cause for his discon- tented, unhappy, resentful attitude toward life and particularly towards his family, we find that for the past three years he had been fail- ing in school. With the aid of tutors during summer vacations and in extra hours outside of school he had just been able to make the grade. The teachers were discouraged and pessimistic. In spite of their efforts, they felt they had accomplished little during the past two years. He was looked upon as a pupil with a “poor mind’’—intellectually inferior. Others thought he was stubborn and that his inability to concentrate was more or less voluntary. To be sure the boy had been handicapped in his school work because of absences due to illness but there was a ques- M* Day ror HeattH—The whole question of child health involves a balanced view of the child as a | potential adult, capable perhaps of the highest achievements. He should be strengthened, fortified, and guided into a state of complete physical, mental, and moral wellbeing. It is his natural heritage—dgive it to him. He is free, then, to achieve his whole destiny. May Day is becoming traditionally a national child health day. In medieval England, May Day was a May, 1931 tion of whether much of his illness was not of a functional nature and utilized to get out of a difficult situation. His psychological examination was sum- marized as follows: Keen, quick-witted, intelli- gent boy, good comprehension, superior mem- ory, excellent judgment, with an intelligence quotient of 112. This tended to indicate that his scholastic failure was probably not due to intellectual defects. It was explained to the boy that he had a good set of tools to work with which he had been using poorly for the past two or three years. Much to his gratification it was decided that it would be to his advantage if he were entered in another school where he could start anew; and this suggestion was also met with enthusiasm by the principal of the school who felt that he was too much of a burden to this class. It was interesting to note the relief this lad experienced when it was ex- plained to him that his failure had not been due to any inherent intellectual defects, that the change in school was to be made immedi- ately, and that there was every reason to expect much better results. His attitude at home and at play changed almost at once. He discarded his sullen, resentful attitude, took on one of good sportsmanship, and within a few months was doing average work in school with considerably less effort and no additional tutoring. [To be concluded in June JourRNAL.] great public holiday when people went “a-frolicking” in the woods, in celebration of the awakening of spring. The Romans in ancient days gathered in processions and danced their joyous way to the Grotto of Egeria. Here high festival reigned in honor of Flora, goddess of the flowers. This May Day the people of the United States are celebrating the eighth National Child Health Day. Sanctioned by President Coolidge, the first of May was proclaimed a day when all people shall bring public attention, upon a national scale, to our child health problems and to the best methods for their solution. In furthering this end, the following May Day creed was written by Herbert Hoover, president of the Amer- ican Child Health Association: The ideal for which we should drive is that there should be no child in America that has not been born under proper conditions, that does not live in hygienic surroundings, that ever suffers from undernutrition, that does not have prompt and efficient medical attention and inspection, that does not receive primary instruction in the elements of hygiene and good health. It is for the reiteration of this creed for the celebration of it, until it shall have become a living fact, that we urge all people to join in the celebration of May Day as Child Health Day. There are hundreds and hundreds of clinics thruout the United States where children may receive free examination and free treatment. Physicians of the American Medical Association and educators of the National Education Association—men and women of national repute—are studying the best methods of teacher training in child health that children may learn to put into actual ome practise the simple, funda- mental rules necessary for building and maintaining good health. The physical problems of childhood involve the whole child. Therefore, one is obliged to consider specif- ically the parts that threaten the harmony and the utility of the entire vital mechanism. Diseased tonsils should be removed, crooked spines straightened, defective vision corrected, malnutrition relieved, not only for the purpose of improving the health of the child, but also to facilitate the normal development of all potential mental, moral, and spiritual phases. Decayed teeth are filled or extracted to improve the character as well as to remove infection. Eye-glasses are advised to promote poise and selfconfidence as well as for a clearer vision. Mental hygiene clinics are rapidly commanding the attention of the parents whose child is incorrigible. In these clinics incorrigibility or criminality is diagnosed and treated as disease.—Mrs. Ernest R. Grant, formerly chairman, Child Health Committee, National Tuberculosis Association; now vice president, District of Columbia Tuberculosis Association. NLY a brief summary of new and () proposed legislation is given in this article. For further material write to the Research Division, National Education Association. School legislation of 1930. Taxation remained the outstanding problem in the financing of schools. In South Carolina, Kentucky, and Mississippi tax legisla- tion was especially aimed at the chain stores. The constitutionality of some of these laws is in question and it re- mains to be seen whether or not the courts will uphold them. Other 1930 tax laws include a tobacco tax and a franchise tax in Mississippi, a new in- heritance tax in New York, taxes on candy, radio sets, malt, and gasoline storage in South Carolina, a tax on the printing and selling of textbooks and a franchise tax in Texas, an excise tax on motor buses in Virginia, and a series of important constitutional amendments in Utah which opens the way for a rather complete reformation of the taxation system in that state. New educational equalization appropriations include one and a quarter million dollars in Ken- tucky, two and a half million in Missis- sippi, and a half million in Virginia. A constitutional amendment in Utah di- rects the legislature to create an equal- izing fund of $750,000. Other important 1930 school laws are the new laws governing tenure in Texas, the lengthened school term in Virginia, and the strengthened attendance laws of West Virginia and Kentucky. Governors’ messages, 1931. Mes- sages which the several incomingandout- going governors recently delivered to 43 state legislatures strike the keynote of the 1931 legislative sessions. These mes- sages, as far as the schools are con- cerned, are of three general types: | 1] those which recommend drastic budgetary and tax cuts, [2] those in which intelli- gent economy, accompanied by adequate financial support for public education, receives favorable consideration, and |3] those which mention the schools only incidentally. Governors of Alabama [outgoing], Delaware, Illinois, Iowa [outgoing], Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsyl- vania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and other states look with favor upon maintaining and even expanding present educational programs. Governor Graves of Alabama states: Current School Legislation present appropriations are far short of our necessities. Alabama will not be true to herself and her own if she does not meet these needs and main- tain this progress. I approve the recom- mendations of the state superintendent of education looking to the accomplish- ment of this end.” Governor Buck of Delaware recommends an appropriation of $3,000,000 for an extensive school- building program during the next two years. Governor Hammill of Iowa states: “. . . state aid to schools has proved a wonderful incentive in local communities to become more liberal in their support of schools. I would sug- gest that the state school fund be in- creased ...” Governor Brucker of Michigan makes the statement, limited in specific application to teacher retire- ment: “It is not true economy when we save at the expense of welldirected edu- cation.” Governor White of Ohio says: “The education of our youth must not suffer by reason of the tax dilemma in which the state finds itself.” Governor Sterling of Texas declares that: “... state institutions of higher learning must be given adequate support.” Governor Conley of West Virginia recommends that the legislature study plans under which the state would assume a larger share in school expenditures. Proposed legislation. Generally speaking, states that find it necessary to increase their budgets for the next one or two years plan to place the additional taxes as much as possible on income and other evidences of ability to pay rather than upon farms and homes. To this end income taxes, franchise taxes, sales taxes, and other indirect taxes are much discussed. Taxes on personal incomes were under consideration in 1931 in Cali- fornia, New Hampshire [defeated], Con- necticut, Idaho | enacted], Illinois, In- diana [defeated], South Dakota, Ver- mont, and West Virginia [passed by House, failed in Senate]. Taxes on cor- porate or business incomes were consid- ered in Indiana, Montana [amendment to present law defeated], Oklahoma [passed by lower house], New Hamp- shire [defeated], South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Utah [passed both houses]. Resolutions submitting to the voters constitutional amendments which permit income taxes were offered in Colorado, Montana [defeated], Minne- sota, Indiana, and Maine. Arizona, [177] North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Okla- homa, and Oregon are considering legis- lation taxing intangibles. Special sales taxes this year are being directed especially at butter substitutes, tobacco, and gasoline. Bills imposing gross sales taxes are before the legisla- tures in Kansas, North Carolina, and Ohio. A tax on retail merchants is being considered in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Colorado. Bills imposing graduated sales taxes are before the North Caro- lina and Minnesota legislatures. It is possible that these last kills are aimed at chain stores. Other states consider- ing bills to tax chain stores are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts [defeated], Montana [defeated], Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Kansas, Oregon, Illinois,and Connecticut. Arizona, Texas, and Wisconsin may consider reorganization in their state departments of education. The legisla- ture in Maine already has before it such a bill. The new school code enacted in Arkansas creates a state commissioner of education—to be chosen by a state board of education of seven members ap- pointed by the governor. In New Mex- ico a similar bill was defeated. The influence of the White House Conference on Child Health and Protec- tion appears in proposed legislation in several states. Connecticut, Kansas, and Texas are considering the establish- ment of commissions or boards for child welfare. A bill in Nebraska to create a child welfare bureau under the state superintendent of public instruction was defeated in the lower house. New Jer- sey, Missouri, and Kansas legislatures have before them bills to create commis- sions for crippled and handicapped chil- dren. Important measures concerned with child labor have appeared in Cali- fornia, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Caro- lina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Ten- nessee, and several other states. Normal difficulties incident to the pas- sage of wise school legislation are this year increased by economic conditions. However, facts at hand indicate that, as far as legislation is concerned, most state school systems are holding ground pre- viously won and in some quarters are actually making substantial gains.—Wil- liam G. Carr, assistant director, Research Division, National Education Associa- tion. Horace Mann and Beverage Alcohol ORACE MANN is a hero among teachers and friends of edu- H cation throughout the world. At atime when schools were poor and people had little appreciation of their real importance, he urged good schools for all with such force and eloquence that he is honored as one of the nation’s builders even as Franklin, Washington, and Lincoln. From the beginning of his career he was a vigorous and outspoken enemy of beverage alcohol. At a meeting of the Ohio State Teachers Association in Columbus in 1856 he was selected to draft a resolution. After pointing out the corrupting influence of intoxicating liquor on the home, on the legislatures, on the courts, and even on the churches, he continued: It is no extravagance to say that the sum-total of prudence, of wisdom, of comfort, of exemplary conduct, and of virtue, would have been today seven-fold what . they are throughout the world but for the existence of intoxicat- ing beverages amon¢ men; and that the sum-total of poverty, of wretchedness, of crime, and of sorrow, would not be one tenth part today what they now are but for the same prolific, over- flowing fountain of evil. Youth, health, strength, beauty, talent, genius, and all the susceptibilities of virtue in the human heart alike perish before it. No one can deny that intemperance car- riesruineverywhere. It reduces the fertile farm to barrenness. It suspends industry in the shop of the mechanic. It banishes skill from the cunning hand of the artisan and artist. It dashes to pieces the locomotive of the engineer. Itsinksthe ship of the mariner. It spreads sudden night over the solar splendors of genius. But nowhere is it so ruinous asin the school and the col- lege, as upon the person and character of the student himself. Creator of evil and destroyer of good, it sends its votaries upon the career of life to suffer where they should have rejoiced, to curse where they should have blessed. | This poster for your classroom is from THE JOURNAL of the National Education Association. Copies on art paper; 20 for $1; $4 per 100; $30 per 1000. No. 20178.] [ 178] promised his father so the evening be- fore on being whipped for taking a dollar out of his father’s trousers pocket. He had told the same to his Aunt Katie when she shook her long finger at him, for taking a package of raisins out of the cupboard. And he had promised his teacher after she caught him going home with a box of colored crayons in his blouse! Never! Never would Jimmie steal again! At this moment he sat in the 1A room, a thin, skinny little boy. It bothered him to see Susie, directly in front of him, fid- geting in her seat and fingering a small coin purse—for this was Bank Day. Of course, to Jimmie, Bank Day was no different from any other day, for he never brought pennies to save. Usually, in the morning when he got up, his father had gone to work. In the evening when the sun was down, his father returned and, in a great hurry, shaved at the broken mirror on the kitchen window, ate his supper, dressed up, and went out somewhere. Once Jimmie had awakened in the middle of the night and there were some ladies laughing aloud and dancing with men, and Jimmie’s father was drink- ing beer and talking to himself. Jimmie was afraid to stay awake that time so he pulled the covers way over and cried himself to sleep. Jimmie never cared much for home, especially at supper time, because it gave his Auntie a chance to tell how he tore his overalls, how he dirtied his blouse, how he would not give Margaret some gum, and made her cry. His Auntie never liked him. That’s why she never gave him pennies. He was such a mean, mean boy! She gave pen- nies only to Margaret, Jimmie’s sweet, smiling, brown-eyed little sister. That was why Jimmie never liked Margaret. He had to give her whatever he had—cray- ons, pencils, scissors, and stuff like that. His mother, Jimmie couldn’t remem- ber her—maybe she would have given Jimmie pennies—but she was always in a hospital in a faraway city. And now Susie’s purse on the desk ahead of him reminded him of pennies. Maybe there was a nickel, or a dime, or two-bits? Must be only a penny, cause Susie’s sleeve was torn. He hadn’t had a penny since the day he took the dollar from his father. My! if would never steal again! He had Two-Bits he had had fun that day! All the “kids” had crowded around him! “Let’s see, Jimmie, how much ya got?” “Come on, Jimmie, gimme a piece.” “Gee, them is good caramels!” “You’re a good kid, Jimmie.” “Don’t ya do it Jimmie, don’t ya give him none!” That was a big day! How kind and polite the store lady had been! Other days she threw him out, even though he only looked in on the agates. But when she spied a whole paper dollar in his skinny little fist, she not only showed him all the candy and agates she had, but took him to the oranges and bananas. His thoughts were interrupted. ‘“‘“Take out your readers,” he heard Miss Taylor say. Automatically, his hands moved to his desk to pull out the only book there, his eyes still fastened on the purse ahead. Maybe there is only one penny! A penny isn’t much! And if she keeps it on top of her desk, maybe there isn’t anything in the purse! While he reasoned thus, he was half conscious that Tony read, and Mamie, and now Johnnie was reading. Where was the place? He looked for the words “said the little red hen” and there were so many “said the little red hen”—really, he must watch his book! Teacher must not see he was in- terested in the purse. She talked so loud yesterday about those crayons. And she always blamed him for everything—even the scissors and he never took them. He left them on his desk and when he came back from lunch, the scissors were gone! His teacher talked and talked and, at last, he just said he took them. Then teacher smiled and said, “Aha, Jimmie, and you know what you promised!” Now, the recess bell! Lines of squirm- ing little bodies stood and passed into the cloakroom and Jimmie did likewise. But the moment he got into his ragged mackinaw and red stocking cap a purse with a penny in it flashed thru his mind. Maybe Susie forgot to take it. His brown, beady little eyes surveyed the hallway and there he spied Miss Taylor in her brown dress at the end of the hall. He rushed back into the room, his heart pounding. Susie’s purse was still on her desk! She should never have left it! Any- body might take it. He was in the room alone. Without further thought, he ran to the seat, snatched the purse, put it [179] into his pocket, and walked out thru the cloakroom door, buttoning up his coat. His heart pounded. You never could tell about a teacher. If she saw you were scared, she knew something was wrong. She might even see the purse right thru your clothes. He walked quickly, and once he nearly knocked a little girl over, because she did not move fast enough. On and on he stumbled, away from school, away from his teacher, away from all the “kids.” Not until he had gone fully two blocks did he dare slacken his pace or turn back to notice whether he was being followed. Out of sight of the school, he could pause to examine his loot! Think of it! A whole two-bits! What could he buy? Some candy . and toys . . . and marbles. With much selfassurance, he opened the door of the corner grocery store and after a long ring the store lady, fat and rosy, came out wiping her hands on her apron. Jimmie beamed at her shyly. Surely she would remember that he had spent a whole dollar in her store! Again he was a customer. He slid against the counter to the candy case. “T want a penny’s worth o’ this and one penny o’ this...” he kept on pointing to various candy trays. The store lady gave Jimmie one hard look and stuck out an accusing fat finger at him. “You! You are a stealer!’ she yelled. “Get out! Wait till I tell your Auntie. She was in here just yesterday. co ee Jimmie was out as quick as a flash. She might catch him and take him back to school or to his Auntie. He skurried along for blocks, like a frightened mouse, the tails of his mackinaw flapping about his knees. Now he was at the drug store. He lessened his pace and looked about There were a few people waiting for the streetcar, but they didn’t notice him. As he opened the door of the drug store, a man was coming toward him rather quickly. He darted instantly to the side and rushed out in a mad run for many blocks. His Auntie must have told everybody about him. Now he was not only frightened but decidedly exhausted, for he must have covered two or three miles running along Lowry Avenue. At last he sat down on the curb to rest. The “Stop-and-Go” sign. 180 THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EpucaTION ASSOCIATION Of course, he was at Central Avenue. Nobody would know him here! He jumped up and his small brown eyes flashed on all sides. He darted for the red front store and walked in cautiously, with one hand in his pocket tightly hold- ing the purse. The store was big and wide and there were many counters chuck full of stuff. He passed indiffer- ently by the handkerchiefs, combs, heads, flowers, and dishes. But ah! the toys! He took each of them in his hand, trying the tops on the floor, tossing the ball in the air, shooting with the gun, and when the clerk with the yellow hair stepped up and said, “Something?’’ he put the toys back on the table and answered, “Nothing.” The moment the clerk turned her back, again he was trying out toys. At last he had it! A pair of opera glasses! They were pretty with their black iims and bright changeable red spots on the round part. He kept look- ing thru them on all sides, until a woman nearly stumbled over him. The floorwalker picked up her parcels from the floor and nodded at the clerk. “Ten cents, please,” she said. He fumbled for the purse, for the stare of the people about made him nervous and reluctantly handed over his two-bits. The clerk wrapped his package and gave him his change. After loitering for many minutes, he discovered the tablets, pencils, erasers, rubberbands, ink. A tablet! A nice thick tablet with a picture of an airplane on the cover. He could draw that airplane when he got home! “How much?” he asked the clerk who was talking and laughing with the next one. ‘Ten cents.” She held it in her hand, without looking at him. He wanted to think more about it, because a dime was a dime, but there was that clerk, holding out her hand for his dime. He gave her the dime and in the next moment, he was carrying a rather large package under his arm. He was very happy now! Oh! The pictures of ships on the ocean and airplanes he would soon be drawing! His teacher never let him make ships or airplanes. He could hardly wait to get home! But there was no pencil at home. He returned to the counter and selected a bright red one and the clerk gave him back only two pennies. At last he was at the candy counter! Such heaps of every kind and only two pennies! He walked back and forth, from one end of the case to the other, before he decided to buy some butter- scotch kisses. He stuffed his mouth full so that his cheeks bulged out and slowly made his way out, a contented shopper, carrying packages and an empty purse in his pocket. It was too late to go back to school. He imagined Susie weeping into her torn sleeve. No one could say that he took it because no one saw him do it. Really, this was the last time! Poor Susie! He would never, never do this again! The next morning he went into his 1A room sheepishly, his little brown eyes peering about at the teacher, at Susie, at the other children. He wondered if any one knew. He hoped that the teacher had not missed him after the recess period. Anyway, he would never take anything again! Really, he would not! It had always made him feel so funny right after he had done it. This was the very last time! The tardy bell rang! The children clamored to their seats, and in a few minutes, the room was quiet. Jimmie was exceedingly restless and very much worried. “Jimmie,” he heard the teacher say, “where were you yesterday after recess?’’ He did not answer. It never occurred to him to prepare an excuse. “Tell me, Jimmie, where were you?” Miss Taylor pressed him. Jimmie stood, leaning against his seat, confused. All the children looked at him with their big eyes. “You may step out into the hall, Jim- mie.’”’ He walked slowly, and his heart pounded fiercely. “Jimmie. Did you taxe Susie’s purse yesterday?” He watched his teacher closely, and when he saw that she looked steadily, right thru him, with her big brown eyes, he nodded his head slowly. “After you promised me, Jimmie, that you would never steal again?” Jimmie did not answer. ‘Where is the money?” “I spent it.” “Where’s the purse?” she asked. “I gave it to Margaret.” He glanced up at Miss Taylor, his small brown eyes seek- ing sympathy. “I always got to give her everything,” he complained. “Why?” “My Auntie makes me. She likes Mar- garet the best.” “Why does she like Mar- garet better?” “I don’t know,” he said, May, 1931 nervously fingering the buttons on his overalls. “Maybe you're not nice to your Auntie? Tell me.” “Aw, I always get the floor dirty when she scrubs.” “Oh!” Miss Taylor’s eyes opened wide. “What else do you do?” “I tore my pants and then she’s got to sew ’em and she gets mad!” “T see! And what does your Daddy say?” “He always licks me. My Auntie tells him to.” Suddenly Jimmie felt Miss Taylor’s arm about his shoulders. “What did you buy, Jimmie?” she asked, in a friendly tone. “Some opera glasses,” he said, shyly. “Opera glasses! Let’s see them.” Jimmie hesitated a moment. He wanted to be sure. Then he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a cheap, poorly made toy. Miss Taylor looked it over carefully. “What else did you buy?” “A big tablet with a airplane, and a pencil, and some candy.” “All for a quarter?” A smile of understanding passed over Miss Taylor’s face. She realized Jimmie’s loneliness, Jimmie’s hungry life. “But Jimmie,” her arm was still about him and now she drew him closer, “you must not take what belongs <7 on won't no more!” Jimmie promised quickly. “I won’t do it no more!” “Jim- mie, don’t you think you should pay Susie back the quarter?” “I ain’t got no more money,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I know it.”’ After a moment’s pause, “I need some one to help me after school today. Would you like to earn some money?” His face brightened, his eyes became alert. ““Yes, Miss Taylor, I'll work for you.” “All right. Today after school. And I'll let you take home some maga- zines with pictures in them for you and Margaret. You know, Jimmie, I had a little brother just like you, but now he’s a big man. And he made:a nice ship out of wood. Would you like to see it?” Jimmie’s face beamed. He was so happy he could not speak. Miss Taylor’s arm around his. neck—his Auntie never did that—a job after school for his teacher, pictures and books for him and Margaret, and a nice wooden ship— maybe he could make one—he just could not say a word! “All right, Jimmie. That’s a bargain!” She led him into the room. You could hear a pin drop, the room was so still, and every eye was on Jimmie. “A Class, you may take out your readers,” Miss Taylor announced. “Open to the ‘Little Red Hen Story,’ and we’ll have Jimmie read first today.”—-Monica Krawczyk. A County School System Meets an Emergency E. $. RICHARDSON Superintendent, Webster Parish schools, Minden, Louisiana (O CLAIM EFFICIENCY, a school sys- [en must do two things well— serve the children of the classroom and serve the community. This dual function cannot be executed successfully where small, separate units of school government exist, controled by separate boards, with ideas and ideals limited and varied. A system of schools of this kind, loosely connected, makes concerted ac- tion at any time next to impossible. In a time of emergency they are helpless. It is impossible to do efficient, countywide team work in a system of schools with- out the help and direction of an efficient central office. To do the best work for both the community and the children thiscentral office should be fully equipped and affiliated closely with all other agen- cies doing countywide extension work. Webster Parish, Louisiana, has this type of school administration, better known as the extreme county unit type. Seven members constitute the school board, with full authority to administer all schools of the parish, both urban and rural, white and colored. It exercises its authority thru its selected executive sec- retary, treasurer, and superintendent, who is bonded and responsible to the board for his stewardship. The members of the board are selected by the people for six years with overlapping terms. Webster Parish is in the northern part of the state, contains 609 square miles, and has a population of 29,460. It lies in the territory that suffered most from the recent severe drought. Feed crops were almost a total failure; acres and acres of corn did not make a grain; a food famine seemed inevitable. Webster’s county unit organization furnished the leadership thru its schools with the as- sistance of allied organizations to help put over a parishwide food conservation program in a short period of sixty days. Fortunately in the late summer and 1 From an address before the Department of Rural Education, Detroit, Michigan, February 24, 1931. early fall there was enough rainfall to produce peas, beans, turnips, etc. The farmers took advantage of this and had ‘HE ScHoot Boarp employs a construc- tion foreman who devotes his entire time to the up-keep of buildings and equipment. Without this parishwide service, including the use of the School Board’s utility truck, the food preservation program could not have been put over with such abundant success. these crops growing in abundance on their farms in October. It would have been a near calamity in the face of the approaching food famine to have had this green food destroyed by frost. On the 20th of October the parish superintendent called into conference the home demonstration agent, employed jointly by the school board and the ex- tension department of the Louisiana State University. A definite, parishwide plan was agreed upon: to assemble at once all steam cookers owned by private individuals in the parish and also to peti- tion the police jury [county court] to order immediately a carload of cans to be distributed to the farmers at cost. The home demonstration agent was to assume supervision of the whole project. Formulas and recipes for canning each particular vegetable were immediately furnished to the school-board office by the agent where they were mimeographed and sent out at once to home economics teachers, parent-teacher organizations, mothers’ clubs, and other interested persons. Bankers, farmers, and Red Cross officials were consulted and the following letter was written to the high- school principals: There has been projected a cooperative plan whereby the people of Webster Parish, both white and black, will be given an opportunity to preserve before frost the fine crop of fall peas, turnips, greens, okra, butter beans, etc After this has been done, the plan contem- plates the canning of a number of beeves that are now fat, but will perhaps die of starva- tion during the winter due to the scarcity of food. To stand idly by and lose this accumu- lated food in the parish in the face of the pres- ent dire need would be a calamity. Hundreds of people in Webster are going to need this food before the winter is over. The president of the police jury has purchased a carload of cans to be delivered here the middle of this week. They will be sold to the people at actual cost. Detailed plans are now being worked out and will be furnished later. This is an emergency project. It will require the best cooperative effort of every person in the parish. In this, like all other cooperative movements that touch all the people, the high- school principal will be the key man in his neighborhood. Your cooperation, advice, and leadership are necessary to put this over. Your home economics department will be given an opportunity to serve. I would advise that you get in touch with your parent-teacher organi- zation and your local agricultural committee of the Webster Parish Mutual Development Association at once. Rapid work is necessary to beat the frost. The plan mentioned above has the approval of the banks, business men, farmers, the Red Cross, and others interested in this acute food situation. Mrs. Cooksey will have general charge of the project. Expert canners will be arranged for at each school Several have volunteered their services. The Webster Parish principals’ or- ganization was called at once in special session and the plan presented and ap- HERE ARE two things as I see it that need to be done to better rural schools. One is to establish the county as the unit of administration and thus combine all the schools under one board—this board to employ the superintendent and such help as he needs and make him a superintendent in fact and not merely in name. The other thing even more important is to increase the money the rural schools receive. This is their greatest need. It is simply impossible to have efficient rural schools without more money. Good buildings and teachers cannot be obtained in any other way. My plan is to enlarge the taxing unit to the county and, better still, to the state. Under present methods of using the district and even the county as the taxing unit, the rural child gets little consideration—A. C. Peterson, Ariz. State Teachers College, Flagstaff. [ 181 ] THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION May, 1931 [Sh 2 Samer pre mt —Teperer PAPI OL, pot eae bos E> | TRAINING OnED _¢ 3 BOVE: Underprivileged children being given lunch, a health measure made possible by the food preservation program of the community. Below: The Webster Parish Library truck, utilized to take garden produce from the farms to the schools in the drought emergency. proved. The ten principals presented the plan to their respective parent-teacher organizations which not only unani- mously endorsed it but agreed to take active charge of the campaign in their communities. The detailed plan was at once carried to the people thru the schools by the principals and given wide publicity thru the press. The importance of the movement was stressed almost daily by letters from the school-board office. The impending frost, which was expected daily, necessitated intensive, continuous publicity. It was discovered almost immediately that the home economics departments were. not large enough to meet the de- mands made by the communities. Green vegetables came in by wagon and truck loads. The interest manifested by the people was far greater than expected. The intensity of community activity grew almost immediately to such pro- portions that the school board was forced to buy eleven extra canners. The board’s construction foreman, with the utility truck, was forced to devote his entire time to the setting up of improvised can- ning plants near the school sites. For 60 days he transferred the steam retorts, sealers, and canning paraphernalia from one school to another as per parishwide schedule. With a total of 30 steam pres- sure cookers, two 15-canner plants were operated at the same time in two differ- ent communities. This cooperative parishwide effort in-° cluded both races. The negroes took ad- vantage of the cooperative project and hundreds of them learned how to use steam pressure cookers. They are plan- ning to purchase a steam cooker for each of the 20 Rosenwald schools this year. Several communities built improvised furnaces for the canners. Old buildings in the communities were equipped and used as temporary canning plants. Frost came at last. Thousands of dol- lars worth of green foodstuff perished. Farmers regretted that the campaign was not begun earlier. They said that this canning campaign had taught them a valuable lesson and that they would preserve their food hereafter. Webster’s intensive food conservation campaign closed on December 19. In ad- dition to conserving thousands of cans of vegetables, 225 beeves lost their lives. One-eighth to one-sixth of the total was stored in school pantries, to be used by parent-teacher organizations to furnish underprivileged children noon luncheon. The methods of publicity and the progress made can best be told by a few extracts from consecutive letters written for the public but addressed to the high- school principals, the key men of the communities. ; October 23, 1930—Time is short. Ducks and geese are now flying south. Everyone will have to lend active support now in order to preserve the green foods now growing in Webster Parish. October 25, 1930—The canning project had a close call last night. The Lord was with us, however. The light frost did not injure the green foodstuff. If we have a few more days of open weather the mothers and housewives cooperating with the home economics teach- ers would can everything green in the parish that is good to eat. The only excuse for not canning some of the husbands in the parish is because of our unpalatableness. If you have not visited one of these cooperative canning bouts, I would suggest that you quit your business and see what the organized men and women of the parish are doing in a cooperative way to preserve foodstuff that will be ruined with the first freeze. If you have not organized your community, my advice is to get busy now. October 29, 1930—One would judge from the intensity of the campaign in some commu- nities that the good women are putting on a Marathon endurance canning race. Minden and Evergreen have been canning constantly since the first day. Last night the negroes held a mass meeting in the auditorium of the Web- ster Parish Training School at which time their parishwide campaign was launched. One negro farmer brought in two hampers of beans. He said he left at home nine hampers already gath- ered. They have set next Thursday to can at the training school. Judging from the interest and enthusiasm manifested at the meeting, it will be a gala day for the colored people of the community. October 31, 1930—Today we were honored by a visit from a group of Arkansas school officials. They said they were profoundly im- awa Oo mlUrtelUCU THlUC