ZOTTESIRE TO UZITOL To the same friend she added, speaking of her leadership: "Some one recently asked one of our girls why it was Grace Dodge was president and her answer was so good that I will give it to you. She said, "The only difference between Miss Dodge and the rest of us is that she has been paid in advance, while we must still work for our wages." That was twenty years ago. Before that, and ever since up to her recent death, Miss Dodge has been acting the noble part of a conscientious steward of large means and that of a wise Christian Educator. The public schools of New York City had her services as long ago as 1886 when she was appointed a member of the board of school commissioners. Later, she became treasurer of Teachers' College, Columbia University, to which she has bequeathed the handsome sum of half a million dollars. The American College for Girls at Constantinople was also an object of Miss Dodge's active interest, having been given $50,000. institutions Many religious and charitable have also received bequests from Miss Dodge, the largest sum being that of $500,000 to the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association of whose educational work she has long been an active promoter. Miss Dodge gave not only her means, but herself to the work she loved. She was never happier than when she gathered around her, in her handsome Madison avenue home, young working women in whose welfare she felt a strong and unremitting concern. She was a motherly figure in late middle life, of ripe experience and keen insight into human nature. She was above medium height, with intellectual head, her strong features and bright gray eyes being lit by the glow of unselfish interests in others. Miss Dodge was radical in her educational ideas. She favored self-government and selfreliance. Vocational training and character building were among the educational advances which she advised and promoted. Broadminded and farseeing Miss Dodge should be utilized in politics; that they should believed that women's influence and energies study to be loved and popular; that they should not do the same work for less wages than men; that business women should dress appropriately, and that goodness does not consist in outward show of religion but in doing little daily acts of consideration and love. She was a philanthropic daughter of the well-known philanthropist. William Earl Dodge, and sister of Cleveland Hoadley Dodge, (treasurer of the Russell Sage Foundation, president of the Board of Trustees of Robert College, trustee Carnegie Institution, Washington, the John Slater Fund, etc.) Like her father she held wealth as a trust, and she spent her useful life in a successful endeavor to render to humanity an equivalent for the blessings she had received. NOBLE APPEAL TO PARENTS [West Chester, Pennsylvania, Addison L. Jones, superintendent, has a Board of Education that has made the most wholesome, significant, and vital appeal to parents which we have seen. It was sent to all parents upon the opening of school after the Thanksgiving recess.] The School Board in its desire to cooperate with parents in getting the best results from the advantages offered in the public schools and to increase the efficiency of the teaching, is prompted to issue this open letter to parents and guardians. In general, it may be said that regular attendance, punctuality and obedience are absolutely essential to success in any system of schools. West Chester is particularly fortunate in having very few homes in which children are detained from schools for any causes but those most necessary, or v where disobedience in school is at all tolerated by the parents. The School Board has provided sanitary buildings, ventilated, lighted and heated in accordance with the best known methods; and has procured the most skilful teachers. The conditions are such as are conducive to comfort and good work in school. Home study is necessary. Every pupil in the High School has daily four lessons to prepare. One or two of these can be prepared in school during vacant periods, thus leaving work to be done at home. The length of time to be spent on out-of-school study varies with different pupils and on different days. It is therefore difficult to lay down rules to govern home study; but in general, it may be said that unless a pupil is doing considerable systematic study at home every day, it is certain that he is not getting all of his school work well done. If pupils report that they have no home study to do, parents should communicate at once with the superintendent or principal, so that matters may be righted and failure Few women have been more helpful to women. The New York Infirmary for Women and Children, the Working Girls' Vacation Fund, the women's department of the World's Student Christian Federation, and the Association of Working Girls, are all remembered in her bequests as they were aided in her life. Of her total fortune of two-millions more than three-fourths has gone to public causes. Among these beneficiaries are included the may be avoided. Y. M. C. A., the Travelers' Aid, the Presby-It is usually well understood by parents that terian Boards of Home and Foreign Missions social distractions, especially on school day even and the State Charities Association. [Continued on Page 124] My little brother Bill-poor simple child! I might have told him, offhand, with a wild NOBLE APPEAL TO PARENTS [Continued from page 122] ings, are nearly always fatal to successful school work. It is now the rule in nearly all families. that the pupils spend their evenings regularly in the home, excepting on Friday and Saturday. Since the school studies are sufficient to occupy all the time of the pupils, except such as is taken for recreation or needed service in the home, any special outside recreation or entertainments during the week handicap the pupils in their lesson preparation. It is only natural for pupils to be interested in Some of many things outside the schoolroom. these interests can be turned to good account by the skilful teacher and the wise parent. In other cases these outside interests invade the schoolroom and demoralize the entire school. A series of events that take pupils away from their evening studies, a succession of parties, the preparation for any entertainment that necessitates several rehearsals, will usually mar the otherwise successful work of the year. No amount of financial gain can compensate the community if the time of the pupils is commercialized and the school work is neglected. In a community such as ours, nearly every home affords excellent environment for sufficient social recreation, as well as for evening study; in consequence, there should not be required the club room for the boys, and the exacting duties of the preparation for outside entertainment during school day evenings. It is therefore urged upon parents that they guard with jealous care the time of their children. against the encroachments made upon it. In many cases the objects for which the time of the pupils is used are entirely worthy; and yet the education of the children should not be jeopardized by any project that can be carried forward in any other way. It is further urged upon parents by the School Board that they consider the time and strength of their children a most valuable asset, and that they aid the school authorities and their children at the same time by inculcating ideas of good work in school and regular daily study hours in the homes. By order of the School Board. ELWOOD PATRICK, President. WALTER H. LEWIS, Secretary. Probably no other state, excepting California, has experienced the rapid and constant growth that this state has had since the building of the Roosevelt Dam. With a climate where, it is the boast of the people that the sun shines every day, and where the large majority of the population sleep in the open air the year round, a soil that is of the best, an unlimited supply of water, and with easy access to large industrial centers, is it any wonder that Arizona is being rapidly settled with people from every state, who wish to avail themselves of these opportunities? Here in the most extensive and best situated district of the Salt River Valley is the town of Glendale, noted previously for its large sugar factory, its stock raising and cantaloupe industry, but Glendale is going to stand forth because of its superior school system, for here is tound one of the newest ideas of school architecture. The following is the history of the birth and development of Glendale's Cottage School System: The school district proper, which is the unit of school management in Arizona, comprises sixteen sections of land, all of which is under cultivation. This land is being very rapidly divided into small farm units. When one realizes that a man with an average family can make a comfortable living from twenty acres, it is readily seen that the census of the rural districts in Arizona is much greater than that of her sister states. The population of the district is composed of the usual types of the schools of the Southwest, each with his ideas of school needs and purposes, also the usual Mexican element and a Russian colony. The latter are susceptible of education, but because of their ideals of child labor they are irregular in attendance, or else a The old general rule was that educated people did not perform manual labor. They managed to eat their bread, leaving the toil of producing it to the uneducated. But now nearly all are educated-quite too nearly all to have the labor of the uneducated in any wise adequate to the support of the whole. It follows from this that henceforth educated people must labor. Otherwise education itself would become a positive and intolerable evil. No country can sustain in idleness more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive. From these premises the prob lem springs, "How can labor and education be the most satisfactorily combined?" -Abraham Lincoln constant annoyance as truants. These two elements need to be instilled with the ideals of cleanliness and of personal responsibility, and the school is the only source that will reach the children and make them what society demands. The board of trustees did not realize how materially the school census had been increasing and, after careful investigation made in July, 1912, found that there were no schoolrooms for three of the largest classes. There was no money in the building fund, and as school must open September 15, there was no time for a bond election. A mass meeting was called, and the Board was asked to rent suitable rooms, providing a responsible contractor would erect them on the school ground, and make the proper rental con tract. The matter was placed in the hands of Homer Davis, the newly elected principal, and to him much credit is due, because of the wide vision he had regarding the requirements of the Glendale School. He planned three separate classrooms, each 24 ft. by 30 ft., substantially built. Bids were called for, and they were built for $2,000. Then came a more remarkable growth than in any former year. The average daily attendance being fifty per cent. greater than during the previous year. This crowded every room to overflowing, making it necessary to do building for the next year. Another mass meeting was called at which time Mr. Davis was called upon to give a report. He stated that one-room buildings had proven very desirable, adding that if they had been planned for permanent school buildings, they could have been improved as to lighting and ventilating, and gave the following reasons for preferring the single classroom to the multiroom school building. First-The classrooms are not disturbed by adjoining rooms. [Continued on Page 129] The School Board Department should be one of the most vital and attractive of the Depart- ments of the National Education Association, rivaling even the general session. Its frequent inefficiency has been inexplicable, Fortunately the Oakland meeting promises to change all this. If President O. M. Plum- If boards of education will not send one of The only feature of the entire educational votes is membership on a board of education. In every state there are some educational quali- fications for all teachers. In some states there are also some professional qualifications. In many states there are special educational and professional qualifications for superintendents and supervisors. In many states there are specific requirements for janitors, as for firemen and policemen, but nowhere under the Stars and Stripes is there any specified qualification, physical, mental, or moral, educational or pro- fessional, for members of a board of education. The fact that members of boards of education are almost invariably among the best men and women in the community is due to the self- sacrificing spirit of leaders in society, and to the high standards of public sentiment regard- If such men and women are willing to serve disinterestedly without compensation the least that a community can do is to send one of them the only meeting in America where men and women of national significance discuss their specific problems. Let the meeting of the De- partment at Oakland in August, 1915, be every- THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY One of the grandest achievements of America The General Federation of Women's Clubs has In the East laurel and white oak trees have The eucalyptus, the magnolia, the pepper, the Every schoolyard along the highway is to be flag staff and an American flag in each school- |