drudgery of school teaching will be balm to every schoolteacher's aching heart, in its treatment of the question of correcting compositions and marking papers. Correcting compositions is deadly dull work-but of all wasted effort, commend me to the task of correcting the English of every line on the examination papers of each and every subject! It is a physical impossibility, and the teacher who will allow herself to be dragooned into attempting it is too foolish to be entrusted with the education of bright young minds. But do not let me rob you of the pleasure of reading what Bennett says on the subject. Buy the book, "School Efficiency," and read it.

As for Arithmetic

Let us go back to the daily repetition of the multiplication tables. Let the children see before their very eyes, on charts legible across the room, the multiplication tables in all their majesty of ever increasing importance as they progress down the col

umns.

Let memory do her perfect work at a time when memory is the first mental faculty to be developed. Children should be taught to memorize the tables, not to analyze the relation of numbers. The factors and their products should be presented as related parts of a logical whole, not as a jumble of special unrelated facts, or arithmetical memory gems!

Simplify the course in arithmetic, leaving business methods for business experts; but so drill the pupils in the tables and in the fundamentals that they are always sure of their results, and ready for any phase of the art of computation.

Much of the useless lumber of arithmetic has already been eliminated from the course of study, and from the school text-books. Cut out some more!

Give the Poor Old Alphabet a Chance The charge that the present generation of American children do not know how to spell is largely due to the fact that the alphabet is ignored during the child's more impressionable period.

It is a good sign that Eastern educators are clamoring for a return of the alphabet. As far back as 1914, educators were publishing pleas for a return to teaching the alphabet. I have a collection of such articles. Would that I have space enough to reproduce them!

Let us resume the teaching of word analysis. That old Word Analysis by William Swinton was the "open sesame" to the treasures of our English speech-to say nothing of its influence upon the diction and spelling of those who mastered it. Would that in each grammar school classroom there might hang a chart with the alphabet, in print, in script, other charts displaying the multiplication tables, and another set of charts tabulating the prefixes and the suffixes, classified as to their meanings. Why not?

BEACON NEWS COLUMN The new California City and County Courses of Study which are being distributed these days are full of interest to the publisher. Many books are mentioned but few of them have any large sale.

The BEACON READERS and CHARTS are now among the few large sellers. BECAUSE they are in many California. Courses of study

BECAUSE most teachers when given a choice will take the Beacon, and many primary teachers are now insisting upon having sets of the Beacon Charts and Readers

BECAUSE The Beacon Method saves

time for both pupil and teacher

BECAUSE The Beacon Method is THE phonetic system based upon scientific phonetic principles.

BECAUSE children love the mechanics of Reading when properly presented the Beacon way through its charts and primer BECAUSE as content readers from First to Fourth there is nothing superior.

GINN AND COMPANY, 20 Second Street, the pubishers, will gladly send primary teachers upon application, free of charge, a most illuminating discussion of the whole question of phonics entitled, "A Few Facts About Phonetics."

Write at once and mention The Western Journal of Education.

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Editorial

WAR'S INFLUENCE UPON

SCHOOL LIFE

Everywhere throughout the land, war with its influences, its lessons, its sacrifices is entering into school life, modifying its activities, deepening its meaning and shaping the lines of children. Brothers have gone from homes. Classmates are at training camps, the daily papers filled with the war news of the day, all give to the school atmosphere a distinctly martial tint. The great lessons of sacrifice and co-operation are driven right home to the children. Never before in the history of United States education has there been the like apportunity to teach real history, real geography, real ethics, real fundamental elements of social life.

SENIORITY SCHEDULE

AND

PETTY POLITICS

There is absolutely no use to construct a seniority schedule for the promotion of teachers, and go through the formality and strain of examinations and then immediately set out to nullify its operation by permitting petty politics to dictate promotions. It is worse than useless, for it makes a travesty of an otherwise worthy policy and casts discredit upon the authorities having the plan in charge.

If a reason can be found for placing this person or that person in a certain position regardless of the seniority schedule then a reason can be found for ignoring it right along.

Teachers who take such examinations do so in sincerity and with confidence, relying absolutely upon the authorities to play square and decent, and then to find the plan diverted, petty politics dictating promotions is to make them sick at heart and motions is to make them sick at heart and disgusted with their fellow men.

*

FIELDS OF SERVICE VS.

MERE JOBS

There are two motives that actuate people in entering, or continuing in school work, the one to make a living, the other to work in a field of service component with one's desires and life's ambitions. Those actuated by the first motive seek jobs offering the largest remuneration, or consider promotions on merely a monetary basis. Those actuated by the second motive seek a field of activity in which they wish to labor, and often devote a life of service at great sacrifice so far as monetary considerations are concerned. It happens also that those actuated by the first motive give constant though to the financial basis of their labors and strive continually to increase their remuneration, while the second type of person becomes so engrossed in the service they perform that they leave to others the plan of compensation with the result that often times they get scant consideration.

These two types of people are to be found in all fields of human activity, and it becomes the duty of the governing body, or the society at large to so regulate the compensation that justice will prevail and the two receive a like consideration.

*

WELCOMES DR. E. C. MOORE

That Dr. E. C. Moore, late of Harvard faculty and formerly superintendent of Los Angeles' city schools, is welcome to this section of the State has been attested by a reception given to him by the faculty, stu

dents and alumni of the State Normal School on October 5th; by his being the guest of honor of the Los Angeles Schoolmasters' Club on October 13th, and by a reception to him and Mrs. Moore by the Los Angeles City Teachers' Club on October 18th.

His own purpose in returning to this State after seven years' absence was well expressed in a talk given at the Schoolmasters' banquet, above referred to, when he said that he was glad to get away from the changing climatic conditions of the Eastern States into the balmy atmosphere of southern California, but most of all he was glad to get out of the university philosophy of education where systems seemed to be so cut and dried, where everything was so formal, where people sought knowledge for knowledge's sake, into a Normal School atmosphere where we must take children as we find them, adapt our methods and materials to suit their development, and where life and growth of young people is the dominant purpose.

He wants to develop the Los Angeles Normal School into a teachers' college and see the standards of teaching raised so that those who enter elementary school work must have equal requirements with those who enter enter high or intermediate school work.

Not only southern California, but all of the State is to be the gainer by the return of this distinguished educator to this field of service.

L. A. CITY TEACHERS' CLUB
POTENT FACTOR IN

SCHOOL PROBLEM

We men in school work may take whatever satisfaction we choose in looking over our wonderful achievements in educational affairs, but we simply have to hand it to the women of Los Angeles for getting together and organizing themselves into an efficient working force. We men meet once a month around some banquet board and fill our bellies with good eats, sing the same songs in the same way, and cheer ourselves just as lustily as we did twenty years ago, listen to a few brilliant remarks by our distinguished guests, and then return to our dyspeptic beds fancying that we are getting somewhere on the educational road. In the last few years of these wasted twenty, our good sisters in the same efficient organization, provide themselves cause gather themselves together into an with permanent headquarters, issue a regular monthly bulletin, meet and mingle together in friendly intercourse, bring pressure to bear upon boards of education and state legislatures, and put things all over us men when it gets right down to bringing things about for the good of the cause.

The Los Angeles City Teachers' Club, a woman's organization, has become such an important factor in the school life of that asked it to appoint a committee to work city that the superintendent of schools has in conjunction with his office for the betterment of the schools while some of our men are sitting up nights wondering how they Some of our men are meeting around in can get a "peek" into that sacred sanctuary. small groups looking for the weak spots in the school administration. They are gossiping about their fellow schoolmen. They are hungry for recognition.

Say, men, let's either take our hats off to the women and bid them Godspeed, or take our coats off and go to work. Which will it be?

BUY A LIBERTY BOND For the purpose of

equipping with arms, clothing and food our gallant soldiers who have been called to the field;

maintaining our Navy and our valiant tars upon the high seas; providing the necessary means to pay the wages of our soldiers and sailors and, if the bill now pending in the Congress passes the monthly allowances for the support of their dependent families and to supply them with life insurance; constructing a great fleet of merchant vessels to maintain the line of communication with our brave troops in France, and to keep our commerce afloat upon the high seas in defiance of the German Kaiser and his submarines; creating a great fleet of aeroplanes, which will complete supremacy in the air to the United States and the brave nations fighting with us against the German military menace.... and for other necessary war purposes.

THE AMERICANIZING INFLUENCE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

By Bess Lou Farley

The war has made clear the necessity for a people who speak one language and have one big ideal; it has revealed the crying need for the Americanization of our people. To accomplish this, adult education is needed in every community.

Schools all over the country are finding that the most direct way of vitalizing their work is through closer relations with local interests and occupations. From the old uniformity we must branch out to community consciousness. How can this be done in a community of Italians, Austrians, Greeks, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Armenians and Negroes, with a range of industries from shipyards and canneries to rag factories and breweries?

was

Moreover, peculiar condition a brought to light on the last registration day. On June 5, 1917, in the third precinct of Oakland, a very tiny corner in the extreme western part of town, there were 273 registrants, and except for the colored men not a "Simon pure" American among them. Approximate figures would show that at least 75 per cent of these registrants were foreign born; a large number were aliens; fully 15 per cent were unable to read or write; and probably half could speak only enough English to answer a few questions. More than half of these young men were unmarried, living in groups in small cottages and taking turns in the housework.

What part shall these immigrants play in the vital life of our country? It is evident that this part will be a small one until they have been imbued with the spirit of democracy. In general, the extension of American standards should be the clearing house for everything that pertains to the home and the family-the House of Justice, where help and advice can be freely asked and freely given. If the educator of today

is to deserve the title of Custodian of the

Public, he must face this responsibility with renewed vigor and singleness of heart.

It won't do simply to talk about it; we must go out and reach these people by home visiting. We must seek the intelligent leader of each class or nationality and inspire him with the desire for a better education, so that he may in turn be the instructor of his brothers.

To do all this, we must consecrate ourselves to the sacred duty of teaching; we must magnify our task from dawn of day to the setting of sun. The conditions of the neighborhood make the teacher a social worker also; and in order to bring the humanizing influence into the schoolroom it. is necessary to spend the supposedly free part of the day in visiting the homes and getting in touch with the background of the pupils.

We have need of classes for mothers, too

Gertrude Livingston

-classes in English, in marketing, in the preparing of food stuffs, in sewing, and in sanitation. We must see that day nurseries are established for the children that are locked out of the home for the day while the mothers and fathers work. Then babes will not be left to the care of young brothers and sisters who are hardly able to care for themselves and who ought to be in school. Also, there should be clinics in connection with the nurseries, and employment bureaus for the parents—in fact, a general social center for the neighborhood.

When all this is in progress, we can say: "My brother, 'tis of thee, Love, peace, and unity,

Of thee I sing;

No more I'll shed thy blood; We'll share the world in love; One flag shall wave above, In Universal Peace!"

*

*

*

JOHN DEWEY'S DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION: AN ESTIMATE

By Ruth Isabel Sweet

One who desires a stimulus to thought upon the subject of democratic education may find it in John Dewey's "Democracy and Education." The author does not pretend to lay down rules for the details of class-room management or to introduce a new method. Such procedure would be contrary to two fundamental principles stated in the book: (1) that one person cannot pass ideas to another, but can merely stimulate thought; (2) that teachers should attack their problems with their own initiative rather than with a mechanical method prescribed by authority.

The book is called "An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education." The author states broad principles regarding the nature and history of educational ideas and makes some general suggestions. Various systems of philosophies are reviewed and their bearing upon education is shown. In the opening chapters the author considers education as a necessity of life. It is the nature of life to strive to continue; thus life is self-renewing. As physical life renews itself and is continued by nutrition and reproduction, social life is renewed and continued by education. The fundamental purposes of education is thus to perpetuate the social customs of people from one generation to another.

In the simpler social groups there was little formal education; children learned the customs of their elders by association, by merely "picking up" what they needed to know. But as civilization advanced, society grew more complex and the field of knowledge was widened until it became impos

sible for children to be educated in this way.

Thus schools came into existence,

providing a special environment for education and delegating the teaching to a special group of persons. Our author sees that education may become too formal-that is, that the school may lose touch with life and that students may fail to see a connection between their outside interests and their school tasks. This is in fact the criticism which is often made: that the school does not fulfill its social duty of preparing the young for their future share in community life.

The bearing of this condition upon democracy is made apparent when the author points out that this distinction between the knowledge acquired in everyday life, which is usually utilitarian, and that acquired in school, which is usually book knowledge or cultural, corresponds to the social division between laboring classes and leisure classes. This division is historical, as it dates from the time when all useful labor was performed by slaves and serís. Nearly everyone engaged in manual labor is still a slave in the sense that he has been thrown into his occupation by circumstances. He does his work with no clear

understanding of its real nature and importance and no personal interest in it except in the pay-envelope, as he is altogether under the direction of an employer who nominally belongs to the leisure class. Until a very recent date it has been thought that the children of the laboring classes needed no education except the "three R's," which they learned in a mechanical way at school, and skill in some manual labor, which they had to pick up as best they could, usually by going to work at a very early age. On the contrary, the children of the leisure class had time for refinements of education, for so-called culture. Thus there has come a split between the two kinds, which has caused dull routine on one side and luxury, idleness, and superficial refinement on the other, together, one may add, with mutual distrust and contempt. This might be satisfactory for a despotism but, since all classes in a democracy participate in government, education must not have diverse aims for different classes. Thus the school must correct this defect in present-day democracy.

The important point is that democratic society must be unified. The author gives valuable suggestions in this line in chapter on "Natural Development and School Efficiency," expressed the fundamental social principle of education better than Plato did in the statement, "Society is well organized when each person is doing that for which he is by nature best fitted in such a way as to be useful to others; and it is the business of education to discover these aptitudes and to train them for social use." Plato's error consisted in his division of human beings into sharply distinguished classes,

thus making a class rather than an individual the unit.

The third aim, culture, is defective when narrowly considered, because it refers to an inner, personal refinement without social sympathies. Our author's ideal is a union between social efficiency and culture. As true social efficiency implies the power to enter into common activities and interests in such a way as to discover their real purposes and meanings, it cannot exist without a cultural knowledge of humanity. Those who are engaged in manual labor must use more thought as to the significance of their work, and those engaged in occupations in which thought is emphasized must have the opportunity of testing the value of their thoughts in practical experience.

In his chapter on vocational education. the author states that at the present time the outlook is hopeful for the lessening of the distinction between culture and utility, because industrial occupations have taken a higher place, as they have "greater intellectual content and larger cultural possibilities than they used to possess." Culture as an inner, non-social matter, is losing its influence. In the words of the author, "There is an increased esteem in democratic communities of whatever has to do with manual labor, commercial occupations, and the rendering of tangible services to society. In theory, men and women are now expected to do something in return for their support-intellectual and economic by society. Labor is extolled; service is a much-lauded ideal."

This change of attitude is reflected in the schools in that industrial and mechanical subjects are being introduced more and more, but at present there is little unity between the new industrial and the older cultural subjects. The result is that our system is an "inconsistent mixture." The remedy in the author's opinion is to find a connection between these classes of subjects and also the points of contact with outside pursuits. "The problem of reorganizing education which will improve social conditions is to arrange matters so that natural active tendencies shall be enlisted in doing something which requires observation, acquisition of information, and the use of constructive imagination." This is to say that utilitarian activities should be conducted with intelligence and thought. The author admits that it will be long before all schools are so fully equipped with tools, gardens, and shops that information

gether, for while a person may be interested in a pursuit, he may be too weak willed to continue it when it becomes hard or when there are distractions. If left to himself without proper control, a child will give up a pursuit as soon as he becomes tired of it. This will inevitably weaken the powers of attention and concentration. Thus in the best system of education discipline implies cultivation of will power, which must be combined with interest to make education effectual. As an illustration which occurred to me, a boy may have marked musical talent and he may be mildly interested in his violin, but for the moment he may be so much more interested in football or swimming that he cannot compel himself to give up any time for practice on his violin. In such a case, a transitory interest is cultivated at the expense of a permanent one. This would seem to be a time for outside authority to intervene.

This book should be studied for its stimulation of thought. The most valuable discussions for teachers are those in the following chapters: Natural Development and Social Efficiency, Interest and Discipline, Experience and Thinking, The Nature of Subject Matter, Labor and Leisure, and of Subject Matter, Labor and Leisure, and Vocational Aspects.

One of the chief merits of the book is its progressive nature. It is said that if we interpret vocational education as trade education there is the danger of perpetuating unchanged the existing industrial order of society, whereas the business of education is to perpetuate the most desirable elements of community life and to improve them, which later must depend upon the efforts of enlightened men. A true democratic education implies "the full development of private personality identified with the aims of humanity as a whole and with the idea of progress."

*

THE PATRIOTIC SERVICE CAMPAIGN IN THE SCHOOLS

By Blanche Chamberlain The early buying of bonds, by the teachers, as far as their means permitted, and later the vim with which they took to sewing and knitting for the soldiers, are insignificant compared with the mighty spirit of co-operation and service that the teachers today. For this spirit does not melt away are trying hard to instill into their pupils

into ethereal visions; it bears fruit. It is

in one school the pitting of class against class in friendly rivalry; in another, a pretentious entertainment; in another, the organization throughout the school of small units, such as Football Fellows, French Club, Miss X.'s Class, the Senior Girls, etc., each devising and contributing in its own way. In one high school a seven weeks' campaign has been launched, including support for such causes as the French Orphans, the Armenian Relief, and those Home Charities whose contributions have been diverted to war funds.

In all schools we find students, under direction and advisement, carrying on moving picture schemes, vaudeville, plays, operettas, bazaars, candy and home cooking and fancy work sales. They delight in the tasks. They get social and economic training in the performance of them, and they learn the joy of serving.

** *

SAN MATEO COUNCIL

The Schoolwomen's Council of San Mateo, composed of the teachers of both the high and grammar schools, has elected the following officers: Miss Elsie Northrup, President; Miss Anne Maroney, SecretaryTreasurer; Miss Anna T. Haley, Representative to the Federations; Miss E. Gertrude Cook, Reporter; Miss Effie Trimmingham, Miss Mattie Trimmingham, Miss Florence Gaylord, Miss Winifred Burke, Mrs. E. McEvoy, Members of the Executive Board.

At the County Institute at Redwood City, the members of the Council and the women teachers of Redwood City had a luncheon at which the representatives of the San Mateo branch spoke most enthusiastically of the benefits conferred by the organization in promoting unity and co-operation, with the result that the Redwood City women are considering the formation of a council.

Among other accomplishments of the first year was the adoption by the grammar school board of the following schedule for absence from school on pay: three days a year for visiting schools, seven days for sickness, and three days for death in the immediate family.

LIBERTY LOAN BONDS

In the sale of the first issue of the Liberty Loan Bonds the teachers of the State showed their patriotism and loyalty by their generous contributions, the San Francisco

But even so, teachers may still help students to find points of contact between school subjects and outside interests. As far as possible, active occupations such as plays, games, and use of tools and materials

should enter into the schoolroom—not as

diversions, but as part of the regular school

work.

But in this chapter, "Interest and Effort," he points out that interest, considered as active concern in a matter, is fundamental in all pursuits; so why not in education? In the same chapter he considers the question of discipline, which in his opinion should not be mere obedience or submission from fear. His definition of discipline is the development of the power of continuous attention. The right use of interest will, to a certain extent, dispose of difficulties in discipline, but not alto

the children.

Foremost is the organization for Red Cross work. This is managed through a representative of the school who presents herself at Red Cross headquarters for assistance and brings back to the school a

proportionate amount of material with in

structions for work. Then follow all manner of meetings for sewing and bandages, making of convalescent lounging robes, and knitting of navy sets consisting of mufflers, wristlets, socks and sweaters. Co-operating in this way in Oakland alone are twentythree schools with more coming in every few days.

Second in importance is the work that is independently carried on for some special relief. In the recent campaign for the library fund, various means were devised;

second Loan

drive is now on, and again we find the school people taking a most active part in the purchase of the bonds. There can be no doubt that the teachers of California who spend so much time inculcating the principles of civic duty into the youthful minds, practice what they preach.

RELATION OF THE PARENT-
TEACHER ASSOCIATION
TO CHILD-EDUCATION

In the report of the Survey of the San Francisco Schools, the Parent-Teacher Association or Mother's Club is classified as an "extra-school agency." It is acknowlIt is acknowledged to have some distant relation to education. The degree of relationship depends on the interpretation or concept of education itself. The average member of a mother's club does not approach the school with the academic authority of an educator. She reaches it usually by the avenue of civic reform; believing the institution of the school to be the foundation of our democratic government.

Is education to be progressive and dynamic, or are we to be contented with the culture idea, with memorizing rather than with doing, with listening and quoting rather than with organizing and originating? The conflict between these concepts began as soon as there was a recorded experience, that recorded experience introducing the new note of culture; of education by means of the experience of past generations rather than by means of observation and imitation of contemporaneous customs and necessity. Every now and then, when the educative process had grown static, a reformer would rise; a Pestalozzi or an Aristotle or a Froebel would give a dynamic impulse to the training of the young. But it is painfully easy to be overawed by past wisdom; and even the teachings of a revolutionary reformer can be made static by a disciple!

over

The instant, however, that education is made compulsory, conscriptive, as a part of

a

scheme of government, the confusion somewhat clears. Then education becomes civic education, and its failure or success must be judged by its product. One of the many reasons that the maternal revolution is refused recognition as a real blood relative of education, is because it approaches the subject, not by classic avenues, but, as has been stated, by the road of civic reform. One does not need to be a college graduate to discover that the product of our system is not a triumph. Because these civic reformers, not overawed by academic culture, know that the strength of a building depends upon its foundation; and that the elementary school is really the corner-stone of democracy-as the majority of our embryonic citizens go no farther-there at the elementary school they are to be found, watching, waiting, helping when they can, hindering when they must. And the usual And the usual reason of their hindering is that age-old

difference of opinion as to the definition of education. Hard for a principal to accept suggestions from a layman as to "her school." Yet as an institution of government, the taxpayer and provider of the raw product feels that she has a direct interest in the institution as "our school." She sees it as the center of a large social plan, with democracy its goal; she believes in the community center idea as the hope and chance of democracy, and she knows that a successful blossoming of the idea will be possible when teachers stop teaching civics as a topic in order to administer education

RECONSTRUCTION

By Ednah Aiken

as civic education. Then only can a community center take root in the neighborhood of that school, with a fighting chance to work out the ideals being taught there. THE NEW IMPULSE

One of the most ardent supporters of the community center ideal is Miss Margaret Wilson, the daughter of the President. It It has been hard to understand the presidential silence on the subject of child-education, educator as he has been, chief executive as he is now, and father of a splendid bigot. But at last his silence has been broken, and one of the most inspiring reassurances of these last few inspiring months was the lately published open letter of Woodrow Wilson to the teachers and the principals of the United States. To use his own words: "It is a plea for a realization in public education of the new emphasis which the war has given to the ideals of democracy, and to the broader conceptions of national life."

A new impulse is to be given child-education. We justifiy our optimism by the choice the President has made of assistant to Commissioner Claxton. Mr. Herbert C. to Commissioner Claxton. Mr. Herbert C. Hoover has been asked by President Wilson to co-operate with Dr. Claxton in the preparation and distribution of suitable lessons for the elementary grades and for high schools, looking toward a closer relation toward life as it is today with its swift problems "and deeper understanding of the means and aims of democracy." We have every reason now to expect suggestions which will lead to a closer relation of the which will lead to a closer relation of the schoolhouse to other institutions of the body politic.

Dr. Claxton has recently sent a letter to the president of every parent-teacher association and mother's club, and although he refrained from giving any specific suggestions, the message challenges the cooperation and alertness of the American parents. The letters of Dr. Claxton and of President Wilson are given in this department, as is also a suggested program, alluded to before in these columns, for the elementary grades of our public schools. Such a program need not interfere with the daily curriculum, yet would add to its enrichment, and would certainly develop Mr. Wilson's suggestions that "teachers increase materially the time and attention crease materially the time and attention devoted to instruction bearing directly on the problems of community and national life."

White House, Washington.

To School Officers:

August 23, 1917.

The war is bringing to the minds of our

people a new appreciation of the problems of national life, and a deeper understanding of the meaning and aims of democracy. Matters which heretofore have seemed commonplace and trivial are seen in a true light. The urgent demand for the production and proper distribution of food and other national resources has made us aware of the close dependence of individual on individual, and nation on nation. The effort to keep up social and industrial organization in spite of the withdrawal of men for the army has revealed the extent to which modern life has become complex and specialized.

These and other lessons of the war must be learned quickly if we are intelligently and successfully to defend our institutions. When the war is over we must apply the wisdom which we have acquired in enlarging and ennobling the life of the world.

In these vital tasks of acquiring a broader view of human possibilities, the common school must have a large part. I urge that teachers and other school officers increase materially the time and attention devoted to instruction bearing directly on the problems of community and national life.

Such a plea is in no way foreign to the spirit of American public education or of existing practices. existing practices. Nor is it a plea for a temporary enlargement of the school programme appropriate merely to the period of the war. It is a plea for a realization in public education of the new emphasis which the war has given to the ideals of democracy and to the broader conceptions of national life.

In order that there may be definite material at hand with which the schools may at once extend their teachings, I have asked Mr. Hoover and Commissioner Claxton to organize the proper agencies for the preparation and distribution of suitable lessons for the elementary grades and for the high school classes. Lessons thus suggested will serve the double purpose of illustrating in a concrete way what can be undertaken in the schools and of stimulating teachers in all parts of the country to formulate new and appropriate materials drawn directly from the communities in which they live.

To

Sincerely yours,

August 13, 1917.

P. P. CLAXTON, Commissioner.