written. A commendable feature is the selected lists of reading which it gives. I have read many of the references therein cited, and in most cases I find them selected with discrimination. As a convenient summary of valuable suggestions, to one who finds herself in charge of a library of whatever size, it is admirable. It also ought to be in the hands of every teacher. However, valuable as is the report in this connection, and as much as I am in sympathy with training teachers to use the library, I am opposed to the whole idea of introducing a systematic and formal course in library administration in the normal schools, because I believe, the end can be reached in a more economical and natural way.

The suggestions embodied in the report, in the main, can be grouped about two ideas: how to use the library and how to procure and care for the books which comprise it. As to the first, the only way a prospective teacher can learn to use a library is thru using it. It cannot be accomplished by a course of lectures on indexes or the card catalogue. Every normal school worthy the name has a considerable equipment of magazines, books on general and special subjects, and reference works. If the work of the school is conducted in anything like a rational fashion, the students will have many topics to search out. Thru the real demands of the school, then, a working knowledge of a library will easily and naturally come. The securing of ability to use the library machinery in finding the thing wanted can be expedited somewhat thru an occasional talk given by the librarian or by some experienced person. But a series of lectures, or even a series of formal meetings, for discussion, if carried on without work in a library, would be hopeless; on the other hand, if the work of the school requires the use of the library, such a course would be unnecessary, I feel.

As to the training in the care of books, normal schools should in no wise attempt to duplicate the work of the library training-school. A library of any considerable size should be administered by a trained librarian. All the information which the care of a small number of books would demand can be given, I am sure, without a formal or long-continued time being set apart for it. A few talks by the librarian of the school, together with an examination of an organized library, and supplemented by placing a copy of the report under discussion in the hands of the student, will surely give all that general information about this phase of library work that any normal school would be justified in requiring, inasmuch as the function of the normal school is not that of training librarians, and inasmuch as only a small percentage of its graduates will ever have occasion to assemble a library beyond that containing a few dozen books. In short, the lack of familiarity with library routine which I have noted in regard to my own teachers, I fully believe can be adequately met thru the regular work of the normal school, supplemented by occasional talks by the school librarian, and without the necessity of setting apart a regular time for a formal course in the matter.

The other lack in the teacher's training to which I have referred presents a

more serious problem. It is a problem which can be met only thru continuous and systematic work, well organized and continued thruout the entire normalschool course. Such a course in children's literature as I would have given in the normal schools is beginning to be shaped up by those training-schools which prepare students to take charge of children's departments in public libraries. Miss Frances J. Olcott, who superintends such training in the Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, is doing a work which offers many suggestions for a course in children's literature in the normal school. Indeed, most of the topics which I shall enumerate as deserving a place in such a course were suggested to me thru an examination of the notes of one of Miss Olcott's students, Miss Blanchard, now in charge of the children's department of the Seattle Public Library.

Such a course should comprehend:

I. A general survey and discussion of children's fiction, with an examination of such groups as, children's classics; standard books of fiction; popular fiction, comprising books which can be used to guide boys and girls who have been reading trashy books, to a better class; the "yellow" class, comprising weak, sensational stories, those thoroughly bad, those low and vile, and the trash for girls which, for the most part, is founded on adult emotions.

2. An examination of children's nature books to form an acquaintance with the chief types, such as those which are true and will last, and hence with educational value; those which are neither true nor beautiful, such as Jack London's; those which are simply romances, but yet which teach children to treat animals kindly, as Ernest-Thompson Seton's books; and those which are untrue, but harmless, because not vicious, as perhaps the stories of Dr. Long.

3. A general survey of the field of folklore, mythology, and fairy tales, in the light of their treatment for children.

4. An examination of the adaptations of the classics which have been made for children, treating particularly those coming from the Greek, Roman, Hebrew, and Anglo-Saxon literatures.

5. An examination of technical books, written for boys and covering such fields as chemistry, electricity, astronomy, geology, and shopwork.

6. An examination of the books on history and geography written for children. There is in this field a rich lot of material. The teacher who is not familiar with it and who has never considered its scope and the uses to which it can be put in the classroom has not only missed a great opportunity for vitalizing her work in these subjects, but also for bringing her children in working touch with the public library.

7. A consideration of poetry for children, along some such lines as, folklore in verse; standard poetry; collections of poetry for children; and prose renderings of English

poems.

8. An examination of the magazines which are published for children, together with a discussion of the lists of such magazines, which are used in the children's department of various libraries.

9. A discussion and examination of books which are written for very little children, such as, fable and animal stories; fairy tales and legends; Mother Goose rhymes; customs of different peoples; biographical accounts; and one-syllable books, and books which have been rewritten.

10. A consideration of what books a child under twelve should have in his own library.

II. A discussion of what books and stories all children under fourteen should read, and also with what literary classics every child leaving our schools should be familiar.

12. Determining a small list of books suitable for girls and women, covering such topics as, general counsel, science, fine arts, literature, history, travel, biography, fiction, and the household and its activities.

Undoubtedly there are other topics equally as valuable as these which I have suggested. I have not meant this enumeration to be exhaustive, but rather suggestive, and I have given it to show you what kind of training, in my judgment, the normal schools should be giving, in order to satisfactorily meet the difficulty which I have pointed out. If every teacher leaving the normal school could get such a familiarity with children's literature as a course of this kind would give, I am sure the pupils of such teachers would get a tremendous impulse toward self-education and would see in the public library a means for satisfying it. A teacher so prepared would be able to recommend wisely a course of private reading for each child in her school, she would be appealed to by the parents of her pupils for suggestions regarding books to be purchased for the home, her advice would be sought by the less well-prepared librarians of her community, as well as by boards of school trustees; if need arose she would be prepared to take the initiative in establishing a village or community library, and besides, her own schoolroom work would be vitalized thru the fresh content which such a teacher would inevitably introduce. Thru some such course as this she would prepare herself to exert an influence for good which would extend far beyond the walls of her school. A course of this kind, to my mind, would be of far greater value to the prospective teacher than one limiting instruction to the ordering, accessioning, classifying, labeling, binding, and charging of books. Indeed, in such a course as I have suggested, the really necessary information on these points could well be worked in incidentally, and yet naturally.

In asking me to discuss the report of the Committee on Instruction in Library Administration in Normal Schools, the commissioner of education expressed the purpose of this discussion in the following words:

The special object which we have in view in these discussions is to determine, not only the intrinsic value of the report, but what steps should be taken next by the Council or the Association, to continue the same investigation, or to carry into effect any good recommendation which the report may contain.

From what I have said, you will see that I believe the report to be one of great value as a summary of the elements of the best library practice. I believe a copy should be in the hands of every normal-school librarian, and also in that of every actual and prospective teacher. I would earnestly recommend that the Council or the Association take some definite action to secure the accomplishment of this. I would not, however, favor urging the report on the normal schools as an outline of a formal and systematic course of instruction, to be given by them in library administration, not because I would criticize the report, but because I do not believe that such a method offers the best plan for securing the results desired. I would further urge, in line with the

objective, as expressed by the president of the council, that steps be taken by this body to secure a report, made with the same care as the one under consideration, on a course in children's literature for normal schools.

DISCUSSION

JAMES M. GREEN.—I would like to ask the gentleman who read the paper if he will explain what he means by "pupil." I think the relation between the school and the library depends very much upon the age and grade of the pupil.

MR. BUNKER.-The only point I was discussing in the report was in the way of suggesting that a course in library administration be given in the normal schools, for the use of the student teachers and the people who are in the normal schools preparing to become teachers. I was discussing the problem from that point of view. It seems to me, in view of the great weakness of library education in the normal schools, that if some certain course as I have suggested, dealing with the general field, as children's literature, were adopted, it would be far more practical and more valuable. Some such training as this, it seems to me, it is necessary that the teacher should have in order that she may give the best advice when she gets into her own schoolroom, and that she may intelligently direct the reading of her pupils along those lines that she herself has selected from a careful and rational survey of the whole field of children's literature.

A MEMBER. My experience with children, especially boys, is that they do not like to read the books which the library directors and other people select for them. They like books of a different kind. Many of them won't read the books selected for them except under compulsion.

MR. BUNKER. That is because most of the librarians who are now selecting books for children are doing so along the lines of the mechanical administration, and have not had that general survey of children's literature which will enable them to make selections according to the various stages of the children's development.

MR. GREEN.-I think that one other reason is that librarians never read books.

L. E. WOLFE, superintendent of schools, San Antonio, Tex.-I have felt for a number of years that it would be a great thing for the National Council, or the National Educational Association, to undertake a systematic examination of books for children, in the light of the best scholarship in various departments. List after list has been prepared, but when you come to examine the books that deal with astronomy, that is, attempt to make it elementary, or with geology, you frequently find that the books that are excellent and are in conformity with the best scholarship are not selected. The recent discussion of the president of the United States and others has brought forward that idea somewhat prominently in regard to nature-books.

TOPIC THE SHORTAGE IN THE SUPPLY OF TEACHERS

DISCUSSION

JAMES M. GREEN, Principal, State Normal and Model Schools, Trenton, N. J.-The subject as announced implies that there is a general shortage in the supply of teachers. In the part of the country from which I come, this is distinctly true, and has been true ever since the standard of teaching has been raised.

At one time a person might become eligible to teach in any position by passing a very superficial examination in a few subjects, mostly of an elementary character, before a township, county, or city board of examiners. While this was true, there were more applications for positions to teach than there were vacancies. But the leading educational influences took the ground that teachers' certificates should be tentatively graded, as the schools were graded; a high-school certificate to cover the common pedagogical subjects and at least the high-school subjects; an elementary certificate to cover at least the elemen

tary subjects; that a permanent certificate should cover at least the full scope of publicschool subjects; and that all persons who taught should have a good general education, and that those who taught in the high schools should have a college education or the equivalent; that the examinations should be set by the state, and should be fairly uniform; that persons to enter normal and training-schools should be high-school graduates. Nor was this all. The teachers were asked to make their teaching practical. Their chemistry must be the chemistry of the factory, their physics must be the physics of the machine shop, their drawing must meet the demands of the architect and of the arts and crafts, and their bookkeeping must be the bookkeeping of the counting-house. This proved to be popular ground and prevailed, but with its establishment the number of applicants to teach began to fall off relatively, particularly for the higher positions.

While our theoretical standard is the trained teacher, we are still obliged to maintain our tentative system and admit to teaching thru the elementary examinations about twothirds of our teachers; about one-third coming through our normal and training schools and colleges.

The number of qualified applicants for the higher grade of positions has become so small that it is not an uncommon thing for the superintendents and principals of the larger schools to spend from one to two months of the year making inquiries and traveling about in quest of teachers. This demand has called for the building of additional normal schools, but even this does not promise certain relief, as the number of applicants for admission to the normal schools is falling off relatively. Particularly is this true of men. The normal school of my state has about ten men in an enrollment of five hundred students. This proportion is about one-tenth of what it was a few years ago. What is true of my state. is true of the other states similarly situated.

There seem to be two apparent reasons for the growing shortage of teachers: first, the long and difficult preparation necessary to meet the standard, and the consequent expense; second, the readiness with which young men living near our large centers of population can secure more lucrative positions. Many of our business schools and departments are now offering comparatively short courses of study, the graduates of which can readily secure positions in the cities and towns at a fairly tempting beginning salary with promise of promotion. It would seem almost self-evident that the remedy is the increase of the pay of the teacher. Our salaries have not been adequate to the cost and the old law of supply and demand is asserting itself and it must be met on a financial basis.

The compensation for teachers has no doubt been influenced by that of Germany and the older countries of dense populations, also by dependence upon the missionary spirit. This, however, is America. The conditions of the denser populations do not obtain here, and there is no just call for missionary service. The age is enlightened. The man who wants his child educated must bear his full share of expense.

I have no fault with the high standard of teaching I hail and welcome it, but I believe if it is maintained educators must thoroly promulgate its economic requirements. These must be acknowledged and met by the people, both by increasing the salaries of teachers and by further decreasing the cost of higher education for teachers by additional state aid.

According to our old political economists there are three elements that influence the price of labor-the respectability of the employment, the permanency of the position, and the wages. The high standard of the teacher insures his respectability and will promote the permanency of his employment, leaving the raising of the salaries as the one thing needed.

I. C. MCNEILL, Superintendent of schools, Memphis, Tenn.-It is the experience of school executives in all sections of this country that there are not enough good teachers available to meet the demand. In every system of public education the problem of eliminating weak teachers is met by another very serious question: Where can boards of education secure well-trained, thoroly equipped persons, with the graces of character