Himself. Both preachers and teachers are too solicitous to explain God. The open minds of childhood and of the plain people for whom the Bible was made are quite as likely as the learned to get his real message. In no way better than by daily reading of the Bible heroic stories in historic order, varied with apropos selections for times and seasons, all interpreted with sympathetic elocution and Bible poetry and a devotional atmosphere of song and prayer, can the teachers of our schools and col leges do their "bit" in marshaling the varied CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS BY DR. ERNEST C. MOORE President Los Angeles State Normal School [Interview in Los Angeles Examiner.] The most striking pedagogic difference between the schools of California and those of other states is that teachers here get something like a living wage. I sometimes have thought that the schools are better out here because of the sunshine. It makes people cheerful, and that is a prime necessity in dealing with young people. But sunshine alone is not enough to account for the marked superiority of California's school. Teaching out here is an enterprise which evidently is so highly valued by the teachers' fellowmen and women that one goes about it without any temptation to think of it as a depreciated calling. Ever since California had a school system it has been able to attract teachers from every other part of the country to work in its schools. As a consequence, wherever an effort has been made to pick out the best of those who apply for positions from the whole body of candidates a rarely capable teaching company is to be found. This is general in the state, county and civic systems and in the private institutional work. It is this which makes our schools more progressive than those of other states. It is the teacher who shapes the school. Good pupils without good teachers accomplish little or nothing. The important thing is to get and keep good teachers and give them abundant freedom to do their work. Good schoolhouses are desirable. California has its share of them, too. But, after all, schoolhouses are only opportunities for teachers. Courses of study, too, textbooks and all the rest. of the machinery of education are only opportunities for the teacher to do his work. The better the conditions are in which he does it the better will be the work. But the teacher is the main thing in this enterprise. That is the reason why I am going to devote זי the rest of my days to the training of teachers. I am convinced that California at present is devoting a disproportionate part of her attention to the so-called "higher education." I do not say that she is devoting too much attention to the higher education, but she is devoting too little to elementary schools and to the careful and thorough training of teachers to work in them. To teach in a higher institution of learning one must have had five years of training after graduating from such. But to teach in an elementary school two years of training is all that now is required. Everybody, That is too brief a preparation. who has thought about it, knows that the welfare of the country depends upon its elementary schools. It is in them that the intelligence of the nation is trained. The institutions of military and vocational nature also contribute highly to the high standard of citizenship. These schools are the shapers and determiners of public opinion. Other schools build upon the foundations which they establish. All other schools take the more fortunate of their pupils and attempt to fit them as, they say, for leadership. The democracy is nurtured in the lower schools the young boy first enters the elementary institutions which prepare him for his later career. They are, in truth, "everybody's" schools, and what they do or do not do and should do affects everybody. It is clear, therefore, that the teachers who instruct in them should be the best trained of all. Here in California is Opportunity in the shape of youth. Teachers make of this opportunity certainty. That is, good teachers. And of her numbers of good teachers California is proud, and her students are proud. And because California is California she ever will have instructors of this high grade. Before our nation enters a war it is perfectly proper to discuss the wisdom of going to war, but the discussion is closed when Congress acts. We must stand together and fight it through. There are only two sides to a war-every American must be on the side of the United States.-William Jennings Bryan. DE LEGION OB DE CHEERFUL BY ELIOT H. ROBINSON [Written for the Boston Herald.] War clouds gittin' darker, honey, Ol' "hard-times" a-pressin' sore? Seems like happy days an' sunny Ain't a-comin' anymore? Ain't no sort er use in pinin' Got to skimp a little closer, So as starvin' folks kin eat. Got some chillun in de fightin'? Is you gittin' kind er fearful Sun's a-gwine to keep on shinin' Cheerfulness am half de fight. What's dat ah jes' heard yo' mumblin'? Ain't no sense in bein' tearful, Till de whole worl's mustered in; CAMPAIGN FOR SCHOOL ATTENDANCE BY P. P. CLAXTON United States Commissioner of Education It is of the greatest importance that the schools of the United States of all kinds and grades-public, private, and parochial-be maintained during the war without any lowering of their standards or falling off in their attendance. This is necessary both for the protection of our boys and girls against many unusual temptations to delinquencies of various kinds, and that they may have full opportunity for preparation for the work of life and for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, all of which will require a higher degree of preparation because of the war. For many reasons there will be need in this country for higher standards in average of ability, knowledge, and virtue, when the boys and girls now in our schools have reached manhood and womanhood, than we or any other people have yet attained to, In the making of public opinion and popular sentiment necessary for the maintenance of stan dards of efficiency, to keep children in the schools, and to prevent their exploitation in the mills and shops, the churches may do much. I am therefore appealing to all ministers to urge this from their pulpits, and to all superintendents of Sunday schools and all leaders of young people's societies to have this matter discussed in their meetings. To do this is a patriotic duty which should be performed gladly, both for the present defence and for the future welfare of the country.-Bulletin of Bureau. NEW WAR-TIME EDUCATIONAL MOVE MENTS BY JANE A. STEWART Philadelphia The war has been stirring up education in ways unthought of. New wartime educational movements have taken on diverse forms. The object is to get trained men for war service, and to get them at once. Intensive new courses have been springing up. Among these are the courses in stores keeping instituted by Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and other higher educational institutions, to meet the request of the General Munitions Board for men trained to handle ordnance and stores. The course lasts six weeks and includes lectures by experts in scientific management and stores keeping, combined with practical work in munition plants and other foundries and factories. Special courses in dentistry and in medicine have been arranged to meet examination requirements for admission to the Dental and the Medical Reserve Corps of the Army and Navy. The establishment by the government of a Collegiate Balloon School in New Haven, Conn., is the first of the kind in the United States. There college men have been trained in the operation of lighter-than-air machines. Men from various colleges (who have shown an interest in aeronautics) have been admitted, the work including the operation of dirigibles, spherical balloons, and kite observation balloons. Nearly two score Federal Nautical Schools have been established during the summer in all parts of the United States for the training of officers needed for our great new American merchant marine. The teaching forces of these nautical schools are under the direction of Dean Alfred E. Burton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is the teaching head of the United States Shipping Board. These new schools have been located chiefly on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and on the Great Lakes, three-fourths of them being navigation entirely, and the others schools for marine engineers. The actual school work takes six weeks, covering the explanatory, preparatory and initial stages of the science of navigation, and including the principles of the sextant and quadrant, and of mathematics as related to navigation. This is followed by practice work on ship board, as "under-officers," during which salaries are paid. After two months of ship practice examinations are held to qualify for positions on the merchant marine. Much of the success in the battle against submarines depends on the skill with which the ships are handled, and the new schools are expected to meet the demand for skilled navigation officers. Another important new wartime educational movement is that of preparing for the professional (or vocational); re-education and functional readaptations of the disabled victims of war. This country, profiting by experience overseas, is getting ready now to do what must be done when the war hospitals begin to turn out blind men, leg less men, armless men and cripples of all kinds. When our soldier-boy cripples recover, they will find provision made under army auspices and local boards of education for their training and usefulness. Eighty per cent. of the wounded, it has been found, are capable of vocational reeducation. A man who loses his eyes or legs can be taught some occupation where he can use his hands (such as typewriting and massage). And it is fully realized that making a wounded man capable of earning even a small sum, by reeducation, is good, both for the man and for the nation. DAILY BIBLE READINGS FOR SCHOOLS AND HOMES Selected by Wilbur F. Crafts and approved by a Union Bible Selections Committee, constituted from educational leaders of twenty-six national religious bodies, Hebrew, Liberal and Evangelical. A few of these said they would not wish to be considered as favoring a propaganda to introduce Bible reading into schools where it is not now in vogue by law or custom, but all approved these selections as "suitable to be read to or by young people in schools or elsewhere." Cardinal Gibbons contributed a letter to the volume lauding the reading of all parts of the Bible, regardless of version. Readings are mostly Bible stories in chronological order, broken up into five-minute portions and interpreted by apropos Bible poetry. And forty holidays and other special days have apropos selections that make pupils' eyes dilate in wonder as if the words had come from heaven in a morning paper. Readings begin September 17, with two weeks of poetic nature lessons appropriate to the autumn, which are also an overture to the story of creation, the first of the Bible stories, that begin in October. Although schools usually convene only on five days a week, we provide selections for seven days, partly because we hope these readings will be used in many homes, and in institutions where devotional services or Bible studies come every day of the week; and partly because seven selections a week will give teachers of various grades. opportunity for selection and adaptation. Note how we make Old Testament poems and precepts interpret the stories. 1. PRELUDE OF NATURE LESSONS ON CREATION. (September 17-23, 1917.) M. Isaiah xl: 12-31; Proverbs xxx: 4. "Who hath T. Proverbs viii: 1, 22-23; Psalms lxxvii: 16-20. "The S. Jeremiah x: 10-16; xxxii: 17-19. "The gods that have not made the heavens and earth shall perish. 2. CREATION PRELUDE, CONCLUDED. (September 24-30.) M. Psalms lxv; lxvii. "Who by His strength settest fast the mountains.” T. Psalms xxix; xxxvi: 5-12. "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters." W. Psalms xix; xxv: 1, 4-15, 20, 21. "The heavens declare the glory of God." T. F. Job xxviii. "Surely there is a mine for silver." S. Job xxxviii: 22-41; Psalms cxix: 89-91, 97, 98, 101- S. 3. BEGINNINGS OF THE WORLD. M. Genesis i: 1-25; Psalms cxix: 126-130, 133-135. "Be- T. Genesis : 26-31; ii: 1-9, 15-24; Psalms viii. "Be- W. Genesis iii; Psalms xiii. "Beginning of Sin and T. F. Genesis iv: 2b-15; Psalms xxvi. "Beginning of Crime." Genesis vi: 5-22; vii: 1; Psalms xvi. “Beginning of S. Genesis xi: 1-9; Psalms ii. "Beginning of Language S. Psalms xii; xiv; cxix; 140-142, 162-165. "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth." 4. BEGINNINGS OF THE HEBREW RACE. (First Monday of October.) M. Genesis xi: 31, 32; xii: 1-9; Psalms xlvii. "A 'Pilgrim Father' called to found a New Race." Genesis xiii; Psalms xxxi: 1-5, 14-16, 19-21, 23, 24. "Abram's Peace Treaty with Lot." T. W. Genesis xiv: 8-24; Psalms cx. Battle." "Abram Victor in Patriotism has a new meaning to Americans. For half a century it has been a looking backward; now it is a looking forward. We have been of those who have protested against using the schools for the glorification of the patriotism of the Northern soldiers in the War of 1861-'65. We have not undervalued the loyalty and were of heroism of the boys in blue, for we those who wore the blue, but since Appomattox the blue and the gray have had to live together. Nothing but a blue-gray or a gray-blue has been American since that memorable April day in 1865. It has been impossible to adequately teach. patriotism without tinging the blue-gray or grayblue with a dash of red, and that has hurt. We have attended reunions of men in blue, and also reunions of the men in gray. After those southern experiences it was easy to realize what it must mean to them to hear Our "Marching Through Georgia." For quieting the nerves I should never again attend a Reunion of the Confederate Veterans. Hereafter American patriotism will never be keyed to blue or gray, but to the khaki. Brown will merge the blue and the gray. EDUCATION AFTER THE WAR* The civilized world is interested in appreciat ing the complexity and seriousness of the problems of education after the war. Germany has more at stake in the solution of those problems than has any other of the Great Powers, unless it be Russia. Apparently they will be of next most interest to England, and least to the United States, but it is too early to know the relativity of these problems when the war is over. This is the second great study of the problematical problems caused by the World War which has come to us from the pen of a Briton. Mr. Badley recognizes and realizes that England has never adequately educated the common people. He appreciates that, war or no war, England had to do much more than she had ever done for the rank and file of her people. He does not hesitate to reveal his profound interest in what has been done by Dr. Montessori for pre-school education; by Germany in her trade school preparation; in the United States by the universality of her free schools from the kindergarten to the university. Mr. Badley places emphasis upon education for his country's sake without making it conditioned upon the effect of the war. It is one of the best statements that has been made of the aims and purposes of modern education individually, individually, industrially, domestically, and civically. It will well repay any school man or woman to read this book devotedly. Every school man and woman should certainly read with great care the "Summary" of ten pages. The summary of the "Summary" of the entire book is this sentence: "Produce great persons; the rest follows." *Education After the War." By J. H. Badley, Cambridge, England. New York: Longmans, Green & Company. Cloth. 125 pages. MISSOURI WILL SHOW YOU The State Department of Missouri is making a remarkable demonstration which deserves the attention of all America. It is based on the Rotation Scheme in Agriculture, to which the Journal of Education has already referred several times. It is the vision of P. G. Holden of Chicago, who is well known by all of our readers. Mr. Holden is entirely sure that time, effort, and money are wasted in trying to put anything over on a whole state at once. His plan, as State Superintendent Uel W. Lamkin of Missouri is applying it, co-operating with Mr. Holden, has selected fifteen of the genuinely aggressively progressive county superintendents of the state, with whom Mr. Holden spent six days, unfolding his plan instructively, intelligently, and inspiringly. Each of these superintendents has selected five or six teachers who have the capability and adaptability equal to the demonstration, and Mr. Holden meets these elect teachers from five counties in a group and redirects and reinspires them. Thus there are to be seventy-five rural teachers with demonstration centres scattered over Missouri this year. There is no such leader as P. G. Holden. It Just for tonight." The modern school readers suggest that song in the welcome they get. One must read the latest word in science, the freshest paragraphs in psychology, the brightest page in literature, the new interpretation of history, the latest turn in pedagogical initiative, but in all this there is an intensity which is not purely restful. In such reading of the latest scientific, scholastic, educational fact and fancy there is a mental shock that is anything but restful. It is far from easy to read philosophy, psychology, or pedagogy, and it is even worse to spice it with news of the war and of preparations for the war. It is just one mental and moral readjustment after another. It is a reconversion every time one reads or hears a new demonstration, a new birth scholastically and educationally every time one tries to learn the latest best or the best latest. In such a world, at such a time, it is as restful as floating in a canoe on a mountain lake, swinging in a hammock under the old apple tree, or picking blueberries from laden bushes to take up a Fourth Reader with duotint spirit which catches the youth of sixteen and his father of sixty. It was a cool, delicious, Kansas July 16th, this year, there can be a cool, delicious, midsummer day in Kansas, as there can be other midsummer days in Kansas,-in Emporia when the postman brought "The Beacon Fourth Reader," and between the forenoon and the evening lecture I read with profit and pleasure, restfully and joyfully, with relish and with relief from all intensity of newness, from all fear of out-of-dateness. Boys and girls need all this much more than I do. The course of study is becoming so intense with so much of science, of industry, of commerce, of vocation, that school life is in need of literary flavor as incidental, as attractive, as varied as it is in a School Reader. A course in English Literature is too pretentious for the grades, essays are too vague, novels are too intense in the plotting, short stories are too exciting, long poems are too mysterious, but a School Reader of the upper grades is just right. It is varied. Each chapter is a unit. Everything is adequately literary. Nothing is childish, *The Beacon Fourth Reader. By James H. Fassett, Superintendent of Schools, Nashua, N. H. The Beacon Method Series. Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco: Ginn & Company. 314 pages. Price, 4 cents. nothing is perfunctory. There is interest in every paragraph. It is a literary christening that every boy and girl needs and he will get in no other way. IOWA'S NOTABLE DEPARTURE Iowa has captured Bird T. Baldwin, one of the sanest scientists, one of the most scientific psychologists, and one of the most psychological pedagogists in the country, and has put him in charge of a state department of Child Welfare under conditions which make it impossible for anyone to hamper him or hinder his work in any way. Towa is the first state to take such a noble step in educational progress. The normal child is capable of much greater mental and physical development than exists today. By making detailed scientific study of the factors in the physiological, mental, pedagogical, social, and moral elements of children it will be possible, he asserts, to raise the standard of Iowa children just as the standards of grain and live stock have been elevated by scientific methods. Unused, untrained, and undiscovered physical and mental resources will be developed in children by this new work. The station will be situated at the University. It will be independent, yet it will co-operate with and co-ordinate the work of the colleges of medicine, education, and dentistry, the departments of philosophy and psychology, sociology, home economics, the extension division, and the public health service. There will be a clinic in connection with the research station, but a great deal of the work will be done in the homes of the children by members of the staff, or other specially qualified persons. The subjects of the work will be normal children, children who are not defective in their mental or physical condition. They will be studied from the time of their birth until they pass out of childhood, but greatest stress will be laid on their development before they reach the age of seven, according to Dr. Baldwin. He has already achieved notable results in this type of work and the undertaking cannot be viewed as an experiment. The research station will find by scientific methods just what conditions aid or hinder development in all of the phases of child life. Up to this time the work in this field has been sporadic and poorly arranged for the most part. Iowa's station will follow the individual child from year to year whereas the children in other places have been forgotten after one test, thereby eliminating the opportunity to note the development in the individual. There will be a close connection between the station at the University and all of the other agencies of the state interested in child welfare. A dissemination of the findings at the University's station and other authoritative information on the subject will be one of the features of the work. The station will also give professional training for child welfare workers, as a means of educating and helping the public. |