Dining is a physical job. Dining à la carte is an open job. Dining table d'hôte is a blind-alley job.

But table d'hôting is distinctly an adult process. It presupposes a sophistication in digestive operation, a tolerance in digestive receptiveness, a cosmopolitanism in digestive grasp, that the organism of a child could not possibly be possessed of.

Glutton though a child may be, he nevertheless objects to having his gluttony library-bureaued. The love of selection is a predominant quality of childhood and adolescence. Apportionment that is satisfactory to a young person is a miracle. More, apportionment made for children by adults that is appropriate and wholesome is as rare as it is miraculous.

Youth is the à la carte period of life; adulthood, the table d'hôte period. But the one is always trying to impose his point of view upon the other, and the adult, being the stronger and the one in authority, usually prevails to the greater degree, oftentimes to his own embarrassment and undoing.

Freedom of choice as well as freedom in choice belongs pre-eminently to youth, and this is so, must be so, even though the very exercise of freedom may bring pain and cause trouble subsequently.

ין

If table d'hôting you would go,
Your appetite must be just so;
If à la carte you masticate,
Your appetite may fluctuate.

Adults are just-so people; children are fluctuators.

The regular, laid-out, cut-and-dried table d'hôte perpetuates a monotony of status in the nether physical regions and allows but narrow margins for wholesome contractions and expansions. It holds to a monarchical régime; it assumes assimilation by royal command.

The free, fluctuating, catch-as-catch-can à la carte is as elastic in its possibilities as the digestive organism of youth itself. It is accordingly democratic. It assumes nothing; indeed, it often entails anarchy, revolution, and bombastication of the in'ards! But then-to be free!

A syllabus is an educational table d'hôte, an adult concoction the ingredients for which are assembled, mixed, and served for the mental digestion of the young.

A curriculum is a collection of syllabi; in other words, a mobilization of educational table d'hôtes.

A school is the battlefield of the contending forces the place where adult prescription contends with juvenile tactic, where table d'hôte preparedness and à la carte manoeuvre fight it out, where strategy in storage and strategy on the spur outdo themselves in combat.

The conceit of adulthood is nowhere more

apparent, nowhere more assertive, than in its formulation of studies for the young. It lays out what it thinks pupils ought to study, how it thinks youth ought to study, and then tries to force the issue. It disregards to an astounding degree the things youth wants. It strangely enough forgets its own à la carte period in its table d'hôte maturity. And thus it renders the educational fare administered both unpalatable and indigestible.

Color, motion, animals, plants, objects, pictures, contests, contrasts, freedom, yeas-it is these youth would order from an à la carte menu in education.

Compliance, exactness, abstraction, sameness, inflexibility, nicety, books, words, don'ts, naysit is these adults serve up on their table d'hôte menu in education.

Algebra, history, grammar, and, worst of all, cut-and-dried, table d'hôte reading these canned products, these indigestibles, these ptomaines for the adolescent passionists and à la cartists! Give them liberty or give them these!

There is consequently a wholesale foundering and a complete set of hospital schools-schools for defectives, for atypicals, for waywards, for arrested developments, and so on.

Next in order of establishment must be schools for the haters of reading.

Reading is a mental and emotional job. Reading à la carte is an open job. Reading table d'hôte is a blind-alley job.

It is with the reading laid out for the young that the syllabists, the educational table d'hôters, do the greatest harm.

Not liking an edible is the best reason in the world for not eating it. Not liking a book is the best reason in the world for not reading it.

But certain books must be read for discipline, say the table d'hôters, and so they prescribe adult books and recommend adult methods for their treatment in the classroom.

More than this-they follow out the table d'hôte régime to the last measure of its syncopating possibilities. Certain books are read and studied at certain specified times and in certain specified ways. It is easy to find whole statefuls of children analyzing the same poem at the same time in the same way-and concluding it with the same dislike! Not so very long ago a somewhat distinguished state superintendent said, pointing to a clock in his office, "Thirty-five thousand children at this present moment are answering this question."

He pointed to a question on the examination paper in his hand which read as follows: "Why did Godfrey Cass desert Molly Ferran?"

Thus were thirty-five thousand in the prime of life led to dabble with the crime of life as a result of the educational table d'hôte by which they had been victimized.

That theory that extols study primarily as discipline is extremely pluperfect; it is held only by the most pronounced table d'hôte thinkers. To study something just because it will do you good is to take castor oil intellectually or psychologically, or both. Put into practice in the study of literature, such a theory acts as a chronic emetic. Pupils in the higher elementary grades and in the high school need the literature that they like, need literature à la carte if they are to have any permanent benefit from it or liking for it.

There are three attitudes among pupils of these grades toward literature and reading. The majority do not like the books they are given to read. Some are keen to read books other than those used in the classroom. A few resign themselves and read thoroughly, if not keenly, the prescribed books.

In other words:

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some would eat that want it;
But we have meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.

What is meat for one may be poison for another.

Literature à la carte will enable all to have the meat they like and are able to digest and enjoy.

Dr. Corson of Cornell proved years ago that the one best method of inculcating a genuine love for literature, as far as college students and adults are concerned, is the à la carte methodthe reading aloud of the best prose and poetry to large groups.

Professor Copeland of Harvard is today proving the same method to be supreme-witness the

attendance upon his readings and the afterattack upon the libraries.

The very same method may be used with high-school pupils, is being used with them in certain schools, with results that are vastly superior to those under the old table d'hôte system. Large bodies of pupils-sometimes as many as two and three hundred-are assembled two or three times a week. Literature of their age is read to them, along with the high spotsthe youthful spots-in their prescribed books. There is no close analysis, no high-brow discussion such as the suburban Browning Society indulges when it meets of an evenin' to "do" Browning's "The Ring and the Book."

The aims simply are to inculcate a human attitude toward literature and a natural, wholesome, sincere appreciation of it.

The means simply are the auditory appeal, the principle of mob psychology, and great discernment in the selection and grouping of readings.

Most of the literature pupils are required to read is too remote from their experience, too far removed from their point of view, too difficult for their mental digestion. The à la carte plan makes it possible for them to start on a simple, native fare and to work up gradually to a more complex, more ambitious menu.

Thus, "Casey at the Bat" may be an excellent beginning for a group of readings that deal with the subject of rivalry or contest, a subject always near to the heart of youth. This may be followed with Fred Emerson Brooks's "Old Ace"; this, in turn, with "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," and "The Chariot Race" from "Ben Hur"; and the series may be fitly concluded with "Pheidippides."

The retirement of Henry Whittemore from the Framingham Normal School takes from active service a veteran-a veteran of the Civil War, and a veteran of schoolmastership. High school teaching, supervision, and then normal principalship, were the progressive steps made possible by eminent success in whatever he attempted. With these professional positions of trust were many allied interests-social, civic, and religious-to which he gave much of his thought, his energy, and his time.

So great was the appreciation of Mr. Whittemore by his friends in education that a social organization of school superintendents was named "The Whittemore Club."

Ability in teaching and supervision, knowledge of the best in pedagogy, in psychology, and in the history of education, progressive activity in all rational development of curriculum and administration, have given Mr. Whittemore a high place in the ranks of real educators. To those, however, who know him best these are not the reasons why he has endeared himself to them. The real reason is because he is a good fellow, a delightful companion, an Abou-Ben-adhem sort of a

Cap E. Miller, taking his master's degree at the Iowa Agricultural College at Ames, in June, goes to the State Normal School at Milwaukee, with Dr. Carroll G. Pearse, in charge of rural school work. He made a national reputation a few years ago as superintendent of Keokuk County, where he set a pace we have never known equaled in inspiring initiative in all country boys and girls.

Mrs. Julia Fried Walker, one of the best known women of the National Education Association, long editor of the Educator-Journal of Indianapolis, and of late eminently popular on the educational platform, went to the hospital in mid-June for an operation, from which she did

not recover. She was widely known, much beloved, and will be deeply mourned.

Jessie Field, who made Page County, Iowa, famous, and who was made famous by Page County, is now Mrs. Jessie Field Shambaugh, of Clarinda, Page County, Iowa. Since leaving county superintendency she has been national secretary of the Country Life work of the Young Women's Christian Association. Her "Corn Lady" is one of the best books for a rural teacher that has been written.

George M. Wiley is the new director of examinations for the state of New York. Of him C. W. Bardeen of Syracuse says in School Bulletin :

"Mr. Wiley has worked his way up through all the grades of our school system. He is fortyone years of age. He was graduated from Glens Falls Academy in 1895 and from Union College in 1899, taking his A. M. in 1903. In 1903 he became principal of the high school at Dunkirk, where two years later he was made superintendent of schools. His success here was so conspicuous that after three years he was invited to take the civil service examination for inspector in the education department. His name stood first on the list and he was appointed in 1908. Two years later he was made chief of administration, and his rapid and steady rise is continued in his present appointment.

"Mr. Wiley has been notably prompt, sure, efficient, courteous, personally loyal to his chief and generous to his associates, incapable of deceit or subterfuge, wholly to be trusted as an officer and as a man. He is a Son of the Revolution; a member of the University Club, Albany; of the State Historical Association, and of the National Education Association; and while in Dunkirk was director of the Carnegie library and of the Young Men's Christian Association, as well as president of the Chautauqua County Teachers Association and Schoolmasters Club."

MEANING OF SCHOOLHOUSES
Continued from page 38.

such activities be entered into "decently and in order"?

Why should not all the "live" topics of the day be discussed in open meeting in our schoolhouses? Would this not be a step toward a fuller realization of that democracy of which we all delight to talk? Would it not in reality be a fuller and deeper interpretation of the meaning of education? Always granting that this get-together effort is under careful, trained. supervision, which in turn is responsible to the board of education.

If the board is handicapped for money, and it always is even to the extent of lately trying to save at the expense of the very life fibre of its teaching force, why should the public not pay for the wider use of the school?

What is this shibboleth that closes the doors of the schoolhouses of our city? "No admission fee must be charged for entrance to a

schoolhouse but once in a year." If once, why not more frequently? Remember that we ask the administration of this trust be through some responsible public official.

But few of our elementary school buildings are lighted with electricity, which fact prohibits the showing of films. Out of the 250 school buildings two or three only have any kind. of an auditorium. Is it possible that Philadelphia is contented with these conditions? Her $26,000,000 plant brings her but meagre returns when compared with results in other cities. The facts of the wider use of the schools have been made public time and again. What is this strange inertia which posessses us? Will never a leader arise in our board of education who can hew his way through traditions both pedagogic and political and restore to the people that which is their own? Not only restore, but reveal to them the wonderful possibilities for the enrichment of human life in the use of the

schoolhouse as proposed.

"The sanctuary of childhood" the schoolhouse has been well called. When it is that plus the wider social demand made upon it today it will be, indeed, as it ought to be, "the temple of the people."

"ANY PLACE THAT IS WILD"

"Once, on reading a magazine article by an enthusiastic young mountain climber, who dilated upon his thrilling adventures in scaling Mount Tyndall, John Muir commented dryly: 'He must have given himself a lot of trouble. When I climbed Tyndall I ran up and back before breakfast.'

"At a time when trails were few and hard to find, he explored the Sierra, which, he said, should be called, not the Nevada, or Snowy Range but the Range of Light. When night came he selected the lee side of a log, made a fire, and went to sleep on a bed of pine-needles. If it was snowing he made a bigger fire and lay closer to his log shelter.

"But I don't know where you want to go! provested the surprised pedestrian.

"To any place that is wild,' he replied."-Mary R. Parkman, in the St. Nicholas.

THE BUTTON SELLER
"Where are you going, my pretty maid?"
"A button-selling, sir," she said.
"What kind of buttons, my pretty maid?"
"Illiteracy buttons, of course," she said.
"Why do you sell them, my pretty maid?"
"For love of my native State," she said.

"To whom do you sell them, my pretty maid?" "One to you, I hope," she said. "How much shall I pay you, my pretty maid?" "As much as you possibly can," she said.

Miss Elizabeth Holmes. Bellinger Hill School, Montgomery, Ala.

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF RADIO-ACTIVITY. By Francis P. Venable, Professor in the University of North Carolina. New York: D. C. Heath & Co. Illustrated. Cloth. 60 pp. Price, 50 cents.

In these days when time is of supreme moment he makes a doubly valuable book who can put into fiftyfour pages all that the general student needs to know of a given subject as Dr. Venable has done in this monograph on radio-activity.

The work contains chapters on The Discovery of Radio-activity, Properties of the Radiations, Changes in Radio-active Bodies, Nature of the Alpha Particle, Structure of the Atom, Radio-activity and the Chemical Theory. The work is based upon the writings of Rutherford, Soddy, and J. J. Thomson, and should prove of value not only to students of general chemistry and radio-activity, but also to busy men in other branches of science who wish to know something of radio-activity and have scant leisure in which to read the larger treatises.

Radio-activity plays a part in the rain and snow that fall alike upon the wise and unwise, in the science of health, in the industries, and appears to be as universal a force among the sun, moon and stars as gravitation itself.

While there is much in radio-activity that we cannot understand and some things that no one understands, there is enough that we can understand that no one ever understood twenty-five years ago to make the humblest of us rejoice and exclaim, "What hath science wrought!" No teacher of chemistry, no student of chemistry has any right to teach or study his science without having Professor Venable's book at hand.

ORAL AND WRITTEN ENGLISH. Book One. By Milton C. Potter, H. Jeschke and Harry O. Gillet. Boston: Ginn & Co. Price, 52 cents.

For a third of a century we have watched the attempts to find theoretically ideal books to supplant the long-time non-ideal favorites. Rarely does any book come to the throne of the dethroned book, but in course of time,— sometimes a very long time-one book after another finds a foothold and ultimately the universal book is gradually retired. Here is a brilliant new attempt to win a place for something new in "Oral and Written English" by the superintendent of Milwaukee, a teacher in Cleveland, and a professor of Chicago University, who have combined teaching in practice, supervision in action, and expert theorizing in an heroic effort to make a genuinely new book for so teaching "Oral and Written English" as to satisfy the theorists without disturbing the definite results without which no book is worth while.

This is Book One of a new language series, so new that it must be personally examined in detail to be appreciated. Without pretending to prophesy as to the extent of its success we can unhesitatingly affirm that both teacher and pupils will enjoy it, for it is based on the mastery of the good English in good stories in prose and verse. Teachers will enjoy it because it is a day-by-day series of lessons with sufficient flexibility to adapt itself to a class that is speedy or a class that is on "low gear." There is enough work in it to make it wholesome for children, as well as interesting. It has been delightful to examine the book.

THE ART-MUSIC READERS.

The most striking feature of these books as one opens them is the multitude of full-page illustrations; next is one's surprise that there have been so many masterpieces in paintings that have a musical suggestion; and then one wonders at the art in the descriptive matter.

AROUND THE WORLD WITH CHILDREN. An Introduction to Geography. By Frank G. _Carpenter. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: American Book Company. Illustrated. Cloth. 129 pp.

Frank G. Carpenter apparently knows the world, its geography, its people, its customs, its traditions, its child life better than any other person living, and he knows how to make word pictures, and select photographs, and arrange information most delightfully and impressively.

We never let one of his books go by us because, though we know some things somewhat, we are personally much enriched in knowledge after we have whiled away a little time with him.

His latest book, from the child standpoint is his masterpiece, it seems to us. The illustrations are perfectly wonderful and the way he introduces the child to homes in country, village and city, to food and clothing in cold lands and in hot lands, to toys and games in cold lands and in hot lands and in all lands, is artistic. With consummate art he weaves a limitless array of charming information, every paragraph of which is fascinating to every child.

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL MOVEMENT, 1780-1917, AND THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 1817-1917. By Edwin Wilbur Rice, D.D., Litt.D. Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union. 501 pp. Price, $2.00, net. By mail, price, $2.25.

There is no better authority on the history and mission of the Sunday School than is Dr. Edwin Wilbur Rice and he has put within these 500 pages the result of the research of years, the observations, acquaintanceship and experience of a life-time, presenting them with the art of the literati and the skill of an editor.

Dr. Rice has specialized in Sunday School work for more than sixty years and during much of that time he has been author or editor or both. It is a book of reference for every library, a book for guidance and inspiration for every Sunday School officer and teacher.

THE AMERICAN SONG BOOK. By Charles Herbert Levermore, Ph.D. Boston: Ginn & Co. Price, 72

cents.

This collection of 132 songs and hymns for use in schools is divided into four parts, with alphabetical index of titles and first lines. They were all chosen because they were good to sing and include thirty-eight favorite familiar and folk songs of countries represented in our population; twenty-four college songs of the latest and best athletic type; thirty-seven hymns of religious aspiration and worship; and thirty-three songs of loyalty to the nation and to the cause of humanity Fal song combines true melody and rhythm with words that deserve to be always with us, and all are brought together in one convenient volume. HEALTHY LIVING. By Charles Edward Amory New York: Charles E. Merrill Company.

Here are a few of the many wonderful paintings represented: "The Contest of Minnesingers at Wartburg"; "Angel with the Viol"; "Angel with Flute"; "Angel with Guitar"; "Singing Boys"; "Singing Boys with Book"; "Singing Boys with Scroll"; "St. Cecilia"; "The Music Lesson"; "The Boyhood of Lully"; "Singing Angels." Book Two has chiefly portraits of music masters and pictures of masterpieces associated with music masters. Here are some of the poems with at least a musical suggestion: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "A Musical Instrument"; "O Lark of the Summer Morning," from

Meetings to be Held

JULY.

University Summer School, Athens, Ga. Superintendent H. W. Odum in charge.

7-14: National

Education Association, Portland, Oregon. Durand W. Springer, Ann Arbor, Mich., secretary.

AUGUST. 7-9: Western District of County Superintendents. Blue Ridge, N. C. R. A. Sentell, Waynesville, president. 14-31: Wisconsin State Supervising Teachers' Association. Madison. SEPTEMBER.

3-8: Interstate Fair and Live Stock Show. Spokane, Wash.

8-8: East Central District Association of County Superintendents. Sanford, North Carolina. J. F. Webb, Oxford, president.

10-15: State Fair Spelling Bee, Syracuse, N. Y.

17-22: Children's Encampment. North Yakima, Wash.

22: State of Washington County Superintendents' Annual Convention. Cheney, Wash. September 24-25 at Pullman.

19-20:

Northwestern Wisconsin Teachers' Association. Eau Claire. Miss Mabel Ahlstrum, Eau Claire, Secretary.

24-27: Washington Educational Association. Spokane. O. C. Whitney, Bryant School, Tacoma, Wash., secretary.

29-31: Colorado Education Association, Western Division, Grand Junction, Miss Agnes Young, Montrose, secretary. 81-November 2: Minnesota Educational Association. Minneapolis. C. C. Baker, Albert Lea, president; E. D. Pennell, East High School, Minneapolis, secretary.

31-November 2: Colorado Education Association, Southern Division, Pueblo. Lemuel Pitts, Jr., Pueblo, secretary. 31-November 2: North Dakota Educational Association. Bismarck. E. R. Edwards, Jamestown, president; W. E. Parsons, Bismarck, secretary.

NOVEMBER.

1-3: Colorado Education Association, Eastern Division. Denver. James H. Kelley, Gunnison, president; H. B. Smith, Denver, secretary general association.

1-3: Iowa State Teachers' Association. Sixty-third annual session, Des Moines. Eva M. Fleming, superintendent, Decorah, president; Superintendent O. E. Smith, Indianola, secretary.

2: Essex County, Mass., Teachers Association. Tremont Temple, Boston. Superintendent William F. Eldredge, Rockport, president; John H. Bosshart, Salem, secretary.

8-10: Kansas State Teachers' Association. Topeka W. H. Johnson, Lawrence, president; F. L. Pinet, Topeka, secretary.

12-16: Newcastle County Teachers Institute, A. I. Dupont High School. Kent and Sussex Counties, at Milford. State Institute for Colored Teachers at Milford. Charles A. Wagner, State Commissioner of Education, Dover, Delaware, chairman committee on arrangements.

15-17: Missouri State Teachers' Association. Kansas City. President, Ira Richardson, Maryville; secretarytreasurer, E. M. Carter, Columbia. 15-17: Joint meeting: New England Association of School Superintendents, Massachusetts Superintendents Association, American Institute of Instruction and Massachusetts

Teachers Association. Boston. 26-28: Virginia Educational Conference. Richmond. State Teachers' Association, William C. Blakey, Richmond, secretary; State Cooperative Education Association, J. H. Montgomery, Richmond, secretary; Association of Division Superintendents, Superintendent F. B. Fitzpatrick, Bristol, secretary; Association of Trustees, M. C. McGhee, secretary.

26-28: New York State Teachers' Association. Syracuse. Herbert S. Weet, Rochester, N. Y., president. 26-28: Wyoming State Teachers' Association. Buffalo, Wyo.

26-28: Maryland State Teachers' Association Baltimore City. Sydney 9. Handy, president; Hugh W. Caldwell, Elkton, secretary.

26-28: Montana State Teachers' Association. Helena. Dr. H. H. Swain, Helena, secretary.

29-December 1: North Carolina State Teachers' Assembly. Charlotte. Allen, Salisbury, president; A: Tv. Walker, Chapel Hill, Vicepresident; E. E. Sams, Raleigh, secretary. 29-December 1: Texas State Teachers' Association. Waco. Miss Annie Webb Blanton, Denton, president; R. T. Ellis, Forth Worth, secretary.

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CAMBRIDGE. James Alfred_Page, veteran educator and retired Boston schoolmaster, died last week at his home here, in his ninety-first year. He had been ill for only a week. His long service to the city of Boston during his active connection with the Dwight Grammar School at the South End had made Mr. Page widely known in educational circles and elsewhere and in his classes, year after year, in his service of almost three score years at the Dwight School, were pupils to whom Mr. Page so endeared himself that they never lost their friendship for for the venerable man. Throughout Boston he was heartily greeted by numerous people who recalled themselves to him as former pupils. Many of these have become noted in the years since they were under his instruction.

Thomas W. Lamont of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., chairman of the committee appointed to raise $10,000,000 as an additional endowment for Harvard University, has announced that the fund now amounts to $1,187,160. This amount has been collected in cash and pledges since January 1, 1917, and represents for the most part voluntary contributions due to the fact that the outbreak of the war interfered with the large-scale campaign which the Endowment Fund Committee had planned to put into operation about the first of May. This encouraging start promises well for the success of the campaign which will be undertaken just as soon as conditions warrant.

MILTON. As a result of increasing differences of opinion between Superintendent F. M. Marsh and the school committee, the superintendent has left his position here. Mr. Marsh came to Milton from Fairhaven, Mass., five years ago and was unanimously re-elected last March, since which time the trouble started.

BROOKLINE. The report of the survey committee which has been studying the Brookline schools is out, and it contains recommendations for the establishment of a demonstration school where local educational prob lems can be solved, another for the adoption of the six and six plan with the consequent creation of a junior high school, a third for the introduction of more constructive methods in the school health work, and a fourth for various changes in the course of study.

The committee was headed by Superintendent James H. Van Sickle of Springfield and included Professor Henry S. West of University of Cincinnati; Harlan Updegraff of the division of education of the University of Pennsylvania: Professor George D. Strayer of Teachers' College, New York; Egbert E. MacNary, director of vocational education and practical arts in the schools of Springfield; May Ayres, specialist in hygiene and sanitation, New York; Bertha M. McConkey, assistant super