THE N. E. A. CONVENTION AT PORTLAND [Dr. Margaret McNaught, in Blue Bulletin.] The annual convention of the National Education Association was marked by four features of such distinctive character as to leave impressions that will be remembered by all. First, a manifestation of patriotic ardor not only uttered in many speeches, but felt continuously as an effluence of the spirit of the gathering. Second, the personality of Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, a personality so potent that even in retirement her influence is as effective in education as it was when she was in active work, and so fine as to be inspiring to all. Third, an illustration of the ease with which persuasive or forceful oratory can induce intelligent audiences to applaud with almost equal fervor opposing doctrines when set forth by eloquent advocates. Fourth, the wonderful wildwood and foaming falls and beautiful bridges of the Columbia River highway; a study of which is in itself an education in the arts of combining the picturesque with the useful and uniting stability with beauty. There were other features of course that will be recalled and cherished in memory by individuals and by groups of individuals, but these four at least must have impressed nearly every one and will not only be long talked of, but retained as parts of the educational benefits the convention has left in the minds of all that shared in it. Each of them, in fact, merits a distinct citation in order that something of its worth may be made known to those that had not the good fortune to be parts of the convention itself. The "spirit of the crowd" is familiar to all philosophies. It manifests itself in every large gathering and varies in intensity with the stress of the times when the gatherings meet. The convention at Portland came together under the stress of war so vast that no one has been able to compute its magnitude or to forecast either its duration or the intensity of the strain it will put upon our wealth, our blood and our honor. It was inevitable, therefore, that although the Portland convention was called, like others, that the association might consider the peaceful work of schoolroom education, the dominating thought of all should be that the immediate task of education now is to give instruction and training and ardor in the manifold dangers and duties to which patriotism and humanity summon us. There were times when this spirit breathed from the convention as simply and as quietly as perfume is exhaled from a flower, but there were other times when under the shock of some untimely plea for peace at any price it flashed out like a spark from a flint; one could feel that it needed but little more enforcement to flare into flame. The chief advocate of peace at the convention, Kate Devereux Blake of New York City, is a charming woman; able, sincere and diligent in many kinds of good work. She is held in high esteem for both her personal worth and for the worth of her many services to the nation and to womanhood. She spoke with tact, with persuasion, with grace and with well-chosen words, but the effects often were the opposite of what she aimed at. One could almost literally feel the stir among the audience of the emotions and ardors of patriotism that repelled the plea. In the old Greek use of the original word, "enthusiasm❞ meant the action of a divinity in the mind of man, and in much the same sense the patriotism of the convention was enthusiasm. C. G. Pearse, former president of the Association and acting president of the Council of Education, smilingly and with gentle courtesy reminded Miss Blake at the close of a fervent appeal by her for the teaching of universal brotherhood after the war, that when a fire is raging there is no time for any service but that of concerted action for its extinguishment. "After the fire is out," he said, "we shall be ready to think of other things." There are men and women gifted by nature with the fine power of radiating energy by the mere fact of living, or even of having once lived. Thousands of people celebrate the birthday of Robert Burns and feel the influence of his humanity who have never read his poems nor would understand them if read; and millions are influenced by the life of Washington who have never heard his name. Such persons have something more than the power of work. An energy too subtle to be defined, but too distinct to be ignored, radiates from them to all around, and being transmitted from mind to mind heart to heart, spreads through a nation and produces effects everywhere. or Something of this quality marks the personality of Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, who, being out of office and nominally out of work, still influences the course of education as potently as when she directed the schools of Chicago. In the Portland convention there were many able, energetic, resourceful, ardent, ambitious, aspiring, widely and deeply useful men and women, possessed of youth and of office, active in the day's work and prompt and forceful in doing it, yet among all these the supreme personality was this woman whose work is popularly supposed to have ended with her term of office. Summoned to the convention to speak on “Ideals of Universal Education," she caught up in her mind all the inspirations of the hour and spoke on "The Genius of America," a plea for an education that will bring the American people to the full realization of all the hopes that humanity has in democracy. It was a noble plea, nobly made, yet from a personality less noble than her own, half its effect would have been lost. As it was, every listener felt the fitness of the theme to the time and to the speaker; and there was no one that did not learn from it something beyond the words. A feature of the convention that has its amusing as well as its instructive significance was the general and generous applause given to both sides of a disputed doctrine. One speaker, Mrs. Alexander Thompson of The Dalles, Oregon, pronounced a wholesale destructive criticism upon the instruction given in our public schools. Bishop Sumner took the opposite view and subjected the destructive criticism to a criticism still more destructive. The applause was so nearly equal in both cases that though it cannot be called appreciative, it merits the title of impartiality. The frequency with which such applause is given by American audiences to both sides or all sides of almost any question, has been attributed by foreign critics to what they term a popular attitude of indifference and disregard on our part to the right or wrong of any issue before us when advocated or opposed by smart speakers. That cannot have been the case at Portland. Nearly everyone of the applauding audience there was a teacher virtually devoted to our public school system of education; knowing from experience its defects, but knowing also its value as compared with other systems. It is evident that applause in this country does not always signify approval of the sentiment or the argument of the speaker. It may be due to admiration for a wellrounded period, or for a happy phrase that strikes the fancy, or to a desire to take part in the proceeding by making a cheerful noise by clapping the hands. Semetimes it proceeds from mere politeness and may be called a compliment; and there are times when it might be called flattery. The living which a human being earns must not injure his life. E, T. Campagnac, University of Liverpool, ORGANIZED SCHOOL PLAY PAYS BY TERENCE VINCENT Former Boys' Play Leader in the John Pitman School, Kirkwood, Mo. The thirty-one best players in the Pitman School were promoted the first semester of last year. Of the eighty-five best players the second semester, only two failed. When a boy is having much fun at play his studies usually reflect that happiness by increased classroom efficiency. When a boy is out of sorts on the playground it is a miracle if he does better in the classroom. The determining factor of the boy's life is play. It is almost a direct thermometer of his ability to achieve, since excellent players are seldom poor students, while poor players almost universally seem to be poor students. of the forty-one best players were among those who were promoted. This is one way it pays the pupils to play. The second semester continued the same system of "plusses," with some elaborations, to make more fun for the boys. In addition to gaining play credit for organized playground activities, "Home Record Sheets" were introduced. Five plusses an hour were allowed for "voluntary home helping"; if a boy failed to do his chores voluntarily, then his parents did not record any play credit for him. The cards are 7x11 inches in size, were issued each week and included the following activities: Carrying in wood or coal; carrying out ashes; tending the furnace or stove; cleaning yard, chicken house, clothes or automobile; shoveling snow; running errands; washing or drying dishes; preparing a meal properly; dusting; entertaining small brothers or sisters; family shopping; milking cows; making garden; planting and care of flowers; mowing lawn; music practice; dimes earned and deposited (1 plus per dime); rising at first call each morning (1 plus); personal appearance (1 plus per day); at home on time (1 plus). At the bottom of the card are five blank lines on which additional useful home activities were listed Numerous instances are available concerning boys who were behind their grades and were slow at playing games. When these fellows are reached by the play leader, when they become interested in the organized recreation activities, then they immediately gain in class work. One boy of large stature, fifteen years old, was in the 6B class when he was elected captain of one of the sides in game competition. It was only six weeks until he had passed into the 6A class, with every chance of promotion with that group at the end of the semester. Another boy, ten years old, had never taken interest in the civilizing activities of the playground until his parents consulted the play by the parents. A few of those are: Cleaning leader. Little by little he then came out of his "Lord Fauntleroy" habits, tried every game that he could try and finally the other boys saw his earnestness and quit nagging him. When he had increased his standing broad jump from five feet to five feet seven and one-half inches this spring he was one of the happiest boys in school, even though his best jump was several inches short of the jumps made by other boys in his grade. Beginning in September, the boys kept "books" on themselves. Each game of dodge ball won counted two plusses, and the loser earned one plus; in captain ball, each boy on each side earned as many plusses as his side scored goals; in all-up relay, three plusses for winners and two plusses for losers, etc. These scores were kept daily on a large beaver board in the play office, the honor system prevailing. 'On January 19 the score board was taken down, scores counted and the winners determined. The best ten players were awarded the red "P," the school letter; the next ten were awarded the red Pitman ribbon, and the next ten best the white Pitman ribbon. A tie score occurred in the red ribbon section, so an additional ribbon was given, was given, making thirty-one awards. The promotions were announced on Monday, January 23, the letters and ribbons were given out, and each award went to a boy who was promoted. The play list and the promotion lists were made up with no co-operation-the one had no knowledge of the other till promotion day. The ten next best players were given honorable mention, and only one of those failed of promotion. So forty shoes, rugs, table; tending cows; chopping wood; making beds; closing chicken house; woodcraft; helping with private school duties; waiting on table; at meals on time; emptying ice water; mking kite; making tennis court; carrying milk and sweeping the porch. Many mothers were glad to record the plusses for their boys. "Donald never before took a delight in doing chores around home until he got play credit for it," said one grateful mother. "Will asks me order to get more play credit," another mother said, cheerfully if there is anything else' he may do in "and I am glad to help him with his home record." "This home record system helps the parents get interested in their own boys," said Superintendent Nelson Kerr, "and our method of making it worth while in the play department is working out splendidly." Home records and school records in the play department were added together on May 25, and the boys ranked according to the highest records down to the lowest. Of the best eighty-five players, only two failed to be promoted on June 6. This time there seems to be proof that it not only paid the boys to play heartily, but also that it paid the parents to help their boys make fun out of home duties that sometimes prove irksome. Included in the averages were occasional tournaments in horseshoes, handball, sidewalk tennis, baseball, volley ball, basket ball, gymnasium games, and track and field athletics. Any kind of a normal boy had a chance to win the school letter. One of the bankers of Kirkwood observed that Continued on page 524, JOURNAL OF EDUCATION NEW ENGLAND AND NATIONAL A. E. WINSHIP.. Entered at the Post-Office, Boston, Mass., as second-class mail matter Boston, New York, and Chicago, November 22, 1917 PAGE FEDERAL RECOGNITION IN ARKANSAS The University of Arkansas not only has been designated as the institution in which all teachertraining work in the state of Arkansas under the Editor Smith-Hughes Act will be done, but also it is the first state to have its plans for teacher training approved by the Federal board in Washington. It is proposed to establish in the College of Education a department of vocational teacher training with a director in charge, and with specialists for the other lines of work. The University includes the Colleges of Engineering and Agriculture, and a well established department of Home Economics. It is to appoint a director of vocational training and professors of agricultural education, home economics education and education in trades and industries. The appointees must have not less than than the equivalent of a master's degree from a standard university, and considerable experience in teaching as well as actual contact in vocational work. 507 508 510 511 511 513 514 A War for Children Indiana Association Outside Reading in American History Liberty Loan Bonds in Illinois Schools.. 515 516 517 The N. E. A. Convention at Portland. The Play Movement. Federal Recognition in Arkansas.... A Faculty Social Hour. Moral Education Library Elementary Boys' Club. Nebraska Normal College. Probably Not Boston Fitchburg Ahead. Teachers Salaries 518 518 518 519 519 ..... 519 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 521 522 522 Saam to Council Bluffs. The Week in Review.. Open-Air Schools Save the Birds... Educators Personally 523 Daily Bible Readings for School and Home-(IX) 524 To the Department of Superintendence. 524 524 Book Table. Poor Boys Can Go to College. Educational News. THE PLAY MOVEMENT* 525 526 The Play Movement in the United States is one of the most vital phases of education, as is appreciated since we entered into the World War. It has ceased to be for amusement, for diversion, for fun and frolic, and all America, in school and out, is now definitely interested in knowing of it historically, patriotically, and prophetically. Dr. Henry S. Curtis knows the Play Movement He in the United States as does no one else. was the inspirer and director of the National Playground Association, which under many names has grown and prospered beyond the dream of its founders. Those were days in which we were on the executive committee and knew of the skill and devotion of its first secretary. Those were days when we had to make bricks without straw. Dr. Curtis and his associates had pennies where of late years there have been dollars. Dr. Curtis has had the enviable record of directing the Play Movement unofficially in cities. and counties, in normal schools and universities, unhampered by executive committees, and has been paid for all of his work, which has many advantages as we know after the experience of a third of a century. No one else could have written this book, a book whose writing could not have been longer delayed with safety. The book is historically valuable, and as a treatise on play activities in city and country, indoors and out, for health and recreation, educationally and civically, it is every way adequate in information and inspiration. "The Play Movement and Its Significance." By Henry S. Curtis, Ph. D. New York: The Macmillan Company. Cloth. 346 pp. Price, $1.50. THE NEAR VERSUS THE FAR AWAY* We have seen schools without number in which children were studying about the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the leopard, the baboon, but it has never been our good fortune to be in a school in which they were studying about cows, and yet there is vastly more of interest as well as profit in studying about cows than of all the animals of Africa. If you have any doubt about it send for a booklet of 130 pages prepared by P. G. Holden and C. M. Carroll on "The Cow." It is published by the International Harvester Company, Harvester Building, Chicago. It is beautifully illustrated, and the facts are even more illuminating than the pictures. Only the corn crop equals the industries that centre in the cow. The cows in the United States are just as many as there are children in the schools, 22,000,000. There was no cow in the New World until the second voyage of Columbus, who introduced her to the Western Hemisphere. The ox was of inestimable value for teaming and for plowing long before the horse was appreciated for heavy work. The ox-team was the pioneer of the bull-tractor. Steers have always provided the choicest of foods, and butter and cheese have been among the luxuries of the table. But the packing industry, with millions in it, is a recent discovery, as are the creamery, the cheese factory and the condensed milk establish ments. The story of the cream separator and the Babcock tester, for the percentage of butter fat, has much of the charm of the discovery of the telephone or wireless telegraphy, and each is probably a greater blessing to the world than either of the more spectacular discoveries. The breeding of cattle for the increased richness of the milk or for the size and lusciousness of *The Cow." By P. G. Holden and C. M. Carroll. Published by the International Harvester Company, Harvester Building, Chicago. Price, 15 cents. In quantity, 10 cents. steaks is more wonderful than anything that can be learned of all the jungle animals of Africa. Think of Fred Field of Brockton paying $55,200 for a Holstein bull with full confidence that it is as good an investment patriotically as Liberty Loan bonds. He knows that evermore there will be a breed of heifers that will contribute more to the vitality of mothers and the vigor of babies than any strain of Holstein ever known. The study of the peculiar virtue of the Red Poll and Black Poll Angus, the Shorthorns and the Herefords for beef making; of the Jersey and the Holstein, the Guernsey and the Ayrshire for rare varieties of milk; the food values of various grasses and grains for beef and for milk are all as fascinating as anything in fiction. Talk of waste in education! What could be worse than passing by the American cow for the zebra and the crocodile? Talk of contributions to the science of educa tion and pedagogy! Who has put more "edge" on education, or more "go" into pedagogy than are possible by the genius of Holden and Carroll in "The Cow that Makes Farming Profitable"? They better have styled it "The Cow that Makes Education Profitable." A FACULTY SOCIAL HOUR The Alpine, Texas, public school faculty has solved the faculty social problem by instituting a luncheon for the noon intermission. At this time the entire faculty come together around a large table, where the senior domestic science girls serve them a hot lunch, family style. This faculty luncheon serves a number of useful purposes. First and most important, it provides a social hour which engenders sympathy and co-operation and cements the members together into one big family. Professional problems and troubles are tabooed except to make a necessary announcement occasionally at the close. While not the most important, yet it is worthy of consideration that the small fee paid by the teachers makes the Domestic Department practically self-sustaining from financial standpoint. upon se From the standpoint of the Department, the students are thus provided with definite problems in making and executing menus and practical experience in serving. This eliminates the toy or practice dish, which is so common in cooking courses, prepared with no definite object and eaten by the student or thrown into the garbage. can, the latter being the usual method of disposition. The daily menus are based quence of work planned for the year's course. A different menu is made for each day, and the exact cost of every dish is calculated by the girls, the object being to teach economy in the preparation of nutritious and attractive dishes. In order that the necessary theory may not be neglected, Wednesday is designated as "lecture day," and no lunch is served. On all other days the first twenty minutes of the eighty-minute period are used in discussing the reasons for the particular combination selected for that day, and any other matters which relate to the problem in hand. MORAL EDUCATION LIBRARY There is to be a Library of Moral Education Literature of which President Charles McKenny of the Michigan State Normal College, Ypsilanti, will be the director, and Professor H. L. Latham of Adrian College, Michigan, editor-in-chief. The Donor's Library on Character Education will be composed of several volumes of extracts from writers on education who have contributed in books, pamphlets and articles to the best opinion as to methods of educating the character of children and youth. It will be published at the expense of the business man who has offered the $5,000 prize for the best children's code of morals, and who is providing the award of $20,000 for the interstate character education methods search. The aim is to evolve improved plans for character education in public schools. The donor of the award offers to bear the expense of publishing a library of a few volumes of extracts. One library will go as a gift to each state group of collaborators for use during the research year, and at the completion of the research each state-group will turn the library over to the state superintendent's office for general circulation among the teachers of the state. A few copies will be offered for sale to educational libraries. ELEMENTARY BOYS' CLUB re With the development of the high school club movement, the secondary school boys have become desirous to go out and organize elementary agricultural clubs in the territory tributary to their home high school in just the same manner as three years earlier the university boys went out among the high schools. The plan foreseen at the beginning is working out in its entirety. Napa County took the initiative when C. L. Hampton, instructor in agriculture at the Napa, California, High School, placed each one of the boys in his high school club in charge of an elementary school, and with him went out to organize the small boys into an agricultural club to be conducted under the high school boys' direction. Thus the "Big Brother" spirit emanating from the university to the high school has now filtered downward through the high school to the elementary grades. The work is being extended and developed by the employment of some of the high school teachers of the state in agricultural extension work during their spare time, under a co-operative agreement between the high school boards and the State College of Agriculture. These high school instructors with the boys in their high school agricultural clubs will go out and formclubs of the elementary boys. Each club will be placed under the immediate and personal direction of a high school boy, who in turn will report to the high school instructor. So far as we can learn no such system of agricultural clubs has been devised by any other state than California. NEBRASKA NORMAL COLLEGE The State Board of Education of Nebraska, on October 29, 1917, voted to make the State Normal School at Peru, D. W. Hayes, president, a State Normal College, giving four years of full college work, and granting the Bachelor of Arts degree. They have been doing four years of college work in the case of students adequately equipped, and have granted a Bachelor of Education degree, which has really no definite scholastic recognition. This is specific announcement of the collegiate standing of its students. APPRECIATION OF MUSIC A bequest of $200,000 to the New England Conservatory of Music was one of the features of the will of Mrs. Maria Antoinette Evans, widow of the late Robert Dawson Evans. This considerable amount is given to the Conservatory without restrictions, and is in evidence of a disposition among the well-to-do in New England. and elsewhere to include institutions of musical education in the list of their benefactions. The bequest supplements a previous gift of $100,000 made by Mrs Evans. Among Mrs. Evans' other benefactions were bequests to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, the School for Crippled Children, and, the residuary estate to be divided between them, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Massachusetts Homœopathic Hospital. Mrs. Evans was a lover of music and the drama, and in addition to her formal gifts to the Conservatory she helped many music students. MOTHER OF PRESIDENTS "School" has this interesting paragraph in its issue of October 11: “Dr. Henry M. MacCracken, the former chancellor of the New York University, is fond of saying: 'The stars are fighting in their course to make New York City the national centre of education.' But will he not have to revise his ideas when he sees how many stars are called away from the educational world in this city to twinkle in other parts of the country? In the last four years five leaders in the universities and colleges in New York City have been taken away from their fields in which they acquired their prominence to be presidents of universities or colleges in other states. Dr. MacCracken could not keep his own sons at home. On the same day Dr. John Henry MacCracken was called from the New York University to be president of Lafayette University and Dr. Henry Noble MacCracken, who had taught at the university, from Yale to be the head of Vassar. Next Rev. Dr. Lyman P. Powell, of the university, was elected president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Then Dr. Henry Suzzallo of Teachers College was appointed president of the University of Washington. And now Professor Walter Clark of the College of the City of New York is called by the University of Nevada to be its president." PROBABLY NOT BOSTON The executive committee of the National Education Association wanted to hold the 1918 meeting of the Department of Superintendence in Boston, but other conventions have the right of way and the meeting can only be held in Boston by changing the dates to the third week in March, which change is unthinkable if there is any city in position to entertain the Department at the custoinary date. Persons are making their dates for a year with a view to keeping the last days of February free. Much as Boston would like to demonstrate her hospitality, she will not desire any serious disarrangement of the plans of six thousand educational leaders. It is understood that Chicago and Atlantic City are in position to afford ample hotel accommodations. Either place is in all ways satisfactory. No other city can offer as good hotel accommodations in February as can Chicago. SAAM TO COUNCIL BLUFFS Theodore Saam goes from the superintendency of Lead, South Dakota, to Council Bluffs, Iowa. No other state has ever lost so large a proportion of its leading city superintendents in one year as has South Dakota. Henry C. Johnson went from Aberdeen to Ogden, Utah; J. W. McClinton from Mitchell to Pueblo (North); Theodore Saam from Lead to Council Bluffs; J. Maurice Martin from Huron to Bismarck, North Dakota. These men were eminently successful in South Dakota. Mr. Saam is every way worthy of the great opportunity that he has as the successor of J. H. Beveridge, who went to Omaha. |