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No. 1, was one and three-fourths (1) pupils. There was no emulation whatever, since there was not an average of as many as two pupils to the class.

The average number of pupils in each grade in the White River Township consolidated schools, where all programs were of type No. 2, was a little more than twenty-two. Each pupil had the opportunity of competing with twenty-one others.

There were seventeen eighth grade pupils in White River Township who followed program No. 2 and made a grade of 90 per cent. or more on the graduation examination, while there was not a single pupil from the eighth grade in all the one-room schools of Needham Township, where program No. 1 was used, who made such a grade on this examination.

The tuition and transportation cost of the pupils who had the advantage of program No. 2 in White River Township was seven dollars and thirty-three cents ($7.33) less per pupil than the tuition cost in Needham Township, where the pupils had the many disadvantages of program No. 1. In White River Township there are 372 pupils in the grades of the consolidated schools.

If program No. 2 means greater efficiency in the lives of the children who follow it, why should program No. 1 be used at all in Johnson County? Do all people fully realize that the early educational training of the children will largely be their controlling influence during the remainder of their lives? Why not make this early training the most efficient possible?

AMERICA FIRST

[From the Hutchinson, Kansas, Gazette.]

A clever correspondent "doing" the big national convention at Buffalo presents a graphic picture of the transition of organized labor from a pacifist adherent into a big vital militant organization, heart and soul with the government in its war aims and purposes. Says the correspondent:—

"It is hard to realize that this convention of the American Federation of Labor is substantially the same body of men and women who met at Baltimore last year and spent a large part of their time passing anti-war resolutions and denouncing all forms of military training and preparedness.

"Last year they cooed like doves; this year they roar like lions.

"I can still see Jim Duncan, first vice-president of the A. F. of L., as he stood in the Baltimore convention, preaching simon-pure, last-ditch pacifism, cheered and applauded by a majority of the delegates when he made a sentimental appeal that American boys should never be taught to handle guns 'because knowledge of deadly weapons would wake the savage in their breasts.'

"Today, Duncan has only one thought-how to beat the Germans; and at this convention the maker of such a speech would be lucky if he escaped with his whole skin.

"You hear a lot of talk, even around this convention, about how Gompers lined up the labor movement behind Wilson and the war. That statement is about nine-tenths bunk, and one-tenth truth.

"They lined themselves up, just as the other millions of Americans did.

"Gompers helped, of course, but he didn't swing the movement. If you want proof, go back to the San Francisco and Baltimore conventions and see how completely Gompers was beaten when he opposed pacifist resolutions. In both conventions Gompers, exerting all his personal and political influence over the delegates, was unable to block even the wildest anti-war and anti-preparedness evolutions. The worst defeats in Gompers' entire career as a labor leader were sustained as a re

sult of his attempts to awake the American labor movement out of its pacific lethargy."

The truth is that the American Federation of Labor has only recently come to see and understand what Gompers has known for at least two years that the safety of democracy and the prog ress of the labor movement rests on the defeat of Germany, and that the United States would have to take a part in crushing the Prussian autocracy. Gompers has simply been far ahead of the procession, at least so far as his vision of the war's significance is concerned. That is no reflection on the A. F. of L., for it must be remembered that even as late as last November there were mighty few Americans who had any conception of Germany's real designs.

Besides, it must be conceded that Gompers saw and understood the Prussian menace to civilization and democracy earlier than almost any other American-long before Roosevelt or any other political leader. Nearly ten years ago, when it was the fashion for all progressives and reformers to hold Germany up as a bright and shining example of social welfare and progressive civilization, Gompers made a trip through Europe investigating fundamental labor conditions in the different countries. Even then he saw through the militaristic purpose behind the Prussian system of social welfare, and denounced it in what then seemed intemperate language. He had no illusions about the beneficence of the Kaiser or the internationalistic veneer of the German Socialists. His words, which now seem almost prophetic, went unheeded and were attributed by his critics to a petty jealousy and fear of the American. Socialists, who were then urging the adoption of the entire Prussian plan as the first step toward social salvation.

Gompers is still far ahead of the American labor movement in his vision of the significance of the war.

"It has ceased to be merely a war," he says. "It is now a world crusade." There is all the zeal of a Peter the Hermit in Gompers' war speeches.

STANDARDIZATION OF STATE NORMAL high school will be made to count for teaching as

SCHOOLS

BY DR. MARGARET MCNAUGHT
Sacramento, Cal

In standardizing the state normal schools the State Board of Education has performed the greatest service which has been rendered the elementary schools of California during the biennium.

Irregularity in the training offered students in these schools has been puzzling to those employing teachers, and confusing to the the children taught. Much that has long been required by law has now been definitely provided for. No normal school has lost its individuality, yet a definite policy has been outlined for all of them which will make clearer the meaning of a state normal school diploma. Trustees in engaging a teacher will know what to expect.

(1) Certainly it is not asking too much to require of teachers who are to teach the common branches that that they themselves. know these branches. This knowledge is now assured-students, before graduation, must have passed a satisfactory examination or completed courses in the normal school in reading, writing, spelling, English grammar, composition, arithmetic and geography.

(2) Graduates of normal schools serve a sort of apprenticeship for two or three years in the rural schools. City boards of education require. this. It is essential, therefore, that the children of the rural schools be safeguarded. Standardization does safeguard them.

At present it is the exception that a teacher of a one- or two-room school-and there are nearly 3,000 such schools in the state-is qualified to teach elementary science. We hear much about the value of intermediate schools as directly serving the need in this respect for our upper grade grammar children, but where there are no intermediate schools, or even union elementary schools, children are given either no instruction in science. or mere book instruction, which often kills the desire for its further study. Standardization will provide the rural schools with teachers who can teach applied elementary science.

Music, though one of the required subjects, is not taught at all in some hundreds of schools, in other hundreds mere rote singing, undirected and uncriticized, is all the activity noticeable. No teacher may be graduated now from the normal school who has not had at least a year's training in music.

Elements of Agriculture, Elements of Applied Sociology, Physical Education and School Playground work are all emphasized, giving the elementary teacher a broader outlook on life and keeping her constantly in mind that she is teaching children and not subjects.

In uniting the work of the high school with that of the normal school, attention to the would-be teacher is brought six years before she is ready to qualify for service instead of, as too frequently happens, two years. It is obvious that one, whose choice of a profession has been made, brings to the study of any subject a certain attitude of mind. that is of great value. The four-years training in

well as for life.

A sufficient number of electives are provided for to enable a student to specialize to a certain degree along the lines of individual tendency. Standardization does not mean machine-made teachers.

Already the new ruling is having results in additions made to high school courses and in efforts on the part of high schools for better preparation in the elementary schools. A letter recently received by the commissioner from the principal of a rural high school urges her to place before the district trustees the necessity of employing teachers for the elementary schools who can and will teach music, as it is impossible to give adequate training in music in high schools to unprepared pupils. Thus pressure will be brought from various sources to the end that the elementary schools will be taught by men and women who are qualified to teach them. The teacher is the most important factor in elementary education.-Report.

THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

BY P. W. HORN Houston, Texas

The real value of the Junior High School consists in the quality of the work done. This, in turn, depends very largely upon the extent to which principal and teacher really grasp the Junior High School ideal. It cannot be too plainly stated that the real Junior High School is an ideal, not a system. It is a re-adjustment, not merely a re-arrangement. If the school may, for the moment, be considered as a material body, it may be stated that the changes demanded by the real Junior High School are chemical changes, not physical changes.

There is no very considerable amount of good to be gained by merely taking the pupils of the last grade of the elementary schools and of the first two grades of the high school, housing them under one roof and calling the result a Junior High School. If the same old curriculum is used, and if the teaching is of the same quality that was formerly used, the results will be neither much better nor much worse than they have formerly been.

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The first requisite of a successful Junior High School is a principal and corps of teachers with the Junior High School point of view. teacher who has reached the mental age when ideas on educational subjects have largely crystallized has absolutely no place in a Junior High School in the present development of that institution, no matter how beautiful or how valuable the forms of crystallization may be.

The simple fact is that at present the Junior High School is a movement rather than an institution. A movement which does not move is no movement at all. The very fact that even the most advanced student of Junior High Schools does not at present claim to know everything about them, is an opportunity for us to find the best in Junior High Schools. Out of the study of the question a few broad gen

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those who must take up the work of bread winning without four full years in high school.

14. Larger senior high school and larger graduating classes as a result of better methods below. More high school graduates go to college.

15. Better opportunity for proper supervision of study periods.

16. Opportunity for much needed re-organization of entire high school course of study.

17. Change of viewpoint in the teaching of each subject in the course of study.

All these advantages have been shown by our three years of experience to actually arise from Junior High School work. As we all learn more about the movement, and when more of us grasp the Junior High School point of view, it is only to be expected that these advantages will be intensified.

To be a good Junior High School teacher one should have at least the following qualifications:

1. Should be a graduate of college or university.

2. Should have made a study of education in some good professional school.

3. Should have several years of successful experience as a teacher, preferably in the upper intermediate grades.

4. Should have keen sympathy with adoles cent childhood.

5. Should not be too old.

-Report.

AROUSING INTEREST IN HIGHER EDUCATION

BY M. S. HALLMAN

HOW A HIGH SCHOOL IN A MANUFACTURING CITY MAY ENCOURAGE PUPILS TO PLAN FOR COLLEGE.

Two years ago the high school at Connersville, Indiana, had its first "Go-to-College Week." Previous to this time about ten per cent. of the pupils were interested in planning courses beyond the public school offerings; at the present time about twenty-five per cent. are shaping their work so as to continue their schooling in institutions of higher learning. Believing that this change is due in a large measure to definite agitation on the subject, the methods used are here outlined that others may stimulate such an interest in schools which have keen competition with early wage earning opportunities.

In some schools it may be desirable to stimulate interest in the industries rather than in academic or technical training, but whatever the local problem may be the idea can be used effectively in bringing the pupils of the school into closer relation with whatever propaganda is needed to broaden the local outlook. In this particular high school the need was one of turning attention from temporary attractive, but non-advancing jobs to a a realization of the

broader opportunities offered through higher education. Considering that a third of last year's graduates went away to school and that twenty-five per cent. of the city population consists of factory employees, it is safe to assume that the school is succeeding in solving its problem of offering inspiration.

This year the week was devoted to exhibits and talks which featured the educational opportunities of Indiana colleges and universities. A committee was made up of volunteer pupils who were interested in these particular institutions. These pupils prepared twenty charts which were made by pasting illustrations of interesting features of each college, such as chief buildings, views of campus, athletic teams, student activities, etc., on large cardboards. Some colleges sent enough material to fill two large charts in addition addition to pennants and banners which were used to decorate.

Another feature that attracted the interest of older pupils was a bulletin board labeled "Flashes from the Front," on which were pasted new letters every day from recent graduates who are now in college. One girl wrote: "The 'Go-to-college' week which we had two years

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ARITHMETIC NEW OR NEUTRAL Arithmetic has been the most persistently defiant of all school branches when it comes to progress. Arithmetic was my major in normal-school teaching days, in all my teaching days indeed. More years ago than I care to say it was my professional passion to promote a new arithmetic.

In an advisory capacity I helped in the making of French's Arithmetic, whose failure seems to have been early and complete.

Walton's "Written Arithmetic" produced wonderful results, and it swept the New England field like a political landslide, but all normal school. teachers condemned it. Its only virtue was that it produced results and so enriched the author that he resigned, never to teach any more. He made He made a new arithmetic which pleased all normal school experts (!). Its sales were immediate and vast. It supplemented the "Written Arithmetic" everywhere, but within a year it was itself supplanted almost everywhere. I was I was one of its chief boosters. It had every virtue except producing results. Mr. Walton made another arithmetic more like his great book, but his name could not appear on it, nor on any arithmetic thereafter. From that day to this, modesty has marked my attitude toward the new in arithmetic.

This is the one subject in which results are easily measurable, and where nothing succeeds but

success.

An arithmetic to work in the schools must do much more than get technical results in the simple processes. It must be much more than "logical," much more than philosophical. The "new" arithmetics always have had one of three aims. The

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one has aimed merely at accuracy and rapidity in processes with simple number. Another at logical presentations from the standpoint of adults. A third has aimed at formal discipline from the standpoint of philosophy as viewed in the psychology of child life. It is easy to defend any one of these, easy to campaign for a "new" arithmetic. If we can be content with mere accuracy and rapidity in processes, learning arithmetic is a simple matter, but nothing is more readily lost than accuracy and rapidity in number process by lack of practice. They are results that have no staying qualities, no abiding virtues.

Right or wrong, the only way, apparently, to hitch one's arithmetic to life, to give any abiding value to accuracy and rapidity is by abundant application in the various occupations from home, farm and shop to the bank and the counting room.

Nowhere does it appear so indispensable to tie theory and practice by bands of steel, as it were, as in number work.

A wise investor never puts a fortune into the promotion of a patent process on the basis of an expert demonstration. The demonstration must be on a quantity large enough to satisfy the demands of a commercial demonstration.

Neutrality in pedagogy means as much philosophy, psychology and sociology as possible and retain the "go" in pedagogy. Nothing is workable that does not work. Nothing works in the public schools as they are that can only be worked by a genius of a peculiar style.

Apparently, a workable arithmetic today must eliminate some of the traditional applications that no longer apply, must introduce new applications in the concrete, must eliminate definitions that do not define and introduce statements that are il

luminating; but first, last and all the time the maker of an arithmetic for today must be neutral as to the theories old and new and make a book with which the teachers as they are can get adequate results with children as they are.

ATLANTIC CITY

It is a relief for all concerned to have the place of meeting of the Department of Superintendence settled. It is significant that no city with commercial hotels was ready to undertake the entertainment of the Department.

Hereafter the whole matter should be left absolutely to the executive committee to arrange for the meeting places.

The Department needs hotel accommodations for 5,000 persons who cannot be crowded into cubby-holes or packed six in a room. There is no meeting that is more exacting as to hotel accommodations than is the Department.

Another serious matter is that these 5,000 persons would like to have their reservation made a year in advance. Commercial hotels dislike to do this.

Atlantic City can and will take care of the Department in fine shape.

Not all of the 5,000 can make reservations, but there is no place in Atlantic City that will not be satisfactory to anyone. Every place is a good place.

The auditorium is eminently satisfactory.

There is every probability that the weather will be good.

And the schools are good, extra good in several phases of progress.

Never has the Department been better satisfied with a meeting than it will be with Dr. Thomas A. Finegan's Atlantic City meeting.

FILIPINO EDUCATION

Dr. W. W. Marquardt, who has been in educational work in the Philippine Islands for sixteen years, has an interesting story to tell.

The Philippine Islands had a university before Harvard was dreamed of. In 1611 the Santa Tomas University was established in Manila, and is still in existence.

Dr. Marquardt has a sly undercut for American education when he says "there is not enough attention paid in the United States to the adoption of a flexible educational system. . . . We changed the old American stereotyped academic course by introducing industrial work. . . . We added athletics.

“We led the Gary system of study, work, play, before the Gary idea was heard of in the United States.

"Ordinarily, there is no trouble with the discipline of the Filipino children. Going to school

is a serious business for them-it means much more to them than it does to American children. The parents fully realize the lack of education in Spanish times, and pass it along to the children, who are quick to see their advantages over those of their fathers and mothers. The result is that we have intense enthusiasm, and no question about discipline. . . . We are working in an agricultural country. Therefore, we have 3,000 school gardens, and in addition, 50,000 of the boys and girls have home gardens which the school teachers supervise.

"The latest school census in the islands shows that there are about 660,000 Filipino children at tending school. For them we have 11,000 native teachers and 500 American instructors. It seems to me that one of the big things that has been done in the educational work has been the development. of native teachers. We began with 800 American teachers, and gradually decreased the number. At first the Philippine teachers assumed charge of the primary work, then the intermediate, and now we have some teaching in the high schools."

WOMEN AND LIBERTY BONDS

At

The women of America responded in noble fashion to the second drive for Liberty Loan bonds. North Dakota, all in all, is probably the banner state in this response under the lead of Miss Minnie Neilson, county superintendent of Barnes County, Valley City. The women in Pembina county gave $57,000. These women were practically all farmers' wives.

The most interesting report we saw was from the Indian girls of Elbowoods. Reservation. Fifty-four young Indian women bought one or more bonds. Here are the names of some

of these Indian young women. Notice the dif

ference between the first and last names: Helen White Calf, Agnes White Calf, Lone Woman, Mrs. Bird Bear, Ruth Chief On Top, Ellen Black Hawk, Maud Black Hawk, Alice Black Hawk, Edna Wounded Face, Elizabeth Birds Bill, Delia Young Bear, Leona Young Bear, Bertha Young Bear. Mary Young Bird, Margaret Young Bird, Cora Young Bird, Pink Young Wolf, Frances Young Wolf, Helen Young Wolf, Jessie White Owl, Clara White Body, Margaret Wolf, Lottie Wolf, Lenora Yellow Bird, Helen Yellow Face, Julia Yellow Face, Emily Yellow Wolf, Sarah Yellow Wolf.

In St. Joseph township, all farmers, the men and women bought $30,000 in Liberty Loan bonds. The assessment for the township was $8,500.

LEARNING TO WRITE ENGLISH*

Every teacher of English in high school or college should read and inwardly digest the brave, brainy and bright chapters on learning to write English by the assistant professor of English in Vassar College.

We can imagine no teacher of English who will accept everything he says, nor one who can read these pages without frequent protestations, almost profanely protesting, but we are entirely sure that every teacher of English needs the shaking up which these paragraphs are sure to produce.

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Whether you like it or not, whether you are a teacher of the art of writing or not, we imagine no one who would not be fascinated by what Mr. Johnson says and the way he says it.

The following sentences selected at random sample the vigor of thought, the virility and vitality of expression :—

"Our schools and colleges should teach an English which should be the best as well as the most effective medium of communication in the everyday social and commercial life of the community around them. around them. . . . No one can effectively teach that which he feels it beneath him to teach. Writing is the only art that is taught by the men who cannot practice it. . . . Colleges are placing too much emphasis upon the literature of another day, and too little upon the best standards of present-day practice. . . . We value dead standards of English style beyond their deserts. . . . No red-blooded child in a grammar school ever enjoyed grammar. . . . The colleges should turn out artisans, if not artists, in English. . . . Any form of self-expression is an art, not a science. . Art is for life's sake. . . . We must bid our children write to children, and not to adults. . . . The English classroom should be a lively, laughing, chatting exchange, dealing with realities. The children should be lively minded, normal selves rather than automatons inside the classroom. ... No speech at all tends to produce no mind at all. . . . Style is taste in the use of words. The newspaper reveals a cross section of life in the world at large, reproduced by trained interpreters. . . . A writer should think of his

...

The Well of English and the Bucket." By Burge Johnson, Vassar College. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. Cloth. 150 pp. Price, $1.25 net

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