most difficult to handle, as most parents and teachers are prepared to testify.

Therefore, it is simply a matter of finding the way to interest boys and girls in order to lead them into right ways.

Seeing that you can't drive a boy into right ways, much less hire him to follow them, it is most important that parents and teachers should study to catch him by interesting him.

This is the secret of the success of the Boy Scout movement, and has worked so well that parents and teachers are becoming interested in it.

Directors of schools have been telling us there isn't room for anything more on the program.

However, some of the more practical among them are getting the vision, and are finding room for something better.

Already some of the leading educators of the country are saying there is more of true education in scouting than in poring over dull propositions as laid down in school books.

Out in Indiana, a state that is not slow in matters educational, they are finding a way by which to make room for newer and better things. In Connersville they say this: "The school board should reject whatever cannot be shown to have a plain relation to some real need of life, and whatever is not reasonably within the child's comprehension."

IS IT SO?

BY C. A. S. DWIGHT, PH.D.

A cheap, and often captious, dogmatism is the bane of educational theory, as it is of philosophy, at the present day-nor is it by any means exclusively a modern fault. Hasty conclusions are easy in a hurried and harried age. It appears to be necessary to say something-there is that after-dinner speech or that Convention address to be delivered—and so things are said that are not indisputably true. Such things, if pointed with an epigram, or enlivened by a sally of nimble wit, go-at least in the columns of the newspapers. Having been hatched in a hurry, deliverances of that sort, not being based on facts (but on what Mark Twain called "alleged facts"), are forgotten the next day.

It is well, therefore, for a teacher or a lecturer to be cautious before he commits himself unreservedly to a specious "view" or pet theory. Is it so? Of course, it may be true. A psychologist of world-wide reputation is wont to interpolate, with a significant intonation, in his illuminating lectures, the words, "It may be that " An equally noted philosopher, not now living, was fond of the phrase, "It may turn out that- -". These expressions were more than rhetorical prefaces-they were "green signals," denoting "Proceed with caution, having your trains of thought under control!" There are things that are so, other things that are posited to be so, and still other things that are So-So. Illustrations can readily be found. It is so that two and two make four (at any rate

in this world) and "it may be that" parallel lines are not parallel if you chase them far enough into infinity.

It is so that men are made out of boys, but "it may turn out that" a boy is not just a miniature or abbreviated man. It is certainly a safe canon of education that a child's will should not be "broken" but, at the most, bent, or trained, yet it does not follow therefrom that children should be allowed such free play for their wits and wills that they will grow up like weeds in the corner-lot of the devil. Nothing that is here said is of course to be understood as denying the possibility of progress in educational theory and practice, as well as in other lines of human interest-indeed, we glory in the advances that have been made since Plato and Aristotle, on past Gamaliel, Bacon, Comenius, Rousseau, Herbart, Pestalozzi, Spencer, and Horace Mann, to the present time-but only as registering a caution against over-haste in either conceptual construction or in the adoption of new methods of instruction. The old may not be better, but the new must be put on probation. If it cannot stand the test it must be rejected, or at least revised-and that standard of reference is not simply the bread-and-butter consideration of the economist, but also the cultural norm of the idealist-it is not merely vocational, but also inspirational.

Again and again in life the question will recur: Is it so? The Berean type of researcher is, after all, the best-the kind that searches "whether these things are so." Many halfbaked theories are on the market, some of which may be had for a song, but are not cheap at the asking. We live in an age of confusion, when many are running to and fro, and knowledge is not thereby invariably increased. We are buffeted in debate, we are bewildered by conclusions which do not follow, and proofs that prove nothing-like the logic of the accused Irishman, who when confronted by two witnesses who had "seen him do it," declared in an injured tone that he could produce ten witnesses who "had not seen him do it." These logical alibis are not unknown even in educational discussions, consisting of arguments which miss the point, and of suggested methods which may serve somewhere else, but do not fit here and now. After the factuality of any view has been determined there still remains the question of its applicability to given local conditions.

Is it so? Of course we cannot find out until we have tried, and accordingly experiment must go on. Incidentally such experimentation will involve more or less of loss or detriment to the parties experimented on-who may perhaps be "unadjusted children." But until experiment has clearly proved the superiority of this or that method a mood of critical detachment, of awareness, of circumspection should be preserved. The instinct for verification should be ever with us, for it is our protection against doctrinaire theories, fads, hobbies, and all the other miscellaneous gentry who make their headquarters in

the Adullam's Cave of "expert" education. We need to be on our guard against a false finality, and careful not to accept a conclusion that does not conclude. This by no means argues that we are to be inconclusive, uncertain, mentally unstable. If we know only in part we do know

partly, and may hope tomorrow to know more. It is not necessary to be dogmatic in order to be sure, or opinionated in order to construct. It is best to proceed by the path of a predominant probability, until we reach the solid ground of a firm assurance that "these things are so."

"Choose ye," a hundred legions cried, "Dishonor or the instant sword!"

Ye chose. Ye met that blood-stained tide. A little kingdom kept its word;

And, dying, cried across the night,

"Hear us, O earth, we chose the Right!"

Whose is the victory? Though ye stood
Alone against the unmeasured foe;
By all the tears, by all the blood

That flowed, and have not ceased to flow;

By all the legions that ye hurled
Back, thro' the thunder-shaken world.

In this great country, with its vast mixture of races, all thrown into the melting pot of American traditions, climate and surroundings, there is all the raw material of a splendid artistic development. Every kind of talent is latent here. All that is required is opportunity, inspiration and guidance. And in addition we have here the best public to appeal to that exists anywhere, a public eager to learn, quick to perceive and to respond, sure to appreciate and retain; fresh, spontaneous and genuine in its feelings, clean and healthy in its artistic instincts and aspirations, not yet affected by the taint of decadence which has begun to cast its blight upon art in some other countries.

In saying this, I do not dispute the charge frequently laid against us that our people lack as yet in discrimination and that they are not sufficiently intolerant of the meretricious in art, but these are faults of youth, and moreover essentially negative faults, curable and in process of being cured, while the virtues to which I have referred are positive in character and cumulative and progressive in effect. Admitting that our people are apt at times to follow false gods, I say, let the right god come along and they will recognize him unfailingly and follow him rejoicing.

America is a much misunderstood and consequently maligned place. Its foibles, its imperfections "jump at the eye," to use a graphic

French expression. Its really controlling qualities and they are beautiful and lofty and full of promise-lie deep and are not apparent to the casual beholder. The world likes the short cut of catch phrases, such as "the almighty dollar," and is reluctant to go to the trouble of reconsidering opinions once formed.

America in the past century had the formidable task of conquering a continent, physically and industrially, and it was necessary that the best brains, the intensest energies and activities of its people should devote themselves to that stern task of material effort, the amazing success of which was naturally measured and expressed largely in terms of dollars and cents. But the day of the industrial pioneer is over (though vast commercial development, vast indeed beyond all imagination, still lies before us) and with it has gone-if it ever existed-the day of the almighty dollar. The day of the pioneer of culture and idealism has come, and the power of the idea is, and has always been, even in America's most materialistic days, far mightier than that of the dollar. After more than a century's stupendous effort and unparalleled-almost too rapid-economic advance, we have reached a stage where we can afford, and ought, to occupy ourselves increasingly with questions. affecting the mental, moral and psychical wellbeing and progress of the race. Address.

In our study of New York City schools, May 21 to 25, a report of which is in the Journal of Education, June 14, 1917, we spoke enthusiastically of the Factory School, but we had not then read "Where Garments and Americans Are Made Story of the Sicher System of Factory Education for Americanizing Foreigners," by Jessie Howell MacCarthy. Had we read this

story before we learned of it from Miss Lizzie E. Rector of Public School No. 4, we should have felt that we might have been unduly influenced by her fascinating story; but having learned of the work first we feel that even Miss MacCarthy has not half told the story.

The one important omission in our story is the giving of credit to Dudley D. Sicher, 49 West 21st street, New York City.

In its beginning the factory school was humble, but the day will come when this little school will be the Mecca, the holy place of a movement that is certain to spread as employers of labor catch glimpses of the dawn of the better day.

woman

The experiment, now in its third year, has demonstrated that in thirty-five weeks the illiterate girl, foreign born and trained, can be transformed into a literate American with a good mental equipment and social knowledge essential for the battle of life. This school, in its conception and the potentialities that lay back of it, is an original, epochal idea worked out into definite, concrete form, and is in no sense a continuation school or part-time factory school as some educators and writers with imperfect knowledge of its methods have mistakenly believed. It is a school where girls are taught in actual working time by a teacher from the New York public schools.

With three-quarters of an hour's training daily while the work of the factory goes on uninterruptedly, each pupil receives practical instruction in the speaking and writing of the English language, the composing of personal and business letters, the fundamentals of arithmetic, history and civic government, good citizenship, local ordinances, hygiene and sanitation, the industrial evolution of the product they handle

*Where Garments and Americans Are Made." By Jessie Howell MacCarthy. New York: Writers' Publishing Company.

from the cotton fields to the machines they operate, and the mysteries of communication so puzzling to the foreigner-the use of the telephone and city directory, the sending of telegrams and letters, and the finding of one's way in the city streets. No frills, no textbooks, all eminently practical knowledge so presented that it is never forgotten.

And all throughout the working day in the factory and in the school a Social Service expert is ever present to mother the girls, counsel them, and when injured to give them first aid in the little factory hospital. The girl's health and social side Mr. Sicher considers quite as important as her mental training.

The little classroom is very simple and practical in its appointments. Window boxes filled with growing plants add a softening note of color, and flags of all nations wave as peacefully together as if they had never represented hostile armies facing each other in a life and death. struggle.

The school was started October 14, 1913, and has had from the beginning the co-operation of the New York Board of Education. Mr. Sicher had the benefit of advice and suggestions from such practical educators and vocational experts as Miss Lizzie E. Rector, principal of Public School No. 4, in Rivington Street, the heart of a great foreign population in New York.

Many practical things are taught in the factory school, things for which one has daily use. Hygiene is taught, and personal cleanliness-how to keep the work and home surroundings neat and tidy. Physical culture is a part of the course of study and serves to offset false habits of life and to improve the health. The drudgery of work and the long periods at the machine seem less arduous after ten minutes devoted to gymnastic exercises which include proper breathing,

etc.

The nutritive value of foods and dietetics are explained and the girl prepares simple meals and buys with intelligence.

Step by step, and all in an eminently practical way, the girl gains knowledge of important ordinances, health and tenement house laws, traffic regulations, the fire drill, and safety first principles. She comes to see that law is not tyranny and license is not liberty.

-James Russell Lowell.

No weakling founders builded here; Thine were the men of Plymouth Rock The Huguenot and Cavalier;

And they whose firm endurance gained

The freedom of the souls of men,

Whose hands, unstained with blood, maintained
The swordless commonwealth of Penn.

And thine shall be the power of all
To do the work which duty bids,
And make the people's council hall
As lasting as the Pyramids!

Well have thy later years made good
Thy brave-said word a century back,

The pledge of human brotherhood,
The equal claim of white and black.

That word still echoes round the world,
And all who hear it turn to thee,
And read upon thy flag unfurled
The prophecies of destiny.

Thy great world-lessons all shall learn,
The nations in thy school shall sit,
Earth's farthest mountain-tops shall burn
With watch-fires from thy own uplit.
Great without seeking to be great

By fraud or conquest, rich in gold,
But richer in the large estate
Of virtue which thy children hold,
With peace that comes of purity
And strength to simple justice due,
So runs our loyal dream of thee;
God of our fathers!-make it true.

O Land of Lands! to thee we give

Our prayers, our hopes, our service free; For thee thy sons shall nobly live, And at thy need, shall die for thee!

The first glory of a state is a great system of public schools, and the second glory is a great state university. The money a state invests in its public schools and its state university is the money which it uses for its self-preservation and advancement. These two institutions lie at the very base of any permanent and progressive civilization.

Everybody concedes to the public schools the first place in the building up of a democracy. Taken all in all they are the finest creations of collective human effort and it is easy to see how the common needs of all are being met more and more in these schools. That there are those in the state who have not seen and felt the glory of having a great state university is due to the fact that they have not thought far enough to see how the work of a state university is linked up with the life of the state. It is not as easy to see the relationship of a state university to human needs as it is to see the relationship of the public schools. Nor is the difficulty of seeing this relationship removed by saying to the people that the state university is a part of the public school system. In the sense that our state universities are supported by public money and that they seek to answer certain educational needs in the life of a state they are a vital part of the state's school work. But they are neither public schools in the sense that they are open to the public at large nor in the sense that they are under the same supervision and control as our public school system, nor

should they be. Let us think straight here; loose thinking and loose talking are not going to help us one iota in getting the rank and file of the people to see the glory of a state university in the life of the state.

It is my purpose to point out the place of a state university in the life of the state. In order to see big at the beginning let us say to ourselves that the educational ideal for a really great state university is for all the professional and higher educational needs of the state to be met by the state university as the common educational needs of all should be met by the state public school system. That would mean unity of organization and oversight for the higher educational work of the state just as we have unity of organization and oversight for the education of the many in our public schools.

The place of a state university is not primarily to provide a classical or cultural college education for those few intellectuals who desire such an education. Before there ever were any state universities in America many independent and denominational colleges were providing such an education. If this were the chief higher educational need of a state there never would have been any call of the people for a state university. And even to this day there are plenty of private institutions to supply well this kind of an education. In the light of this fact, it would be a waste of public money to build a state university just to furnish a general college education. Har

Continued on page 74.

EDUCATIONAL DEVOTION OF WEALTH Now that the Educational Department of the International Harvester Company is the most vitalizing factor in rural education, and suspicions are inevitable in these suspicious times, it is interesting to know that education has been the major of the McCormick family for many years.

The first manifestation was in the establishment of a theological seminary-The McCormick Seminary of Chicago and there was no suspicion of any attempt to subsidize the Presbyterian ministry in the interest of farm machinery.

The next was in establishing the most progressive-intended to be the most progressive-school of professional education in the New World; and there was no suspicion of subsidizing the humble rural folk by developing an inspired, well trained body of schoolmasters.

The third demonstration was the establishing of the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, which is the demonstration of the most progressive education to be found between the seas.

Three phases of educational service at great financial cost were in action before the McCormicks took the rural school in hand, so that there can be no suspicion that at the foundation there was any thought of subsidizing the country child. Not until the Harvester Company had carried the agricultural implement business beyond the highest vision of any of the McCormicks; not until they had slight need of any subsidizing of the next generation did their educational devotion or aspiration tackle the most difficult problem in the educational world, the one-room school.

CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES

We are sounding a new note.

We have looked with critical eye and expert mind upon every movement that depends upon the backing of millionaires for success.

Down in the depths of our soul we feel that the government, county, state, and national, should provide all needed funds for every worth-while demonstration, especially educational.

But when we see a great state like Wisconsin with boundless resources cut a third of a million

dollars off the appropriations of the state normal schools that are doing as noble a work for all the people for all time as was ever done anywhere we realize that it is a condition and not a theory that confronts us, and I would throw my hat in air and lead in three times three cheers if a Carnegie or a Rockefeller would send the state

normal schools of Wisconsin a third of a million dollars, a gift that would mean as much for education and humanity as any third of a million they ever gave to education.

We still believe that all such money should come from taxation, but equally believe that with things as they are there is no hope that the public will always do its duty towards its educational institutions. as So long it is possible to get a legislature of the people to of the people to rob the people of their most precious heritage we devoutly pray that there may be men of adequate means to save the children of the people from the terrible consequences of the representatives of the people.

When the government of the people, by the people, is not for the people, then we hope for some help for the people.