Edito

Entered at the Post-Office, Boston, Mass. as second-class mail matter

Boston, New York, and Chicago, JULY 6, 1916

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sentences.

We know of no place where one can find so
many vital social problems so well treated as to
interest and reliability as in Dr. Ezra Thayer
Towne's "Social Problems."

There are fifty-one national societies appeal-
ing for funds to be used in the publication of
"Bulletins," in efforts to get the material for
such "Bulletins," and other activities in connec-
tion with these social problems.

In this book are boiled down to their essence

all that is worth while in these fifty-one "Bulletins"

and they are presented by a searcher for truth

with no special pleading as is usual in "Bulle-

tins."

Not only does this book contain all important

facts from "Bulletins," but it presents the highly
significant information in other books printing
from such studies, and the cream of everything
by specialists in magazines.

This is in no sense a compilation of facts, theories
and opinions, but is an entirely new scientific and
artistic presentation of the latest condition grow-
ing out of the problems of population, urban and
rural-foreign and native born; of child labor,
of women wage earners, of industrial wrongs and
unrest, of labor organizations, of unemployment,
of the blind, deaf and feeble-minded, of poverty
and of the conservation of resources.

Here are sample sentences: "The population
of the United States is twenty-three times what

"Social Problems: A Study of Present-day Social Conditions."

By Ezra Thayer Towne, Ph. D., Carleton College. New York: The

Macmillan Company. 405 pages. Price, $1.00.

SCHOOLS FOR GROCERS

Sometime since we published a study made by

C. E. Rose of Boise, Idaho, as to what the high

school teachers thought a boy who was to be a

grocer should study.

We expressed surprise that these teachers did

not know more definitely what they should teach
boys who are to be grocers.

Now Superintendent Rose has asked seven
successful grocers of Boise what they think a
boy should study who is to be a grocer.

The grocers differed much more than did the

teachers.

The summary of the opinions of the thirty-five

teachers would give the young man the follow-

ing course of study: English, four years, eight

credits; American history, two credits; algebra,

two credits; physics, two credits; chemistry, two

credits; first year German, two credits; book-

keeping, four credits; writing, one credit; cor-

respondence, one credit; commercial arithmetic,

two credits; commercial geography, two credits;

commercial law, one credit; typewriting, one

credit; manual training, one credit, and letter-

ing, one credit.

All seven of the business men would have first

year English. All would have half a year in pen-
manship, and none would have more. All would
year of commercial arithmetic and

half a year of commercial law.

have one

Only these four subjects out of the thirty-six
are desired by all seven men.

Isn't this most enlightening? There are thirty-

six subjects that the seven business men as a

whole want high school students to study in order

to be successful in the grocery business. These

seven men are successful in the grocery business,

and yet the only subjects which the seven all

want a boy to study are first year English, com-

mercial arithmetic, commercial law and half a

year of penmanship!

Behold how good and pleasant it is for these

grocer-critics of the schools to dwell together in

unity!

Not even typewriting is asked for by all of

them, and only one would like shorthand writing. Only one would like half a year of farm management, and one farm machinery for half a

year.

There is nothing else that at least two of the seven do not wish.

Six of the seven would like two years of English, American history, bookkeeping, commercial correspondence and agriculture, and in only these five do six of the seven agree.

Five of the seven would like would like three years of English, typewriting and lettering. One would like ancient history, one botany, one household chemistry, one would like one year in French, one oral expression, one manual training.

Three would like music.

There is nothing especially characteristic in the choices of these men individually. For instance, the one man who would like ancient history is not alone on anything else.

In one case a man was alone in household chemistry, farm machinery and farm management, three that naturally go together, but this man also wanted music, but not typewriting or shorthand. He also wanted ancient history and mediaeval history. Farm management, farm machinery and household chemistry are not naturally associated with ancient and mediaeval history.

I think that, all in all, the study of the answers of these seven successful grocers is the most fascinating educational study we have ever made.

NORMAL SCHOOL AWAKENING There are thirty-six state normal schools with distinct departments for rural teachers; nineteen others offer special courses, although not equipped with distinct departments; twenty-eight offer instruction in some subjects for rural teachers separate from the general courses; fifty-seven normal schools are equipped to give instruction in agriculture. Some of the schools have large school farms, or make use of portions of the school grounds for agricultural experiment purposes through gardening or experiment plats. The rural-school departments in many of the normal schools are reaching the rural population by means of an active extension service, through club work, rural-life conferences, rural surveys, and in other ways.

FOUR YEARS IN COOK COUNTY During the past four years the following progressive ideas in rural education have been inaugurated in Cook County, Illinois:

Teachers' minimum salary schedule. Preparatory training for teachers required before the issuing of certificates.

Uniform course of study and textbooks. and school Annual country life festivals "County Fairs."

Achievement clubs for boys and girls. Country Life Leaders (Community Secretaries) and All the Year 'Round Field Schools in charge of wanderlehrers.

Cook County is the first community in America to employ community secretaries and wanderlehrers. The eyes of the educational world are focused on the outcome.

REPORTING ON STUDENT TEACHERS

President G. A. Axline of the Albion, Idaho, State Normal School requires those who inspect student teachers to report monthly on the cards that provide a place for such monthly reports.

Preparation of Lesson.-Mastery of subject ject matter, appreciation of relative values, form matter, clearness of purpose, organization of suband thoroughness of plan arrangement.

Skill in Conducting Recitation.-Mastery of methods used, holding attention and interest, reaching all individuals of the class, appealing to illustrating, assignment of study lesson. the children's experiences, and responses, skill in

Ability to Manage Children.-Attitude toward children, economizing routine, handling distracting elements, maintaining authority.

Personal Fitness. Health, scholarship, general culture, energy, neatness, voice, attitude toward criticism, promptness, regularity. General Rating of Teaching.

FREE TEXTBOOKS

Almost a hundred years ago (1818) Philadelphia provided for free textbooks. Massachusetts had the first state-wide free textbook law, passed in 1884. Prior to this eighteen cities had free textbooks. Of these New Jersey had more than one third, Jersey City, 1830; Newark, 1838; Elizabeth, 1850; Hoboken, 1855; Passaic, 1870; Camden, 1883. Notwithstanding this important city record, New Jersey did not have a state free textbook law until 1894, and was the sixth state to adopt such a law.

After Massachusetts came these states in order, Maine, 1889; District of Columbia, 1891; Nebraska, 1891; Pennsylvania, 1893; Rhode Island, 1893; New Jersey, 1894; Vermont, 1895; Maryland, 1896; Delaware, 1898; New Hampshire, 1899; Wyoming, 1899; Utah, 1904; Arizona, 1913; California, 1913; Nevada, 1913.

The whole subject of free textbooks is admirably treated in A. C. Monahan's Bulletin, No. 36 (1915), Bureau of Education.

ONE-PUPIL SCHOOLS

A city daily paper recently gave space to the following item:—

KANSAS HAS A SCHOOL WITH ONLY ONE PUPIL.

"Woodson county has the smallest school in point of attendance in the state. The Harmony School in district No. 70 has but one pupil, a child in the first grade. The school is taught by Miss Mary Minton, of this place, who devotes her entire time to the instruction of her lone pupil."

This seems ridiculous and the impression is that it is the only case of the kind in the country, while the fact is there are hundreds of these onepupil schools and a large number that never en

roll more than two pupils with an average attendance of less than one. This is no laughable

matter.

Maine was the first state, we think, to grapple with this problem skilfully, wisely and heroically. State Superintendent A. O. Thomas of Nebraska, where there are many such schools is dealing with them individually. Where possible the mother is given a certificate, is inspired to study how to teach, and is granted the allowed money for the child's education.

Of course the doctrinaire would say, have them taken to a consolidated school, but transportation day by day is absolutely impossible. Of course there are no such schools where it is possible to have them go to a larger school, or where by combining a larger school can be made, but in these states of vast distances with great areas unsettled a family nestles in some advantageous nook. It is not a theory but a condition that confronts the county and state authorities. There are cases in Maine and in Nebraska where the education of a child costs the public upwards of $300 a year. The one-pupil school is a problem all by itself.

THE LAW ENFORCED

A New York City daily says that because of his belief that a limited education was sufficient for a girl Julius Chiella of 332 East Fourteenth Street was sent to jail by Magistrate Appleton in the Municipal Term Court. Chiella was summoned to court, together with Vinsenza, his fourteen-year-old daughter, and he was charged by Inspector Creegan of the Board of Education with violating the compulsory education law by keeping his daughter away from school for forty days since the first of the year. "Two days a week is enough for any girl," Chiella explained through an interpreter.

"Is that so?" said the Magistrate. "Well, you can go to the Tombs for three days and think it over. If your daughter is not in school every school day until she is sixteen years old, look out, for I am going to give you the limit of sentence under the law."

Magistrate Appleton first fined the father $5, but sent him to jail when he showed unwillingness to pay.

WHERE TO INVEST

Dr. Thomas D. Wood, Columbia University, has this eminently sane comment on the neglect of the health of children :

"Better health is to a striking extent a purchasable commodity and benefit. Vast sums of money are expended from public and private funds for the amelioration of human suffering and disability in the attempt to salvage the wreckage resulting from unfavorable earlier conditions, which with foresight and at very moderate cost might in large measure have been prevented. Our schools are spending millions in educating, or trying to educate, the children who are kept back by ill-health, when the expenditure of thousands in a judicious health program would produce an extraordinary saving in economy and efficiency."

MORALITY CODE WRITERS

Of the many plans proposed by the National Institution for Moral Instruction, of which Milton Fairchild is the indefatigable champion, none scheme for which there are already sixty-eight appears more satisfactory than the Morality Code enlisted writers. Of these, eight are college or sity professors; four are assistant professors; fouruniversity presidents; sixteen college or univerteen are normal school presidents or professors; eleven are state or city superintendents; four are on high school faculties; one is a grammar school principal; and one is a private school principal. There are one each of nine other classes of interested persons, such as editor, business man, mother, Rabbi, Y. M. C. A. secretary.

William R. Willcox, manager of the Republican campaign in the interest of Justice Hughes, is not the president of the New York City Board of Education.

Parent-Teachers' Associations, by whatever name they are known, are sure to be of supreme importance to the schools and to the community as well.

State Superintendent R. H. Wilson of Oklahoma says that the teacher of agriculture should take his vacation in mid-winter.

Night schools are as indispensable as the high schools, and they are sure to be developed in efficiency until they become universal,

THE SUMMER SCHOOLS
Continued from page 13.

New York Chautauqua still exists however, and at last report enrolled 5,000 students and about 200 instructors and lecturers.)

The state normal summer schools have shown great growth, especially in Texas, where the idea has flourished like the green bay tree, over fifty being listed with thousands of students.

The South has taken a big leap to the front in the work of summer normals. Among the biggest schools of the kind in the country is the Central State Normal Summer School at Edmond, Oklahoma, with 2,000 students. Louisiana State Normal, Nachitoches, enrolls 1,000. The three Missouri State Normals at Kirksville, Warrensburg and Springfield number an aggregate of 4,000 students each summer.

The State Teachers' College of Iowa City attracts about 2,000 summer students each year; Colorado about 900; the Michigan State Normal, Ypsilanti, 1,500; the Western Michigan about 1,000; the Nebraska (Peru) about 900; and George Peabody Teachers' College, 1,100. The Indiana State Normals at Muncie and at Terre Haute each draw about 1,200 summer students. The Illinois State Normal Summer School, and that of Kansas (Emporia) rank among the largest

of the United States, with nearly 2,000 each. In addition to these there are about 500 independent summer schools of diverse kind (not connected with any institutions) which have a large constituency. These include summer camps and art, craft and nature study schools, etc., for which Agassiz set the example years ago.

An interesting feature of the summer school movement is the expense involved. The aggregate cost is estimated at over three million dollars, or fourteen dollars per capita for each student. The greatest outlay is that of the University of Chicago-over $410,000 for 4,000 students, or $100 per capita; Columbia University expends $180,000 for 5,600 students, or $32 apiece; Michigan, $58,000 ($36 each); Wisconsin, $52,325 ($20); Cornell, $40,000 ($28); Valparaiso, $40,000 ($18); California, $40,000 ($12); University of Pennsylvania, $30,000 ($30); University of Illinois, $25,000 ($27); Indiana, $20,000 ($22); New York, $24,000 ($24); Virginia, $20,000 ($15). Summer schools of state universities spending annually from $10,000 to $20,000 include Kansas, Alabama, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Washington, Vermont, West Virginia and Ohio (Athens), which expended $16,425 for 2,400 summer school students (an average outlay of less than seven dollar each), and leads the record in this respect.

Frances Lilian Taylor, one of the best of schoolbook authors, is a native of Brookfield, Connecticut, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke College. She was an ardent disciple of Francis W. Parker. Miss Taylor is principal of the Teacher Training School of Galesburg, Illinois. She was the author of "The Werner Primer," a pioneer in color work in school readers, which was quite a sensation in its day, and was followed by her "Tayior First Reader" and "Taylor Second Reader" (Werner School Book Company). Miss Taylor also had an important part in the making of the "Brooks Readers" (American Book Company). In connection with Miss Mary B. Grubb, she made "The Industrial Reader." Her latest work is "Beginnings in English" (D. C. Heath & Company). Address, Galesburg, Illinois.

Cleo Murtland, who was for some time director of the Worcester, Massachusetts, Girls' Trade School, is now assistant secretary of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, Alvin E. Dodd, secretary, 140 West 42nd Street, New York City. This gives Miss Murtland high official recognition for her notable service Work.

to the cause of Woman's Industrial

education. Miss Murtland is a native of Western Pennsylvania, is a graduate of a Pennsylvania State Normal School and of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City. Miss Murtland has had eight years' experience in public school teaching from mountain rural schools to city schools in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New Jersey. For four years years she was teacher in the highly specialized industrial work in the Manhattan Trade School for Girls in New York City. Her "Industrial Arithmetic for Girls' Vocational Schools" (D. C. Heath & Co.) is the one successful achievement in this line. Address, 140 West 42nd Street, New York City.

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Birdie Alexander, author of "Songs We Like to Sing," is a Tennessean by birth and early education, but a Texan by later education and teach

ing experience. As a supervisor of music in Dallas and as a booster for public school music in cities, conventions and through "Songs We Like to Sing," Miss Alexander has been foremost among the educators of Texas in promoting public school music supervision. She is an admirable demonstration of the possibilities of one with a distinct mission in education. Address, 401 Grandview Avenue, El Paso, Texas.

Jennie Hall, author of "Four Old Greeks," "Men of Old Greece," "Viking Tales," "Story of Chicago" and "Our Ancestors in Europe," is one of the best fruits of the influence of Colonel Francis W. Parker. She was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, studied in Chicago University, has taught in the Cook County Normal

School and is now (1916) teaching in the Francis W. Parker School, Chicago.

Olive B. Wilson-Dorret, of Berkeley, California, has attracted much highly complimentary attention to "Game Descriptions of Rhythmic Songs," which she has skilfully edited. The most significant of these are "A Joke on the Brownies," "Wading in the Brook," "Playing Hop-Scotch," "Puss in the Corner," "Skippity Hop to the Candy Shop," "The Funny Old Man in the Moon." The booklet containing these and many others is issued by the World Book Company, of Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York.

The author has been a pioneer and a leader in the development of this work. She made a great demonstration of her theory in the Manual Training High School of Kansas City, and at present is in San Francisco. Address, 2544 Keith Avenue, Berkeley, California.

Margaret Cunningham, author of "Practical English Composition," a book of rare constructive merit, placing the teaching of English Composition as a creative rather than a critical activity, is a native of Boston and teacher in the Dorchester (Boston) High School.

Mrs. Florence Milner, author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" with biographical sketch of Lewis Carroll, and "Alice Through the Looking Glass" (Rand, McNally & Company) and “On Teaching Geometry" (D. C. Heath & Company), has had an unusual experience. A native of Vermont, her childhood spent in New Hampshire, and her girlhood and adult life in Michigan, she has won high reputation in secondary school work with university training. She has taught Greek, Latin, German, mathematics, the sciences, history, literature and first-class English in secondary schools. She was head of the department of mathematics in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, High School, and was at the same time preceptress of the high school.

For sixteen years she has been supervisor of the secondary department of the Detroit University School and associate principal. She has written for the Atlantic Monthly and twelve other publications.

Lydia R. Blaich, supervising principal of Indianapolis, author of "Three Industrial Nations," for use in school and out, has made a more extensive and intensive study of the industries of all sections of the United States and Europe than any other man or woman of whom we know, and she has developed rare skill in making her knowledge attractive and instructive to other people. Address, 428 Fulton Street, Indianapolis.

A CURRICULUM OF PLAY

BY DR. H. S. CURTIS

Games have every sort of physical and social value from the lowest to the highest. There is not much physical development in playing marbles or tops, and one will not become an athlete from hop scotch or dominoes. It is highly important that those games should be selected and promoted which have the greatest value in child training. So, also, such games as basket ball and football may be played so as to be highly dangerous, both physically and socially. It is very important that the rules which are followed should be made in a social spirit to secure the highest physical and social ends.

Probably the children's games have been more neglected than any other one phase of education, yet baseball might well nigh be balanced against the whole curriculum of the school as a method of child training, and certainly the establishment of a game like this is not to be compared in value with the introduction of a new textbook or a new pedagogical method. Games have received very little general attention or study. Many of the German schools have a curriculum of about sixty games running through the elementary schools, and in the preparatory schools of England football and cricket, and in many hockey and lacrosse are required. We have suggestive curriculums in most of our great cities, but these are on paper for the most part, and we have really no approved list which are for boys and girls of different ages what baseball, for instance, is to adolescent boys. The securing of such a curriculum is perhaps the most pressing need of the play movement at the present time.

The material for it is not available, and to secure the best possible results, the games all over the world should be carefully studied with a view to the selection of the best. But many new games must also be invented in order to fit the conditions of school grounds, streets and playrooms. It may seem that this is demanding genius and a condition which is well nigh impossible. But children are constantly inventing new games. Basket ball is only a little over twenty years old, and in the book "Play," by Emmett D. Angell, is a list of thirty-six new games invented by the author.

More important, however, than the invention of new games is the successive modification and adaptation of old games to meet new needs and their developing to secure a higher order of training. The sort of development needed is well illustrated in the way baseball has been evolved. from rounders during the last half century. This