Each of the areas of art has struggled independently, but with understanding comes a deeper hunger for knowledge about the other areas of expression as well. We realize the relationship that is common to all. Music organizations are including art as an integral part of their national meetings while art classes utilize music as a valuable medium to draw out the fullest release of emotional expression. It is generally accepted that a dramatic performance is not complete without the harmonious utilization of art and music.

Educators have come to realize that mental blocks can be established in children by adults who impose professional standaids on them and that these barriers will continue to retard emotional expression throughout adulthood. Therefore, it is emphasized that no art problem seems to be beyond a child's efforts if he is given unhampered opportunities and guidance. Án educator's role becomes that of sympathetic understanding in this process. The teacher should then guide a child in the understanding and adaptation of the materials in relation to the object of craft or art that the child desires to produce.

The elementary school art curriculum which is inclusive of graphic and industrial arts is no longer considered as a special subject, a thing apart from the school program, but is an integrated and dynamic part of it. Increasingly its contribution is being recognized as adding color enrichment and providing opportunities for the child to find the satisfaction of accomplishment and the compensation of creative expression.

Children need time, guidance, and the feeling of accomplishment to build up a sense of security in order to express what they really feel. Particularly in the early years of child growth, art is play and it should continue to be so.

The community-centered teaching in the modern school of today, as compared with the unrelated subject-centered school of the past, is now producing the self-reliant student who is better able to live happily with his classmates. This goal must be reflected in the teaching. Every teacher should assure the children they are all different and that these individual differences in their work are desirable assets rather than liabilities.

The teacher will be better able to avert undesirable attitudes toward the arts in the children, if he does not show a reluctance

toward active participation in the same activity that the children are doing, be it the drawing of a pig or the dancing of a jig.

The world can be so new and exciting to the elementary school child, he will find a wealth of subject matter in his daily. experiences. A child can be interested in the achievements of adult art which he can share and understand, but he finds it difficult to bridge the barrier of adult accomplishment until he is mentally and physically ready. A child may actually rebel against the arts, but again it is because he lacks experience and maturity. Both of these will eventually come to the child if

of the world will we have the subsidized art that produced the work of the "Old Masters." The princely patrons of the Renaissance are no more. For those few highly developed individuals who desire fame in the arts, their rewards will be purely individual and American.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization has employed every means of communication in endeavoring to overcome world prejudices. They have looked to the arts as one of the most important means of surmounting world misunderstanding and in building and teaching the foundations of democracy.

variety of materials in the classroom to be used as he wishes to supplement the regular art period.

Opportunity for many kinds of creative expression such as music, rhythm, language, dramatics, and graphic arts, in which a child may explore, will assist him to find a forte of expression that will help him toward maturity. Man's egocentric desires should be considered with intelligence and foresight, as another area of growth, so frequently overlooked in the educational program. Every child must have the satisfaction of recognition.

In our efforts to serve and understand a greater number of children we have learned the importance of the arts in the various. difficult educational problems and rehabili tation of exceptional children. The services should not be preferential, but adequate provision should be made available for all types of youngsters. Occupational and recreational therapeutists utilize the recognized worth of art education and the other expressive arts.

When the potential art abilities of children are released naturally, free of the adult standards that are stultifying to children, true creative work will develop. Through participation in works of drama, original painting, poetry, and writing, creative thinking will develop spontaneously. Music and rhythm also become a part of living just as much as walking through the woods or reading a good book. We have learned to accept a realistic attitude toward the arts. They will have served well if children become interested in one or all of the art fields and if they enjoy participating in them whether they attain perfection or

not.

Perhaps never again, in the civilization

PRACTICES of selected school systems with regard to use of school buildings after regular school hours have been studied by a committee of The Association of School Business Officials. The report of the committee is now available as Bulletin 13, "Research Committee Report on After School Use of Buildings," from The Association of School Business Officials, Kalamazoo, Mich. The survey covers cities in 26 States, the District of Columbia, and the Province of Ontario, Canada.

Focus Upon Education-
1950 Style

SCHEDULED for display in the Brooklyn Museum early this month is the collection of high-school life photographs taken by several hundred student photographers in New York City's 54 academic high schools since November 1949. Members of camera clubs in their schools, the students were asked to participate in a cooperative group assignment to take documentary pictures of every part of city high-school life.

This type of project serves not only as an incentive to youthful photographers, but gives opportunity, through public display, to portray school programs and student activities to the public.

The report from New York City comes at a time when the National High School Photographic Awards for 1949 are announced and plans are being made for the 1950 contest. Photographic talents of students in many communities could well be directed in this and other contests, national, State, and local, toward documentation of education-1950 style.

Congressional Mandate

HE OFFICE of Education has been functioning for more than 80 years as the chief agency within the Federal Government having responsibility for service to education. From 1869 to 1939, it was a part of the Department of the Interior. The President's Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1939 made the Office of Education a constituent unit of the Federal Security Agency.

Wording of the legislation enacted by the Thirty-Ninth Congress is as follows:

An Act To Establish a Department of Education (Approved March 2, 1867)

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be established, at the city of Washington, a department of education, for the purpose of collecting such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and of diffusing such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems, and methods of teaching, as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country.

...

... And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Education to present annually to Congress a report embodying the results of his investigations and labors, together with a statement of such facts and recommendations as will, in his judgment, subserve the purpose for which this department is established.

Commissioners of Education

Eleven Commissioners of Education have directed the affairs of the Office of Education during the past 83 years:

HENRY BARNARD, Mar. 14, 1867, to Mar. 15, 1870.

JOHN EATON, Mar. 16, 1870, to Aug. 5, 1886.

N. H. R. DAWSON, Aug. 6, 1886, to Sept. 3, 1889.

WILLIAM T. HARRIS, Sept. 12, 1889, to June 30, 1906.

ELMER E. BROWN, July 1, 1906, to June 30, 1911.

BEGINNING with this issue School Life will present a series of statements on the Office of Education. The first presentation gives summary data on the history of the Office, Congressional mandate, Commissioners of Education, and services and staff members of the Division of Elementary and Secondary Schools. Future presentations will report services and staff members of other Office divisions.

PHILANDER P. CLAXTON, July 8, 1911, to June 1, 1921.

to enter high school; with children who are normal in their development; with both elementary and secondary school children who are exceptional in their ability to learn, as well as those who are handicapped by physical, mental, or emotional difficulties. They also work with parents of these children. The section reports and interprets educational progress throughout the country and publishes a wide range of material dealing with elementary education.

Helping improve the Nation's high schools is the aim of the Secondary School Section of this Division. Toward this end,

31, 1928.

WILLIAM JOHN COOPER, Feb. 11, 1929, to July 10, 1933.

GEORGE F. ZOOk, July 11, 1933, to June 30, 1934.

throughout the country in their efforts to solve current problems and to make their school programs more effective.

The section works especially on organizational and instructional problems and is

15, 1948.

EARL JAMES MCGRATH, Mar. 18, 1949, to date.

Meeting Educational Needs

As American education has grown, so has the Office of Education expanded, its added responsibilities paralleling the increasing needs of children and adults for educational aid to help them adjust to a changing world. Today's OFFICE OF EDUCATION serves teachers, school administrators, students, librarians, and others through its several divisions.

Division of Elementary and Secondary Schools

The Elementary School Section of this Division is concerned with anything that affects elementary schools and the more. than 20,000,000 children in the United States enrolled in them. Its staff of specialists works closely with State education departments, teacher-education institutions, local-school systems, and interested lay and professional organizations throughout the country. Staff members are concerned with both urban and rural schools; with children ranging in age from the child in nurs ery school to the 12- and 14-year-old about

will aid State and local administrators of. secondary education and high-school teachers in organizing the most effective types of high-school programs and studies. to meet the needs of today's young people— tomorrow's adult citizens.

A major project in which the Secondary Schools Section is taking a leading role at this time is the planning of types of highschool programs which will appeal to and scrve larger numbers of young people in their search for "life adjustment" learning. National and State leaders in secondary education are cooperating in this endeavor, directed by the Commission on Life Adjustment Education for Youth.

Results of conferences, special surveys, and research conducted by the staff of the Division of Elementary and Secondary Schools are made available through Office of Education publications.

Staff Elementary and Secondary Schools Division

GALEN JONES, Director, Division of Elementary and Secondary Schools

J. DAN HULL, Assistant Director
DON S. PATTERSON, Assistant Director
EARL HUTCHINSON, Field Representative
EFFIE BATHURST, Research Assistant
GRACE S. WRIGHT, Research Assistant
(Continued on page 112)

101

MODERN APPRENTICESHIP requirements and the postwar training of veterans and other young people for skilled work in industry, together with increased industrial activity and developments, have implemented the apprenticeship program in all the States and Territories. Sufficient varied work experience and employment standards for apprentices are the responsibility of local joint apprenticeship committees and State apprenticeship councils in the respective States. It is the responsibility of public vocational schools to provide occupational and technical training supplemental to the training apprentices receive while at work. This supplemental training consists of class, laboratory, and sometimes shop instruction covering basic information, technical knowledge, and skills that are required to round out the training on the job. The supplemental training usually covers a minimum time of 144 hours during each year of apprenticeship which may be from 2 to 7 years in duration, depending upon the occupation.

At the present time, apprentice training for skilled work in industry has reached greater proportions than during any previ ous period. There has been a large increase not only in the number of apprentices in training but also in the number of occupa tions for which apprenticeship is used as a training medium. Supplemental school training now requires specifically prepared instructional materials and qualified teachers for each of nearly 300 different apprenticeable occupations.

The challenge to the schools in meeting the apprentice training requirements has been constant ever since 1945. State vocational education authorities have done their best to assist local vocational education schools and departments in providing adequate instruction. The most effective assistance has been provided through instructional materials which function directly in the individual instruction of apprentices. Several States have done considerable work in preparing such materials

and aids. The limitations have been considerable, however. Only a few of the trades have been covered. There has been nuch duplication of effort and little uniformity of approach or pattern, thus limiting production and utilization of the materials on a broad scale.

The Division of Vocational Education of the Office of Education has been collaborating with State boards for vocational education in connection with their problems. Catalogues of existing course outlines and apprentice study guides have been prepared and distributed to State vocational education authorities for distribution to local school administrations. These cata

logues were issued as Miscellaneous 3243, List of Instructional Materials for the Supplementary Training of Apprentices and Other On-the-Job Trainees, and supplements thereto. The present catalogue, revised September 1948, contains outlines and study guides covering 42 apprenticeable occupations, and outlines only for 44 additional ones. Thus, it can be seen that, while worth-while materials are now available for some occupations, much work remains to be done to meet the instructional requirements of the nearly 300 occupations for which there is an immediate need.

For several years, national professional associations, representing both State and local industrial education school supervisors, teacher trainers, and administrators, have been emphasizing the need for adequate and uniformly prepared instructional materials to meet this problem. The Office of Education has recommended that special Federal funds be provided for the purpose of preparing instructional materials on a uniform basis to cover all apprenticeable occupations and to make these materials available for use in all localities.

EARL JAMES MCGRATH, U. S. Commissioner of Education, and officials of the Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, recently welcomed 25 Japanese educators who will spend the next several months in the United States as participants in the cultural relations program of the U. S. Government for occupied countries.

The Japanese educators were selected by the Information and Education Branch of the Army. They represent a cross section of educational fields and positionselementary education, secondary education, vocational education, adult education, guidance, research, audio-visual education, uni

versity presidents, superintendents of schools, and members of boards of education in Japan.

In welcoming the visiting teachers and school officials, Commissioner McGrath said he was glad they would have the opportunity to see how we live in the United States, how our institutions serve us, and how our representative form of government functions. "I hope you will observe and share the experience of democracy in action, and that you will take to your fellow educators and citizens at home, as the result of your stay with us, a broader and more sympathetic understanding of American life, culture, and ideas."

You and Your Security. The title of a series of thirteen 15-minute recorded programs produced under the direction of the Social Security Administration, and dramatizing the story of Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance. Purpose is to facilitate effective and economical administration of old-age and survivors insurance by acquainting those concerned with the basic facts of social security. Each episode illustrates in dramatic form some phase of the Government program, with an introduction by Edwin C. Hill, well-known radio commentator, and concluding with interviews or announcements by leading officials of the Social Security Administration.

While designed primarily for broadcast to adult audiences over local radio stations, the increasing interest on the part of highschool teachers to acquaint students with this and other Government programs, has prompted the Social Security Administration, through their local field offices in 478 cities throughout the United States, to make the recordings available on a loan basis to secondary schools and colleges. Programs

are recorded on reverse sides of 16-inch disks and require special playback equip ment having a turntable speed of 33%

r. p. m.

Adventures in Folk Song. A series of thirteen 15-minute recorded programs just released, designed especially for school use. Intended primarily as supplemental aids in the teaching of American history, the series begins with the coming of the first white settlers to America, touches on the Revolutionary period in Massachusetts and Virginia, and follows the spanning of the continent by restless and ambitious Americans. Each program is concerned with the fortunes of one of the many Clark families as they fought for freedom against the British and moved out beyond the narrow strip of Colonial seaboard more than 150 years ago. There are 95 folk songs in the series, all skillfully woven into scripts as they were woven into the lives of the pioneers. For

complete details write to Gloria Chandler Recordings, Inc., 42212 West Forty-sixth Street, New York, N. Y.

Musical Mother Ruth Character Training Songs and Stories. First introduced to radio audiences over station KGER (Los Angeles, Calif.), they are now available at popular prices in two albums of phonograph records through Musical Mother Ruth Records, 470 Manzanita, Sierra Madre, Calif. Recorded after 2 years of testing with teachers, church groups, summer camp leaders, etc., the programs for children 3 to 9 years of age are designed as one basic cure for juvenile deliquency. Production is simple, with Mrs. Ruth Agnew Thurber using the talking voice for presenting her songs with piano background. Paced slowly enough to motivate participation by the children, the records encourage memory training for the primary school child, as well as practice of such desirable character traits as unselfishness, courtesy, honesty, and gratitude.

Navy Film Series on Photography. The Navy Department has released for civilian educational use a series of five 16mm sound films on the fundamentals of photography. The films deal with basic principles and apply both to still- and motion-picture photography. Prints can be purchased from United World Films Inc. (Castle Films), 1445 Park Avenue, New York 29, N. Y. Schools receive a 10-percent dis

count.

The Basic Camera (15 min., b/w, $21.40). Elementary Optics in Photography (19 min., b/w, $24.99).

Light-Sensitive Materials (22 min., color, $98.74).

Developing the Negative (16 min., b/w, $22.13).

Printing the Positive (19 min., b/w, $24.99). Department of Agriculture Films. The following motion pictures, all of them 16mm sound films, can be borrowed or rented from film depositories of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Prints can be purchased at the prices indicated from United

World Films Inc. (Castle Films), 1445 Park Avenue, New York 29, N. Y. Schools receive a 10-percent discount.

Adventures of Junior Raindrop. Animated
cartoon of a raindrop's visit to earth (8 min.,
color, $33.42).

Dead Out. Consequences of a fire that was
not "dead out" (22 min., color, $87.46).
Farmers of Japan. Farming and farm life in
Japan today (20 min., b/w, $25.69).
Five Bandits of the Cotton Crop. Boll weevil,
bollworm, fleahopper, cotton leafworm and
cotton aphid (11 min., color, $42.86).
Killing Weeds with 2, 4-D. Techniques, mix-
tures, and precautions (18 min., color,
$84.99).

Only a Bunch of Tools. Importance and use
of tools in fire fighting (28 min., color,
$114.08).

Smokejumpers. Parachute firefighters of the
U. S. Forest Service (10 min., color, $37.35).
Step-Saving Kitchen. Modern kitchen de-
signed by Bureau of Human Nutrition and
Home Economics (14 min., color, $70.94).
Timber and Totem Poles. Indian totem poles
in Alaska (11 min., color, $42.59).
Tongass Timberland. Tongass National For-
est in Southeast Alaska (18 min., color,
$75.75).

Tree Grows for Christmas. Christmas tree in
history and legend, and of today (11 min.,
color or b/w, $42.23 or $14.97).
Truly Yours-The Dress That Fits. How to buy
ready-made dresses and to make necessary
alterations (18 min., color, $84.55).
Water for a Nation. Importance of water and
of conservation practices (19 min., b/w,
$25.69).

Films on Fishing. The U. S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, has recently completed two 16mm sound color films on commercial fishing-It's the Maine Sardine and Pacific Halibut Fishing. Prints of both films can be borrowed from the Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington 25, D. C.

It's the Maine Sardine is not for sale, but prints will be placed on indefinite loan with qualified film libraries. Prints of Pacific Halibut Fishing can be purchased from United World Films Inc., 1445 Park Avenue, New York 29, N. Y., for $88.46 less 10 percent discount to schools.