were unable to complete, or who were not interested in, some of the required work.

All educators should be aware of the value of the synthetic mind. Every ultimate truth is a paradox-it is the reconciliation of two apparently opposite and opposing facts or principles. So that the partial mind never can arrive at more than a half truth. To the end that we may perceive truth we must put aside all bias, all partisan thinking and feeling, and we must dispassionately and calmly cultivate the ability to see all sides, all possible factors, and then to put them together into a synthetic whole.

*

A good illustration of this necessity of synthesis appears in the study of consciousness as it relates to the teaching profession. Consciousness has two functions which are obvious: it leads to knowledge, and it leads to action. Now, the pro and con type of mind at once raises the question, "Which of these functions is the more essential?" And so we have the beginning of a discussion which separates persons into opposite factions, each contending for that aspect of the truth which he is able to see. One says, "To know is the mind's highest function ;" another says, "To do is the glory of man." Very well, but why this eternal contention about this or that? Why not always this and that? Why is it not the highest exhibition of ability to be able to co-ordinate thought and action, knowledge and conduct? Why is it not the highest function of consciousness to know in order to do? The debate over the relative importance of these functions leads to an attempt to separate them, and so to disparage one or the other.

Philosophers have usually cherished the view that "the theoretic life is the soul's genuine concern;" that man's supreme glory is to be a rational being-to know eternal and universal truth. But, on the other hand, popular belief has always tended to estimate the worth of a man's mental processes by their effects upon his practical life. Now, to take sides with one or the other of these views, and so to over-emphasize either the practical or theoretical ideal, is inimical to the best results; because the whole truth so obviously embraces both. Theory helps practice. Practice corrects and improves theory. Being is prior to doing; but being expresses itself in doing. On the other hand, doing enlarges being, and one of the highest rewards of doing is the capacity which is created by effort. These functions, then, knowing and doing, should be considered as inseparable, co

ordinate, and mutually indispensable the one to the other. We shall not achieve a true theory of education till this is done.

What is called the biological conception of the mind is responsible for much over-emphasis on the merely utilitarian side. We must acknowledge the debt we owe to this view for having recalled us to the earth, and having corrected the over-emphasis which the classical tradition had uniformly placed upon the purely theoretical side; but, for all that, we should guard against the vice of partialism here as elsewhere. The biological conception is that the mind, as it unfolds in the evolving human creature, helps him to adapt his movements to the impressions received from his environment, so as to escape from harm or from destruction. Consciousness thus becomes useless unless it prompts to useful conduct. Our thoughts are to restrain or direct our behavior, our memories warn or encourage, our feelings impel or deter; but the object is our personal well-being in relation to environment and what it contains. This view, when held exclusively, makes the mind in all its varied functions play down to the needs of animal existence; indeed the god-like mind, which makes the man, becomes only a super-added biological perfection-useless unless it prompts to useful conduct. It becomes the slave of low animal cunning, and functions chiefly in the conflict with others, devising new weapons of offense and defense, reinforcing cruelty, avarice, lust and selfish impulse. Education becomes merely the sharpening of his faculties and the perfecting of his equipment in the struggle for existence. Carried to its logical conclusion, this view condemns itself in the eyes of all who retain a normal residuum of human feeling and common-sense. And yet all that is needed to correct this view, and redeem it, is that we add to it the other half-so that we preserve the complete sphere of truth. When we think of man as emerging from low and animal conditions, as separating himself from all things base and selfish-in short, when we think of him as an intellectual and moral BEING, then we begin to realize that a large part of man's satisfaction with himself is the consciousness of knowing and being, the feeling of worth within himself. It is still true that his knowledge will enable him to act more efficiently, and when he acts nobly he will be aware of additions to his sense of being. Education becomes not less practical, but incomparably more human, more worth-while as something in itself. Every power built into the man makes him a nobler, richer, more capacious being, capable of conferring and of receiving ever larger and larger benefits.

This is the synthetic view which reconciles the values of the old conflicting partial views, and eliminates the dangers of both. Every ultimate truth is a paradox.

Only nineteen states, in their state courses of study, outline definite required instruction for the grades in the fundamentals of American government, with four of those nineteen postponing the teaching until the seventh, and six until the eighth grade. We think this is a serious defect in the American public school system. This fact is brought out by a graphic analysis of state courses of study prepared by C. J. Primm of Chicago, who is promoting the movement for a wider use of films in training boys and girls for citizenship, as well as in community Americanization work for foreign-born citizens.

"It is a fact, of course, that in a very considerable number of towns and cities in the remaining twenty-one states pupils are being taught the essentials of our system of government," Mr. Primm goes on to state. "In these cases, however, such instruction is being given at the option or through the initiative of local teachers or superintendents; the state itself is not requiring it. Most thinking folks will agree that any study so vital to the nation's welfare as civics ought not to be left to the option of local school authorities. Its inclusion in the curriculum should be definitely provided for."

"It is many times more important," Mr. Primm declares, "to teach civics in the grades than in high school, for the simple reason that the vast majority of pupils never reach high school, and a surprisingly large number do not even continue in the elementary schools beyond the sixth grade. The teaching of citizenship ought therefore to begin in the lower grades. It should not be taught as a formal subject, but as something of vital every-day concern, something with an intimate relation to every interest and activity of the child, his parents, and his community."

A number of states outlining comprehensive courses in civics for elementary schools begin the work in the first grade. Instruction for the first three years, as a general thing, takes up the relations of home, school and neighborhood to the larger community life; the work of community servants, such as postmen, police, firemen, etc.; the duty of obedience and the need of thrift and loyal co-operation. A complete revision of school courses of study throughout the country is imminent,-according to Superintendent Henry Snyder of Jersey City, speaking recently before the N. E. A.,-in order that

every pupil shall be "trained for complete living as an individual, as a member of society, and as a citizen." It is the duty of the schools. to prepare boys and girls to understand, not only their privileges and opportunities, but their obligations to their fellow-men and to the state.

A novel and extensive study of the health of working children is being made in the continuation schools of Newark, New Jersey, with the co-operation of the Department of Medical School Inspection. Twelve hundred boys and girls employed in the various industries of the city and attending the continuation schools several hours a week, are being examined by a corps of doctors and nurses under the direction of Dr. H. H. Mitchell, health specialist of the National Committee. Their physical condition will be compared with what it was when they received their working papers. A correlation will be made between the occupations in which the children engage and their health records while at work. The object of the study, according to Dr. Mitchell, is to obtain reliable scientific data on which to base conclusions regarding the need of some form of health protection and service for boys and girls who have left the regular schools and gone to work, as well as to throw additional light on the question of whether the minimum age for entering industrial employment should be raised from 14, which is the age established by law in most of the states, to 16, which was recommended by the Children's Bureau Conference on Child Welfare Standards in 1919.

"The vast majority of juvenile workers in industry," says Dr. Mitchell, "are between 14 and 16 years of age. This, generally speaking, is the period of early adolescence, a critical period from both the physiological and the psychological standpoint. Only 17 states now require the physical examination of applicants for working papers, and no state sees that children are periodically examined after they go to work, to learn what effect their employment is having on their health, or to afford opportunity for the correction of defects or dangerous tendencies. Yet no class of adult workers is so dependent on health as that comprising the wage earners who ill-advisedly or through economic necessity enter employment at an early age."

Book Reviews

So many books are sent to this department of EDUCATION that it is impossible to review them all. Naturally we feel under obligation to give preference to the books of those publishing houses which more or less frequently use our advertising pages. Outside of the limitations thus set, we shall usually be able and glad to mention by title, authors, and publishers, such books as are sent to us for this purpose. More elaborate notices will necessarily be conditional upon our convenience and the character of the books themselves.

STORY, ESSAY AND VERSE. Edited by Charles Swain Thomas and Harry Gilbert Paul. The Atlantic Monthly Press.

This volume presents a generous collection of mind-filling, heartmoving stories and short poems from which high school and college classes can select what they may need for detailed study, intensive analysis, or as models of plot, motive and skill in verbal expression. The general reader also, will find the collection a very satisfying one for odd moments or hours of leisure, when a short, well written, worthwhile story, essay, or lyric may be wanted to change the current of one's thought, to rest a tired brain or set of nerves, or merely to make time pass speedily and profitably between two engagements.

Its educational usefulness has been mainly in mind as the editors have compiled the book. The material has been drawn entirely from the files of the Atlantic Monthly. This magazine has been from the beginning the most carefully edited magazine, probably, of any in America. A story or poem to be acceptable to the Atlantic Monthly has to touch a high water mark of literary excellence. So many distinguished men and women have written for it in the more than sixty years of its existence, that a great mine of literary riches is covered by its files. This mine has been deftly worked by the skilled operatives whose names are appended, as editors, to this volume. They have aimed to bring forth "the material that voices the more modern note" (the reader will pardon the change of figure for the sake of getting the exact language of the editors) "and thus reveals in a brief but comprehensive way, the method and mood current among the best of contemporary writing."

A collection as large as this affords an opportunity to satisfy various tastes and standards of literary criticism. The reviewer, by chance, read first of all the rather grewsome tale, in the style of Edgar A. Poe, contributed by the late Honorable John D. Long. Inevitably the question arose in his mind whether such tales should be set forth as models in a book for comparatively immature students in high school and college. Mature consideration, however, led him to the conclusion that a student's reading may well follow the actual lines of life and experience rather than of the purely ideal. This collection reflects the world of