be given real life experiences—or only the description of them?" The day has gone by when we were satisfied with the art training that is limited to drawing. Drawing has a large and very important place. Art is a larger thing than drawing; drawing is only its handmaid. The creation of beauty in home surroundings to furnish comfort, rest and satisfaction, as well as inspiration, is a goal that needs no defense. It is too humanly vital. What we do need is a new pedagogy, a way of vitalizing the teaching of the art of this subject, so that every child will think of color and grow accustomed to using color in this practical and direct fashion. He will grow to love it and search for combinations that give real satisfaction. And out of the search will come constant growth in discrimination, and Art, a real thing, something to live, instead of a far-away abstraction.

What are your schools doing for this type of home furnishing? Are the children getting really vital training that will count? Does your supervisor make color live for them? Can they go downtown and select combinations for their own homes as a result of this school work?

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating,"—a homely saying but a true one. The proof of the life quality in teaching of home furnishing is in the selections that the children make for their own homes. What are they? How much do they understand? Until we send our children out from the art courses with this everyday, common, much-needed information and skill at their command, we have shirked a big human need, that of helping make better homes. We all want the children to have this knowledge and power. There is no reason why they should not. The great need is for superintendents to sense the situation and help their art supervisors do the work in really effective, practical fashion.

The Socialized Recitation

CHARLOTTE RAFTER, MASTER'S ASSISTANT, JOHN MARSHALL SCHOOL, BOSTON, Mass.

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•HE socialized recitation! How that phrase is disIs it, to begin with, a happy and wisely-selected cognomen for the democratic procedure that is now accomplishing such effective results in some of our classrooms? Doesn't the term recitation call to mind "the delivery before an audience of something committed to memory," or "the rehearsal of a prepared lesson by pupils before their instructor"?

cussed, misunderstood, and ridiculed.

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And then, the much abused and overworked word "socialized." "To incorporate in, or to make subject to, the uses or influences of society," is ignored (if called to mind at all), and the diresounding phrase "to render socialistic in nature, to conform to or regulate by the theories or practices of socialism," is hailed with a mental shout of satisfaction by the teacher who has used the "teacher questions-pupil answers" method for years, and brought forward as a potent factor against adopting the socialized recitation.

"To render socialistic in nature." "There you are!" she asserts in carefully-controlled, low-pitched tones. "It is creeping into our public schools. Here we are trying to discipline and train these foreign children and get them so that they will realize that there is to be law and order in the schoolroom and that they must obey the teacher, and then along comes an educator (all theory and no practice what does he know about the difficulty of teaching fractions, or French, or spelling) and talks to us about socializing the recitation. Why, it's carrying Bolshevism right into the schoolroom, if you ask me," she concludes.

Yes, and that's how ninety per cent of the teaching body of most cities feel, who have not inquired more deeply into the

method. And that's why some teachers wish the term might be changed to "democratic procedure," or "democratic instruction," or "pupil activitiy."

Too long has elementary education been a thing apart from every-day life; too long have children and their parents, aye their teachers, felt that an entirely different procedure must be carried on in the schoolroom from that used in the home, the business marts, the social halls, the church. In spite of the number of teachers (fortunately rapidly increasing) whose hearts dictate a more actively social schoolroom, while their training and intellect compel them to adhere to the stereotyped method of "teacher questioning, pupil answering" type of teaching, the opportunities for pupil activity have not been forthcoming except in a few isolated cases, where the cause of education has not been advanced but rather curbed, because the classroom work through pupil activity has degenerated into a vaudeville performance in which the children have recognized their teacher as a kind but weak disciplinarian, a companion but not a leader, an idealist but not a pragmatist.

While to such teachers, earnest, conscientious, mentally groping, dreamily progressive, is owed a debt for having attempted to blaze a trail of advanced educational methods, yet, on the other hand, to education they owe an apology for having attempted to launch a different method upon the educational sea without having first clearly and pedagogically considered its advantages and its pitfalls.

They sensed the need of greater pupil activity and of a schoolroom that more nearly approached a forum meeting, but they lost sight of the fact that a teacher must never put aside her right, nay her duty, to lead through guidance, tactfully offered but nevertheless firmly and forcefully proffered.

How often has the skeptic visited a room where pupil activity was being "tried out," only to report cynically (and truthfully, be it added) that the only thing she saw "tried out" was the teacher. A few pupils asking nonsensical, pointless, thoughtless questions, a large majority passively attentive, a small group

actively inattentive, a trio perhaps naturally inquisitive, acquisitive and interested, but untrained to cope with the situation, bewildered, puzzled and vaguely, almost unconsciously, wondering why the teacher didn't take a hand and change the number on the vaudeville program from an act exhibiting garrulous parrots to that of trained horses, taught by kindness-yes, but taught, not allowed to prance untrained about the stage.

The skeptic, delighted at the perverted use of pupil activity, clings with due regard, albeit affection, to the term "socialized" recitation, and states in no uncertain tone that if that's a socialized procedure give her an absolute monarchy-her subjects learn obedience at least!

And so that teacher visited does owe an apology to the educational world. She has sensed the need of democratizing the methods of teaching, but has not the power of drawing up a constitution, so to speak.

But let the skeptic visit a schoolroom where the patient, wise, up-to-date teacher, keenly alert to the limitations of her pupils' power to gain needed and useful knowledge through pupil activity ever conscious of the need of leadership on her part that does not dwarf the initiative in her pupils, ever ready to curb the loquacious and to encourage the shy and timid, a teacher that never fails to keep foremost in mind the sacred trust that is hers, to see that each individual is developed to the greatest possible extent, physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually!

A visit to such a teacher's schoolroom fills the skeptic with uneasiness and alarm. The room is in perfect order, that is, the perfect order that one sees at a forum meeting, a club meeting, a convention-interested, decorous activity. To be sure the ubiquitous custom of waving first the right arm, followed by the left, then by a frantic outstretching of both arms by a few mentally alert pupils, while the others sit with the "feet flat, hands folded" physical and mental attitude, is missing, and in its place is the natural, every-day custom of a child's rising and addressing his mate or mates after the manner of a rational human being. (Wherever did that unnatural, factitious, hand-waving habit orig

inate?) And they are addressing their peers by name: "Mary, did you say that Greece contributed more to civilization than Rome? Can you prove that?" Or, "John, why did you choose that title for your story?"

Yes, the room is in perfect order-a sad blow to the skeptic! But as soon as she admits this fact she falls back on her prejudice against pupil activity by the recall of a popular criticism: “Yes, the children are learning to express themselves naturally, but look at the teacher what does the city hire her for?—she's doing absolutely nothing but sit there." But again the smug complacency with which she entered is shaken, for she hears a youthful voice say, "Miss G- what is your opinion on that question ?" and she sees Miss G- go to the board, draft a quick analysis, present, develop, and question upon the disputed matter-then resume her chair and leave the pupils to finish the lesson. But, she did not dictate, she guided, and was recognized as a leader and an authority not by self-election but by class selection-truly a democratic procedure by pupils actively acquisitive.

Dear prejudiced skeptic! She's vaguely conscious of the feeling that she's been misinformed as to the weaknesses of this socialized recitation-the pupils are gaining in knowledge and power, the teacher is a necessary factor in the educating process, the individual pupil is the consideration, not the class, and the children are meeting conditions in the schoolroom that differ in degree not in substance from those of the outside world. Where then are its disadvantages?

Ah! the skeptic takes fresh courage her drooping spirits rise once more the written work! That annual spelling test from a wise but carefully evaluating superintendent. Ah! now the skeptic is at her best! "You can't talk or debate or discuss a spelling list; a good standing position, a well-modulated voice, and general information don't help you to pass that test. Socialized recitation, indeed! What you need then is the ability to spell correctly every word on that list!" And with head raised, eyes regaining their pristine lustre, and voice teeming with conviction, she turns to Miss G expecting to see her wilt under such truths, and to