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REALIZING RELIGION. By Samuel Shoemaker, Jr. The Association Press, New York, N. Y. Paper 65c, cloth 90c. 96 pp.

This is a clear and sympathetic presentation of the essentials of a Christian life. It answers the question so often asked by young people, "What is it, to become a Christian?" It is the relation of the feelings and thoughts and experiences of one who was led to ask himself this question, and who found the answer, which came with a transforming power into his heart and life. The book gives personal testimony, in a telling way, and it will surely help many a struggling soul to find the light and rest and satisfaction that is afforded by a life that is "hid with God, in Christ Jesus."

THE BUSINESS MAN'S ENGLISH. By Bartholomew and Hurlbut. 340 pages. The Macmillan Company.

One of the best books that has been published on practical English. While the book is designed primarily for use in Commercial courses and schools, it will prove valuable to teachers of English in Junior High Schools, evening schools, extension courses in Practical English, and wherever the aim of the English instructor includes more than the purely literary type of English.

Books acknowledged as received for review in EDUCATION:

Hudelson: English Composition Scale (paper covers). Price 60 cts. World Book Company.

Sandwick: Junior High School English (Books 1, 2 and 3). D. C. Heath & Company.

Robbins: The Socialized Recitation. Allyn and Bacon.

Smith and Hathaway: The Sky Line in English Literature. D. Appleton & Co.

Peers: A Phonetic Spanish Reader. Longmans, Green & Co. Paper, 80 cents.

Thackeray: Barry Lyndon. Edited by Charles Elbert Rhodes. Gregg's Living Literature Series. Price 88 cents.

Lincoln: Selected Writings. Edited by Albert Bushnell Hart. series. Price 75 cents.

Same

Lady Frazer: Asinette, a French Story for English Children. E. P. Dutton.

Merimee: Columba. Preface by D'Augustin Filon. E. P. Dutton. Rour: A First French Course., Macmillan.

Durell and Arnold: A Second Book in Algebra. Macmillan.

Griscom:

millan.

Americanization, A School Reader and Speaker. Mac

Willy Pogany: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy. Edited by Padraic Colum. Illustrated. Macmillan.

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NEW WORLD CONDITIONS

BRAZIL, for instance, no longer furnishes any large

part of our crude rubber supply. It now comes mainly from the Orient. Rapid political and economic changes have modified the industry and commerce of many peoples. The World War altered old boundaries, brought out obscure peoples, and created new states. These new world conditions are masterfully presented in the

McMurry and Parkins

GEOGRAPHIES

ELEMENTARY

ADVANCED

PUBLISHED AUGUST, 1921

THES
HESE two books differ fundamentally in content

and diction, showing a careful gradation of
material. The authors take full advantage of recent
advances in the science of teaching and the more
rational attitude towards the study of geography.
McMurry and Parkins have developed the human in-
terest in geography, provided practical regional treat-
ment, and worked out an organization for modern
teaching methods.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

New York
Atlanta

Chicago
Dallas

San Francisco
Boston

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EDUCATION

Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature

VOL. XLII.

of Education

OCTOBER, 1921

Loss and Gain in Education

No. 2

PROFESSOR JOSEPH V. COLLINS, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, STEVENS POINT, WISCONSIN.

200URING the past fifty years elementary education

D

has been transformed from a training in the three R's to a university curriculum,-in miniature. Tol be specific, a half a century ago the elementary course of study consisted of Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Spelling, Grammar, Geography, and History. To these branches the New Education has added the following: Physical Georgraphy, Physiology and Hygiene, Civics, Gymnastics, Music, Drawing, Literature with Mythology and Folk-lore, Nature Study, Manual Training and Home Economics, Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Athletics, Algebra, Geometry, Bookkeeping, Elementary Science, etc., etc. Thus, the educational tree of knowledge has increased the number of its branches from seven to considerably over twenty. Plainly the course has been "enriched," but, one may ask, at what cost. Has not the time come to balance the enrichment credit over against the impoverishment debit resulting from extensive interfering with intensive cultivation of the mind, and to see if there is not some golden mean that will give a maximum of efficiency. Ex-President Eliot in an article in the Nation's Business proposes for one thing that the work be better organized and that

all these studies be consolidated into a much smaller number of lines of development. Thus, he says, Teach Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Geology together every week throughout the twelve years; teach Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry together. Evidently Dr. Eliot does not believe that the ship of education should carry its mental pabulum cargo in some twenty watertight compartments from each of which the pupil passengers are to be fed separate meals. The truth is this education of ours, while appar ently broad, is really lopsided, superficial, unscientific, and imper fect to a degree.

Why is it that graduates of our High Schools in great numbers, and even graduates of colleges and universities, to say nothing of those who come out of the elementary schools, can not be depended on to use our irregular verbs correctly, always to make their nouns and verbs agree in person and number, to know always when to use the nominative and objective cases, to avoid the use of adjectives for adverbs and adverbs for adjectives, and two subjects for the same predicate! The answer seems to be that so much time was needed for "language" that none was left for these essentials; or was it because these essentials were taught "incidentally." An) educated man's first and most dependable test for a stranger's intelligence is his use of his mother tongue. Query: Should men' continue to use this test? It was said about a certain eminent statesman that he knew something about everything, but everything about nothing. That would not be a bad characterization of the product of the present day education.

Why is it that thoughtful business men often cry out for a return to the three R's? Absurd as this plaint is, there should be some explanation for it. It must be admitted: that thorough drill in the old grammar laid a good foundation for the correct use of English; that a long training in arithmetic laid a foundation for mathematics, with all its ramifications in science, mechanic arts, economics, business, and the ordinary affairs of life; that even the old geography, with its bounding of states and countries, its memorizing of capitals, chief cities, rivers, and mountains, and its data about commerce, furnished a world map image helpful

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