Vol. LXXX.

A matter for our consideration more important than methods of study and of teaching is the best method of ventilation. There is a general impression that our elaborate ventilating plants, changing the air in a certain small number of minutes, furnishing, upon chemical proof, a pure room-full of air, are largely failures. We are commonly told by the promoters of this machinery that the fault is in the operation, not in the system, which is perfection itself. The engineer is to blame, or, in some cases, the teacher who opens the windows is the guilty

person.

Within the past year a new theory of the cause of the evil effects of stuffy rooms has been brought forward. This idea is presented in the October Popular Science Monthly in an article from which quotation is elsewhere made. In fact, however, the theory is not new, it is the old common-sense idea that gave way before the scientific measuring of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When these figures were placed before us in statistical tables with a liberal number of decimal places, we were ready to give up to the conclusion that too little oxygen or too much carbon dioxide was the cause of our colds and headaches.

Notice, however, the theory that the ill effects of close rooms come from still air and from over-warm air does not belittle the need of ventilation; it emphasizes that need; but we must have this ventilation in a way different from that in which we are now getting it. Thus is the old-fashioned teacher, who would have the windows open, regardless of orders from the board of education, justified. It is the cool, moving air, not the still, chemically pure air that we must have.

Whether or not the new idea proves to be correct, there is much evidence to the effect that our common systems of ventilating our houses are of little use, costly though they be; and the most of the machinery is probably doomed to lie in the scrap-heap along with the warships of ten years ago.

A university president traveling in Europe this summer sent back a message on the subject of the study of modern languages in American schools. His view, briefly put, is that, so far as practical use is concerned the prevailing method

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of study in our schools is of little value. does not need a university president to see this, although his advice may go further than that of the ordinary teacher.

There are two reasons, among others, why the American schools fail to teach conversational French and German as well as French and German schools teach conversational English. are a widespread body of English-speaking people remote from an area of foreign tongues. The immediate practical advantage of another language does not strike us; and our teachers, for a similar reason, cannot easily get their accents from Hanover and Paris.

Again we have put our schools under the intricate machinery of systems that are propped up by written examinations, and these examinations are naturally concerned for the most part with conjugations and translations. In one case of state-wide examinations a passage is given for oral reading with a view to getting at the ear-training of the pupils. But unless a dictograph or recording phonograph is sent around there will be little chance to test the tongue-training. Furthermore, such oral exercises must depend much on the ability and honesty of the teacher in charge, and it is not in accord with these examination systems to put much dependence on local integrity. Indeed, we are frequently told by the examination-lords that the pupils are put on the rack for the sake of testing the teacher.

In connection with the foregoing observations a little incident of the past summer is rather apt. At a pension in Paris two young ladies, college graduates, met for the first time. Each had studied French, presumably spending about the same time and energy on that part of their college work. Both were in France for the first time. One could understand the language readily, the other scarcely at all. "I don't see how you do it," said the one who couldn't do it; "we translated no end of French into English," she continued, "but it doesn't seem to help me at all." And the one who could speak French said, "We never translated.”

ulars as they appear in the newspapers the son of an English citizen was not let off with merely saluting the Stars and Stripes; he was further required to pledge his allegiance to the American flag. Two different verdicts issue from the press; one that the boy who will not pledge allegiance to the flag should quit the public schools and enter a private academy; while a larger number of commentators, arguing from the treatment they would like an American boy abroad to receive, think that no such pledge should be required of an alien. There is also another possible verdict, and that is that there is a woeful lack of tact over in that Jersey town.

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The education of a generation ago was a training of the mind that went on too regardless of physical development and health. Well and good, if the body could be served out of school, but, inside, the mental powers were the one concern. Those were the days when ambitious young men and women worked eighteen hours of the day, cooked their own meager food, and ate it with their eyes on a text-book; when pupils with contagious diseases came to school, and the only care for ventilation was to spell it without a doubling of the 1.

The recent meeting of the Hygiene Congress in Washington indicates the progress that has been made in the science of health. The attention of this gathering was given not so much to the discovery of new facts as to ways and means of teaching the masses that which is already known. The comment of the New York Post is:

What the Congress showed indubitably was this: that we now know enough about the cause and transmission of disease to cut the annual mortality in two, if the knowledge could be made available for general individual and community and national use. And "made available" here means simply hammered into the heads of the public and their officials.

By the simple expedient of teaching every mother a few elementary things about the care and protection of children, an annual saving of many thousand lives could be achieved. By giving hygienic teaching as to the methods by which infectious disease is spread, its proper place in education, more thousands could be rescued from needlessly early graves. By teaching every boy and girl how wrong methods of living lead to early old age and premature death, the span of the average man could be notably lengthened.

Another part of this question must not be lost sight of, and that is the money cost of the repeater. Every pupil who needlessly fails of promotion, and has to repeat the work of the year, costs the city $28.16, for which it receives no value. The city pays $28.16 for the first year the child spends in a grade and the same amount for each subsequent year.

This item from a current article on retardation is a specimen of the statistical errors that are widely and wildly quoted on the authority of "accurate, tabulated figures." This $28.16, reckoned, probably with accuracy, to the last

cent, is so comprehensible and exact that it carries a conviction of the most improbable generalities. For instance, in the city under consideration let there be a thousand unpromoted pupils and the removal of a decimal point according to infallible rule will lead us to give assent to the conclusion that $28,160 has thereby been wasted. But among the thousand was little Johnnie Green, who went over again with his grade work and in so doing got hold of the first real ideas that ever permeated his head,he and many others like him. The cost of repetition in the single instance is tabulated at $28.16, "for which the city received no value." However, had Johnnie gone on and floundered hopelessly in the next grade, the item of $28.16 would have all been counted to the good. Figures do lie.

The rural schools are much in evidence in print and speech. But something is needed beyond unanimous consent that the cause is worthy and the exigency is great. The college professor who recognizes the necessity of doing something for the rural schools is to be commended; but the instructor in a normal school who leaves her well-paid position to take charge of a country school is herself doing something. Dr. Myron T. Scudder tells about this missionary on another page. It is in this article that we have a comprehensive effort to examine the conditions in the rural schools and to supply a remedy for the defects. Dr. Scudder, knowing the situation from the bottom up, is just the man to say the final word in the case of the rural schools; and we believe that his articles: in The School Journal will receive the attention and recognition throughout the United States which their merits deserve.

AGAINST VOTES FOR WOMEN

London Teachers Take a Poll The Educational News, an Edinburgh publication, prints under date of October 4th an account of the action of the London teachers on the question of woman's suffrage. The women teachers of that city cannot certainly be accused of being disciples of the smashing Pankhurst. The account is best given in the language of the News.

Result of the Referendum

"The result of the referendum conducted by the London Teachers' Association on the question of women's suffrage is surprisingly decisive. The figures show, roughly, that only two thousand of the eighteen thousand members of the association are in favor of the subject being discussed by the organization. Considerably over twelve thousand members voted, which is a pretty considerable poll. Of those who voted practically five to one were against those who have been trying to commit the association to the suffrage. The result is very significant, and shows that the vast majority of women teachers do not want the teachers' organization to be bothered with this problem. Of course, both the men and women of the association had the right to vote, but as the women outnumber the men by considerably over two to one, it would have made little difference to the result if the women had been left to decide the question for themselves. The result is decisive enough to prevent the question from coming up at any future meetings, at all events for some years, and it also shows that at the meetings where it has been discussed the suffragists were present in larger proportion than their actual support among the rank and file warranted.

What the Vote Means

"We shall be told, of course, that the voting was not on the merits of the question itself, but on whether the association ought to lend its support to the propaganda. If that is any comfort to those who have been so badly beaten, they are at liberty to argue so to themselves, but the argument will not deceive anybody else. For years past the women suffragists at headquarters have been paying special attention to the teachers' organizations, which seemed to them to offer the most favorable ground for their propaganda. Here, they argued, are organizations in which women have the vote. The women are in a vast majority, and can carry anything they like. They are all educated women. They earn their own living, they pay rates and taxes, and surely of all classes in the community they are the one who will be most likely to resent the fact that an ignorant laborer has a vote while they are without. At every conference of the N. U. T. for several years the chief organizers of the militant women's organizations have attended, and have lately tried to get resolutions passed in favor of the vote. Failing with the conference last Easter, they

set to work to capture the London Teachers' Association. The result is a smashing blow for them, and will be quoted again and again in the forthcoming debates in the House of Commons on the subject."

MR. DOOLEY ON PEDAGUESE

According to a recent Dooley article that sagacious gentleman has been reveling in some of the language of pedagogy. Pedagogy isn't mentioned, but that is what it is. He remarks to Mr. Hennessy:

"Maybe ye'd like me to read ye something out iv this here fable in slang. Well, thin, listen to th' pro-fissor: 'Such habits not on'y tended to develop the motor cortex itsilf,' he

says, 'but thrained th' tactile an' th' kin-th' kin' I'll spell it f'r ye-k-i-n-a-e-s-t-h-e-t-i-cpronounce anny way ye plaze-'senses an' linked up their cortical areas in bonds iv more intimate assocyations with th' visyool cortex

"What kind iv a language is that?" Mr. Hennessy interrupted.

"It's scientific language," said Mr. Dooley. "I've been thryin' to wurruk it out mesilf with th' aid iv a ditch'nry, but I cuddent put it together till Dock O'Leary, who's great at these puzzle pitchers, come in. Fr'm what he said I guess that th' pro-fissor that wrote it meant to say that the raison man is better thin th' other animals is because iv what's in his head. I suspicted as much befure an' have often said so. But nobody has iver ast me to go before a larned society an' have me chest dhraped with medals f'r sayin' it. I cudden't fill up me time on th' program. All I cud say would be: 'Fellow pro-fissors, th' thing that give ye an' me a shade over th' squrl an' th' grasshopper is that we have more marrow in th' bean. Thankin' ye again f'r ye'er kind attintion, I will now lave ye while ye thranslate this almost onfathomable thought into a language that only a dhrug clerk can understand.'"

Commissioner Claxton desires to call attention to the opportunities offered by the Bureau of Education to students of education and to investigating committees for the purpose of examining into particular phases of education. Here students and the representatives of such committees and commissions may find at once and without cost other than that of coming to Washington practically all that is now in print in pamphlets, books, or magazines on any subject of education, including educational legisiation. The bureau will gladly give them such assistance as it can, and a room has been set apart for their use. In a few days or weeks information can be obtained here which these committees and commissions frequently spend months of time and hundreds of dollars in trying to collect by correspondence.

The great work of the public school is to raise the intelligence and efficiency of all the people, rather than have a few educated far above the many; our strength lies in the education of the masses rather than in that of the classes. Professor Hanus says: "The aim of education is to prepare for complete living. To live completely means to be as useful as possible and to be happy. By usefulness is meant service, i.e., any activity which promotes the material or the spiritual interests of mankind, one or both. To be happy one must enjoy both his work and his leisure."

In the small high school there are two ideals striving for leadership. This can be illustrated in the life of a young man who is on his tiptoes trying to see which path he shall choose. Shall he prepare himself for a profession or career that he may be able to carry on his father's work, or shall he make a short-cut for wealth? Will he continue his education and have his outlook broadened by all the experience of the past and by keeping in touch with the vast army of co-workers of the present, or will he shut his eyes to the vision of bettering labor conditions or promoting higher citizenship? He wishes to secure the booty of war rather than render the service of a loyal life. Shall the high school attract great numbers by offering only short courses? Shall it not accomplish more for the men and manhood of to-morrow by requiring the boy of to-day to secure "two kinds of education-one to fit him to work, the other to fit him to live."

If the whole boy should be sent to school, he should be met by the teacher and equipment that will develop all his powers. Ex-President Roosevelt, in one of his messages to Congress, said: "It should be one of your prime objects, as a nation, as far as possible, constantly to work toward putting the mechanic, the wageearner, who works with his hands, on a higher plane of efficiency and regard, so as to increase his effectiveness in the economical world, and the dignity, the remuneration, and the power of his position in the social world. Unfortunately, at present, the effect of some of the work in the public schools is in exactly the opposite direction. If boys and girls are trained merely in literary accomplishments to the total exclusion of industrial, manual, and technical training, the tendency is to unfit them for industrial work; and to make them reluctant to go into it, or unfitted to do well if they do go into it. This is a tendency which should be strenuously combatted. Our industrial development depends largely upon technical education, including in this term all industrial education from that

which fits a man to be a good mechanic, a good carpenter or blacksmith, to that which fits a man to do the greatest engineering feat.

"In international rivalry this country does not have to fear the competition of pauper labor as much as it has to fear the educated labor of specially trained competitors. The nations with pauper labor are not the formidable industrial competitors of this country. By the tariff and by our immigration laws we can always protect ourselves against the competition of pauper labor here at home; but when we contend for the markets of the world we can get no protection, and we shall then find that our most formidable competitors are the nations in which there is the most highly developed industrial skill, and these are the qualities which we must ourselves develop."

These are strenuous words from Harvard's favorite son. The great majority of our boys must support themselves early, and often contribute to the support of the family. High ideals of life should never be lowered, yet we must realize that a better living often enables one to live better. The man of great value to society is one who is both a thinker and a doer. No half-clothed, half-starved nation has done much for science, literature, art, or civilization; special training introduced too early would decide the life work before the pupils were sufficiently prepared to choose their vocation and might have a tendency to produce caste feeling. The high school course of study must have a basis of prescribed studies with many electives of a vocational nature. The need of change is not so much in the content of the course of study as in the spirit of the course of instruction. tion. Relate the school work to the pupil and his environment. Teach the child rather than promulgate a subject. The great need is that our present courses be so vitalized that the pupils will touch a live wire in every subject.

Modern conveniences in the home and community have lessened the errands and the responsibilities that were formerly shared by the children. These home duties were important factors in the early education of the child of yesterday. A man recently said to Dr. Gulick, "Why don't you have your boys saw wood for exercise?" He replied, "I can't afford to buy the wood." Conditions have changed and our schools must assume much that was formerly done in the home.

The three R's were sufficient in the days of the tallow candle; while these have lost none of their importance they alone would not meet the requirements in the day of the electric light. Professor Palmer, of Harvard, says: "A school

is primarily a plan of learning; it is unavoidably a social unit and it is incidentally a dependent fellowship." Not only does the school produce intelligent citizens and efficient workers but, if the cost of living is to be reduced, the school must produce efficient consumers. Booker T. Washington, through his school, has done much for his race and incidentally much for the world in emphasizing the necessity not only of earning an honest dollar but also of saving or wisely spending it. Injudicious buying results in much discontent. The monthly installment plan of furnishing our homes is not free from its disadvantages.

Two thousand years ago the Great Teacher asked the question, "Is not the body more than raiment?" If we judge the results through this interval of time, this question has been answered negatively or has been ignored. In some cities the affirmative answer is given to some phase of the question. Our buildings and schoolrooms should be concrete examples of the importance of good lighting, pure air, and proper temperature. The seats will fit the body, and the color and decorations of the walls will not injure the eyes of the children. The health of the individual pupil will be guarded. A wellequipped gymnasium in charge of an efficient physical director will do more to inculcate the need of regular, systematic exercise than all the chapters on hygiene in their text-books. Defective hearing has often been the cause of pupils being blamed for inattention or stupidity. Adenoids, enlarged tonsils, and incorrect posture often deprive the pupils of sufficient oxygen. Not only will the pupil of the up-to-date school take a physical examination upon his entrance, but his health and his progress in physical development will have just as prominent a place on the report card as any study in the curriculum. Failure to send home promptly pupils who have infectious diseases causes the loss of much instruction every year, and occasionally causes the spread of an epidemic that is fatal to many children. Mr. Best, of New York, supports the vacuum process of cleaning schoolrooms, and on the expense of keeping schools clean says: "A conservative estimate places the cost of preventable germ diseases in this country at one billion five hundred million dollars." He thinks that it is astonishing that there is such general indifference to plans to pursue and eradicate the offending germ.

The high school that fulfills its mission to the community will supply the social, as well as the intellectual, needs of not only the present, but also the future, citizens. The time approaches The time approaches when the high school will be open not only nine or ten months of the year but the entire twelve months and at night as well as during the day. Pupils whose homes are not suited for study should have access to the quiet study hall with its books of reference.

training of the child has been neglected, in some cases relegated to the school, and while the school is making earnest endeavors to develop the entire child, the home is, and must always be, a powerful factor in the education of the pupil. The responsibility of the home does not end when the pupil is washed, clothed, fed, and sent to school. The school has charge of the child five or six hours per day for about onehalf of the year. The good home should do as much for the pupil outside of the school as is done for him inside. Those things that are destructive of heart and intellect are usually learned after eight o'clock in the evening. tritious food at the proper time, sufficient clothing for all parts of the body, regular and enough hours of sleep in pure air will help the high school to realize its vision. Recreation becomes dissipation unless carefully guided and guarded by a wise parent.

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The school with stairways that are used only two or three times per day is often blamed for many cases of ill-health caused by socials, dances, etc. Often the child asks for bread and receives a stone. The adolescent with his square shoulders or with her winning smile too often gets a mother's permission to attend social affairs. It requires no little courage and character for her to say "No" when so many of his or her associates are permitted to go. Yet parents, not teachers, must bear the responsibility if sons and daughters form and join clubs and attend too many parties and social functions.

The high school can accomplish little unless two or three hours are devoted to study at home every evening. Time spent thus by the normal child will mean more to its physical, mental, and moral welfare than loafing-parents know not where. Increasing success comes only to him who can concentrate his thoughts upon his task and who can form correct judgments of his reading and observations.

In an incomplete, imperfect, and unsatisfactory vision of the high school of the future you see that it must have its ear to the ground to hear the wants of the community. At the same time the school must continually try to make the many wants and the real needs coincide; the masses must be educated more and more; the child, not the subject, must lead us through the wilderness to the promised land. Whether we will or not the school must assume many of the former duties of the home and church. As the child is being educated by the state and for the state, not only his intellectual but his physical, social, and moral life as well must be trained to his capacity and need; and he must be aroused to realize the full meaning of the visions that come to him, as honesty is learned through accuracy in mathematics, social service from history, cause and effect in science; as the beautiful is revealed in art; and as his emotions are stirred and his appreciation and inspiration kinIdled and fanned into a flame by his study of