ACROSS the street from the Audi

torium, in which the meetings of the Department of Superintendence will be held, is the greatest of all the Government office buildings, that of the Interior Department. The hospitality of that building is cordially offered by the Secre

of the Department of Superintendence. Demonstrations of methods of training deaf children will be made there by teachers of Columbia Institute for the Deaf, which is officially connected with the Department of the Interior; and a clinic of the causes of school failures will be conducted on Wednesday afternoon at St. Elizabeths Hospital, another branch of the department. The cafeteria on the seventh floor of the Interior Department Building, intended primarily for the employees of the department, will be at the service of visitors during convention week.

In short, every effort within the power of the Interior Department and its several bureaus will be made to contribute to the comfort and pleasure of visitors to the meetings, and they are cordially invited to avail themselves of its facilities and to become acquainted with the services which the Department of the Interior is rendering.

Such

own homes here and, in general, their families are with them, and their children attend school here. Washington becomes to them their second home. is the interest which they show in the welfare of the city that the committees on the District of Columbia are often called "the city council of Washington." A distinguished Senator of a few years ago was so active in his duties as chairman of the District Committee that he was affectionately called "the father of the District of Columbia." The favorable attitude in Congress toward education in the District can not be gainsaid, even though complaints do occur. No city is free from them.

So much for the feeling among the lawmakers themselves. For the rest, on every proper occasion the opinions of Washingtonians are asked when measures affecting their interests are under consideration. "Citizens' associations" are numerous in Washington and nearly every one of them has a committee on educa

visiting school officers and teachers during the entire week beginning February 22.

A "lounge" and information desk will be found near the entrance at the corner

of Nineteenth and F Streets, and during convenient hours guides will be provided to direct inquirers to the points of interest in the building. An exhibit will be assembled in the front corridor to demonstrate the educational aspects of the service of the Interior Department, which in effect constitute what Secretary Work terms a "Federal University" for the people. On the sixth floor will be an exhibit of schoolbuilding plans which were contributed by city and county school superintendents. University extension departments, advertising material used in school bond campaigns, and administrative organization of city school systems will also be illustrated.

The Geological Survey will show in its

laboratories the process of map printing

in all its details, and, in connection with it, an all-metal automatic prismatic camera of extraordinary proportions and construction. The National Park Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs will present special exhibits in their own offices. The rooms occupied by the Bureau of Education are on the sixth, fourth, and third floors and a special welcome is promised to those who visit them. The roof of the building offers a superb view of the city, the river, and the surrounding hills which may well serve as an introduction to Washington as early as possible after registration at the Auditorium.

National parks and other activities of the department will be illustrated by motion pictures shown in the auditorium of the Interior Department Building every day at the noon hour between the sessions

AF

Prospect

PPROPRIATELY this issue of SCHOOL LIFE emphasizes the school system of Washington, soon to be host to the convention of the Department of Superintendence. For those who attend the convention the articles will lead to a better understanding of the schools which they will undoubtedly wish to visit; for others, the characteristics of an American city-school system of unusual structure are worthy of study on their own account and in comparison with others.

Whatever weaknesses the Washington schools have had in the past or may have now, the will to improve is not to be mistaken. "The model schools of the land" is the ideal that is before the school officers of the city, and in their aspirations they have the cordial support of those who hold the purse strings-the committees of

the Congress of the United States. Con

vincing evidence of that support appears in the recent legislation upon teachers' salaries and in the enactment of a com

prehensive building program involving the expenditure of $20,000,000 in five years. If at the end of that time "the best schools to be found in America" are not in the District of Columbia it is certain that schoolmen of other localities must bestir themselves in the meantime to avoid being surpassed.

On the face of things, residents of the District of Columbia are without voice in their own Government. This is true in form only. In practice it is doubtful if in any other city of the country the sentiment of the people is more intelligently sought.

Senators and Congressmen are themselves residents of the District of Columbia nearly half the time. Many of them

schools in its own section of the city. These committees make their influence felt with the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, with the Bureau of the Budget, and with the committees of the Congress. Such associations are typical of many other organizations whose representations are heard with respect.

The disadvantages under which Washingtonians labor as Washingtonians are largely matters of sentiment; the advantages are practical and apparent. This applies to education as well as to other concerns. It would be well for our

visitors to inspect the schools in February, 1926, and again in February, 1930; then note whether there is a difference.

Let Every Agency for Research

Make Contribution

EDUCATION has evolved so far to

ward a science that stubborn facts rather than recognized expert opinion are generally demanded as a basis for adapting school procedures and policies. Not only are facts demanded, but the tool devised by the educational expert, which is research, through which facts are laid bare, is no longer a mystic tool of the educational medicine man. Many teachers and administrators have learned the use of this tool in sufficient degree of skill that they are able to perceive faulty use of the tool and to check the findings they are asked to accept.

The method of science applied to education and the general distribution throughout the profession of ability to apply the method has completely routed any possibility of domination of education from above, if any such possibility ever existed in the United States. Evidences

are abundant that research in education

studying the problems which face it. Each State has one or more associations of teachers or school officials, and many of these are conducting researches affecting their own problems. Many regional

and national associations have likewise entered the field of research. Numerous local school systems have established research bureaus as a means of continuous study of problems affecting the system. Many other local systems have organized the school staff into special research committees through which a variety of problems are studied. From all these sources as well as from schools of educa

tion a continuous stream of data is made available which has definitely become the basis of educational progress.

This situation is to most educators an exceedingly encouraging indication that education in the United States can be trusted to meet the continuous needs for adjustment imposed by a rapidly changing social order, and that no policy inimical to sane and proper social evolution can hope to gain any considerable headway. It is a situation that on the side of personnel is calling into cooperation the classroom teacher, the supervisor, the administrator, the professor of education, and the professional research worker in a joint attack upon problems that exist.

On the side of agency, local, State, regional, and national associations of teachers and administrators, standardizing agencies, schools of education, private foundations, social welfare agencies, and the Federal Government are each contributing individually and sometimes jointly to the sum total of effort. Out of this welter of effort is emerging a peculiarly American philosophy and policy of education. It is a splendid example of a democracy working out its own destiny. Let the movement spread yet further, involving every individual member of the profession and every agency that can make a contribution.

Bureau of Education to Receive Portraits

Portraits of two former commissioners of education, Dr. William Torrey Harris and Dr. Philander Priestley Claxton, will be presented to the Bureau of Education on Thursday, February 25, at 2.15 p. m., in the auditorium of the Interior Department.

The portrait of Doctor Harris was painted by Hall in 1909, and is the gift of the Harris family. It is probable that no member of the family can be present, and that the presentation will be made by Dr. A. E. Winship in their behalf. The National Congress of Parents and

E

LIMINATION of waste and increase in efficiency in the expenditure of the Nation's $2,000,000,000 annual bill for public education is to be the keynote of the work of the National Commission on Economy and Efficiency of the Business Administration of School Systems. The commission has been appointed by the joint action of Secretary of Commerce Hoover, Secretary of the Interior Work, and Dr. Frank W. Ballou, president of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association.

It is the unanimous opinion of the members of the commission that although the American people have faith in the public schools the cost has become so great that approval of continued rapid expansion along present lines is by no means unanimous. There is an insistent demand for good business management in the administration of all school systems.

The first subject which will be considered by the commission will be a comparison of methods of school administration with the practices in large industrial and commercial establishments. By this comparison the commission hopes to point out economies which might be effected without depreciation of the quality of the instruction given. Such economies should result in making additional funds available for the expansion of the school plans without adding to the burden of the taxpayer.

The annual cost of public education has nearly doubled during the past five years and is almost four times as great as it was

in 1915. Some of this increase, but by no means all of it, can be explained by the loss in the value of the dollar and by the rapid growth in school attendance. Some of it has certainly been due to a growing insistence on the part of the public for more and better schools, modern equipment, greater play facilities, increased extra-curricular activities, better pay for teachers in order to obtain better teachers, an expansion of health conservation facilities such as dental and medical clinics, and other demands which indicate a belief in the public school as an institution essential to the progress of the Nation.

The commission has elected Doctor Ballou as its permanent president and has accepted the invitation of Secretary Work to establish its headquarters in the building of the Department of the Interior. The other members are: Dr. John J. Tigert, Commissioner of the Bureau of Education, and Dr. Thomas E. Finegan, former State superintendent of education of Pennsylvania, designated by Secretary Work of the Interior Department; Elliot H. Goodwin, resident vice president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, and Ernest Greenwood, vice president of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia, designated by Secretary Hoover of the Department of Commerce; Prof. George D. Strayer, of Columbia University, and John H. Beveridge, superintendent of schools at Omaha, designated by Doctor Ballou to represent the Department of Superintendence, National Education Association.

It is expected that the reception will begin at 3.30 p. m.

Creation of a junior college as a part of the public school system of Washington, D. C., is contemplated in a joint resolution recently introduced in the Senate of the United States. A similar resolution was introduced simultaneously in the House of Representatives.

A bonus of $5 is given to each teacher in the public schools of Rochester, Minn.,. as an expense aid in attending education conventions of the State or division. Attendance of all teachers is required unless excused by the superintendent.

M

ORE than 12,000 pupils, or approximately 17 per cent of the entire school population of the District of Columbia, are enrolled in schools of the secondary grade. Washington is, to a marked degree, a high-school city. The impetus of social approval and expectation is that a pupil shall consider a high-school education as a necessary equipment for lite.

Of the pupils completing the eighth grade and certified for the high school nearly 95 per cent enter upon a highschool course. Of those who graduate from the high schools more than 80 per cent go on to further education either in colleges and universities or schools for special preparation for the occupations

of life.

The senior high schools of Washington offer, in their various forms, general academic training, training in the manual arts, and commercial training. The several schools may be described as follows: McKinley and Armstrong High Schools, manual training; Business High School, commercial; Dunbar High School, academic and commercial; Western High School, academic, with courses in commercial subjects; Central and Eastern High Schools, academic, with courses in commercial and manual training subjects.

In academic training the courses are intended to give a general education within the scope of the secondary school and to fit for college entrance. The manual arts courses are designed to prepare for admission to engineering and other technical colleges, as well as to equip the graduate for technical work in the outside world at once. The commercial courses preeminently fit the student for entrance into the business world, at the same time furnishing full preparation for admission to higher institutions in commercial training.

The commercial courses of the Eastern High School and the Dunbar High School lead, respectively, to a certificate upon completion of a two-year course and a diploma upon completion of a four-year course. The Business High School, which offers only commercial subjects, has the distinction of being the first public business high school to be established in the United States. It offers both two-year

and four-year courses. In all the commercial courses emphasis is placed on English, shorthand, accounting, and bookkeeping.

A school activity of great service which has developed from the commercial courses is the high-school bank. The first school bank in the District of Columbia was started in the Business High School in 1911. This was followed in 1913 by the Eastern High School bank, and since that time banks have been established in Central, McKinley, Dunbar, and Armstrong High Schools. These banks are under the general supervision of the head of the department of business actual banks, they have the regular practice. Organized on the model of

officials of such institutions.

McKinley and Armstrong High Schools offer full technical training in the manual or practical arts. In the latter school a few business courses are given also. These technical schools are not trade or vocational schools, but high schools in which shop and drawing courses are emphasized. The work is of such character, however, as to permit its serving as prevocational or vocational training in certain instances. The primary object of the courses in manual arts is to give an insight into the fundamental processes underlying the basic trades and

dexterity is developed in the various shop laboratories, this is of secondary importance.

In all of the high schools throughout the entire system special attention is given to citizenship training. Availing themselves of the opportunity in Washington, the schools study government firsthand. The splendid cadet corps affords excellent training in organization and discipline among the students. An organization of four regiments, three in the white schools and one in the colored schools, is maintained. Military instructors are detailed to the schools from the Regular Army. For more than 40 years a voluntary military training system closely articulated with the scholastic work of the schools has formed one of the most profitable of the extra curricular activities of our high schools.

Oakland Teachers Preparing for

Instruction by Radio

Lessons in the technique of radio sending and receiving were given this fall to 20 teachers of Oakland, Calif., selected to give classroom instruction by radio. The class was under the direction of the assistant director of the bureau of curriculum development, research, and guidance of the Oakland public schools. Details considered in connection with radiolesson preparation were how to talk before a microphone and how to give lessons to 10 different schools tuned in, followed by a sketch of the school work outlined for the first semester. It is believed that the lessons by radio will not only benefit the children, but will convey valuable ideas to teachers in the preparation of their own lessons.

to the manufacturing industries.

schools intensive work may be taken during one or more of the three remaining semesters. Of the seven senior high schools, one white and one colored are technical schools whose pupils are required to take at least three years of manual arts. In two of the other schools manual arts courses may be elected for one or more years. In the city normal schools the students are prepared to teach the handwork of the grades below the sixth. This lower grade work is undergoing reorganization which will become effective upon the conclusion of experimental work in a number of selected schools.

One elementary school is organized somewhat on the prevocational plan. Certain elements of the classroom work are covered in less than the regular time by intensive work, and thus it is possible to increase the time assigned to shopwork to about two-fifths of the total. Three vocational schools offer trade preparatory courses, one each for colored boys and girls, one for white boys. The technical high school for colored pupils offers what amounts to trade preparatory courses in certain of its shop subjects.

plants, and many small ones make this trade most important. The building trades and allied lines also provide a wide field. Hence, instruction related to these

In the elementary schools, in the prescribed courses in the junior high schools, and in the senior high schools, the objectives are general. In the junior high schools especially, the aims are (a) to test the boy's mechanical aptitude in a way which will be worth his while, (b) to give him sufficient experience to help him and his advisers in guiding him, and (c) to lay a foundation in knowledge and skill upon which to base further work if he elects it either in school or outside in the trade.

In the vocational classes the aim is to make the work trade preparatory. It is intended that the boy graduating from this course shall enter an advanced apprenticeship and shall be an asset to his employer from the beginning, rather than a liability.

National as well as local associations of both employers and employed, through their committees, have cooperated in a broad, progressive way with advice and counsel, and have placed at our disposal courses of study embodying the results of their knowledge and experience relating to trade conditions, as shown by nation-wide surveys.

The Federal Board for Vocational Education has also evidenced a most encouraging and helpful interest in our efforts to determine the right kind of vocational courses. Our courses are not narrow but include related drawing, English, mathematics, science, safety and hygiene, industrial history and geography, and civics. The first semester of the two-year course is divided into three periods and the boy is given the opportunity to try out different kinds of work before making final choice.

Negro Education in America

Pupils Pass from Kindergarten Through University in Excellently Equipped Schools. All Units Well Organized. Schools Have Colored Personnel up to Superintendent. Share Proportionately in Congressional Appropriations

TH

By GARNET C. WILKINSON
First Assistant Superintendent in Charge of Colored Schools

HE CITY of Washington, because of its location and special advantages in respect to educational equipment, is easily the foremost center of negro education. Nowhere in the country where there is a dual system are educational opportunities so well integrated that a colored pupil may pass from the kindergarten through the university without suffering special disadvantages because of either the absence or the poor equipment of some unit, or both. In Washington one finds publicschool facilities for education through the senior high and the normal schools. For education beyond the high and normal schools is Howard University which offers college and professional work.

There are 36 grade schools having enrolled 18,115 pupils. These grade schools provide instruction from the kindergarten through the eighth grade. There are two junior high schools with an enrollment of 1,233 pupils. These junior high schools have differentiated curricula which include several industrial phases. The five-year building program provides for six additional junior high schools which will be located according to the distribution of the colored population of the city. There are two senior

high schools, Dunbar and Armstrong. Dunbar has an enrollment of 1,726 pupils and has dominantly a classical course which among other things prepares for entrance to college and normal school. Armstrong has an enrollment of 1,086 pupils. It is a technical high school of the cosmopolitan type, and prepares pupils for the technical vocations as well as for entrance to college and normal school. The five-year building program includes provision for a business high school which is very much needed among the colored population. There are two vocational schools, the Washington Vocational School having an enrollment of 217, and the Phelps Vocational School These having an enrollment of 191. schools are filling a long-felt need of the community.

The public-school system of Washington provides eight night schools, of which five are of the grade level and two of the high-school level. One school offers special opportunities in vocational work. The current enrollment of these night schools is 2,543.

The Miner Normal School has an enrollment of 447 pupils. It offers preparation for teachers of kindergarten, primary grades, home economics, manual arts, industrial and fine arts, and physical

Miner Normal School is one of the best organized schools for colored people

the best organized and supported normal schools for colored people in the country.

Howard University is an institution supported very largely by congressional appropriations. It has enrollments as follows: College of liberal arts, 912; applied science, 88; school of education, 372; school of music, 59; school of law, 88; school of medicine, 226; school of dentistry, 141; school of pharmacy, 72; The university school of religion, 142. is just completing a fine new structure which is to be used for a gymnasium and has projected for early construction a new medical building.

White and colored schools in the city of Washington have parallel organizations and supervision. Both systems share proportionately in the appropriations from Congress. The colored schools of Washington constitute the only autonomous large city school system in the country having a colored personnel up to the superintendent of instruction. The colored citizens of Washington are especially fortunate in having at their disposal the library of the Bureau of Education, the Carnegie Library, the Library of Congress, and various scientific libraries in the Government departments, together with various art and scientific museums, all of which are open to all of the citizens of Washington alike.

This very inadequate survey of the situation, it would seem, amply bears out the statement that the city of Washington is the outstanding center of negro education in America.

Delaware Methods of Americaniza

tion are Successful

At "American House," headquarters of the Delaware department of immigrant education, teachers are on duty all day to give instruction at any time to Americanization pupils. A "steamer" class is conducted for newly arrived immigrant children, who are transferred, when sufficient English is acquired, to regular schools.

Americanization classes culminate in the Caesar Rodney Citizenship School for the preparation of advanced candidates for naturalization. A series of 90 lessons has been prepared, and classes are organized when warranted by the number of petitioners for citizenship papers. Dignified ceremonies, held in the evening and attended by the wives of successful candidates for naturalization, mark the administration of the oath. An address is made by the judge, followed by an informal reception.