THE

HE FACULTY has continued the discussion of the curriculum and has agreed on certain general principles to govern a proposed new set of requirements. The desire for a change has arisen partly from a widespread feeling that it is no longer possible to prescribe for all students specific subjects and courses. Just as we decided some years ago that no one of the laboratory sciences could be said to be more valuable than the others for all of the students, and gave them a free choice among these sciences, so the faculty has come to feel that in other fields also it is almost impossible to say that one given subject is, for all students, more valuable than another to say, for example, as we do now, that economics is more valuable than government. Besides this fairly definite objection to our present curriculum there has been also a realization that the requirements as they now exist are a patchwork of accretions and amendments which have become unduly complex and without unity of purpose. The faculty has thought it might be well to sweep away all the existing requirements and start afresh with a reasoned and unified plan.

Only Fundamental Studies are Prescribed

The first of the principles that has been laid down for the proposed new curriculum is that no specific courses or subjects shall be prescribed, beyond those needed to give a student certain fundamental tools useful for successful work in any field. These tools are a command of written and spoken English, the ability to read at sight with ease at least one foreign language, a healthy body, and a knowledge of hygiene. To give these, the following courses are to be prescribed, except for students who can demonstrate that they

have no need of them: A freshman course in English composition, a freshman course in spoken English, primarily for remedying defects of the voice, lectures on personal hygiene for freshmen, and lectures on human biology for upper classmen. All students are also to be required to take, during their four years, appropriate phys

cal exercise.

The faculty believes also that each student should be required to concentrate her work sufficiently to gain a fairly thor

From Annual Report, 1925.

to the contrary, be required to take at least one course in each of the three groups. Upon the nature of these introductory courses the success of the new

curriculum will largely depend.

work well or not will depend also, of

Whether the new requirements will

course, upon the care and efficiency of the administration of them, and particularly on the thoroughness with which the various departments guide and instruct their major students. If properly administered, the new plan will really amount almost to the prescription of a curriculum for each student individually, rather than the prescription of a curriculum for the college as a whole. It will certainly enable us to adapt the courses in a more elastic way to the abilities and the requirements of each student. It should also make the freshman year a much more stimulating one than it has been in the past, giving glimpses into fields of thought not treated in the secondary schools. Ù

ough knowledge of one subject. It purposes, therefore, to require every candidate for the degree to take a major subject of at least 28 points, carefully planned and supervised by the department in charge. A student shall not be required to choose this major subject before the end of the sophomore year, though she may choose it earlier. For each student majoring in its field the department shall prescribe such of its courses as may be necessary to give her a sound knowledge of the fundamental material of the subject and a fairly broad view of it. It shall also recommend to her such courses in other departments as may be essential to a sound knowledge Boys of Tulsa Must Study Home of the major.

Insight into Three Main Divisions of
Thought

In order to avoid too much concentration and specialization the faculty feels that each student should be required to distribute her work sufficiently to gain some insight into the other main divisions of human thought. It plans to require, therefore, that each student shall take at least 14 points of work in each of the three following groups or fields: Languages, literatures, and other fine arts; mathematics and natural sciences; and social sciences.

Crafts

"Home crafts for boys" is a required subject for all boys in the junior high school of Tulsa, Okla. The course includes nutrition, food preparation, duties of a host, child care, textiles and clothing, interior decoration, budgets, worthy home membership and home appreciation, community interests, city planning and improvements, music appreciation, and religious expression in the home.

Lessons of one hour each alternate with the physical training hour; that is, three lessons are given one week and two lessons the next week. The home crafts course, however, is under the direction of the department of home economics. Highschool boys study home economics in 61 cities in 31 different States, and in many other cities specific courses in home economics are offered to boys; but Tulsa appears to be the first city to make a year's course in home economics an essential to high-school graduation

Feeling that a knowledge of at least one foreign language is an extremely valuable tool and source of training, the faculty plans also to require every student before being registered as a senior to show that she is able to read at sight with ease either French, German, Greek, or Latin. In special cases the student may be allowed to substitute Italian or Spanish. Feeling also that some knowledge of the scientific laboratory method is valuable, the faculty plans to require that at least 8 of the 14 Many Short Courses for General

points in the field of mathematics and natural sciences be taken in a laboratory science.

Having laid down these general principles and a certain number of specific requirements, the faculty will continue in the autumn to discuss the proposed new curriculum in detail. It is especially necessary for it to consider the first-year courses in the various groups which may be specially suitable for freshmen, and to determine the sequence of courses in various groups. Every freshman will normally, unless there is some good reason

Culture

Stories of personal experiences in foreign lands, obtained from pupils and their parents, enabled a Los Angeles teacher of a school where 12 nationalities were represented, to get a point of contact in dealing with a group of over-age retarded children whose parents had recently come to this country. Home interest was aroused and a valuable collection of foreign customs and experiences obtained which were made the basis of study in many subjects, especially in English and history.

Practical Efforts That Promise

Complete Success

A thoroughgoing campaign for the eradication of illiteracy is under way in Oklahoma, following the national slogan, "No illiteracy in 1930." The Federal census of 1920 showed that 56,864 men and women in the State could not sign their own names, much less read or write. Seven hundred and fifty teachers have donated their services, and 481 schools in 39 counties have organized for an intensive campaign from November 2 to December 11. The plan is for 18 sessions of night school, 2 hours a night, 3 nights a week, for 6 weeks. Experience has proved that under this plan adult illiterates of ordinary intelligence can learn to spell from 300 to 400 words, read through at least one primer, and write with more or less fluency, as well as to add, subtract, and multiply. Although the teachers have expressed their willingness to serve without pay, the American Legion, parent-teacher associations, Masonic and other organizations, and interested individuals, taking as their slogan, "Say it with checks," are contributing to a fund

to remunerate each teacher to the extent of at least a dollar an hour for this work, or $36 for the entire period. Students in State teachers colleges may acquire

two semester hours of credit for work during this campaign in teaching illiterates. Churches and Sunday schools have also been appealed to, and in some places adult illiterates will be taught through the medium of Bible-story readers. Teachers in some counties have persuaded adult illiterates in their communities to enroll as regular students in day school classes.

Evening Schools for Hard-of-Hearing Adults

Lip-reading instruction was given to 20 men and women last session in an evening class for hard-of-hearing adults at public school No. 1, Baltimore, Md. The training in concentration, accuracy and quickness of mind and eye proved so helpful to the members that at the end of the term they decided to meet once a month during the summer for practice. The class will continue this year as a unit in the evening school, and a new class for deafened adults will be formed. The Baltimore school system makes provision for totally deaf children also.

M

Construction of new schools and libraries absorbed 5 per cent of all the money spent for new buildings in the United States during 1923.

70591°-257- -2

Head Teachers in Convention Urge Reforms in British Schools

Would Extend Compulsory Education Scheme, Improve Schoolhouses, Make Secondary Education Free, Provide Playgrounds, and Regulate School Attendance. Demand Careful Supervision of Cinema Programs Intended for Children

P

are

By FRED TAIT

Chairman Higher Education Committee, Gateshead, England

RESENT TENDENCIES in British education are indicated in the comprehensive resolutions passed at the annual conference of the National Association of Head Teachers recently held. It was asserted that thousands of boys and girls leaving British elementary schools at the term end, and, unable to find work, are roaming the streets, rapidly deteriorating. These children do not come under any compulsory educational scheme. The head teachers are voicing a considerable opinion in the country, when they demand that the school leaving age should be raised to 15 years from 14, with an option of 16, and that wherever possible in our elementary (primary) schools, a four-years' course for children of 11 plus should be organized, similar to our secondary schools. Such reorganization should be accompanied by maintenance grants to needful cases.

Some school buildings in Britain are still deplorable, especially many of those known as nonprovided schools, which still Albelong to religious denominations. though more new schools are now being built than a year or two ago, the head teachers point out that it is necessary that the Government should increase the financial facilities to local education authorities for the building of new schools.

Recently many local education authorities have introduced a compulsory written examination into elementary schools for all children of 11 to 12, irrespective of their school standard or class, as a scholarship test for secondary schools. The head teachers condemn this as being a reversion to the system of individual examinations in vogue until the begin

ning of the century, and also because such

examinations result in the stereotyping

of the elementary school curriculum.

THE

The conference also demanded free secondary education, the provision of nursery schools for children under 5, with fully qualified teachers, playing fields for primary schools, and adequate time for physical training. School attendance throughout the country is not satisfactory and the conference urged the of cooperation education authorities, magistrates, medical officers, clergymen, and teachers in an attempt to improve it.

Another resolution pointed out that many of the films shown in the cinemas are unsuitable for children and urged that special inspectors should be appointed to supervise the cinema programs intended for children. Other resolutions demanded more suitable school furniture, the provision of facilities for school journeys in term time; the provision of adequate indoor lavatory accommodation in all departments (in this connection it is to be noted that the largest education authority in the country provides only two clean towels per day to each department, irrespective of size), the cooperation of the officers of children's courts (where juvenile offenders are tried) with the teachers; and the direct representation of head teachers on local education authorities.

Altogether the conference did useful work in bringing before the public the immediate practical reforms needed in British schools.

A scholarship fund of $7,215 is available to graduates of the Muskegon (Mich.) high school who need assistance in continuing their education. Three per

cent interest is charged on loans from the

fund, which was started with $30 by the

class of 1909.

HE PUBLIC SCHOOL is our most typical institution. Without regulation and without control from the Federal Government or other centralized authority, but emanating from the people themselves, we have evolved a system of education in 48 sovereign Commonwealths which is everywhere based upon the same principles, guided by the same educational policies, and devoted to the same ideals.

The faith of America is so deeply rooted in the public school that citizens of all races, nationalities, and creeds support it morally and materially, without prejudice, and without protest. They began with a meager stipend for its support and to-day they are taking over a billion and a half dollars out of their pockets for its annual support, or approximately $15 for each man, woman, and child in the land.-Jno. J. Tigert.

A New and Potent Force in Secondary Education

LARGELY because of its sudden devel

opment and the lack of time for gradual and orderly readjustment, secondary education in the United States presents problems which are greater in number and complexity than those of either of the other main divisions of public education. They would be enough and to spare if they were confined to the four years which formerly comprised secondary education; but, placed between the upper and the nether millstone, the secondary schools must support the one and uphold the other.

Intended originally to prepare boys for college, considerations of location, life purposes of students, and downright common sense have in recent years led the high schools to extend their courses until they have penetrated far into the domain of the colleges. To such an extent has this occurred that many university men are now accustomed to refer to the Freshman and Sophomore classes as "essentially secondary." Some of them are even inclined to wash their hands entirely of those classes.

Officers concerned with the direction of the high schools are accepting the situation so presented, and already about 30 junior colleges have been appended, as it were, to established high schools. Cali fornia led the other States in this movement, but similar institutions have been established in Illinois, Michigan, Minne

sota, Missouri, Texas, and elsewhere. Extension of this idea is to be expected, and it may be that within the coming decade or so every city of consequence will have its own junior college at least.

On the other hand, the recognized weaknesses of the upper grades of the elementary schools and the obvious defects of articulation have resulted in the probability of complete reorganization at the point of junction between elementary and secondary education. Junior high schools, to take over the work of the seventh and eighth elementary grades and the first high school year, are conceded to be the logical outcome, and their general incorporation into the public school system seems now to wait upon practical considerations only.

The prospect, therefore, is that the American secondary school, with its closely articulated extensions, will embrace not four but eight years. Whether this eventuality should occur or not, the one outstanding need is to know the reasons why. A thousand questions of finance, administration, pedagogy, and social need must be asked and answered, and the best qualified of the Nation's schoolmen should apply themselves to the task.

Many able men have written upon the problems of secondary education, but two investigations stand out prominently above all the rest because of their scope and character, namely, those of (1) the Committee of Ten on the Secondary School Studies, and (2) the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education. Both these bodies worked under the auspices of the National Education Association, and their reports were printed by the Bureau of Educationthat of the Committee of Ten in 1893, and those of the Commission on Reorganization from 1913 to 1922, inclusive.

Many organizations are now engaged in the study of secondary school problems, but none of them is working upon a program so definite and so comprehensive as those of the two bodies named. The palpable need is of that coordination which will lead to complete consideration of the entire field without waste of effort either by duplication or by undue attention to relatively unimportant topics. This need can be met only by conference and complete mutual understanding. That is the essential purpose of the National Committee on Research in Secondary Education which is described in detail upon another page by its chairman, Prof. J. B. Edmonson.

The possibilities of this committee, because of the strength of its members and the influence of the organizations which they represent, seem to be greater than those of any similar educational body now in the field.

R

Children's Book List Based on
Children's Preferences

EADING TASTES of 36,750 children

are set forth in a book entitled "The Winnetka Graded Book List" to be issued in December by the American Library Association. The book presents the results of a study made by the research department of the Winnetka (IN.) public schools, aided by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation.

The children who cooperated in the study were in 34 States and in schools of all types and grades. Each child reported the books which he had read during the past year with his judgment of each one. In all, about 100,000 "ballots" or reports were submitted by the 36,750 children, and half the ballots referred to 800 books. The other half were scattered over 8,500 books, no one of which was read by as many as 25 children. Each child who cooperated reported, inter alia, his age, sex, and grade in school; and his score in the Stanford Silent Reading Test was reported by his teacher.

It is promised that all these facts and their relations will be tabulated and analyzed in the coming book, and that the best of the children's comments will be presented.

Thirteen children's librarians who were named by the headquarters' staff of the American Library Association as unusually expert in judging children's literature rated the literary value of each of the 800 books which were reported by 25 or more children. The experts were agreed upon only 100 of the 800 books, and only 35 of the 100 were rated of unquestionable literary merit. A few books which were so rated by some of the experts were pronounced unworthy of consideration by others. Such is personal equation.

It is evident that Doctor Washburne, the Winnetka superintendent, and his associates and the American Library Association have collaborated to excellent effect, and the report of their investigation promises to be a production of unusual worth.

Will Allen Dromgoole was the Author

"The Bridge Builder," a poem whose origin was then unknown to us was printed in SCHOOL LIFE of September, 1924. A member of the President's Cabinet, probably Secretary Weeks, found it in a cheap magazine while he was traveling upon a railroad train, and was so impressed by it that he read it to his associates at the next Cabinet meeting.

The Secretary of the Interior, Dr. Hubert Work, obtained a copy of the poem and sent it to the editor of SCHOOL LIFE.

Before printing it an earnest effort was made to learn its source. It was

not found in the records of the Copyright Office, for it had not been copyrighted separately. Under these circumstances it was printed in SCHOOL LIFE without credit.

Since that time a number of other periodicals which we have seen printed it, also without credit. Recently, however, it appeared in the Arkansas School Journal with the name of Will Allen Dromgoole appended. Miss Dromgoole is literary editor of the Nashville (Tenn.) Banner, and for a number of years she

has been a prolific writer. We wrote to her inquiring under what circumstances "The Bridge Builder" was written and how it was published originally.

Her reply was worthy of the poem. She said:

My father and I were great chums, companions of the woods and the streams about my little summer cabin at Estill Springs in the Cumberland foothills. When he was 90 years of age, we were walking one day to the creek to look after our minnow traps. The path led through a bit of wood, and there before us stretched a freshly cleared pretty footpath. The stones were heaped to either side, and the path lay all clear and clean before us. Then my father said to me, “I made this path." I stood aghast.

At his age, I had scant hope of traveling that woodland with him another summer. In fact I felt pretty, sure he would never walk it again. I said to him"You did all this, when?" "Just finished it last even ing," said he, proudly. My heart hurt me. He had taken all that trouble to make a path he would probably never walk again. Then the thought came to me, “But I shall. My father made this path for me."

I wrote "Rare Old Chums," a book of a hundred pages, and into it I put the verses, but the little bridge, underneath which flows the stream in which we hid our traps seemed to me more forceful than a path for what I wanted to say, and so I chose the bridge at the foot of my hill where sings a lonely little stream.

The poem as we received it after its years of wandering differed from the original production both in the title and in its substance. It appeared in Rare Old

Chums in 1898 in this form:

BUILDING THE BRIDGE

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim:
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me to-day

A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."

S

|CHOOLS in Berlin were affected by the war and the difficult period of readjustment following it, just as all other departments of city life were affected, but the number of students

attending the higher institutions of learning seems not to have been greatly influenced.

The number of college (Hochschule) teachers in Berlin has increased by about 10 per cent since the war, but there has been no increase in the number of such institutions. Two universities have disappeared, the University of Strassburg and the Academy of Posen, and two new institutions have been founded, the University of Cologne and the University of Hamburg.

The material condition of the university professors now corresponds generally to their pre-war condition. They suffered considerably through the currency inflation and many lost their savings, but their predicament was in no way different from that of other salaried employees of the Government or of large business institutions. With the stabilization of the currency and the general return to normalcy, they have resumed their prewar status. The condition of the private university teachers (Privatdozenten), dependent upon fees paid by students and having no salary from the institutions with which they are connected, was considerably worse. Before the war they could live comfortably from the fees paid by the students. The inflation period decreased their earnings to the vanishing point and wiped away their savings. The Government came to their

assistance, however, and agreed to pay them 80 per cent of an instructor's salary.

The tuition fees have also reached the pre-war level, after having fallen off con

siderably during the inflation period. The cost of a semester at college averages 175 marks. Medical and natural science courses requiring the use of a laboratory call for a slightly higher fee.

There is little new either in the number or subject matter of lectures delivered, or in the method of presentation. The most noteworthy development is the interest and enthusiasm in athletics and sports. The general interest in association football and track work is considered one of the most hopeful signs of the younger generation.

The monthly cost of living for an American student in Berlin in moderate circumstances averages about 300 marks. Taking the college fees into consideration, a student should figure on spending about 4,000 marks for a year's study in Berlin.

German universities have no special club arrangements for foreign students, but there are several institutions ready to assist the American student in arranging a course of study in Berlin. First should be mentioned the Amerika Institut, nominally under the Prussian ministry of education. In addition there is the German institute for foreigners and the academic information office (Akademisches Auskunftsamt). These three institutions are available to the American student in Berlin, and are ready to give him advice and assistance.

Alaskans

Alaskan Eskimos will be employed by the Danish Government to instruct natives of Greenland in the care of reindeer. That Government is making an effort to establish the reindeer industry in Greenland, evidently prompted by the remarkable success of the herds in Alaska since their introduction in 1891 by the Interior Department, Bureau of Education. The application for permission to employ Alaskan natives was made through the Danish consulate in Seattle. Consent was willingly granted by the United States

the Government's educational and welfare work for the Alaskan natives. Arrangements as to salary, subsistence, transportation, and other details are being worked out. Contracts will cover a period of four years, and will provide for return to Alaska at the expiration of that time.

Average school attendance is 5 per cent higher in counties which employ full-time truant officers than in the counties which do not employ a county truant officer, according to a survey recently conducted in 101 counties in Illinois.

Education

TH

HE MOST far-reaching combination of educational organizations engaging in research in the field of secondary education yet set up in the United States has been effected through successful organization of the National Committee on Research in Secondary Education.

The following organizations have official representation on this committee:

United States Bureau of Education, National Education Association, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Society of College Teachers of Education, National Association of High School Inspectors and Supervisors, National Association of Collegiate Registrars, Educational Research Association, Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland.

Because of the nature of the work this committee is attempting to do general interest undoubtedly is felt in its program. For the information of the educational public there follows a copy of the constitution under which the committee is organized, a list of the committee personnel, and a summary of its present program of work.

Constitution

NAME

The National Committee on Research in Secondary Education.

PURPOSES

The purpose of this committee shall be:

1. To arouse those engaged in the field of secondary education to a consciousness of the need for research and to stimulate them to purposeful research activities in this field.

2. To initiate investigations bearing upon secondary school problems.

3. To advise and aid in investigations initiated by other agencies.

4. To coordinate research activities carried on by agencies interested in secondary education.

5. To act as a clearing house of information and results pertaining to research in secondary education.

ACTIVITIES

The following activities in the field of secondary education are among those most necessary for the successful accomplishment of these purposes:

Contemplated

By J. B. EDMONSON, Chairman Professor of Secondary Education, University of Michigan

1. To offer suggestions and outline desirable procedure for research.

2. To collect and file data valuable to those interested.

3. To propose problems for investigation.
4. To publish the results of investigations.

5. To furnish those interested with bibliographies and other information relative to completed and current studies.

6. To furnish clerical and statistical assistance for research enterprises.

7. To promote and hold conferences on secondary school problems.

8. To secure representation at important secondary school conferences.

MEMBERSHIP OF COMMITTEE

The National Committee on Research in Secondary Education shall consist of the following members: (a) A representative from each of the following regional and national organizations interested in research in secondary education: National Education Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Association of High School Inspectors and Supervisors, the National Association of College Teachers of Education, the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States, the Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools, the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, and such other similar organizations as may be invited by the national committee to name representatives. (b) The United States Commissioner of Education and such members of his staff as he shall designate. (c) Such members at large as are recommended by the executive committee and elected by the national committee. (d) The chairman of all special committees named by the national committee. The members at large shall be elected for terms of three years and shall be classified by the executive committee so that one-third shall be elected annually.

OFFICERS

There shall be a chairman, vice chairman, secretary, and executive committee. The secretary shall be selected from the representatives of the Bureau of Education. The executive committee shall consist of the chairman, vice chairman, and secretary of the national committee and the chairman of the special committees of the national committee. The officers shall be elected at the annual meeting of the national committee and shall serve for a term of one year.

DUTIES OF OFFICERS

The officers shall perform those duties usually involved in their respective positions. The secretary shall be expected to represent the national committee at the annual conventions of the organizations included in its membership. The national committee shall be responsible for the formulation of general policies and shall name such special committees as it may deem necessary, including a special committee on rural high schools and schools in centers of less than 2,500 population and a special committee on large high schools. The executive committee shall be responsible for formulating such plans as are necessary to carry out the general policies of the national committee.

MEETINGS

There shall be an annual meeting of the national committee at the time of the meeting of the department of superintendence. The time, place, and program shall be determined by the executive committee. Special meetings of the national committee may be called by the executive committee. The executive committee shall meet at the call of the chairman or on request of a majority of its members.

AMENDMENTS

This constitution may be amended at any regular meeting of the national committee, provided notice of the proposed amendment is sent to all members one month in advance. Amendments may be adopted by a majority vote of those present.

Personnel of the Committee

Organization representatives.-E. J. Ashbaugh, Educational Research Association; R. N. Dempster, National Association of Collegiate Registrars; J. B. Edmonson, North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools; Ralph E. Files, Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland; J. C. Hanna, National Association of Higher School Inspectors and Supervisors; A. J. Jones, National Society of College Teachers of Education; Bruce E. Millikin, Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools; J. K. Norton, National Education Association; W. R. Smithey, Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States; Jno. J. Tigert, United States Bureau of Education; Wm. A. Wetzel, National Association of Secondary School Principals; E. E. Windes, United States Bureau of Education.

Members at large.-W. B. Bliss, State Department of Education, Ohio; Thos. Briggs, Teachers College, Columbia University; George S. Counts, Yale University; J. B. Davis, Boston University; E N. Ferriss, Cornell University; James M. Glass, State Department of Public Instruction, Pennsylvania; Leonard V. Koos, University of Minnesota; W. C. Reavis, University of Chicago; Horace M. Rebok, California Society for the Study of Secondary Education; Joseph Roemer, University of Florida.

Officers.-J. B. Edmonson, chairman; W. R. Smithey, vice chairman; E. E. Windes, secretary.