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Although the deserts of Egypt and Arabia are suggested by the silence, the deceptive distances, and the unconquered sands, still one is not allowed to forget for any length of time that he is in New England.

Here are the stunted pines that remind one of other striving dwarfs near the tree line on Mount Washington, while along the sides of the roads grow in profusion the rabbit-foot clover, immortelle, cockleburr, seaside goldenrod and carpet weed, spreading its flat little mats. In one low, wet valley I suddenly came upon a large area of cat-tails, each plush-pointed spear as straight and well-developed as those of my boyhood's memory.

It was restful, after walking across a level of monotonous sand, to round the side of one of the many wind-built hills and come upon a wild cranberry bog.

The green, crisp plants nestled close to the ground, and the berries, bearing the first blush of maturity, looked like little translucent glass balls, so bright was their new bloom. What saucy, cheerful sprite teaches the cranberry its tart tactics in this forbidding region?

I picked a handful of the glistening fruit, but after it had traveled in my pocket awhile, the ethereal bloom degenerated to a common grocery-store gloss; so I ate it to quench my thirst.

I crossed a valley, wondering what. new shapes of sand would surprise me beyond the next hill. I stood upon its crest, and lo! the ancient ocean, blue, vast and unconquerable. A few sails shone in the high light of the September sun, and an ocean liner unfurled its slender flag of smoke on the horizon-a mote in the clear eye of the day.

Sand, sky and sea, and silence save for the deep note of a distant whistling buoy, and the musical beat of the surf tuned to the mighty rhythm of the sea's unfinished symphony.

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An Educational Pre-View

JAMES HUGH HARRIS, DIRECTOR OF GRAMMAR GRades,

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

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O one who is observant of the "signs of the times," educationally speaking, it is neither difficult nor dangerous to venture upon a forecast of at least some phases of public school education in the days to come. Whether these days to come" are near or remote may not be so easy to answer, but there is much to indicate that they are not so remote as many suspect. Indeed, here and there we see evidence that the "days to come" are days that have already come, and while these signs may be few and scattering, yet they are the delicate tracings of the "rosy-fingered Dawn," which surely heralds the approach of day. The principle of evolution is at work in education, as elsewhere; and slowly, even at times painfully, we are sloughing off this and that useless feature of our educational system, and substituting therefor the more socially serviceable factor. We are throwing our conventional scheme into the crucible of a keenly scientific criticism, and the chemical reactions that take place are not always such as our medieval conservative would expect. The educational literature of the day is alive with the new thought. Scarcely a week passes but some book is issued from the press which reveals the activity of men's minds upon this all-absorbing theme. Never before were the problems of education receiving the attention from the larger magazines that they have received in the past two or three years. Never before were so many scientific investigations being carried on in the field of education. Never before has the growth and development of the child been so much a subject of expert study.

EDUCATION A TECHNICAL MATTER

Naturally there are three aspects under which the problems of education are discussed-physical, mental and moral; and while these divisions are as old as the question of education

itself they have taken on new form and content under the inspiration of a new psychology and sociology, and a closer approximation to a real science of education. The day is rapidly passing, if it has not already passed, when one man's opinion on an educational question is as good as another's. The layman must venture with ever-increasing timidity into the arena of educational discussion.

DYNAMIC PHYSICAL EDUCATION

What, then, does the current trend of educational thought reveal to us of the future? In the first place let us note what the program appears to be with reference to physical education, under which we include all that pertains to the growth, development and hygiene of the human organism. Mens sana in sano corpore has been for centuries a slogan of education. It is no new thought that a sound and healthy body is an important adjunct, if not a vital essential, to a sound and vigorous mind. The trouble has been that the proposition was only a beautiful theory. It is only recently, under the stimulus of a new psychology and a new physiology, that the static ideal has become dynamic.

It is comparatively recently that the close and intimate dependence of mental activity upon physical activity has been placed upon a thoroughly scientific basis. The studies of physiological psychology have well-nigh revolutionized our conception of mind; and the view that mind is an ethereal abstraction, quite apart from any vital relation to the body, possessed of a certain number of "faculties," is rapidly moving into the limbo of discarded absurdities. But what has physical education to do with all this? Just this—that inasmuch as mind has a physical setting in the brain of man, and inasmuch as this brain is dependent for its strength, virility and activity upon the strength and vigor of the body, we must, if we would develop the mind to its highest possibilities, insist that the physical organism be in as perfect condition as possible.

The aim of education is the highest development of the individual as a socially efficient creature. To be socially efficient,

to bear one's share of the world's work, to render the worthy social service which it must be the aim of every educated person to render whether his lot be humble or conspicuous, requires that the bodily machine through which this work is done be as efficient as it is possible to have it. For one thing the sense organs, the avenues to the mind, must be unimpeded in their task. They must be able to perform their various functions as conveyors of impressions to the brain with as little strain or obstruction as expert knowledge will devise. The care of the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and vital organs will be a special function of the properly organized school system of the future. Careful medical inspection of children, to ascertain what, if any, defects they may have along the lines herein mentioned will be one phase of the physical education of the coming day.

And this care of the physical organism will extend itself still further. It will concern itself with the questions of food, of pure air, of cleanliness, of the kind and amount of physical exercise required for each particular stage in the child's growth; it will reach out into the homes, and through the influence of medical and physical advisers, physicians and nurses; it will seek to improve the conditions of living, and to render possible the highest development of the physical organism. The care of the eyes and ears will be only a small part of the real medical inspection and physical education of the future.

The Greeks were wise in laying such stress upon gymnastics in their scheme of education. When we come to our own we shall surpass them in this as in much else. Gymnasiums and playgrounds, under the care of trained directors and teachers, who will know the kind and amount of exercise and play necessary for the natural and proper growth of each child, will mark the coming school system. And all this, and more, will come, not as the result of a narrowly individualistic conception of the function of education, but when communities and states grasp the broader conception of education as the most efficient and economical agency for the security and progress of the state and society. When any considerable number of

people in any community really get hold of this conception, the things that are forecast here will come quickly and easily enough.

INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION

On the intellectual side one can only roughly sketch what appears to be the program of the future. The motor side of education will doubtless receive more emphasis as against a traditional sensory type. Manual training, domestic science and industrial work will occupy an ever-enlarging place in our scheme of education. The hand in education has not yet received its full recognition. Trade and industrial schools will be established in our great manufacturing and industrial centers, and the opportunities for a technical trade instruction will be widely extended. The problem of vocational schools is already on us, and is unquestionably the "livest" movement in education to-day. It is not hazardous to say that the next decade will see the most striking extension of educational activities along the line of vocational schools. The desire has arisen or is arising. The satisfaction of the desire must inevitably follow.

As an aspect of the general movement toward vocational schools, agricultural high schools will be established in districts where agriculture is the basic industry. Already a bill has been introduced into Congress proposing that a certain per capita tax be appropriated to the maintenance of agricultural high schools in farming regions, and of trade and industrial schools in our large manufacturing cities. The bill simply indicates the tendency-the development of an ideal.

Books will still hold their invaluable place, but the point d'appui will be somewhat changed. Some subjects, now studied almost, if not quite, exclusively through books, will take their place as ancillary to other activities of the curriculum. Arithmetic, for example, will, in its applications at least, grow largely out of the needs of children in their manual, industrial, business and play activities. Geography will become more of an industrial and commercial subject, adjusting itself more closely to the needs of the child as he emerges into the world of active life. Physiology and hygiene will mean not merely information about bones, muscles and bodily

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