Typical Alaska Totem Village

The first number of this series of articles may be obtained by addressing The Western Journal of Education, 149 New Montgomery street, San Francisco, California. (Fifteen cents per copy.)

A Teacher who decides he would like to teach in Alaska really has two opportunities of getting a position. One is by making application to L. D. Henderson, commissioner of education, Juneau, Alaska, and the other is through some missionary board. which is doing; work in the far north in conjunction with the government. The man at the head of the latter office is called Chief of the Alaskan Division, Bureau of Education. This is a branch of the Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C. The local office is in the L. C. Smith Building, Seattle, Washington. Jonathan D. Wagner has recently been appointed to take the position which was vacated by W. T. Lopp, who had held the position since. 1910. Mr. Lopp will now personally susonally superintend the native schools. He has headquarters at Anchorage, Alaska.

The school system in Alaska, as in every other locality, suffered a setback during the war. Now the schools are forging ahead. In the system for white children and half-breeds, over which L. D. Henderson presides, four new districts were added last year. The high school enrollment last year was twenty-five per cent greater than the year before.

"This country has passed through the stage of being the land for the prospector and roamer only," Mr. Henderson said recently. "It has proved a substantial country and a place where there are homes and friends."

An attitude such as this has rapid effect on the school system of our country.

The high schools in Alaska require that their instructors be college graduates. The elementary school teachers in the larger towns must be college or normal graduates. Eighty per cent of the teachers employed in the Alaskan schools under the commissioner of education have diplomas from normal schools or colleges.

"We have hundreds of applications yearly," Mr. Henderson declared. "Teachers may be appointed by a local board of education, or the local board may ask me to make the selection. We choose teachers according to their applications which are placed on file. We want experienced teachers and we get them. Our teachers will compare with the best in the States from the standpoint of education and experience. We want our teachers to stay with us more than one year. The roving type is not par

ticularly desirable if he is going to do real good in the community. The majority of our teachers remain with us for several years. The average turnover is about forty per cent yearly. Eighty per cent of our teachers are women and twenty per cent are men. The average teaching experience is eight years.

"In striking contrast to the large number of inexperienced teachers who yearly enter the school rooms in the average State, ninety-six per cent of the teachers employed in the Alaskan schools are experienced. The number who have had experience in Alaska-sixty-three per cent-is worthy of mention as representing an increase of nine per cent over the record for the school

year 1919-1920. No school system can be

efficient which is not able to attract and hold a competent force of teachers."

Salaries in the schools in the north in the elementary schools range from $1350 to $1800; in the high school they range. from $1500 to $1900. The school year is The school year is ninė months.

Commenting on the salaries Mr. Henderson said: "The salaries paid to Alaska teachers are not high and cannot well be lowered. Statistics compiled for the school year 1921-1922 show that a number of the Western States pay higher salaries to both elementary and high school teachers than are paid in Alaska. This should not be true. Alaska, in spite of her scenery and the glamour of romance which surrounds her, cannot maintain her school system at the desired point of efficiency on a salary schedule equal to that paid in the average of the Western States.

"Alaskans demand teachers with training, experience, and personality. Teachers with those qualifications may be attracted

School Supplies

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to Alaska for one or two years at a financial loss. However, they cannot always be retained. We want our teachers to remain on our teaching staff. Employers of labor estimate that it costs one hundred dollars to fit a new man into a strictly mechanical position which has been made vacant through the loss of an employee, and that the cost is greater as the position which must be filled takes on the requirement of qualities of initiative and leadership. The loss to a school system when a thoroughly competent teacher leaves a teaching force cannot be accurately measured in terms of dollars and cents. However, the loss occurs even when such a teacher is replaced by one equally as competent."

One of the big things that Commissioner Henderson has put over is the getting of a special appropriation for co-operative schools. This co-operation is between the government and community. In communities where there are only four or five children and there is no school fund, an arrangement exists whereby, if the people will provide the building and the fuel for the school, the government will furnish the teacher and pay other expenses. This unique method of supporting and conducting schools was begun in 1922 under Hen

derson's direction.

School Equipment

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Schools outside of incorporated towns receive one hundred per cent support from the territorial government. Buildings, teachers, supplies, all are furnished to any community having ten or more children of school age. Schools in incorporated towns receive seventy-five per cent of the cost of maintenance up to the maximum of $20,000 in any one town in any one school year. Juneau and Ketchikan, are the only two towns which have the great expenditure and receive the maximum allowance. In many districts it is difficult to find comfortable living quarters for teachers. In forty per cent of the school districts outside incorporated towns, living quarters for teachers are provided by the school board. There is a need, according to the superintendent, for the erection of more such buildings or for the remodeling of schools in such a way that living quarters are provided for teachers. This latter method is regarded as the cheapest and most satisfactory.

"The average small community contains either very few or no families who have facilities for the accommodation of roomers or boarders," Henderson stated. "Even if room and board can be secured, such an arrangement is from many standpoints unsatisfactory. Where no opportunity is offered to obtain room and board, or where the rate charged is not in keeping with the salary paid the teacher, the only alternative is for the teacher to rent a cabin. In some communities comfortable living quarters can be secured. In others any arrangement which can be made is far from satisfactory."

Henderson expressed the opinion that no school building should be built in the future that did not have teachers' living quarters in connection therewith.

In speaking of the young women who go to Alaska to teach, Mr. Henderson declared that he lost many good teachers through matrimony. There are more men than women in Alaska and the people are hcspitable and social. Dances and parties of different varieties lend an atmosphere of "home" wherever that home may be. In southern Alaska one does not feel as far from the States as in the north, where there is a minimum of civilized conditions, and where the people are rougher and more primitive.

The teachers marry men engaged in various occupations, such as fishing, fish canning, mining, fox farming, fur trading, lumbering and other occupations necessary in communities where civilization has tinged the land.

In many of the church schools in the far north, the instructors are man and wife in the two-teacher schools. The government supervises these schools in conjunction with the church. The teachers' work consists of teaching and social and even medical work. The teacher is the power in the community and is turned to for aid and advice in every emergency. Her life is closely connected with the life of the people. She is there to perform service and her work is never over.

The churches which have established missions in the outlying districts have their share in the selection of a teacher and bear a portion of the expenses of the school.

(To be continued.)

Dear Sylvia Starr: The approach of Washington's birthday reminds me of a plan we carried out last year and which I shall use again this year. On the first day of February I tell my pupils to cut from magazines and papers all pictures of things not known of or used in Washington's time. Just before Washington's birthday we paste these pictures on large sheets of cardboard together with Washington's picture or view of his monument, and we print thereon the dates of his birth and death. We print on the chart the words, Those things Washington never saw."

During our exercise we salute Washington's picture.

For decorations we use red, white and blue bunting. We cut cherries from paper napkins that have them as decoration and we also make paper hatchets. The cherries and hatchets we paste on the window. One year the children made cherries of a flour and salt mixture and painted them red. The leaves were made of green paper. The cherries were souvenirs for the visitors who visited our school that day.

For both Washington's and Lincoln's birthday I have the children become familiar with the lives of these great men. We play a paragraph game whereby a child relates a paragraph on the life of one of these men and the next child continues the story.

We become familiar with the Gettysburg address. I make several copies of it, cut these copies in strips and pass them out. Several children are sent to the board to copy the words from their slips. Next the children who can add from their papers the next lines, take their places and make the connection from their slips, and so on, until the complete address is written on the board in several places. In order to play this game the children must be very familiar with the lines.

Thanking you, I am yours truly,

Dear Sylvia Starr:

Edith Call.

It

One of the games my children enjoy in the kindergarten is the "boat game". increases the observation of the child when he is not in school, helps his memory and cultivates his imagination. Two children seated on the floor are the boat. With clasped hands and with the tips of the feet touching, the two children who are the boat sway to and fro while a little one is seated on the floor between their hands and feet. When the ride is over the several children jump from their respective boats and tell us what they saw on their ride. Some children see flowers and gardens and mountains. Others see city sights, while still others have been in the realm of fairyland. We do not try to curb the children in telling of what they have seen, but we are always interested in both fact and fancy and enter into the spirit in which it is told. A Kindergarten Teacher.

MILTON BRADLEY CO.,

554 Mission Street,
San Francisco.

Teachers and Boards of Education will be interested in the change of location of The Milton Bradley Company from 20 Second street to 554 Mission street. The new location is between First and Second streets. Just a few minutes' walk. from Market and Second or Market and First.

Lester Van Nostrand, who has been the Pacific Coast Manager since 1909, and with the Milton Bradley Company since 1900, made a wise choice when he selected the new Aronson Building for the Pacific Coast Home of the Company.

On account of the special lines carried of drawing supplies, art work, kindergarten material, construction papers and books, teachers visit the Milton Bradley Company and make their own selection from the large and varied stock. Mr. Van Nostrand, therefore, in selecting the building had in mind its central location from the viewpoint of other school and educational supply houses; attractive entrance, elevator service and spacious quarters for the display of his stock. He has fourteen thousand square feet of space. The building is new and attractive. The offices are furnished artistically. The stockrooms and the shipping department are well arranged and spacious. He had specially built and equipped a ladies rest room. In this new attractive building with its special lighting, you will find a complete assortment of the Bradley Quality Books, Drawing Supplies,

All Material for Art Work,
Kindergarten Chairs and Sand
Tables,

THE INSTITUTE OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY AND CITY

You asked me to report our institute for the Western Journal. On all sides there have been words of appreciation of the excellent institute held this year.

Wednesday morning the session was held at the State Teachers' College, and, after an address of welcome to the college on the part of President E. L. Hardy, and music given by the glee clubs of the school, the institute program proper was launched by Mrs. Grace Stanley in an able presentation of her thoughts concerning fundamentals in child training.

Doctor Herbert R. Stolz, State Supervisor of Physical Education, addressed the teachers on the subject of "Education and. Spare Time," and Miss Donzella Cross discussed "Music Appreciation," demonstrating the principles by the use of the phonograph.

Everyone felt that all three speakers in their individual way touched on the same great theme; that was, the motivation of

public school education by contact with life itself. It was remarked afterwards by many of the teachers that there seemed to be something in the air that gave unity to the thought and the discussions of the morning.

The afternoon session was in charge of the County Teachers' Association, with Mrs. Mabel Farley, president of the association, in charge. The association held its annual business meeting, the ballot ing for the California Teachers' Association Southern Section being consummated. Mr. William P. Dunlevy, state director of the National Education Association, addressed the assembly on the value of membership in the national association.

One very pleasing feature of the afternoon session was the presentation to the county superintendent, Miss Ada York, of a beautiful bouquet of roses. The flowers were presented to Miss York by the teachers of the East San Diego schools. The recent annexation of East San Diego to the City of San Diego takes the school system out from the county direction, and

Adhezo Paste,

Chalk of Milton Bradley Company Trade Mark, Educational Devices.

This new store is in keeping with the remarkable growth of The Milton Bradley Company. The home and factories of the Company in Springfield, Mass., cover two and one - half acres, and the business has steadily grown since 1860, until today there is hardly a school or home where children dwell that Bradley products do not form a valuable part of the child's education. The new catalog of Bradley Art Materials is a fair sample of their work. It represents only one branch of the business. Its 76 pages are complete with information, illustrations, and directions. You should send for copy and preserve it. The large business of the Company on the Pacific Coast has been developed under the leadership of Mr. Van Nostrand. His popularity is due. to the quality of the merchandise. but the personal element entered irto it. His integrity and devotion to giving people service, and his delightful personality, are major factors in the measure of success of the business. The true test of a business man's popularity is the opinion of those with whom he is associated. On the morning of January 14th, when Mr. Van Nostrand entered his new office, he discovered a beaut'ful bouquet of roses, and the card from employees of the firm:

"We all want to wish you lots of success and happiness in your new office, and to assure you we are all back of you a million in every way. "All of Us."

Jan. 14, 1924.

at this time the teachers, as a tribute of their affection for the county superintendent, and also as a mark of their appreciation of the co-operation of the office, presented the flowers, Mr. J. D. Simkins, district superintendent of the East San Diego schools, making a very happy speech of presentation.

The program for Thursday and Friday. included addresses by Dr. Allen, Dr. H. W. Fairbanks, Dr. W. C. Bagley and othOf all that happened in the excellent program of those two days, I find that my mind goes back most frequently to the community singing led by Mr. H. S. Hodge of the San Diego high school.

(Whether this is because of the quality of my mind, or because of the quality of the personality of Mr. Hodge as leader of the community singing, I am not certain, but one special song, "O, San Diego Has a Zoo," stands out rather strikingly and all the teachers of the city who were present will recall participating in that occasion of fun and unrestrained mirth!)

TEACHER.

THINGS DONE TO BOOKS

If a librarian is a lover of the book per se she will suffer many a shock from the things done to books in many libraries and schools under the name of "processing", or preparing them for the shelves. First among the horrors is the perforating stamp. which has worked more damage to books than the favorite puppy ever did. If used on the unprinted portion of the title page, it is a comparatively inoffensive means of identification, but, alas, some librarians. have thought it necessary to use it upon every hundredth page and upon plates, maps and illustrations. It has been known to be used in perforating the very life out of the pages of a dictionary. Can a worse abuse be imagined than so to deface a page where every diacritical mark must be entire and perfect in order to be of any value? Earlier in my library experience I stood in such awe of library "technique" that only privately did I dare to wonder just what difference it would make in case of the theft of a plate or map from a book, whether or not it was perforated, but felt that there must be some logical reason for thus mutilating the most valuable features of the book. Common sense finally triumphed over this fetich.

Then there is the gummed label, square or round or oblong, stuck at varying heights all up and down the long-suffering backs. of books. What a monstrosity it was in its day! Painstaking assistants carefully removed the glaze from the spot on the back of the book where the thing was to be attached, and if she also had an eye for symmetry she pasted it on at the same height from the bottom of each book. Sometimes she didn't. On this. label was then printed the call number. Long since we have learned that these erstwhile sacred "call numbers" can be appreciably shortened, and in many libraries "Cutter numbers" have been abandoned as a time-saver and a distinct contribution to the improved appearance of the library. Just a neat little number indicating, in white ink, the classification of the book, is all that is considered necessary today by way of mutilation on the outside of the book. I heard recently of a librarian who so loved her books that she would never permit a mark of any kind to be placed upon their backs. That would make the shelving very difficult and the finding of a book except by instinct well nigh impossible. But I should like to meet her just to enjoy books and bindings with her.

In some school districts the stamp bearing the name of the district is an enormous one and has been stamped with more or less frequency according to the enthusiasm of the teacher all through the book from cover to cover. One doesn't see it often nowadays, for the county library system has made this labor unnecessary. Had the county library done nothing else for the school but to free the teacher from the ancient rules as to the care and circulation

By Julia G. Babcock

of the books in the school library it would. have accomplished much.

The book cover of gingham or paper which used to be ubiquitous is seldom seen, although evidences that it has not yet entirely passed are sometimes forced upon us. I have upon my shelf of "what nots" a reader returned from a school, where some mother had taken a piece of Jennie's new dress and had stitched it to the book on a sewing machine all around the edges of the book. We have hoped that it so nearly ruined the sewing machine as to make her think it unwise to repeat the act. Another parent sewed in the loose leaves of "Maryen's" reader with long white stitches right through the leaves and the back of the book. Yes, the old book cover did keep the cover of the book cleaner than it is kept without it, but meanwhile there was no incentive to respect the book in its hid eous covering and it was used as a weapon or a toy without demur. Nowadays leaves and covers wear out together and when both are soiled the book has had its day. If it isn't a book that has been in constant use in little hands, it can go to the bindery and come back stronger and better than ever in a bright new dress. And in our rebinding of books why not use attractive colors instead of dead black or dull green? It makes a wonderful difference in the appearance of the library. Nobody wants to read or even to handle dirty, grimy books, and a little more money spent on wise repairs and consistent rebinding would greatly increase the circulation of many a library.

a

LIBRARY BUILDING ACTIVITIES Berkeley Public Library is to erect building for the Claremont Branch at the corner of Ashby and Benvenue avenues, at a cost of about $26,000. The new West Berkeley Branch was completed recently.

An imposing new library building has been built in San Pedro at Tenth and Gaffey streets.

Plans have been accepted for an extensive addition to the Public Library building of Santa Monica. An additional story. will be added to the present two-story building and two wings of three stories each will be annexed.

Beverly Hills is considering the erection of a library building as a memorial to the late Sidney C. Rowe.

Miss Jennie Herrman, formerly librarian of the San Diego County Free Library, was married November 7th in San Francisco to Mr. James White Herrman.

All up and down the state, as well as all across the continent, story hours and Christmas trees were the order of the day

at Christmas time. In Los Angeles Public Library story tellers entertained the little folks, not once, nor twice, but all through the last busy week before Christmas, so that hurried mothers might leave their children safe and happy while they were free for shopping or other business.

East Bakersfield Branch of the Kern County Free Library had its annual Christmas party at the library on the Saturday before Christmas. A tall, shapely tree occupied the center of the main room, directly in front of the entrance doors. Electric lights adorned it and shades were drawn to add to the effect. Nearly five hundred children were present. They occupied chairs; they sat upon the edges of tables and low cases; they sat on the floor close around the beautiful tree. One little tot in blue overalls and a red sweater stood upon the desk on a bright green blotter looking for

Santa Claus. Mrs. Neva Lawson was the

He

story teller, and held the interest of the boys and girls while she told them the beautiful story of "The Happy Prince." The secret of this Christmas party each year is that each member of the library staff lays aside each month a sum for the purpose of providing a Christmas treat for the children. When Santa Claus appeared from behind the book stacks wheeling a book truck filled with boxes of candy, the delight of the children broke forth. took up his station at the front door where boxes of oranges appeared as if by magic. The children dropped easily into a long line which wound around the room past the boys' and girls' department back around the charging desk and out at the door, calling out happy thank you's to Santa Claus, while one mother whispered to the libraMiss Anna rian, "God bless the givers." M. Craig has been the librarian of this library for many years and has kept up this happy custom which she instituted some years ago.

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BIDS WANTED FOR TEXTBOOKS IN GEOGRAPHY

The State Board of Education of California hereby invites authors or publishers to submit sealed proposals or bids for the sale or lease of the right to publish and distribute in California textbooks, as follows: Geographical material for fourth, fifth and sixth grades of the elementary schools. Manuscripts or sample books of the above should be submitted to the Secretary of the Board, at his office in Sacramento, on or before February 15, 1924.

Bids for the sale or lease of such rights, inclosed in a separate sealed envelope addressed to the Secretary of the Board, itemized according to specifications, and marked "Bids for textbooks in geography," may be submitted on or before the hour of 4 o'clock p. m. of February 15, 1924.

Alternative bids for supplying completed books, as specified above, f. o. b. Sacramento, in carload lots, will also be received.

Specifications, giving rules and particulars concerning this matter, may be had upon application to the Secretary of the State Board of Education, at Sacramento. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION Sacramento,

Will C. Wood, Secretary

California

The Reviewer's Book Table

Junior English, Book I, Book II, Book III, by Rose Buhlig: These books are for the seventh, eighth and ninth grades. The three features of the books include: reducing of technical matters to a list of minimum requirements for each grade; the use of socialized recitation and the laboratory method of class procedure; human interest in the drills. The material is simple, interesting and emphasizes minimum essentials. There are such projects as story-telling, observation, verse- making, speech drills and games; experiments in writing news, etc. Teachers and students will enjoy these books, for they are full of life. (D. C. Heath & Company.)

The Cabin Book, by Maud Beatrice Hogue of Sheridan, Wyoming, is an attractive volume of verse issued by the Harr Wagner Publishing Company, price $1.25. In the preface the author tells in a delightful way her experiences in homesteading and says in the closing paragraph, "And to you, returned soldier boy, who is homesteading in the solitude of the Rockies: The Cabin Book holds between its covers something of the drear loneliness of your isolation and the inimitable companionship of a collie and the western outdoors. Its pages fling open to you." Then comes the poem, The Cabin, followed by many others that show a felicity of expression, a poetic imagery and delightful philosophy that is very rare in these days of material approach to self-expression. The poems are delightful. Get a copy and read them.

Socrates, An Oration, by Thomas Starr King, with introduction and notes by Ernest Carroll Moore, director, University of California, Southern Branch. Here is a group of three men who should interest every thinking person, and the group help in forming one of the finest contributions ever made in the production of a classic in California-Socrates, King, and the keen, critical, informational introduction and notes by Dr. Moore. Surely our classes in English in our high schools and universities. will be glad to have this book in its convenient form. It is published by Harr Wagner Publishing Company, 149 New Montgomery street. Bound in brown cloth,

gold stamped, India tone paper. Frontispiece of finest portrait of King in existence. 101 pages. Price $1.25.

The Soil and Its Management, by Merrit F. Miller: This material has been prepared for students in vocational agriculture and for young farmers. The text is thorough, interesting and comprehensive. It has been assumed that those studying the book have had little or no study in chemistry, hence any farmer can get practical help from the book, without previous preparation for its use. Each chapter is followed by questions, practical exercises and references. The maps and pictures are so closely associated with the text that they are of true value in interpretation. (Ginn & Company. Price $1.64.)

OUR FREE SERVICE in teaching the Mechanics and Pedagogy of Palmer Method Penmanship is still offered to all teachers whose pupils are provided with individual copies of our manual. Other Teachers may enroll for the complete correspondence course upon payment of the small fee of ten dollars.

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Wonderful Record of Success

"HUMAN GEOGRAPHY," by J. Russell Smith, after a thorough test in many classrooms, has been adopted for use in the hands of the pupils in Los Angeles, Oakland, Tacoma and Everett, Wash., Los Angeles County, Whatcom County, Wash., San Bernardino, Kings, Solano, Merced, Stanislaus Counties, Vallejo, Redlands, San Diego, San Diego County, Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, Butte County, Tulare County and the City and County of San Francisco, Porterville, Bakersfield, Richmond, Santa Ana, Imperial County, Alameda and San Benito Counties, and regularly adopted and listed in many other Counties and Cities on the Pacific Coast. Human Geography is an organized geography, and Geographical Reader COMBINED. THE SILENT READERS, Lewis and Rowland, Books 3 to 8 inclusive and manuals have the largest Silent Reader sale on the Pacific Coast.

Winston Companion Readers The first series of readers to meet the teacher's demands for new selections which duplicates the vocabulary of basal texts. Seventy per cent new material; fine colored pictures, excellent literary content. Series Primer to Third Reader inclusive. Sample copies supplied by W. C. HARPER

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TEACHERS

St. Germain Restaurant

60 Ellis St., near Market, San Francisco Commencing Monday, March 14 MERCHANTS' LUNCH 65c, Instead of $1 DINNER $1.25