cooperative test service of the American Council on Education.

Increasing interest in art education is revealed by figures showing that in 30 of the largest colleges and universities, students attending art courses rose from 517 in 1920 to 2,034 in 1930, an increase of 292 percent. Total enrollments increased only 50 percent during the same period.

From the very beginning of the national recovery program, the higher-educational institutions of this country have shown their desire to cooperate. Nevertheless, the colleges sensed considerable relief when the N.R.A. recognized the desirability of releasing higher educational institutions of nonprofit-making character from the provisions of the codes of fair competition. There has been little important

new higher-educational experimentation started during the past year, but there has been little if any cessation of existing experiments. There is an increasing tendency to overcome departmental narrowness, to coordinate departments within broader fields which will serve to integrate rather than to seperate knowledge. This is evidenced by the Chicago plan, the Iowa State University verticle plan, the Colgate plan, and other similar plans.

FOR a number of years the critics of standardizing agencies have been asking for a "new deal" in the accrediting of educational institutions. Rather caustic criticisms have come from both without and within the profession.

The new program for the accrediting of higher institutions adopted by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools at its annual meeting in April presents what many hope to be the beginning of a complete change of policy

in methods of accreditment. In this organization, accrediting of higher institutions in the future will be based, not on the degree of conformity to definite requirements but upon the degree to which the announced objectives of an institution are successfully achieved.

This plan resulted from a study conducted during the past 3 years by a committee of the association, aided by a grant from the general education board. The committee surveyed 57 institutions of various types in order to determine the characteristics of educational institutions which relate to excellence. The association will accredit hereafter on the basis of

these characteristics, but with full consideration to institutional objectives.

The old minimum endowment, minimum number of volumes in the library, and other minimum requirements have been discarded. In fact, the word "standard" has no place in the new accrediting program of this association. A college is free to experiment or to adopt any type of program it considers fitted to its needs, provided that it states clearly what it proposes to do, and then does it well. There is to be no more "standardization" in the North Central Association.

President L. D. Coffman, of the University of Minnesota, was chairman of the general committee. The following persons were in charge of the North Central Association study: Dean M. E. Haggerty, University of Minnesota; Floyd W. Reeves, Tennessee Valley Authority; John Dale Russell, University of Chicago; D. H. Gardner, University of Akron; and George F. Zook, United States Commis

sioner of Education.

H. M. DOUTT University of Chicago

members of which appear in this picture, planned among other things, facilitating exchange of educational motion pictures. The American report, which contains a thoroughgoing summary of "Motion Pictures in Education in the United States", 105 pages, is available from the University of Chicago Press at $1 a copy.

★ Geography

This year has seen gradual growth along the line of major trends in geography teaching which have been in progress for many years, according to Prof. A. E. Parkins, of George Peabody College for Teachers. One of these, "A trend toward more geography in the high school, is advocated not only by teachers of geography but by many educators, due to a realization of the great function of geography in the development of both national and nternational citizenship.

"Many progressive teachers are discovering that geographic units form excellent cores for unit studies that deal with peoples of foreign lands, and their industries", says Professor Parkins.

"Another trend, very evident in most

parts of this country, is toward a broadenraphy. Geography as now taught by well-trained geography teachers is really an integrated or composite subject in which history, civics, economics, industry, commerce and other studies are blended."

ing of the conception of the field of geog

SCHOOL LIFE June 1934

213

Terms: Subscription, $1.00 per year, in advance; to foreign countries in which the mailing frank of the United States is not recognized, $1.45. Club rate: For orders of 100 copies or more to be sent in bulk to one address within the United States, the Superintendent of Documents allows a discount of 25 percent.

Remittance should be made to the SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

SCHOOL LIFE is indexed in Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, Education Index, and is recommended in the American Library Association's "Periodicals for the Small Library." JUNE 1934

THE VILLAIN STILL

PURSUES HER

This is the annual round-up issue of SCHOOL LIFE. No one is more conscious than the editors that in trying to herd the important trends and events of the school year 1933-34 into 24 pages our verbal lassoes have missed here and there and there. We welcome suggestions from our readers that we may do better next year.

For American education this has been a year of sensational progress and violent melodrama.

Why progress?

Because it is the year we set up classes that attracted more than 1,000,000 adults; the year nursery schools increased from 300 to 2,500; the year the United States set up practical camp schools for 300,000 boys in the C.C.C.; the year that workers' education and parent education has leaped forward; the year State support for public education really came into being in many States; the year that the Federal Government has done more for schools than any year since 1787; the year that child labor has been ruled out of industry.

Why melodrama?

In melodrama the distressed heroine alternates between hope and despair. In most States our heroine, The School, has been pursued by that black villain, The Depression, only to be rescued at innumerable last moments. A Legislature

would rush to her rescue only to have a Supreme Court throw a log marked "Unconstitutional" in the path. Depression would catch up and breathe hotly on the neck of our fleeing heroine. Then the Legislature would again stage a thrilling rescue. This spring a new hero, Uncle Sam, has come to the help of the Legisla

ture, and at the moment our heroine, The School, is safe and sound. But the villain still pursues her!

It certainly has been an exciting year.

INTO OTHER LANGUAGES

"The House of the People, An Account of Mexico's New Schools of Action", Federal Office of Education Bulletin, 1932, No. 11, has been translated into Chinese. The translator, Chester S. Maio, acting general secretary of the China Christian Educational Association, recently sent a copy of the translated publication from Shanghai to the author, Katherine M. Cook.

An interesting letter regarding this popular Office of Education bulletin was recently received by Mrs. Cook from John H. Reisner, executive secretary of the Agricultural Missions Foundations, New York City. It reads:

You will be interested to know that I have distributed 100 copies of "The House of the People" to missionaries scattered all over the world, and have ordered a second hundred, which are being held up until a new supply can be printed.

I happen to know that a hundred copies have also been ordered for China, and I understand that it has been translated into Chinese.

As soon as our new order comes in, I am sending 50 copies to the educational secretary of the National Christian Council of India.

I have had many letters of appreciation from those to whom I sent copies. I do not know whether your attention has been called to the very wide influence which this delightfully interesting and informative account of Mexico's new rural schools is having throughout the world. I can assure you that it should be a matter of very great pride and satisfaction.

BULLETIN

Following is a statement of great significance for land-grant colleges and universities, agricultural extension service, and vocational education appearing in the report of the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Permanent Appropriation Repeal Act, 1934: "Another principle to which the committee has adhered is that it is proper to make continuing appropriation of funds payable to States so that the legislatures thereof may unquestionably rely upon the receipt of such funds in making up State or county budgets."

LAST ISSUE OF YEAR This is the last issue of SCHOOL LIFE for the 1933-34 school year. We hope

you have found the numbers of our journal since last September both useful and interesting.

year's SCHOOL LIFE program will be During July and August, when next planned, the editor would appreciate hearing from readers as to how this official monthly organ of the Federal Office of Education has served you or could better serve you beginning next September.

To secure extra copies of this June issue, which reviews the year's activity and progress in many fields of educational endeavor, or to get SCHOOL LIFE'S service for another year, send your request and remittance direct to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

May you have an enjoyable vacation!

AMERICAN OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION, INC. Toronto, Canada, July 1-7.

AMERICAN PRISON ASSOCIATION. Houston, Tex., September 17-21.

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. New York, N.Y., September 5-8.

AMERICAN SCHOOL CITIZENSHIP LEAGUE. Washington, D.C., June 30-July 5.

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, July 11-13.

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF TEACHERS OF DANCING. New York, N.Y., August 27-September 1.

FEDERATION OF COLLEGE CATHOLIC CLUBS. Jacksonville, Fla., September 2-4.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS IN COLORED SCHOOLS. Baltimore, Md., July 31-August 3. NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. Washington, D.C., June 30-July 5.

Sectional

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS. PACIFIC COAST CONVENTION. Salt Lake City, Utah, September 3-7.

Miscellaneous

CONFERENCE ON HIGHER EDUCATION. Eugene, Oreg., July 12-14.

SCHOOL EXECUTIVES' CONFERENCE. Denver, Colo., July 16-27.

HE INTENSE pressure to cut

what in 1933-34 due mainly to the upswing of the trade cycle that has slowly continued since the summer of 1932. School building programs have not been resumed to any great extent and reductions are still threatened in teachers' salaries here and there but on the whole the past year was better than 1932-33. England is one of the brightest spots in the general picture. There the economic situation is fairly normal; there is a budget surplus of receipts over expenditures. The net education estimates for 1934 are £64,894 above those of 1933 and one-half the 10 percent salary cuts imposed in 1931 will be discontinued on July 1. This recognition by the English Government of the temporary nature of the emergency cuts is a very reassuring precedent.

The Consultative Committee of the Board of Education of England and Wales rounded out more than a decade of hard work by bringing to light last December its report on "Infant and Nursery Schools", the third of a series that is shaping educational policy in England and affecting it much in the entire British Commonwealth of Nations. The Children and Young Persons Act, which we previously reviewed in SCHOOL LIFE, went into operation last November 1. Among its better features are that it raises the age limit for juvenile delinquents from 16 to 17 and aims not to punish them but to prevent them from being drawn into crime.

The outlook in France is not so promising. To be sure the idea of secondary education free of fees, which dates back to Condorcet, came near to accomplishment last October but because of the recent financial crisis some of the gains in that direction may be lost. Salaries of teachers and other public officials seem to be in line for considerable reductions. Out of France came this spring the Atlas de l'Enseignement, an expository work several steps in advance of any previously issued by any country.

Following the establishment of the Nazi regime in May of 1933, Germany joined the countries that are deliberately using their school systems to carry to succes: and perpetuate certain social, political, and

economic policies. During the year the National Government displaced many educators that are not sympathetic with its policy and, a reversion to earlier German policies, set strict limits on the number of women students that could

attend the universities. A Reichsministerium für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Unterricht (National Ministry for Science, Education, and Popular Culture) was created early in May of 1934. This is the first such ministry in the history of Germany.

With the resumption of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, data about education in the Union became more easily available to Americans and the Anglo-American Institute of the First Moscow University, a private organization formed in 1933, arranged to hold at the university in the summer of 1934 a variety of courses as a means of aiding cultural contacts between American, English, and Russian students

and teachers. Today (May 19) the news items carry a notice that the Soviet Government plans to add to its embassy at Washington, a "cultural attaché." Should that be done, he will not be the first such official in our educational history. Several years ago, Dr. Arturo Montori was for a time educational attaché at the Legation of Cuba in the United States.

The National Secretariat of Education of Mexico announced in February of 1934 that 8,128 students were enrolled in secondary schools as against 7,810 in 1933 and 3,500 in 1926. The secondary school budget calls for 1,438,455 pesos. It was less than half that amount in 1926. The National Revolutionary Party in proclaiming its 6-year plan (1934-40) declares that favoring public education is an essential function of the Nation and that progress since the revolution has been greatest in the rural schools. It pledges to education no less than 15 percent annually of the Federal budget and sets out progressive increases until 20 percent is reached in 1939. The number of rural schools is to be increased by 1,000 in 1934; 2,000 annually for the following 4 years; and 3,000 in 1939. With programs such as that in the offing, it is almost needless to write that 1933-34 showed no recession in education in Mexico.

Throughout the year a movement in Spain, not entirely new since it was established by decree of May 1931, was carried on in that country in the form of Misiones Pedagógicas (Pedagogical Missions). These are so much like the Cultural Missions of Mexico that one wonders whether the mother country drew the idea from her former colony. It is one of the many attempts being made in most countries to draw the rural people into the national life and culture. Such active work for the rural citizenry is one of the chief characteristics of education in this period of [Continued on page 225]

N

OT OFTEN in the history of any

nation has there been so power

ful a drive to "let there be light" as is being made in the Emergency Educational Programs of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration under Mr. Harry L. Hopkins, with the cooperation of Commissioner George F. Zook. On every educational front a group of "morale-relief" workers (themselves in need and on work-relief) has been mobilized for the conservation of the nation's human resources which are impaired or imperiled by the conditions of depression. Bent on recapturing lost ground, these workers have in many fields extended the educational frontiers into new territory.

For the first time in the history of their families, 60,000 preschool children have been given the advantages of modern progressive nursery schools. Twenty thousand parents attend parent discussion classes at these schools and learn to see their children clean, wisely fed, and happy in new and sympathetic atmosphere. They grasp eagerly and thankfully at first principles of child-care. At an average monthly cost of $2.43 for each of these children, F. E.R.A. has created about 1,500 nursery school units in 35 States, engaging for this purpose alone 4,000 teachers and helpers.

To rescue many millions of school-age youngsters from going untaught because of the early closing of small-town and rural elementary and high schools, F.E. R.A. has paid many thousand teachers' salaries for the last few months of this year. Thus it has helped to keep open for the normal school term a large portion of the rural and small-town schools in 34 States. The estimated expenditure for this purpose in the month of February was $352,000 throughout the United States, but the F.E.R.A. program of helping rural schools has been extended since that time.

About 1 out of every 10 college students in the United States is being kept at college this year through the help of F.E.R.A. Each of these young persons has a parttime job in some kind of work around the campus, for which F. E.R.A. pays him the equivalent of an ordinary scholarship. The work varies from manual labor to clerical work. It sometimes includes

research work in laboratories and editorial work on publications.

Young people who have just left school or college and have not been able to find any job at which they could learn to master a trade, are being taught an occupation in a wide range of free classes for vocational training. These classes have been set up in 41 States and are being taught by teachers whom F.E.R.A. has rescued from unemployment for this purpose. They study any trade they wish from cafeteria management to weaving and wood-carving.

To these hundreds of free classes come persons of all ages--so long as they are unemployed they can have teaching and training to fit themselves better to be producers and wage earners when jobs open up. In a world which seems to have no appointed place for them, these pupils are preserving past skills and going forward to the mastery of new skills with the help of F.E.R.A. relief teachers.

The crippled and physically disabled person is being taught a vocation in 42 States and F.E.R.A. pays the teachers' salaries and buys the necessary rehabilitation training, tuition, and equipment, such as a special brace, a mechanical hand or whatever is needed to equip the individual to earn his livelihood and save him from being a charge upon public charity.

This supplements vocational rehabilitation regularly carried on in the States.

To men and women who could not read or write English F.E.R.A. has brought the service of thousands of teachers in a campaign to reduce illiteracy and open up the world of books, magazines, newspapers, and letter writing. The State of Mississippi, for example, reports that in 2 or 3 months it has changed its literacy ratio for whites and for Negroes alike and climbed from forty-fourth place in the rank of the States to better than midway in the scale of literacy. Washington headquarters have cabinet files filled with letters from men and women of all ages who have tried their new-found art of writing to express their pride and gratitude for the larger world and the greater satisfactions that have been opened up to them.

Like a curriculum of the world's largest university is the list of 500 nonvocational subjects taught to persons employed or unemployed who want to take up studies in any subject which will better fit them for citizenship or enrich their lives in any way. As early as February these free classes were being held in 46 States by nearly 20,000 teachers with 600,000 adults enrolled at a monthly cost to the Government of about $1.40 for each pupil. Many of the classes are called "workers educational groups", others are called "parent education groups".

The common feature of all groups is that attendance is voluntary. The pupils are men and women brought together because of their own desire to spend their time profitably in building within themselves new skills, new resources, new interests, out of the wreckage of past livelihoods and a present barrenness of opportunities. This is education in a larger sense, a "leading out" instead of a "pouring in." Adults do not want to be given the answers. They want a chance to meet, discuss, and so far as possible work out the answers for themselves.

F.E.R.A. encounters a serious retraining problem in its effort to employ teachers