plan of work. It will co-operate with the Committee on the HighSchool Course, it will seek to make the value of dramatic work known, and it will publish from time to time lists of plays, suggestions on dramatics, and such information as it can collect concerning the use of plays in various institutions.

Professor V. C. Coulter announced for the Committee on English Equipment that the list of material reported last year is now being largely increased, and that teachers are requested to make statements regarding additional material that would be desirable in order that it may be placed upon the market if not now obtainable. The final report of this committee will, it is expected, be made a bulletin of the Bureau of Education; and the chairman invites questions and suggestions by letter.

Professor E. M. Hopkins stated for the Committee on English Composition Teaching that of its two reports fifteen editions numbering in all more than 25,000 copies have been published and distributed; and that the Bureau of Education has authorized the continuance and extension of the committee's work, with a view to final publication as a bulletin or series of bulletins. New matter, not in the present report, is to include the following:

Revised and completed tabulations.

Plates and diagrams.

Extended list of apparatus for English work, prepared by Professor
Coulter's committee.

Further data on cost of teaching college subjects.

Report on the Illinois experimental comparison of oral and written English composition, prepared by Professor John M. Clapp.

Report on the nature and results of oral training based on a special inquiry in Kansas and Missouri.

Report of the general causes of inefficiency in secondary school English teaching, prepared by Principal Edwin L. Miller.

Possible further data on the relative variations of efficiency and the number of pupils assigned to a teacher.

This committee also offered resolutions, requested by Council delegates, as set forth below.

Professor Hopkins also reported for the Committee on Elementary School English, which includes the Committee on English Composition Teaching with several additional members representing elementary schools, that it has been engaged for a year in preparing its questionnaire, that the Bureau of Education has authorized its proposed investigation

and has offered it all possible assistance, and that the committee is now actively engaged in organizing co-operating committees and subcommittees to handle the questions according to the plan outlined in the October Journal. Actual distribution of the questionnaires should begin not later than February. It is hoped that members of the Council will respond promptly to these questions.

The resolutions above referred to as offered by the Committee on English Composition at the request of delegates are based upon the following facts:

That the investigations of this committee, confirmed in every possible way since first publication of its report, show that highly satisfactory work in English composition teaching cannot be done under average conditions in secondary schools in which the assignment of pupils in composition exceeds eighty to a teacher, or in colleges in which such assignment exceeds sixty to a teacher, as a maximum in each case; and that for the highest efficiency these numbers should be decreased. That at present the average number of pupils so assigned exceeds 125 in secondary schools and 100 in colleges.

That the first and essential step to be taken toward increasing the efficiency of composition teaching, a step without which, no matter how favorable other conditions, high efficiency is a physical impossibility, is to decrease that number.

That the cost of taking the step will not be prohibitive since at present English, although admittedly the most important subject in the secondary school curriculum, costs less than any other; and since in an individual school it has been established by actual trial that to reduce the number of pupils assigned to a single English teacher to an ideal point much below the maximum of eighty does not increase the expense of English above 25 per cent, while it more than doubles efficiency, and produces results of conspicuous excellence, even from pupils of foreign parentage.

That since progress in the desired direction must be slow and gradual, such beginning as is possible should be made without delay.

That the North Central Association has under consideration the adoption of a rule that no school in its territory shall be accredited in English if the maximum number of pupils assigned to a single teacher in English exceeds five classes of twenty-five pupils each.

That teachers' associations in two states (New York and Wisconsin) have requested that the maximum be made not to exceed one hundred. In view of these facts, the subjoined resolutions were offered:

I

The National Council of Teachers of English approves the steps taken by the North Central Association to limit and decrease the number of pupils assigned to English teachers in high schools, and requests the Association and all similar accrediting bodies to recommend for immediate action that schools in which the maximum number of pupils assigned to a single English teacher exceeds one hundred be not accredited in English; and it also requests the Association and all similar accrediting bodies to take further action at as early a date as seems expedient to reduce this maximum to eighty, with due provision, as at present recommended, for necessary time for conference and theme reading counted as teaching time.

II

It is the sense of the National Council of Teachers of English that in order to secure satisfactory results in college English it is essential that the maximum number of students in Freshman English Composition assigned to a single instructor should in no case exceed sixty; and that when such an instructor has classes in other subjects, a corresponding reduction should be made in the number of pupils assigned him in English composition.

The resolutions were adopted unanimously.

The chairman of the Committee on the Preparation of High-School Teachers of English, Professor Franklin T. Baker, was represented by Mr. Allan Abbott, who stated that the committee was not yet fully organized, but that it would as soon as possible undertake to learn what sort of preparation the high-school work demands and to make this known to all those concerned with the employing or preparing of high-school teachers.

The chairman of the Committee on the Preparation of College Teachers of English, Professor James F. Hosic, of the Chicago Normal College, explained that this committee is primarily a committee of the Central Division of the Modern Language Association of America. An investigation was carried on in the fall of 1912 to ascertain the opinion of the heads of English departments in the large universities, of Doctors of Philosophy who are teaching college English, and of the presidents of the smaller colleges with regard to the value of graduate work as preparation for teaching and also as to the best means of such preparation. The replies received were of such character as to justify the appointment of a representative committee to complete the inquiry and make recommendations. The committee will undertake to learn what preparation the college work demands and what preparation the

universities actually offer. The various requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy will be tabulated and the relations between departments of education and departments of English inquired into. When the facts are well in hand, recommendations will be made.

The Committee on the Reorganization of the High-School Course in English reported to the College and High-School Section, and an account of that report will be found under the notes of the meeting of that section.

NEW COMMITTEES

On motion of Mr. Searson the Council instructed the Executive Committee to appoint a committee on the English work of the first six elementary grades. It is understood that this committee will cover the ground not provided for by the committees already at work upon the course of study. At the meeting of delegates a motion was passed calling upon the Executive Committee to establish a Committee on Publicity. The duty of this committee will be to make the proceedings of the Council and of its committees known to the teachers and school authorities of the several states.

THE STATUS OF LIBRARIANS

It was moved by Mr. W. H. Kerr of Emporia, Kansas, that the National Council of Teachers of English recommend to school authorities everywhere that librarians in high schools, colleges, and normal schools be placed upon the same professional footing as regular teachers, provided that they have professional training as librarians and that their scholarship is equivalent to that of regular teachers. The motion was seconded and carried.

SPECIAL MEETINGS

It was announced that the Board of Directors had authorized the Executive Committee to arrange special meetings of the National Council in connection with the Department of Superintendence at Richmond, Virginia, February 27 and 28, 1914, in connection with the summer meeting of the National Education Association at St. Paul in July, 1914, and in connection with the Congress of Education at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in Oakland, California, in 1915.

THE PROGRAM

GENERAL SESSION, FRIDAY FORENOON, NOVEMBER 28

With the exception of Professor Edwin Mims, who was obliged to telegraph his regrets at the last minute, every person who had promised

to prepare a paper or a discussion was on hand. The opening session was remarkable for the originality and force of the papers read. Professor Scott chose for the title of the president's address "The Undefended Gate." This proved to be the free access of the newspaper. The address will be found in the opening pages of this number of the Journal. Percival Chubb's trumpet call to the revival of oral literature will be found there also. Professor Jastrow presented the results of an investigation of the sensibility of representatives of various classes to slang and other forms of bad English and bad manners.

SECTION MEETINGS, FRIDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 28

COLLEGE AND HIGH-SCHOOL SECTION

Chairman, Charles W. Kent, University of Virginia; Secretary, Jessie E. Sherman, Chicago Normal College.

The first paper was presented by Joseph V. Denney, of Ohio State University, whose topic was, "The Factors Which Should Determine the College Course in English." These he conceived to be specific discipline through the material of composition and of literature, vocational elements, preparation for teaching, the foundation provided by the high schools, and extra-vocational or cultural elements. In discussion, Frank Aydelotte, of Indiana University, urged that both literature and composition be regarded as offering a means of training pupils to think. C. C. Certain, of Birmingham, Alabama, emphasized the relation of the college course to the high-school course. He had collected opinions as to the aims of English work and found that college and high school agreed. College men complain that high-school graduates lack the power of expression, have little accurate knowledge, no taste for literature, and no ability to read aloud. These charges are mainly true. Nevertheless, college men must remember the tremendous obstacles which the teacher in the crowded schools of the day must overcome. High-school teachers, on their part, should seek to prepare their pupils for real life. Then followed a preliminary report by the chairman of the Committee on the Reorganization of Secondary English, James F. Hosic, of the Chicago Normal College. This is printed and may be obtained of the Secretary of the National Council. It also comprises a part of Bulletin No. 41, Bureau of Education, series of 1913. Stress was laid upon the fact that not college entrance but life-development of the pupils was the prime consideration in the work of this committee as contrasted with other national committees. In discussion, Allan Abbott, of Teachers College, Columbia University, said: