for his fellow men, there is still time that he may call his own-the idle hours of life that may be devoted to that inalienable right of man-the pursuit of happiness. In these idle hours the university finds vast fields of influence. The result of a university education should be that through increased capacity to labor the leisure hours come sooner and more often and are more abundantly filled with the pleasure that mankind considers highest and best. To give a man more leisure but leave that leisure vacant would profit him in but little. The university is obligated to improve man's pleasure; to give him a taste for and an appreciation of all that is best and noblest; to teach him to love music and art and literature and life in all their various manifestations; to enjoy contemplation, to appreciate activity, and ever in peace and contentment to take great pleasure in the pursuit of truth and beauty. Thus may a man because of his university education live more serviceable, enjoy more intensely, die more contentedly. And when all these things have been done well the university may feel that in some small degree it has fulfilled its mission. SCHOOL GARDENS CHOOL gardening has become an Sintegral part of some school sys tems. Few school boards have been willing to provide instruction in garden work, and the supervision has generally been left to principals and teachers who volunteer their services. In some cities, however, the work is officially and formally recognized and supervisors are employed by the school boards to direct it. In Memphis, Tenn., a supervisor gives all his time to school gardening, which has been made a part of the regular school course. A part of the work of the children is to keep records of the expenses incurred and of the quantity of vegetables produced. About 30 garden sites, varying from half an acre to an acre, near the respective schools have been secured, fertilized, and plowed. Two thousand boys from the fifth to the eight grades, inclusive, devote one and one-half hours each week to gardening under the supervisor and principal, while the girls of the corresponding grades sew. Both white and colored children receive this instruction. Each boy this year will have a plot 10x20 feet, and he will be held responsible for results. The school board has purchased 1,000 hoes, 500 weeders and 40 wheelbarrows to be used by the boys in their work. The board also furnishes seeds. The boys are encouraged to have home gardens and the interest of parents is stimulated by circular letters. An attempt will be made to induce the seed companies to furnish seed for the boys for their home gardens at wholesale prices. The garden movement in Memphis is not only liberally supported by the school board, but it has been indorsed by the Business Men's Club, the City Club and the Nineteenth Century Woman's Club. It was through the efforts of the Woman's Club that gardening was introduced into the schools several years ago. The following results have been secured: (1) Children have become interested in plant life; (2) waste places have been made useful and beautiful; (3) children have earned some spending money by wholesome and instructive out-door work; (4) fresh vegetables have been furnishes for the home; (5) homes have been made more beautiful and attractive. It is planned by the Memphis school board to procure 20 or more acres near a car line, where the larger boys who are not otherwise employed during the summer months may, under intelligent supervision, make truck gardening profitable and educative. In the city of Los Angeles, Cal., over sixty school gardens are in operation. The largest ones are at Gardena Agricultural High School, where nearly 10 acres are under cultivation, in grain, vegetables, flowers and fruits. The gardens of other schools range in size from a small bed or two to lots 50x200 feet. The latter have usually been loaned by citizens, who are glad to have children clear them and improve them by sightly flowers and vegetable plots. There is a supervisor of gardening, with five assistants. In Cleveland, Ohio; Minneapolis, Minn.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Washington, D. C., also, noteworthy efforts are making along similar lines. A Vocational and Trades School N the city of Yonkers, New York, there is offered a four-year course of school work which, in addition to academic training, is designed as a direct preparation for industrial life. This work commences upon the completion of the regular course of study of the first six grades, and provision is made for both boys and girls. The first two years' work is designated as "vocational training," and the last two as "trade education." The aim in the vocational classes is to present a form of work which will attract those pupils who desire to "find themselves" in some form of handwork, and also to keep in school those pupils who would otherwise drop out if there were not some motivation of the academic subjects; while the object of the trades. school is to prepare its pupils directly for entrance into some specific trade, not to make skilled workmen, but to shorten materially such form of apprenticeship as might be demanded. Classes are limited to twenty pupils each, with boys and girls in separate to make them vital and interesting. Half of each day is devoted to bookwork; the other half to some form of handwork, which is really an intensified form of manual training. In the shops the boys' work consists of such subjects as carpentry, cabinet work, wood turning, pottery work, metal filing, cement construction and drawing; the girls' work consists of sewing, embroidery, cooking, laundering, home-making and dressmaking. For those who wish to secure a more complete knowledge of some particular trade, additional courses of two years are offered in the trades school. Hand and book-work are upon the same basis as in the vocational classes, an equal amount of time being given to each. The English courses offer but little drilling in formal grammar. Instead of this there is extensive work in descriptive English. Supplementary reading includes standard books on invention and discovery, as well as the biography of industrial leaders and inventors. One of the aims is to acquire a technical vocabulary. Mathematics includes such portions of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry as may be applied to the trade work. History consists of a study of the development of mechanical arts, primitive methods, domestic system of labor, factory system, influence of inventions, like the steam engine and sewing ma chine, and manufacturing and dis- second, training for self-support. For tributing. In the trades school courses are conducted only in such trades as require a high degree of skill or in which there is a special demand for trained workers. The training for girls is two-fold in its purposes: First, fitting for supervision and care of household matters; admission to the trades school the applicant must be at least 14 years of age, and must have completed the requisite number of hours, or the equivalent of such, in the grade work of the elementary schools. The average age of pupils in the trades school is 15 years and 8 months. C Early Teaching of French REDIT is given to Catholic missionaries for the first teaching of French in America in a bulletin on modern languages issued by the author of the bulletin, shows that even Bureau of Education. Dr. Handschin, before the English settlements were fairly started, the Jesuits were bringing their language and civilization into the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. In Louisiana French was first taught by the Ursuline nuns, who came from Rouen, France, in 1727. In their convent school they anticipated the demands of present-day language teachers by insisting that instruction both in French and English be not only "in theory, but in practice, the pupils being required to converse daily in both languages." French was a favorite subject in the private schools of colonial days and later. Thomas Jefferson studied French in the school of a certain Mr. Douglass. In Franklin's "Academy of Philadelphia" it was taught as a private outside study until 1754, when a professor of French and German was appointed. In 1790 "The Boarding School (in Bethlehem, Pa.) for the Education of Young Misses" offered instruction in French, stating that "a lady, well versed in this language, has arrived from Europe with the intention to give lessons in the same." An extra charge of "five Spanish dollars per annum" was made for French. In New England the early academies also taught French, frequently as an incidental study with a special fee attached. The numerous Ohio seminaries of the first half of the nineteenth century, especially those for girls, taught it as an optional study, on a par with music and drawing. to a It was some time before French proved its right to a place in the college curriculum. In 1773 the Harvard authorities gave permission native Frenchman named Longloisserie to teach the language to such students as desired it, but this privilege was revoked shortly afterwards because of the dangerous opinions of the teacher. The subject continued to be taught intermittently until 1780, when it became a regular subject; and in 1782 French had so grown in favor that permission was given to substitute it for freshman and sophomore Hebrew. Although William and Mary College established a professorship of modern languages in 1779-80, Amherst, according to Dr. Handschin, was the first institution in America to introduce a thoroughgoing modern language course. French as a high-school subject grew rapidly after 1850. In 1886-87 11 per cent of the students in the public high schools studied the language. The latest figures cited by Dr. Handschin show that over a hundred thousand students in public and private high schools are now taking it. French is little taught in the elementary schools, except where there is a large French population, as in Louisiana. T General College News HE announcement that Columbia's annual budget this year amounts to nearly three and a half million dollars makes it tolerably plain that the operation of the modern university is business on a large scale. It is also further evidence that the receipts from tuition fees of students are never sufficient to cover the expense of educating these students. When an institution's annual outgo is reckoned in the millions it is not cause for won. der that scientific managers discern a new field for their labors and that they are casting covetous glances at the universities of the land. Incidentally, Columbia's estimated receipts for the new year will not cover the estimated expenditures. A probable deficit of $92,000 will have to be met with special gifts. Organization has been completed at the University of California of a school of education or pedagogy, constituted from courses in existing departments and correlated under the tutelage of the five professors of the department of education as that formerly existed. The school of pedagogy by this change assumes a rank and dignity equal to that of the school of jurisprudence or of the college of civil engineering. At the head of the new school are Prof. A. F. Lange, dean of the faculties; Prof. Ira Woods Howerth, director of university extension; Prof. C. E. Rugh, Prof. Richard Gauze Boone and Prof. W. S. Thomas, examiner of schools. These men give their whole time to training teachers in the fundamental educational methods and in the history and theory of pedagogy. A complete and distinct course is afforded for preparation of teachers in uni versity, high school and elementary school courses, including vocational education and playground and other social training. Abolishment of 30 of the degrees now given by the engineering department at the University of Michigan is the action which that department has recommended to the board of regents, and it is expected that the governing body of the university will take affirmative action at its next meeting. The two degrees which will be given. in the future are bachelor of science in engineering and bachelor of architecture. It is planned to have the legend under the degree state what work the holder did to obtain it-civil, mechanical and so forth. A new field of study has been established at Harvard in the way of lectures on Oriental philosophy by Japanese professors. The corporation has received the sum of $20,000, largely subscribed by Japanese graduates of the university, and it is expected that arrangements will be completed so that the lectures will commence next year. Appointments will usually be made on this foundation for two or more years, and it is hoped that it will be possible to obtain professors from the imperial universities of Japan on leave of ab sence. More than a million people took advantage of the "educational trains" sent through the rural districts last year by the State agricultural colleges of 31 States, according to figures compiled by F. B. Jenks, of the Bureau of Education. In this way the colleges have brought knowledge of improved meth ods of farming home to many who would probably never have been reached in any other way. The educational train usually consists of 3 to 10 coaches, well supplied with exhibits and demonstration apparatus, and in charge of practical men who can talk interestingly on the farmer's real problems. The stops made by these trains range from two hours to half a day. Four State colleges-those in Texas, California, Louisiana and Oklahoma-report attendance at the stops of these educational trains of a hundred thousand or more during the season. The Oklahoma institution takes the opportunity to attach to the train a car containing moving-picture views of college activities, thus cleverly attracting the attention of the farm boy to the possibilities of an education at the State College. A bill is before the state legislature of Kansas which will require a fee of $175 for all out-of-state students in the state educational institutions. It is the intention to charge approximately as much as it costs the state for each student enrolled, the bill being promoted by farmer legislators who object to paying for education of men who come from other states. It passed the house and is up before the senate. McGee College, at College Mound, Mo., and Holiness College, at Clarence, Mo., are to be merged into a consolidated school to be located at Clarence. The building used at College Mound was constructed in 1852. It was for a long time an institution of the Presbyterian church. The Holiness denomination acquired the property about twenty years ago. The Holiness church at College Mound operates farms, mines and other enterprises. The removal of the college to Clarence indicates that other enterprises will follow it. The new alumni building at Niagara University, Niagara Falls, N. Y., was burned to the ground on March 14, causing a loss estimated at $100,000. The building, a new three-story structure erected to replace one burned in June, 1909, contained the clubrooms of the college societies and the college chemical laboratory. Chemistry hall, a three-story building, the oldest on the campus at Iowa State College, Ames, erected in 1870, was totally destroyed by fire March 25, with a loss of $75,000. The blaze was caused by explosion of chemicals. A new building to cost $150,000 will be commenced at once to take the place of the one burned. Fire starting in the attic of the Sacred Heart Academy, Owatonna, Minn., early on March 19, caused a loss of $25,000, covered by insurance. Α defective chimney flue is thought to have caused the fire. The buildings and grounds at LeGrand, Iowa, that were for many years the seat of Palmer College, last month passed out of the ownership of the college, and the property will soon be converted to business purposes. The seat of the college work was moved last summer from LeGrand to Albany, Missouri. By formal action of the board of regents of the University of Maryland, an agreement has been ratified by which, after the present scholastic term is completed, the university will absorb the Baltimore Medical College. Agricultural education will form an important section of the International Congress of Agriculture at Ghent, Belgium, in June. More than half the desks and tables in the primary schools of the Philippine Islands were made by the pupils themselves. A new regulation which goes into effect this year at the University of Wisconsin will require every young man and woman applying for a teacher's certificate, to present a certificate |