the Board and without a doubt will also obtain in the future. Finally, every one who has carefully examined the workings of the Board must be deeply imprest with the intention of the movement which it has undertaken to foster, and the manner in which this intention has been carried out. Its field of opportunity, however, is by no manner of means exhausted, since its very endeavors have already immeasurably widened the opportunities for further usefulness. Education, it hardly need be said, is not static in any of its many stages; it is, in fact, one of the most mobile of human activities and the time to say: Here shall we rest! will never arrive. This is particularly true of American education, which is still in a formative period of its development, and many years must elapse before we can arrive at any considerable degree of perfection of organization in a wide sense or of positive educational result. That the General Education Board has helped in a wholly tangible manner to bring about these conditions can not seriously be doubted. The term "beneficient activity" has been variously applied to organized forms of human effort. It can surely be applied with perfect definiteness to this. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY WILLIAM H. CARPENTER STANDARDIZATION OF SCHOOL PRODUCTS In the EDUCATIONAL REVIEW of December, 1914, Mr. Paul Klapper contributes an article on the Efficiency of class instruction. With the general thesis of the article every educationalist must of necessity be in sympathy; it is in fact but a popular account of the recent tendencies associated with the name of Professor Thorndike. If I may be allowed, however, to trespass upon your valuable space, I should like to point out a grave inconsistency and what appears to be a false criticism in this article. On page 510, Mr. Klapper makes the statement: "In all standards we must avoid subjective formulations." He then proceeds to attack Prof. McMurry for the lack of objectivity of his standards for judging class room instruc tion. This position is perfectly logical if Mr. Klapper assumes that only standards which are perfectly objective are of service. But this is just the position he attacks, for in the very next paragraph he remarks in a somewhat patronizing way: "Need we stop to remind our friends in the psychological laboratories that not all the benign influences of education can be measured?" To criticize a writer because his standards are subjective, and later to state that subjective standards must of necessity be a considerable element in judging instruction is surely to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. The obvious way in which Mr. Klapper fails to appreciate the movement for the standardization of school products is again shown on page 513, where he actually states that "85% as a class average in subjects like arithmetic or grammar is not excessive." In an article on the standardization of school products, the author might just as well have written x%, for 85% is surely the most glaring of all subjective measurements. What 85% means is absolutely unknown and unknowable: "quot homines, tot sententiae." WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY J. CROSBY CHAPMAN SYSTEMATIC VOCABULARY BUILDING In the issue of the EDUCATIONAL REVIEW for December, 1914, there is, p. 494, an erroneous statement by Professor Edward L. Thorndike that I, in fairness, can not let pass unnoticed. In speaking of textbooks in German, French and Latin, Professor Thorndike maintains that not a single book makes use of "the commonest large class of bonds," i. e., antonyms. Our initial book, the Walter-Krause Beginners' German, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912, is based upon that very principle. For example: Lesson I: Heute-morgen (gestern); ist-war (wird-sein); faul-fleissig; laut-leise; die Frage-die Antwort; der Herr-das Fräulein. Lesson II: erst-letzt; gut-schlecht; frisch-müde; frohtraurig; die Arbeit-das Spiel. Lesson III: Aufmerksam-unaufmerksam; kurz-lang. We consider the teaching of opposites a most natural way of imparting a vocabulary. Our book was the first of its kind in America. JAMAICA HIGH SCHOOL, New York CARL A. KRAUSE VIII Practical handbook of modern library cataloging. By WILLIAM WARNER BISHOP. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Co., 1914. * * 150 p. $1.00. The important points to notice about Mr. Bishop's Handbook are that it is practical, and that it relates to modern cataloging. It was needed because most treatments of the problems of cataloging are theoretical rather than practical, and secondly, because, as he points out, the printed catalog card has revolutionized the science of library cataloging. His chapter on the use of printed catalog cards should be read in connection with the Handbook of card distribution issued by the Library of Congress, which describes in detail the method of acquiring Library of Congress printed cards. There can be no disagreement with Mr. Bishop's statement that "The purchase and use of printed catalog cards is the order of the day in practically all libraries of any size in the country," and only one word of warning seems to be necessary to libraries now using or about to use such cards. There is danger that too great reliance will be placed on printed cards so that catalogers, even with books before them, will work from the cards rather than from the books. In other words, there is a real danger of superficiality in cataloging. This, however, is a danger which is easily obviated by supervision and which to no appreciable degree militates against the use of the cards. Printed cards have unquestionably come to stay, since there are already nine important libraries which are printing their cards and offering them for sale to other libraries. A handbook which, like the present one, gives the result of practical experience in using these cards will have its effect on standardization, and increase the possibilities of world-wide cooperation in the production of catalog cards. A similar book, dealing with the practical problems of classification, is much needed, to be used in connection with Dr. E. C. Richardson's excellent treatise on the same subject. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY FREDERICK C. HICKS One of the few scholars in the United States who has a full and clear knowledge of men and things in the southern hemisphere is Professor William R. Shepherd of Columbia University. His little volume entitled Latin America which has just appeared in the Home University Library is quite the best and most compact setting forth of conditions in the twenty republics that make up the Latin America of today that we have seen. Both for the traveler and for the general reader this book will be found to offer an admirable approach to the whole subject. (New York: Henry Holt & Company. 1914. 256 p. 50 c.) We are somewhat suspicious of so-called Language Methods, but we can not withhold our admiration from the industry and practical skill shown in the group of volumes which constitute Hossfeld's Series. Of these one deals with French, one with Spanish, one with English, one with Portuguese and one with Italian. They are cast in a single mold and are intended to enable the student to arrive at practical results rather than to give him the systematic culture that comes from the best type of language study. (Philadelphia: Peter Reilly. 1914.) A pleasant little reading book with good vocabulary for beginners in French is offered in Recit et contes de la guerre de 1870, edited with the usual apparatus for classroom use by Mary Stone Bruce of the Brearley School, New York. (New York: Henry Holt & Company. 1914. 174 p. 70 c.) In the Oxford French Series the latest volume is George Sand's François le champi, edited by Professor Searles of Stanford University. (New York: Oxford University Press. 1914. 291 p. 60 c.) |