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OLTING THE HEADS.-Across the street and in good view from the window of this house in this quiet village is the salesman of a "general store." He fills a chair which, standing on its two hind legs, leans against a shady wall. He has been there an hour without disturbance. If anyone wishes to buy anything this hired man will lead the way into the store, find the goods, wrap them, enter the sales in a book and will return to his comfortable and sanitary seat. He also serves who only sits and waits. He typifies the school man and woman of a few years back. Teachers were born, not made. Having been born there was no making obligated upon us schoolmasters. We went to school; we waited upon those who came to us. We gave them what they wanted. There was no Compulsory Attendance law. We shut shop at three o'clock. We were through. George Allen, one of the most charming Latin teachers I ever met, told me in 1897 that he had never, since he left college twenty-five years earlier, read any Latin book outside of school hours. The only Latin he read anywhere was the limited portions of Cæsar, Cicero, and Virgil which his classes had to have. He read those in the schoolhouse only as the children were reciting. In the same year I heard Truman J. Backus, President of the Packer Collegiate Institute, win almost universal handclapping from teachers for exclaiming: "I never have read a book on teaching in my life; thank God!"

Behold the change! There come to the office of this magazine and are turned over

to Professor Rose and his club of twenty reviewers 182 books a year devoted to the profession of teaching and supervision. In 1897 the number of principals and superintendents of my acquaintance whose reading of professional books amounted to the zero of Dr. Backus was notable. Now I don't know one who would dare confess to such a record. The school manager of the type who is satisfied to let the school run while he tilts in the chair seems to be disappearing.

There has been a violent jolt for some of us from the repeated insistence of book writers that school supervision means securing production. How much? How good? How does it compare with other school systems? How much better shall I make it next year? These are the questions forced upon us by the Thorndikes, Morrisons, Strayers, and Buckinghams who are training our successors.

Readiness for September.-This is the time to be thinking seriously about the Fall term. The first September meeting ought to be devoted to the high points of the superintendent's annual report. The contents of it have already been blocked out and much of it written by the efficient superintendent. There is little. use of writing the traditional report. William H. Allen, in this magazine, more than twenty-five years ago, exposed the dreadful waste of a typical school report made up of statistics uninterpreted, financial bookkeeping of dead accounts, self-praise, generalities, and everything issued too late to affect the opening year. Benezet by

may allay any reasonable fears that you have been at fault.

5. The Criticisms do not Hold against the Teaching in Your Schools.-A prominent point in the objections is "an insufficient amount of reference to Americans of different racial ancestry, and to their contribution to the upbuilding of the nation." You will recognize the difficulty of finding any textbook of sufficient simplicity and brevity for school use, which book could contain personal references to all the worthy citizens of various nationalities who have contributed to the happiness and prosperity of America; but you will also be interested to know that in the new course of study in history, under preparation by your committee of teachers, particular stress is laid upon the fact that America is unique among the nations of the world in that its citizenry is composed of people of so many racial strains. The course of study emphasizes the belief of its framers that this is an element of strength in our national composition. The children are taught to discover and to appreciate the value of the gifts of character and temperament, which Americans of Swedish descent, Danish descent, German descent, Polish descent, Jewish descent, Bohemian descent, Greek descent, French descent, Spanish descent, Italian descent, English, or Irish, or Welch, or Scottish descent, Americans of African descent -in fact of every ancestry found in our population have contributed to the artistic, scholarly, scientific, and material wealth of the country.

6. Special Attention is Paid to the Contributors of All Races. These purposes cannot completely be realized in any single study-as, for instance, in history-but are emphasized in the music, in the composition, in the literature, in the art, and in the assembly exercises of the school almost daily. Definite exercises correlating history and citizenship studies with geography, specifically require the children to discover and appreciate the services of the Ericcsons, the Riises, the Von Steubens, the DeKalbs, the Schurzes, the LaFayettes, the L'Enfants, the Hyam Solomons, the Strausses, the Pulaskis, the Kosciuszkos, the Dvoraks, the Carusos, the Farraguts, the Washingtons, the Barrys, the Sheridans, the Boyle O'Reillys, the Jeffersons, the Hugheses, the Carnegies, the Booker Washingtons, etc.

7. Recognition of the Gifts Brought by All the Peoples. Our children are also taught to realize how much of our progress in education we owe to the Americans of German lineage; of our arts, to

those of French descent; of our architecture, to Spanish influence; of our music, to Italian; of our statesmanship and love of freedom, to Irish; of our thrift, to Scottish; of our form of government to English, of various other advantages, to designated people of other races. The emphasis on this is pronounced. As the syllabus says: "An appreciation of the value of the service of outstanding foreign-born citizens, an appreciation of their attitude toward their new citizenship, should be taught daily."

8. Summary. In conclusion, our Chicago course in history is not at fault in any of the points alleged.

Our list of books includes those in use in progressive school systems of America, and endorsed by Catholic dioceses and Lutheran synods.

If we are going to use history textbooks at all as supplementary aids we are dependent upon the present market.

We are teaching our history from our own syllabus and outline and not as based on textbooks.

(Signed) Mabel Crawford, Clarence E. De Butts, Flora C. Dunning, Joseph J. Gonnelly, Wm. Hedges, Morgan Hogge, Edward E. Keener, Chas. Krauskopf, Joseph F. Maclean, Don C. Rogers, Henry W. Summer, Jaroslav J. Zmrhal.

Harnessing the School and City.-"Form and ceremony, stopping at that," says Malcolm McVickar, "are the curse of religion, of government, of education." The emotions aroused must be given action. To pledge allegiance to the Republic every day and do nothing for it is wicked. Evansville, Fairhaven, Lincoln, hundreds of cities, are writing into their courses of study specific civic acts to be performed now, not deferred until John grows up, gets rich, and gives a fountain to his town. Frank Rexford, of the New York City schools has for a dozen years had thousands of boys and girls assisting to keep the city clean. Chicago, every year, when the snow has melted and the scars of winter offend the eye, organizes a city-wide clean-up campaign sponsored by the Association of Commerce. The schools organize a superb coöperative course in cleanliness. They keep score of each child's civic services. In 1925 the total yards cleaned, houses painted, flowers, trees, and shrubs planted,

often 'show more intelligence than their teachers' in refusing to accept 'bunk' at its face value.

"Illustrating what he meant by 'bunk,' he said that it was the common practice to teach school children that the Fifteenth Amendment gave citizenship to negroes of the South, whereas 'every well-informed person knows that while the law says they may vote, white Southerners manage somehow to keep them away from polling places. Still the average teacher continues to tell the children that colored people are citizens.'

"Mr. Keesler, who was one of the youngest teachers attending the meeting, went on to condemn teaching that 'the United States was founded squarely on faith and God and therefor, in contrast to great nations that have risen and fallen in the past, can never fall. As a matter of fact most of the founders of this country were deists or theists.

"School children are taught that patriotism forbids finding fault with our Government. According to this any one who discovers a case of political graft and makes it known is not a patriot.

"He held that the daily salute of the flag in public schools was less conducive to true patriotism than would be a discourse on the hospitality of the American spirit to all sincere persons and their convictions.

"Charles A. Beard, formerly of Columbia, said that history teachers were in a plight because of the many conflicting ideas of what they should teach their pupils.

"Miss Barbara Addis of New Rochelle, speaking on 'Combatting Jingoism,' urged that teachers inculcate a critical attitude in children, teaching them to cultivate their reason rather than their memory. She said that this could be accomplished through debates on historical subjects.

"Edward P. Smith, State Supervisor of History, said that 'history has ceased to be a study of the past,' and urged teachers to show to their pupils the bearing of past events on the present and future."

Student Suicides

When one man lies about the schools of his town it's bad enough, but when newspapers habitually do it every schoolmaster must realize that his duty to educate a generation of truth-loving citizens is still a daily duty. A child suicide in Chicago was printed broadcast as on account of threatened nonpromotion accompanied by reprimand. Investigation showed that the boy had been expressly notified of his coming promotion. Here is the calm conclusion of a physician.

"Dr. L. D. Hubbard of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington has contributed to the Medical Journal and Record a sane discussion of adolescent suicides in which he points out that unstable youths have done away with themselves in all countries and in all ages, a fact which should be impressed on those who look on these tragedies as evidence that the social condition of students today is unusually productive of morbid reactions. He takes little stock in the amateur explanations put forward to account for these examples of self-destruction: 'Overstudy' he holds to be the equivalent to 'I don't know.' He declares that 'such phrases as fear of punishment, remorse for misbehavior, grief over the loss of friend or relative, even desire for knowledge of life after death' familiar in suicide notes, do not disclose the true underlying motive.

"Nor does Dr. Hubbard agree with those who attribute to conflict between home ideals and school standards, to jazz and wild parties, the self-slaying of students. He

and teachers; and probably this is as far as any one can venture in this tragic business." -Medical Journal and Record.

FEAR SUICIDE EPIDEMIC HAS SPREAD TO PUPILS

"With one student dead and a second recovering from a self-inflicted wound at the Palatine Hospital, the authorities of Cook County were alarmed to-day at the suicide epidemic which has swept through American colleges apparently spread to secondary schools.

"J. L. Marks, foreman for the Pennsylvania Railroad and father of Harold Marks, 17 years old, a pupil of the Lindbloom High School, who was found dead in the garage back of his home at 8517 South Hermitage Avenue, insisted that the tragedy was an accident.

"He had been shot over the left eye. A German rifle about seventy-five years old, which had been discharged, was lying across his chest. The father said the boy had become interested in military training and firearms and no doubt was experimenting with modern ammunition in the old rifle when he accidentally discharged it.

"The other youth is John Brasel, Jr., 18 years old, a senior at the Barrington High School, who stabbed himself three times after driving his father's car to the forest preserve two miles north of his home. He was found staggering along Rand Road at Northwest highway, three-quarters of a mile away, by classmates. He had recently been suspended from school and was worried

over his studies, according to his father, who is employed in the National Boiler Works at Barrington."-Chicago Journal.

Jones in the N. Y. Times

That general philosopher, Robinson G. Jones, who directs the public schools of Cleveland, Ohio, is no layman and doesn't belong here, but as this is the place for extracts from the lay periodicals here is where we note that the New York Times found itself printing two and a half columns of good talk by the Clevelander telling what public school service now-a-days is. Education, he says, is no longer intent on the form and content of learning. It seeks objectives. The business of education lays emphasis on duty, the duty of service, the duty of advancing civilization. Doing is the paramount thing. We learn to read, now, by doing things. As children grow older they are given more responsibility to run a great many activities which used to be the sole function of the teacher. There is an amazing amount of self-government, student councils, honor study halls and similar things. The schools are consciously giving exercises in self control, courage, honesty, loyalty, and responsibility.

School Uniforms

Complete regulation uniforms are required of every girl attending the San Diego, California, high school with the opening of the new school term.-School Board Journal.