economy and dispatch. To 'master details like these is to acquire technique. It is no small part of the principal's supervisory duty to see to it that his teachers become aware of and begin to adopt the best practice in such matters. As to the sixth outcome to be expected from building supervision, I wish to mention the application of the modern principles of psychology to the teaching process. A wealth of suggestive material awaits those teachers with the intelligence and the inclination to follow the recent developments in psychology. Possibly nothing more fruitful and promising for education has ever occurred. At all events, the dynamic psychology of the hour ties up at every point with the major aims of supervision as here outlined, the encouragement of initiative, the individualizing of instruction, the reorganization of subject matter, and the improvement of teaching method and technique. Not every teacher can discover for himself the implications of the new psychology. It remains for supervisors to suggest specific ways in which psychology may make the experiences of the school more fruitful for children. Set forth in brief and inadequate fashion, these are some of the large results which good supervision is bound to secure. Just a word as to the spirit and method of that supervision. There may be some doubt as to a teacher's ability to successfully put anything over on the children. There is no doubt at all as to the impossibility of a supervisor's putting over on the teachers. This thing cannot be imposed from without. There must be singleness of purpose throughout to make education count. There must be substantial agreement on, and adequate comprehension of, the general aims and objectives of the school and of each course. With thorough understanding and mutual respect established there must be cordial cooperation in achieving the common purpose. As a scheme for mere inspection, for securing uniformity, for maintaining the lock-step, for exalting a sad and stupefying routine, for sup pressing the unexpected and the inconvenient, supervision is truly a fearsome thing. But as a co-operative enterprise designed to discover capacities, to release powers, and to develop resources, to help each teacher make the most of himself, to gear up the group so that each may help the other, to discover and make attractive and effective the best practice, as such Х an enterprise it is possible that co-operative supervision may win joyful assent and the right to the best thought of the school principal. The Child I am the unmoulded clay of the era to come; I am the plastic nerve-throbbing bundle of flesh, Seething at the gate of the Spirit; My little heart, hungry for the beautiful plaything, And pulsating with the ache for the loveliness of the Future, I am the pathfinder of civilizations, yet unborn, The creator of star-worlds, unbelievable; I am the wave, washing away the shores of the Impossible; Master-bards and sages that have gone before, Have toiled in vain, for I shall surpass them; Of the Nobler Song, Of the New Vision; I am the germ-plasm of Eternity, The nucleus of Eons to come, The creation that is to be,- BERNARD HIRSHBERG, Elijah D. Clark Jr. High School, How to Study Shakespeare in the High School T J. MILNOR DOREY, TRENTON, N. J. BRANCHES HE study of Shakespeare and his plays is befogged by too much erudition. A clear estimate of his life is prevented by the silly Baconian controversy, and a sane understanding of his plays by too much linguistics. The best way to understand Shakespeare, of course, is to act his plays, and no high school should let a year pass without permitting pupils to memorize scenes from his plays and enact them before the school. Class room study, however, should furnish the following three elements for a sufficient background to a satisfactory understanding of the text: (1) It should accept those authenticated facts of Shakespeare's life which explain where he secured the material for his plays and how he could have written them. (2) It should include some study of the history of the drama and of the condition of the theater in that time. (3) It should dwell somewhat upon the social conditions of the day in England, as atmosphere to dramatic structure. (1) It is unfortunate that the facts of Shakespeare's life are meagre, but those that we know are well attested by reputable records, and furnish a clear and reasonable basis of insight into his character. He was born at Stratford, England, April 23, 1564, of prosperous parents. He received a good education in the town grammar school, which included Latin, French, and, probably, Italian, as well as elementary mathematics and science. The frequency of Biblical quotations in his plays bears out the sound training he received as a boy in the Church of England. The miscellaneous knowledge of birds, flowers, sports, folk lore, and the mechanical crafts so evident in his plays, can again be traced to his early habits and environment. The evidences of a smattering of law, medicine, theology, and other learned professions running through the plays, are sustained by the records of his voracious reading in Queen Elizabeth's library at Kenilworth, access to which we have reason to believe was granted him. In 1582 he married Ann Hathaway, and in 1585 he left Stratford to make his fortune in London as an actor in the company under the patronage of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and friend of Queen Elizabeth, through whom he received his start. From an actor of small parts and general utility man the transition to maker-over of old plays was, to one of Shakespeare's mental ability, easy. Soon he became the writer of original plays, and, supplementing his wide early education with still wider reading and experiences in life, we can readily ascertain the sources of his prolific pen. Meanwhile he became rich, and though he had his reverses-loss of friends, prestige and property-he uniformly maintained the position of the leading playwright of his time. About 1610 he retired to Stratford, there to write a few plays, but more exactly to enjoy the fruits of an honored life. He died April 23, 1616, and lies under the chancel of the parish church, a spot visited by more pilgrims than any other shrine. This brief sketch, dealing with the essentials of Shakespeare's life, is of sufficient biographical value to warrant credence to all that is claimed for the great poet. Supplementary reading can trace through the records of public and private data all the external evidence of his plays,—his scholastic record, his associates, his travels, his public enterprises in London, and his later studies. We know that he read Plutarch's "Lives," the sources of his classic plays; that the libraries contained all the medieval romances, the sources of his Italian comedies; and that he was versed in English, Scottish and Danish history, the sources of his historical plays. The internal evidence in his plays reveals many factors that entered into contemporary life, the Essex rebellion, the death of his son Hamnet, the intrigue of friends, unrequited love, popular superstitions, passing race prejudices, the revival of learning, and the glamour of a gay Elizabethan life. Bacon with his formal mind and scientific training and with his busy political life, could never have written thirty-seven plays besides other verse, all showing poetic fancy and artistic treatment. Here follows a list of his plays, so grouped as to show at a glance the years in which they were written and the development of his treatment. The early years of his life were prolific in comedy, and the style is gay, fanciful, crammed with figures and poetic allusions. They demonstrate a youthful life, flushed with prosperity and public applause. Then follow the tragedies, sombre, heavy in style, philosophical in treatment, reflecting the sorrows and troubles of a career now. feeling the storm and stress of life. The last group, embracing his better histories and his later comedies, indicates his period of retirement, the plays showing maturity of thought and a style chastened and dignified. The manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays reveal that he had little thought of their ever being published. Indeed, it was seven years after his death before any were printed in book form. The chief edition of his works was called the Folio. To be sure, quarto editions of some of his plays appeared during his life, but the Folio form has survived. 1590-1593. Comedies-Love's Labor's Lost, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Comedy of Errors. Histories-Richard II. Tragedies-Romeo and Juliet, Titus Andronicus. 1594-1600. Comedies-Merchant of Venice, Midsummer Night's |