the Universal Exposition in Paris, 1900, and at the Nature Study Exhibition held in London in 1902. The suggestions of this course can readily be adapted by teachers of rural schools to the material which nature offers in their several localities.

Nature study may be regarded as the first step in a rational endeavor to promote interest in agriculture as a branch of study for secondary schools. Practical efforts in this direction in this country are for the most part in the experimental stage, and therefore can not, at present, be represented in systematic form or order. Various aspects of this subject are illustrated in the exhibit by monographs and leaflets, and by photographs showing the equipment for teaching agriculture, classes at work in field and laboratory, etc. This material is not confined to secondary schools but includes every stage of the instruction from elementary schools to colleges, and thus emphasizes the unity of purpose thruout the whole range of the instruction.

The equipment of rural schools for the study of nature, commercial geography, and kindred subjects is vastly increased by traveling museums. Specimen museums or collections have been supplied to this exhibit by Professor D. C. Ridgley of the State Normal University, Normal, Illinois; Mr. W. P. Wilson, Director of the Philadelphia Museums, and Mr. George H. Sherwood, Curator of the Museum of Natural History, New York, and by the National Department of Agriculture.

The progress made in art instruction during the past two decades is perhaps the most impressive fact in the history of public education in this country, but in this progress rural schools have had little part. The inequality between city and country children in this respect is a national loss, for, without early training, the esthetic sense lies dormant and the higher forms of industrial art are unattainable. The principles and methods of instruction in this branch must be the same for all schools. Rural schools, however, have at hand a wealth of material for the study of natural forms and color harmonies. Hence, in the presentation of this subject in the ex

hibit of the Bureau, special prominence has been given to the use of such material as a basis of art instruction. The subject is presented under two aspects: First, selected work of pupils to illustrate what may be accomplished in rural schools under competent instruction. This collection has been arranged to show all the different mediums commonly in use in the schools, and to suggest a course in art instruction arranged to follow the calendar and come as far as possible into connection with nature study, language, and history. For this instructive presentation, the Bureau is indebted to Mr. Henry Bailey of North Scituate, Massachusetts, one of our national delegates to the International Congress on Art Teaching, London, 1908. The second aspect of art instruction, namely, that of the adequate preparation of teachers for this branch, is presented by a series of selected plates, the work of students in the Massachusetts Normal Art School.

Closely related to the problem of art instruction for common schools is that of the forms of manual training adapted to pupils of high school grade. This problem is practically the same for all communities. Hence, the solutions worked out under favorable conditions are universally instructive. They are illustrated by several collections in the Government exhibit including a graded course of manual training equally adapted to city and country high schools. This series was selected and arranged by Dr. Calvin M. Woodward, influential in originating manual training high schools in this country. The bearings of industrial art education on home and social life are also brought to view by a few exhibits showing the application of design and modeling in the decoration of textiles and comparatively inexpensive articles intended for home use or decoration. These articles, as the labels show, have all been contributed by well-known promoters of industrial art equally interested in its educational and commercial aspects.

In addition to these features, the exhibit of the Bureau includes illustrations of recent experiments for extending the scope or strengthening the social influence of rural public schools. Many of these experiments will undoubtedly be

transient, but they all arise from impulses that are working valuable and lasting changes in the spirit and trend of public education.

It is hoped that teachers and school officers will freely avail themselves of the opportunity thus afforded by the National Bureau for the study of special features of education, and for professional meetings and conferences. The section will be open at all times. Special appointments for the conference room, and documents intended for circulation, may be secured by addressing Mr. James C. Boykin, Acting Representative of the Interior Department at the Alaska-Yukon Exposition.

The National Education Asso

The program bulletin for the Denver meeting of the National Education Association gives ciation at Denver evidence of unusual care in its preparation on the part of President Harvey, Secretary Shepard, and their associates, and gives ground for the assurance that the meeting will be on a par with the best of its predecessors. The general sessions open on the evening of Monday, July 5, and deal with such practical topics as industrial education, citizenship, rural school conditions, public health, and normal education. The council will hold its first session on the morning of July 3. The attendance from the Middle West and the Southwest is sure to be very large and enthusiastic, and it is to be hoped that the states on the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards will send delegations of unusual size.

The Study of the English Bible

In this REVIEW for April, there was published in full the Report of the Conference on Uniform Entrance Requirements in English, which report will guide the secondary school teaching of English thruout the United States for the years next following 1912. Perhaps the most important single feature of that report has thus far escaped general attention. For the first time recognition is given to the desirability of studying the English Bible in the secondary schools as a literary

classic, and parts of the Bible having particular significance for this purpose are indicated. It may be hoped that with this new support and stimulus the youth of the United States will be led back to the familiarity with the form and content of the biblical literature which their parents and grand-parents possest, but which they have for the most part lost. Few things are sadder than the destruction and dissipation of that familiarity with the English Bible which has so long been the shaping force in English literature. The pathetic internecine warfares of the several Christian sects have steadily discredited the significance of the Christian tradition as a whole. It may be that the time has now come when the narrowness and pettiness that have resisted the study of the Bible, unless such study could be twisted to partisan and sectarian ends, will be overcome by that broader and more catholic spirit which aims to preserve the knowledge of the greatest of English classics and its literary influence.

The Problem of

The newspapers report an exceptionally College Admission important contribution to the permanent solution of the ever present problem of college admission which has been made by Columbia University. The first public statement concerning the plan was made by President Butler at the last meeting of the Schoolmasters' Association of New York and vicinity. Beginning with the next academic year the faculties of Columbia College, of Barnard College, and of Applied Science are to discontinue their separate committees on admission and to unite in the constitution and maintenance of a single committee on undergraduate admission for the whole university. As Chairman of this committee, Dr. Adam Leroy Jones, now a preceptor at Princeton, has been appointed, and he will have, for the present at least, no other task or academic duty than to study questions which present themselves in connection with the admission of undergraduate students, and to serve as the executive officer of the new committee. It is proposed in the first place that this new committee and its chairman shall deal much more largely than has hitherto been the case with appli

cants for undergraduate admission as individuals. The human element will be emphasized and brought to the fore, and the transition from secondary school to college will be treated not as an end in itself or as involving some great intellectual and moral revolution, but simply as one stage or step in the educational progress and development of the candidate.

Columbia University is one of the few remaining institutions which insists upon an examination of all candidates for undergraduate admission, unless they are transferred with advanced standing from other degree-conferring institutions. A vital feature of the new Columbia plan is that hereafter each applicant for undergraduate admission will be required. to present a certified copy of his secondary school record, and weight will be given to that record, in connection with the results of his formal examination, when the question of a candidate's admission is past upon. For example, if a candidate has spent three or four full years in one and the same secondary school, weight would be attached to a record of his performance there, equal to that attached to the examination itself. If, on the other hand, he had past his secondary school period in several different institutions, doubtless somewhat less weight would be attached to the record of his performance. Columbia will maintain its present opposition to the certificate plan of college admission. It intends to insist upon the educational advantages which attach to the college entrance examination, but at the same time to meet the just criticisms leveled against that examination when it is used as the sole test of a candidate's fitness for admission to college.

The announcement of the new Columbia plan was commended by the secondary schoolmasters who heard it, in most unqualified terms. One speaker hailed it as the long-hopedfor solution of the problem of college admission; a solution which did not yield to the seductions of the certificate plan, but which relieved the examination system of the serious criticisms so often lodged against it. The working of the new plan at Columbia will doubtless be watched with keen interest in all parts of the country.