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THE 1929 Yearbook.-It is a big job to prepare the yearbooks of the Department of Superintendence. Before one volume is completed the next must be well under way. For more than a year the Commission on Articulation of Educational Units has been at work. The first meeting was at Dallas in February, 1927. The next session was in Chicago in April, and the third at New York University in November. The object of the investigations which this Commission is making, roughly defined, is to simplify the progress of pupils from one grade to another by ascertaining the points at which greatest difficulties arise and seeking means of overcoming them. Every one knows that young people have the most trouble in the sharp breaks between elementary school and high school, and between high school and college. Perhaps an economy of time may ultimately be secured by eliminating overlapping courses and eliminating subject matter of minor value. The Commission is diligently seeking remedies which have been found effective by various school systems in solving these problems. Five general phases of the articulation program have been blocked out and a committee appointed to study each phase. It is planned to publish the first reports in the 1929 Yearbook, and then to undertake more extended research to be presented in the 1931 Yearbook.

Elementary Education.-Herbert S. Weet, superintendent of schools, Rochester, New York, chairman of the Commission, is active head of the Committee on Elementary Education. His associates are Fannie W.

Dunn, Teachers College, Columbia University, I. Jewell Simpson, State Department of Education of Maryland, and Principal George D. Taylor of Rochester. The problem of elementary pupil promotion is to be attacked from three angles. (1). A study of the actual facts and promotion procedures as they now exist is to be made. (2). These procedures are to be analyzed with a view to determining how effective they are. (3). Conclusions are to be formulated in the light of all the evidence as to what may be done to improve conditions. Migration of children from one school to another within a local school system, migration from one community to another, time of exposure to school work, grade placement of curriculum materials and deviation between mental age and chronological age of children will receive attention. Superintendents of schools will be called upon to report pupil failures for each grade and for each subject, with reasons for failure whenever such information is available. Administrative and supervisory practices are to be studied. It is thought that pupils cumulative record cards may furnish valuable information.

Secondary Education.-The Committee on Articulation in the Secondary School Field of which Jesse H. Newlon of Lincoln School, Teachers College, Columbia University, is chairman, is preparing a statement of current practices in secondary education. Such significant facts as that fifty-five per cent. of the pupils of Colorado are without high school privileges will be brought into focus with the marvelous achievements which we

are more inclined to stress. Shall high schools exclude pupils who do not manifest ability to profit by present courses, or should they encourage attendance by all normal youth and provide programs appropriate to the needs and capacities of each one? To quote one member of the Committee, “We can work around the edges and try to relieve the situation by devising ways and means of bringing the personnel of junior and senior high schools together, but that does not get at the fundamental issue of improving high school education. A curriculum built to meet a new statement of purposes of secondary education would not look like the one that prevails in most high schools today." Another phase of the articulation problem suggested for study by the secondary committee is the relationship between superintendents of schools, elementary, junior high school and senior high school principals. What administrative measures or steps are taken, within various school systems to bring about better understanding and unity not only between school principals, but also between faculties of elementary, junior, and senior high schools?

Professional and Higher Education.-Chancellor Samuel P. Capen of the University of Buffalo, chairman of the Committee on Professional and Higher Education, reported that the self-criticism of many higher institutions was more widespread than many people supposed. Thus far, these criticisms have not been brought together and this will be the first step in the work of his Committee. Later, the Committee will prepare a summary of such studies in this field as those which have been made by the American Medical Association. Dr. Charles H. Judd of the University of Chicago, a member of the Committee, suggested that college entrance requirements are much more lenient than the average superintendent of schools thinks they are, for the average superintendent thinks of college entrance requirements in terms of thirty years ago. Dr. Thomas H. Briggs of Teachers College, Columbia University, said that difficulties often arise

through unwise selection of a college for their children by parents, and the bringing of undue pressure on the local high school to meet the requirements of this particular college. The Committee will seek to establish relations with a number of colleges to discover why graduates of particular high schools fail in college. Such a relationship exists between the Rochester high schools and the University of Rochester, where it has been found that certain contentions were based on general impressions rather than on facts. It was agreed that a large part of the public still thinks that children should take old-time college preparatory subjects. Parents took Latin and higher mathematics, and so they feel that their children should do the same.

Adult Education.-This Committee has under consideration such problems as the encouragement of the United States Census Bureau to gather more accurate data in 1930 relative to illiteracy; articulation of evening high schools and Y. M. C. A. high schools with day high schools and colleges; work of continuation schools and such schools as the Denver Opportunity School; opportunities for adult education through Parent-Teacher Associations; university extension work given in public school buildings. Not age, but the equalization of educational opportunity is the determining factor in prescribing educational service to be offered under public auspices. Adults undertake and pursue education when they consider it worth their time and effort. Public educational policies and programs should be adopted and educational opportunities provided on the basis of discovered adult human needs and desires. Public educational administrators should seek to discover what adults wish to learn. Carroll R. Reed, superintendent of schools, Bridgeport, Connecticut, is chairman of this committee.

Teacher Training Institutions.-Dean John W. Withers of the School of Education, New York University, as chairman of the Committee on Articulation in Teacher

Training Institutions, presented an outline of a three years program. The report for the first year, which is to appear in the 1929 Yearbook, will be based on the study of a few selected state school systems typical of the best articulation of teacher training agencies in state education, together with the study of four or five city school systems which maintain their own teacher training agencies. It is hoped to make comparison of judgment of high school principals as to fitness of prospective normal school candidates, with later judgment of normal school faculties, and with still later judgment of school principals and superintendents with whom the candidates teach after graduation. This is to be supplemented by a study of the supply and demand for teachers. The relation of salaries paid teachers of ability to recruit capable young people for teacher training institutions is to be investigated. The need for the internal articulation of teacher training institutions was stressed. As it is now, many curriculums are up-sidedown. They offer courses in methods of teaching subject matter before they offer courses in the subject matter itself. Someone ventured the opinion that the tendency for normal schools to become teachers colleges was not always the result of a demand on the part of the public for four years training of teachers, but from the desire on the part of the normal schools for academic respectability.

When the Bills are Due.-In its final report, the Commission on the Curriculum stated that immediate steps should be taken to provide more adequately for financing the Department's program of educational research. The expenses of the Commission on the Curriculum were met by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of $5,000 a year for three years. Expenses of future yearbook committees must be met from other sources. Since the funds of the Department of Superintendence are limited, the problem The Commission on the Curriculum prepared a statement to the effect that "the Commission is of the opinion

that it would be advantageous for American education at this juncture to secure in a systematic way a sufficiently large educational foundation for purposes of research, so that work similar to that which the Commission on the Curriculum has had the opportunity to carry on, may be projected in other lines. The Commission submits the outcome of its own work as evidence of the fact that a relatively small fund makes possible a very much more extended inquiry than would be possible without such fund."

A committee was appointed to devise ways and means of putting the Commission's recommendation into effect. This committee met in Cleveland recently and outlined a plan for raising a permanent fund, the income from which is to be used for educational research. Donations are to be sought from many sources. The beginnings are likely to be in small amounts from school executives and their friends. In time, it is hoped that the plan will appeal to large contributors. The committee consists of Superintendent Randall J. Condon, Cincinnati, Ohio, chairman; Vice-President Leonard P. Ayres, Cleveland Trust Company; Superintendent Frank W. Ballou, Washington, D. C.; Superintendent Frank D. Boynton, Ithaca, New York, Director Charles H. Judd, School of Education, University of Chicago.

The total current receipts of the Department of Superintendence for the year 1927 were $39,252.56. The balance carried over from the previous year was $10,005.56, making a total of $49,258.12. The total expenditures were $39,883.44 leaving a balance of $9,374.68 in the treasury at the end of the year.

I Heard America Singing.-Pupils of the Printing Trades School of the Cincinnati public schools again have demonstrated their capacity for fine workmanship. In a beautiful little booklet recently printed at the school and distributed to members of the Department of Superintendence, the closing scene at the Dallas Convention of 1927 is

described by Henry Turner Bailey, Director of the Cleveland School of Art. Mr. Bailey, like all the rest of us who were fortunate enough to be in the Fair Park Auditorium at that final session, was thrilled by the beauty of the stage crowded with singers and players and by the charm of the splendid music. In his hotel room late that night, Mr. Bailey set down his impressions of what he had seen. and heard. "I Heard America Singing," was the title he gave to what he had written. Perhaps a few quotations will not be out of place.

"It was at Dallas. For five days the education of the children of our country had been discussed. On this last evening of the convention the auditorium was packed with school officials from every state in the Union. When the curtain rose five thousand pairs of hands applauded, for the stage held eight hundred rosy-cheeked boys and girls dressed in pure white-the best singers in the Dallas elementary schools. For an hour they sang never missing a word or a note, without a scrap of paper before their eyes. They saw only their leader—a little woman they loved. The last third of their program was the entire cantata of Rip Van Winkle rendered with a sweetness possible only in the voices of children who sing because they love to sing.

"When the curtain rose the second time the scene was changed. Against a background of old gold and copper-color silk, made richer by a low central panel at the back of the stage, of clouded blue, appeared for the first time in the history of the National Education Association, the National High

School Orchestra. Two hundred and sixtysix boys and girls from thirty-nine states sat there with their handsome instruments: Five instruments of percussion, six tubas, seven bassoons, eight oboes, ten clarionets, ten French horns, ten trombones, eleven trumpets of silver, twelve harps of gold, twelve flutes, nineteen basses, twenty-six cellos, thirty-two violas, and ninety-eight violins.

"It was a delight to watch those young faces, having the features of every nation under heaven, but alight with the common joy of coöperative achievement. In that orchestra boys from Wisconsin sat next girls from Florida; girls from Texas next boys from California. The children from Maine and Utah, from Nebraska and Georgia, from Oregon and Massachusetts, all looked equally beautiful and played equally well. There were forty-six from Michigan, twenty-four from Pennsylvania, nineteen from Ohio, sixteen from Kansas, but no human eye could have segregated them. They were all America's own, and all adorable.

"No one who saw these young men and maidens and heard them play will ever forget it. It was like a vision of the world that is to be a glimpse of the company out of every nation and kindred and tribe, before the throne of God, whose anthem of praise is like the sound of the sea. And then, led by this youthful orchestra, the audience sang "Now the day is over." And I heard the great true heart of my country singing as never before, and the harmony was as rich and deep as human brotherhood itself."

JUSTIN MCCARTHY.

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Nature Study

ATURE-STUDY is the normal reaction of the young mind to the beauties and wonders of nature. It stands to reason that this reaction can only be complete out in the open where all things natural are in their proper setting, and can therefore be rightly interpreted. Intercourse with nature means enjoyment and leads to an understanding of her ways, thus marking out the way of science.

"It is the definite aim of nature-study in education to provide the pupils opportunity to realize by actual experience the point of view and method of work of the scientist, thus taking them a little way along one of the main roads of human achievement. The pupils are taken for rambles into the country or they work in field or garden. This provides the fundamental experience of seeing nature as a whole. At once phenomena of special interest claim special attention, arouse curiosity, and call for inquiry. If the inquiry is pursued and the problem solved, the scientific process has been experienced. This entails observation, investigation, and reflection. The whole process may be carried out in the open, but it frequently happens that the experiences and discoveries cannot be followed up then and there, but must await treatment at home, in the class-room, or laboratory. Thus, while life out of doors is an inspiration, presents puzzles and provides actual concrete material for investigation, work in the laboratory should be a process of practical investigation and reflection.

"While thus determining the relation which exists between nature-study out of doors and in the class-room, it is fully realized that many schools are, for reasons of

administration or urban conditions, debarred from organizing field-work as an integral process in scientific training. Whereas many schools can only with difficulty and on rare occasions arrange school rambles, the number of schools in which excursions form no part at all of the school programme is rapidly decreasing. We may therefore assume that vigorous and profitable nature-study in the class-rooms has its counterpart in exploration out of doors. On the subject of such field-work, hard and fast lines as to preparation and procedure cannot be laid down. They must be free and joyous, and they must provide the entirely unexpected. They must, in fact, be an adventure. Nevertheless, to refrain from all organization, and to make no preparation means that valuable time is wasted and opportunities are missed.

"General Organization of Nature Rambles. -Just as in the freedom-loving schools of the present day, the function of the teacher is to prepare for his pupils an environment in which self-expression is possible and opportunity is given to each for the proper exercise of instincts and tendencies that make for good in the life of a community; so the teacher makes preparation for the nature-study rambles. The destination of the party is decided upon, and the exact region covered is also determined. It stands to reason that the teacher must previously go over the ground. It sometimes happens that there is no choice of region, that the school is so situated that only one place with facilities for nature-study can be visited; then it must serve all purposes."-C. VON WYSS.

The Research Spirit in Education "It appears to be an undisputed fact that the world of to-day is beset by an infinite