those teacher bell-hops who page their pupils expect to hit his readers in the eye by telling them to "take page 20 for to-morrow"? Imagine the enthusiasm, the hurrying and the skurrying from his readers in their mad rush to "take page 20." Think how long he would hold his job if he depended upon this type of an attention compeller to "knock his readers dead." The traditional assignments of the teacher: "Take page 20," or "Tell all you can about Columbus" is as much of an attention catcher as a dirty finger nail in a third grade-to paraphrase Ring Lardner.

And remember that the publicist can never make the intimate, personal appeal that the teacher can. His readers (class) may be as far apart as the poles. His class (the public) contains people of all ages having a multitude of intellectual levels, and with an infinite variety of interests.

The teacher's class may, in some cases, contain as many as fifty or a hundred, but the publicist using as a text book, The Saturday Evening Post, boasts of a class of

3,000,000 or more.

What time your publicist spends in the preparation of the attention bomb that he is to throw at his class! What resourcefulness he must have! How he must select and reject, weigh and qualify, organize and coupleup! "Only creative ability of a peculiar type can put drama, mastery, fire and feeling into developing an idea to its utmost in earning power." In fine, the publicist must have the electrifying expression which will make the uninteresting absorbing and the interesting irresistible.

In order to add variety and suggestiveness to his attention appeal, he makes the world of literature, science, history and current events his oyster. Back to the Wooden Horse of Troy he goes to dramatize the idea of alibis and subterfuges. He couples up the popularity of Joesting and The Thundering Herd to popularize the C. B. and Q. Railroad. To make the attention value more alluring and colorful, the finest artists are called upon to emblazon the idea. Typographical craftsmen contribute their share

in selection of type and the distribution of white space. After hours of planning, consultation, and deliberation, the publicist's assignment (advertisement) is ready to be put before his class.

Teachers, realizing the futility of some of their practices are beginning to re-define some of their terms. For example:-LEARNING. In ante bellum days, the term, learning, connoted memorizing. One had learned a thing when he could regurgitate it during the examination period. "Being through the book three times" was another way of expressing the common acceptance of the meaning of the word.

Modern educational haberdashers, recognizing the inadequacy of the term, have clothed it with a new meaning-fitted it with a Hart, Schafner and Marx a la mode. No more does the mere memorizing of a word or the ability to tell it on an occasion clothe it in its twentieth century meaning.

Educational practitioners - Kilpatrick, Morrison-now measure learning by the tape line of use. They say that one has learned a thing only when he uses it in the activities of every-day life; when it has changed his outlook-changed him.

The most ardent supporters of our educational régime must admit that there is not as much real learning as there should be. They see the high school student after four years spent in learning the "college entrance requirements," go over to the tabloids with a hop, skip and a jump after he gets out in the world. A college professor asks, “Where is the excitement, the stress, the strain, the triumphs, thrills, joys and lingering memories-in short the Kick-in the traditional class? It isn't there!"

The publicist must educate his students (consumers) to use his product day in and day out for years. He 'must make the consumer feel the need of Ivory or Kellogg's every time there is soap or a breakfast food to be used. He would consider it the utmost folly and waste to have his students (consumers) read Shakespeare for a year during the college course and then allow the Bard to lie dusty and unread on the

I'

IN ALL school organization and supervision there is no weaker spot than the selection of textbooks. In the larger cities where there are highly trained experienced supervisors who guide the teachers in curriculum study the work of finding text books to meet the needs goes on in a more systematic way. But this occurs only in the bigger cities and wealthier towns and is often at its best a subjunctive procedure based on experience and judgment with little science to it. Wherever a collection of personal judgments resulting in a striking off of an average opinion is the plan of selecting a text, there you have a dangerous mixture of prejudice. At its very best it is purely subjunctive and correspondingly uncertain.

In many of our school systems the textbooks are bought on the recommendation of the sales people combined with the names of places using them. Busy superintendents listen, give them a hurried glancing over and often buy them because they seem the best they have seen and they have found this particular salesman reliable in the past. When the books are passed on for teachers' recommendation the teachers frequently have a very limited variety from which to choose, are not trained to do it and decide on the set up of the book or some particular feature which meets a natural focus in their own teaching. Selection in either way is on a very superficial basis and the personal element either in the line of persuasion or natural tendency is dangerous and most wasteful.

Selection of textbooks on a scientific, objective basis is just beginning. Authors and publishers were the first to realize that this was a proper way to substantiate their claims and a few have made scales and score cards for their own books. This, aside from advertising purposes, had a fine secondary result. In many cases it showed a need of revision and one famous school man was frank enough to admit he wished he made his scale first and his book second. But the primary purpose of such a scale or score was of course to demonstrate the points of the book thus advertised and, except for a brief which he could run through more quickly, the buyer was little better off than before.

Following close on the heels of this bookscale procedure comes the scale made without interest in any particular text, a scale based on the objectives of the subject and the needs of pupil, teacher and taxpayer's purse. Such a scale, of course, depends for its value partly on the number and importance of the objectives and needs listed and their relative gradation which, as a matter of opinion, are largely subjective but of value in so far as they represent an agreement of educational authority. In the application of such a scale every text measured has equal chance and handicap and in so far being objective kills off the element of personal prejudice and helps much. It is with these thoughts in mind that the scale in arithmetic on the following page is offered to superintendent, supervisor, and teachers.