been as detached from their personal interests as Roman mythology or Greek architecture.

"There is something far finer and better then this. With the Constitution as a basis let the American teacher arouse within our youth the vital enthusiasm which entered into its formulation. It is the fundamental law of the land. It preserves It preserves the fruits of the Revolution and the struggles of succeeding years."

Stop Knocking the Schools Brooklyn has a long-continued record of enthusiastic support of schools. Listen to the editor of The Advertiser:

"The schools have a right to expect much of us. There are many duties we owe our schools, and, be it said to our shame, we seldom ever perform these duties. If the schools were as negligent in its duties to the public as the public is in its duties to the schools, the educational system of the country would be a dismal failure. Some one says taxes are paid for the support of the schools, and that these taxes are paid religiously each year. This is true, and This is true, and these taxes are vitally necessary. But money support is not the only kind a school needs. Every one feels he has a right to criticize the schools and continually find fault with them. Teachers do make mistakes, it is true, but one who has never taught cannot realize the things with which a teacher has to contend. What we need is more coöperation given our schools and less fault finding. The average teacher is sincere and gives her best effort. She is a hard worker. She has the interests of her pupils at heart. She puts in extra hours and does many other things which the public never hears anything about. But let her make a little mistake in judgment, and the tongues soon start wagging, the telephone bell of the superintendent starts tingling with incoming complaints and the members of the school board are urged to summarily fire the 'worthless teacher.'

"We have a right to expect a teacher to

give her best work, but she in turn is entitled to our coöperation. Parents should take an interest in the work of the school and visit more frequently. Such an attitude on the part of parents has a gratifying effect and would result in much better schools. We hope for the best schools this year in history. Let's all do our part in making the schools what we want them to be."

Teachers Must Not Leave Town

Here is a restriction that springs from praise and compliment. We are for it provided that in recognition of Saturday and Sunday service the board increases. salaries by two fifths. The editorial is from the Bloomington, Ill., Pantagraph:

"The board of education in the town of Shabbona, Ill., has brought to public attention a question which has been discussed perhaps in the school board of every town in the state. That is, just how much time the teacher should spend in the town outside of the actual time she is busy in the schoolroom. The Shabbona board has decreed that any teacher in the schools of that town must run home every Friday afternoon and stay there till the bell rings on Monday morning, but must remain in Shabbona over the week-ends, except one week a month.

not

"It is generally conceded that school teachers of the average town of the size of Shabbona are possessed of more advantages in education and general mental equipment than the average of the people of the town. She is hired not alone to instruct the youth of the village in the schoolroom but by her social contacts to give people of the community the advantage of her superior culture. This latter phase of her work is absent if the teacher goes to her home from Friday to Monday of each week of the social year.

"From the teacher's standpoint she would probably urge that her work is done when her room is dismissed on Friday afternoon, and she should not be required to stay over

and attend or perhaps manage social affairs of the churches or other organizations on Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday. The whole question is an interesting one, and how it is met by the teacher is largely governed by the young woman's disposition and willingness to sacrifice her own comfort and convenience to the general good of the community in whose midst she labors and from which she draws her salary."

A Bouquet for the High School Teacher Still they come: the new sort of editor who tells the truth about the typical teacher of to-day. This time the medium for spreading the news is the Boston Advertiser:

"The day of the unapproachable, irreproachable schoolmaster is fast passing. Teachers nowadays are very human sort of beings-real people. Boys and girls are not afraid to talk it over' with them. Teachers are kind and sagacious. Maybe right here is found a reason why our high schools are so crowded. No one hesitates to approach an instructor, and having done so, he is sure of receiving sympathetic, far-seeing advice on just what particular kind and how much schooling his individual

case appears to warrant."

say

Bringing the Board to Book

The Jerseyman of Morristown has this to of a popular school master:

"A search of the annals of Morris County probably would not reveal a happening of the character enacted in Boonton last night when several hundred citizens, stirred as residents of that community never have been before, took over a meeting of the Board of Education, cried for the impeachment of that body, and defended almost to a man and woman the recently dismissed supervising principal, Albert S. Davis. Feeling has been brewing in the hill town for some time-all over the school situation, and the crowd which attended the meeting last night evidently came with one purpose

to see Mr. Davis reinstated to his former position.

"The strength of the list of charges made against Mr. Davis will have to be tested. Claims of the Supervising Principal failing to make reports when requested are stated. Other lack of compliance with orders is intimated. Mr. Davis has not been heard on these matters, and the substance of the charges were not sufficient last night to impress the mass meeting. If Mr. Davis has been negligent or disinclined to meet the requests of the Board, the public seems determined to get more information on the subject before it will listen to the twelve counts cited by the President."

Correct the Depreciated Salary

The Baltimore News, under a heavyfaced, double headline, "Baltimore Must Keep Its Pledge to Teachers: The Efficiency of Education Is Involved," says this:

"The savings must not be made at the expense of the teachers. Involved in this matter is not only the solemn pledge of the city, but the efficiency of the public school system. The schools cannot be run successfully on the present schedules of pay. Even with the increase promised, Baltimore will be forty-seventh in the rate of compensation. As it is, we are losing good teachers and will lose more to neighboring cities unless we make the salaries right.

"The promise of the city is three years overdue. Even though the raises asked for in the school budget make a total of $800,000, it must not be forgotten that the teachers did not get a cent of advance in pay last year when the city's budget totaled $7,000,000.

"Fair pay to the school teachers has been pledged by Baltimore. In all decency and honor that pledge must be kept."

The Layman Discovers the Junior High School

Well, well! Here's an editor who has an idea of what the junior high school ought

T

HE present national movement toward curriculum revision had its origin in the fall of 1922 when Mr. John H. Beveridge, then President of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association, was engaged in working up the program for the February, 1923, meeting of his department to be held at Cleveland. According to Mr. Sherwood D. Shankland, Executive Secretary of the Department of Superintendence, Mr. Beveridge in October, 1922, attended a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Boy Scouts Organization in New York. There were present at this meeting a number of national leaders in education, among them Messrs. Frank Cody, John W. Withers, and James E. Russell.

Following the committee meeting on the boy scouts, the conversation turned toward the problem of what should constitute the program for the coming Cleveland meeting of the Superintendents, and it was suggested that a half-day at Cleveland be devoted to the discussion of the curriculum. This was done and it resulted in the Department authorizing its President and Executive Committee "to create a Commission for the purpose of bringing together the elements for the construction of a suitable curriculum for the boys and girls of American public schools."

But at the May (1923) meeting of the Executive Committee it was voted, instead of appointing a separate Commission on curriculum revision, to coördinate the work

1Second Yearbook, Department of Superintendence, N.E.A., p. 3.

of this proposed Commission with that of the 1924 Yearbook, which had been previously appointed, and the personnel of which is set forth in the Second Yearbook, Department of Superintendence N.E.A., page 2.

Review of Present Curriculum Practice.A few days later the 1924 Yearbook Committee met in Cleveland to formulate the working program. It was decided to make the study of the curriculum a two-year problem; the 1924 Yearbook Committee to conduct the work for the first year and the proposed Commission on the Curriculum during the second year. The former chose as its central topic an investigation of the present elementary school curriculum. The work, which involved a nation-wide search for material and a vast amount of labor in organization, was undertaken by the Division of Research of the N.E.A., and the results of this work are now set forth in part III of the 1924 Yearbook, issued at the Chicago meeting of the Department of Superintendence in February, 1924. The 1924 Yearbook Committee was then superceded in the appointment of the "Commission on the Curriculum", the personnel of which is set forth in the Third Yearbook of the Department of Superintendence, N.E.A., page 2.

Analysis of Existing Research Studies.The foundational review of existing curriculum practices having been made, it was decided that the next most helpful step would be the collection and analysis of outstanding research studies in each of the subjects of the elementary school curriculum. This work was also delegated to the Division of

Research of the National Education Association. This Division appointed twelve sub-committees, one for each of the following elementary school subjects: Arithmetic, Art Education, Elementary Science, Health and Physical Education, Home Economics, Industrial Arts, Language and Composition, Music, Penmanship, Reading, Social Studies, and Spelling.

The results of the assembly and analysis of practically all the existing research studies in each of the above fields are set forth in Part III of the 1925 Yearbook, issued at Cincinnati in February, 1925.

The Beginnings of Nation-wide Revision. Of course curriculum revision is as old as the hills. In fact, what else is the History of Education-the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Realism movements; the development of the Grammar School, the Academy, the High School; the work of the outstanding educational leaders: Quintilian, Jerome, Luther, Calvin, Comenius-but curriculum revision?

Curriculum revision as a specialized science has been receiving consideration for several years. The book index of the Congressional Library at Washington lists approximately two dozen publications on the curriculum since 1900.

Quite recently, however, curriculum revision has been assuming the shape of a national movement, as shown by the following quotation from the Third Yearbook of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association, page 11:

Many state, county, and city courses of study have been rebuilt recently, or are in the process of revision. Representative examples of large city school systems where courses of study have been revised recently are: Berkeley, California; Los Angeles, California; Denver, Colorado; Baltimore, Maryland; Detroit, Michigan; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Trenton, New Jersey. In response to a request for recent elementary

courses

of study, 200 representative cities, counties, and states replied that they had published courses of study since 1920. This is indicative of the vast amount of activity in

For personnel of the Committees, see Third Yearbook, D. of S., N.E.A., pp. 28-29.

curriculum revision in all parts of the country.

February (1925) meeting the Commission The Cooperative Plan of Attack.-At the on the Curriculum proposed

that for the school year 1925-26 as many school systems as will shall agree to coöperate in testing the findings of the research studies reported in this that the results be placed at the disposal of the Yearbook, that new stues be undertaken, and schools of the country through the Department of Superintendence as a central agency.1

Following the convention this plan was taken up by most of the Superintendents with their respective school systems, and judging from the present enrollment of more than 300 city school systems under the plan, it seems to have met with universal approval.

The Department of Superintendence, through its Commission, is the directing head of the movement. The National Education Association headquarters at Washington is the clearing house, and has already disseminated much helpful material including a "Detailed Working Outline of the Coöperative Plan of Curriculum Revision," which gives full instructions to school systems on how best to organize their research work for most effective coöperation.

The movement was originally limited to the elementary school field; but investigators under the Coöperative Plan for 1925-26 have been asked to include also the Kindergarten and Junior High School fields.

The Need for Revision

One might easily get the impression from the magnitude of the movement toward curriculum revision, and from some of the sweeping statements made by its advocates, that there is something radically wrong with the entire system of American education. But the effort to find in the existing literature on the subject just what, specifically, is wrong, is rather disappointing. For example, Frances Fenton Bernard, Educational Secretary of the American Association of University Women, says

1Third Yearbook, p. 14.