I shall realize more fully their true significance. I am now convinced that when I went to England I was filled with many prejudices, and my opinions of things British were badly warped. And this is generally true of Americans, whose patriotism and love for their own country

Personnel

Two and a half years was the average tenure of principals and superintendents in South Carolina schools in 1923-24. At that time 86 per cent were serving their

of 1812.

The life at Oxford destroyed in me those germs of enmity, and engendered in their stead a feeling of love and pride in the marvelous old mother country, whose past history is unequaled even by that of ancient Greece or lordly Rome, and whose flag has gone around the world with civilization, peace, and goodwill following in its wake. As the years fly, by the hearts of the Rhodes scholars will beat with ever-increasing love for our royal, imperial alma mater, and with deepening gratitude to our great benefactor-Cecil John Rhodes.

first, second, or third year. The median tenure for the United States, according to the 1923 National Education Association Year Book, is but three years.

A study of the situation in South Carolina shows that the holding power of small rural schools for both principals and teachers is very low, and that, even in the small towns, only about 50 per cent remain

Explanations suggested for these conditions are that many teachers after the first year discover their inaptitude for the work or become discouraged by the lack of future offered in salary and promotion and to the want of cooperation on the part of school boards, especially in small places, too many of whom "hire and fire" every year. The situation demands consideration and action, in the opinion of the University of South Carolina's Weekly News. Immediate needs are higher educational qualifications for superintendents and teachers, more adequate rewards for service in the way of compensation and advancement, more intelligent cooperation on the part of parents and school boards, and teaching conditions that will attract men and women of ability and training.

Higher Prices Cause Greater
Economy

Large savings in the purchase of textbooks and supplies, variously estimated at $14,988 and at $33,305, were made in one year by the Newark, N. J., public schools, by the adoption of a plan of viseing orders for such supplies. Present prices of textbooks are 55 per cent higher than in 1914, and in order that funds might be used to the best advantage a system was adopted providing for the viseing of all orders of principals, with the results stated. Great care is exercised that economy is not gained at the expense of injury to the schools. The aim is to have all helps needed, but no waste.

David Livingstone is linked with Lord Clive and Sir Stamford Raffles as an empire builder, and assigned as the subject for an essay in a prize contest offered by the Royal Colonial Institute, open to pupils in all schools in the British Empire as well as to all British children wherever located.

A class for parents who seek information on child training during the preschool period will be established by the Denver public schools. The whole course is not yet determined, and the class is frankly an experiment.

A

MERICANS need to learn the art of enjoyment; of self-entertainment. To so great a degree have we lost the art of self-expression that we pay to be entertained. The greatest American industry is that of commercialized amusements. Is this not an indication that we are losing the art of self-expression, the real purpose of education? We must teach children to play wisely and wholesomely. Children do not know how to play. Grown folks do not themselves recreate because they do not "know how." The city, the machine, the distribution of labor, and other agencies have robbed man of his birthright.

A Confession of Faith

3. That provision for recreation is a public function-a municipal utility as much as are streets, sewers, and water supply.

4. That education is a year-round process for 12 months, and not 9.

5. That the three summer months when schools are closed often militate against the school term unless playgrounds are provided under leadership.

6. That there are four R's instead of three: Reading, Riting, Rithmetic, and Recreation.

7. That modern school systems have recognized the importance of play by providing the space, the facilities, and the direction.

8. That the school plant should be used as a community recreation plant after school hours.

9. That the hiring of play teachers is an educational function.

10. That we need avocational as well as vocational education.

Play and Education

That constructive play is an educational force of real and potential value has long been recognized. One needs but read Joseph Lee's "Play in Education" to know the significance of this instinct

in the growth and development of the child and the adult. Groos's two books, "Play of Animals" and "Play of Man," have demonstrated their educational values. Richard Cabot's "What Men Live By" elevates play to the fine arts and proves that it is one of the most powerful instincts, making for the health and joy of the individual and the human race. Children and men must recreate themselves through their play. The founders of modern educational thought have all stressed this potential educational force. Froebel, Pestalozzi, Rousseau, Montessori, Wirt, Dewey,. and others all place primary values upon this all central and powerful interest motive. It is the creative motif in life. It makes for the arts. It means the culture of the race.

It is through this medium that man feeds his imagination, emotions, and soul. If the materials be fine, he, too, will be fine; if they are bad, he will reflect his materials.

Play and the Child

Play is the serious business of childhood. Play is preparation for life. It is life and the living thereof. A child must play to live, grow, and develop. It is his very being as important as food, sleep, or shelter. A child finds himself and the world through his play. An abnormal or subnormal child is usually one who has not played or who has not had the normal opportunity to express its play periods at their proper time and place. This is the field of study-the influence of play on the defective and the delinquent. Child psychologists tell us that the child must express itself at these play periods; if it does not, after life shows the lack and defects. There is the "big Injun" age, the dramatic age, the "gang" age, and others-all these can be utilized for educational purposes. The gang can be transformed into a Boy Scout troop or a baseball team, making for helpfulness and teamwork. There is the nurture period when children play house and have pets. Then there is the age that builds and makes, when we must bring in the handcrafts. Playgrounds are doing much in the handcraft field. There is, too, the rhythmic period

when children learn coordination and bodily poise. We must give proper outlet to these desires to nurture, to build, to throw, to run, to dance. If we do not, we shall have abnormalities, perversions, and delinquencies. Mischief is the play instinct perverted or gone astray. It is

the wrong kind of play. As a child plays, so he reaps; so he learns, grows, and becomes. Dissipation is wrong playing in the adult. The way a man uses his spare time determines the kind of a man he is.

The Adult and Play

As the child plays so will the adult find his recreation. Wholesome recreation is needed for older folks. For the adult play is a part of his rational living. It is an indispensable part of his daily routine. He needs it as much as a job, a family, or religion. Sometime within the 24 hours he must have wholesome recreation to refresh, relax, and recuperate. He must find expression for his desires, his dreams, his talents; if not, unrest and trouble result.

Our next truth is that school playgrounds and athletic fields are as essential as the school buildings. This is an axiom growing in importance. One need but travel over the country to see the splendid spaces bought by school boards for playgrounds. Joliet, Ill., a town of 50,000, has 1 school with 20 acres and the others average more than 5 acres for play. We talk no longer in terms of square feet per child, but in acres per school. Elyria, Ohio, a town of 25,000, has just bought an athletic field of 18 acres for its high school. These are not isolated places but are average. High schools now have their stadiums, as, for instance, the schools of Tacoma, San Diego, Peoria, and many others. What the Gary, Ind., school system did is proverbial. Every school has a playground a block square and a gymnasium and auditorium. In modern school systems more space is devoted to playgrounds and athletics than to the school buildings.

School Playgrounds as Necessary as School Buildings

Need we ask why? All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. A systematic and educationally conducted recess, with noon and afternoon play period, makes for better students and better class work. This has been tested and proven. It means clearer brains, more active bodies, newer blood, rejuvenated muscles, and all this makes for better study and recitations.

Then again, we know that playgrounds and athletic fields are in themselves classrooms where the greatest lessons of life and character are taught and learned; hence the need of an educator or leader in

It soon became apparent that school

I

N SPEAKING of the relation in small communities between the school library and the public library, I shall discuss briefly the present conditions of the school libraries and the public libraries in small communities in Indiana, and then I shall mention what is done by the commission to further library service to children of school age.

My observation has been limited, but as it accords with the findings of a committee which made a thorough survey of our school libraries in 1921 I assume that my statement of conditions will be accurate.

The law requires that each of our several thousand schools shall have a library, but the collections of books in the most of our schools hardly merit the name of libraries. They are, in the main, out-of-date books,

without classification

or arrangement,

scattered in various classrooms. Sets of authors, series of the poets, miscellaneous textbooks, and old encyclopedias constitute the average school library. The books have been purchased for many of the schools from book agents without any Conprovision for their care or use. sequently they are poorly selected, poorly cared for, and little used.

Book Lists are Effectively Employed

In the public libraries in small communities the books have been better selected, are better cared for, and are in more constant use. This is largely accounted for by the facts that many of our librarians in small communities have had a summer school course in library work and have had considerable aid from the public library commission. Members of the commission staff have been making advisory visits to these libraries for many years, and to most of the small libraries the commission has distributed a book list, which has been of great service as a guide to the selection of books. ent the book list is sent to every public library in the State whose income is less than $1,500 a year. For a number of years libraries receiving less than $3,500 annually received the book list as a gift from the commission.

At pres

In general the librarians in small communities have less education than the

An address before the League of Library Commissions, Chicago, January 2, 1925.

teachers in the same communities. The school does have standards for the teachers; the library boards may employ whom they please. Thus we found fair book collections and poorly educated persons on the one hand and better educated persons and poor book collections on the other. This situation does not make for satisfactory cooperation between the school and the public library.

Personality of Librarian Means Much

The degree in which school children use the public library depends very largely upon the ability of the local librarian. In some cases the librarian merely lends to those who come for the books; in others she provides lists for outside reading and places the books for the several grades on

separate shelves; in still others she places collections in the school rooms, supervises their use, makes talks on the use of books, and conducts a story hour. Sometimes classes are brought to the library for instruction in the use of the catalogue, reference books, etc. Many of our librarians have stimulated pupils to read for credit during vacation time. Little work of this sort, however, is done in our small communities.

The public library commission has always recognized its obligation to improve the condition of our school libraries, and it has served them generously for 20 years through supplying them with traveling library books. Back in 1904 a trained librarian, Miss Ida M. Mendenhall, who was also a college graduate with teaching experience, was employed to take charge of the commission's work with school libraries, and she gave lectures on library work in many of our State normal schools. Her work was greatly appreciated, but had to be discontinued because of insufficient funds. From 1916 to 1920 members of the staff visited schools to aid in putting the libraries into shape and to establish records and proper methods of

care and service wherever the school authorities were willing to provide for the living expenses of the organizer while the work was done. Even this service had to be discontinued, and it was not until 1921, when Miss Della Frances Northey was added to the staff as supervisor of school libraries, that service to schools again became one of the main features of the commission's work.

condition, but the lapse of two or three years with incidental changes in the teaching staff usually result in the disintegration of any system of library records. And so we began our present method of surveying a county school system, in company with the county superintendent, and giving service to all the schools of a county rather than scattering our work over the whole State.

County Unit Will Benefit Libraries

A development now in prospect in Indiana is the establishment of the county unit of school administration. This, if it comes to pass, will eliminate some of the reckless book buying and duplication that has resulted from the purchases of township trustees. It should strengthen the school libraries as units and should tend to the establishment of more county libraries in our State.

Much progress is made through our cooperation with the State department of public instruction. Library standards have been set for both elementary and high schools, and we are using our best efforts to bring the schools into line with

these standards. Those who wish the

standards in detail will find them reprinted in the October number of the Library Occurrent. They are in full accord with the recommendations made in the Certain report. This is the report of the Committee on

Library Organization and Equipment of the National Education Association and of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

We have discontinued our traveling library service to schools, except to Stateaid schools, and are recommending that the schools build up their own working collections of reference books and supplementary reading sets. We urge them to rely upon the public libraries for their general reading, so as not to build up duplicate collections in the same locality. We are using the progress of the schools to stimulate better service on the part of public libraries, so that they will prove worthy of the part they are to take in the educational program of the State.

RGANIZATION of a new service in

the Bureau of Education of the Interior Department for the purpose of assisting in solving the problems and systematizing the instruction in high schools throughout the country has been announced by Commissioner Jno. J. Tigert.

As a first step toward perfecting the proposed service, the commissioner called a conference of representatives of nine national and regional secondary education organizations to be held February 24 at Cincinnati in connection with the annual meeting of the department of

pine Education

Philippine schools are conducted according to American methods and ideals as far as possible. Luther Parker, acting division superintendent of schools of Nueva Ecija, writes that for many years he has emphasized character training by means of pupil participation in the activities of the schools and by the designation in each large school of a supervisor of character training.

His division embraces a population of 250,000, and 32,000 children are in 200 schools. An earnest effort is made to utilize the latest and best methods employed in the States. Mr. Parker writes cordially of the benefit which he has received from SCHOOL LIFE. Teachers' institutes, parent-teacher associations, safety leagues, bands of mercy, and many other auxiliary organizations which Americans are accustomed to consider peculiarly their own have a prominent place in the school economy of this Province, at least, of the Philippines.

tions, or branches of the American Red Cross.

Since the enactment of legislation requiring the employment of school nurses in all towns, improvement has been marked. Nutrition and dental work are promoted, weighing and measuring are done in practically all towns, and during the past year many towns have served milk to grade pupils during the morning session. The nurse helps the school physician with the annual physical examination and makes independent inspection of pupils and buildings. She visits the homes of pupils and confers with parents in regard to health problems. A recent investigation by the State Department of Education shows that fully 99 per cent of the pupils attending public schools in Massachusetts are receiving the benefit of school nursing service.

Important Accession to the National

Organization

Utah parent-teacher associations have been admitted to full membership in the

Massachusetts

Until the advent of the school nurse, health programs in rural Massachusetts were very inadequate. In many towns medical inspection was the only feature, though some towns made provision for oral hygiene. Fairhaven, Falmouth, and several other towns have done splendid health work in the schools for more than a decade. Eighty towns of less than 5,000 population have been conducting dental clinics for one or more years. Some had traveling clinics operating under the auspices of farm bureaus, while others were conducted in cooperation with

ers.

Heretofore the Utah associations have not been connected with the national organization, which now embraces 46 State branches.

The first local parent-teacher association in Salt Lake City was organized in 1908, according to reports, and since that time many associations have been formed throughout the State. In 1914 representatives of these associations united to form the Home and School League, which was affiliated with the Utah Educational Association. Child-welfare work, classes in health education for parents, and community recreation are among the activities of the Utah parent-teacher association.

Increase in attendance of high schools during recent years has made secondary education one of the big problems of free public education in the United States. For a long time most of the children left school after completing the grammarschool course, but during the past 30 years the attendance at high schools in this country has increased from 200,000 to 3,500,000. Enrollment in high schools is increasing seven times as fast as the Nation's total population. The development of the junior high school is an outgrowth of this situation.

The result has been a rapid reorganization and expansion of high schools that created serious problems. To assist in meeting these, the Bureau of Education is planning, at the request of interested educators, a permanent organization on a cooperative basis to act as a research agency and a clearing house of information.

The attempt to give the pupils of small high schools the same opportunities as the pupils of large high schools has entailed a much greater expense for the small schools. The average cost per pupil in the small schools is sometimes from 5 to 10 times as great as in the larger schools. The small schools comprise 80 per cent of all the high schools of the Nation, and they are attended largely by the farm population. They require, therefore, a different type of organization and of subject matter.

As a result of a "Learn English campaign" in Rochester, N. Y., the pledges of 2,500 persons to join a class in English and learn to speak, read, and write the language were obtained. The goal, originally set at 2,000, was raised when this mark was passed.