SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATIONTM* While the limited supply lasts, single copies of these publications will be sent upon application to the Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. When the free supply is exhausted, or if larger quantities are desired, the documents may be purchased at the prices stated from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, of Education in any event A basis for music in the work-study-play school. Will Earhart. 5 p. (City school leaflet no. 17) 5 cents. The chief State school official. Ward G. Reeder. 67 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 5) 10 cents. After giving a chapter to the history of the office of State superintendent, the author discusses such topics as qualifications for holding office, methods of selecting the incumbent of the office, term of office, salary, relation to State board of education, duties of the office, etc. The county unit in New Mexico. John V. Conway. 10 p. (Rural school leaflet no. 28) 5 cents. The inauguration, the results, and the cost of the county unit in New Mexico. The daily schedule in the high school. J. B. Edmonson, W. E. Bow, I. Van Tassell. 17 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 15) 5 cents. Shows how the daily schedule is made in certain schools, gives suggested schedule routine in a Detroit high school, and summarizes practices in schedule making. An evaluation of kindergarten-primary courses of study in teachertraining institutions. Nina C. Vandewalker. 44 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 3) 5 cents. Contains representative two-year, three-year, and four-year courses of study for teacher-training institutions. Government publications useful to teachers. E. E. Windes. 34 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 23) 10 cents. Sources of Government material that can be obtained at small cost. Industrial schools for delinquents, 1921-22. Advance sheets from the Biennial survey, 1920-1922. 22 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 2) 5 cents. Statistics. Intelligence of seniors in the high schools of Massachusetts. Stephen S. Colvin and Andrew H. MacPhail. 39 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 9) 10 cents. Results of a study made to determine the number and proportion of high-school students who might be expected to enter the higher institutions of the State of Massachusetts and their intellectual capabilities to pursue studies in these insti tutions. List of references on money value of education. 7 p. (Library leaflet no. 24) 5 cents. Manual arts in the junior high school. William E. Roberts. 89 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 11) 15 cents. Considerable attention is given to courses of study, including courses in mechanical drawing, simple mechanics, woodwork. metal work, and printing. Equipment for teaching such subjects is described and a bibliography is appended. Practices and objectives in training for foreign service. Glen L. Swiggett. 27 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 21) 5 cents. Report of the National conference on foreign training, Washington, December 26, 1923. Preparation of teachers. William T. Bawden. 36 p. (Industrial education circular, no. 22) 5 cents. Schools for adults in prisons. A. C. Hill. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 19) 5 cents. Discusses the function of schools in prisons. The appendix contains views of persons engaged in prison work on various phases of the subject Secretarial training. Glen L. Swiggett. 33 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 12) 5 cents. Report of the National conference held at the College of secretarial science, of Boston University, October 27, 1923. Sources of useful information for the teacher of home economics. Emeline S. Whitcomb. 18 p. (Home economics circular, no. 19) 5 cents. Statistics of public high schools, 1921-22. Advance sheets from the Biennial survey, 1920-1922. 69 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 7) 10 cents. Statistics of teachers' colleges and normal schools, 1921-22. Advance sheets from Biennial survey, 1920-1922. 76 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 10) 10 cents. Three hundred and eighty-two institutions engaged in preparing teachers are represented. A type rural high school; Mount Vernon union high school, Types of courses of study in agriculture. Adapted to grades 7 and 8 of elementary schools or rural junior high schools. E. E. Windes. 35 p. (Rural school leaflet no. 26) 5 cents. An outline of agriculture for grades 7 and 8 developed for the rural high schools of Currituck county, North Carolina, and outlines now in use in Missouri, New York, and North Carolina. Visual education departments in educational institutions. A. P. Hollis. 36 p. (Bulletin, 1924, no. 8) 5 cents. Part I deals with the professional status of visual education officers. Part II Ideals with the evaluation and distribution of visual aids. Vocational education in Geneva, Switzerland. Elise Hatt. 24 p. (Industrial education circular, no. 23) 5 cents. E DUCATION, from one point of view, is a debt which the adult generation owes to that which is to succeed it. This civilization to which we have attained, these general ideas, these intellectual resources, these moral principles, these habits and customs of proved utility-how are they to be passed on to those who are to succeed us? By education-that is to say, by mental contact and moral sympathy between those who know and those who as yet do not know. That is the problem in its most general aspect. Here we may make two reasonable assumptions: First, that all we have learned the rising generation may also learn; second, that possibly, nay probably, it is not worth the while of the rising generation to learn all that we have learned. We can not teach our children more than we know, but we can teach them less than we know, and so leave room for their own independent acquisitions. It behooves us, therefore, to sift our knowledge and whatever else we have to impart, and to consider very carefully what is worth passing on and what is not. -Ascribed to Popular Science Monthly, 1896. CONTENTS America's One Great Staple Product Is Worthy Men and Women. Calvin Coolidge. A Modern City High School, Typical of Approved Ideas of To-day. Rosemary Arnold National Development Forcing Thrift upon American People. Jno. J. Tigert. Modern Foreign Language Study under Investigation. Carleton A. Wheeler Nearly a Million Studying Latin in American Institutions. James F. Abel New School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Measures Affecting Education Determined in Recent General Election. Edith A. Wright Some of the Problems Which Concern the Land-Grant Colleges. Raymond A. Pearson School Teaching under Difficulties in the Settlements of the Southwestern Desert. James F. Abel SCHOOL LIFE is an official organ of the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. It is published monthly, except in July and August. The subscription price, 50 cents a year, of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., and not to the Bureau of Education. SCHOOL LIFE does not specialize in any portion of the educational field, and the articles are never technical. Every primary teacher and every high-school teacher should know what the higher institutions то Specimen copies will be sent free upon application to the Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. DIFFUSE educational information is the primary purpose of the Bureau of Education, and corre- It is the intention of the Congress that the principal distribution shall be by sale. The Superintendent Lists of available publications and lists of documents that relate to each of several important topics may be VOL. X PUBLISHED MONTHLY by the DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER, 1924 No. 4 America's One Great Staple Product Is Worthy Men and Women All Industry, Transportation, Commerce, Arts, and Sciences are Merely Means to That End. Fortunes of Every Citizen Among Us Go Up or Down with Welfare of the Farmer. Heavy Responsibility Rests Upon Those Who Direct Land-Grant Colleges. Deficit Instead of Surplus in Agricultural Products Now Threatened P ERMANENT maintenance of our country's superior level of human comfort and well-being requires that our agriculture be made and kept the most efficient in the world. Our agricultural community must be maintained, through constant improvement of methods and constant strengthening of the place it holds in the social structure, more prosperous, better educated, more contented than that of any other nation. If we ever permit our farming population to fall to the level of a mere agricultural peasantry, they will carry down with them the general social and economic level. Every citizen among us has a personal concern for the welfare of the farmer. The fortunes of all of us will in the end go up or down with his. The general effect of the land-grant colleges has been to raise agriculture to a new standard. It can no longer be associated with a rude and uncultured existence, but has become the occupation of a broadly trained and well-educated element in our social structure. The men and women on the farm no longer pursue their calling in a haphazard rule of thumb method, but with a scientific accuracy that insures the best possible results. No longer content with a narrow and forlorn existence, they wish to raise crops, but they wish also to read books. They want to know the market quotations for their products, but they want also to know what is going on in the world. Farmers are Merchants as Well as Producers Up to the present time the main emphasis of our agricultural education has been placed upon production. I believe that was right, because unless there is economy Portion of address before Association of Land-Grant Colleges, Washington, D. C., November 13, 1924. 19510°-24-1 By CALVIN COOLIDGE and efficiency in production there is no need for thought in any other direction. But our experience of the past few years has demonstrated that it is by no means enough. The farmer is not only a producer; he is likewise a merchant. It does him no good to get quantity production; in fact, it may do him harm, unless he can likewise have a scientific marketing. I feel that too little thought has been given to this most important phase of agriculture. I want to see courses in cooperative marketing and farm economics alongside of soil chemistry and animal husbandry. The agricultural problem of to-day is not on the side of production, but on the side of distribution. I want to see a good farmer on a good farm raise a good crop and secure a good price. Must Contribute to Better Rural Civilization It is for these reasons that I emphasize so earnestly the responsibility that rests upon you men and women of the landgrant colleges. The record of what you have done and are doing to-day warrants all confidence that your accomplishments hereafter will be adequate to the demands upon you. Without assuming that your work is by any means limited to the indus try of agriculture, I recognize it as highly important in that field. You are concerned in contributing in every possible way to making a better rural civilization. Your efforts comprehend all the problems of better farming methods, of larger and cheaper production, of conserving all resources of the soil, of more efficient marketing, of better homes, better rural schools, better places of religious worship, and more intimate and helpful neighborly kindness among the people of the open country. They look to wise and intelligent cooperation in all the business opera tions which affect the farmer, so that wasteful and unnecessary processes may be eliminated. They contemplate the establishment of a closer contact, a better understanding, a more sympathetic and helpful relationship, between the people of the farms and those of the cities and the industrial areas. If you make retort that I am giving you a large order, my rejoinder will be that we are going to omit no effort to prevent a repetition of the misfortunes which in recent years have involved agriculture. We are not nearly a generation ahead of the time when our country will witness a reversal of its relation to world agriculture. I mean, that in a very few years the natural increase of population and the inevitable tendency to industrialization will place us among the nations producing a deficit rather than a surplus of agricultural staples. We were fairly on the verge of that condition when the World War gave a temporary and artificial stimulation to agriculture which ultimately brought disastrous consequences. Consume More Food than We Produce Even to-day, if in making up our balance sheet we include our requirements of coffee, tea, sugar, and wool, we already have a considerable agricultural deficit. It may not be generally known, but even now we consume more calories of food main reason is that we do not raise near in this country than we produce. The enough sugar. Our only agricultural exports of consequence are cotton, meat products, and wheat; and as to the two latter, it must be plain that the scales will shortly turn against us. We shall be not only an agricultural importing nation, but in the lives of many who are now among us we are likely to be one of the greatest of the agricultural buying nations. |