is not pleasant in any particular and interferes with the work of the school. In 1922 there were 2,758 one and two teacher schools in the State. For these schools there were 320 district-owned teacherages and 57 buildings rented by the districts.

In 1922 North Dakota reported 172 teachers' homes, valued at $182,000; Oklahoma, 347 in 1921, 5 of which were homes for colored teachers; and in Louisiana, in 1924, 162 schools had teachers' homes.

The $2 room rent is paid to the county board of education and used to defray expenses and cost of upkeep.

The two years' experience has shown that with a single exception during the first year of their operation in one of the teacherages home conditions have been most congenial. Problems of management are often discussed informally by the principal and teachers and by teachers and county superintendent. "Most of our teachers," writes Miss Newbury,

The first teachers' home in the State of Washington was built in 1905. Since that time the number of homes has increased until to-day practically every county has at least one teacher's home.

St. Louis County, Minn., a county containing approximately 3,400 square miles, first provided living quarters for teachers in 1909 by partitioning off a small room in each of two one-teacher school buildings. The county superintendent says that for one-room schools where living quarters have been furnished there has been no difficulty in obtaining teachers who have sisters, brothers, or widowed mothers who are willing to live with them. He says also that no two-room school building is considered complete unless a teacher's home is built in connection with it.

Half the Country's Teachers Accommodated Two years ago the board of education of Currituck County, N. C., expended about $45,000 for the erection and furnishing of four teacherages in connection with consolidated schools. These buildings house approximately 33 teachers, which is more than half the white teaching force of the county.

The teacherages are located on the school grounds and within a few minutes' walk of the school buildings, so Maud C. Newbury, the county superintendent states.

A woman, selected by the county superintendent and principal, is employed for each of the teacherages as housekeeper and general manager. The teachers pay $30 per month for board and room-$28 for board and $2 for room rent.

"are girls only a few years out of dormitories. They seem to find little difficulty in getting along together. We have been fortunate in obtaining women of high type to board the teachers, and principals who have exercised good judgment. Teachers are accustomed to managing others and tend to resent the type of person who wants to mother or manage them too much."

and as the pioneer State in the erection of teachers' homes.

The teacherage in the Schumannsville school district in Guadalupe County was erected in 1884. Since 1886 it has been occupied by H. E. Dietel, the teacher in the district. The school in the Schumannsville district was a one-teacher school until five years ago. Now it is a two-teacher school, the daughter assisting the father. But this was not the first school district to build a teacherage in Texas. One was built in 1860 in the Blum school district, according to recent information received from the State department of education. The teacher of this school joined the Confederate Army in 1862 and was killed in battle.

Texas Had Teacherages Very Early

A few years ago Nebraska was thought to be the pioneer State in the erection of teachers' homes, for reports received by the Bureau of Education at that time showed that 1894 was the date for the earliest teachers' home built by a school district. This was reported for Hall County, in that State. Now it seems that Texas is the pioneer State in the movement.

Of the 40 homes studied by the Texas Educational Survey Commission 37 are one-story buildings, 1 a one and onehalf story, and 2 two-story buildings. The largest one reported, and probably the largest one in the State, is the Faculty Club at McAllen. This is a two-story building 60 by 60 feet, built in 1920, at a cost of $32,000. It has 16 rooms and

A teacherage in Texas occupied 39 years by the same man No attempt is made in Currituck County to make the teacherages centers for community affairs, as is done in some places. This rôle is reserved for the school buildings. The teacherages are the homes of the teachers, and as such they are made to feel free to invite guests and use them in any way that they would use their own homes.

19 closets. There is running water in all rooms, flush toilets in each wing, and ample bathroom facilities. Twenty-four teachers live in it, and it is managed on a cash basis by the board of education, with a dean in charge.

Texas probably holds the palm for the longest continued occupancy of a teacherage by a rural teacher in the United States,

But the service conditions found in the McAllen home are the exception, not the rule, for the majority of the homes studied by the commission. Reports from 39 homes concerning closet space show 11 with none, 15 with a few each, and 13

with an ample number. Water is inside the house in 15 of 36 homes reporting the item. Only 7 of the 40 homes have modern facilities for bathing, and only 2 have inside flush toilets. Of the 37 homes reporting on the method of artificial lighting, 28 use oil lamps; and of the 39 reporting on the heating equipment 37 name stoves-2 have fireplaces in addition.

The data on equipment and furniture for 37 of the 40 homes show that in 23 homes the teachers provide all of it, in 10 a part of it, and in 4 none. The attitude of the teachers of Texas toward the home is reported as very favorable in 5 instances, favorable in 31, and in one favorable in some years and unfavorable in others. An estimate was made of the additional income each teacher would require if homes were not provided. At two homes the additional income required per teacher per year was less than $50; at 10 homes it was between $51 and $100; at 7, between $101 and $150; at 8, between $151 and $200; and at 5, more than

Texas has prepared plans for a teachers' cottage, 30 by 50 feet. It contains a living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, bathroom, and front and rear porches.

Problems Which Teacherages Solve

The following advantages which school districts may derive by providing homes for teachers are found in the testimonials of those who have had experience with them:

The home attracts married men and is an inducement for them to remain in the service.

It settles the ever-perplexing problem of finding a place for the teacher to live.

It furnishes teachers privacy, freedom, and independence not possible in a boarding place, and because of that fact creates more favorable conditions for study and preparation of the day's work.

The presence of teachers living near the school prevents trespassing upon school property when school is not in session.

A consolidated school in Jackson County, Minn., furnishes a home for teachers and for the janitor

$200. At one home no amount was given, but it was stated that the home was essential.

The Texas Educational Survey Commission makes the following recommendations regarding the site and buildings desirable for teachers' homes:

The site should be owned by the district, located near the schoolhouse, and well drained. The building itself should be so placed as to look attractive and fit in well with the environment.

A teachers' home near the school helps to make the school more of a community

center.

It induces teachers to remain in the school districts over week ends and become definite factors in the lives of their communities.

Well trained and experienced teachers are attracted to schools which offer them the protection and comfort afforded by a well managed teachers' home, and they remain longer with the schools.

Convenience and comfort should be All children of the Central Ward School considered in planning the rooms. There of Stephenville, Tex., must enter into should be ample window space for lightsome active game at each recess and also ing. Windows and doors should be take special gymnastics. Only those screened. The porches should be large pupils who have exemption certificates and screened. Several good-sized closets should be provided, at least one to each bedroom. Only good quality material

should be used in the construction of the home, and care should be taken that the work is satisfactory. Water for drinking and washing should be inside the home when possible.

66185°-251-2

are excepted. The campus, consisting of 5 acres, is divided into plats and each plat is under the supervision of a teacher who has the same group of pupils at each recreation period. The teacher must be able to coach all the games, such as football, basket ball, baseball, volley ball, running and jumping, etc.

ground Beautification

Thirty-three Cash Prizes to be Awarded for the Greatest Improvement in the Appearance of Playgrounds

To
TO ENCOURAGE the beautification

of playgrounds the Harmon Foundation and the Playground and Recreation Association of America have joined in offering a number of awards for progress in artistic improvement of playgrounds. Thirty-three prizes will be awarded to the communities whose playgrounds show the greatest progress in attractiveness in a

year.

The sum of $500 will be awarded to the community having the leading playground in each of three population groups, namely, (1) with fewer than 8,000 inhabitants, (2) from 8,000 to 25,000 inhabitants, and (3) with more than 25,000 inhabitants. Additional awards of $50 each will be made to the 10 playgrounds which rank next in order in each of the population groups.

Canadian Playgrounds Are Eligible

The contest is open to any public playground administered by a municipality or noncommercial group or organization in the United States or Canada. The awards will be administered by the Playground and Recreation Association of America, 315 Fourth Avenue, New York City. Entries must be filed by December 1, 1925, and the contest will close November 1, 1926. Awards will be made primarily on the basis of photographs and statements showing the progress made in beautification.

Automotive Technical College at Wolverhampton

To supply trained engineers, especially for the automobile, motor-cycle, and bicycle industries, a technical college will be established at Wolverhampton, England. The total cost of construction will be about $600,000, of which one-third is to be paid by the county of Stafford and the remaining two-thirds by the city of Wolverhampton. The buildings will be divided into five sections: (1) General and administrative, (2) biology, (3) commercial, (4) domestic, and (5) technical, comprising engineering production with workshops and drawing offices, material section, including chemistry, metallurgy, and general science subjects, mechanical and electrical engineering, and building construction. It is intended to make provision for evening as well as day students.-Oscar F. Brown, American Vice Consul.

SCHOOL LIFE

was 160 in 1904, and 28,142 students were in attendance. Since then the schools

is no guaranty for the performance of free institutions, no hope of perpetuating * * * In order that

DR

RASTIC METHODS of curbing the output of lawyers and doctors have been recently adopted in two countries of South America. In Bolivia no new students of law are permitted to register in the universities, and when the students now registered complete their courses the law faculties will go out of existence. In Ecuador, according to an official report which appears on another page of this issue, all the universities have been closed because, it is stated, the country is flooded with lawyers and doctors, the majority of whom are unable to earn a living at the profession for which they are trained, and many of them do actual harm by attempting to practice before they are fully prepared.

In both countries efforts appear to have been made to stem the tide by raising the requirements for admission and for graduation. Such efforts were evidently unsuccessful; degrees remained too easily attained, and the predilection of the students for legal and medical studies I could not be diverted.

All this suggests examination of corresponding conditions in this country. We, too, have had an excess of poorly prepared

simple process of requiring better preparation the number of students has been brought down to 18,200-about 10,000 fewer than 20 years ago. There is no danger of overcrowding the profession at that rate. On the contrary, complaint is often made of the lack of physicians in rural communities. That lack, however, is clearly due to economic conditions, for the cities are abundantly supplied with physicians.

Law schools and law students have shown no such diminution as medical schools and medical students. More law schools are in existence now than at any time in the past, and the same is true of law students. One hundred and

sixty schools had 37,627 students on their rolls in November, 1923, the latest date for which figures are available. Students of law are more than twice as many as students of medicine.

Although the standards of law study have advanced they have not kept pace with those in medicine. Ninety-eight per cent of the students of medicine received two years of college training before entering upon their medical studies, which normally require four years; but only 46 of the 160 law schools require for the law degree as much as five years of study after high-school graduation. About one-fifth the whole number of law students were in those schools. The other four-fifths were in schools which conferred the law degree for four years of study at most after high-school graduation.

We are far from the necessity of closing all our universities to shut off the stream

the people of the Nation may think on these things, it is desirable that there should be an annual observance of Educational Week."

In his proclamation for 1924 the President said:

Campaigns of national scope in behalf of education have been conducted

annually since 1920, and they have been increasingly effective with each succeeding year. They have concentrated attention upon the needs of education, and the cumulative impetus of mass action has been peculiarly beneficial. It is clearly in the interest of popular education, and consequently of the country, that these campaigns be continued with vigor." And in the proclamation issued recently: "The utmost endeavor must be exerted to provide for every child in the land the full measure of education which his need and his capacity demand; and none must be permitted to live in ignorance. Marked nation-wide campaigns for strengthening benefit has come in recent years from public sentiment for universal education, school authorities, and for promoting for upholding the hands of constituted schools. Such revivals are wholesome and meritorious legislation in behalf of the

should continue."

The campaign before us has, therefore, the highest official sanction. The benefits to be derived are beyond estimate, whether they be immediately tangible or not. Let none withhold his support in making the occasion a success beyond precedent.

lawyers are so numerous as to cause misgivings in many minds; but the question with us has always been less of numbers than of quality, notwithstanding the close relation between the two.

The National Government has no control over professional schools, and relatively few of the States have established effective requirements for their endowment, equipment, or instruction. Private agencies, including associations of the practitioners themselves, have done far more than governmental authority to standardize professional instruction.

The American Medical Association deserves all the commendation that can be offered for its activity in bringing about the merger of weak institutions, the abandonment of the unfit, and the elevation of standards of medical instruction and of the preparation of students. The number of medical schools of all classes

be duplicated in the law schools.

Widespread Participation in Ameri

can Education Week

DEMAND for literature relating to

American Education Week is greater than in any previous year. Already the stocks of the Superintendent of Documents have had to be replenished. Correspondence upon the subject has been heavy, and every indication points to widespread observance of the occasion.

The annual recurrence of the nationwide campaign for education is now accepted as a matter of course. In the proclamation of President Coolidge issued in 1923 he said:

"Every American citizen is entitled to a liberal education. Without this there

able to present from time to time articles by persons in authority describing educational activities of the United States Government which are adminis

tered by them. We have already

printed articles by Hubert Work, Secretary of the Interior; John W. Weeks, Secretary of War; Harry S. New, Postmaster General; Curtis D. Wilbur, Secretary of the Navy; and many bureau chiefs and similar officers. Other articles of the same type will follow. It is our hope and expectation that this series, when it is completed and considered as a whole, will set before our readers a picture of the Government's educational work, which is astonishing in its extent and importance.

Education in America is of local concern. Nobody doubts that and nobody would have it otherwise; but the statement has been repeated so often and it

has so firm a hold upon the American mind that little thought is given to the contribution which the National Government makes to the sum total of the country's enlightenment.

Education of every degree has felt the benefit of governmental stimulation. Universities have arisen upon national endowments of land; a system of higher education in agriculture has developed under governmental auspices which, next to our free public school system, constitutes America's greatest original contritribution to education; vocational secondary education is aided enormously through the Federal Board for Vocational Education; children of the aboriginal races are educated almost wholly by the National Government; elementary education in the Western States received important aid through donations of land; institutions of the highest excellence give professional training in certain branches of the Government's service, and their graduates contribute largely to the country's welfare not only in the lines for which they are trained but in civil employments as well; large numbers of men receive industrial and semiprofessional instruction of the best type, and after a few years of service in the military or naval service most of them transfer the benefits of their experience to the every-day life of the Nation; and finally a system of distributing information is maintained by which achievements in education, agriculture, and the industries in any part of the world are made known to the people of the entire country.

This and more will be shown in SCHOOL LIFE's articles on the work of the United States Government in behalf of education. The article by Mr. Mather upon the educational functions of the national parks is the representative of the series which this issue presents.

Guards Health of Teachers in
Training

To assure strong and healthy teachers in public schools of Connecticut, all applicants for admission to normal schools are required by the State board of education to pass a physical examination, and normal schools are authorized to exclude from attendance those who do not measure up to the required standard. In addition, at the New Britain State Normal School, each student shortly after entering is given a thorough orthopedic and physical examination. This is primarily for corrective work, and the condition of students is constantly watched, special emphasis being placed upon posture. Minor defects are checked up at intervals until remedied.

N°

GROUP of educators in the entire school system has been so thoroughly jolted out of its complacency in the last four years as the elementary school principals, and we did the jolting for ourselves. In 1921 the department was organized because of the intolerable vagueness of our aims and achievements. At Des Moines the following summer we were like a group of travelers lost in the woods, bewildered by fog, troubled at the falling of night. We knew just this: The precious opportunities for serving, that in our school ought to have been ours, were being frittered away by a thousand futile demands on our time, and no one but ourselves seemed to care.

Starving on the Husks of Service

We were a withdrawing set. The august body of superintendents could not take the time to study our state of mind; they usually had troubles enough of their own. The first gleam of light came when we picked up courage to tell our troubles to each other. Then the air began to clear. We clapped our hands numb when the bravest among us said we were starving on the husks of service to our schools, while the big harvest of ripened grain was waiting for our reaping. It came over us with the force of a staggering blow that all the hours we spent on meticulously adding up attendance records, answering telephones, giving out supplies, receiving reports of nurse and school physician, were pretty nearly wasted; this work could have been done much better by a good clerk; and that supervision which is seeing how much of the teaching process is functioning in learning on the part of the children, and studying how the teacher can be assisted to do her part better, was the answer to the call which we fondly believed we heard when we took up this work at the beginning.

As Logical as the Beatitudes

Our yearbooks grew out of the revelations that appeared when the problems were once attacked by the group of principals, each in his own school seeking how to lift his better up to the best. They are as logical as the Beatitudes. The first was of the greatest importance for the

principal to grasp: The Technique of Supervision. Naturally the second dealt with The Problem of the Elementary School Principal in the Light of the Testing Movement. Happy word that, "light": The dawn had come. The elementary principal was finding himself by finding his way out of the fog.

The third Yearbook is an intimate study of the elementary school principal's own place in the educational system. The Status and Professional Activities of the Elementary School Principal is one of the best handbooks written on the opportunities for service and rights to the highest professional recognition that has yet appeared. The fourth Yearbook, issued in June, The Elementary School Principalship: A Study of its Instructional and Administrative Aspects, will not fail to interpret this office to the entire force from the school board to the kindergartner.

Every Elementary Principal Is Needed

No man or woman holding the position of elementary school principal can afford to remain outside this organized group. This department needs the help of every thinking colaborer. We need every one

of our 5,000 elementary school principals, for we are members one of the other by the very nature of our task. Every principal in America has already been helped in a dozen ways through the fine professional spirit and service of the organization. Our membership should be, I am sure it will be, doubled by the time the fifth Yearbook is ready. But it is the present membership that must help the elementary principals of America to grasp the vision of this splendid army for bringing a better day to the citizens of tomorrow by an enlightened and united service.

Appropriate clothing for men and women students in every phase of college life was worked out by the textile and clothing classes of the Southwestern Louisiana Institute, department of home economics. The garments and hats were made in the domestic arts laboratory and the demonstration took the place of the usual style show.