to the board of education. Supt. McAndrew's plan differs from the old council arrangement, which dismissed the school eight times a year for meetings of teachers from which principals were excluded, in that the new plan proposes a democratic arrangement in which every branch of the service is represented. The new plan proposes:

Name. The superintendent of schools may organize the Chicago Public-School Teachers' Council.

The council shall be organized under the direction of the superintendent of schools for furnishing the superintendent with advice intended to maintain public-school service to a high degree of efficiency. The organization to be in accord with rules and by-laws adopted and approved by the superintendent, or amendments hereafter made and approved by him.

Membership. The council shall consist of one representative elected by each of the principal existing voluntary organizations of teachers as follows: Chicago teachers' federation; Chicago teachers' league; High school teachers' club; Federation of high school women teachers; High school federation of men teachers; Associations of assistants to principals; Chicago public-school kindergarten association; Manual training teachers club; Household arts club; Physical education teachers' association; Chicago truant officers federation; Chicago special teachers club; Chicago principals' club; Chicago high school principals; District superintendents; Assistant superintendents.

Length of Memberships. At the first meeting of the council, the members may determine by lot which third serve for three years; which third for two years; which third and remainder for one year. At the expiration of these memberships election shall be for a term of three years, except that when any member ceases to belong to the organization which elected him his membership in the council shall cease. The unexpired term shall be filled by election of a new member by the organization represented.

Time of Meeting. Meetings shall be held on call of the superintendent.

Supt. McAndrew points out that the council should be small enough to permit of gathering around a table for familiar discussion, and that the designation of the electorates is merely a convenience for the selection of members likely to give the council familiarity with all branches of the service. He says that the representation is not intended to be in proportion of the

number of electorates, as the superintendent's use of advice given by the council is not to be decided by the number of votes but by the value of the facts and reasons offered. The organization as outlined can be changed as new societies are formed, or old ones

disappear. Instead of setting up 300 local councils, 40 group councils, 2 general councils, 800 officers as at present, this plan furnishes a much simpler organization. It is made clear by Supt. McAndrew that the value of meetings of independent organizations of teachers

in school buildings to discuss educational topics is not assailed by any statement in his recommendation as outlined above. On October 8, 1924, Supt. McAndrew recommended to the board of education that the free use of school

buildings on Fridays, after the close of school session, as authorized by the superintendent, should be granted to local groups of teachers for meetings once a week throughout the year. That recommendation was approved by the board of education.

THIS magnificent building, the Milwaukee Vocational School building, when completed will cover an entire city block and represent an investment of $3,250,000. The school fills an important need in the industrial city of Milwaukee. Twenty-four thousand students took courses last year in this vocational school which employs 172 teachers on full time and 243 for part time evening work. The first compulsory continuation school law in the United States, it is said, was enacted by the legislature of Wisconsin in 1911. The original law provided that children could not enter employment unless they were 14 years old and had passed the fifth grade. From the ages of 14 to 16 those receiving work permits were obliged to attend the continuation school one-half day a week. The law has been gradually strengthened until it now covers the ages of 14 to 18, those from 14 to 16 inclusive being required to spend half-time in school, and those from 17 to 18, eight hours a week. Children must have completed the eighth grade or spent nine years in school to receive a permit to work. The school includes all kinds of courses from architecture to telegraphy, and aims to take boys who have left school at an early age with inadequate education and enable them to become skilled intelligent workers through education suited to their needs and which they can obtain while working. This school has been studied, probably, by a greater number of vocational educators, from all parts of the United States, than any other similar institution. The director of the school is R. L. Cooley who was appointed in 1912.

Socialism Taught in Colleges. The report of a special committee on American citizenship presented to the American Bar Assocation at its recent meeting, declared that "the only justification for the American public school system is education for citizenship." Robert E. Lee Saner, Texas, president of the Association and chairman of the citizenship committee, said in this connection:

We are not afraid of the teaching of Socialism as one of many theories of government but we object to its presentation as the only right theory and to the

teaching that our present form of gov. ernment is unworthy and should be discarded. America should no more consider graduating a student who lacks. faith in our government than a school of theology should consider graduating a

minister who lacks faith in God.

The report of the committee set forth the menace of an indifferent electorate, an increasing foreign born population, and "a small but dangerous group, issuing propaganda against the government. Pointing to the disregard of the Constitution within the legal profession, the committee said:

Your committee has examined the law courses of 25 of the leading schools of this country. To our amazement we have found that a study of the Constitution is compulsory in only nine of them, and in two of those attention is given to the purely commercial or legal value of it, the study being confined to interstate commerce, the contract clause, the Fourteenth Amendment and the like. Of the other 16, one makes no mention of it at all, and in the other 15 the course is elective. So that practically one-third of the leading law schools of the country insist upon a study of the Constitution. Not only that, but we find that boards of law examiners passing upon the admission of students to the bar very largely ignore the Constitution. In many examinations there is no mention made of it. In some cases only three or four questions are asked.

Sense of Values. A writer who holds the rank of professor in a univer. sity makes some caustic statements, in an exchange, about American colleges and their students. After referring to various subjects of criticism, connected with college administration, the writer says that occasionally "we find an educator honest enough, unselfish enough, and well enough informed to give us what seems to be nearer the truth." Here are some of the things that this writer sets forth:

One university president admitted that his institution "is not educating anybody"-very naive, isn't it? Another confesses that students are in "the hands of inexperienced doctors of philosophy who know more about research than they do about teaching." One college head informs us that "teachers as a body know very little of the organs they are training, of their conditions, capacity, and method of procedure." Another says: "The trouble with many college professors is that they do not lead students to follow learning as the guide of life," since they are themselves too "apt to believe in subjects." A really sincere president urges that the college that will "invite the youth of our land to its halls" should with "modesty and humility, perhaps in sackcloth and ashes," provide for them, and with the "dynamic of honesty" make certain the result. Then there is one college leader, former President Meiklejohn of Amherst College, with the message that "we haven't anything to teach, haven't the wisdom to teach, and don't know what to say about life. We are lost, mixed up, bewildered, and the young people have found it out."

The writer says the faculties are made up of members who promised to dig

deep into some narrow field which no one else knew and which interested or benefited few. He maintains that these men are not chosen because they possess teaching power. The writer quotes Dean Babcock of the University of Illinois as follows: "We do not want any man in the college of liberal arts who is not a productive scholar. The quesiton arises, can a pure teacher keep pace? No. The universiy should not keep a pure teacher more than five years. should keep the good research man, how. ever, whether he can teach or not.'

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The average freshman today, says this writer, is, on entering college, as serious and as sincere about doing college work well as was the freshman of twenty years ago. This man's work with undergraduates has covered a period of twenty years, and in reviewing his experiences, he declares:

I can most earnestly say that the youth today, if it does lapse, does not do so through any particular fault of his. In spite of all the distractions that we have allowed in their midst, young people are doing pretty well. The fault of young America is not in young America; it is in old America. We have grown so far from youth, have kept so aloof, shut up in office, in laboratories, and in library booths, with our noses in dusty volumes, that we no longer know what is worth while. We don't know truth, we don't know life; and therefore we don't know youth. We have forgotten our own youth. We are so bent upon our own advancement, so self-seeking, so eager to see our names on the title pages of books and scholarly journals, that we have lost our sense of values.

The Bewildering Course of Study. Referring to the report of the superintendent of public schools, Chicago, to the board of education, the Marietta, Ohio, Times, says that many persons agree that not enough money is spent on education in this country in comparison with the funds devoted to luxuries and to war, and that educators are right who ask that "we be sure that such money as is used for education be used as effectively as possible." The writer says that this aspect of the situaation brings up the old question as to what education is or should be. In this connection, the writer points out:

The Chicago superintendent stresses particularly the "fundamentals" of education. Certainly it should not be too much to ask of them that a public pupil, after a reasonable length of time, should know how to write legibly and

spell correctly. He deplores the "bewildering course of study" and asks for a simplification of the curriculum. On the whole, of course, he is right. But it is conceivable that a pupil might learn to read and write well and still remain little more than a worker of perfect copy books. If he hasn't learned to use his mind, to tackle and solve new problems, if he hasn't grown power and strength of character and moral force, then his legible writing is not enough to make him an educated person although the so-called “fundamentals” are a first requisite.

One of the things which the public schools of this country, and even the higher institutions of learning, need is to have a larger number of citizens and teachers think about education itself,

declares the Times, and decide what it ought to be and what sort of men and women it should produce. When some has been reached, the writer believes enlightened agreement on those points that the matter of courses of study will be easily enough adjusted.

Morals in the Schools. Clergymen of practically all Christian religious organizations have launched a national movement for teaching "natural morals" or ethics in the public schools, says the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Tribune. The Tribune explains that natural morals are the Christian principles which are the same in all denominations. The writer says that the extent to which this movement may flourish cannot be forecasted, but that the subject is one to which every good citizen should give not only serious thought but much reading and study. It is a subject that will command more and more attention in the next few years. Continuing, the Tribune says:

The question of teaching or reading the Bible in the school has been proposed in many states and in fifteen states decisions have been rendered by Supreme Courts. The Courts do not agree, and the diversity of opinion expressed is remarkable. The question has been raised in the East, the West, the North, and the South. One court thinks Bible reading is proper, while another thinks it is not. Sectional sentiment does not appear in any of the opinions which seem to be honest attempts to interpret the Constitution impartially. When high courts disagree, the subject must be conceded to be profound. This makes it more important for all fair thinking persons to ponder on it. No doubt the national movement to teach "natural morals"