associates bed and "b" with Bernice and stores this away till the next phonics lesson; where the thought of the story concerning the bed is recalled and the word bed put on the board, the sound of "b" is given in other words by other pupils, and so on, until finally Bernice finds "b" on the chart and can pronounce ever so many words with "b." The next day the consonant "b" appears upon the board among the other review sounds. Now, was all that worth while?

To-day the "B" class go to the board to count to one hundred. Edward turns his four the wrong way: while the others continue their work the wise teacher helps Edward to make his fours right and by so doing she saved the child and future teacher both much trouble. Was it worth while? Another child makes "m" with only two "overs" at the board; what a small matter for the teacher to guide the hand to make three "overs." It took a little time, but how much trouble it saved! It only took a minute to whisper to dirty little Joe that to-morrow he might surprise you by having clean hands and face and so help sister while Mother is sick. Here is James, who has come from another school as an "A"

class pupil, but cannot sound with the A class; of course he is pleased to think he can come to the B class phonics too and thus be doing two classes in one day; think of it!

Many, many illustrations can be given to prove that if in a room of over fifty pupils the, teacher can, in this practical way, associate the needs and lacks and good points of each child in her mind she will be causing the pupils to really and truly know. What a wonderful thing it is to see the child when he awakens to a realization that he has power within himself to progress.

If each teacher knew her own work as well as that of the grades above and below, she could use that of the grade below as a fount of stored away supply from which she could draw at any needed time and use the work of the grade above as a beacon, and children would not have to suffer from indiscreet remarks from their teachers.

Let us remember that schools are for the children and that it is a wonderful and yet a sacred privilege to train these little souls who will soon be men and women, better, let us daily pray, than we ourselves.

After years of exhortation, the schools and the public are awake to their joint responsibility in child bodybuilding. They have gotten down to definite procedure, to rules of health and standards of well being, and planned diet lists. We have got to do the same thing in civicswe must definitely plan for character building. We have talked a long time about it; now it is time to do something.

In this day of destruction, this day of wild talk about overthrow, this day of unrest in which our children are growing up, we must, by "precept on precept," show that the only permanent helpful change is through growth, development, construction, not through destruction. Our dangers exist because men of weak and faulty character are easily led astray by wily agitators. We must make building character one of our main aims in citizenship teaching.

Our nation needs a basic loyal following of good citizenship. In the mistaken conception that good character will come spontaneously as the fruitage of intellectuality and scholarship we have neglected the moral training of our people until we witness today the threatened disruption of social, industrial and governmental systems, with all that goes to make civilization. One or two hours a week of religious instruction in church or Sunday school, reaching but a meager percentage of our youth, is wholly inadequate to the character building of a nation. The absence of real home life, under strong parental care and discipline, in the congested sections of our great cities wholly precludes that moral training in the home that characterized the pioneer period. The one opportunity still open is found in our public school system, where attendance is compulsory and where all the necessary organization and power for moral training exist, awaiting only proper direction. — H. O. Rittenhouse, Commander, U. S. N. (Retired)

In February we can set the children consciously at work, building up their own characters by properly teaching Washington and Lincoln. Oh, what a waste, year after year, what a mass of irrelevant facts, totally unrelated to the child lives are taught, though by selection and relation, an actual contact with the spirit of the great leaders can be made, so that their lives actively and decisively influence the thought of our little citizens!

Show how Washington and Lincoln, starting at opposite ends of the economic scale, both by conscious effort built

up their strong characters. Be sure to bring in Washing tons Rules of Conduct; by citing him, you can inspire your children to deliberately set themselves to forming good habits.

Washington Helps Americanization Certain of the rules of conduct apply to present-day conditions be sure the children see the connection.

Think before you speak; pronounce not imperfectly nor bring out your words too hastily but orderly and distinctly.

When another speaks, be attentive yourself, and disturb not the audience. If any hesitate in his words, help him not, nor prompt him without being desired; interrupt him not nor answer him until his speech be ended

Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to keep your promise.

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

There would be no wild mis-statements of facts no howling down of audiences, no breaking of contracts, and no attempts to profit at the expense of our neighbors, if these four rules of Washington were lived up to.

Building up our homes and our towns is universally recognized as civics work - building up our personality is equally a civic duty. We have no right to let the gates of our fence sag off the hinges, we have no right to a dirty yard, equally we have no right to act and appear slovenly. We have Clean Up and Paint Up Campaigns for our town; we would do well to have Brace Up Campaigns for ourselves. Tell the children that all during February we are going to try to be like Lincoln and Washington, careful in our speech, kind, hard working and helpful. Remind them that Washington, born in good circumstances, worked hard, just as Lincoln did, that he was willing to undertake hard and dangerous tasks like his journey to the French Fort, that he worked hard on his estate and kept strict accounts and was a good business man, and that he shared the privations of his soldiers.

The Secret of Success

Lincoln, born poorer than anyone we know, won success. Washington won success, so did Benjamin Franklin, so do thousands every year, and almost every one of them won

A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck,

They know that Ruskin was right when he said:

If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if good, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it. Pleasure comes through toil, and not by self-indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love his work his life is a happy one. Ruskin

I hear some teacher say, "Does Miss Leighton expect us to teach such civics to first and second grade children?" The answer is, "Yes." The substance of all of this attempt at character building is easily understood even by a child of five. He knows he can do almost anything he attempts if he tries hard enough. Our children are living in an atmosphere of disgust and whining. Statistics show that hardly anyone is working up to his pre-war capacity, and we must, through our civics teaching, build up the ideal of the American citizen as "able, energetic and willing."

Child Personality

Then, too, there is no more favorable time than childhood to begin to build personality. We all know heartrending tales of misunderstood children. Why, then, do we not help our children to bring out and develop the better side of their characters, basing our appeal, not on the selfish ground of greater personal attractiveness, but on the noble foundation of better citizenship?

Some one has called February the "high tide of the school's patriotism," and there is no doubt that the recurring of Grand Army Flag Day, celebrated on Lincoln's Birthday, February 12, and Washington Birthday celebrations have been potent factors in teaching love of country. The wise teacher will not let these celebrations become hackneyed. Every year she will try to do some library reading herself on the lives of these two great shapers of our country, and will set the children at work to bring in from home papers and magazines articles for the Washington and Lincoln File. Most valuable material, especially by way of pictures, can often be obtained from magazines.

Public Appeals to Patriotism

We learned during the war that instead of subtracting from our efficiency, community service vitalized all the activities of the school. There is every reason now, while sedition is rampant, for our attempting to bring our Lincoln and Washington celebrations to the notice of as many as possible. If it is at all feasible, the public should be invited to witness the program. Any ordinary sized school can secure enough pictures having to do with the lives of Lincoln and Washington to make several interesting window exhibits, which store-keepers will be glad to give space to, beside the placards inviting the public to attend the school observance. Even if you can't invite the public, school window displays are worth while.

Invite the G. A. R.

February 12 is G. A. R. Flag Day, and wherever possible veterans of the Civil War and members of the Women's Relief Corps should be honored guests at the celebration. The G. A. R. are fast passing on. They saved the Union and their patriotic citizenship in the last fifty years entitles them to respect and is already the accepted model of the American Legion. Children taught to respect the old soldier are acquiring one virtue of citizenship.

Elsewhere in this article is suggested the lesson that should be impressed on everyone at the close of a Lincoln celebration; that is, with everything against him he built himself a character and achieved a success that is the beacon light of all time. He realized what we must make

that they rise not for themselves alone but that every step they take upwards makes progress possible for others.

Civic Clubs

Action is the goal of civics teaching. - Henry Suzullo

To get action of the best kind keep your clubs — your "Civic Guards" - alive. Wisconsin has state-wide forganization of school clubs and Cincinnati has a system of school clubs and citizen co-operation that is of the greatest value. The co-operation from outside comes from a Committee of Sponsors of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Woman's City Club. Cincinnati's announcements note that "Lessons do not often function in out of school

life-club activities do."

The club president attends the Board of Directors meetings, and brings back a report of his own school. His attendance brings him into contact with club presidents from the other schools and helps to promote unity. The outings and week-end hikes are features of club life.

They have a paper, The Civic and Vocational League Herald, which is issued on the second Tuesday of each month. It is used to disseminate ideas developed within the clubs.

There are over 4000 children in the Civic and Vocational League. The dues are two cents per member. The children are supposed to handle finances of the club by check and on the model of large organizations.

Parliamentary Law Makes for Americanism

In the regular meetings of the Civic League, the children. observe order and decorum. They adhere to parliamentary procedure. The importance of this is evident in the announcement that a large and radical meeting held to vote on a matter of the utmost importance, refused even to have a chairman or put on record the motion for vote in any regular fashion. Of course, there was no real registering of opinion in a noisy mob. Most of the decisions of radical bodies are merely the say-so of a few vociferous leaders and men have been howled down in I. W. W. meeting for even suggesting that the leaders should account for funds in their hands. It is of the utmost importance that our children be trained in the orderly process of learning the opinion of a body and the legal way of casting votes to register that opinion, if we are to continue to govern by the will of the majority expressed in accordance with law.

The Cincinnati plan brings the child into direct contact with opportunities for civic service; he learns that "his cooperation is as important as that of the adult." Anyone who has seen the beautiful earnestness with which these young citizens work know that they will in the future continue to be found on the side of righteousness.

Valentine Day

This year Valentine Day will fall on Saturday, but it is worth while, if you can possibly spare the time, to devote thirty minutes of the last Friday to a Valentine Party. Of course, the drawing period has been given up to the making of valentines, and we teachers are glad to note the almost total disappearance of the so-called "comic" that was intended to hurt and wound the recipient. Valentine Day can be one of civic value if it teaches "artistic kindness," the pretty way of adding to the happiness of our neighbors. Largely due to school celebrations, Valentine's day is not now one of lovers' sentimentality, but more and more becomes an excuse for kind and friendly greetings. The Valentine Party offers a good excuse for teaching

manners.

Cultivate Civic Imagination

You can have a Postman who, besides his U. S. Mail insignia, wears a great red heart on his coat, to distribute

the valentines. You can get a little civic information into the play by reminding the children of the great increase in mail matter Valentine day brings. Some persons will not receive any valentine, but others will get several remind them that this will happen in forty-eight states. Have them note the cost of purchased valentines the fact that people were paid for designing them and printing them as well as for selling them. Let them note that the

ones they make in school have a money cost in paper, pencils, paint, and remind them that maybe half the children in the United States are making valentines when they are. Let them also know that people send flowers or books as valentines, so that they can get some idea of the commercial results of the day's observances. This sort of teaching cultivates the civic imagination and brings home the interdependence of all of us.

The new service of education must

Nothing New Under the Sun

Ο

NE of the advantages or disadvantages of a classical scholar is that he is forever reminding us that there is little or nothing new under the sun, and that situations in human socirety are constantly recreating themselves. How much benefit accrues from these reflections is very much a question. Certainly teachers and professors cannot derive any too great satisfaction from the thought that they belong to a profession that from earliest times has not received adequate compensation; indeed, such a thought may be entirely disappointing, since blasphemers will say that if the world has for a thousand years or more been able to secure men and women who will teach at absurdly low salaries, it is probable that the world can get along in the future without worrying too much about the justice or even the expediency of proper compensation. Probably, in Ian Hay's phrase, the teacher's calling will be for many years to come "the most responsible, the least advertised, the worst paid, and the most richly rewarded profession in the world."

It is also probable that there will always be men in public life who see clearly the irony of the situation and who make strenuous efforts to improve it. If after all the college drives and publicity there are anywhere in the United States men who are still reactionaries on this point, I would commend to them the words of King Athalaric to the Senate of the City of Rome written shortly before his death, which took place October 2, A. D. 534. He begins his letter in a manner familiar to all those who have had reason to address Boards of Education, school committees, or college trustees: "You who are called Fathers should be interested in all that concerns the education of your sons." He then goes on to say what might be repeated to-day in New York or Boston: "We hear by certain whisperings that the teachers of eloquence at Rome are not receiving their proper reward." And this is followed naturally enough by praise of what the school

JOSEPHINE CORLISS PRESTON

President National Education Association

accomplishes. (The common school is the bulwark of American institiutions.) "Other nations have arms, the lords of the Romans alone have eloquence." Accordingly, the king lays it down that the senate should support with its full authority and with generosity the teacher of rhetoric and grammar "if he be found suitable for his work and obey the decrees of the Prefect of the city." (Were there Bolshevists lying loose about the Forum, discontented by reason of poor pay? one asks.) Apparently in those days not only were teachers poorly compensated but they had also sometimes to wait for their pay. And so the king with fine insight writes: "The Grammarian is a man to whom every hour unemployed is misery and it is a shame that such a man should have to await the caprice of a public functionary before he gets his pay.” But the most interesting parallel follows: we are reminded of "train the mind and mind the train" when we read further: "If we provide generously salaries for the playactors who minister only to the amusement of the public, and take pains to pay these who are not really necessary, how much more should we look after those who

are the moulders of the style and character of our youth!"

Athalaric concludes with the argument, now so familiar, that teachers cannot do their work if they have to worry too much about their salaries: "therefore let them not have to try the philosophical problem of thinking about. their subsistence, but devote themselves with all their might to the teaching of liberal arts."

This whole letter of Athalaric, grandson of Theodoric the Great, from which these extracts are taken, is well worth the study of those who are advocating more pay for teachers; and we are grateful to Cassiodorus for preserving it for us. For if the grandson of a Goth could write so intelligently, have we a right to pride ourselves too much on our distance from the dark night of Gothic ignorance, if the same problems still confront us and if we are no less stupid in their solution? Kenneth C. M. Sills in The Review, Dec. 27, 1919

T

and Second Grades

HOW IT STIMULATED READING

Mary B. Pratt

State Normal School, Worcester, Mass. HAT education is actually broadening out and beginning to work along natural lines is felt and admitted by all educators, but is acted upon by only a few as yet. Many of us are still reading books, thinking abstract thoughts, going to meetings to discuss the progressive procedures, and yet not really doing anything to make our own schoolroom a place where children may be natural and free; where there may be found a whole-hearted soul activity, and where laborin work or play is being made worth while. There is too wide a gap even to-day between theory and practice in our educational syste s. Why are we afraid to let go? In many cases it is the fault of the superintendent. He is holding back his group of open-minded, enthusiastic teachers. He is bound by tradition.

In other cases the fault lies wholly with the teacher. She is afraid to do anything radically different in her room. The thought of freedom sends a chill to her soul. She wonders how an undesirable reaction on the part of the children could be controlled.

That these fears are normal and somewhat desirable, the really thoughtful person must admit. While we are endeavoring to bring about radical changes in the schools, we must be careful not to swing too far on the other side, and to defeat our end, which is to produce citizens fitted to live in a democracy. A freedom that is not purposeful, that is not using the best in the child toward something constructive, that is not consistent with good physical and mental hygiene, and that is not developing the right

sort of social standards in the individual child, is not the type of freedom that we must appreciate, achieve and maintain in our school systems.

But at all events, let us experiment and get somewhere through our successes and our failures. The scientific approach is the approach in the working out and in the settling of these modern educational problems.

A good deal is being said to-day about the PROJECT METHOD as being a method through which we can develop the child along the lines stated in the preceding paragraphs. While this method is not new, it has recently become revitalized and is playing an important part in our theoretical discussions and in some of our practice. For some time the best teachers have been using it in geography, history and other upper grade subjects. In these grades the projects are for the most part abstract. In the progressive kindergartens the projects are working along concrete lines because little children must handle and use all sorts of concrete material as a means of expression.

Our psychology tells us that the first and second grade children are on the same plane of development as the kindergarten child. This being so, they should have similar treatment in school. If the projects of the kindergarten emphasize the use of concrete materials toward a purposeful and social end, then the first grade child should also have an opportunity to use such materials toward the same end. In either case the education will of necessity be connected with some phase of everyday life.

This photograph shows a project worked out by the first and second grades. It represents a farm. The children were about two weeks making what is evident in the picture. They worked before school, at recess, on rainy days, at home and several times during school hours.

The stimulus came from reading and dramatizing the "Little Red Hen." The farm began with a very small barn and a yard 12 x 12 inches. It grew through an increasing knowledge of what a farm should be, what materials were needed to improve the first efforts, and how each child should co-operate to make it a success.

Three regular class lessons only were given for specific needs. One lesson on wheelbarrows with construction paper, one on pigs, and another on barrels. The last two were made of clay. In these lessons the best results were chosen for the farm. Everything else was made freely children themselves. Changes were continually made as by an individual child or by a group organized by the of the project. Occasionally advice was asked for and observation and judgement developed through the growth given, but adult domination was not tolerated.

The working out of this farm project by concrete material gave the children a good social training. It taught the leaders what good leadership must be, and it developed leadership in four children who had hitherto been passive followers. Little lessons in thrift and sanitation were incidentally derived. Several worth-while discussions. about industry came up, and the children's questions were answered in so far as their understanding would permit It also served as a basis for language lessons. Arithmetic continually came into play through the need of counting, measuring and proportion.

Finally phonics and reading came out of a clear sky one day, and a series of lessons developed naturally, adding a new interest to first grade reading.

It is practically the See and Say method, using, however, the objects in their very own projects instead of pictures in books.

children went to the farm and found objects beginning with The sound ǎ was given as written on the board. The that sound: apples, animals. This was continued each day until words beginning with all the consonant sounds

were listed.