mobiles. There is nothing to see but a dark, dirty brick-walled hole with mud at the bottom.

Where a sewer starts it is about six feet below the street surface, or just deep enough to allow the basement pipes to flow into it. Gradually it goes deeper and deeper until it reaches some branch of the river and empties into it. In the southern part of Chicago, where the streets are only six or eight feet above the lake level, sewage has to be dumped from the sewers into the Calumet River. But most of the city's streets are from fourteen to twenty feet,

SON

with some as high as sixty feet or more above the lake level, and consequently the sewers have fall enough to cause them to flow. The smaller sewers require much more rapid fall than the large ones.

The plumbing fixtures should be kept in good working order to take proper care of the sewage and prevent the odors or "sewer gas" from getting into the air in the house, as this is very unhealthy. Plumbing is so called because lead is used for piping and connections, and the Latin word for lead is "plumbum".

OME years ago there came to the History Department of the Chicago Normal College a young instructor who made a lasting impression upon his students with reference to a newer and better way of teaching civics. In the meantime this teacher has gone elsewhere to continue his work, but his influence continues to live in the Chicago public schools. Consequently last year when the teaching of the social studies came to the forefront in connection with the formation of the junior high schools a group of teachers who had been influenced by Henry W. Thurston, and who wished to perpetuate his ideas, formed a club for the purpose of making the teaching of the social studies measure up to his standards. The formation of this club came about in the following manner: The great number of students who enrolled at the Chicago Normal College for the summer course under Mr. E. E. Hill were confronted with many difficult problems. The greatest of these was the fact that there was no accepted mass of subject-matter or method of presenting it generally approved for social science courses in the school. Mr. Hill at first directed his effort toward arousing in his students "a feeling for the subject." In doing this he

frequently referred to the National Council for the Social Studies and to the work of Mr. Thurston. So successful was the work of Mr. Hill that many of his students desired to continue the work and studies beyond the five-week period at the Normal. As a result there was organized the "Thurston Club-a Club for the Promotion of Social Studies."

The purpose of this club as stated by its constitution is to promote the study of the social sciences in the public schools by arousing a consciousness in the teaching force and in the general public for the ways in which historic, economic, civic, and geographic principles are at work in the community, and in national and international relations. The club has the usual officers and in addition an advisory committee composed of Professor Howard Hill, University of Chicago; Mr. E. E. Hill, Chicago Normal College, and Mr. Joseph F. Gonnelly, Superintendent of Junior High Schools.

Proof of the need for such an organization is found in the growing public demand for more practical results from the teaching of history and the other social studies, and in the fact that similar organizations are springing up all over the country. New York, Pennsylvania, and

MAY 9, 1925-10:00 A. M.

Trip down the Drainage Canal by Boat.

JUNE 6, 1925-10:00 A. M.

Regular monthly meetings have been held, at which the speakers have been leaders in their lines of work. The programs are held at the Y. W. C. A., third floor, Room K, 59 East Monroe Street. For the interest of those who wish to attend we list the announcements for April, May, and June:

APRIL 5, 1925-10:00 A. M. Subject: Use of Lantern Slides in the School Room.

Hays.

Demonstration under direction of Mr. Dudley Grant Discussion under leadership of Mrs. Clara Cassady. "Time-Saving Devices in the Use of Slides" by Miss E. Stimson.

MAY 2, 1925-10:00 A. M.

Subject: The St. Lawrence-Great Lakes Waterway Project. By Mr. Branom.

Discussion under leadership of Miss Eda Wilkinson: To what extent and how may teachers use their influence to bring about the accomplishment of this project?

Besides the regular programs, various projects are being undertaken, among which are: A History of the Streets and Old Roads of Early Chicago (compiled by research); A Development of Technique for the Use of Lantern Slides in the Teaching of Civics (being prepared by a committee working with Mr. Dudley Grant Hayes); and a Bibliography and a Collection of Material to Aid in the Teaching of the Constitution of the United States.

Those interested in becoming members may secure information at any meeting or

Project.

(Speaker to be announced later.)

Discussion as a School Room Project under leadership if Miss Alice Nichols.

son, Secretary, Thurston Club, 6037 Rhodes Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.

I

F NEW YORK schools are to have objective measurements of progress, Jacob Theobald, principal of P. S. 165, Manhattan, believes "it would be unwise to hurry our entire school system into a uniform program of objective measurements." This belief is expressed in Mr. Theobald's letter to Superintendent William J. O'Shea, reporting on the former's visit to the East Orange Bureau of Measurements. He fears that in spite of the very best intentions, undue haste will mean “some of the conditions pointed out as necessary cannot be met at once".

The optional use of objective measurements, he feels, should be encouraged with a frequent turning to the Bureau of Reference, Research and Statistics for advice. He recalls that "the question of grading and classification by intelligence

are best suited to our schools. He maintains that bright as well as slow pupils benefit by reclassification according to mentality. He cautions against greater haste than can be headed by appreciative and receptive teachers and principals. The tests thus far given in our own city by elementary principals have not been acceptable to high schools because there has been no assurance of accuracy. He suggests that the East Orange plan of classifying pupils in one of the twelve groups is a more helpful method of measuring for our high schools than an elementary classification in three groups. He would like to see the conventional 8B schools give their intelligence tests as the junior high schools do on entrance to 7A rather than in the 8B grade.

Four recommendations closed Mr. Theobald's report:

1. It is recommended that we construct our own achievement tests with direct reference to our own curriculum.

2. We will need to supply the conditions necessary to ensure appropriate modifications and interpretation of the curriculum and of the learning progress.

3. It will be well to place at the disposal of each district superintendent a working measurement unit similar to the East Orange Bureau of Measurements under the guidance of our Bureau of Reference, Research and Statistics.

4. Said measurement unit could direct the entire local testing-first, within a limited number of schools, and then through

out the schools of the two districts.

-School Survey Committee, Board

of Education, New York City. Recently a request came to the schools that a class be organized for parents who desire to find out how they may proceed more intelligently in the pre-school training of their children.

The responsibility of parenthood is a many-sided responsibility. Many parents have been conscious that they were groping rather blindly in the training of their children.

Now comes this request that a class be founded for parents that they may have expert advice on the problems which confront a parent, especially during the early years of a child's life.

The schools intend to meet this request. Already plans are under way to organize a course covering the topics to be taken up. The whole course is not yet determined. The whole need is not entirely apparent. The class is frankly an experiment, and it is a pioneer effort. But the need exists and the need is making itself felt. The extent of the need will unfold during the meetings of the class itself.

-School Review, Denver.

At its meeting on Wednesday last the Board of Education put into effect, for the first time, its recently adopted program for sabbatical leaves of absence for members of the professional staff. It granted such leaves of absence to 150 teachers who have been in the service of

the city public schools for nineteen years or more.

These leaves take effect on February 1st and continue until the end of the term, thus enabling the teachers to combine

their leaves with the summer vacation.

Under a new by-law of the Board of Education, 150 leaves are to be granted each year for study, travel or the recovery of health. The plan is financed without additional expense to the board, since sufficient amounts are deducted from the salaries of the teachers on leave to pay

for substitute service during their absence. This year the list includes 112 elementary school teachers and 38 teachers in the high and training schools. As the plan is new and has not therefore fully developed, it is announced that no regulations have as yet been made for granting such leaves to principals, superintendents, or heads of departments.

While this is obviously not a sabbatical year plan in the strictest sense, since it does not provide for granting a year's leave of absence every seventh year to the entire professional corps, it is a notable

step in the right direction. It is confidently to be expected that with experience the program will be widened to more generous proportions, as ways are devised to release larger numbers without detriment to the work of the schools. If ideally carried into effect, a sabbatical year program affecting the 30,000 professional employes in the New York City schools would mean excusing nearly 4,300 persons annually. Obviously great care must be exercised and careful study be made before this can be done without seriously impairing supervision and instruction.

Aside from arguments that might be offered in support of this plan from the point of view of the teachers themselves, it is evident that the school system as a whole will be benefitted immeasurably. The exacting nature of the teacher's work makes it highly desirable that adequate opportunity be afforded at stated intervals for relaxation and "freshening up". Equally valuable are the new points of view and renewed zeal which the absentees bring back to their work. Even if this plan involved considerable outlay on the part of the Board of Education, it would be a valuable investment in efficiency and esprit de corps. As it is, the plan costs the Board nothing. Rarely is it possible to secure so much for so little! The Board is to be congratulated on this progressive step, and the pioneering teachers in this new departure have the best wishes of the community not only for a profitable vacation but for a royal good time.-The Public and the Schools.

Dr. P. R. Stevenson of Ohio State University has had patented a permanent test and practice form, the essential characteristics of which are: (1) A stiff binder which makes possible the use of the test material or score card when the child does not have the convenience of a desk. (2) A scheme for the arrangement of test material which makes possible the use of blank papers for answers thus cheapening the cost of testing. (3) The possibility

of filing permanently the child's record in much less bulk than has formerly been possible.

Selling Survey is the title of a recent bulletin (No. 5) issued by the Department of Research and Measurement, at Pittsburgh. The bulletin gives the results of a city-wide spelling test involving nearly fifty thousand children. Results are given by half grades separately for colored and white schools, and are compared with standards. Age norms and distributions are also presented, as well as T-scores. In general, Pittsburgh children in the grades below the senior high school spell as well as the Ayres standard. Children in platoon schools spell as well as those in nonplatoon schools.

Professor William McDougall, professor of psychology at Harvard University, in a recent address said: "The greatest need at the present time is the courage to take a wider view of the meaning of science. If the psychologist finds that character, will, desire, purpose, and the like are quantities which can be studied, he must make his science conform to these facts and not abandon them, because they are not recognized in physics or chemistry." The statement is timely, since there is much evidence that many workers in the field of psychology are prone to compress the facts to conform to definitions already established rather than to define in terms of facts discovered.

Troy, New York, has abolished the traditional examination in elementary schools. The basis of promotion is to be the result of standard tests, with due consideration of the pupil's work by months. Proper allowance will be made for unusual individual cases. Results last June were particularly gratifying, according to Superintendent Arvie Eldred, who reports great satisfaction on the part of parents and pupils because of the change in method of promotion. At the September meeting of the principals and supervisors