History, Some New Texts in, A. C. Ross, 354-355. Individuality and Experience, John Dewey, 241-244. Influence of "The Full Time for Every Child Plan", Jenkinson, Jennie S.-Classroom Training for Concentration, 259-261. Johnson, J. T.-Some Statistics on the Platoon School, 168-173. Johnson, William H.-Principles of Auditorium Instruction, 179-182. Judd, Charles H.-Physical Education versus Physical Training, 41-45. Judd, Charles H.-Saving Time in High School and College, 281-286. Kandel, I., L.-International Understanding and the School, 18-21. Literature, Children's, The Selection of (book review), H. D. Roberts, 314-315. Loughead, Sybel, and White, Katherine F.-A Survey of Scholarship Funds Available in Chicago, 136-141. McAndrew, William.-Speaking of This and That, 1-5, 121-124, 201-204. McDade, James E.-Individualizing Education, 212-217. MacMillan, D. P.-The Physical Status of Entrants to the Chicago Normal College, 55-59. Magazine File for Geography Material, A, Ira N. Van Hise, 262-263. Manuscript Writing, A Note on, Ernst F. Detterer, 129-131. Maps, Outline, Reproducing and Enlarging, Ira N. Van Hise, 300-303. Mental Hygiene, Recent Publications on, Stella Vincent 74-76. Moving Pictures in Our Schools, The Place of, J. J. Zmrhal, 132-135. National Education Association as a Formative Force, The, Francis G. Blair, 340-342. National Education Association Convention at Washington, High Points of the, 303-307. New Types of School Examinations (book review), Daniel Hannon, 233-234. News and Comment, General Educational, 28-32, 68-72, 108-112, 145-148, 184-187, 225-229, 265-270, 309-313, 344-349, 387-391. News of the Chicago Schools, 72-74, 112-114, 148-151, 187-192, 229-230, 271-273, 313-314, 349-350, 391-392. Payne, E. George.-Health Education in Schools, 46-51. Periodicals, 32-34, 114-115, 151, 192-194, 230-232, 273-275, 350-351. Philosophy, Some Recent Contributions to, Denton L. Geyer, 152-156. Physical Education, Revent Publicatie Physical Education versus Physica Physical Status of Entrants to the Cional College, The, D. P. Macmillan, 55-59. Pickett, Ralph E.-What New York City Is Doing Picture-Story Reading Method, An Experiment with the, Denton L. Geyer, 328-332. Pierson, Paul I.-Health Publications of Aid to Teachers, 67-68. Pierson, Paul I.-The Scientific Method and Health, 59-62. Platoon School, Some Statistics on the, J. T. Johnson, 168-173. Power, Nellie G.-Pupil Government in the Monroe School, 27. Pre-School Child and the Present-Day Parent, The, Arnold Gesell, 332-334. Program for a Double School, A, Jacob H. Hauch, 173-176. Project Method, Social-Group, Values of the, Flora J. Cooks, 81-86. Pupil Government in the Monroe School, Nellie G. Power, 27. Question, The Technique of the, Will D. Anderson, 217-219. Radio, Cultural Possibilities by, R. R. Smith, 334-336. Radio Instruction, Survey of, R. R. Smith, 382-384. Reading, An Experiment with the Picture-Story Method, Denton L. Geyer, 328-332. Reading, Recent Texts and Tendencies in, C. L. Williams, 234-237. Recreation, New Provisions for Teacher Training in, James Edward Rogers, 125-128. Religious Education (book review), Turner C. Chandler, 117-118. Reproducing and Enlarging Outline Maps, Ira N. Van Hise, 300-303. Ritzma, Peter B.-The Chicago Course of Study in Citizenship, 5-19. Rogers, Don C.-Teaching the Hard Spots in Words, 256-259. Rogers, James Edward.-A Danger in Modern Education, 254-256. Rogers, James Edward.-New Provisions for Teacher Training, 125-128. Safety Instruction in the Schools, J. E. Bulger, 251-254. Saving Time in High School and College, Charles H. Judd, 281-286. Scholarship Funds Available in Chicago, A Survey of, Sybel Loughead and Katherine F. White, 136-141. Science Books, General, Published in 1925, Paul I. Pierson, 315-318. Scientific Method and Health, The, Paul I. Pierson, 59-62. Secondary School Technique (book review), R. H. Wetherbee, 355-356. Sharp, Dallas Lore.-Five days and an Education, 361-369. Shorthand, The Direct Method Applied to (book review), Frances Perlstein, 392-393. Silent Reading, Diagnostic and Remedial Work in, D. J. Beeby, 204-212. Simmons, Christine K.-An Experiment in Individualizing Instruction, 96-99. Standardized Tests, Recent Publications on, D. L. Geyer, 35-37. State Laws of Interest to Teachers, Some New, Bertha S. Armbruster, 107-108. Statistical Method in Education (book review), D. L. Geyer, 195-197. Statistics and Standardized Tests, Selected References on, D. L. Geyer, 219-223. Stocking, Jr., William Redfield.-The House System in the Detroit High Schools, 321-325. Stoddard, A. J.-Adaptation of Individual Instruction to a Small High School System, 87-91. Student Self-Government, John O. Chewning, 9-13. Superintendent of Schools, Official Notice from the.Principal's Record of Teacher's Efficiency, 182-183. 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SPEAKING OF THIS AND THAT Democracy, Appearances, Personalities, Professional Pride, Being Respectable T By WILLIAM McANDREW CANUTING THE BOSS WO years ago I had to go to the office of an old friend who had been appointed at the head of a municipal department. He was greatly annoyed by the deference paid him by employes. "I don't like this King Canute stuff," he said. "I'm just the same man I was yesterday but they're making a fool of me with all this obeisance". The other day I was in his office again. Just as he was about to smoke a cigar someone called him on the telephone. The "office boy", an obsequious employee fifty years old, held the telephone to the commissioner's ear, put the cigar in the commissioner's mouth, lit the commissioner's match, and held it while the commissioner sucked. King Canute would have hard work with the commissioner. DEMOCRACY AND TITLES Adulation for officers in a republic has disturbed many of our people now and then. The first two administrations had much of it. Washington and his friends discussed different proposals for epithets, seeking a suitable one for the president. He was said to prefer "your high mightiness". The democrats laughed it out of sight. Mr. Jefferson banished most of the pomp which Adams had enjoyed in official life. It is said that Jefferson did away with all the titles he could and then spread "mister" and "sir" over everybody. Brown, who came to mend the White House drain, became Mr. Brown. Since Jefferson's day it is the usage to begin a letter to the garbage man or to the governor, “Dear Sir." Theretofore "Sir" was reserved for the gentry and nobility. Kentucky has gone so far as to dub every man over forty a colonel. THE TREND TOWARD BROTHERHOOD On reading the Declaration and the Constitution we note the appetite for equality and fraternity, the desire to do away with titles of distinction. We know that the same pioneers who framed these two basic documents proposed that the principles of them would be kept alive by a universal system of education. Democracy, with its avoidance of attempted distinctions for different men by the use of titles, is one of the aims of our school business. Chicago is more successful in it than New York or Boston. In those eastern cities, the school principal has secured a general usage of getting himself called "doctor". Chicago no longer applies even "professor" to its men teachers. A newspaper note is going the rounds to the effect that the faculty of the university of Virginia has organized a society "for encouragement of the use of mister as applied to all men, professional or otherwise". Let's form a Chicago branch. A GENTLE EMPHASIS UPON EQUALITY In one, maybe more, of our schools, when girls of the cooking class serve a dinner to the principal, or to teachers, or to adult guests, there is one course during which a girl sits at the table with the grown-ups while a grown-up serves. There dinner is essential practice for every girl. is a good significance in this. Serving a obloquy of it is emphasized by letting the If the dignity of service instead of the girls always see serving actually shared as a regular thing by the respected lady or gentleman, the effect is likely to be fine. When I heard of the usage in the school I just referred to in which the gentlewoman. who is the principal always puts a school girl among guests for a little while when she, the principal, goes from place to place passing the biscuits, I confess it gave me a good American thrill. THE GREATNESS OF SERVICE I'm sorry our school readers have left out the story they had in for the previous generation: "One day a general in civilian clothes rode near a redoubt on which a small company of soldiers were making repairs. The general observed that the men could scarcely move the large timber they were trying to put into place. He stopped his horse and asked the officer directing the work why he did not take hold and help. The latter was astonished. Turning upon his questioner he said with great dignity, 'Sir, I am a corporal'. "I beg your pardon,' said the other. Upon this he dismounted and joined the hard-working men. He pushed and lifted until the sweat poured from his face and hands. When the timber was in place he turned to the corporal and said, 'Sir, when you have another such job and have not men enough, send for the commander-inchief.' It was Washington." The disciples were well able to wash their own feet. The Master's girding himself with a towel and performing that menial service was, of course, a demonstration, a symbol. How great it was! DEMOCRACY AND LITTER It is curious how this spirit is evident in some schools, and absent in others. On the North Side there is one of our buildings in a beautiful region. The neighbors have lovely homes. If we permitted ourselves to think of there being an aristocracy we would say these children belong to it. "How do you keep the floors of your corridors so clean?" I asked the presiding genius. "Oh," she said, "if any of us see any litter we pick it up." Over West among the hovels there is another school fully as well tended. The same inquiry brought the same answer. On the South Side I saw in the front hall more than a half dozen good sized scraps of paper and an apple core on the floor. I counted two teachers, four girls, and three boys slowly passing with no movement toward service. When I picked up the debris myself I felt that somehow I should have persuaded better co-operation among all ten of us. So I went in and exhorted the principal to let up on his campaign to coax the price of pictures from the parents and to devote himself to getting his school suitable to hang pictures in. DECORUM PICTORIAL Speaking of decorating the schoolroom, there is a curious psychology connected with it. Some rooms show an evident intent of the teacher to produce the effect which we are told decorations in rooms we are much in should produce. That is a soothing, rather than a stimulating, atmosphere. There are three or four good pictures placed with care. There are no mussy papers stuck up here and there. The eye is not distracted or bewildered. In several of our schools the whole building, room after room, seems to have this idea. Maybe the principal discusses it at teachers' meetings. Frequently, however, you find rooms that give you the fidgets. There are children's color work, cuttings from soap advertisements, penmanship charts, bluebirds, everywhere. It is jazz decoration. Rather a pity, it is, I think, that my lady wouldn't motivate herself before she sticks up these things. She could decorate with a purpose. Unfortunate it is that after she does litter the walls she doesn't study the effect upon herself and on her school family. These decorations in some rooms are mere slang-pictorial slang, displays not found among refined people. Children's drawings and color work are hung up to show what has been done, but, bless your heart, they are not soothing nor educative, nor fit to be kept up more than a day or two. We wouldn't attempt to form our children's literary taste by reading to them children's written compositions. Herbert Adams, the sculptor, says one masterpiece in the front of a room, changed once a month, the walls being simple, in soothing color, is the best thing for the children. Wouldn't it be rather interesting to get Mrs. Tieken of the Public School Art Society, or Mr. Harshe of the Art Institute, or Mr. Taft of the U. S. A. to take a real schoolroom and put it into the best style of interior finish and adornment known to man, or to woman, and to invite us all to come to a tea party in it, giving us an expert talk about the influence of surroundings on our minds and nerves? SURROUNDED BY BLACK I wonder what they would do with the blackboards? Could we have lambrequins, portieres, curtains on brass rods? Whew! Wouldn't the dust fly when one drew the veil? Some sort of sliding panels in which the children couldn't get their fingers pinched might do. Maybe the future school builder, who is a mental hygieist, will wake up to the fact that to put sensitive souls into a room five hours a day, surrounded by black walls, may be the culture of gloom. We have a lady principal who utters distressing sounds at short periods during the school year announcing that her teachers are unhappy. The wise ones say she should coax them to look at blackboards less and at smiling faces more. Pink is the most cheerful of all the colors. Many children are pink. It really would be worth while to try in that school equipping a room with delicate peach-colored slate boards on which the children can add and prove with lavender chalk. Don't laugh. Some hospitals in France claim to have discovered remarkable curative properties of certain colored surroundings. THE MAIN DECORATIONS While we are talking about beautifying the schoolroom we ought to say something as to the ornament on which the eyes of the children are bent more frequently than upon anything else: my lady herself. Did you read those ridiculous allegations, one Chicago newspaper saying that I remarked you wore your skirts too long; another asserting that I said you wore them too short? All, like the skirts themselves, made out of whole cloth. But now that the matter of clothing has been thrust upon us, what is in it? CLOTHED AND IN THEIR RIGHT MIND If you really owned the schools and had would you want your working staff to run them on an efficient basis, how clothed? Better or worse or just as good as the banks or the high-grade department stores require? There are schools in which the teachers dress for their work as if they had a pride in being connected with a first class institution. There are teach ers who seem to use the classroom as a place in which to wear out their old clothes. SUCCESS AND LOOKS Why is it that if we were employed by a theatrical company or a hospital or a first class restaurant the managers would insist upon our dressing for the part? Apparently it is because they want to please the customers. Do you know of any service that ought to strive more than ours. to please its customers? There are many who remark that our business does not command the respect that it should. They cite that the measure of respect for us as shown in financial form is low. Education is the most vital of all public works, but not the most highly paid. They tell us sometimes that we do not look to be worth more than we are getting. Those cities which have secured a more adequate reward for teaching service are the ones in which the teachers have more decidedly looked to be worth it. If we protest that we cannot afford to look well on the wages paid, we may reason correctly, but we continue to offer visible argument against higher pay. It is a cruel situation, but the wicked human mind works that way. The shabby agent who urges you to invest with his company because he needs to live better doesn't get very far. The dapper salesmen who start a new business and impress you with the evidence of prosper |