made in uniting two or more townships for purpose of supervision, bears evidences of the same tendency. This tendency is also emphasized in the selection of the educational council, or board of education, of the individual city, from all citizens, and not on the basis of wards or mere districts.

The personal and pedagogic elements of the educational forces represent the teacher. The central place occupied by the teacher apart from tools and instruments was never so thoroly recognized and appreciated as this very day. The work of the teacher is coming to be received as a profession and as the profession of the utmost value to humanity. Its qualifications, as well as its beneficence, receive a higher valuation with each passing year. But tho the professional value of the teacher has been enhanced, it is also seen with increasing clearness that the worth of the personal character of the teacher is the primary worth of the schools.

But also with this recognition is emerging an intimation that the work of the faithful woman in the schoolroom is made too hard. To lessen its exhaustiveness without diminishing its efficiency is seen to be the eminent problem. It is not usually true that the work of the men who teach in school and college The impression is growing that a larger number of men should be employed. The percentage of women teaching in American schools is the highest of any country. In America four-fifths of all teachers are women and one-fifth men; in Japan the proportions are reversed: one-fifth are women and four-fifths men.

Third, In respect to what I have called educational content certain tendencies in opinion are becoming more and more emphasized. The judgment is maintained that all truth has educational value; and that, therefore, the curriculum should be broad. The curriculum should be made to include whatever can minister to the increase of the power of thinking, or to the appreciation of life's beauty, or to the efficiency of life's service. The curriculum should embrace all those studies which are of the highest worth. It may also include those which are of other worth than the highest. The efficiency which is sought for is the efficiency to earn a living. That is primary. But also the efficiency which is sought for is the efficiency which can make a life. Mechanical high schools are increasing and industrial training is receiving greater emphasis. Whether mechanical high schools should be a part of the ordinary high school or created on distinct foundations and under separate faculties is a subject under general discussion and under special discussion in Massachusetts. But that the efficiency of the so-called manual training is dependent more upon the brain than upon the hand is becoming recognized. With this emphasis runs a disposition to cut out what is called "fads and frills," though, be it said, these eccentricities are far less numerous than those who inveigh against them seem to believe.

Among the teachers of the two classical languages of antiquity taught in the high schools and the colleges, is growing the feeling that both, if either, should be taught, and neither if not both. Latin without Greek came to have

a place of its own thirty years ago in American schools and colleges. The enlargement of the physical and natural sciences caused a decline of interest taken in Greek. Greek seemed more remote than Latin and it especially suffered in the competition for a place in the curriculum. But recently scholars have come to recognize the intimate relationship of the two. Latin literature finds its springs and origins in the Greek. A student seldom studies Greek without knowing Latin. He does study Latin without knowing Greek. It is declared that such a study gives a false knowledge of the proportional values of the life and literature of the Greek and Roman people. Therefore while the classical teachers do not lessen their claims of the worth of the type of education they represent, they are inclined to eliminate it if it cannot be offered in justice and proportion. They, of course, are perceiving that the continued teaching of modern languages is rendering these languages more adequate tools of modern training than they were when introduced into the course of study.

Fourth, The educational content has close relationship to what may be called educational tools or instruments. Such implements are of primary service in education. The improvement of education is well measured by the improvement in educational tools. Among these implements the textbook has the first place. The improvement in textbooks still continues. The modern textbook differs from the early one in respect to the method of presentation of the subject. The earlier one sought to explain and to interpret the subject in a logical order. The author's point of view was scholastic. The textbook was the expression and exposition of truth and of truths. The recent textbook seeks to explain and to interpret the subject primarily for the benefit of the mind of the student. The point of view of the author is the point of view of the pupil. This point of view has for its chief characteristic simplicity. It represents the discarding of the irrelevant. It also stands for the sense of porportion in making principal principal and subordinate subordinate. Its fundamental element of the student's point of view continues to be emphasized in textbooks of the current year's publication.

Akin to the textbook should be noted the educational journals and reviews. These publications show a constant improvement. This improvement is made despite the condition under which they labor, conditions arising from the fact that the daily journals, weekly papers, monthly and quarterly reviews regard education as one of the great human interests which they should and which they do consider. The opportunity seems ripe, it may be added, for still further enrichment of periodical literature. The conditions are hard, but the ideal is one which we can worthily set before ourselves.

In relation to educational tools, it is to be added that the community with each passing year appreciates at a higher value the service wrought by good architecture, both as a means of improving material conditions, as a way of promoting the health and securing lives of pupils, and also as a method of ministering to the sense of the beautiful. The need of security for the personal

safety of teachers and students has been emphasized by the burning of a schoolhouse in the neighborhood of this city in the month of March. The harrowing death of one hundred and sixty-four pupils and teachers gave a shock to the whole civilized world. It also prompted the educational authorities in both America and Europe to look well to the risks to which every student and teacher is subjected.

Fifth, Educational conditions represent elements as important as educational forces or tools. Among these conditions athletics are still occupying a chief place. This occupancy relates to every grade of education except possibly the kindergarten. It is still a reflex of the interest of the whole community in athletic concerns. The community is coming to realize that to seek to support athletics in school or college is to seek to support certain of the great human and lasting interests of man. The college and school are seeking to regulate these sports. Teachers are playing more with their boys, or if not playing with them, at least are coming to sympathize more with them in their play. Many students, too, in some colleges and schools are seeking with wiser wisdom and with more genuine sympathy to give to sports a proper place in their educational career. The keen excitement regarding fraternities in the high schools has in many instances subsided. Those organizations are in some schools allowed to exist; in a few they are forbidden. But taking all of the ten thousand high schools of the United States together these organizations are relatively few.

What I have said of educational policies and conditions in North America. is also true of policies and conditions on American territory over the seas. Governor-general Smith, of the Philippines, concluding a long conversation upon the worthiness and efficiency of the Americans who have come to the islands, said, "But after all the best of them all is the American teacher." The American teachers, both men and women, are doing more for the permanent elevation and improvement of the Filipinos than all other forces and personalities. These teachers are of good origin. They are the children of the great body of American homes. Many of them are graduates of the colleges of the Middle West and of the Pacific Coast. They are possessed of high ideals. They have an instinct for efficiency. They are willing to endure hardships as good soldiers. They unite intellectual insight and comprehension with the moral virtues. They are forceful without officiousness, and, while conscious of their power, and watchful for opportunity, are yet not arrogant. Eight hundred men and women of this noble type have for seven and more years been working as teachers in the Philippines, are still working, and are to continue.

Sixth, Behind the whole educational system stand great personalities. The American system has been rich in this supreme wealth. The year has taken away not a few such men. Foremost among them is Thomas Day Seymour, for almost a generation professor in Greek in Yale. Of him it may be said, as he said of one of his colleagues in the college of which he was a

graduate and where he taught before going to Yale, "a Christian gentleman and scholar, honored for his character as much as for his scholarly attainments." A younger colleague, Edward Gaylord Bourne, has also, after a lingering illness, ended his career. In his death the cause of American history loses an investigator of great frankness and candor, a writer of wide and increasing recognition, and a teacher of inspiration, especially for minds like his own, eager and inquisitive. Harvard and the cause of classical scholarship suffered a great loss, also, in the sudden death of Minton Warren, and Columbia and the cause of science mourns the untimely end of Underwood. St. Louis and the nation mourn Soldan-an inspiring soul, a chevalier, and standing for a noble type of the executive. The whole northwest, and especially the state of Washington, mourns the death of Bryan, the first state superintendent of schools. It may also be added that American education lost a wise supporter and American teachers a genial friend in the death of D. Collamore Heath, publisher of good books, a man noble in purpose, wise, prudent, and strong in every undertaking.

Changes other than mortal have also occurred. Hopkins has retired from the headship of the New England College after giving six years of service not unworthy of the fame of his great father. Following upon his resignation, Harry A. Garfield was chosen president. The office was offered and accepted a year in advance of undertaking the same. This method is to be commended. For the work of the teacher is a vital process, and changes in vital processes suffer less by reason of being made deliberately. In this year, too, Dean Laura Drake Gill has retired from the deanship of Barnard College after a service of seven years. The office of dean of a woman's college is one of the most difficult, as it is one of the most important, in the whole educational hierachy. Miss Gill brought to the deanship of Barnard a high appreciation of the wealth of helpfulness which it offers to the student and to the community. In another college of Columbia, Dean Russell has completed ten years of service. Teachers College could have existed without Dean Russell, but if he had not served it in this decade, it would have been a very different college. He has excelled in two of the most delicate and difficult problems belonging to the college executive: In the selection of teachers and also in the endeavor. to persuade and to quicken a body of trustees to the realization of the great duties resting upon them and of the rich opportunities open to them.

As one compares the history of the year with the history of education in other great nations, American education represents the annals of a nation at peace. England has been in a state of serious excitement, in church, both established and unestablished, in Parliament and without, regarding public and ecclesiastical education. The excitement still continues. No satisfactory solution has been reached. Curzon has tried and, even with his great power, so far failed, to raise two hundred and fifty thousand pounds for Oxford. In the British Empire of India, advancement has been made in dealing with ignorance, in a community, complex and ancient, where only 5 per cent.

can read. Egypt has established technical and trade schools. Turkey still lingers in educational darkness. China's revival has been hurt because of the lack of a proper number of teachers and also by a great doubt of the sincerity of the Chinese government in promoting education. Japan still continues to educate and to educate with that efficiency which she puts into her military and naval service. America has, with her companion nations, sought to labor on in this supreme cause, keeping the river of her education full of the water of life, determined that to each child shall be given fitting educational opportunity for making his work efficient, and his character large, rich, and fine.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF INVESTIGATIONS ON THE SCARCITY OF TEACHERS

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

To the President and Members of the Council of Education, National Education Association: FELLOW-MEMBERS: Herewith is submitted the report of the Committee on Scarcity of Teachers, by President David Felmley, the secretary of the committee, who sent out a series of questions agreed upon by the committee at a meeting held at the Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, January 2 and 3, 1908. At a subsequent meeting of the committee, held in Washington in February, it was decided to ask President Felmley, who had previously made an intensive study of some phases of this subject, to compile the statistics and draft the report.

The report is based upon a systematic questionnaire which brought replies from four hundred eighty-three correspondents who represent every state and territory except Delaware. The material used came from state superintendents, county superintendents, city superintendents, presidents of normal schools, professors of education in colleges and universities, editors of school journals, and managers of teachers' agencies. These people, because of their large experience and careful reflection upon the subjects regarding which they gave facts or expressed views, represent, in our opinion, a safe intelligence on the matters herein considered.

This investigation brings together the facts of wide experience and a consensus of opinion of people whose business puts them into active contact with the vital elements considered. It, therefore, appears that the conclusions reached rest upon rational knowledge which must always seek the causal relation of things.

Supported by evidence that seems to sustain the construction placed upon it, your Committee submits this Report, not as the final word but as the basis for further study should the National Education Association desire to secure greater detail of information and attempt to develop a new phase of sociology in accordance with the methods of exclusive and technical science.

Respectfully submitted,

I. C. MCNEILL, Chairman
DAVID FELMLEY

JAMES M. GREEN

CHARLES H. KEYES

JAMES E. RUSSELL

Committee