to some high school girl. In this way no one feels lost or uncertain what to do or where to go, but is conducted about from recitation to recitation, so that he feels as much at home as tho he were in his own ward school. This day's visit bridges the gap between the eighth grade and the high school for many a boy or girl, and is the beginning of what proves to be a full high-school course.

If the executive head of a school administration, the superintendent, impresses himself on his board and on his people as a man who knows his business, and is full to the brim with the spirit of service, willing to give himself freely for the cause he represents, his board will gladly accord him the right to select teachers and other supervisors of the schools a right which must be largely his or all his planning may come to naught because of inefficient assistants. No school without a strong teaching force can long hold the respect and confidence of the people.

And with this privilege comes a duty; if he selects his teachers, he must bear the responsibility of dropping the inefficient ones. He must be willing to tell a teacher where she is short and lend her all possible aid to overcome her weakness; then after he and his supervisors have done all they can for her, if she is still below the standard, tell her that she is unable to do the work, that he cannot recommend her for re-employment. Even this, not always a pleasant duty, can be done in a spirit of fairness that will add to rather than detract from the good name of the school. When it is known that efficiency both in the ability to instruct and in the spirit of the work are the characteristics without which no one can hope to hold a position for any length of time in any system of schools, the confidence in the administration that this knowledge begets among the most intelligent of the community creates a strong public opinion in favor of the schools.

DISCUSSION

SUPERINTENDENT R. A. OGG, Kokomo, Ind.-I wish to emphasize just two of the many good points made by Superintendent Stableton-the value of parents' and teachers' clubs and the tendency of teachers to be impatient over absence and tardiness. For seven years I have had experience with parents' clubs in connection with the schools, and have found them very helpful. They bring parents and teachers into closer sympathy. They give parents a better idea of the spirit of the schools, and teachers a truer understanding of the attitude of parents. They give the superintendent an opportunity to explain the policy of the schools; answer questions and meet parents face to face. One very important gain is that, when difficulty arises, parents are much more ready to take suggestions and to see the reasonableness of the course pursued. They are valuable also in making the schoolhouse the intellectual and social center of the district.

Regarding the impatience of teachers as to absence and tardiness, I have found it very difficult to get teachers away from the idea that they are measured by the per cent. of punctuality and attendance they secure. Such is a false basis of estimate and leads teachers to be unduly exacting upon pupils, creating friction between the school and the home. There are times when a child ought to be tardy or absent, not only because the home may imperatively need him, but because he should learn that helpfulness at home and self-sacrifice are worth more than adherence to the form of the rules regarding attendance. Teachers should learn the home conditions and distinguish between carelessness and a conscientious doing of what appeals to the child as a duty to the home. If we only knew the occasion of the absence or tardiness we would sometimes sympathize where we now condemn.

W. S. Rowe, superintendent of schools, Connersville, Ind. In our schools we carry out the same general plan of parents' meetings as outlined by Superintendents Stableton and Ogg. We have, however, carried it one step farther, and have federated these several district clubs. The federated body is officered in like manner by parents. Its meet

ings are at night, take place three times a year, and are referred to as "public educational meetings." By this arrangement fathers are able to attend.

At one of these public meetings the topic for discussion was manual training. The paper was carefully prepared and presented by the high-school principal. Equally thoughtful papers on the subject were read by two of our influential public-spirited citizens. Others participated in the discussion which followed. This occurred two years ago, and the interest taken then and since in the subject of manual training has undoubtedly had the effect of encouraging our school board to take an advanced step and incorporate this important educational feature in the plans for our new high school now in process of building.

With us similar influences are tending to make the school a social and educational center. As indicative of this, our new building provides on the second floor for an assembly hall to seat six hundred, and also on the first floor for a good-sized corridor and reception hall. Provisions are made for brilliant natural and artificial light. In the latter the colonial fireplaces at either end of the corridor, the table and bookcases in the reception hall, will give a fine home-library effect. This will be open for use, not only to the mothers' clubs, out also to the literary clubs of the city.

As supplementary to the thoughts given in reference to knowing the home conditions of delinquents, in order to deal with them sympathetically, we have a plan which works admirably. Our teachers write a card to the delinquent, calling attention to some highly interesting things which have happened in the room during the day, and which he has missed. This notably decreases unnecessary delinquencies.

SUPERINTENDENT W. W. CHALMERS, Toledo, O.- In Toledo we have arranged with the business manager to take the school census by primary districts instead of the old plan of by wards. The census enumerators furnish two copies of the census list; one is for file in the board of education office, and the other copy is handed to the principals of the elementary schools at the opening of the school year in September. This list contains the names and ages, addresses, and parents' names of the children of the district. Some time during the first week of school the principal calls a meeting of his teachers and reads to them the list of children of the district coming within the compulsory-education age. Those that have been enrolled in the school are checked, and those that are not enrolled in the school form a new list to be investigated by him and by the truant officer.

SUPERINTENDENT H. V. HOTCHKISS, Akron, O.—I wish to emphasize the power of the teaching force in any city to create and foster a just appreciation on the part of the public of the work that is done in the schools of that city. Any system of schools of any value whatever has a certain genius or spirit which distinguishes it from any other system, which embodies itself in certain characteristic principles and processes; in short, which brings things to pass in an effective and desirable manner.

No body of people can have the training and opportunities which will enable them to know what the schools are doing so thoroly as the teachers themselves know. Every superintendent, therefore, should enter into the confidence of his teachers; should put forth his best effort to lead his teachers to know, in a broad way, the spirit of the system of schools in which they labor. I fear that too many superintendents satisfy themselves with the details of the work, grade by grade, and do not instruct their teachers in a broad way along the lines that I have indicated. Even very good teachers are usually familiar with the work of their grades or departments only, except in a very narrow and limited way.

Whenever the knowledge and ideals of the teaching force as to the broad work done in a school system shall approximate the knowledge and ideals of the superintendent, all the teachers who are loyal and earnest, meeting representatives of the entire city, as they do, in church work, club work, social gatherings, etc., will, with here a word and there a word, little by little build up thruout the entire community a public opinion of the work

done in the schools that will be of inestimable value to the schools themselves and to the work they are attempting to accomplish. Confide, then, in your teachers; let them know the best that you have planned for your schools; and, believe me, you will find them a valuable and helpful power in your community.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE FEATURES OF A Mmodern elemENTARYSCHOOL BUILDING

CLARENCE F. CARROLL, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, WORCESTER, MASS. The ideal elementary-school building has not yet been built, but here and there we have all found buildings parts of which appear to satisfy our most critical judgment. In this statement I shall seek to put together these fragments into an ideal whole.

There are two types of school building that appear to be most generally acceptable. Plan No. I provides for four rooms to a floor. The first floor may be duplicated above

once or twice, making eight or twelve rooms in a building. The hall runs thru the center, with two rooms upon each side, and with a projection running out from the hall, to which an addition may be made. This addition is easily accomplished, since a square or oblong may be added at a minimum expense.

Plan No. 2 shows a four-room building, with two rooms to a floor, to which an addition of four or eight rooms may be made. No. 2 is intended to be the reverse of No. 1.

In the city of Worcester most buildings are built with a view to an addition, and either plan No. I or plan No. 2 is usually adopted. A six-room plan is frequently followed where the amount of land is limited.

Either of these shows a building architecturally complete in itself. In case of an addition, the open space between the two buildings admits light freely to the middle of what might otherwise be the center of a long dark hall.

In the model elementary-school building at least half of the third floor should be left vacant as a gathering-place for either the school or the neighborhood. In the basement there should be left ample space for play-rooms.

The water-closets for girls and boys should be on opposite sides of the building. On the assumption that there would be about two hundred boys in an eight-room building, there should be about twelve urinals. Underneath these there should be a single trough with no subterranean passage, easily accessible to the janitor. These should be divided into stalls, and in no case should boys be exposed to one another when standing at the urinals. There should be a slate incline running so far back that no urine can possibly come into contact with the brick work.

TEACHERS ROOM

There need not be quite as many closets as urinals. Ten is a reasonable number for an eight-room building. Each of these closets should have a separate inlet and outlet. In other words, each should be as complete as if it did not belong to a system. The improved closet is in strong contrast to the old Smead system-to the long box trough still found in many old schoolhouses.

There should be an ample sink made of slate, with twelve or fourteen faucets, and a separate cup for each faucet.

There should be an exit into the yard from each side basement, that pupils may not be called to pass back up the stairway to get out of doors.

There should be an ample play-room on each side of the basement. In the ideal schoolhouse one of these basements might be used as a library and reading-room, to be open night and day.

The bath-room must not be omitted from the model elementary school building. Long ago it found its place in school buildings on the continent. Boston and Springfield have each two or three schoolhouses with bath-rooms. One such building may answer as a center for a district, children being sent for baths as for manual training. The details are easily managed at comparatively slight expense. Many children do not have the privilege of a bath at home. Some are so unclean as almost to create a nuisance in the schoolroom. Apart from the consideration of health, a thoro cleansing of the body is the first step toward rendering these children wholesome.

If a furnace is used for heating and ventilation, one large furnace should be provided for every two, or at least for every three, rooms; one stack heater should be provided for each set of closets. For an eight-room building this would make at least three large furnaces and three small ones-six furnaces in all. This makes an admirable, tho expensive, system of heating for a cold climate.

If steam is used, direct radiators should be placed in the rooms, with indirect heat from coils provided for ventilation. A fan is generally most effective for ventilating large buildings. Steam pipes running around the room are much more reliable than any other form of radiating surface.

At least one side of the schoolroom should be pretty completely taken up by windows. Every available inch not taken up by windows should be filled with blackboards. Solid slate should always be used for the blackboards.

There is no excuse at the present time for using anything but adjustable desks. These have become so familiar as to call for no particular discussion.

Iron ceilings should always be used, both because in the end they are more economical and because they are safer. There should be no platform in the room. Two closets should be built into the wall, providing ample room for the storing of books and collections. These closets take up some room, but this may be offset by a reversible standing blackboard, which is a piece of apparatus with which every teacher should be supplied.

This plan provides for a hall (twenty-two feet wide) running from one end of the building to the other. Light and air are admitted freely from both directions. This hall is so large as to furnish in itself a play room upon occasion, or, in the absence of an assembly hall, a place for gathering together the school for public exercises. The dressing-rooms (three feet and one-half wide) may be built into these halls without interfering very much with free movement. It is, however, very desirable that these dressing-rooms should be separated from the main building and ventilated. This can most easily be accomplished by means of sliding partitions. With these sliding partitions, very little floor space is needed for the dressing-rooms.

Tar concrete should be laid in the play-rooms, and the same material should be laid in the basements, and also around the outside of the building to a width of three feet. There should be a room for manual training and another for sewing in buildings occupied by intermediate and grammar grades.