strong and but two lonesome souls can give expression. If we cannot elevate we would better eliminate.

The results from the questionnaire are more or less from a select class. That we might get the results from a general viewpoint I examined the records of all high-school students in a certain state taking Latin in the year 1918. I selected Latin for the reason that a greater number would be taking that language than any other one language. I find 19,000 students taking Latin in the high schools of one of our western states, and of this number only 2000 were beyond Caesar. Either there is a remarkable renewal of interest in that state in the subject of language in the last two years or the death-rate is very high. I suspect the latter, together with the fact that most schools require two years of a language before giving credit and thus influence the choice of the student body.

The professional and business men have decreed that the languages should remain to meet their interests. That is not half the solution. It remains for an examination as to whether the other 90 per cent are to receive the same benefits by following the same course. It is my impression that they will not. It is a conviction, not a conclusion. It remains to be workt out and a course formulated in keeping with the findings. The war has not affected the situation.

THE NECESSITY FOR THE REARRANGEMENT OF THE
HISTORY AND CIVICS PROGRAM

C. E. ROSE, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, BOISE, IDAHO

The American school system has not been a failure. This fact should be borne in mind, when at this momentous period in our history we pause to look for the imperfections in our past work or to consider the larger program which the future holds for the public schools. The world-war has given to education a place of prominence of which we little dreamed a few years ago. The children in our schools believe that they helpt to win the war for democracy and righteousness. This belief is well founded because of the many urgent calls made upon them for their help. This belief furthermore puts them into an attitude which should make their education easier and richer if we but take advantage of the situation.

The war has taught us some valuable lessons. It has taught us conservation and thrift. We have conserved food to feed our armies and our Allies. We have taught thrift for a noble purpose, but we have caught a vision of the conservation of time in our educational system. Under the guidance of a lofty motive aims have been reacht by intensive training during these war times that have astonisht some and nonplust others. The impossible has been accomplisht. If we now fall back into our old ways we do not deserve the victory which we have won. Time and energy

must be conserved in all our school work. The value of a motive has been proved.

In our schools, both elementary and high, the central theme of all history teaching should be to show how the present came from the past. We can well afford to learn a lesson from our oriental neighbors and teach more ancestor worship. A higher regard for the deeds of our forbears, a little more attention to their words of wisdom, a studied attempt to pattern after their virtues, will make of the present generation a race more worthy of the priceless legacy handed down to it.

In the last few years there has been too much of an attempt to teach the history of other peoples and other nations, whether closely or remotely connected with our own history. Too much attention has been paid to the history of Greece and Rome and Europe and too little to that of the American Republic. High-school pupils have spent too much time upon Punic Wars and some pope of the eleventh century, when they knew nothing and cared less of the important events and characters in our own history. They could talk glibly of Xerxes and Xantippe, Zeus and Cleopatra, when they knew nothing of their heritage from Samuel Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Daniel Boone, or Daniel Webster. Let us give time to American history first and to other history later, when our most important lesson is learned. Let us reduce the study of ancient and mediaeval history to a minimum in order to put time on modern history. Let us know that the most important of all history is not in the textbooks -I mean the history of the glorious Now. A more prominent place must be given to current events. In fact, current events can and should be taught in connection with all history. To do this, many teachers must be made over, but that will do them good. We are worthy of our place in the present only if we make the most of it.

Our honored senior senator from Idaho said the other day:

What we need in this country, Sir, is the fostering and strengthening of the national spirit, a rebaptism of national pride, a reconsecration to the purposes for which we organized our government. Preach the doctrines of the fathers for a while and see how the American people like it. Tell our people anew how we are distinguisht from all the peoples of the nations of the earth, the liberty, the prosperity, the independence, the initiative, the individuality, which we enjoy as compared with other nations or peoples. When you have done that you will plant in the hearts of the American people again and anew that which Bolshevism cannot uproot.

These words from Senator Borah constitute sound principles for the teaching of history in our schools.

As I have already stated, the children in our schools have been made to feel that they helpt to win the war. By means of the food-conservation program, the work of the Junior Red Cross, war gardens, and the War Savings Stamp campaign, school and life have been brought closer together. And in all this, real, live, worth-while lessons in civics have

been taught, for the essence of good civics teaching is to make the citizen aware of his duty to his state and inculcate such a strong desire to do that duty that immediate whole-souled action results.

What is to take the place of these agencies for civic training? Surely peace has as much to offer as war. Thru the work they have done during the past two years our millions of children have learned to know that all the world is kin; they have sacrificed without hesitation to relieve the suffering of unfortunates whom they have never seen. Cannot these feelings be transferred to their immediate surroundings and to the sufferers in their midst whom they have seen? They have saved and bought Thrift Stamps to help win the war. Cannot thrift now be taught for thrift's sake? School work of all kinds should be lookt upon as a civic duty by the children themselves. It should not be difficult to develop the ideal that a truly patriotic man owes to his country his whole self, the best mind he can develop, and the best efforts he can put forth, and that in giving all to his country he saves all for himself and posterity. Thrift and temperance, sanitation and health, work and play, each has its part in the duties of a truly patriotic citizen. Our civics program must include all these things.

What shall be the course of study? It must be arranged, not in terms of events, or epochs, or men, but with a view to the creation of ideals. and right attitudes in the children themselves. Let us not teach history and civics to children, but by means of history and civics prepare our youth for a useful citizenship. History teaching is futile if children merely learn dates or about men and events; even cause and effect will be meaningless unless the motives and ideals that governed those men and controlled those events are made to animate the breasts of the children in their work and thinking. The teaching about government, or the rights and duties of individuals in relation thereto, is entirely inadequate unless accompanied by a participation in the work of the government and of the society of which the child is a part. In a democracy the child has a right to a preparation for useful citizenship as an adult, by that participation now to which he is justly entitled.

CHANGES PRODUCED IN THE MODERN-SCIENCE COURSES BY THE WAR

ARTHUR DEAMER, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, FARGO, N.DAK. Our dependence upon a knowledge of science is no longer doubted. The struggle for the recognition of science as one of the basal subjects not only for college but for secondary education is over, the final chapter being written as a result of the Great War. It is no longer a question of teaching science but a question of content in the various courses, of relative

emphasis to be placed on the different divisions within the subjects, of methods of presentation, and of determining the practical applications of each.

The world-war showed the need of training along technical, scientific lines. During the war it was impossible to secure the services of a sufficient number of engineers, scientists, and skilled mechanics. In the great reconstruction period that is to follow, this demand will not lessen. There will be needed competent scientific and technical workers in large numbers. This will include chemists, physicists, biologists, physicians, surgeons, and experts in sanitation, agriculture, and engineering. The demand can be met only thru the secondary schools and junior high schools making more of an effort to interest students in science. The programs in use at present in most high schools can be made to aid in accomplishing this end if their courses will contribute more constantly and effectively to the practical needs of the local community. This will interest a larger number of future citizens in science, will attract them to continued study, and will give appreciation and respect for scientific processes. It may be askt, then, to what extent have the science courses in the secondary schools been modified as a result of the demands of the war? To answer this question a brief questionnaire was sent to the science teachers in fifty cities varying from 20,000 to 50,000 in population. A study of the replies convinces one that there are certain tendencies at work that are slowly changing the emphases in various sciences taught in the secondary schools.

In the first place there is a tendency to recognize general science as a sort of introduction to the more detailed and definite sciences that are to follow. This is based on a recognition of the interests, curiosities, and needs of the children of junior high school age. The subject-matter should be derived largely from the immediate environment of the public and consequently should vary somewhat with each locality. The course should arouse the deep interest of the pupils, not only in an interpretation of the wealth of natural phenomena surrounding them, but also in the utilitarian aspects of the sciences. This includes appliances by means of which water, steam, and electricity are harnest; water and air are navigated; diseases are controlled; minerals, forests, and soils are conserved; plants, animals, and men are improved.

The science of common use and the science of the schools should be the same. The range of material used should be limited only by capacity, needs, experiences, and ability to appreciate on the part of the pupils. Thus as far as possible those materials should have practical values to the individual and the community and should arouse growing interest in the various fields of science. The thought should be imprest, as stated by Dr. Snedden, that "we are living in an age in which relatively complete and trustworthy explanations are available to the almost uncountable phenomena which appeal to us from the skies above, the soil and rocks beneath, the air about us, and from our bodies, our minds, and the human groups that make our society."

This interest in general science gives promise of establishing the subject upon a firm foundation in the junior high schools at least.

The replies concerning the teaching of physics indicate that no great change has been made in content, but that the method of presenting the subject-matter is often quite different. There seems to be considerable interest in the "problems or project" method that is appearing in some of our best secondary schools. This method approaches the principle inductively, using as the basis a simple appliance that involves the principle of physics to be taught. Thus the common appliance of home and school, of public utilities, of the industries and agriculture, are used directly. The use of this method requires teachers of broad training and experience.

Another tendency that seems to be quite common is to connect the teaching of physics more closely with its practical applications. This is the reverse of the project method but is less difficult to use, since it is the method that naturally follows the purely didactic method formerly used. Thus the submarine and balloons are taught in connection with the principle of Archimedes; the Stokes gun with pneumatics; the dropping of bombs, and the height at which rifles and cannon will shoot, with accelerated motion; the recoil cannon with Newton's third law of interaction; the trench and submarine periscope illustrating reflection by mirror and prisms; the long-range guns with the height and density of the air; absorption of gases by liquids and solids with the gas mask; force and energy with the steam and gas engines, and so on. These illustrations have been drawn mainly from the war, but a larger number can be drawn from civil life.

What will be the final result of the war in the teaching of physics is a matter of conjecture. Possibly it will result in compromises that will make the teaching of sciences more reasonable and rational and the material to articulate more closely with the real life-conditions in which the pupils will live and later work.

The teaching of chemistry has been less affected by the war than that of physics, save possibly in certain favored localities where the technical war needs were more pressing. The special need in these localities was for skilled technical work. This called for visits to industrial plants, for readings from up-to-date books on vocational and technical subjects, and for occasional lectures by men actually engaged in the industries.

In most schools an attempt has been made to articulate the work in chemistry more closely with the home, which has been an outgrowth of war conditions. Thus topics such as conservation of fats, of clothing, of fuel, of soap-making, of testing water, and methods of softening water are quite common.

The subject of chemistry has been given a firmer position as a result of the war. While its subject-matter has not been materially changed, yet its application to the various industries has shown it to be fundamental and has emphasized the need for further development of work in this feld.