taken well, as in the fact that it has failed to give education a practical as well as an ideal trend. The importance of one side of the pupil's need has been practically neglected, and this has sent him forth too largely helpless in the presence of pressing practical demands. The discouragement and failure due to this too often lead the pupil and his parents to discredit the value of schooling, and education, which should be a continued process, ceases with the compulsory period. Teachers should live in the presence of the fact that they are merely setting in motion self-endeavor and self-desire, and that their work is truly successful only when it is the beginning of a continual educative process. And school administrators fail in their duty when they make no provision for continuation work, or for courses of study which will tend to induce a desire for it. What young people of fourteen really know or can do may not be much, but what they desire and are eager to know is exceedingly important. It is on this broader platform that the educator must build.

The interest in vocational guidance continues. But the whole problem of successfully guiding youth in their choice of a calling is so wrapped up in the general problem of vocational instruction that, until a satisfactory program for the latter is worked out, little can be done in the former. The trouble lies in the difficulty of judging of the real aptitudes of the pupil until he is tried out in actual work. Nor can much confidence be placed in his own choice until he has first secured an adequate basis of interpretation for his inclinations through such work. Local influences, home conditions, and the availability of employment are usually strong determining factors in the choice of an occupation. The interests and personality of a favorite teacher also enter largely into the account. Combined with the immaturity and inexperience of the pupil and the limited field that can be covered in most courses of instruction in such matters, these influences leave but a narrow margin for safe and successful guidance into the field of work that is apt to yield the individual pupil the largest amount of opportunity and success. To utilize this narrow margin to the best advantage before a choice is made, a fairly large field of endeavor should be presented

as helpfully as possible to pupils. As was said in last year's Annals (p. 101), the shop work of the elementary school should bring the pupil into touch with a fairly broad field of industry, so that if he does not find himself in one line of work he may in another. The best way to accomplish this seems to be through a series of vocational problems which involve a number of phases of industrial effort. In the secondary work, especially in the latter part of it where the vocational courses must be more clearly defined, the aptitudes should stand out more clearly, and desirable changes of course, or of emphasis upon a specific course, should be easily made.

The interest in the Montessori methods for the instruction of very young children has reached the stage of careful investigation and calmer consideration. A suspicion of commercial exploitation of the work and the material for it has served to cast some discredit upon the plan. However, some of the things emphasized by Madame Montessori will undoubtedly, as a result of her efforts, now receive greater and more intelligent attention. Trained effort to see things from the viewpoint of the child; the importance of dealing with the individual child rather than with the group; the necessity for encouraging and guiding, rather than repressing, natural expression and activity; and a better adaptation of didactic material and pedagogical methods to the self-activity of the child-these are some of the lessons that Madame Montessori has so well reëmphasized for both the kindergarten and the lower elementary school. But the most important lesson in the whole Montessori movement, as well as in the widespread interest in the education of backward pupils and defectives, is the possibility of getting much of our pedagogy from a careful study of these beginnings of knowledge and training. That much of our progress in education is now from below upward gives promise of a more vigorous and trustworthy development. It also gives assurance of a better utilization of every possibility of the child, and that as education develops there shall be few wasted human products remaining as a burden upon society.

The demand for a reorganized curriculum and an enlarged activity in our secondary schools continues. This

demand is also reaching down to the seventh and eighth grades of the elementary schools. It is emphasized in both the high school and the higher elementary grades by the fact that entirely too often "the pupil is present but not participating, the community is represented by its sons and daughters but is not helpfully interested." Most of the charges against our schools touch these higher grades of the elementary school, which should be made high school grades, and the lower grades of the high school, which should be combined with them in a classification intermediate between the elementary and the secondary work.

The question of the advisability and the means of measuring the efficiency of public school work received a great deal of attention during the year. The tests of efficiency in industrial and business plants with a general view of securing the largest possible returns for investment and the specific purpose of eliminating all possible waste; the demands for a public accounting which shall be as clear, specific, and comprehensive as possible; and the promise of the scientific age in which we are living of more reliable ratios between cause and effect-these are some of the influences that are at work in educational effort as well as in all other human endeavor. That, so far as education is concerned, the problem involves serious difficulties is evident. But whether they are unsurmountable difficulties is another problem. The chief difficulty lies in securing units and scales of measurement which will answer for the more spiritual part of the influence of teacher upon pupil-the characteristic of successful teaching which is so much farther reaching and permanent in its results than any mere imparting of knowledge. Hence many experienced educators seriously question the ability to go beyond the general judgments and estimates already in vogue in such matters. They point out that the effort to evaluate standards, measurements, and comparisons that would be satisfactorily applicable to the actions and development of human beings, is an entirely different problem from that of measuring the efficiency of the operators of lifeless machinery of the factory or the easily estimated returns of the place of business. The potential powers of the youth whose face is turned in the direction of better things, and

into whose life has been breathed the inspiration to grow and to do, are so limitless that no possible valuation can be placed upon the work of the teacher who accomplishes such results. It is also charged by them that any effort to measure such work, or to compare these results with those of mere knowledge-imparting, would be both unfair and discouraging to such priceless teachers. This thought, they claim, is also emphasized by the fact that all statistics, in so far as they pertain to human beings, are so difficult of digestion and application that, after all, one is driven back upon general judgments of the specific cases under consideration. In the next place, they claim that any determined effort at standardization of results would tend toward a uniformity of school product that would militate against the development of the individuality of the pupil which is so important in all educational endeavor.

The advocates of scientific tests of efficiency claim, however, that, with careful logic, even the deep and far-reaching influences of teaching can be classified, and standards of judgment, based on the opinion of a sufficiently large number of experts to be acceptable, can be established; that such standards of judgment, being inductively secured, will evolve, as in other sciences, with the growth of evidence, and always with the set purpose of meeting conditions as they exist; that such estimating should make more evident the character and value of the work of a teacher; and that, instead of interfering with individual development, it would focus attention upon the pupil in a way that would emphasize his needs and the extent to which they are met. That such standardization of results would do much toward placing education upon a scientific basis, and toward making it easier to demonstrate the results of public school effort to a critical public, is evident. That, in so far as it pertains to such matters as the cost of education, school attendance, and the general school records, there is imperative need for uniform units and scales of measurement, is equally clear. But whether the efficiency of the teacher can be measured with anything like scientific accuracy is still an unsolved problem. The effort to secure a reliable and workable basis for measuring efficiency should, however, continue, especially in view of the fact that cer

tain knowledge and skill results seem already to be yielding to such measurements.

The most pronounced changes in American life and thought are coming in with the new economic era upon which, as a people, we have entered. We are approaching the period when we shall consume practically all of the food-stuffs that we raise, and when the exports upon which we must rely to preserve the balance of trade must consist of manufactured products. We have passed the pioneer days when we could safely be wasteful of our forests and our minerals and when land could be farmed to impoverishment because there was plenty of virgin soil remaining to be broken. A profound change is taking place in our methods of industry: we are beginning not only to see but to feel the necessity for conserving our resources, and this necessity for conservation is bringing with it a study of methods and management that is rapidly reaching beyond the industrial world. There is promise of greater efficiency in intellectual, social, and religious endeavor as a result of the lessons learned from the fields of industry. Better preparation, greater skill, healthier and safer working conditions, the application of organized thought and effort to management, a better use of raw materials, conservation of sources of supply-all of these are rapidly developing in the material field of industry. Rapid improvements in country life, the replacing of farming in profit and position among the great callings of our country, the passing away of the pioneer era when great fortunes could be swiftly made, the rise in comfort and position of the working man and the artisan, the refreeing of enterprise and opportunity through the removal of the shackles of special privilege, the efforts of the school and the church to adjust themselves to the newer demands, and the many evidences of a true desire to serve these are some of the signs of the profound changes occurring in the ideals and desires of the people.

The focussing of community interest in the school as a centre of social uplift continues to develop. Never before in the history of the world has there been such a coming together of people into groups representing common interests. One of the great gifts of the city is what it offers