So many books are sent to this department of EDUCATION that it is impossible to review them all. Naturally we feel under obligation to give preference to the books of those publishing houses which more or less frequently use our advertising pages. Outside of the limitations thus set, we shall usually be able and glad to mention by title, authors, and publishers, such books as are sent to us for this purpose. More elaborate notices will necessarily be conditional upon our convenience and the character of the books themselves. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. By Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard. Macmillan Company. The title of this book purposely leaves out the definite and the indefinite articles. It is neither "A" History nor "The" History of the United States. It is History,-studies in history, calculated to interest its students and readers and make them think for themselves about the great problems that the people of the United States have been and are working out. It is History for mature pupils in the High School or Junior College. It does not recount incidents merely for the story, but it studies events and discloses causes and traces effects and suggests problems that have been faced,-and others that must be faced. It is therefore the most dynamic text book on history that we remember ever to have seen. Fortunate, indeed, are the classes that will go over these suggestive chapters, in the classroom, with a live, eager teacher who realizes that he or she is dealing with the real men and women of the next cycle, to whom must come problems like those already solved and others which can only be solved rightly by the application of the principles followed by those whose thoughts and deeds are analysed in this volume. It begins with "The great Migration to America," and closes with "The Administration of President Wilson and the World War." SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS. By Charles A. Elwood, Ph. D. American Book Company. Those readers who are especially interested in the series of splendid articles which we are publishing in EDUCATION, on Sociology, contributed by Professor Joseph T. Williams,* will be especially interested in this new volume. It was originally written as an elementary text for high schools, colleges and reading circles. It is here brought down to date and two entirely new chapters have been added to the material of the earlier editions. These are respectively upon "The Bearing of Modern Psychology upon Social Problems" and "A Theoretical Summary." The revised text will help in solving problems of reconstruction growing out of and following the World War. The author truly says that "The United States affords the greatest sociological laboratory, for American students, at least, that can possibly be found." This month's instalment is omitted on account of the Rural School program, which occupies the entire space of this number of Education. Prof. Williams, however, will continue his series in the next uumber of our magazine, and will discuss the sociological theories of Arthur J. Todd, following this in the September number by a consideration of Professor Ellwood's philosophy of the subject. Editor of Education. ANIMAL HUSBANDRY. By John L. Tormey, B. S. A., and Rolla C. Lawry, B. S. A. American Book Company. The Smith-Hughes Act, passed by Congress in 1917, calls for "directed and supervised practice in agriculture for at least six months." It is a wise provision; and text-books must be had, to enable the schools to carry it into effect. This book is one of the most practical school texts in its subject, that we have seen. Its material furnishes fundamental information, places emphasis on class discussion, directs attention to prevalent practices on real and successful farms, and furnishes at the end of each chapter valuable exercises and suggestions for home projects. Besides general fundamental principles of the science, there is abundant and suggestive discussion of the practical problems of the amateur or the professional farmer who keeps horses, cattle, sheep, goats, swine or poultry. It would be hard to find a better manual either for the classroom or the home, where these subjects are of importance. BUSINESS ENGLISH PROJECTS. By W. Wilbur Hatfield. Macmillan Company. This book arouses the pupil's interest from the first sentence, which tells him that he is "going into business to win." It teaches him how to win through expression, in direct, apt, cogent fashion, and it makes him realize this by giving him definite situations to face and conditions to meet, and showing how to meet them, so far as self-expression in language goes. Unquestionably, trade is very frequently won or lost by means of the spoken or written word. This book is well worth careful study by all who would win, whether in business or social life. It is a book for the classroom, or for the salesroom, or for the unoccupied hours on the train or in one's home. AMERICAN ECONOMIC LIFE. By Henry Reed Burch, Ph. D. Macmillan Company. The elements of economics are presented in the problem form and as unfolded or unfolding in our American civic and social life. There are chapters on Production, Consumption, Exchange, Distribution and Economic Reform. Incidental to these larger topics are discussions of such matters as standards of wealth, labor and its problems, immigration, business organization, monopolies, finance, the theory of profits, etc. Each chapter closes with some apt questions for study and recitation. SERIES LESSONS FOR BEGINNERS IN FRENCH. With Elementary Grammatical and Composition Exercises. By Edgar Ewing Brandon, A. M., Univ. D. Part II. Modern Language Press. A second number in a progressive series, for French classes. Well gotten up; it especially aims to enable the pupil to read and understand the language without translating it into English. DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE, ART, PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE OF EDUCATION Degrees in Commerce and Business Administration. Ralph L. Power. 632 Value of English in Secondary Schools. Margaret H. Hertzel. 673 American Note-Editorial. 681 Book Reviews. 684 BOSTON Published by THE PALMER COMPANY, 120 Boylston Street LONDON, B. C.: WM. DAWSON & SONS, Ltd., CANNON HOUSE, BREAMS BUILDINGS Copyright 1921, by The Palmer Company. Price 40 Cents $4.00 a Year It's often the details, the little things, which are indicative of larger principles and tendencies, that are most suggestive of the merits or demerits of textbooks. For example : Does your geography show on its maps the important valley in which Knoxville, Tenn., is located? The depression in the Coast Range between the southern end of Puget Sound and Gray's Harbor? The comparative elevation of the backbone of the hemisphere in Peru and in the Panama Canal Zone? Does your geography distinguish adequately, in its maps of our Western States, between high mountain areas and plateaus? Does it show you what areas exceed 10,000 feet in elevation and what areas do not? Does your geography show railroads on the sectional maps of the United States and of all foreign countries? Does it show important highways and caravan routes? McMurry and Parkins' Is your geography limited in the number of colors used in any one map? Is your geography full of unimportant place names which belong in supplementary reference maps? McMurry and Parkins, EDUCATION Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature VOL. XLI. of Education JUNE, 1921 Infant Education No. 10 JAMES LEROY STOCKTON, PH.D., PRINCIPAL OF THE TRAINING SCHOOL, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA. וג T HE term "education" is used in many ways, and one of these ways is to make education synonymous with learning. Whenever a person is learning, his education is in progress; and since learning is continuous from the first day of life to the last, education is just as continuous. Society, realizing that it is possible for learning to follow many different directions, and to achieve various results, attempts to interfere in the process and consciously to direct development toward chosen goals. It calls this "giving the child an education," and considers the child uneducated, or wrongly educated, when the learning process moves in any other than the chosen direction. This is all natural and necessary. It is social self-defense, and individuals willingly submit because they realize that there are common interests which society has a right to make paramount. But society cannot do this work directly. It must do it through its agents-its institutions. The institution selected for the work in the early years of a child's life is the home. Later, both the home and school are called upon to assist in the work. |