Every subject in the high school should be utilized to a certain extent to aid in the testing process, either by enlarging the vision of the world's work or by testing aptitudes. In the newer textbooks in natural science attention is given to the industries in which scientific processes are used. When the social sciences-history, civics, and economics-are better adapted to the needs of high-school pupils, they will teach more about the history of industries, the social significance of commerce, and the newer vocations connected with public utilities and social service.

The testing process should not be confined to the schoolroom. At its best the schoolroom has an artificiality which prevents it from revealing certain aptitudes. Activities such as the following when conducted by the pupils themselves under the guidance of teachers are of much value in this process:

Debating societies, especially when organized as city council, state legislature, or congress, test powers of leadership. It is important, however, that such societies shall be under the guidance of teachers who have a clear conception of new ideals in democracy so that the aptitudes revealed shall be those of the true leader rather than those of the politician.

The school paper affords an opportunity for testing aptitudes for journalism. It should be borne in mind, however, that we are not interested in fostering yellow journalism, but instead in discovering the qualities that have made certain journals powerful in forming sound public opinion The dramatic society reveals aptitudes that may find expression in the pulpit quite as likely as on the stage.

The management of the baseball team often exhibits managerial ability never once called into play in the classroom.

Pupils upon entering the high school may be divided into two groups, those who have not decided upon their future education or their future vocation, and those who have. For those who have not decided, there is needed a general course which will provide a broad outlook upon the world's work and afford an opportunity to test aptitudes in a variety of lines. Professor Hanus in the report of the Committee on School Inquiry, New York City, recommends that such a general course be provided. It is my impression that very few high schools have as yet satisfactorily devised such a course, partly because they have been handicapped by the tradition that regards training as the sole aim of education, and more especially by college-entrance, requirements. It is evident that testing should be the controlling factor in the general course, and that when pupils discover aptitudes and develop motives that make continued education desirable, no arbitrary barriers should be placed in their way.

For those, who upon entering high school have decided upon their future education or their future vocation, specialized courses are offered in which the idea of training is emphasized. The traditional collegepreparatory course is one of these specialized courses.

The idea of testing should not, however, be absent from specialized courses. It is worth while to ask: "Should these early choices be regarded as final or as provisional ?" When we remember that these choices have been made by pupils of about fourteen years of age, it is evident that their knowledge of their own aptitudes is necessarily very limited, as they have had opportunity to test their powers in only a few lines and even in these lines only in an elementary way. These children of fourteen have very little conception of the real significance of various vocations and their own personal ideals have had little opportunity to unfold. If these early choices are regarded as final by parents, teachers, and school authorities, and courses narrowly organized, there is comparatively little likelihood that the pupil will revise his choice. If, however, these early choices are regarded as provisional by parents, teachers, and school authorities, and some study is made of the world's work, the number of pupils who discover some course better suited to their needs will undoubtedly increase.

The notion prevails in some quarters that a transfer from one specialized course to another is undesirable even when the pupil is actuated by a seriousness of purpose. It is argued that the work already done becomes of little value and therefore represents sheer waste. This argument has foundation when specialized courses are narrowly organized, when technic is overemphasized, and when no effort is made to give the pupil an understanding of underlying principles and appreciation of the social significance of the work. If, on the other hand, the course is broadly organized to include both technic and appreciation of some large and worthy field of human endeavor, then the value of this work is permanent even to the pupil who transfers to another course.

The distinction between the general course in which testing is emphasized and the specialized courses in which training is emphasized will doubtless raise the question whether the instruction for these two groups must be conducted entirely in separate classes. Evidently the small high school with five or six teachers would find this absolutely impossible. Nor indeed does it seem to be necessary that separate classes should be maintained in a large number of subjects. The work in English, history, civics, and economics rarely calls for such distinctions. Furthermore, it is possible to organize certain introductory courses in practical arts so as to be of value to both groups. The Massachusetts Board of Education, in a bulletin recently issued, recommends that schools offer as electives a course in introductory agriculture and a course in introductory business. The purpose of the course in introductory agriculture is stated as follows:

To give the boys and girls an appreciation of the interrelations of agriculture and science, to develop a love of country life, and to reveal the opportunities now afforded in farming and in related occupations and professions.

Regarding introductory business the bulletin states:

This course is intended to enable the pupil to discover whether he has aptitudes for clerical work or for business, and at the same time to furnish such knowledge of business practice as will be of general value. This work must afford a real test of ability in this particular field.

The conception of the high-school period as a testing-time calls for high schools of the cosmopolitan, or composite, type, that is, schools that offer the widest possible variety of instruction. For pupils in the general course the need of a wide variety of work to test aptitudes is evident. As the pupil progresses in the general course he may begin to specialize and the school should at every step aid him in a wise choice of work. For pupils in specialized courses, intimate association with pupils in other specialized courses is highly desirable, as these early choices should be regarded as provisional. The cosmopolitan school assists teachers in understanding all types of secondary education, thus making them better counselors of youth. It does not seem necessary to me that a large cosmopolitan school should conduct all its activities in a single building. When separate buildings prove desirable as contributing to efficient management and definiteness of aim, these buildings may be located near together and placed under one supervising principal. The school is then one institution and the pupil is not called upon to sacrifice school loyalty in order to secure a transfer from one specialized course to another. A high-school system that consists entirely of separate specialized schools, such as technical, commercial, and college-preparatory schools, totally ignores the needs of pupils who, at fourteen years of age, are unprepared to choose a specialized course and it gives an unwarranted finality to early choices.

The conception of the high-school period as a testing-time calls for the abandonment of traditional college-entrance requirements. These requirements are based upon the conception that the only function of the high school is training. Under these requirements the pupil must decide upon entering the high school whether he will prepare for college or not. If he takes the college-preparatory course, he has no opportunity to test aptitudes except in a very few lines and is likely to come up to college with a very vague conception of his aptitudes. As Abraham Flexner says in his book, The American College:

The motive on which the college vainly relies, self-realization, has got to be rendered operative at the earlier stage. . . . . As a matter of fact, the secondary period is far more favorable than the college to the free exploration of the boy.

In a recent study of the entrance requirements of 203 colleges of liberal arts that I made for the United States Bureau of Education, I found that for admission to the A.B. course four colleges give no credit whatever for natural science. One of these colleges in its catalog for 1911 has this significant statement: "Students deciding to enter Hamilton College should waste no time on subjects outside our entrance requirements."

According to this statement any study in the high school regarding the laws of nature and the attempts by man to utilize natural forces is a waste of time for a boy who is to enter the A.B. course in Hamilton College.

Discrimination against history is less common, and yet Princeton University, in a new plan announced only last year, devised a special system of points in order to discourage the study of history by those who are to enter Princeton. According to this plan, 15 units are accepted if the applicant offers a certain combination in which history is omitted. If, however, he offers one unit of history, 15 units are required and if he is so unwise as to study two units of history in the high school, 16 units are required.

arts.

Of twenty colleges for women, only three give any credits for household

In a recent article in the Outlook on "The High School and the College," Theodore Roosevelt cites the case of a girl in the William Penn High School of Philadelphia, who has maintained a record of "A" thruout her high-school course and is president of the Student-Government Association in that school of two thousand girls. While in high school, she has become interested in social work and desires to go to college. She cannot afford, however, to go away from home and the college in her own city requires two foreign languages. She has had but one foreign language and consequently is shut out. Her case is not unique. Similar cases occur by the hundreds and thousands. It is useless to contend that she should have taken the college-preparatory course, for that course with its rigidly prescribed subjects would have offered little opportunity for self-discovery.

Fortunately a new articulation seems to be coming. At least eighteen colleges of liberal arts allow a substantial margin of four or more units for any subjects whatever that an approved high school counts toward graduation.

One of the most interesting plans of college admission is the plan of Reed College, Portland, Ore. This college is not concerned with the subjects which the pupil may or may not have pursued provided only that the work has been well taught and thoroly mastered. This college rejects many applicants who could pass the traditional college-entrance requirements. It admits many applicants that other colleges would reject. An important feature in the entrance requirements of Reed College is the requirement that the applicant state why he wants to go to college and why he selects Reed College. Thus Reed College has recognized the principle that the high-school period ought to be a testing-time in which the pupil shall formulate some kind of a purpose.

In conclusion, therefore, the enlargement of the idea of education to include testing as an important factor demands a high-school course which affords a broad survey of the world's work and the opportunity to test

aptitudes in many lines. It also demands cosmopolitan high schools and broader college-entrance requirements.

Much of the charm of youth, like the charm of the frontier, lies in the sense of potentiality, undiscovered possibilities, latent aptitudes. Every institution that would do justice to youth must not content itself with the training of powers already revealed but must maintain the expectant attitude. Passive expectancy is not sufficient. Every teacher of youth must be an explorer, and exploration calls for alertness, vision, and imagination.

TEACHING AND TESTING THE TEACHING OF ESSENTIALS THOMAS E. THOMPSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, LEOMINSTER, MASS.

"Minimum Essentials" is the topic most discussed in the educational world today. "Efficiency" is the slogan of the world of business and of achievement. Both have arisen out of the desire to avoid waste, to make every motion, every minute, and every bit of material count. The movement seems so reasonable and so necessary that we are likely, unless we stop to consider carefully, to impose it upon phases of activity to which it cannot possibly be applied. In purely mechanical processes waste in any form is undesirable and should, as far as possible, be eliminated. In growth, in life-processes, in the development of human personality, there must, however, always be more or less of what seems to us waste. Nature is always wasteful. Her methods are not direct and simple, but round about and complex.

In a recent article in the Atlantic Monthly, John Burroughs says:

Man plans and builds and plants by method, order, system; he has eyes to see and hands to guide and wit to devise; nature builds and plants blindly, haphazard, all around the circle; her handmaidens are industrious but undirected. . . . .

....

The sun itself is a type of nature's wholesale spendthrift method. It radiates its light and heat in every possible direction and if we regard its function as the source of light and heat to the worlds revolving around it, what an incalculable waste goes on forever and ever. The account of this life-giving solar radiance that falls on the planets is a fraction so small that it is like a grain of sand compared to the sea-shore. . . . .

Yet thru this hit-and-miss method of nature, things have come to what they are; life has come to what we behold it; the trees and the plants are in their places; the animals are adjusted to their environments; the seeds are sown, fruits ripen, the rains come, the weather system is established, and the vast and complex machinery of the life of the globe runs more or less smoothly; non-directed, in the human sense. Blind, groping, experimenting, regardless of waste, regardless of pain, regardless of failure, circuitous, fortuitous, ambiguous, traversing the desert and the wilderness without chart or compass, beset by geologic, biologic, and cosmic catastrophes and delays, yet the great procession of the life of the globe, with man at its head, has arrived and entered into full possession of the inheritance prepared for it.

The school concerns itself with both kinds of work, that which is, or should be, purely mechanical, and that which is not or should not be in any sense or degree mechanical but which stimulates and nourishes life-processes.