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thought, they cannot supply it.

Knowledge getting is not appropriating. One cannot have knowledge unless he makes it for himself. You are reading this article, you understand my words, but you must supply the meaning to them out of your own stock of experiences. Words are empty-their meaning to you or to me depends upon the experiences we have had. You ask me, "What is a bat?" I reply that a bat is one of the Cheiroptera (hand wing), an order of flying mammalia, in which the wings are formed by a membrane stretched between the elongated fingers, legs, and tail. But a certain boy upon being asked the same question replied that it was a dirty, nasty, little, mouselike animal that has wings and flies and bites like the devil. If you, reader, have not studied zoology I opine that for you there is more in the young American's definition of a bat than there is in mine. It fits your experience more closely than does mine. Thus it is in all lines. Knowledge getting is not appropriating, but it is a process which depends wholly upon one's apperceptive mass-upon the experiences one has had.

Then the true function of education is to make the "big, blooming, buzzing confusion" of feeling with which the child started into this world into an

the child as well as a fellow student in

research with him. So the school offers the child "a carefully selected environment in reaction to which the learner will use his own mind in socially profitable ways."

In my opinion there is no better definition for education than the statement that education is the process of developing the powers for good and suppressing the powers for evil that the greatest degree possible of social efficiency may be attained.

According to the author there is only one kind of education and that is selfeducation, because in education each individual out of his own awareness builds his own world. No one can do it for him, for as stated before feelings are not transferable.

We cannot inherit results-merely methods. Each learner must begin at the beginning and discover for himself all that the race has discovered. It is of no advantage for him to be born. late in the cause of civilization. Our inheritance, as stated, is merely a social one. We are invited merely to look upon the methods that others have used in treating those matters of great concern-and then to think with our own minds.

The task of the educator is a strange one. He is to act on others so that

selves. He is merely a help to selfhelp.

arranged world of things, each a group- they will feel, think, and act for theming of more or less definite feelings, or a "permanent possibility of sensations." That is, he is to arrange these things so as to get along with his fellows, form a world of social reference that has in it something common to all, and so enable us to get along together. In other words, the true function of education is to bring about the greatest possible degree of social efficiency.

The true function of the school is to aid the child to secure this social efficiency by aiding him in the selection and classification of the proper experiences and environment. The teacher is the chief factor. She is the director. She plans new experiences and helps to call up old ones. She is the model to

Elementary studies are elementary to human activity, and not to school years, while the higher studies are the These studies are classed as instruless elementary to human activity. mental and cultural. These studies are history, science, and literature. The reason for classifying these subjects as instrumental and cultural is far-fetched. The theory behind it is that some studies contain and supply knowledge while others are but tools which we must use in getting it. But this theory is false for knowledge is not in books, nor can it be transmitted by one person to another. History, under this erro

neous classification, is classed as a cultural subject; neither is science nor literature instrumental. However, many want to regard some of the sciences as tools and, therefore, so-called instrumental subjects.

Education for efficiency-social efficiency is the aim of all education. We desire, each of us, to contribute the most possible to the betterment of the world as the author states it, to make one's life function. Each must pull his own weight and not prevent his fellow from pulling his. Each must be able to secure his living from society and not interfere with his neighbor as he buys his, and in addition, each one must by his effort raise the standard of living both for himself and his group.

A liberal education means, in present day vernacular, a kind of education which most becomes the proud children of those who claim to be the nobler

class. There is no illiberal education. All education is liberal, for all real education makes men free, and all real education is for service. The phrase, "liberal education," may have historic significance but no modern applicability.

Is education properly classified as vocational and avocational? All education is for service and, therefore, voca

tional throughout. But the present day educators think of vocational education as that education which fits for a gainful occupation. If the meaning be restricted thus it will divide education into two kinds-vocational and avocational, the latter term being applied to all that is not vocational in the sense in which they use the term. It all seems to be a play upon words and it seems to me that the author, Mr. Moore, becomes unduly excited and loses much of the force of this article to the reader by his poor proportioning in the various phases of his subject matter. Suffice it to say that Mr. Moore believes that it is professionally wrong to classify education as vocational and avocational. We hear much of vocational but little about avocational training. If the author is going to dwell upon terminology and acufe applications of the word, possibly he is correct, but for most of us I believe we will continue to think of vocational education as a distinct type or line in education. It may be narrow but will be real education, nevertheless, and by continue to aid in bringing about social making better citizens, in its way, will efficiency of the race and each such person, in whatever line he may be educated, will have helped to make the world better for his having lived in it.

The Valley of Democracy-Nicholson Review by May Hamilton Helm. THE FARMER OF THE MIDDLE WEST.

"What you would have said yourself, if you had thought of it in time," was awarded the prize for the best definition of Wit.

The literature we enjoy is that which we should like to have been able to write that in which "we recognize our own rejected thoughts," as Emerson says. When a book is easy to read, it is almost "infa-liable" proof that it is well written, and when it reflects yourvery-own ideas, you either wholeheartedly grant the author the admiration due, or cherish a jealous little

grouch, because he did what you only wanted to do.

Mr. Nicholson's description of farm life, as he knew it in his boyhood as a visitor, so vividly recalled my own feelings when "overmastering homesickness" was greatly intensified by the "insect chorus," that I'm sure I could have written it myself if he hadn't followed David Harum's advice.

The absence of imaginative literature portraying the beauties and attractions of farm life, is noted, also the fact that in art no one has done for the farm what Remington did for the cattle range. He suggests that perhaps a

cornfield is not a proper subject for a painter. But why not? Of all plants, none is more beautiful at all stages than corn, from its first delicate shoots to the time when its long banners, waving with regal grace perhaps defy the painter's reproduction. Even the withered shocks retain a beauty not always vouchsafed to the human plant in its decay. Why wouldn't several full grown stalks of maize be as decorative in a drawing-room (to try to speak "British") as a stiff, horrid old rubberplant? Surely a tobacco plant would be more appropriate in a dining-room than tobacco smoke, "with which one's food is seasoned, whether he likes it or not," as Bob Burdette puts it.

To the drudgery of the pioneer farmer's life is contrasted the up-to-date existence of the farmer of today. Everything needed may be ordered by mail and delivered by parcel post in an incredibly short time.

Whoever wrote the words used by Haydn in The Seasons (was it James Thomson?) evidently knew the farmer's proclivity for leaving his implements out in the weather. Witness: "With joy, the impatient husbandman drives forth his lusty steers to where the well-used plough remains loosened from the frost."

now

Our author concludes that "farming is not an affair of romance, poetry, or pictures, but a business, exacting and difficult, that may be followed with success only by industrious and enlightened practitioners."

Referring to the intermediate stage (between early pioneer days and the present time) he mentions the farmer's wife-usually a poor drudge, who, tho' she may have "brought" him (a survival of the dowry idea, perhaps) additional acres, was limited in her spending money to the butter and egg money. (Today that might mean affluence.)

He also mentions the "stuffiness" of the ill-ventilated farm house of that period. It is claimed that as civilization increases man is gradually losing the sense of smell. Sometimes he wishes he were completely civilized! A

delightful old Mohawk princess was wont to say, when she would hear of some new atrocity of the white man: "Thank God, I'm not civilized!" (This Indian woman said many other things that dispelled my delusion that Indians hadn't much sense of humor.)

Mr. Nicholson reminds us that it was Abraham Lincoln, who had known the hardest farm labor, who signed the measure (the Morrill Act) "which not only made the first provision for widespread education in agriculture, but lighted the way for subsequent legislation that resulted in the elevation of the Department of Agriculture to a cabinet bureau."

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"the security of a democracy rests upon the effacement to a vanishing-point of class feeling, and the establishment of a solidarity of interests based upon a common aim and aspiration, the effort making to dignify farming as a calling and quicken the social instincts of the farmer's household are matters of national importance."

Citing Purdue University as a type, our author was struck by the attitude of its students, being more attentive and alert than in literature classes in other schools. The advantages of the agricultural colleges are seized upon by those of the older generation as well as by the younger.

Loneliness and social barrenness have driven thousands from the farm, and we are again told, a fact surprising to many, that "there is a dismaying amount of invalidism on farms." One physician declares "all farmers have stomach trouble," and Dr. Hurty found

the cupboards filled with nostrums warranted to relieve poor digestion.

"Thousands of farmers who would think it a shameless extravagance to install a bath tub, boast an automobile."

It is a far greater source of pride to reflect that "my people" installed the firstbath tub and water system in the community than that one ancestor was a colonel in the Revolution. Perhaps

the day will come when the emblem of the O. O. F. B. (order of first bath-tubbers) will be more proudly worn than any other patriotic pin.

Mr. Nicholson lightens the darkness of our ignorance upon the subject of the Pig Club in a charming manner. "This is one of Uncle Sam's many schemes for developing the initiative and stimulating the ambition of farm children," where by a banker, satisfied as to the good character and honorable. intention of the applicant, will advance him money to buy a pig, and many pleasing instances are cited of children who have made good in this novel club work.

The closing chapter of this section comments upon the decline of religion in rural communities, but quotes from

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The Farmer of the Middle West at first glance did not interest me, but I confess that this portion of the book has given me much food for thought, however poorly the review may reveal the fact. It has made me wonder if the social barrenness of the farm is much greater than that of the city. For social life, the small town has great advantage over either. One meets the same people often enough to know and like them. Even if one has no ambition to be a "social climber," it takes years to form a circle of worth-while friends, even in a "folksy" city of the Middle West. But after all, "Friends are discerned-not made."

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Correlation-Every Teacher An English Teacher.

The Americanization movement in the schools and the "Better American Speech Week" are emphasizing once more the fact that the teaching of English must not be confined to the English classes. As school programs are now constructed, the English teacher does not have either the time or the opportunity to bring to bear on the individual pupil all of the influence that is necessary to give the subject of English all the attention its newly conceded importance warrants. If standards are

to be established in a school, they must be established throughout the school, by the English teachers, first, perhaps, but finally by all the teachers of all the subjects. In other words, every teacher should be an English teacher.

By this it is not meant that the instruction that has been given formerly in the English classes is to be transferred to classes in other subjects. It means rather, that the present program should be continued, in so far as it is usable, and that there should be addi

tional instruction in the other classes that will supplement and reinforce The nature of this extra emphasis in non-English classes will depend, for the most part, on the opportunities afforded by the correlated subject but the purpose in any case will be to create and maintain a desire to use simple, correct, and forceful English on all occasions. That it is possible to correlate the work in English with that of all other subjects is due to the fact that all of them call for oral and written expression.

The willingness and ability of the teachers of other subjects to correlate their work with that of the English teachers has been demonstrated wherever it has been tried. Correct English in the daily recitation and in the written work, such as notes and tests, is an important part in the successful teaching of any subject. Even the ability to read English intelligently is a factor. For instance, it is a common observation of teachers of mathematics that the difficulty of the so-called "story" problem is not so much a matter of mathematics as of English. As soon as the pupil is able to read and understand the language of the problem, the mathematical situation is easily taken care of. Similarly, the teacher of any other subject has a personal interest in the correct spelling of the words that are peculiar to his subject. Consequently, the chemistry teacher will cease to blame the English department because a pupil spells "gas," "gass," and will take the time to teach him how to spell such words; in other words, he will teach the English of his own subject. Right habits of oral speech in the daily recitation will be found to be quite as important in the history or civics. classes as in the English classes. Indeed, if correlation is started, the apparent community of interests will be almost a practical guarantee of its suc

cess.

Likewise the ability of all the teachers in any given school to assist the English teacher will become more and more evident when a plan of correlation is tried. The average high school

teacher is a college graduate and as such has had sufficient training in English to give instruction, barring of course a ready knowledge of the classics. Furthermore, many of these nonEnglish teachers carried English as a minor in college, along with their major, so that they are almost as well prepared in the one as in the other. Consequently, all that will be necessary is to establish some definite problems as the basis of the correlation.

To illustrate the possibilities of the correlation of English with other subjects, we will state a few of the means or methods that have actually been used in schools where the plan is now in operation:

1. Certain requirements are made of the pupil in the daily recitation to improve his oral English.

2. Good English is required in notebooks and test papers.

3. The spelling of the technical words of each subject is taught by the teacher of that subject.

4. Papers that are notably poor in English are submitted to the English. teacher, who calls them to the attention of the pupil.

5. Exercises in the different subjects are given to improve the expression, in terms of the subject.

6. Special attention is given to getting the thought from the printed page. 7. English teachers are invited or welcome to visit classes in other subjects to note the errors that are commonly made.

8. Teachers of subjects other than English are used as censors of school publications.

9. Good English is made the subject for discussion at teachers' meetings.

10. Careful attention is paid to the preparation in English of teachers who are candidates for positions on the teaching corps.

If the correlation of English with other subjects is to be helpful to the pupil it must, of course, be sympathetic. Any tendency to be over-critical

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