In the splendid zeal of the social scientists to cover the whole range of human activities and turn the grammar grade pupils out equipped to cope with the problems of modern industry and democracy, have they not been unscientific in the likelihood that these children will go out bewildered and confused, with an attitude of self-assurance destined only to swift disillusionment?

One trouble with the present ruling generation is that its mind is molded too much to run in one groove-the industrial. Its members have acquired the ability to see little except through the lenses of the "almighty dollar." We must have a "business-man" for every office from town constable to President - a "business administration." What demand now-a-days for the scholar in politics? The mere suggestion is likely to evoke derision. And so to an unwholesome extent our legislative halls are filled with wealthy business-men or their tools, the lawyers and politicians; our nominating conventions with self-slated delegates of elected office-holderssenators, representatives, governors. What chance has the ordinary citizen to be a delegate to a national convention? And yet, we call ourselves a democracy!

We need idealism and understanding in industry perhaps as nowhere else to curb the greed of the small dealer, the entrepreneur of public utilities, the captain of super-power. We need to start history in the primary grades for the Sinclairs and the Dohenys. But it may be that idealism and understanding are quite as essential in the political phase as in the industrial for pupils, from the sidewalks of Chicago to the top of Teapot Dome. Dempsey and Tunney, Remus and Reno might suggest a need for study in the social phase. And in this land there are symptoms of possibilities even in the realm of religion.

This life of ours, then, is not of one phase but of several phases equally important; and the training of our history, or our "social studies," should be such as to build the begin

nings in a well-balanced and well-rounded whole of institutional understanding. Historical-mindedness or social-mindedness is not something to run exclusively on railroad tracks or electric wheels. Nor does it consist wholly in democracy let loose. It should not send the pupil from the school with the impression that American History is a rush to the West, a riot of race and democracy, a maze and whirl of industry. If the chief product of education is "reflection upon experience,"12 then surely the duty of the school should be to provide a curriculum worthy of reflection not in one phase alone but in all phases of human experience.

There are possibilities of so ordering the curriculum of the social studies as to eliminate waste and also save the values attained by experience. It is perhaps possible to prepare a course of study which will accomplish in one year the work in history now presented in Grades VII and VIII. An organization of the curriculum on the Mace plan, with adaptations necessitated by the growth and change inherent in the nature of history, may offer the desired solution. This plan it is believed will afford pupils an understanding of their country's institutional life history essential in the social life of today, and perchance also of the uncertain tomorrow.

The solution of the citizenship problem is perhaps not in the merger, not in the destruction of separate identities, but partly in more careful conference and coöperation among subject teachers in definite curricular chartings. History, Civics, and Geograhy seem each to possess a special mission of value too great to warrant destruction, although much should yet be done to correlate and unify them more effectively. In the elementary grades the process of fusion may perhaps safely be complete. "Each subject," says Johnson, "presents facts and processes essential to the understanding or appreciation of the world as it is . . . . There are, beyond question, natural points of contact that should be foreseen in planning a

12 Morrison: Practice of Teaching, p. 171.

curriculum and consciously turned to account by all teachers. But it is at best a doubtful procedure so to manipulate any subject as to impair the integrity of its own peculiar contribution."

Let History, finally, and the other social studies, tell their own true story naturally, and trust unto the Lord the resultant addition of skills, abilities, habits, tastes, attitudes, appreciations, and other essential elements in the production of the perfectly socialized Junior of the Grand Republic.

Practical Aspects of the School-Scout Program

WALTER KAULFERS, FORMER DEPUTY SCOUT COMMISSIONER, FOURTH DISTRICT, SAN DIEGO AREA COUNCIL, CALIFORNIA

I

RT is difficult to speak with any but the highest praise of the increasing coöperation between the Boy Scouts of America and the public schools. The conventional procedure in evaluating so commendable a movement would be to laud its educational aspects to the skies, and to make all blush for shame who have not yet incorporated some measure of scout work into the extracurricular program of their schools. If this is not the object of the present paper, the digression is in no way due to a lack of knowledge of the social-civic import of the Boy Scout program. Indeed, the writer's intimate contacts with scouting for over eight years are numbered among the most thoroughly enjoyable and educationally profitable of his avocational experiences. It is rather because the developmental values of the activity have been so frequently discussed and so competently described in educational literature as to need no further substantiation, that certain neglected aspects of the school scout program, rather than its obvious advantages, have been selected for special consideration here.

The observations recorded in the following paragraphs are based upon a large-scale experiment with school troops in San Diego, California. The activity was first introduced in 1922 in an elective post-session class for all interested boys in one of the large junior high schools of the city. The purpose of the course was to strengthen and increase the scope of the local scout movement by recruiting new members into the community troops, and to maintain the interest of the boys already enlisted by enabling them to achieve as rapidly as possible the higher ranks of the organization. In pursuit

of this two-fold objective the class met weekly in one of the recitation rooms appropriated to the purpose. The general conduct as well as special instruction of the group was intrusted to the assistant scout executive of the local council who visited the institution regularly on meeting days. During the sessions opportunities for test-passing, preparation of individual merit-badge projects, and practice in the various arts of scoutcraft, such as knot-tying, first aid, and signalling, were given. Despite the large masculine enrollment of the school and the excellent leadership provided the attendance was always small and the work only moderately successful.

A new impetus to the program came in the fall of 1925 with the return of the scout executive of the district from a tour of eastern cities where the movement had made notable progress. At the request of the local scout headquarters the superintendent of schools called a conference of volunteer leaders, appointed by the principals, to meet with the scout officials for the purpose of drafting a workable scout program for the city schools. As a result of this conference the faculty representatives were appointed deputy scout commissioners, and scout legions, similar in organization to regular troops but unrestricted in point of enrollment, were formed in fourteen elementary and three junior high schools. These were to meet at least bi-weekly on school time and were to carry on a constructive auxiliary program in scout training by bringing within the immediate reach of all interested candidates the adequate instruction and qualified examining authority prerequisite to admission into scouting and subsequent promotion within the organization.

The introduction of the legions met with a large response from the boys in every institution. The enthusiasm of the sponsors, as well as of the enlisting candidates, pointed toward unqualified success. It was not long, however, before serious obstacles presented themselves. The membership