American Notes-Editorial

After living many years in the schools and colleges as teacher, as well as pupil, in church work, and in business and editorial and social work, we are sure in our own mind that encouragement and praise, in whatsoever field we make the test, are better and more fruitful than criticism and faultfinding. Put it up to the next conference you attend and get the sentiment of the members attending. Put it up to yourself next Monday morning, as you start for school or college. Think back to your younger days and all along through your life of today, and ask yourself which helped you most. Then try it out in the school you are in; or, for that matter, in any environment: in the church, the lodge, the counting-room, the market, or on the farm! And if you are candid and truthful we are sure of your answer. You will say that an ounce of praise is always more valuable to you than a ton of reproof. This is the dictum of all mankind!

Nowhere is this more true than in the schoolroom, be it in the Kindergarten or in the Elementary grades, or in the High School, or in the College or the University or Professional School. We talk glibly about discipline. Many school officials advocate it. Some of them delight in it. Some commit scholastic suicide because they carry it to such extremes.

Happily, more and more are finding out a better way. They are turning to kindliness, friendliness, gentleness in leading their pupils onward in the paths of learning; they are cherishing the spark of truth and faith and goodness that has not yet gone out wholly from the heart and mind of any child, any human being, however handicapped. Marvels are thus brought to light. Precious lives are saved. Evil is turned to good. Despair is turned to rejoicing! What ministry is there that is greater or more beautiful than that of the conscientious and faithful teacher!

CHICAGO UUIVERSITY EXTENDS DORMITORY SYSTEM. Because of the difficulty of securing suitable rooms at reasonable rates for students of the University of Chicago, residence halls to accommodate nearly 800 students (400 men and 380 women) will be constructed, at a cost of about $3,000,000. Building of the dormitories at an early date is made possible by the promised contribution up to 40 per cent of the construction costs by a member of the board of trustees of the University. The new units will be arranged in quadrangles, probably south of the Midway, on ground owned by the University.

The plan is to house graduate students as far as practicable on the north side of the Midway and undergraduate students on the south side. With space at present available, the new units will assure accommodations for approximately 1,400 students, and it is hoped in the near future to raise the total accommodations to 2,000. An important feature of the project is ample provision for recreation grounds for intramural sports adjacent to the new halls.

The Program of the State-Wide Institute on Parental Education at the headquarters, the Woman's Club Building, Raleigh, North Carolina, February 13-15, was one to be remembered. The "keynote" was struck by the note on the first (outside) cover of the Program, in a quotation from the pen of Alfred E. Stearns, viz.: "There are tasks which none but parents can perform. There are relations which only parents can fill with their children. The questionings of childhood and youth can be answered safely only by wise parents who understand." Among the topics which were discussed were the following: Spiritual Adjustment of Adolescent Youth; this was the theme of Dr. W. L. Poteat, President Emeritus, Wake Forest College, and which was further discussed by four other noteworthy speakers. Then came, The Place of Recreation in Child Development, the leader Superintendent Guy Phillips, President of State Association on Physical Education, and others; Child Guidance, with Dr. Phyllis Blanchard,of the Child Guidance Clinic, Philadelphia, and others. With other able leaders the following topics were on the program, viz.: The Family and the Home; The Physical Development of the Changing Child; The Home-School Relationship; Life More Abunlantly; Adolescent Worries, and The Problem of the Adolescent; What the Community Owes the Child; and A Summary of the Conference by Dr. Lindeman. We hope that these addresses will be published for wider reading. They are certainly worth naming, as suggestive to other school and parents' associations.

Do any of our readers of this magazine wish to see the world and broaden their experience and do untold good to humanity as a whole? If so, why not take one of the frequent United States Civil Service Examinations and accept work in another part of the world than that in which they were born and have always lived? The Editor of this magazine did something like this, long ago, and so he has a personal right to advise such action. Well, here is your opportunity (or one of them), viz.:

The United States Civil Service Examinations are open to teachers of Secondary English and for Normal School Demonstration Teach

ers; the applications for these positions will be rated as received until further notice. Condensing the official announcement, here is the opportunity

The examinations are to fill vacancies in the Philippine Service at 3,000 pesos to 3,200 pesos a year for teachers of Secondary English, and 3,000 to 3,400 pesos a year for normal school demonstration teachers. The normal value of the Philippine peso equals 50 cents in United States currency. With the exception of a few demonstration teachers, married couples and single men will be given preference in making appointments. Women only will be admitted to the examination for normal school demonstration teachers. The Philippine school year begins in the early part of June and ends with the month of March. So far as possible, all appointments of teachers are made with a view to their arrival in Manila before the beginning of the school year, which requires that the appointees sail from San Francisco or Seattle during the first week in May. In this way the contract period of two years expires with the school year. Competitors will not be required to report for examination at any place, but will be rated on their physical ability and their education, training and experience. Full information may be obtained from the United States Civil Service Commission at Washington, D. C., or the secretary of the United States Civil Service Board of Examiners at the post office or custom house in any city.

THE HARMON FOUNDATION, Division of Student Loans, 140 Nassau Street, New York City, in 1922 established a fund of $150,000 to be loaned to students in affiliated colleges. To be eligible a student must be of junior standing or above, working toward a bachelor or higher degree with satisfactory character references and approved budget. A Harmon-College Co-operation Loan Fund is also established to aid students of sophomore grade and above. A special student loan fund aids juniors and seniors in unaffiliated colleges. German students are recommended by the Institute of International Education. In 1927-28 a total of $302,315 was outstanding in loans. Of this amount, including trust and co-operative money, $116,275 was loaned during the year. An average of 350 loans, in amounts varying from $150 to $300, are made annually at 6 per cent interest. Repayment begins six months after graduation at the rate of $5 a month to take care of accumulated interest, and six months later at the rate of $10 a month. Additional 7 to 10 per cent (group guarantee) is charged to students and refunded with interest when the groups' payments are completed.

Notes from the U. S. Department of Labor, Children's Bureau, Washington, D. C.:

Boys' Club to Fight Juvenile Delinquency in Chicago. The erection of 25 new boys' club buildings in the congested districts of Chicago is planned by the Chicago Boys' Club, in a campaign to reduce juvenile delinquency in that city. Each club building is to cost $200,000, and will contain a gymnasium, swimming pool, game rooms, playgrounds, and other equipment. It is expected that the buildings will be completed during the next five years.

The Children's Theater, Tulsa. A children's theater, maintained by the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, as the laboratory of a university course for the training of leaders in children's theater methods, has already presented over a score of plays. About 400 children, 5 to 15 years of age, are on the register and eager to take part. A tournament has been planned for the end of the present school year, in which children's theaters throughout the state, grade and high school dramatic societies, and other community organizations, will be invited to participate.

Mental Hygiene in the Public Schools. "Clearing classes" in the public school system, in which every child entering school for the first time shall be placed until expert teachers, by means of physical and mental tests, can determine the grade to which he should be assigned, have been suggested by Dr. Ira S. Wile, of Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York. Dr. Wile points out that at present the mentally defective children in ungraded classes receive more attention than the normal children.

Book Reviews

LITERATURE IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. By Porter Lander MacClintock, A.M. The University of Chicago Press. $1.85. This book grew out of several years of experience in the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago. It gives results which all teachers might well study. It deals with poetry and prose. We recommend it unreservedly to teachers of all grades. There are 332 pages, loaded with valuable counsels and advice.

RELIGION OUTLINES FOR COLLEGES. Course IV. Life Problems. By John M. Cooper, D.D. Washington, D. C., from The Catholic Education Press. $1.25. This book gives excellent advice to young people on every-day conduct and the religious experience. We have no hesitation in saying that almost any one would get help from it, whatever the religious opinions he may hold.

THE TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, for the School Year ending July, 1927. Vol. I. Published by the University of the State of New York. Signed by Frank P. Graves, President of the University and Commissioner of Education. Reports of this kind are always interesting and instructive to those who are concerned,-and who is not, in this republic, age, and state?

From Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, N. Y., we have the following: READINGS FOR THE FIFTH YEAR (First Half); Ditto (for the Second Half); and the same series for the Sixth Year. By William E. Grady and Paul Klapper. The compilers are respectively officials of the Department of Education, City of New York, and Professor of Education in the College of the City of New York. The publishers will no doubt be glad to send you further information, if you write them for circulars, etc.

From The Macmillan Company: ALGEBRA WORK-BOOK, by J. G. Fowlkes, Howard B. Kingsbury, Raymond R. Wallace and Thomas T. Goff, all of the University of Wisconsin. Very helpful to students and teachers in getting clear conceptions and correct methods in Algebra problems. Price 80 cents.

From the same publishers: PROGRESS TESTS IN LATIN, by B. L. Ullman and A. W. Smalley. 174 pages of Tests. They will thoroughly show the grasp and accuracy of pupils' work in this subject. The price is only 84 cents.