Even if it were a safe basis for social action it would not obviate the necessity for thinking, for contemporaneous life has grown so complex that a man, perforce, must apply his mind to the carrying out of his desires. In fact the problem of recreation rests very heavily upon large numbers of modern people. The responsibility for effective reasoning is primarily with the better educated portion of the population, but the question of whom will the better educated portion consist rests largely with the public school teacher. Social democracy implies a widening of the thinking base of society. We find, then, that the desired point of view in teaching can be expressed in the query: What should I do as a teacher to bring about in my pupils an intelligent grasp of life? Lest this seem a little too general to be of service, we shall subject it to a little analysis with the reader's indulgence. The thinker always seeks truth, but he will regard truth as relative, not to his desires, but to its feasibility in resolving the particular difficulty in hand. We may distinguish between the professonal thinker and the thinker who is not interested in knowledge as such. The former will disinterestedly strive to improve the standard of theoretical validity; while the latter will, in the pursuit of his objectives, make use of valid concepts with a mind devoid of bias. I do not wish to make this distinction too pointed, for we cannot forget the spectacle presented by the Scholastic period when men employed faulty original premises in a most logical way. Each thinker must be held reasonably responsible for the validity of his standards of valuation. However, I desire to emphasize that for the common man thinking is not an end in itself, but a means to ends. A complete elaboration of thinking as a dominant educational objective would require analysis of the process. This has been done so often that it is not necessary to reproduce it here. The important point for us to note is how the possession of this point of view will serve a teacher in his daily work. Primarily it will be a point of reference against which he can check the activities of the classroom. Will this exercise as I am conducting it contribute to the cultivation of a thinking response to life? Will these children grow in appreciation of the power of thought to secure successful solutions? It seems to the writer that a sincere attempt to answer these questions will inevitably cause such a progressive modification in one's teaching technique as will make for efficiency on the highest level. Method is important, but the possession of this point of view is an antecedent condition to good method, a fact which is all too often completely ignored in our teacher-training institutions. May the Gardener Prune May the Gardener prune to-day, Highest law, the Gardener's own! May the Gardener prune! FRANK HARDY LANE, Chula Vista, California. American Notes-Editorial Many excellent suggestions come to the desk of the Editor from different sources and upon different interests. We find difficulty in deciding how to choose those which are most practical and interesting to the readers of EDUCATION. The Bureau of Education is an inexhaustible source of information about teaching and administration. The Kindergarten and the Grades and the Elementary and High School and College and University are all treated suggestively; and each and every new and helpful discovery or method that any one finds valuable seems to be reported to the watchful officials whose pleasure, as well as duty, it is to make these useful to the richest and the poorest citizen in all parts of our land. The schools are distributors of these discoveries, methods, and facts. And so "Uncle Sam's" big school, at Washington, is worth watching. It has many departments; and whether you are a teacher or farmer, or manufacturer, or ship builder, or preacher, or an aeroplane driver, he, "Uncle Sam," is interested in you and has a lot of things to tell you that you ought to know if you are aiming to do your best in your profession, trade, or employment. For instance, here is a "Release" from the Department of Agriculture coming to our desk in Boston, without any one asking for it; it is marked "PRESS SERVICE," and "Released for Publication Wednesday. March 27, 1929." And, further on, it adds: "Educution is Key to Richer Life on Farms." That means that editors should pass it along! We wish we had space to give here every word, for there are more, as good as this. But as that seems inadvisable, we quote only one or two of them. And then if you are interested and would like to receive such Releases, and can make them useful by using them in your schoolroom, just say so to the Bureau, and see what will happen! The following paragraph is but a small part of what is contained in this particular "release." Dr. A. F. Woods, Director of Scientific Work in the United States Department of Agriculture, is speaking, at a Farm and Home Week program sponsored by the Maine State Federation of Farm Bureaus, at the State University, Orono, Me. He "emphasized particularly the part education has played in bringing about better agricultural conditions, and the part it must play if they are to be perpetuated and further improved." "Education," said Doctor Woods, "should not be simply a body of acquired facts poured into the memory. It is the aim of modern education first to develop power to use facts, to discover truth, to distinguish it from error, and to develop the habit of careful and exact observation and correct conclusion. The true teacher is not a fountain of knowledge but an inspiring spirit, and is no more of a guide than absolutely necessary." Doctor Woods expressed the opinion that the United States has now reached a point in development where, in addition to general training, it is necessary that education also provide opportunities for people engaged in industrial work to secure a training that will fit them to work more efficiently, a development that will be met either by special schools, such as business high schools and agricultural high schools, or by addition of technological work in ordinary high schools. In approaching the educational discussion in his address, Doctor Woods enumerated some of the criticisms of modern life often voiced. "It is well," he commented, "for our country and for the world that critics are born and that every weak and diseased place in the social organism should be pointed out. It is well that those weaknesses should cause pain and suffering and readjustment in the social body. It is in surmounting these difficulties that new life comes. The strength of the reaction indicates the vigor of life. Adjustment is the vital fact beneath progressive evolutionary movement from the life of the simplest cell to that of the most complex organism.' "The great resources of the United States," Doctor Woods commented, "have been developed on the whole by men of high character." The above quotations show that the Doctor's address was one that should hearten all those who are working under modern conditions and with knowledge and implements and other resources that our forebears knew not. Compulsory School Savings Banks, Mexico City Every child in the elementary schools of Mexico City is required to deposit in the school savings bank a sum equal to about 22 cents a week. The school banks were established by law three years ago, and they have now accumulated about 400,000 pesos ($195,000) from the savings of the children. The savings may be withdrawn by the children at the end of the primary course. Compulsory savings banks have also been established recently in secondary, trade, and other schools above the primary grade. Nearly 15,000 contributors in 982 communities made possible the nation-wide service of the Playground and Recreation Association of America, according to its annual report issued yesterday. Requests for help on questions on recreation from 5,931 cities, towns, and villages in practically every state were met by the correspondence and consultation bureau of the Association. In addition, eighty-eight Canadian communities and thirty-two foreign cities sought the advice of the organization. The field secretaries of the Association gave direct service to 462 cities in forty-four states. The following appreciation of our retiring President, Calvin Coolidge, was contributed to the "Four-Page Journal of Ideas for the General Reader," by the Editor, Harold de Wolf Fuller, of date March 9, 1929. It is good enough to pass along to our readers of EDUCATION. It is headed as "An Anchor That Held." "Even without waiting for the perspective of history, it is possible to observe certain elements which contributed largely to the reputation of Calvin Coolidge. First and foremost, he was an anchor in an age of flux. No one believed for an instant that he would be carried off his feet, that he would do something "queer." Wealth mounted, luxuries became necessities, and new luxuries and conveniences sprung up throughout the nation, yet Mr. Coolidge continud to preach the need of government economy. And in one of his latest speeches, that in Florida, he drew an appealing picture of a small home whose whole surroundings were made radiant by a fine character within. He appeared at all times to possess a complete philosophy of life which guided his actions, Its completeness, more than its scope, was what impressed. As one looks back over his five and a half years in the White House, one finds nothing of overwhelming importance in his achievements, whether domestically or internationally. Time may demonstrate that the Pact of Paris is an exception, but certainly this had little to do with the making of his reputation. Character counted most of all. By force of it he exalted government economy to something like a religion. America self-contained and self-respecting was symbolized by his own equipment and personality. Political philosophy in the larger sense was not conspicuous in him. He shone as a day-by-day leader of the nation's life, not as a far-seeing shaper of its destiny. Homely virtues kept him close to the people, whose confidence and approval he gained in such large measure." |