ing ?! ns t Every now and then, a new angle of the controversy is brought out. In Illinois, at the present time, the question as to whether the State University should do any undergraduate work in education is being seriously discussed. The unsatisfactory arrangements that can be made, or, at least, that have been made, for student-teaching at university and college is an adequate way the teachers needed for the rapidly developing junior high school field. The great significant function of the state teachers college is the better preparation of teachers for the elementary and junior high school fields. This is, at first, accomplished more largely through extension classes and the return to summer schools by those who have already finished two or three years of work than through those who stay four continuous years. The working out of the institute-substitute law in Pennsylvania ought to require just such advanced professional work in extension classes and in summer schools. And while it is easy to say that teachers should do such work for the sole purpose of improving their service, human nature enters into the problem and insists that it shall count. Count toward what? Toward a degree, which is almost universally agreed upon as evidence of mental achievement which admits one to "a goodly company of scholars and learners." In every state in which state teachers colleges have been established, there is a constantly increasing number who keep growing in insight, teaching power and culture while teaching in the elementary or junior high school field and who are not compelled by historic collegiate tradition to desert their chosen field of teaching work in order to gain a degree. The success of this work proves that preparation for teaching should be recognized frankly as a differentiated, technical, professional service that can best be performed in an institution devoting itself exclusively to that field of human endeavor. The higher reaches of such work may well be exclusively given as post-graduate work in our great universities and schools of education. one of the great obstacles to the adequate preparation of teachers therein. At present, in Pennsylvania, only three semester hours of student teaching are required of colleges in the preparation of high school teachers while the state normal schools are giving fifteen semester hours of student teaching in the preparation of elementary teachers. Again, the State Council of Education, through the Department of Public Instruction, requires only eighteen hours of professional work and twelve semester hours in a given field of learning, or a total of thirty semester hours, in order that one may be licensed to teach a given subject in high school. This is one year's work and just one-fourth of a four-year college course. If this requirement produces satisfactory high school teachers, then such preparation is a far simpler matter than the preparation of a rural school or elementary school teacher. The peculiar problem of preparing high school teachers ought not, from this angle, to be so difficult or occult that a state institution devoted exclusively to the preparation of teachers would find it impossible of accomplishment in a four-year curriculum. As a matter of fact, the preparation of high school teachers is proceeding in practically every state teachers college in the country. The present rate of growth of the Junior High School movement alone requires that the state teachers colleges should carefully anticipate the need for teachers in this field and construct curricula that will equip teachers with an adequate command of professionalized subject-matter and with the insights into life and the love of pubescent boys and girls which will enable them to lead wisely these youth who no longer think of themselves as children and who are not yet men and women. The spirit of elementary education, which exalts pupils as individuals and regards them as more important than subjects, should prevail in the junior high school. There can be no controversy over the plan of the state normal schools to extend their curricula enough to prepare in This upward growth of state normal schools into state teachers colleges is a matter of great educational significance and of great social value. There has been, in some states, a bit of heated controversy, but no residual bitterness. The movement is not attempted reprisal nor offensive warfare against other institutions. On the contrary, it is a great endeavor for the improvement of teaching and, as such, merits the support of all right-thinking and forward-looking citizens. It must soon be met and settled in Pennsylvania. It should first be discussed until it is clearly understood by schoolmen, laymen and publicists, for in this way only can a constructively useful judgment be reached. The cartoons on this page were drawn by high school and upper grade readers of "Looseleaf Current Topics." Teachers write that cartoon contests not only stimulate interest in important current problems but help them in their actual drawing. If they draw it, they know it. Drawing teachers say it gives a new interest to their basic work. For every cartoon used the student cartoonist receives a $2.50 fountain pen. You are invited to send student drawn cartoons to JULIUS H. BARNES, Chairman HIGH France "By Mary F. Elliott, Washington, D.C P JAMES N. RULE Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, Harrisburg, Pa. IONEER life in America made few demands upon education. Visualize, if you will, the world as it was one hundred years ago. In all America there was neither railroad, nor telephone, nor telegraph, while the steamboat was still an uncertain experiment. The Battle of New Orleans with its dreadful wastage of human lives was fought in ignorance of the fact that weeks before a treaty of peace had been signed between England and America. In our homes there were no electric lights, no sewing machines, no bathtubs, no central heating systems, no sewer systems; in fact, an almost entire lack of all those conveniences which we accept today as a matter of course. As late as 1810 there were but six cities of eight thousand inhabitants or over in the country; and life, even in these, was far simpler than in any small village of today. The masses of the people of that day needed but little education in order to transact the ordinary business of the day. One who could read, write and cipher was considered an educated man and no reproach attached to an absence of these arts. One of the most obvious and significant facts, however, that confronts even the casual observer today is the radical remaking of everyday life that has taken place in the last one hundred years, due to the discoveries and inventions of science. The last one hundred years have seen what has been probably the greatest revolution in human history. Practically all the currents in human life have changed. Not since the days of Moses has anything occurred which has so completely and rapidly remade the world's method of working and of living as the mechanical revolution of the nineteenth century. relatively simple owing to the simple life our forefathers led, now education of every type has become necessarily vastly more complex due to the more complex life we must perforce lead in these modern days. The problems forced upon our Nation by the events and demands of the twentieth century have placed elementary and higher education in America in a position which we are coming to recognize as the most critical that has ever faced our educational system. Education is no longer considered a luxury or the right of a few but a necessity for all. No other division of our school organization has been more responsive to the demands of twentieth century living than our public high schools. Our high schools are providing, as rapidly as resources permit, varied types of training suited to the needs of the various groups found in the community. The amazing growth of our public high schools throughout the country has come from an understanding on the part of the public of the service the high schools are rendering in training our girls and boys in the arts of good citizenship and preparing them for modern economic life. The enrollment of the public high schools in the United States has increased in recent years by leaps and bounds. Suffice it to say that since 1890 the enrollment in our public high schools has increased over 700 per cent while our population has increased about 70 per cent. The extent of the increased opportunities that have come to enrich and enlarge the high school program of studies is readily appreciated when we consider the character of the equipment provided for the modern school in contrast with that found in the traditional school. The distinction between modern and the older methods of teaching and its effect upon the character of school equipment are well illustrated by an incident* reported by that veteran educator, John Dewey: "Some few years ago, I was looking about the school supply stores in the city, trying to find desks and chairs which seemed thoroughly suitable from all points of view-artistic, hygienic and educational-to the needs of the children. We had a good deal of difficulty in finding what we needed, and finally one dealer, more intelligent than the rest, made this remark: 'I am afraid we have not what you want. You want something at which the children may work; these are all for listening." " The library of the high school more than any other laboratory is a place in which children should have facilities to work. It, therefore, must be equipped for work. Out of the experience of the pioneers in school library work there have developed standards for the proper functioning of the book laboratory of the school. These standards are based on five essentials. First. The selection and classification of books. Books purchased for a high school library should all be useful books correlating closely with the courses of study. They should also be of interest not only for the fact material which they provide, but also for their stimulus to the imagination. Books of recreation and inspiration should have at least an equal place with purely informational books. The selection of books, however, is but the first step in building up a school library. For maximum usefulness these books must be grouped by subject, or, in the language of a librarian, must be classified and a key to their contents provided through a scientifically prepared card catalog. The following minimum number of books is recommended: For Junior High Schools. There should be a general library of at least 300 volumes selected with reference to the needs of pupils of grades seven, eight and nine. At least 100 volumes should be bought each year. For Third Class High Schools. There should be a general library of not fewer than 400 volumes adapted to the needs of pupils of grades nine and ten. At least 100 volumes should be bought each year. For Second Class High Schools. There should be a general library of not fewer than 500 volumes adapted to the needs of pupils of grades nine, ten and eleven. At least 125 volumes should be bought each year. For First Class High Schools. There should be a general library of not fewer than 600 books adapted to the needs of pupils of grades nine, ten, eleven and twelve. At least 150 volumes should be bought each year. Textbooks and sets of supplementary readers should not be considered as library books. Second. To give the maximum service school libraries should be properly housed. The library should have a separate room whenever possible. If a separate room is not available a classroom should be fitted up with bookcases and a reading table and the library at mosphere should be created even if recitations have to be held in the room. The room should be easily accessible from the study hall and should be open to pupils only when the librarian or her assistant is in the room. It should be large enough to accommodate the librarian's desk, catalog case, and tables and chairs sufficient to accommodate twenty-five or thirty readers in schools having an enrollment of two hundred or fewer pupils. In small high schools with an enrollment of fewer than 100 pupils library books and equipment should be placed in the general study room, in case such a room is provided, in which each pupil has his own desk. Reading tables, bulletin boards and ample book shelving should also be provided. Built-in open shelving not more than seventy-two inches in height or more than eight inches in depth has been found to be the most practicable and usable. Third. A working library must be a growing library. Books wear out and are superseded by newer and better publications. "Of the making of books there is no end." New educational aims invariably are closely followed by new and better text and library books. The collection in the library must be kept fresh by frequent additions of new material. The worth-while books that have been subjected to hard usage must be conserved by rebinding. This necessarily involves expenditure. It is imperative that a budget be provided for the book laboratory to provide for upkeep and growth. For the purchase of books and periodicals and for the rebinding of worn books, an appropriation of one dollar per pupil per year is a fair allowance. Fourth. Books are of such number, variety and intricacy as to demand instruction in their use. Pupils should be taught how to find fact material easily and quickly in books and periodicals. They should know how to use the various indexes now available in tracing information on a subject quickly and accurately. It is, therefore, important that systematic classroom instruction for not fewer than five periods each year be given to pupils in the high school in the use of library tools. Since the school library enriches the curriculum at every point, the time allotment for this instruction should not be taken from the time given to the teaching of any one subject. The teaching of social studies according to modern methods requires fully as much reference work in the library as does that of English. Science can of eral s ing in Fifth. Beyond question, the most important factor of a school library is the librarian. Her work includes many duties. She must have technical knowledge in the selection and ordering of books. She must have had training and experience in the scientific classification and cataloging of printed material. A high school librarian can not accomplish her work successfully unless she knows books and boys and girls and, more important still, knows how to bring them together. A competent school librarian is in a position where she may influence to a large extent the thoughts and ideals of the boys and girls who come in contact with her. She can multiply the efficiency of -every teacher. She can make the library the 1 social center of the school as well as an efficient laboratory. The librarian, therefore, must elvinų Deen e oks rial bjec and have the qualities of leadership. She must be friendly and energetic and a capable executive. She must know a little about many things and much about her own particular field of work, for she has a large share in the co-ordination and correlation of practically all of the activities of the complex modern high school. The high school library has become the dynamic center of the high school organization in many communities in our State. Whenever a fair trial has been given, whenever even a modest beginning has been established, the school library has demonstrated its unique value. School authorities generally are beginning to recognize that adequate library service is essential to the maintenance of a modern school at a high level of efficiency and are providing facilities as rapidly as resources permit. It is important in the development of these facilities that standards be based upon the five basic essentials given above in order that the library may render its best service to the whole school. The Toxin-Antitoxin Treatment of Diphtheria T CHARLES H. MINER, M.D. HREE ways in which the teachers of the State can help the Department of Health stand out prominently: honest effort on the part of the teacher in the care u and use of the pupils' Health Record Cards; individual effort in urging corrections of physical defects of pupils discovered and reported by our Medical School Inspectors and full beind lief in and sympathy with our program to establish universal permanent immunization against Diphtheria by Toxin-antitoxin treatment. yste tha Since ork 1. The Permanent Health Record Card. (State Department of Health Form 92.) One of these Record Cards has been placed in the hands of every teacher for each child entrusted to her care. This card is to be filled in by her at the time of Medical Inspection of Schools and is for the purpose of keeping a permanent record of the child's health and physical condition. It is to remain with the child in school and follow him when he is transferred to another room or school. Many teachers of the opinion that this card is furnished each year have been careless about keeping it. New cards will be furnished teachers or school boards upon application, for only the new pupils admitted to school. This record establishes the pupil's status, regarding vaccination, immunity to measles, chicken pox, German measles, whooping cough and mumps and corrections of physical defects. It indicates also the child's progress in mental development. Under the new regulation, children who are immune by reason of a former attack of the five above named diseases, may attend school from quarantined homes, where such diseases exist. This immunity must be established by health records. The teacher may not insert on Form 92 a record of such diseases except when such fact is established by the Health Officer's report. 2. Medical School Inspection. Such inspection is of but little value, unless an intensive follow-up, looking to a higher percentage of corrections, is made. We have made progress in this direction, but made it slowly. |