that towns may discontinue their schools, turn all school property over to the township, and the township trustee then takes care of the school affairs. If at any future time the town wishes to resume control of the schools they can do so by electing a school board and paying the township trustee a sum to be fixed by an arbitration committee for such expenses as may have been incurred by the town ship trustee in erecting buildings or other improvements.

House Bill 423 (Cook) enables trustees to furnish transportation to transferred pupils from other corporations -the cost of transfer to be divided between the two corporations upon the per capita basis. Heretofore it has been illegal to transfer such pupils.

House Bill 439 (Oldaker) enables trustees to permit teachers to attend educational meetings with pay, limiting the number of days to three. While it has been the general thing to permit such attendance, there was no statutory provision enabling them to do so, and a legalizing act was deemed necessary.

House Bill 616 (Cook) enables corporations to have longer term in the high school than the term in the grade. and district schools. Commissioned and certified schools must have terms of eight and seven months respectively. Commissioned corporations desiring to maintain such high schools are unable to have that long a term in al their schools. This act makes it possible to have commissioned high schools in any school corporation regardless of the length of term in the various districts.

Senate Bill 47 (Yarling) establishes a commission to investigate needs for

and methods of industrial and agricultural education. Students of education are coming to realize that these things have a place in the curriculum. Students of sociology and economics realize that as our population increases there must be more scientific methods employed in the arts and agriculture. It is believed that the results of the investigation by this commission will help make the industrial and agricultural work in our various educational institutions more definite and profitable.

Senate Bill 349 (Grube) exempts teachers with high licenses from further examination so long as they continue to teach. An act of simple justice to faithful, competent teachers.

Senate Bill 27 and Senate Bill 28 (both by Mr. McCarty) provide for the medical inspection of school children and the sanitary construction of school houses. These bills show the intelligent spirit of the Legislators, and it is believed that they will result in protecting the health and lives of children. The provisions of Senate Bill 27 are optional.

Senate Bill 212 (Stotsenburg) makes the pay of exemption teachers the same as the pay of teachers holding the high grade of licenses. This bill, along with Senate Bill 349, will encourage teachers to take the necessary training to do the work that will place them in the front rank of the teaching profession.

Senate Bill 356 (Greenwell) places the pay of county superintendents upon a salary basis instead of a per diem and allows county superintendents $100 per year traveling expenses. He is also furnished an assistant for a period not to exceed 120 days each

year. These things will add to the dignity and efficiency of the office and

will make it more attractive to high class men.

Our school system is susceptible to two kinds of leaks. There are leaks like those in the dykes of Holland, which are from without and flow in to cause harm-such as the inflow of educational fads, the inseeping of church and religious differences, the constant and intermittent inflow of politics, 'the inpour of incompetent, insincere and makeshift teachers, and the percolating and oozing in of private interests. All these must be pumped out before. the most effective and efficient work can be done.

Then there are leaks within the school system-leaks that lower the pressure point of efficiency and effectiveness. It is to a brief consideration of these leaks that this paper is addressed.

The Leak in School Revenues. Four years ago a paper was read before the State Teachers' Association by Lotus D. Coffman, on "Neglected Means of Raising School Revenues for Public Schools." This paper attracted much attention and resulted in the appointment of a Committee on Leaks. The report of this committee the following year showed that the permanent school fund lost annually a large amount because of the very low fines usually assessed; that it lost $100,000 annually through the remission and non-collection of fines; $50,000 to $75,000 annually through failure of the various officers to report properly, fines

and forfeitures collected; that if all sequestered properties were put on the tax duplicate the tuition funds would. be increased 33 1-3 per cent; that there was great loss through unequal assessments, through low assessments, through exemptions of corporate wealth, and through failure to collect taxes properly assessed. As a result of the work of this committee some of these leaks have been partially stopped and the permanent school fund increased by more than $50,000 annually. However, most of these leaks still remain open.

There is a leak in the distribution of the deficiency school funds of the state, due to the fact that trustees make inaccurate and incomplete reports of available funds when making their applications for aid to maintain a six or seven months' term. The stoppage of this leak rests with the county superintendents, who should see that the reports and requisitions of the trustees contain a true statement of the tuition funds available.

Then there are leaks through unwise and careless expenditure of school revenues. Large sums of money are spent each year in the state for apparatus and appliances that are little used, or that are used for a short time and then stored in the attic or basement as useless. Many articles are put aside as useless and new ones purchased in their places when a small sum spent

in repair would make them as useful as new ones. Many school rooms bear evidence of high priced but almost useless articles of furniture. Yet, on the other hand, I know that there are too many rooms that are all too barren of appliances. Such large sums are often expended in erecting buildings that there is little left for proper equipment. Under such conditions the leak is not so much in the amount expended as the proper balance in the places of expenditure. Costly buildings in many of the smaller towns are so poorly equipped that they meet the real school needs in a very weak man

ner.

Teachers and janitors are prone to feel that the school authorities can easily supply their various wants and make requests for almost useless articles, or for new ones when the old one could be repaired for a trifle and its period of usefulness doubled. School officials are not always careful and judicious in the expenditure of public money and are indifferent or careless in the amounts they pay for supplies and services. Merchants, salesmen, mechanics and tradesmen feel that, because the public school pays for it, they have a proper right to ask a good round price for the article sold or the service rendered. The remedy here lies in adhering to strict and proper business methods.

The Leaks in Pupils.

The following table of figures, obtained from the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, shows. the number of pupils enrolled in each grade of the public schools of Indiana for the school year of 1909-1910. The table shows the per cent of loss from

If these statistics indicate only in a general manner the true status of conditions, they reveal a number of surprising things. More than one-fourth of the pupils who enter the first grade never reach the second grade; one-half of those who enter the first grade never reach the seventh grade; less than onehalf, the eighth grade; only two out of nine enter high school; and less than one out of twelve completes the high school course.

Of those who enter high school, one-third fail to pass the second year, and only 36.5 per cent. reach the fourth year. These figures, doubtless, present an exaggerated form of the true condition, due to the fact that there are larger numbers entering the first and the ninth grades now than a few years ago, and also due to the larger number being retained in these grades.

But after making proper allowance for the diminishing numbers in each grade, due to these causes, to removal from the state, to death, to disease and other physical defects for which the school system is in no way responsible, there remains still too great a leak in the numbers. The failure of the greater part of 25.000 pupils who enter the first grade, to pass to the second grade presents a situation that demands serious consideration. If the larger portion of this shortage is because of death, disease and impaired physical

bodies due to unsanitary, unhealthful school room conditions, it is high time that we have medical, dental and hygienic inspection and supervision.

If this shortage of 25,000 is due largely to pupils being retained because they could not do the work, then our course of study and our methods of primary teaching should be revised. Whichever be the cause of the shrinkage in numbers, there is a great leak either in the number of pupils or in the pupils' time. In the high school there is a large leakage caused by the repetition of work, and a still greater leak in the loss of pupils. The fact that over 5,000 pupils, who entered high school in the fall of 1908, and who, with their parents, in most cases, did not deem it of sufficient importance to return in the fall of 1909. should lead us to consider whether the high schools of the state are meeting adequately the needs of the people. The solution of this question becomes more imperative when we realize that more than 20,000 boys and girls pass from the eighth grade annually, in this state, but do not enter high school.

This enormous leak can not be stopped entirely, but much can be done. to check the outflow. Statistics show that most of the pupils leave school to go to work. This fact points toward the solution of the problem-a curriculum so modified as to appeal to these people as being worth while. Manual training and domestic science have done much in making this appeal. Agriculture, industrial and semi-vocational courses in the regular grade and high schools which appeal to the parent's purse and the child's interests and which will directly fit him for his life work, will do more in this direc

tion. A practical course of this sort, fairly complete in itself, to meet the requirements of the child who will not remain in school beyond the compulsory age limit is being successfully tried in the Cleveland, Ohio, schools.

A similar movement which will tend in the same direction is a plan of work and study recently started in Cincinnati, Fall River, Chicago and other cities. The students spend part of their time in school and part as apprentices in factories or shops. This plan hopes to reach, advance and hold the child until he has attained a sufficient mastery in school subjects and in the means of a livelihood.

In order to get school work better adapted to the pupils some high schools have separated the girls and the boys and adapted the work to the interests and needs of each sex. The element of unfairness due to the difference of maturity of the two sexes has been eliminated. Englewood High School of Chicago has been trying this experiment for the past few years with suc

cess.

Business and commercial courses are being placed in many high schools. The large number of students enrolled in these courses wherever they are established amply justifies their establishment.

The Leaks in Teachers. The leak of teachers is perennially apparent to every superintendent and school board. Death claims a small portion and broken health and shattered nervous systems draw a larger portion, especially of the women teachers, but it is through the gate of matrimony that most of the women teachers are lost to this profession. One of the most serious conditions of

our educational system is the fact that so few strong, capable and efficient young men enter it, and so many are leaving it for other avenues of activity. The remedy for this lies chiefly in two things-the payment of better wages and greater security in the position. The leak through the matrimonial gate can never be stopped. The loss by poor health and broken nerves can be met by better sanitary conditions, by fewer pupils to the teacher, and by less exacting demands by superintendents and supervisors. The teacher should come to her work each morning, not weary and tired from yesterday's exertions, but with a fresh, joyful overflow of energy and spirit in body and mind.

Reports from all the counties of the state but three or four, made to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in October, 1909, show that there were about 1,600 beginning teachers, 882 with five years' experience, 511 with ten years' experience, 262 with fifteen years' experience, 189 with twenty years' experience, 67 with twenty-five years' experience, 31 with thirty, and 8 with thirty-five years.. In other words, the chances are two to one that the beginning teacher will be out of the profession in five years, more than three to one that he will be out in ten years, about six to one that he will be out in fifteen years, near ten to one that he will be out in twenty years, twenty-five to one that he will be out in twenty-five years, fifty to one, in thirty years, and two hundred to one, in thirty-five years. This does not present an encouraging outlook for ambitious young people to enter the profession for a life work. Indeed, the condition set forth by these figures has

been brought about in large part by the teachers, especially the men, entering the profession only to use it as a stepping stone to some other calling. The law of 1907 raising the teachers' wages and setting a higher standard of qualifications has done much to keep teachers in the profession and will continue to do more.

If the proposed pension bill becomes a law it will also aid very materially in keeping teachers in the profession.

The Leak in Knowledge.

The amount of knowledge that is poured into the minds of the pupils from the first to the eighth grades is vast. Most of it leaks out, much of it in a very short time, and still more as time elapses. Comparatively little, and that of a fragmentary nature, remains. The leaks in this line can never be completely prevented, but much can be done. In the first place the amount of knowledge, as facts poured in, should be diminished by half, and in the second place the other half should be so related to the life of the

pupils that they will pursue it from

a real life interest and with definite and specific purposes.

The Leak in Time, or in the Course of Study.

A few years ago Dr. D. W. Dennis created a furor by declaring that there was an immense leak of two to four years in our course of study. He based his conclusions on the observation of his own child and that of another, both of which came, not from an average American home, but from homes of exceptional educational environments. Statistics and investigations since that time sustain the position taken by Dr. Dennis. Retarded pupils constitute a large membership of