local movement, if it seems advisable under local conditions.

Copies of the pamphlet containing the outline of the course may be had by sending ten cents in stamps to The Daily Echo Press, Indianapolis, Ind.

RANDOM NOTES ON CO-OPERA

TION.

By E. H. Kemper McComb, Head of the Department of English of the Manual Training High School, Indianapolis, and President of the Indiana Association of English Teachers and the National Council.

One of the words much in vogue in the talk of teachers at present is cooperation. Because back of this word lies a really helpful idea, I want to present some notes on this topic, together with some quotations from at manuscript by Mr. R. T. Congdon of the New York state education department. In his capacity as high school inspector, Mr. Congdon has been able to make a valuable experiment in cooperation and to observe carefully other experiments.

My observation has led me to believe that many who utter the shibboleth "co-operation," fail to understand just what place co-operation can legitimately occupy in English instruction. The fact is, that while English teachers usually teach the technique of speech and writing effectively, they are powerless in matters of habit formation. "Here co-operation is imperative, and every teacher should be an English teacher. The pupil's ability to express his ideas on any subject is a fairly true measure of his knowledge of the subject; that lesson is least satisfactory where the halting, piece-meal answers of the class lead the teacher to voluble explanations; and that les

son is most satisfactory where students most fully and accurately express their knowledge and opinions. Too much from the teacher and too little from the pupil is only too commonly the result of present practices."

It is in the field of habit formation, in the pupil's power to express himself, that co-operation can be made effective in any school, whether small or large. To secure this excellent result, the English teacher may well take the lead, not because he expects to find relief from any duties now imposed on him, but because he will be assisting to make the instruction of the pupil more effective. For by helping to inaugurate in a school the general practice of topical recitations, a method which is but an application of the fundamental principles of English composition, he is assisting the pupil to acquire the habit of proper organization of his thought. Whether this be done in a class called history, mathematics, science, or English, the result is not different, and the procedure is one and the same. "Any attention to English, then, that results in some relief from rapid-fire questioning and answering, and substitutes a reasonable proportion of more thoughtfully organized replies, will pay the non-English teacher for the time it takes, by giving his pupils an increased knowledge of the subjectmatter."

Co-operation implies two parties. Too often, however, the the English teacher has been asked to do all the co-operating. This makes an unreasonable demand. But even so, much has been accomplished in making the instruction carry over, whenever the English teacher has followed up his pupils and made them feel he has been

looking for and was pleased to find evidence of ability to write and speak well.

The East High School of Rochester, New York, furnishes an excellent example of two-party co-operation. Under the leadership of the head of the Latin department, a scheme has been developed for uniting effort with the English department. "An agreement has been reached as to the presentation of fundamental grammatical principles, and the terminology to be used. These grammatical principles are first studied in the English classes and are thereafter frequently taken up, as, of course, they must be, in the regular Latin classes." Very effective vocabulary study is also done. The beauty of this plan is that it only needs an earnest Latin teacher and an earnest English teacher to put it into operation.

However, the simplest method of cooperation is the most important. To put it into operation, the English teacher needs only to enlist the active support of the administrative head of the school. He can establish an invariable rule that the minimum essentials of good speech and writing be insisted upon in every class room. "It is not too much to say that unless some application of this idea is generally adopted, we can never hope to secure a satisfactory standard of written and spoken English in schools."

our

"The procedure followed in this method has become largely standard. In written English, all papers should be neat, should follow some established form, should be free from ordinary mistakes in spelling and punctuation, should be free from obvious errors in

grammar and sentence structure. In first and second year papers there should be paragraph divisions; in third and fourth year papers, there should be some attention to the structure of the whole writing. Failing in these respects, papers should be handed back at once for revision. If it is necessary, the rejected papers may be taken to the English teachers. Ordinarily, however, there is no need of this, as the mistakes are the result of carelessness."

Similar standards must be set up for oral English. "All teachers snould see that a natural and reasonable proportion of the recitations are topical, that pupils stand erect and speak so that they can be heard with sufficient clearness in all parts of the room; that the answers match the specific questions asked, that constant attention is paid. to the logical treatment of the material of the recitation, that obvious crudities. and inaccuracies of speech common to a locality are systematically corrected."

Mr. Congdon, out of his study of this subject and his experience, is actually putting into successful operation a widespread experiment in co-operation in New York, and has laid down certain fundamental principles that must be kept in mind in formulating any plan:

"1. In the average school, standards must be so simple that they can become habitual.

2. There must be uniform standards for the school.

3. Co-operation must proceer from the top downward-from the principal to the teacher, from stronger schools to those that are weaker."

part of the child's education for more complete living.

County play day is an established annual affair in Barnes county, North Dakota. Inaugurated primarily for the purpose of promoting the play idea among the schools of the rural communities and small towns, the idea was taken up enthusiastically by the people of the larger towns. The day is observed at a number of centers within the county so as to bring the benefits within the reach of every pupil. A definite schedule of contests is planned

for the day, and conducted by physical

education teachers from the State Normal school.

The season of public school commencements is practically past for another year. With the increasing tendency towards sanity in reducing the cost to each of the graduates, there comes a greater appreciation of the significance of the exercises. Commencement day serves as a time for "checking up," the sacrifices, the financial cost, the expenditure of time and energy, against "the product." It affords an opportunity for the presentation of some of the problems involved in the educative process and for the consideration of the purposes for which the community school exists. Along with the music and flowers and congratulations of friends should go a stimulation to the boys and girls to undertake worthy things, to aim at some definite, concrete ideal in the attempted achievement of which all of the best qualities of manhood and womanhood may be established. Com

mencement is a gala day-make it also worthy.

Reports from the various summer schools and normal schools of the State indicate an unusually large enrollment. The subjects included in the new vocational law are receiving special attention and all teacher-training schools have made special provision for it. The customary large delegation of superintendents will be in attendance at Chicago University and Columbia University again this summer. These institutions also draw a

large number of high school teachers,

special teachers and supervisors from the schools of Indiana. Other considerable delegations will find their way to the Panama-Pacific Exposition, the N. E. A., and the sight-seeing of the Great West.

All these are very worth-while and the children and youth in Indiana schools will receive the benefits of the strenuous summer's work on the part of their instructors.

AGRICULTURAL TRAINING FOR

TEACHERS.

The training of teachers of agriculture may not properly be limited to the technical subjects. There are other subjects, not strictly agricultural, that contribute to the efficiency of agricultural teaching. These subjects are botany, zoology, geology, physics, chemistry, rural economics, and rural sociology. These last two subjects are mentioned in order that their importance in the training of teachers may not be overlooked. Teachers for the high schools, the normal schools. and the colleges of whatever type

should at least pursue the general college course in these subjects. These nontechnical but contributory subjects will represent about one year's study. -Prof. G. A. Bricker.

CONNIE MACK ON CIGARETTES. As leader of the Philadelphia Athletics, Connie Mack takes rank as one of the greatest generals baseball has ever known. He reads men and boys as an ordinary person reads a book. He contributes to the Scientific Temperance Journal this characteristically clear statement:

"It is my candid opinion, and I have watched very closely the last twelve years or more, that boys at the age of ten to fifteen who have continued smoking cigarettes do not as a rule amount to anything. They are unfitted in every way for any kind of work where brains are needed. No boy or man can expect to succeed in this world to a high position and continue the use of cigarettes."-Journal of Education.

RISING INFLECTION NUISANCE RECEIVES RAP.

Superintendent Norma R. McNab in the February issue of "Rural of "Rural Schools," has the following to say regarding a most undesirable habit that seems to have made some inroads into the schools of the state.

"That rising inflection! What shall we do with it? Sometimes we find whole schools answering with the rising inflection as if forever doubtful that they are right in anything. I found them that way last year and tried to remedy it but they are still in the doubtful row.

"Teachers, do you notice this and do you try to correct it? Some one has been guilty of cultivating the habit and in some cases I am sure it is still being cultivated."

TOO MUCH HOME TALENT.

A city may easily have too much "home talent" in its teaching force, as a result of preference for graduates of its own teacher-training school, according to Dr. Frank A. Manny, of Baltimore, in a bulletin on "City Training Schools" just issued by the United States Bureau of Education.

"No greater misfortune can come to any school system than to have a steady inbreeding of home talent," declares Dr. Manny. "The board of education should insist upon the selection of at least one-third of the new teachers each year from outside the city limits. The preference in appointment for local graduates is not always in the interest of the school system. To say that a teacher must suffer the penalty of being accounted less worthy because she has graduated from some other training school than the one in the city where application is made for a position is to strangle healthy competition among teachers. Inbreeding is today the blight of a great many school systems in this country."

The city of Spokane, Wash., closed its city-training school for teachers some years ago, Dr. Manny declares, mainly for the reason that "the school authorities were embarrassed by the necessity of selecting as teachers those trained in the local institution, even though they were inferior to others."

Some of the cities that have training schools for teachers have endeavored