First Aid in Americanization 249 highest personality in the citizens of the State. Democracy is best, not because it is American, but because it offers to men the best opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are bound to recognize that the ideal of democracy is not yet attained, in this country or elsewhere. The autocratic principle still crops out even in all the so-called democracies. The two principles of autocracy and democracy may, as we have already pointed out, co-exist in one man. The conflict between them is irrepressible and unending. It is as old as history. The Great War did not finally decide the question as to which is finally to prevail. The conflict between the opposing ideals will go on and on, through processes of war and processes of peaceful enlightenment, until it is universally admitted that the smallest nation and the humblest man have the right of self-development-until the principle declared by Lincoln prevails everywhere, namely, that "no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent." The "war after the war", the war of today, is not merely to make the world "safe for democracy," but to make the world a true democracy. In Americanization therefore, the very first consideration is to inculcate the principles of democracy professed by us, no matter how far short we may fall from their true realization. And we should remember that we teach by example rather than by precept. LYRRA HARRIET KENNEDY, PUEBLO, COLORADO. FORMERLY HEAD OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, HIGH SCHOOL, DOUGLAS, ARIZONA. T HE wide awake teacher who instructs high school boys and girls, has for her watchword, EDUCATION FOR SERVICE. The teacher who uses the minds of her students for store houses of dry facts, instead of regarding education as a live thing dealing with real situations, as well as a medium for fitting boys and girls into their respective corners or vocations, should be resting, with the other mummies, in the tombs of Egypt. The teacher must not only believe in education for service, but point this out to the students. It must be made clear to them that in order to serve, one should know how to do something well. A vocation should be selected with the idea of how much service one can be to others, as well as with the idea of how much money will be realized. The question arises: How may the boys and girls be led to see this? "Have them study vocations," you will contend. But the average student will say that it is too much work to make a study of vocations. To get the interest of the students, I should tell them nothing worth while has ever been accomplished without work. Furthermore, regardless of position or wealth, no able-bodied, normal-minded, red-blooded American wants to be a para site. No American boy or girl should be afraid of work. Then I should ask such questions as: "Would Plymouth have been founded if the Pilgrims had said that it was too hard work to start life in a new country? Did the colonists say, when England was imposing upon them, that it was too much work to start a new government? Did Washington during that frightful winter at Valley Forge, indicate that the task in hand was too hard and that his men should return to their homes? Did Lincoln, when national affairs had reached a crisis, declare that it was too hard to keep the nation together?" After all these questions have been asked and answered, the students will realize that success has come only to those who have not been afraid of work, and will respond with, "How may we serve?" You will say further, "I do not teach vocational work." In schools where there are no special vocational guidance departments, teachers, regardless of the subject taught, must make an appeal for vocational training. Actual tests which cannot be handled successfully, except by clinics, are not for the inexperienced teacher. However, much sane direction, concerning vocations, may be given by any teacher who directs high school students. President Harding contends, "I do not believe that education in any case should suppress the free development of the individual. Vocational adaptation, however, should be the matter of study of the individual himself or herself and this requires without doubt the scientific assistance of others." One plan I have found practical with the older students, in regard to the study of vocations, has been worked out in my department in connection with oral composition. One day each week is set aside for oral composition which takes the form of reports, or other means, that place before the students information concerning vocations. The class is divided into groups. Each group selects a vocation. One group makes a report, or has charge of the recitation, once a week. The work of the students, at such a time, is the result of interviews which they have had during the week with some of the leading business men and women of the town, relative to vocations. Sometimes magazine articles, special chapters from books, and catalogs from some of the various colleges and universities are used. 252 Education for December The reports of the students, if the students are carefully directed by the teacher, will reveal the following points: 1. Characteristics of the successful people in the vocation in question. 2. Advice of those in the vocation. 3. Advantages and drawbacks of the vocation. 4. Salary. 5. Service to the community. 6. Physical and mental requirements. 7. Amount and kind of training rquired. The above mentioned plan will help each student to find his or her vocation. Finally it will instill in the mind of each, "Be strong! We are not here to play, to dream, to drift; We have hard work to do, and loads to lift: Shun not the struggle-face it; 'tis God's gift." Cheer Up Cheer up, dearie, when the world. And remember it will not Always seem to be that way, "Twill be looking that way, too. Look at it through eyes of hope And it will appear that way; But if we, through eyes of gloom, That in life is meant to be. MARTHA SHEPARD LIPPINCOTT. Probably there is no other field of human knowledge and effort in which there has been so great a development in the past fifty years as in the field of education. Those who can look back over a half century or more, are able to note an almost complete transformation of the whole process of schooling. The generation now passing off the stage, whatever their success in getting and using their education, were actually exposed to a very crude and defective system of primary and secondary training, except, possibly, in some few cases where they were fortunate enough to come under an individual teacher who was unusually gifted with teaching ability and personality. Most of us advanced with difficulty and dissatisfaction to or part-way through our "teens," to the High School age. Very many, by far the majority, stopped then and there. A few continued through the High School. Those who were particularly prosperous and fortunate,largely those who were intending to enter the professions,-went on still farther, to one or another of the "few and far-between" Colleges. Beyond that stage there were only a very few professional schools. The majority of those students who wished to get specialized training, sought it individually with those who had become successful as lawyers, statesmen, ministers, doctors, manufacturers or tradesmen. Education in its higher ranges was individualistic and specialized; very little of it, beyond the earlier stages, was en masse! For a long time in the earlier civilization of the American people public interest in education was largely limited to the field of "the three R's." The young human being must be taught to read, write and figure. The public saw this clearly. "Common School" training was insisted upon, and the public was willing to provide and pay for it. That was well,-so far. Private endowment gradually provided Academies and here and there a College for the further training of the exceptionally gifted and promising young men,-especially if they wished to fit themselves for the ministry. Outside of these, apprenticeship took the place of institutional and specialized education. A would-be shoemaker learned his trade with a shoemaker, at the bench. A carpenter and builder was apprenticed to a carpenter. An embryo merchant became an errand boy or a clerk in a store. Experience was the master teacher, and not a bad one at that. The mass of the people had a comparatively small amount of learning. Yet that education-by-experience age produced not a few capable and brilliant men and women; and the intelligence and spirit of that less pretentious age should by no means be despised. It was |