BOOKS AND OTHER MATERIALS AVAILABLE FOR SCHOOLS.

Certain of the welfare agencies connected with the training camps have assembled materials for educational work. With the demobilization of the Army many of these can no longer be used profitably by the agencies which bought them. The Bureau of Education has undertaken to call the attention of schools to these supplies as they become available for purchase. There follows a list of materials, with the purchasing prices, that may be had at the headquarters of the Eastern Department of the War Work Council of the Y. M. C. A., 2 West Fortythird Street, New York City:

1. 117 copies Robert's English for Coming Americans, No. 1 (Elementary). $0.02 per copy.

2. 4,500 Robert's English for Coming Americans, Advanced Course. $0.05 per copy.

3. 50 Robert's English for Coming Americans: Manual for Teachers. $0.03 per copy.

4. 15 Robert's English Readers. (For .students who have had two years or so in English instruction.) $0.05 per copy.

5. 49 Fraser & Squair French Grammar. $0.25 per copy.

6. 402 Cortina Military French Dictionary. $0.10 per copy.

7. 1,000 Library Book Pockets (these are for pasting to the inner cover of a book to hold a library card). $0.10 per hundred.

At the headquarters of the Southeastern Department of the War Work Council, Y. M. C. A. Building, Atlanta, Ga., the following supplies may be obtained: 1. 3,000 copies Spaeth's Camp Reader, First Eleven Lessons. $0.01 per copy. 2. 400 copies Spaeth's Camp Reader, First Twenty-one Lessons. $0.01 per copy.

3. 6,712 copies MacLennan's Spoken English for Naturalized Americans. $0.02 per copy.

4. 2,127 copies Robinson & Legg's Conversational English Lessons. $0.02 per copy.

5. 235 Robert's English Readers. $0.05 per copy.

6. 6,800 Copies Liberty French. per copy.

$0.02

Carriage charges on these goods will, of course, be paid by the school ordering them.

FINE ARTS AS A SUBJECT IN THE
UNIVERSITIES.

The recent steady increase in the number and size of departments of fine art in universities is destined to exercise an important influence upon American art

PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION.

For the convenience of those interested in Government publications on education the following summary of the publications of the Bureau of Education is given:

I. PERIODICALS.

School Life.-Official organ of the Bureau of Education. Published semimonthly. Subscription, 50 cents a year. Sample copies free. Americanization.-A monthly publication reviewing progress in the Americanization movement. Free.

Monthly Record of Current Educational Publications.-A monthly index to books and articles on education. Free.

II. BULLETINS.

The Bulletin of the Bureau of Education, authorized by act of Congress in 1906, is issued at frequent intervals. Fifty-five numbers were issued in 1918. These bulletins range in length from a few pages to several hundred. Each bulletin treats some special subjects in education-history, progress, report of important educational groups, record of an educational experiment or achievement, etc. The edition is limited by law to 12,500 copies, so that free copies are available chiefly to administrative officers and heads of departments of education in universities and colleges. Copies may be purchased at cost from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, however, typical bulletins costing 5, 10, 15, or 25 cents.

II. LEAFLETS AND CIRCULars.

The bureau publishes several series of leaflets and circulars, and these are usually available in greater quantities than bulletins. Some of the recent numbers are: Lessons from the War and Their Application in the Training of Teachers, by William T. Rawden (Industrial Education Circular No. 1); Opportunities at College for Returning Soldiers (Higher Education Circular No. 12); The Kindergarten and Americanization (Kindergarten Circular No. 3); Outline of an Emergency Course of Instruction on the War, prepared by Charles A. Coulomb, Armand J. Gerson, Albert E. McKinley, under the direction of the National Board for Historical Service (Teachers' Leaflet No. 4); Certain Defects in American Education and the Remedies for Them, by Charles W. Eliot (Teachers' Leaflet No. 5).

REPORTS

Prior to 1918 the Bureau of Education published an annual report of six to thirteen hundred pages, usually in two volumes. This practice was discontinued in 1918, when a brief administrative report was substituted for the larger report, and the place of the big report was taken by the so-called biennial survey, the first number of which will appear in 1919. The various chapters in the biennial survey, which will be similar in scope to the chapters of the two volumes of the old annual report, will be printed as separate bulletins.

MIMEOGRAPHED LETTERS.

A portion of the information compiled by the bureau is distributed in the form of mimeographed circular letters, although recently most of this material has been circulated through the columns of SCHOOL LIFE or in the form of the printed leaflets mentioned above. Mimeographed material is distributed free. A list of available publications of the bureau will be sent on request.

in two directions, namely, by giving to the future citizens who will be the patrons of art and the promoters of the standards of civic beauty an early acquaintance with artistic interests and ideals of excellence, and also by offering

to those who later will be professional artists an opportunity to continue through college the contact with art which in many cases was begun in high school.-Walter Sargent, in Education Bulletin, 1918, No. 43.

During the past 10 years graduate courses of instruction in physics, mathematics, and chemistry have been maintained at the Bureau of Standards in Washington. The work has been carried out upon a semiofficial basis, the object being the better training of the younger members of the staff for their technical duties.

How Congress Made the Work Possible. There is ample legal authority for the maintenance of such educational work within a Government bureau. A joint resolution passed by Congress in 1892 opened the Government collections for research and educational uses. This was broadened by an act in 1901, which stated that:

"Facilities for study and research in Government departments * ** shall be afforded to scientific investigators and to duly qualified individuals and students ** under such rules and restrictions as the heads of departments and bureaus may prescribe."

The work at the Bureau of Standards was started in 1908 by a group of the younger members of the staff who were extremely anxious to continue their academic work. They organized an association for the purpose, the direction of the undertaking being placed in the hands of an elected executive committee of five members. This students' committee planned and organized the work, decided upon the courses to be given, secured instructors, and executed all the necessary details. In this they had the sympathetic support of the director and the older members of the staff. Five courses were offered the first year and the work was successful from the start. The general plan of the work as laid out this first year has been followed in the further development, and no radical changes have been made.

The following year a somewhat complicated set of committees was organized for the administration of the work. Committees appointed by the director performed most of the functions of a university faculty, deciding upon courses, engaging instructors, etc. A committee of the students secured information on courses desired, collected the tuition fees from the students, and performed other similar duties. This arrangement con

1 For a somewhat more detailed description, see Higher Education Circular No. 14 of the Bureau of Education. This will be sent free on request.

tinued for eight years, during which time it became increasingly evident that the arrangement was unnecessarily complicated and that the real responsibility naturally gravitated to a very few men who took an active interest in the work.

Accordingly in 1917 the machinery was reduced to a single committee of six members. Four of these are appointed by the director and two are elected annually by the student body from among themselves. The committee exercises full control, but the student body is fully consulted and is urged to suggest courses and instructors.

Courses Similar to Those in Better Graduate Schools.

The courses have been along the same general academic lines as those offered in the graduate schools of the better universities. The subjects have been limited to the general field of physics, mathematics, and chemistry, and, measured by the number of courses given, the emphasis has been in this order. Until last year it was not feasible to maintain repeating sequences of courses in as systematic a manner as was desirable, although efforts were made in that direction. The increase in the size of the bureau has, however, provided a larger student body to support the work, and two three-year cycles are now provided, one in physics and one in mathematics. As many additional courses are given as can be supported, but these six are treated as preferred courses, to be given even if the number of students registering for them is smaller than would otherwise be deemed necessary for a course, and even if by so doing the chances of giving other desirable courses are lessened. This enables men to plan their work in a systematic way, so that it is possible for them in a few years to cover the essentials of the work ordinarily required by the universities for the Ph. D. degree. A man may, within a reasonable time, do sufficient work at the bureau to enable him to secure his doctorate in a single final year of residence work at a university. Written examinations are given regularly at the conclusion of a course, and have had much to do with maintaining a high standard.

Up to the present time slightly more than half of the courses have been given by men not connected with the bureau. Other things being equal, it has been the policy to get men from outside the bureau to give the courses, when suitable

men could be secured. Experience has shown that many men who are eminent in their subjects are willing to give such courses of lectures, the real incentive being love of their work and the desire to see it advanced, rather than the nominal financial remuneration which it has been possible to offer them. The following institutions have been drawn upon for in structors: Bureau of Chemistry, Catholic University, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Geological Survey, Geophysical Laboratory, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins has been drawn upon more frequently than any other institution. The instructors exercise complete freedom in methods of handling the work.

Cordial Relations with Local Universities. From two to eight courses have been given per year. The lectures are usu ally given either in the morning before the day's work begins or in the afternoon at the close of work. It has fre quently been convenient, particularly in the case of outside instructors, to have the lectures come partly or wholly in offi. cial hours, but in these cases the time was made up by the students. An excep tion was made last year in the case of a course in least squares, as it was necessary that the assistants in the optical division have such a training for their official work on an important undertaking. The course was consequently given half on official time both as regards the students and instructor. A similar arrangement has been made in courses this year. The tuition fees have been very moderate, averaging about $15 per yearhour.

Relations with the local universities have been most cordial throughout. Members of the local faculties have given courses, the universities have given credit for work done at the bureau, and at various stages of development the work has been fully discussed with the university authorities. Many of the minor assistants of the bureau who have not completed an undergraduate course are taking work at the local universities, particularly at George Washington. It has been the policy of the bureau to encourage this, and hours of service are arranged to accommodate those assistants who are carrying university work.

In May, 1918, the trustees of Columbia University designated Columbia House as the university center for Americanization, under the direction of Prof. W. A. Braun. The plan of the house is to correlate the courses bearing upon Americanization which are now being given in the various parts of Columbia University, to encourage their further development, and to present them as a homogeneous body of instruction,