pay in equal exchange at least for what he consumes.

But school-directed home-garden work for children is not wholly new. It was begun by the Bureau of Education five years ago and had been extended from year to year until more than a hundred cities had adopted the plan and many thousands of boys and girls had gardens which they cultivated under the constant direction of the teachers. It had already found its value for education and for food products when President Wilson allotted to the Bureau of Education last spring $50,000 from his fund for the National Security and Defense for the extension of this work as a war emergency

measure.

The success of this enlargement of the work was so great that in September the President allotted to the Bureau $200,000 for a still greater extension of the work this fall and next spring and summer. The bureau hopes to have from four to five millions of boys and girls in cities, towns, and villages in this schooldirected army next year, and to maintain this or a larger enrollment for years to come.

Costs Are Negligible.

The cost to the Government for its promotion and the cost to State and local communities for their cooperation and for the payment of teacher directors are negligible when compared with the tens of millions of dollars' worth of food produced and the greater value in health and intellectual and moral education for the children. All city and village boys and girls are invited to join this army of happy and joyous workers.

Duplication Carefully Avoided.

It should be clearly understood by all that this work does not in any way conflict with the corn, tomato, pig, and poultry clubs so effectively fostered in rural communities by the Department of Agriculture, nor does the Bureau of Education desire to displace them; neither does it conflict with any similar clubs that may be found in cities or towns. When the Bureau of Education began this work there were few, if any, garden clubs in the cities. There were school gardens in many places, but the school-directed home garden is quite a different thing from the school garden-different in method, purpose, and results.

It is also different in method, purpose, and results from the club work. It intends to enlist practically all boys and girls of gardening age rather than the few who join the clubs. It aims to give constant and definite personal instruction, guidance, and help, with a teacherdirector for every group of children of

from 50 to 150. No group should be larger than 150. It does not rely on exhibits and prizes for stimulants, however valuable these may be for those who hold out and excel and win. It aims to make the garden army an integral part of city school education, enriching it thereby in a way otherwise impossible. The fact that the work is done outdoors, in cooperation with the great forces of nature, and on a scale economically profitable, rather than indoors with paper and pencil, or test tube or flower pot on a laboratory scale, does not make it less a legitimate part of the educational work of the school, which all thoughtful educators now fully understand must extend beyond the walls of the schoolhouse.

Nor is it any less an essential part of the schools if it enlists the cooperation of parents and older brothers and sisters and offers an opportunity for children to have the company of their parents, and for parents to know more of the interests of their children; if it offers an opportunity for parents to obey the inspired behest of Froebel: "Come, let us live with our children."

The fact that school-directed home gardening offers a means by which children in school may contribute to the support of their families makes it possible for many children to remain in school much longer than they otherwise would or could, and this is not the least of the good results which are being obtained by the United States School Garden Army.

Out of an enlistment of 7,270, 1,321 pupils dropped the work. Various reasons were assigned for this. A few failed to procure ground for their gardens; a few dropped out because of indifference; and quite a number secured more lucrative employment soon after school closed, especially among the high school and intermediate school pupils.

Importance of Supervision.

At the meetings with the children and while visiting the gardens, the teachers gave instruction on the following points: How to plan the garden; preparation of the soil; how to cultivate; rotation of crops; how to fight insects and plant discases; and, in a few cases, markets and marketing. The larger number of the teachers held meetings with their groups of children, as well as visited the gardens. A few found it impracticable to hold meetings. The most practical and helpful supervision is done through visitation; these visits, followed by meetings of the children, make the working conditions ideal.

The attitude of the children toward the work generally showed a very conscientious desire to keep their gardens going in good shape. An unusually dry season proved very discouraging at times and the children are to be commended for their persistent efforts. The interest has grown to such an extent that the number who will enlist next year will probably be doubled. Much interest was created in some districts by garden exhibits held in the school buildings.

Interest of the Parents.

After the teachers began to visit the children's gardens the parents showed marked interest in the movement and this interest increased as the season went on. Many parents reported that the garden work had created a new interest in the home surroundings. In many cases weedy, trash-covered lots gave place to orderly, profitable gardens. The hearty cooperation of parents is confidently expected for next year.

MUSIC COURSES ADDED TO MAIL STUDY LIST.

Music has just been added to the list of subjects which may be studied by correspondence through the University of Wisconsin Extension division. Seven courses in music have been arranged, according to a new bulletin issued this fall.

The courses include theory of music, elementary harmony, public-school music, advanced harmony and elementary composition, appreciation of music, history of music, and community music.

THE ESSENTIAL IMPORTANCE OF THE TEACHER'S SERVICE IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION.1

Growing Demand for Qualified Teachers-Serious Conditions Revealed by Tests-Adequate Physical Education Should Be Made Compulsory.

A review of State educational legislation of the past two years shows a remarkable advance in the status of physical education. Never in the history of this country has there been such remarkable growth. The demand for expertly

1 Storey, Thomas A., M. D., State inspector of physical training, New York. Abstracted from "Physical Training," June, 1918, and revised to conform to present conditions.

trained and competent teachers of physical training exceeds the supply by a greater margin than ever, and this demand will inevitably increase with the better organization and operation of physical education in the eight States in which these laws have been recently enacted. It is inevitable that other States will follow their lead and that physical education within the near future will become a requirement in every State in the Union. Furthermore, a movement for Federal legislation in the interest of physical education is definitely under way, and the time may not be distant when our National Government will contribute to the support of physical education in the States.

All this means an increasingly heavy and continuously growing demand for

teachers especially fitted to do this work, and it means that the time will soon come when every teacher, no matter what he or she may teach, must be trained in the elements of physical education just as every teacher is now trained in the elements of English or arithmetic.

The war has driven home truths which appealed to specialists in physical education long before the war, and at a time when many of us thought a war among civilized nations was an impossibility. This war has awakened the world to the importance of the human individual as a national asset; to the importance of man power and woman power as fundamental to the stability and continuity of the Nation; to the importance of vigorous and enduring health as a solid basis for national conservation and national defense.

This enormous expansion in physical education brings serious problems for the specialists in physical education to settle.

Grave Results Follow Lack of Training.

The value of the physical education of yesterday has been grimly measured and mercilessly tested since we entered this great war. If we accept the standards of our first draft, rejection of 30 or 40 per cent of our young men because they were physically unfit for military service would seem to show that our physical education has been only 60 or 70 per cent effective. If we accept the standards of the Life Extension Institute, our physical education has failed to produce a sound body in 50 per cent of our fellow citizens.

In the face of the facts that have been revealed in England, France, and America, no specialist in physical education to-day would dare maintain that it is desirable to continue the former standards for effectiveness, that existed when these men who were rejected in the draft were being conditioned in our schools and through our systems of physical education, for the demands of citizenship which they are now facing.

We must not, we can not, be contented with the sort of work that has been done in the past; with the extent of that work; with the small number of specialists who have been engaged in its operation. It is our duty to bend every energy to be more usefully productive, to encourage the entry into physical education of competent young blood, and to stimulate all those who are now occupying responsible positions in which they come in contact with the boys and girls of to-day to redouble their efforts so that those boys and girls may be ready for the demands which are going to be made upon them tomorrow.

Physical Education Essential to Reconstruction.

Yesterday the most important thing was victory. Nothing else counted but success in the war. The victory is won; success is achieved. But what of the boys still in our hands to-day? Shall they be dropped, 30 per cent of them, or 50 per cent of them, into the slough of physical unfitness, because the demand for military service is no longer imperative? If we could realize the future battles of science, commerce, industry, and human welfare that may be lost because of inadequate and inefficient physical education right now, every State and every county and every district in this whole land of ours would be spending its greatest energy to conserve the lives and vigor of their boys and girls.

The men and women who are working in physical education have a responsibility second to that of no other profession in the critical period of reconstruc

tion, a responsibility which perhaps they have not realized, which even the thoughtful layman in this country do not adequately realize.

These are days of serious thought-days when every man of us plans to do for his country the thing he can do best-days when we challenge the things we are doing and test them in terms of patriotic service. The war is over, but the Army of 2,000,000 men who risked "all they had their hopes of home and family, their plans for success and happiness, even their lives "-these men are still 66 over there" and some of them must remain over there indefinitely. There is no respite in the demand for overseas service on the part of the Y. M. C. A. and the other agencies that minister to the welfare and comfort of these men.

The affairs of the days before the war seem so commonplace, so ordinary, and so inappropriate. The things of yesterday and to-day are so dramatic, so spectacular, and so immediately and critically and seriously appropriate. The relative values of the two appear at first to be wholly unequal. But sober judgment insists that we analyze the things we do; that we examine into our activities and weigh their deeper values in relation to possible national and international utilities before leaving them for newer activities and applications.

Fortunately for the safety of our decisions there is a growing accumulation of evidence that bears upon the essential importance for the Nation of physical education.

We who are specialists in physical training must give ear to the judgments of the great public through its professional men, its educators, its legislators, its military men, its Congressmen, and its President.

Legislation for Compulsory Physical Education.

The Legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Nevada, California, Delaware, and Maryland have passed laws establishing physical education in the schools of their States, and like bills are pending in other legislative bodies in this country. Does not this mean that the legislators believe physical education to be of immediate importance?

If you have read "The Wasted Years " that appeared two years ago in the London Nation you will have noted that England affirms it shall never again be said that she takes care of her boys only when she needs them for "the terrible uses of war." England has determined to make physical education a compulsory part of her national educational program. France had reached the same decision, and there are strong factors at work here in the United States that must lead us to

a universal requirement in physical education.

Intelligent citizens are everywhere considering ways and means for the more effective conservation of our national resources in man power and woman power. Our city and State boards of health and boards of education; our national security organizations and defense leagues; our educational, medical, and health societies are recording themselves more and more insistently for the thoroughly effective acquisition and for the thorough conservation of national health.

Physical training, or physical education, or whatever we may choose to call this thing we are doing, is finding itself. The specialist in physical education who thought formerly that his only concern was with muscles finds to-day that he has been in error, and that he must be engaged in building men and women, that he can not limit himself to a part of the great problem, and that his duty, now a patriotic duty, brings him face to face with every influence that bears upon the physical, mental, and moral health of the citizens of the future now under his care. A Broad Program of Health Conservation.

My analysis of physical training, as it is revealed in the departments of physical training in our schools, colleges, and universities, and as conceived and stated by our State and Federal lawmakers, leads me to define it as a program for the acquisition and conservation of health made up of divisions concerned with health examination, health information, and the establishment of health habits, and is wholly satisfied by no less a quality of health product than that represented by the normal growth and the normal functioning of each and every organ of the human body.

And you specialists in physical educa tion are engaged in an essential and patriotic service. Yesterday you were ready, in the words of Harry Lauder, to "die working for them over there"; today, if you are putting the best you have into your work, you are doing a service that is preparing the Nation for successful battles of peace over here. You are concerned with a physical training that is not satisfied with a degree and quality of human health that is represented by merely being well, or by the man or woman who is able to be out of bed and eat three meals a day and get about without an abnormal temperature. It is your job to add an enormous resource to the man power and the woman power of your country; to reduce, and perhaps remove entirely, the 30 per cent of young men thrown into the scrap heap by the draft; to stop our staggering annual losses in (Contiuned on page 14.)

FOREIGN NOTES

War Time Education Glimpses From Overseas

SUPERANNUATION ALLOWANCES FOR TEACHERS IN ENGLAND.

Farsighted Legislation Embodied in Bill Just Passed by Parliament-Liberal Provisions Proposed for Teachers' Retirement.

The teachers' superannuation bill, which has passed its third reading in Parliament and awaits the King's signature to become law, is from the economic and professional viewpoints, as significant of new men and new ways of thought, as the education bill passed in August was for the upbuilding of the schools themselves.

The benefits in the bill are based upon those of the civil-service system.

Based on Salary and Service.

The proposed allowances are: (a) An annual superannuation allowance of an amount not exceeding oneeightieth of the average salary of the teacher in respect of each completed year of recognized service, or one-half of the average salary, whichever is the less; and

(b) By way of additional allowance, a lump sum not exceeding one-thirtieth of the average salary of the teacher in respect of each completed year of recog

nized service, or one and one-half times the average salary, whichever is the less.

In the case of a woman teacher, whɔ, after ceasing in consequence of marriage to be employed in recognized service, has subsequently returned to teaching and satisfies the prescribed conditions, 20 years shall be substituted for 30 years as the qualifying period of service.

Varied Conditions to be Met.

The bill embodies eminently fair and wise retirement provisions under each of the following main heads:

Gratuities in cases of short service. Death gratuities to legal representatives of deceased teachers. Disqualification for benefits under the

act.

Reemployment of teachers.

No claim to superannuation allowances or gratuities as of right.

Payment and assignment of allowances. Payment without probate in certain

cases.

Provision as to allowance payable to persons mentally disabled.

Provisions as to refusal reduction or suspension of allowance or gratuity. Penalty for false representation or fraud.

A MESSAGE FROM SOUTH AMERICA.

Brazilian Students Transmit Greetings to American Students.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, August 15, 1918.

To Students in the United States:

I have the honor to report that the association of Brazilian students recently commissioned Mr. Sebastião Sampaio, Brazilian consul at St. Louis, as their delegate to deliver a message of friendship to the students of the various educational institutions in the United States. This greeting in part is as follows:

"The United States of America made the Monroe doctrine known to the world; the United States of Brazil, whenever opportunity is afforded it, does its share, through the words of its eminent men, such as Ruy Barbosa, in promoting peace and fraternity; but neither of these two Republics ever adopted the doctrine of peace at any cost, and it is for this reason that they are united to each other as always, two sister Republics with such noble ideals, against the common enemy.

"By means of this message the students of Brazil desire to transmit their greetings to the students of the United States of America, and, while we may be separated geographically, we are not separated spiritually, because our aspirations are identical." (Signed) A. P. MOMSEN, American Vice Consul in Charge.

Provisions with respect to local pension schemes.

Power to make rules.

The retirement age is fixed at 60 and required years of full service in a Stateaided school at 10 years, with a minimum period of 30 years, full or specified part time. As purely administrative officials do not share in the benefits, an injustice was imminent in the case of many teachers who had become inspectors. This is obviated by the provision that teachers with 10 years' service might become inspectors without forfeiting right to pension.

Relation to Fisher Bill.

Mr. Fisher, the moving spirit of the education act, who has heartily collaborated in the preparation of this bill, also regards it as a necessary corollary to the general education act, giving room for the great educational developments bound to ensue from the operation of that act, and attracting the army of men and women teachers by showing that the State for the first time had worthily recognized teaching as a profession.

The example set by England, just emerging from a four-years' war in which her very existence was at stake, in passing such an act of justice and encouragement to her teachers should not fail to have a stimulating effect in this country.

GRANTS TO SCHOOLS FOR
MOTHERS.

An important step in the vital field of the physical well-being of the nation has been taken in England and Wales by regulations of September, 1918, in accordance with which the board of education will make grants to schools for mothers during each financial year commencing April 1, for promoting the care, training, and physical welfare of infants and young children.

By the term "School for Mothers" is understood primarily an educational institution providing training and instruction for the mother in the care and management of infants and small children, The imparting of such instruction may include (a) systematic classes, (b) home visiting, (c) infant consultations. The provision of specific medical and surgical advice and treatment (if any) should be only incidental.

The institution is to be conducted by a responsible body of managers.

FOREIGNERS STUDYING CHINESE LANGUAGE.

School for Employees of American and British Firms in Tientsin-Chambers of Commerce Cooperating-American Consulate Lends Its Support.

A recent report from the American consul general at Tientsin, China, P. S.

Heintzleman, calls attention to the de velopment of a plan by which the resident employees of American and British firms may have the opportunity to acquire a working knowledge of the language of the country. Says Mr. Heintzle

man:

A movement has recently been inaugurated among American firms of Tientsin to encourage their younger employees to study the Chinese language. Local American merchants interested in import and export trade have long recognized the desirability of getting into personal touch with the Chinese merchants and of establishing closer relations, and it was with this primary object in view that the movement was started.

Local British merchants had somewhat earlier come to a realization of the possibilities of greatly enhanced trade through more intimate contact with the native merchants, and a language school was established in 1917 under the auspices of the British Chamber of Commerce. According to an arrangement just concluded, the facilities of this school are now accorded to the employees of American firms.

American and British Cooperating.

At a recent meeting of the British Chamber of Commerce it was decided to invite the American chamber to cooperate in the maintenance of the school. The latter organization has taken up the matter, and as a result several locai American firms have offered special inducements to their employees when a certain degree of proficiency is attained in the Chinese language. A number Americans have already enrolled in the school, and it is expected that this number will be increased when the aims and scope of the institution become better known. By the cooperation of the two chambers the continuance of the enterprise should be assured.

of

The school is at present directed by a British missionary, well versed in the Chinese language. The fall term began on September 17, 1918. The session is divided into three periods of approximately three months each. The hours of study are from 5 to 7 in the afternoon, so that attendance does not interfere with office work. There are three courses, namely, preliminary, intermediate, and advanced, in all of which particular attention is paid to the conversational and written Chinese in general use in business transactions. Upon the completion of the three courses those passing the examinations are given certificates according to nationality by the respective chambers.

Some of the larger American firms in this district had previously realized the importance of being able to transact business with the Chinese merchants in the vernacular, and had given their employees time and, in some cases, allowances to enable them to acquire the language. By the establishment of the language school the employees of all American concerns are given an opportunity to learn sufficient Chinese to enable them to converse with Chinese intelligently on business matters.

American Consulate Assists.

This office is lending its support to the project, and American concerns are being

urged to support the school and to encourage their employees to take the courses. A marked advance in mutual commercial understanding and an increase in trade is expected from the movement. The success of the scheme naturally depends upon the support received from local firms, but the movement would be given a great impetus if it were known to have received the indorsement of leading commercial bodies and responsible manufacturers and exporters of the United States interested in Far Eastern trade.

PEDAGOGICAL HERESIES.

Switzerland Studying Special Features of American Education. Under the title, "Pedagogical Heresies," the Swiss school paper, Schweizerische Lehrzeitung, publishes an interesting discussion of the ways and means by which educational facilities may be promoted for the advancement of students of more than average abilities. The author is of the opinion that never will the need of a numerous class of educated people for reconstructive work be more strongly felt than after the conclusion of peace.

Germany is already preparing for that event by extending the chain of special schools (Begabtenschule), intended to further the studies of gifted pupils. This scheme is manifestly the outgrowth of the undemocratic character of the German school system, which prevents pupils graduating from a public school from entering a secondary institution directly. It is expressly adapted to conditions as at present existing in Germany. If the Swiss school authorities, as is conjectured, are about to imitate their Imperial neighbor, the author thinks they will take the wrong course. Conditions, as well as the school system, are quite different in the two countries.

American Methods Urged.

The author rather advises his compatriots to seek new inspiration in a country that "stands politically nearer," namely, the United States of America; first, because the promotion of able students has nowhere received so much or so careful attention as in our own country, and, second, because the diversities among the various States are analogous with conditions in the Swiss Republic.

The system in American schools which permits able students to skip an entire class in all or single subjects deserves, in the author's opinion, high commendation. Moreover, the variety of educational facilities for adults, such as university extension courses, summer sessions of colleges and universities, night and correspondence schools are unparalleled. Though many of these educational activities in the United States depend largely

on private initiative and are not supported by the State or municipalities, as is the case in Germany and Switzerland, yet the author sees no reason for neglecting things that could well be introduced into the Swiss school system.

"Why should we," asks the author, "wait until our neighbor States have adopted them? Why utilize only that which these neighbor States shall have found fit for conditions in Europe? This indirect method is just the one by which the democratic features of American innovations are lost in transition."

Education and Economic Conditions.

Of practical interest is the paragraph dealing with economic conditions as affecting schools in general. The author maintains, from an economic point of view, that the State, by accelerating the able student's education, looks primarily after its own interests and benefits enormously by it.

After the war many countries will find their man power depleted and will have to find means of putting the right man in the right place. The neutral countries, drained of their man power by attractive offers from the lately belligerent countries, will have to face the same problems. The author, therefore, warns his compatriots to study conditions making for educational efficiency in whatever countries they may find them and adapt these to their own local needs if they do not wish to be crushed by the competition of other nations.

THE ESSENTIAL IMPORTANCE OF THE TEACHER'S SERVICE IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

(Continued from page 12.) working time through sickness and accident, and thereby to provide thousands and millions of working days, now lost, for the stupendous work of construction and reconstruction in the coming years; and to give to the Nation not only these lives of men and women saved from preventable death but these lives of men and women as made more productive, more physiologically useful, and more enduring.

If you are in this work, if you are preparing boys and girls for the demands of life, if these are the purposes of your work, keep it up! Don't leave it unfulfilled! Work harder! The war is won. The victories of peace are yet to be won. Without this service we lose!

At the recent election in Florida the State constitution was amended so as to authorize a levy of a tax of 10 mills for school purposes, which will add approximately one-third to the school fund of the State.