Models and mock-ups were produced by boys in the physics classes. They developed a Van de Graaff generator, nuclear fission cabinet, atomic models, atomic power plant, Tesla coil, radioactivity detector, and chain reaction demonstrator.

The nuclear fission cabinets strikingly demonstrated the splitting of the nucleus. Models of atoms were made with varicolored wooden spheres glued together in a cluster to represent the nucleus, with other spheres on the ends of wires extending out from the nucleus to represent electrons in their orbits.

Atomic piles had moderators, control rods, and insulation against radioactivity. These piles were dummy models, but they were made quite real by buckling a luminous wrist watch around one of the control rods. When a Geiger counter was thrust into the pile, radioactivity was registered.

One boy constructed an amplifier for use with the school-owned Geiger tube. This amplifier had both visual and audio indicators, and registered radioactivity as well as one could wish.

Coarse mesh screening and inch-square wooden strips, a quantity of rubber stoppers, and the two dozen mouse traps, previously referred to, were used to demonstrate chain reaction.

Thus we see how pupil-made charts and devices made atomic energy principles meaningful. All the pupils learned about atomic energy with understanding.

To bring the benefits of this classroom experience and experiment to the commu

ence fair served to show the pupil-made charts and exhibits to the public. Lights flashed, sparks flew, radioactive material registered on the Geiger counters, pupils explained, and charts made the story complete. A large display window of the Public Service Company in Central Square put

Atomic Energy Education Aids Available From the Office of Education and the Superintendent of Documents

Atomic Energy Here To Stay (Special Supplement to SCHOOL LIFE, March 1949 issue), 10 cents.

Reprint of articles on Atomic Energy

(which appeared in SCHOOL LIFE, March 1949, Vol. 31, No. 6), 5 cents. Special Atomic Energy issue of HIGHER EDUCATION (Feb. 1, 1949, Vol. V, No. 11), 5 cents.

(Order above from the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C.)

"ROAD BLOCKS"

(Continued from page 20)

What of definite scheduling of pupils and teachers which at the same time leaves room for essential flexibility?

When should general education cease and specialization begin?

Can extracurricular activities be curricularized?

How can study procedures and programs be individualized?

Should the school year be extended on a year-round basis to facilitate closer identity with community life?

5. Then there is a whole family of "road blocks" to Life Adjustment Education inherent in the policies and procedures of training, selecting, and programming the work of the teaching staff.

If more emphasis is to be given to guiding the growth, development, and behavior of youth, and less to the mastery of subjectmatter as such, then more of the teachers' education needs to be concerned with the nature, diversity, and learning problems of youth and less to majors and minors in the usual subject matter fields. If all types of youth are to be served by the high school, teachers must learn to understand, respect, and work with all types of youth.

If the general education period of youth is to be extended, and more closely related to life, then the teachers need more education in the nature and problems of the worka-day world than most teacher-education. programs contain today.

E

DUCATION has an important stake in the hearings on television which began on Sept. 26, 1949, before the Federal Communications Commission in Washington. The decisions, when rendered, will determine in large measure, the extent to which the educational program of the Nation can be served by this new medium of communication. Among other things the Commission will decide what channels, if any, are to be set aside exclusively for educational television broadcasting. Since the number of such channels is limited and many have been applied for or are already in use, the competition for the remaining frequencies is very great. Once the channels are assigned, no more will be available.

In view of the importance of these decisions to education, the Office of Education requested permission to have witnesses present arguments at the hearings showing the need for reserving a certain number of television channels for the exclusive use of school systems, colleges, and universities for educational broadcasting. In this action, the Office of Education has cooperated closely with educational associations and

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NOVEMBER 13-19 1949

BOOK WEEK

Book Week will be observed from November 13 to 19. Headquarters for the availability of materials in connection with the special week is The Children's Book Council, 62 West 45th Street, New York 19, N. Y.

with school and college television specialists who are familiar with the problem.

The Office of Education based its arguments in the main on these facts: (1) Television is an essential instructional medium in the classroom; (2) television can render invaluable educational service to the community; (3) educational television broadcasting can be rendered best by stations owned and operated by school systems, colleges, and universities; and (4) enough television broadcast frequencies must be reserved for educational institutions so that their needs can be met.

In support of the essentiality of television to classroom instruction, examples have been assembled from program directors and others to show the effectiveness of this new medium of communication. It is significant that television, combining the advantages of both the radio and the motion picture, can bring immediately to the teacher the visual image of an event as it happens, together with the associated sounds. A new experience of reality becomes possible, when a musical concert, a laboratory experiment, or a current news event can be "loaded on" the radio frequency carrier waves and distributed with the speed of light from a distant point to a classroom.

The argument for the potentiality of edu cational service to the community outside the classroom parallels that used in the frequency modulation hearings in 1944. The Office of Education maintains that television broadcasting can explain vividly the work and purposes of schools and colleges to the public; can demonstrate to home listeners. samples of student achievement; can provide instruction to shut-ins and physically handicapped individuals of public-school age; and can offer adult education and continuation courses of accredited grade.

On the matter of the use of time on commercially owned television stations, the Office of Education has taken the position that educational needs are best served when the school systems, colleges, and universities own and operate their own stations. The commercial stations have shown a willingness to cooperate with educational authorities, but they naturally have to operate

as "paying businesses." Hence, the time available to schools is likely to be at unsuitable hours, because it depends upon commercial commitments to sponsors and on meeting the broad tastes of the general listening audience.

In view of these facts, the Office of Education has asked the Federal Communications Commission to set aside, exclusively for use by school systems, colleges, and universities, an adequate number of channels in the new ultra-high frequency television. broadcast band; and to make all future station assignments in the existing twelvechannel very-high frequency band with a view to having at least one locally usable. television broadcast frequency available for assignment to educational-station applicants in every metropolitan and in every college

"PARENTS will be better able to understand the program of the school if they keep in close touch with the teacher. The teacher also needs the help of parents to give the best guidance to the child. Success of a child in school is dependent in large measure on close cooperation between home and school."

-Hazel F. Gabbard, Specialist for Extended School Services, in Pamphlet No. 108, Preparing Your Child for School, price 15 cents.

nities"

enditure by business for this purpose has already reached into the illions of dollars.

Working together the Citizens Federal Committee on Education, he National Citizens Commission for the Public Schools, the Office f Education, Federal Security Agency, and the Advertising Counil this year in the "Better Schools Campaign" are emphasizing le maintenance of improvements achieved in our Nation's schools ince the end of World War II and the raising of substandard chool conditions which exist in many parts of the country. cquainting citizens generally with current facts about school conitions and apprising them of possible pyramiding problems uring the 10 years immediately ahead because of sharply rising

trends in population growth are also high-priority objectives. In line with the effort of the National Citizens Commission for the Public Schools to encourage citizen participation in the solution of school problems, the latest March of Time release will be on "The Fight For Better Schools." This 2-reel documentary film portrays the story of citizen action programs in Arlington, Va., and in other communities which are paying off in improved school conditions. It will be available for nontheatrical showing after April 1, 1950, from the March of Time, New York 17, N. Y.

Watch your outdoor posters, listen to your radio, read your newspapers and magazines for results of the planning and work that the triumvirate of education, business, and advertising is producing in every community of our country. Your cooperation will number you among the true friends who recognize the fact that "Better Schools Make Better Communities" and are doing something about it.

W

ITH the Kellogg Foundation as host, 115 conferees assembled on August 28 at Clear Lake Camp, Dowling, Mich., for the third annual work conference of professors of administration and their consultants. The group was made up of professors and deans from 53 schools and departments of education from coast to coast and representatives of the U. S. Office of Education, the National Council of Chief State School Officers, the American Association of School Administrators, the Division of County and Rural Area Superintendents of the NEA, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National School Boards Association, the National Citizens Commission for the Public Schools, elementary school principals, classroom teachers, and consultants from the fields of sociology and political science.

Among the draft reports filed by the working committees at the close of this conference, the following reflects the approach of the group in its thinking and planning for the future:

Our Concern About Leadership

"We said at Endicott that education can change community life-that education by its impact on people and institutions can change these people and these institutions. This we believe!

"The school must share in responsibility for community improvement. It must operate so as to make a difference in standards of living, in health and safety, in cultural and spiritual advancement, and in dynamic citizenship. This does not mean that the school is to prepare a blueprint for community acceptance. It could not do this even if it would. It does mean rather that the leadership of the school must play a key role in the cooperative planning processes through which the community seeks to use all available resources in meeting its needs and in realizing its own aspirations.

"We recognize the increasing complexity of the administrator's task. New responsibilities must be assumed for the functional adaptation of instruction, the in-service im

THE NATIONAL Conference of Professors of Educational Administration has moved into the third year of its program for the upgrading of Educational Leadership. The accomplishments of its third annual work conference are reported to you in this article by Dr. Lund, who continues to serve as Secretary to the Planning Committee of the NCPEA. It is hoped that the full report of the Clear Lake Conference will be available for distribution later this fall.

provement of teachers, and the creation of dynamic school-public relations. At the same time the usual functions of school administration are complicated by mounting enrollments which intensify already acute shortages of school buildings and of qualified elementary teachers. The times call for educational statesmanship.

"The administrator and his staff must no longer bask in an aura of complacency, nor can they yield to a sense of futility in the face of these new challenges. The job cannot be done by professionals working in isolation. Educational planning must take on new significance in terms of purposes and of methods. A cooperative process is required for the utilization of all available resources. The school must make common cause with other agencies and relate itself to the total service program of the community. The school administrator must become a social engineer.

"What does this emerging concept of educational leadership mean to the conventional patterns of administration? Can we longer justify the line-staff organization? How do we make the transition from centralized to decentralized leadership? How do we prepare for leadership of cooperative effort in organizing school districts more efficiently and in tailoring educational programs to fit community needs? These are but a few of the questions that must be answered if significant improvement is to be made in the professional education of school administrators.

"At Madison we said that democratic educational leadership does not come about

accidentally: That it has a structure and a technique and inward motivations, highly personal in nature, resting upon abiding convictions; that the welfare of the group is assured by the welfare of each individual; that decisions reached by the cooperative use of intelligence are, in total, more valid than decisions made by individuals; that every idea is entitled to a fair hearing; that all persons can make unique and important contributions; that real growth comes from within the group rather than from without; that democratic methods are efficient methods; and that a real and devout respect and affection for all men is the essential component of a great personal leadership in a democratic society.

New Techniques

"New techniques of leadership are being discovered and utilized. We are learning that an administrator must exercise leadership in group determination of wants and needs, in group evaluation, in devising plans of action, in the implementation of group planning, and must join with others in appraising the quality of his leadership. We are learning that informing people about the school program is not enough; that public relations involves participation in policy and prgram development, and evaluation. We are learning also that the same techniques must be used for stimulating individual and staff growth.

"We are learning that among the functions of leadership are responsibility for group analyses, real knowledge of the groups in the community, and understanding of why they are formed, and what they do, and an appreciation of the importance of the development of group consciousness and morale. We are learning that capitalizing upon these sociological forces is the best way to bring about the needed improvement of living in the community through the school.

"The school administrator must therefore maintain a clear definition of the expanding task and must utilize these emerging concepts of educational leadership as, along with others, he shares responsibility for putting group plans into action.