TH

HE Department has received a number of letters from city school officials concerning an interpretation of Sections 40.51 and 40.52 of the Wisconsin Statutes of 1927 referring to the organization of city school districts and the administration of school affairs in cities. A conclusion has been reached that the above mentioned sections are practically inoperative at the present time on account of their general indefiniteness. Section 40.52 as originally framed was clear and definite and would have been workable had it been enacted as drawn. It read as follows:

"The school affairs of the city shall be managed by a school board of six members chosen from the city at large at the regular city election for the term of three years from the first of July following. Upon the first election the two receiving the highest number of votes shall hold for three years; the two receiving the next highest for two years, and the others for one year."

The difficulty of interpretation arises from numerous amendments to the bill which appear to render it unworkable. The Attorney General's department made the following informal state

ment:

"The school and city officers in the several cities of the state can make just as good a guess as to how to apply the law as can the attorney general, and they will have to solve the problem of its application to the particular situation existing in any given city as best they can, trusting that the next legislature will clarify the statute and remove any doubt as to its constitutionality; or, perhaps, ignore the enactment as unworkable."

The present legislature is trying to clarify this situation so that cities interested may change to the elective system of selection of school board members with reasonable assurance that their action will have the sanction of legislative backing, will be constitutional, and of state-wide uniformity, as applying to cities of the various classes. In the meantime, it is advisable for interested cities to defer action until the present session of the legislature

closes.

School Building Plans

THE Department develops complete plans

and specifications and gives architectural service for one and two room rural schools, on request. Under a co-operative agreement between the Industrial Commission and the Department all school plans sent to either are re

checked by both departments for suggestive criticisms looking towards the erection of first class up-to-date school buildings. The service has also been extended to cover expert advice on heating and ventilating. The law requires submission of all school plans to the Industrial Commission, which pays attention primarily to construction, sanitation, and safety. This work has been found helpful to local communities as a basis for extended work by commercial architects as well as in cases where the community relies on the State Department for working plans and specifications. Inspection by the State Department is available for all types of schools with a view to improving housing conditions and facilities. The department is also prepared to make complete building surveys in all types of communities.

Education for Exceptional
Children

WISCONSIN has almost one thousand children in special classes. These children find it impossible to adjust themselves to the school situation of the average child. They are usually three or four years retarded. In order to find his intelligence level, the thirteen or fourteen year old child would need to be classified in the third or fourth grade. Here he is out of place; the talent or talents which he has are not developed; he is unsuccessful and unhappy, and often becomes problematic if not delinquent.

The special class is organized to meet the retarded child's need. Specially trained teachers are employed who know his nature and possible development. He is taught accordingly. Many of these children have the habit and attitude of failure. The stimulus of success which they receive in the special class goes over into academic work, and while they rarely become proficient, they do learn the necessary fundamentals so that they can meet the simple situations which life brings to them.

The special class children learn to work well on the level and in the line of their abilities.

They learn self respect and practice good citizenship. Many of them go out to make a good livelihood.

State aid to the amount of fifty-four dollars per child was given to the schools that conducted special classes. It was money well spent.

Young People's Reading Circle RURAL schools lead in the statistical records

of the Young People's Reading Circle. The number of young readers who completed courses leading to diplomas in 1925-26 was about five thousand. From that time the increase has been rapid and uniformly constant, until in 1927-28 the list reached the enormous proportions of 192,727 in the country alone. The number of readers in city and county units combined was 233,051.

The list of books from which this reading is done is most carefully selected, but even then teachers should exercise extreme care in guidance in order that individual tastes may be recognized and new tastes created. "Required reading" should not be insisted upon to the extent that pupils come to feel that when the diploma or seal is earned his reading is over for the year. The reading circle requirement should furnish only the beginning of the child's real reading. Its result should be a desire to read for enjoyment and for information. The reading circle should help children to form habits of reading and research that will follow them into adult life.

Among the agencies in Wisconsin that furnish books to children in the country, the school library leads. We spend large sums of money in teaching children to read, and more and more we are coming to see that we must fur

nish the kind of reading material that will yield

results in character and culture. The news stand should not be the source of reading materials for the pupils in our schools.

School Board Conventions

AB BOUT forty school board conventions will be held in Wisconsin in June. Many county superintendents feel that it is desirable to hold these conventions prior to the annual meeting, so that any suggestions for improvement in school facilities can be carried out by the electors at the annual school meeting and the respective districts thus get the benefit of the improvement at the beginning of the ensuing school year.

Upwards of 25,000 persons attend these annual conventions in the state. The Department appreciates the opportunity which the conventions afford its representatives to come in contact with school board members throughout the state. The department endeavors to carry to

these meetings not destructive criticism but constructive messages of helpful, sympathetic inspiration. Although the sessions last only one day, they have proved an effective means of increasing the quality and effectiveness of school board service along the lines of consultation, advice, and instruction upon matters pertaining to the management of the schools.

The question box has developed into an interesting and valuable phase of school board. convention work. It is open to any person who wishes to ask questions on any phase of school work or school interest. Teachers find much of interest and practical value to their work in these conventions and it is recommended that they make it a point to attend whenever they can. In many counties teachers attend the school board conventions in a group. In such cases the regular program is modified to include discussion of special interest to teachers.

High School Supervision

THE professional education of a teacher

should not stop at graduation from a training school. On the contrary, the teacher should have an opportunity to do expert supervision, and to continue to grow professionally as long as she teaches. With this thought in mind a state program of high school supervision has been formulated for the benefit of Wisconsin

high school teachers. No single institution could do this task alone, and all the teacher training schools of the state, as well as the supervisory agencies, are concerned in the matter.

In an effort to have these different agencies function cooperatively a Wisconsin Teacher Training Council has been formed, representing these organizations. Included are the State Department of Public Instruction, the University of Wisconsin, the state teachers' colleges, private colleges, the county rural normal schools, the Wisconsin Teachers Association, and the city superintendents', county superintendents', and high school principals' associations. The purpose of the council will be to collect the results of research and the best prac tice in all states and make them available for use in Wisconsin. It was thought best to begin with the high school field. This council has no legal standing but will rely on such authority as may be found through the presentation of sound educational principles, verified, as far as possible, by experiment and practice.

THE SUMMER VACATION

By the time this issue of the JOURNAL reaches you, many of you will have completed your plans for your summer vacation. Some of you will study, some will travel, some will work at other occupations, and some will seek quiet and rest to replenish depleted stores following the long and severe strain of the school year. And during the same period your boys and girls will seek rest and play in the open sunshine and the fresh air of the great outdoors. They will accumulate new stores of health, energy, and optimism with which to face their tasks next September. May your vacation be such that you will be able to meet them with an equipment equally adequate.

TAKING STOCK

*

Public schools take stock periodically as carefully and conscientiously as does any other business. Business and Industry take stock and check operations yearly. It is usually at or following such season that they set up their policies for the new year, determine the goal, survey the past and estimate the future. It is the dividend season; it is the season when the stockholders, if the business is on a yearly dividend basis, receive their financial returns.

The school year is on a yearly dividend basis. The commencement season represents the closing season. The school presents yearly the graduating classes in increasing numbers as dividends to the tax-paying community. They show that the school business is attracting young men as well as young women, as evidenced by the fact that the graduating classes are better balanced as between the sexes. They are in a position to show the holding power of the schools on all classes and types of children by the increase in numbers now graduating, an increase out of all proportion to the population growth of the city or town. It is now a class of twenty where formerly it was ten-a class of one hundred where formerly forty.

This is the season of the year when a close scrutiny is made of the working force of the school. Pupil failures are analyzed and causes determined. Where the fault lies within the school organization, provision is made for its remedy. When outside the schools, it receives equal attention.

There is stock taking by the teaching, supervisory and executive forces and many a teacher will betake herself to a summer school that she may better serve the community. The most impressive and reassuring situation in the interest of the public is the very large percentage of superintendents, supervisors and teachers who will spend their vacations in Summer Sessions or Teachers' Institutes—an evidence that they are taking stock and that they are their own most exacting Manager and Director.

IMPORTANT BILLS

-Better Schools League

* * *

Out of some 1200 bills introduced at this session of the legislature and printed to date, approximately 100 pertain to education. Some are corrective bills, some are of minor importance, and some may be classified as of major importance. Among the latter are the annuity board reorganization, the state board of education, the county board of education, the certification, the high school aid, compulsory school age, and attendance bills, some of the vocational education bills, and the Children's Code bill. Every teacher in the state should be familiar with at least the major bills before the legislature.

"I have been directed to make up a diversified list of well connected business and professional men in your vicinity as an original owner's list of a recently printed encyclopedia. I am authorized to present you with the latest edition for the privilege of placing your name on our local list. This is a plan which I am using prior to general publicity."

An agent called on us a few days ago and made us a very special introductory offer on a new encyclopedia. We glanced at our bookshelves and discovered that the set the agent represented was the same as that on our shelves, which the JOURNAL refused to approve a few years ago. It was explained to us that the new set was thoroughly revised. We offered to review the set if the agent would leave one in our office or have one sent to us. He said something that sounded like approval, tied up his prospectus, and left our office. The "review" set has not yet been received.

The revised edition may be perfectly all right. We do not know. We do know that last year it was necessary for us to "pay the price" to secure a set of a "new encyclopedia" that proved to be very old when we got a chance to look at it. Incidentally, we know of some cases where teachers had considerable more "pin money" for the summer as a result of our investment and investigation.

Now we are not even suggesting that teachers should not invest in source material, teacher helps, encyclopedias, and professional books, or that they should turn down every new proposition that is presented to them. On the contrary, we believe that keeping up to the times is necessary for progress and that the individual who refuses to supply himself with the best and latest is not due for much progress. We believe that teachers should welcome the opportunity to get information about worth while new books, new reference works, and new helps, of which there are many.

The problem is one of selection. But how can one tell the good from the poor, the worth while from the worthless, since many times one has only a prospectus by which to judge? We cannot offer any final test. May we, however, call your attention to the fact that next year every issue of the JOURNAL will carry an index to advertisers. We believe the material advertised in this magazine is worth while, dependable material. If the concern or the material is not advertised we will do our best to get information for you upon receipt of your request for assistance.

SCHOOL MARKS AND CREDITS

School marks have probably existed ever since organized schools were developed. They are the weights and measure scale by which school effort has been evaluated and they have become so important a part of the school that ultimate aims of pupils are often stated in terms of marks and credits. The writer recently asked 150 high school students to answer in writing the question: What is your purpose in attending high school? Some answered, to prepare for specific vocations; some because they believed it was a good thing for them; and some because they "had to." A few believed that by attending school they were equipping themselves the better for citizenship, but the great majority said "to get good marks.'

School marks are at best opinions, and opinions vary with people. Not long ago, ten teachers, nine of whom were teachers of English,

were asked to “mark” ten themes collected from eighth grade and high school students. No two marks on any one of them were exactly the same. In one case the spread was from 40 to 90 on the same theme on a scale of 100. There were others nearly as great. One teacher gave credit for thought; another for mechanical structure; another for punctuation; and another for unity and coherence. All agreed that there was danger in trying to mark too accurately.

Records are essential and some sort of marking system is necessary. Present trends seem to be toward a complete health, citizenship, and academic record. Present trends also seem to be toward a simple, rather broadly calibrated measuring or marking system for academic records. The report of the committee on the study of marking systems in Wisconsin is in favor of the use of a five letter system. Perhaps four would have been better. At any rate, we com. mend it as a sensible suggestion, worth serious consideration.

Is THE
TAIL WAGGING
THE DOG?

Much has been said and more has been written about the emphasis placed upon athletics in our colleges. Many have believed that the discussion resulted from the intense public interest in intercollegiate athletics rather than from any effort on the part of college authorities to place undue emphasis on athletics. That they may be wrong is the impression one might get from a page ad of a state agricultural college, published recently in an education Journal. Some two dozen summer school courses in art, music, public speaking, and agriculture are described in fine type, but the thing that stands out in bold type at the top of all of them is the "Famous Coaching School" by a well known college coach.

Is it just the modern method of getting business? Or is the tail wagging the dog?