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New Books and Pamphlets

Bibliography of Research Studies in Music Education 1932-1948. Prepared by William S. Larson and presented by the Music Education Research Council. Chicago, Ill., Music Educators National Conference (64 East Jackson Boulevard), 1949. 119 p. $2.

Cooperative Extension Work. By Lincoln David Kelsey and Cannon Chiles Hearne. Ithaca, N. Y., Comstock Publishing Co., 1949. Illus. 424 p. $4.

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Critical Issues and Trends in American Education. Edited by E. Duncan Grizzell and Lee O. Garber. Philadelphia, Pa., The American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1949. 231 p. (The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 265, September 1949.) $2.

Education Through Physical Activities; Physical Education and Recreation for Elementary Grades. By Pattric Ruth O'Keefe and Helen Fahey. St. Louis, Mo., The C. V. Mosby Co., 1949. 309 p. Illus. $4.

First Aid Textbook for Juniors. Issued by The American National Red Cross. Philadelphia, The Blakiston Company, 1949. 132 p. Illus. $1.

A Health Program For Colleges: A Report of the Third National Conference on Health in Colleges, May 7-10, 1947, New York, N. Y. New York, National Tuberculosis Association, 1948. 152 p. $2.

Homemaking Education For Adults. By Maude Williamson and Mary S. Lyle. New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1949. 236 p. $2.50.

How Peoples Work Together. The United Nations and the Specialized Agen

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cies. Prepared by the United Nations De-
partment of Public Information. New
York, Manhattan Publishing Company,
1948. 47 p. Illus. 50 cents.

Opportunities in Home Economics: An
Annotated Bibliography on Home Eco-
nomics Careers. By Charlotte Biester.
Millbrae, Calif., The National Press, 1948.
50 p. $1.

Perception of Symbol Orientation and Early Reading Success. By Muriel Catherine Potter. New York, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1949. 69 p. (Contributions to Education, No. 939) $2.10. Textbooks in Education. A Report from The American Textbook Publishers Insti

tute to its membership, its friends, and any others whose interest in the development of the educational system in the United States goes beyond a mere passing fancy. New York, The American Textbook Publishers Institute, 1949. 139 p. $2.

These Are Your Children; How They Develop and How To Guide Them. By Gladys Gardner Jenkins, Helen Shacter, and William U. Bauer. Chicago, Ill., Scott, Foresman and Co., 1949. 192 p. Illus. $3.50.

Youth-Key to America's Future; an Annotated Bibliography. By M. M. Chambers and Elaine Exton. Washington, D. C., American Council on Education, 1949. 117 p. $2.

-Susan O. Futterer, Associate Librarian,
Federal Security Agency Library.

Selected Theses in Education

An Analysis of Principles Related to Vocational Guidance Practice. By Harry L. Coderre, jr. Doctor's, 1949. Harvard University. 309 p. ms.

Discusses the present and future status of voca-
tional guidance and the relationship between theory
and practice. Offers suggestions for the improve-
ment of vocational guidance practice.

Children's Experiences Prior to First
Grade and Success in Beginning Reading.
By Millie C. Almy. Doctor's, 1948.
Teachers College, Columbia University.
124 p.

Explores the possible relationships between suc-
cess in beginning reading and reading experiences
before the first grade, by studying 106 children in
five first grades in three schools in Elmont, N. Y.

A Determination of Fundamental Concepts of Healthful Living and Their Relative Importance for General Education at

Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C.:

Please send me SCHOOL LIFE for 1 year, and find $1 (check or money order) enclosed as payment.

School superintendents please note: On all orders for 100 copies or more to be sent to one address, there is a discount of 25 percent.

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U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1949

the Secondary Level. By Wesley M. Staton. Doctor's, 1948. Boston University. 103 p.ms.

Lists in tabular form the major and minor fundamental concepts of healthful living, and describes the techniques employed in selecting them.

The Effect of Reading Instruction on Achievement in Eighth Grade Social Studies. By Kathleen B. Rudolf. Doctor's, 1947. Teachers College, Columbia University. 72 p.

Analyzes data on 365 pupils in three Rochester, N. Y., public schools, divided into experimental and control groups.

An Evaluation of Instructional Film Usage in United States Navy Training Activities, Other Than Air, World War II with Implications for Post-War Civilian Education. By Julio L. Bortolazzo. Doctor's, 1949. Harvard University. 340 p. ms.

Suggests a plan for the improvement of educa tion on the college level through the use of audiovisual aids.

The Negro and Education in Missouri. By Ulysses S. Donaldson. Master's, 1948. Indiana State Teachers College. 77 p. ms.

Traces the history of Negro education in Missouri and the laws governing it.

Nursery School Administration in New Jersey. By William F. Lawrence. Doctor's, 1947. New York University. 195 p. ms.

Evaluates factors in the administration of 21 nursery schools in New Jersey which are operated by the boards of education of 12 communities. -Ruth G. Strawbridge, Bibliographer, Federal Security Agency Library.

SCHOOL LIFE, November 1949

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Published each month of the school year, October through June. To order SCHOOL LIFE send your check, money order, or a dollar bill (no stamps) with your subscription request to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C. SCHOOL LIFE service comes to you at a school-year subscription price of $1.00. Yearly fee to countries in which the frank of the U. S. Government is not recognized is $1.50. A discount of 25 percent is allowed on orders for 100 copies or more sent to one address within the United States. Printing of SCHOOL LIFE has been approved by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget.

OSCAR R. EWING...... Federal Security Administrator
EARL JAMES MCGRATH... Commissioner of Education

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Address all SCHOOL LIFE inquiries to the Chief, Information and Publications Service, Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington 25, D. C.

THE Office of Education was established in 1867 "for the purpose of collecting such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the sev eral States and Territories, and of diffusing such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems and methods of teaching, as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the

country."

Illiteracy in the Americas

by Homer Kempfer

Specialist for General Adult and Post-High School Education

T

WO-THIRDS OF THE PEOPLE of the world cannot read or write-in this enlightened age. Three-quarters of the world's population go to bed hungry every night-in this age of science. And every morning for breakfast we have 55,000 more mouths to feed than we had the day before. These are the latest estimates provided by the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

For 5 weeks, July 27 to September 3, the Inter-American Seminar on Illiteracy and Adult Education, meeting at Quitandinha Hotel north of Rio de Janeiro, focused on these and related problems. Unesco, the Organization of American States (the Pan American Union), and the government of Brazil cosponsored the seminar in which delegates from 19 of the 21 American Republics and observers from 5 other countries studied the problems involved under these heads:

1. Documentation and Statistics.
2. Organization of Campaigns Against
Illiteracy.

3. Objectives, Methods, and Materials
for Literacy Teaching.

4. The Primary School and Illiteracy.

Volume 32, Number 3

5. Illiteracy and the Education of Adults.

Accurate and up-to-date data are not available from many countries, but an estimated 70 million adults over 15 years of age in North, Central, and South America cannot read or write. This number continues to be fed from a pool of approximately 19 million children who are without schools, without teachers, without formal educational opportunity of any kind.

Where Are the Illiterates?

The United States has far too many2,838,000 native whites, Negroes, and foreign born-according to the latest estimate, which is undoubtedly low. Nearly 9 million adults have had only 4 or fewer years of schooling and are considered functionally illiterate. In World War II over 676,000 men between the ages of 18 and 37 were classified 4-F because they could not read and write at fourth-grade level.

Aside from the illiterates in the United States and a few in Canada the remainder in the Western Hemisphere are in Latin America. The following data and esti

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The chief cause of adult illiteracy, of course, is lack of primary schools even though the constitution or laws of every nation except those of the United States commit the government to a program of universal, free, and compulsory education. Causes of this lack are multiple: Poverty, sparsity of population, difficulties of communication and transportation, sanitary troubles especially in the tropics, indifference of the mother countries to education in the colonies, race and class prejudice, lack of interest of leaders and government in popular culture, lack of administrative continuity caused by frequent changes in government, and ignorant and superstitious populations. People unacquainted with the benefits of education have little interest in it.

More than a half million additional teachers would be needed to educate the 19 million children who now have no school. Reasons for the teacher shortage in Latin America are similar to those in the United States: Low pay, inept recruitment, low social prestige, lack of opportunity for advancement, hesitancy to go to or remain in isolated and rural areas, insufficient and inadequate training opportunities, and lack of professional ethics.

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Even where schools exist, absenteeism often is high because of poverty, child labor, ill health, indifference of uneducated parents to any form of culture, distance from school, inadequate buildings and equipment, sterile curriculum, and unenforced attendance laws. A Brazilian authority estimates that in rural areas 5 years of rollment are required to gain the equiva lent of 3 full years of primary schooling. To close off the stream of illiterate children growing into illiterate adults, the Seminar suggested that in every nation primary schools should be established and financed by the government so that a minimum of 3 years of schooling would be guaranteed every child.

What Is Being Done?

The United States is doing very little to reduce illiteracy among adults, although 351 school districts reported that they offered literacy classes in 1947-48 and 323 claimed to have classes in elementary education for adults.1 Probably no more than 200,000 adults are enrolled in literacy classes in the whole country.

1 Adult Education Activities of the Public Schools, 194748. Washington, Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Gov. ernment Printing Office. 15 cents. (Federal Security Agency, Office of Education Pamphlet No. 107.)

At least a dozen Latin American countries have started literacy campaigns during the last 10 years. Usually these campaigns are connected with primary schools and use primary teachers. Some campaigns are integral parts of life-improvement programs or general elementary education for adults. Special materials for adults are used in a few programs although children's materials are used in others with content having little practical application to daily life.

Methods almost without exception are based upon the alphabetic approach; results of research in the psychology of reading seem not yet to have permeated Latin America in any significant way. The Seminar, however, after due study and much debate, came out in favor of the sentence or global method of teaching reading. The first Basic Spanish Word List similar to that developed by Thorndike years ago in English is now being prepared by the University of Puerto Rico.

Benefits of most of the literacy campaigns are often hard to estimate. Meaningful statistics are scarce. Enrollment figures mean little because of many unspecified factors. People who achieve only a low level of literacy often lose their skills. in the absence of a variety of suitable reading materials. The campaign in Brazil enrolled 594,000 last year. Ecuador claims 140,000 adults were made literate in 6 years. Mexico has reached 1,700,000 since the each-one-teach-one campaign started. The Dominican Republic campaign claims to have benefited a quarter million during the last 8 years. In the United States only a few thousand adults earn their elementary school diploma each year.

Even with literacy campaigns in Latin America and a long tradition of public education in the United States, the illiteracy problem still faces us. Democracy depends upon educated people-in other parts of the world as well as at home. Every typical community in the United States of 500 people has enough illiterate adults in it to form a class. Many communities of the same size in parts of Latin America have too few educated adults in them to teach a class. We still have our own problems, but if we could share some of our technical skills, we could go far in helping our neighboring countries to raise their educational level. The very least we could do is to shut off the spigot which lets scores of thousands of functionally illiterate youth pour past the

compulsory attendance ages each year into adult life. That calls for more money for more teachers and buildings so that every child in the Americas can have his birthright of education.

Survey of Adult Education

WHAT KINDS of educational activities for adults and out-of-school youth are going on under public school auspices? Where is adult education best developed? Where adults are the activities held? How many are served?

These are the chief questions answered in Pamphlet No. 107 Adult Education Activi ties of the Public Schools, a report of a survey covering 1947-48 recently issued. The study was conducted by Homer Kempfer, Specialist for General Adult and PostHigh School Education, Office of Education, with assistance of a number of State education department officials.

Inquiry blanks were sent to districts in all communities having a population of 2,500 or above in 1940, and returns were received from 80.8 percent of them. In addition, 1,202 smaller districts thought to have adult education activities were queried.

An estimated 3,000,000 adults and outof-school youth were served by public. school programs during the year covered. Data broken down by States indicate that California, Wisconsin, and New York had most extensive programs in relation to population. California schools alone served nearly a million adults.

Over four-fifths of all school districts in communities of 2,500 or above returning the questionnaire claimed to provide education for adults, although the amount in many cases was small. Less than 1.5 percent of the total population was involved in adult education provided by the public schools in 1947-48. Small districts usually reported less adult activity.

Recreation, high-school subjects, arts and crafts, Americanization, physical education and fitness, and music education ranked high in the nonvocational fields. One out of eight schools reported having literacy classes for adults, whereas one-half of the evening schools offered high-school subjects. Advisory committees were connected with fewer than half of all the programs reported.

Copies of the survey report are available on request from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C., 15 cents.

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