Board of Editors Editors of Special

N. W. WALKER THE Columns Editor

H. F. Muncn, Mathematics men ie” | HIGH SCHOOL | ct raster. scien - R. Mosusr a. M. R. Trasus P. C. Farrar, Englis A. M. Jorpan JOl RNAL A. K. Kine, History I. C. Gairrm J. M. Gwynn, Latin

Business Manager Huco Givuz, French

Published Eight Times a Year, October to May, by the University of North Carolina Press for the School of Education of The University of North Carolina. Subscription Price $1.50; clubs of five, $1.20 each; single copies 25c. Advertising Rates Furnished Upon Application.

Vol. XV MAY, 1932 No. 5

EDITORIAL COMMENT

THE LOYALTY AND DEVOTION OF TEACHERS

As we approach the end of this hectic year for the schools of the nation, it is but natural that we pause for a brief moment and attempt to look at the experiences it has brought and to view them, as well as the year’s disappointments and triumphs, in perspective. As we look back over the disillusionments, the retrenchments, the loss of high ground formerly held by the institutions devoted to the promotion of a finer and better cultural and civic life, we should feel like saying “vanity, vanity, all is vanity,” were it not for the spiritual achieve- ments that have come along with the evils. It is well, then, that we look for a moment at the brighter side of the picture, for it has a bright side, and take courage for the work of the year to follow. As we do this, three impressive facts stand out that are sufficient to give us courage and to renew our strength. These are: first, the good spirit and the heroic courage with which the teachers of the nation have “carried on” ; second, the fact that the youth of the land have demon- strated anew their zeal for the “larger view and the freer air” that can be guaranteed only through educational opportunity; and third, the faith that the people of the nation have in schools has not been shaken, notwithstanding the preachments of “bosses” to the contrary. These are evidences of spiritual values that outweigh any material losses that have ever been sustained or can be sustained. The teachers of the nation’s children have not soured, nor whined, nor shirked.

They have performed their duties in good cheer because they believe

in their calling which puts a higher value on young human life than upon anything else under the sun. They have met the disasters that have befallen them with smiling faces and with heroic courage. They may have lost faith in some of the political leaders, but not in the

196 THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL

children they teach. They have even exhibited for political bosses and captains of industry examples of courage, good will, and spiritual idealism that recognize no defeat. These teachers have even smiled in the face of disaster, jested about their misfortunes, and carried on! Witness the heroic zeal of teachers in the great city of Chicago, who have gone without pay for the great part of two years; the fine spirit of the Alabama teachers who drew only one month’s pay between July and December ; the ingenuity and the patriotism of the teachers of Arkansas who when the sources of school revenue dried up de- vised other ways of gaining a livelihood and carried on their school duties ; or the courage, the ingenuity, the idealism, the will to serve, of those of numerous places who, when the school money gave out, continued their schools without pay. The teachers of the nation have given the leaders in public life, and in private industry as well, a practical demonstration not only of their devotion to their calling, but also of the eternal truth that these deeper inward spiritual loyalties, sanctions, and ideals—call them what you will—are of greater con- sequence in our national and individual lives than are all the material things of this earth—important as material things are. The teachers of the nation have in this year of disaster pointed the way the nation and the state will have to follow to better times. All honor to the school teachers who have given the nation a lesson in loyalty and devotion it would do well to heed!

THE NATIONAL SURVEY OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

The National Survey of Secondary Education which has been in progress for about two years is now in its fourth stage, according to a recent progress report. The first stage was that of identifying the schools whose practices were to be studied; the second was that in- volving intensive study of promising innovations and forms of practice thus identified; visitation and personal conferences consti- tuted the third stage; and the fourth is that of tabulating and digest- ing the materials collected and putting them into form for the final report. Finally the report is to be published, according to present plans, in monograph form—one for each of the several projects or for two or more related projects. The total number of pages, Asso- ciate Director Leonard V. Koos estimates, will be about 3000.

When this report appears, we have every reason to believe it will constitute the most significant contribution to secondary education

that has been made in this generation. We may expect the recom-

THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL 197

mendation of sweeping changes in the organization and administra- tion of secondary schools, in the materials and methods of instruction, in the selection and training of teachers for secondary schools; in short, we may look for the recommendation of fundamental changes in the outlook and the practice of secondary education that will lead in the next quarter-century to a more basic reorganization than that which followed the report of the Committee of Ten in 1893 or the report of the Commission on Reorganization in the second decade of the present century. The report will be awaited with keen interest by educators the country over.

WINNERS IN HIGH SCHOOL CONTESTS

The winners in the various high school contests conducted by the Extension Division of the University in collaboration with the several departments of the University, the High School Debating Union, and the North Carolina High School Athletic Association are given below. The contest in Mathematics was held too late for the winner to be announced in this issue. The winning schools in the several contests of the year are as follows:

Class A Conferences high school football contest of 1931: Durham High School

Class B high school football contest of 1931: Reidsville High School

Debating contest of 1932: Curry High School of Greensboro

Latin contest of 1932: Roxboro High School—R. E. Long

French contest of 1932: Tie for first place between papers submitted by Josephine Perry of Louisburg and Margaret Queen of the Sylva High School

Spanish contest of 1932: Gastonia High School. Marguerite Zeigler

Class A Conferences high school basketball contest of 1932: Charlotte High School

Class B high school basketball contest of 1932: Trenton High School

The interscholastic track meet of 1932: High Point High School

Interscholastic tennis tournament of 1932: Singles, High Point. Doubles, Washington

High School golf tournament of 1932: Winston-Salem High School, winners of both individual and team honors

Boxing tournament of 1932: Wilson High School

Wrestling tournament of 1932: Durham High School

CURRY HIGH SCHOOL WINS DEBATE

The twentieth annual high school debate for the Aycock Memorial Cup which was held in Memorial Hall at Chapel Hill, April 15th, was

198 THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL

won by Curry High School of Greensboro. The debate was one of the ablest ever staged in the series. The query was, Resolved: That the United States Should Adopt a System of Compulsory Unemploy- ment Insurance. The affirmative was ably upheld by Miss Louise Weyher and Mr. Ralph Burgin representing the Kinston High School. The negative was upheld by Miss Katherine Keister and Mr. Nash Herndon representing Curry High School of Greensboro. The debaters on the negative gave as fine an exhibition of debating as has ever been heard in the twenty years these debates have been running, and they won the judges’ decision which was unanimous. Both Kinston and Greensboro are entitled to congratulations for the

superb performances of the young people who represented them on this occasion.

TEXT-BOOK COMMISSION

A new text-book commission was recently appointed by Governor Gardner “to investigate the cost and to propose a plan for the adoption of school text- books” under an act of the legislature of 1931. Dr. A. T. Allen, State Super- intendent of Public Instruction, is ex-officio chairman of the commission. The members of the commission are: Robert Lassiter, of Oxford; Julian Miller, of Charlotte; Leslie Weill, of Goldsboro; E. J. Coltrane, of Salisbury; E. E. Sams, of Kinston. The commission will present its report by November ], just prior to the 1933 meeting of the General Assembly.

This commission will, no doubt, consider—be forced to consider—the pro- posal to have the text-books published by the state—a proposal that if adopted will give the schools another set-back. Even a superficial knowledge of the experiences of other states is sufficient to convince any right-thinking person that not only is this plan unsound from the standpoint of education but it also is wasteful and therefore unsound from the standpoint of economics.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH

If in these times of economic depression our public schools and institutions of higher learning are further reduced, it will mean another generation of in- tellectual poverty and moral stultification for the South, and possible for Amer- ican civilization. Institutions of higher education of the traditional sort are everywhere conservative, if indeed schools of all sorts are not. The gains in liberalism and in intellectual outlook are always slow, painfully slow, and are made as a rule by younger scholars who have become impatient with the reign of tradition. There have been encouraging signs of an intelligent liberalism in some of the institutions of the South, the stronghold of the classical tradi- tion, but these gains are now threatened with annihilation. As institutions are reduced from positions of academic respectability to penury, the younger men of promise and vision will move on to larger opportunities in other sections, and our institutions will settle back into their old traditional ways of a static life and of intellectual complacency. The lecture method of instruction will replace laboratory methods, indoctrination will supplant inquiry, experimentation and research, and the result will be cheap education and a static condition of life instead of a dynamic one that holds promise and hopefulness of outlook. When this happens the wreckage will be complete !

THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL 199

EDUCATION, A FUNDAMENTAL OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP*

M. A. WricHT Attorney at Law, Conway, S. C.

WOULD NOT be bold enough to make the broad assertion that I education is fundamental to good citizenship. There is education and education. There are various schools of thought touching the subject, having different points of view and defining education in radically different terms. It may well be open to serious debate as to whether or not education defined in certain terms is conducive to good citizenship. For instance, so-called finishing schools in which young ladies are taught the graces of polite society and in which the caste system of society is stressed may handicap one for normal living in a country devoted to democratic ideals. Few would contend that such education is fundamental to good citizenship.

It is almost compulsory, therefore, that in discussing the subject assigned some definition of education must be attempted. Probably nothing but the rashness of the layman would permit the attempt before a company of teachers. But one would seem to be on safe ground in defining education in its primary, original meaning—a leading out of the individual, a stirring and developing of his personal capacities so that they will properly connect with the activities of others about him. Education, so conceived, takes into account the varying aptitudes of the individual and the age and society in which he is to live. The question then becomes one of whether or not a process adapted to stir the hidden powers, the intellectual curiosity of the individual and to introduce him, as it were, to the society of which he is to become a part is fundamental to good citizenship.

What constitutes good citizenship may be equally subject to definition. “Goodness” and “badness” are terms which are fre- quently and loosely used. They imply that criteria exist by which the institution or matter under discussion may be tested, but it is far easier to use the terms than to state accurately what these criteria are. But certainly in this discussion it is impossible to evade the issue. If we are to determine whether or not education is essential to good citizenship we must determine in what good citizenship consists, what are the earmarks of a good citizen. Each individual will have his own views and will reach his definition in terms of his own experience.

* An address before the annual meeting of South Carolina State Teachers Association which was held at Columbia in March.

200 THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL

But there must be certain basic principles on which all may agree, a kind of lowest common denominator of good citizenship which will be found in the views of practically all rational men.

I take it that there will be no dissent—at least from this audience —on the proposition that a good citizen is an informed citizen. Infor- mation itself is a relative term but the irreducible minimum of information which one should have would seem to embrace some familiarity with the factors which affect his physical, mental and moral well being. His life will be spent in coping with such factors. If he is to cope with them he must know them, their history, their causes and how they operate on his life. It is well enough to preserve for the State a strong sentimental attachment; no one may be ex- pected to do much of permanent good for the State in whom that attachment is not dominant. But if one wishes to direct his efforts with intelligence, if he wishes to focus his energies on points where his energies are needed. If he wishes to aim rather than to shoot blindly, a purely sentimental attachment for the State is not sufficient. Nor is a Pollyanna philosophy adequate mental preparation.

It may be interesting to imagine as to what use is made in South Carolina of the instruments of public information. Dr. S. H. Hobbs of the University of North Carolina in his recent book “North Caro- lina: Economic and Social,” assumes—I think logically—that public libraries, newspapers, magazines and radios are the instruments by which information is conveyed to the people. To what extent are such utilities used in this State? There are thirty volumes in the public libraries of this State per hundred inhabitants as against an average for the country of 126, giving this State 47th rank. The daily newspapers have 97 subscribers out of every thousand inhabitants as against 269 per thousand for the country as a whole, giving this State 48th rank. Dr. Hobbs examined the circulation figures of 47 national magazines and found that there was one reader for each eleven in- habitants in South Carolina as against one reader for each four inhabitants for the entire country, giving this State bottom rank among the States. He found that there were 9.9 families per radio in South Carolina as compared with 2.3 families per radio for the nation, giving this State bottom rank. Libraries, newspapers, mag- azines, radios, are tools of popular culture, the means of general information.

3ut the pertinent question for us here is whether or not there is any relationship between the extent of use of such agencies and education. If there is—if education whets the appetite of the

THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL 201

educated for such information, not merely gives him information but makes him determined to secure it for himself—then it has helped to produce citizens who possess at least one attribute of good citizenship. Let us see statistically if there is such relationship between education and popular information.

Education, of course, is the foe of illiteracy. Illiteracy is a very poor measuring rod of the extent to which education is general. But it at least offers some index. The five states having the worst rating from the standpoint of illiteracy are: Alabama, Mississippi, New Mexico, Louisiana and South Carolina. Three of those States are among the five having the lowest rating in number of volumes in public libraries per capita. Two of them are among the five having the smallest newspaper circulation per capita. Three of them are among the five having the smallest magazine circulation per capita. And three are among the five making least use of the radio. Putting all of the States of the union in parallel columns one is struck with the manner in which their educational status corresponds with their status in use of books, newspapers, magazines, the radio. There emerges from consideration of the figures a consciousness that educa- tion in even the most rudimentary form tends, at least, to quicken one’s passion to learn the facts of the world in which he lives. In other words, it tends to produce informed citizens.

We would probably have a better autocracy, a better monarchy where the people were fully and widely informed. But the reasons for an informed public are not nearly so compelling or acute in governments of that type where the rulers are a small and select class. Even there education for the rulers is imperative. But under our theory of government the rulers are the people and you can’t perma- nently have a democracy without the general education of the people. The whole theory which underlies democracy is that an informed public opinion finds expression at the ballot box. In the choice of officers and in decisions as to public policy the ballot is a dangerous thing when scratched by the hand of ignorance. The vote of the most ignorant and vicious is fully as potent mathematically as the vote of the most learned and upright. Only by the maintenance of a high level of intelligence in those who wield the ballot may the institutions of representative government be preserved. To put it on no other basis than that of self preservation, a democracy must educate.

Thomas Macauley was a severe critic of democratic ideals. Writ- ing in the year 1857 to a Mr. Randall of Virginia he said:

THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL

“The day will come when, in the State of New York, a multitude of people, none of whom has had more than half a breakfast, or expects to have more than half a dinner, will choose a legislature. Is it possible to doubt what sort of legis- lature will be chosen? On the one side is a statesman teaching patience, respect for vested rights, strict observance of public faith. On the other is a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of capitalists and usurists, and asking why anybody should be pemitted to drink champagne and ride in a carriage, while thousands of honest folk are in want of necessaries. Which of the two candidates is likely to be preferred?”

Any citizen of a democracy may with profit ponder these solemn words of Macauley. The event which he predicts is certain if an ignorant electorate be pre-supposed. The signs are not lacking. A South Carolina congressman recently addressed a group of veterans. No appeal was made to any sense of duty toward the commonwealth, no pointing out of a plain, hard path toward a better State, but his hearers were informed that a blank check on the treasury had been signed for their benefit and that it was up to them to specify the amount which should be written into the check, that all they had to do was to organize and press their demands. The applause with which he was greeted was ominous. If democracy is to be preserved, the process of education must be vastly accelerated.

I don’t necessarily mean to preserve it as is. Indeed the argument for education is greatly strengthened if we assume that democracy

has its imperfections and that the manner in which it functions must

be greatly modified. The ignorant man knows of no method to bring

about change except by public disorder; the method of the educated is to produce social change by orderly processes which preserve that part of the old order which is worth preserving.

The road away from revolution leads by the school house.

That suggests the thought that an educated citizenship is never a complacent citizenship, never completely satisfied with the existing status. It is not wedded to an existing institution merely because it is old; it is not afraid of innovation merely because it is new. It has no fear of experiment. I suppose that the reason for such a mental attitude is that one who is educated is familiar with the fact that many institutions and beliefs which were deeply rooted in human affections for long ages have through the years been tossed aside as outworn with profit to an advancing civilization. The Divine Right of Kings held millions in its thralldom for centuries. Slavery was thought of as the keystone of a cultured society. These and a host of other beliefs and institutions which held long sway over men’s minds have

THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL 203

perished from the earth. One might say that the world is a cemetery for outworn beliefs.

One aware of that fact may well be expected to feel that any present day institution or belief is subject to critical analysis. By such minds the institution is approached objectively and tested on its merits. Its claims for survival must be based on demonstrated use- fulness, rather than on sentimental or historical grounds. In such an atmosphere of free examination of public institutions there will be no attachment to a political party because such attachment is in accord with prevailing sentiment; no alignment with any religious organiza- tion because of family associations ; no membership in a club or lodge because it is fashionable to belong, and in fact no securing of an education merely because it is customary in one’s group.

It is as important for a democratic society to know what to give up as it is for it to know what to retain. A policy of wise abandon- ment, of discreet retreat from ancient positions, of cession and mod- ification, is essential for survival. Democracy needs the constant fertilization of ideas which come from the unafraid. For such ideas it must turn to the educated. Only the educated are familiar with the historical spectacle and the technique of orderly change. Education is insurance against revolution, for if men may secure the changes which they seek by orderly processes there is no occasion to resort to force.

Shakespeare knew the human heart. You will recall in Hamlet that when a small company huddled in the castle gibbering with fear as the ghost appeared, Marcellus whispered to Horatio: “Thou art a scholar, Horatio. Speak to it.” We need scholars to speak to our ghosts. In an age when men gibber with fear at Communism, pac- ifism, labor, foreign entanglements, paternalism, socialism, we need men who face them unafraid, who are not afraid of names and terms but who are concerned only with the ideas inseparably linked with such names and terms. In an atmosphere dominated by rational and informed minds ways and means are found for banishing fears which have no basis in fact and for adopting as a part of public policy those things essential to public welfare. Information and reason are the vital forces of a democracy.

I realize that perhaps I have unduly stressed the need of the im- pulse of such free and inquiring minds in government. It is needed everywhere, in every phase and department of life. The thing which gives society vitality and permanence is that it constantly renews

itself. Inanimate objects do not have this power of constant renewal

204 _ THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL

and therein lies the chief difference between the living and the in- sensate. The one thing which is certain about society is that it is subject to change. From what quarter shall such changes come? To whom shall the impetus of change be committed? In agriculture, shall the science of the plant breeder be applied, or shall we continue to scratch the earth with wooden plows drawn by oxen? In trade shall the ancient doctrine of caveat emptor or the view that a fair price warrants a fair commodity prevail? In theology shall medieval superstition or a rational conception of man’s relations with the divine dominate our minds? In international relations shall the ancient view of asserting national interests by the sword or the larger view that intelligent self-interest dictates a proper concern for the welfare of all mankind hold sway? The uneducated are familiar alone with the ancient and existing order and to it they cling with natural tenacity. The scholarly mind is to a great extent loosed from such moorings. The spirit of the scholar prompts him to challenge and to explore.

Do we need more or less of that spirit in South Carolina? Do we need more or less of a real capacity to discriminate between the spurious and the genuine menaces to the State? Do we need more or less of capacity to bring perspective to bear on current problems? Do we need more or less of ability abroad in the State to analyze and constructively to criticize the established order? Do we need more or less of public capacity to determine what is worth salvaging and to adopt orderly means for relinquishing what must be abandoned? The State as a means of self-preservation must make education vastly more general and more thorough. To curtail now on education is to throw the pilot overboard in a storm.

The educated man is not merely informed and reasoning. He is self disciplined. Education takes into account the fact that one is to live in association with others. Such normal association may only proceed on a basis of mutual regard for each other’s rights. Such regard imposes restraints on one’s conduct, where his conduct brings him into conflict with another’s proper activities. The instrument for establishing such rights is the law. Of course, there are a vast num- ber of mutual rights and responsibilities which the law does not touch but one’s attitude toward the law would probably be fairly illustrative of his attitude in the far larger field where the law does not speak.

Of course, we are familiar with the occasional educated criminal. But, happily, there can be no room for doubt that the tendency of education is toward respect for law. For the really educated man the law is not necessary to enforce regard for the rights of another.

THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL 205

That regard springs from a discipline from within, not imposed by statute or order of court. But it may be illuminating to consider to what extent education and respect for law go hand in hand.

Dr. Hobbs found that of the ten States having the lowest rank in education, considering a great many other factors than mere illiteracy, seven had the lowest ratings from the standpoint of viola- tions of law. Of the ten States having the highest ratings in educa- tion four had the highest ratings in observance of law. Parallel columns of the States show that, in the main, the educational status and the status from the viewpoint of law observance were strikingly alike. I realize that it does not necessarily follow that the relationship is that of cause and effect—they may both be due to common cause— but the relationship is at least significant.

During the time that the indeterminate sentence act was of force in this State, the records showed that the great majority of offenders haled into our courts had been to school less than three years.

Without attempting here and now to establish the hypothesis— which I think tenable—that there is a relationship of cause and effect between education and law observance, it would seem to be sufficient for our present purposes to point out that, by and large, the educated are not the criminals. That would seem to be sufficient to indicate the State’s policy toward education. That is, unless South Carolina is satisfied with its criminal record.

In the main that record is well known and it is disagreeable to refer to it. But I do not think any occasion should be lost to press it on our attention. There ought to be no complacency in the face of the fact that an average of 15 out of every 100,000 of our people are done to death each year, giving this State 37th rank among the States. One is inclined to think of the high homicide rate of Illinois and New York with their gang activities. Yet the South Carolinian’s chance of escaping death by murder is improved almost one-half if he should remove to Illinois, and almost two-thirds if he should remove to New York. In the State of Maine only one person out of 100,000

is slain as compared with our 15. But we are concerned not only

with our relative status as compared with other states; we are con- cerned with the trend in this State. According to figures compiled by Dr. G. Croft Williams of the University of South Carolina in his informing book “Social Problems of South Carolina,” the number of homicides increased from 139 in 1915 to 206 in 1927, the year of publication, a gain of approximately 50 per cent. Meanwhile the population was almost static.

206 THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL

[ do not know what inference may be drawn from the figures, but it seems to me amusing if not significant that South Carolina, which ranks 42nd among the States in its lynching record and 37th in its homicide record, ranks second in its record of suicides. We say that a cheap valuation is placed on human life in South Carolina. It seems to be the other fellow’s life. We hang on to our own.

Of course, it is merely begging the question to say that crime is due to disrespect for law. But I do think it pertinent to remark that it is difficult to have respect for an abstract thing and that the law is an abstraction. The law must be symbolized. Since it operates through human agents, that symbol must have a human form. When the newsboys in the city break up their crap game on the approach of the policeman with the cry “Here comes the law,” they give proof of the possession of a very practical sense.

For all of us the policeman is the law. The British have realized this for years and have put their uniform and buttons on their bobby —but no gun in his hand—only after they have convinced themselves that he is fit to represent in his person the majesty of the law. So long as we choose policemen and sheriffs and deputies and rural policemen and game wardens and all the other officers who supervise our conduct in the cavalier and indifferent and political manner now pursued we will have no genuine respect for law. So long as we try to enforce the law on the antiquated theory that each county has exclusive jurisdiction in the detection of crime and apprehension of the criminal and that the sheriff’s authority stops at the county line, we shall have no genuine respect for law. For my part, I should like to have the public realize that one violates not the law of the county but the law of the State ; hence that the detection and punishment of the criminal are matters of State-wide rather than local concern and hence that a State police system divorced from politics so far as is humanly possible should be established. This seems to me to be the first step in creating respect for law.

There must be respect for the man who makes the laws. We are apt to think lightly of a statute which limits our conduct if we have no respect for the judgment of the legislators who wrote it and placed it on the books. So when we vote for a member of the house or senate because he is a good fellow, or his father was a Confederate veteran, or he belongs to our lodge, or he needs the job or any other reason which a whimsical voter may give for his vote, we ought to admit ourselves estopped to complain that the public seems to have but little respect for his handiwork as reflected in the statute books.

THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL 207

There must be respect for the man who interprets the laws. Fortunately on this score there has been but little cause to complain in South Carolina. But one may with some hesitation remark a tendency in some quarters to seek elevation to the bench, a tendency which is inconsistent with the highest traditions of judicial office. One may—again with more hesitation—remark a tendency in some quarters to use membership in the legislature as a stepping stone to the bench. I know of nothing calculated more quickly to undermine confidence in judicial integrity than that one should be so lacking in a sense of propriety as to accept election to the bench at the hands of a body of which he is a member.

Respect for the law depends on respect for the bodily symbols of the law.

But what has education to do with all this? It assists in develop- ing capacity to discriminate between rival claimants for office, to puncture the pretensions of the demagogue. Who may doubt that the tone of political discussions in this State would be considerably elevated if there were an appreciable elevation of the standards of public education? Insofar as a change in governmental form or system is indicated such changes may be secured with less wrench and less disorder if accomplished by an educated citizenship.

Education of the type we have in mind tends to produce citizens who have intellectual curiosity as to the facts of the world about them —informed citizens. It tends to produce citizens of a bend of mind which realizes that the existing status cannot be maintained and seeks by orderly means to improve that status—progressive citizens. It tends to produce citizens who recognize the necessity for reasonable restraints on conduct imposed by conditions of civilized society—law abiding citizens. What the schools are producing is not graduates but citizens.

The disinterested historian of the future, surveying the American scene of 1932, will reach his conclusions as to the manner of people who lived in that day largely by examining tables of figures, the relevant statistics. The figures will be cold and detached. They will show men in the mass, men per capita, the average man. The excep- tional man and the exceptional group will be lost in the anonymity of the whole.

3ut the entire hope for improvement of our position lies precisely in such exceptional man or group, content to be anonymous, but not content to be average or below. Each year thousands of young men

and women go out from our schools to become part of the life of our

208 THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL

State. They go out in the full tide of their powers, eager, bold, ad- venturous. They enter into a society that is old and well established but one in which by no means all the large tasks have been accom- plished. Here is room and sway for the amplitude of their powers.

We hear it said by alarmed and well meaning people that there is a spirit of unrest abroad and we hear the fear expressed that those who go out from our colleges will not conform to standards of con- duct and thinking which their elders have established. I entertain no such apprehension. My fear is that they will conform. But my hope for the future of the State is that they will enter into life as grim realists insofar as facing its actual condition is concerned, but with the conviction that the development of their own personalities into the largest possible growth demands that they bring their ardent spirits to bear in remaking the world to their needs.

THE NEW TYPE MUSEUM

Joun W. Taytor Needham B. Broughton High School, Raleigh, N. C.

VISIT to most of the museums in the United States at pres-

ent puts one in the frame of mind which is not conducive to active learning. Walking past row upon row of glass cases and cel- luloid or cellophane covers, generally labeled with “Don’ts” as far as handling and manipulating are concerned, does not, as a rule, stim- ulate one to learning. The very atmosphere of the average museum inhibits the natural desires of the child for activity.

It is the feeling of the writer, that exhibits on materials from past civilizations are not the only things which one might go to museums to learn about. Is there any great reason why a museum should not include living collections? Our discussion then becomes a question

,

of “dead vs. living’ museum collections.

Is there any reason why a museum should not be a place of activ- itv? Is there any ground for the museum not assuming the character of a laboratory? Of a class room in which activity instruction may take place ?

Should not the collections of the museum be (1) interesting, (2) living, and (3) provide opportunity for active learning? Should there not, in addition, be opportunity provided for classes to spend half days among the exhibits, much as they would in their own school rooms? Should not all this take place in an atmosphere which pro-

THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL 209

motes learning rather than causing inhibitions in the visitors, such as are natural outgrowths of whispered conversations by musty curators and frequent reminders, in the form of placards, requesting that ma- terials be “not handled”?

One may go to Germany and prove these points. There are three museums in that country which are built upon these bases: the Fed- eral Museum for Sociology and Economics in Diisseldorf, The Deutsches Museum in Munich, the Hygiene Museum in Dresden.

The writer’s experience with a group of American children of junior high school age, and their visits to these three institutions, will prove of interest. The following description was written by a four- teen year old girl of her visit to the Economic Museum in Disseldorf :

“After having entered the section devoted to the geography and population of Germany and the world, we came upon a large revolv- ing model of the earth, which indicated the density of the world’s population by means of little wooden blocks. The blocks represented the numbers with respect to population, while differences in their color showed the racial distribution.

In this same section we came upon such striking facts as: There lives upon one square kilometer on the average in Europe 43; Asia 22.7; America 5; Africa 4.3; Australia 1. Near this chart was an interesting little working model with a series of levers, which a vis- itor in the museum could operate. A flat surface representing a square kilometer seemed covered with little trap doors. A push on a lever marked ‘At the Time of the Birth of Christ’ caused a few little men to appear from beneath the trap doors. When these figures had been counted one could, for example, push a lever marked 1300 and add the proper number of figures to show the increase in the density of the world’s population. There were levers enough to bring the number up to the present time.

While in this same section we were astonished by the ringing of a gong at regular intervals. We found that there was an apparatus much like a miniature stage with a revolving floor. On this turn- table there appeared a figure which represented Birth, a young couple to represent Marriage, and Father Time and his scythe to represent Death. After a closer look we discovered that the interval between the appearance on the stage of each little figure indicated on the average just how often birth, marriage, and death occurred in the world. These intervals were one birth every forty-eight seconds, one marriage every fifty-four seconds, and one death every eighty- two seconds. We saw very easily that the population of the world must still be increasing.

Another interesting exhibit in the section on Population showed the average number of people of different ages which one found in the German nation. It was astonishing to notice that there was such a striking difference between the number of German men which are now between the ages of 35 and 45 and the normal number in a pop-

210 THE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL

ulation group of a thousand. We also saw another effect of the War in this exhibit. It was the small number of children between the ages of 12 and 15.

We left this section with the feeling that we had a better appre- ciation of the population of Germany as compared to that of the rest of the world.”

On an island in the River Inn in the heart of the city of Munich is situated possibly the most wonderful museum in the world. It is a technical museum, basically. The collections are devoted principally to the portrayal of the things which man has invented and evolved which were necessary to his progress, comfort, and happiness in the world. There are departments devoted to transportation, printing, clothing, housing, lighting, heating, the development of power and almost countless other things.

To illustrate specifically, let us read again what a thirteen-year-

old child had to say of the section devoted to transportation :

“We began with Land Transportation. We found ourselves first among models and pictures showing the forms that man has used down through the ages in getting about on land; for example, models of sledges, sedan chairs, rickshaws, stage coaches, the ‘Pony Express,’ and the like. A particularly interesting group was devoted to the evolution of the bicycle. From the oldest three-wheeled velocipede, through the four-seated tandem, down to the most modern motor- cycle, we tried them all.

Next we found ourselves surrounded by models and specimens of the old horseless carriages. Beginning with the first real automobile —invented by Benz in 1886—including models of the first Stude- baker and Ford, we came down to the most modern stream-lined motor cars of the type with engines both front and rear.

The history of railroading next occupied our attention. There was a copy of ‘Puffing Billy,’ which was used in an English coal mine. Many passenger coaches and freight cars of the period of the latter part of the last century and the first decades of the present one were represented. The present-day ‘trains de luxe’ and the elaborate Pullman cars of America are both present in life-sized proportions. An interesting section of this same exhibit was devoted to funicular railroads, which ascend many of the German and European mountain peaks. A model of the Jungfrau Railroad and the Bavarian Zug- spitze line furnished