yielded to their persuasions and her own long desire, and in accordance with arrangements for the trip made with the help of Mr. S. S. McClure, who was at the time in Rome, she arrived in New York on December 4.

A series of lectures in a number of our larger cities was arranged for Dr. Montessori by Mr. McClure, the proceeds to be used by her in the establishment of a permanent center, which is necessary if she is to carry her research work further. At the request of the association I was enabled to leave my school and to accompany Dr. Montessori as translator. The reception given Dr. Montessori is described by Marian Fairchild in an article in the January number of "Freedom for the Child," as follows:

Dr. Montessori's intuition that it was the psychological moment for coming to America has been amply justified; in every place where the lectures were given the hall was filled; everywhere there was the spontaneous rising of the whole audience to greet her. It was a great and inspiring sight-the welcome given this friend of little children, and it came not because she brings us something new, for truth is never new, but because what she brings is old, is something we have felt in our own hearts and minds, and she stood before us, the interpreter to us, of our own inspirations.

Of this welcome Dr. Montessori herself said:

Often as I faced one of those great audiences and caught the look of searching interest in the faces before me, I felt myself in the presence of something greater than my work. It seemed to me as if the spirit of the future came forward to meet me, to take my work into its hands and to carry my ideals forward to a beauty beyond the power of my own vision.

Dr. Montessori sailed for Italy December 24, and partly as a consequence of the renewed interest excited in the United States a new international class at Rome was announced. In this course, which lasted from the 23d of February to the 30th of June, 15 different countries were represented. In spite of the fact of a very late announcement, 45 American students were enrolled.

A history of the schools directed by students of Dr. Montessori would probably indicate more clearly than anything else the measure in which we are ready for the experimental, scientific attitude toward education. Almost inevitably there must be a compromise from two sides; compromise from the side of the teacher, who being herself the product of an earlier phase of educational progress, must in many cases pass through a species of intellectual rebirth in order to acquire the scientific spirit. To quote Dr. Montessori:

We wish to awaken in the mind and heart of the educator an interest in natural phenomena to such a degree that, loving nature, he shall understand the anxious and expectant attitude of one who has prepared an experiment and who awaits a revelation from it.

And again, endeavoring to make clear the fact that what she gives is a working basis, not a neat, compact, complete machine, she says:

To put it broadly, it is important to define the method (of research), the technique, and from its application to await the definite result, which must be gathered entirely from actual experience.

The degree of success, then, of a teacher using Dr. Montessori's method depends upon the extent to which she is prepared by temperament and experience to accept this scientific attitude. Certainly no one who comprehends the high task to which Dr. Montessori calls the teacher could possibly see in her "method" an immediate and simple substitute for existing methods.

In addition to the inevitable compromise of the ideal which must be made in greater or less degree by every teacher in this new system, there is the inevitable and perhaps more discouraging compromise forced upon the teacher in her endeavor to apply the "method of research" by parents and by the general public whose opportunity for a clear understanding has been, in most cases, more limited than that of the teacher. Very often this method, the mission of which is to reveal fresh facts and to build up a broader knowledge of the law whereby normal man develops, is interpreted as nothing more than a new and quicker way of obtaining the old timeworn results. In their view the developing life must express itself in terms of the tradition which custom has hallowed, or its progress is not approved, or perhaps it would be more fair to say, not recognized.

My own conclusion, after nearly five years of intensive study of the method and of broad association with the movement, is that the history of the Montessori movement in America is bound up with the social evolution of the country toward what Dr. Montessori describes as—

the reign of peace in which there will arise the possibility of developing all the forces of life (biological liberty) * * * *. In such a conception the individual organism depends more and more upon the social organism, just as the cells depend upon the multicellular organism; and we may almost conceive of a new living entity, a superorganism made up of humanity, but in which every component part is allowed the maximum expansion of its personal activity emancipated from all the obstacles that have been successively overcome. This conception of biological liberty, in other words the triumph of the free and peaceful development of life through the long series of more or less bitter struggles and defenses of life, constitutes, in my opinion, the very essence of the new pedagogy. And the evolution of modern thought and of the social environment can alone prepare for its advent at perhaps no distant date.

CHAPTER XVI.

EDUCATION FOR CHILD NURTURE AND HOME MAKING OUTSIDE OF SCHOOLS.

By MRS. FREDeric Schoff,

President National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations: Director Home Education Division, Bureau of Education.

CONTENTS.-Parents and educators-Organizations promoting education in child nurture-CooperationCare of children before school age-Education of parents in infant hygiene-Cooperative plan for education of mothers in infant hygiene-Hospitals educate mothers-Helps for parents in moral training of children under school age-Mothers' clubs in kindergartens and primary classes-What some high schools have done in promotion of better homes-How one school enlists outside help in teaching-Home education extension work of normal schools and colleges-Colleges giving oppor tunities for study of child nurture and home making by parents-Work of women's clubs in better home making-Educational work of settlements.

PARENTS AS EDUCATORS.

Thirteen million children under school age depend exclusively on parents for their education, guidance, and care; while twenty million children in schools are under parental guidance and control for nearly six-sevenths of the time.

The functions of the home in its educational capacity therefore exceed that of the school; yet parents in most instances are without specific knowledge of infant hygiene, child nurture, and home making; of the nature of children, or of the methods that will bring the highest development of body, mind, and spirit.

With the most vital educational work of the world to do, opportunity for study of child nurture, child nature, and home making is necessary, and should be made possible for every parent. Such facilities for study of the different phases of child nurture and home making must be available in every community and for all the parents of the community, to be of real service. Parents can not journey away from home for this purpose; they must have their opportunities where they live. In view of the far-reaching importance of parental educational functions, there has as yet been no adequate provision for meeting intelligently the questions that daily confront fathers and mothers.

An investigation of the educational opportunities now open has been made by the Home Education Division of the Bureau of Education. This investigation covers the educational work done outside

of schools and relates to children before school age and to school children outside of school hours. It covers the extension work for education in home making and child nurture offered to parents by universities, colleges, normal schools, high schools, grade schools, and kindergartens. It also covers the educational work for parents by Government departments, by State boards of health, and by various organizations, together with the cooperative efforts of agencies in this field of education.

ORGANIZATIONS PROMOTING EDUCATION IN CHILD NURTURE.

At the present time educational work in child nurture and home making for the parents of the United States is in its infancy. The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, which covers the various phases of parental education, was incorporated in 1897. The Home Education Division of the Bureau of Education was established in 1913. The State boards of health in some of the larger cities are giving education in health and hygiene. The settlements are reaching the people in congested districts. A few of the universities and colleges are doing extension work covering phases of home education. Some churches are giving attention to the necessity for education in child nurture. Kindergartners have always recognized the necessity for it by establishment of mothers clubs in connection with the kindergarten. The United States Public Health Service and various bureaus in the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Labor publish educational bulletins dealing with this subject. School superintendents and principals cooperate in establishing parentteacher associations. The Young Women's Christian Associations have worked for better homes, while visiting nurse associations and various local organizations have extended help to parents. The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations devised the plan of a mothers' circle or parent-teacher association in every church and every school, reaching mothers and fathers of children before school age as well as during and after school age. Upwards of 500,000 parents have been brought together for study by the work of the congress, while teachers everywhere testify to the increased efficiency of the school resulting from intelligent cooperation with the home. With national offices in Washington, and branches in nearly all States, with a definite plan of education and organization, with cooperation with educational specialists, Government departments, universities, colleges, schools, boards of health, and other organizations, a machine valuable for transmission of education to the remotest districts has been formed. The cooperation of the Home Education Division of the Bureau of Education and the

National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations has brought many thousand letters from parents and teachers asking advice and help.

COOPERATION.

The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations cooperates with the International Kindergarten Union and the National Kindergarten Association, which have done much for parental education. Mothers' clubs in connection with kindergartens, as well as the mothers' circles in connection with grade schools, are becoming a recognized auxiliary of every school. In these not only the material, but the spiritual problems of child life are dealt with.

It is recognized that the development of the inner life of the child, which rests principally with parents, is a department of study requiring far greater attention than it now receives; and that mistakes of parents through ignorance as to this inner life, as to the time and methods for its culture, cause results too serious to be ignored.

CARE OF CHILDREN BEFORE SCHOOL AGE-EDUCATION OF PARENTS IN

INFANT HYGIENE.

The problem of saving children's lives by education of mothers in infant hygiene was effectively worked out by Dr. Miele, Ghent, Belgium, in 1905-6, by a comprehensive system of crèches, infant hospitals, milk depots, and schools for mothers, where girls and women were so trained in child care that the death rate of infants fell from 350 per 1,000 to 40 per 1,000. Paris carried the help to mothers still further, adding to the teaching idea by establishing restaurants for nursing mothers, that by proper food they might retain the power to nurse their babies, multiplying the child's possibilities of life. London followed in 1907 by establishing 38 schools for mothers, with object lessons in the care of the baby.

COOPERATIVE PLAN FOR EDUCATION OF MOTHERS IN INFANT HYGIENE.

In 1908 the National Congress of Mothers conducted an experiment in one district of Philadelphia for educating mothers in care of the baby by which the death rate was reduced 58 per cent. The board of education gave the use of school buildings, the board of health furnished names of all mothers of babies in the district, and the Congress of Mothers provided trained nurses and physicians, conducting weekly classes for examination of infants and education as to their care. This form of education is available for mothers in every village and town; it becomes possible to invite every mother of a baby to a class for mothers meeting after school hours.