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River, and Taunton, Mass., are changing from nine grades to eight. Fully one-half of the cities in Massachusetts had made the change prior to the present year. Holyoke, Mass., is considering the change, including the adoption of the 6-3-3 plan, with manual training in grades 7, 8, and 9 on a practical arts basis. Springfield, Mass., has substituted algebra and commercial arithmetic for the review arithmetic formerly required of all pupils in the ninth grade, the pupils choosing the one or the other study in accordance with their highschool aims and receiving high-school credit for the work. Especially able pupils are allowed to begin German in the eighth grade, receiving high-school credit in this subject also. Thus the ninth grade has in part been absorbed into the high school and seems likely at no distant day to disappear. New England is averse to radical changes, but nevertheless the section is plainly moving toward the general adoption of the new grouping of grades known as the 6-3-3 plan. Somerville, Mass., has recently organized one of its largest elementary schools with differentiated courses above the sixth grade, and Boston has begun the organization of junior high schools on an extensive scale. It may be questioned, however, whether the 6-3-3 plan, though undoubtedly growing in popularity, will gain possession of the entire field. For several years the Gary plan has been attracting attention. Its limited adoption in New York City has intensified interest, and school men everywhere are giving it serious study. As carried out in its home city, the most marked contrast to the 6-3-3 plan which the Gary plan presents is that of keeping children of all ages together. In the 6-3-3 plan we have three distinct groups; the primary pupils are handled as one unit, the intermediate or junior high-school pupils as another unit in a separate central building, while the senior high school represents another distinct organization. An advantage is claimed for this segregation on psychological grounds. It is held that there is an advantage in separating young children, especially in their play, from adolescents. The other arguments for segregation deal with economy and efficiency, one prominent argument being based on the need of bringing together a large number of children of like attainments to facilitate departmental instruction and differentiated courses in intermediate grades. In the Gary plan, on the contrary, it is thought important educationally that the younger children see the older children at work in the shops and laboratories, and that the older children help the younger children with their tasks. Accordingly, all the grades from the kindergarten to the end of the high school are under one roof, and definitely arranged observation periods are planned in which the younger pupils see the older pupils engaged in all the variety of industrial work of the course. Experience is said to justify the belief that with the opportunity to see interesting activities in progress in which they are later to participate the younger

children gain an interest in school of great holding power, and that the beneficial effect of this is most noticeable in grades where attendance usually decreases so radically.'

In New York the Gary plan is being applied in two grades only-the seventh and eighth-in boys' classes in six large elementary schools. The advantages sought appear to be economy in the use of available space and a practicable method of conducting prevocational training for the industries. By using certain classrooms for two different sets of pupils other classrooms may be taken for shops, and thus even in congested sections of the metropolis every boy of these two grades may have a try-out experience in some one line of industry. In Gary a boy is not limited to experience in a single trade; he becomes familiar with a wide range of materials and processes. Kansas City is conducting one school on the Gary plan. Supt. Charles S. Clark, of Somerville, Mass., after visiting New York City, Gary, and several smaller places in which the Gary plan is being tried, has recommended that the alternating plan be employed in Somerville to relieve the overcrowding that exists in several parts of the city.

THE VOCATIONAL TREND IN EDUCATION.2

The three most prominent topics in city school reports of the present year relate to definiteness in supervision, changes in grade organization, and vocational training. Nearly every report available either mentions vocational training as already established or in the organization stage. The ordinary manual training courses seem no longer to satisfy conditions. They are giving place to courses called industrial, vocational, or, in the case of the earlier courses, prevocational. It might seem that the movement toward fitting boys and girls in school for practical efficiency in their life work was fast superseding harmonious development through liberal education, if we did not remember that the older so-called liberal form of education is so strongly intrenched as to call for no advocacy at the present time. The present concern seems to be for the large number of boys and girls who under the old régime found little of value in the curriculum because they could not or did not remain in school long enough to profit by it. It is not proposed to make artisans of those who by nature and circumstance tend to go in another direction. The literary curriculum is vocational for them, and it is still open to them. The intention of differentiated courses after the sixth grade seems to be to organize education on a vocational basis not for the few, as formerly, but for all. The advocates of early vocational education have no fear that their propaganda will endanger liberal education. On the contrary, they hold that the reorganization of education on a

1 For a description of the Gary plan, see Bulletin of the Bureau of Education, 1914, No. 18.
2 See also ch. 11, p. 239, of this report.

vocational basis will give motive for extended education, and thus provide time and opportunity for liberal culture. They advocate the education of the individual along the lines of his greatest endowment and as broadly as possible. The antiquated liberal plan assumed that those who found books too much for them would drift into the ranks of the manual workers and get on as best they could there. In abandoning this view it is not necessary to go to the opposite extreme, namely, that pupils should be tested and all who prove to be skillful with their hands be trained for the trades and those who show no aptitude for handwork be left to drift into the professions. The one test is no more decisive than the other. Of the two, however, the second is less fraught with danger, for in the shop as well as in the classroom there is opportunity to discover pupils who are fitted to deal with theories and general applications of ideas.

OTHER TOPICS EMPHASIZED IN THE ANNUAL REPORTS.

Agriculture and gardening.—It is interesting to note that instruction in agriculture is not limited to the high schools of rural communities. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has a school farm on which experimental work is carried on as a part of the high-school work, with the cooperation of the State agricultural college at Ames. Indianapolis has a farm of 76 acres, with orchard, tillable fields, and forest which is utilized by classes of the Technical High School. Cleveland, Ohio, is another large city in which success has been achieved in the teaching of agriculture. Kingston, N. Y., high school has an 8-acre field, part of which will be used for instruction in intensive agriculture; in San Jose, Cal., an orchard and farm have been rented, where students can supplement their laboratory work with practical work in the field. Duluth reports an agricultural course in the high school which is valuable and popular. Decatur, Youngstown, and Oklahoma City are considering the purchase of school farms. St. Louis has placed all its school gardens under the care of a supervisor. In Elmira, N. Y., achievement clubs (for city and county) are carried on with the cooperation of Cornell University and the United States Department of Agriculture. They encourage achievement in agriculture and domestic work.

Architecture. The 1-story school building already well known in California and the South is finding favor in colder climates. The Madison, Wis., school report refers with approval to the Elwanger and Barry School, of Rochester, N. Y., and reproduces the floor plans of the school, together with the architect's description of the building. Two more 1-story schools are now under construction in Rochester on the same plan. Some of the advantages claimed for a school building of this type are: The reduced cost of construction; the elasticity of plan that provides rooms varying in size for the work in

special lines without disturbing the school unit on which the building is planned; the method of overhead lighting; the independent exits for each schoolroom; the independence and freedom of different departments in the way of management; and the possibility of constructing different portions at different times, and of making additions at any time, without undue expense and without interfering with the unity of the structure. During the brief time the 1-story school has been in use in Rochester it has been found no more expensive to maintain nor more difficult to administer than other buildings. Nor has any more discomfort been experienced on account of summer heat. It has been as easy to maintain an even temperature in the 1-story school as in other buildings. The type of roof used is the saw tooth. The light comes in from the north and enters the rooms in such a manner that there are no shadows. The superintendent reports that experience in Rochester is so favorable that they will go on building 1-story schools wherever practicable.

Attendance laws.-Cities in Ohio and Massachusetts have had new problems thrust upon them under the operation of new attendance laws which went into effect in September, 1913. In Ohio, boys must attend school until they have finished the sixth grade and are 15 years of age; otherwise, until they are 16. Girls must attend until they are 16 years of age, and have finished the seventh grade; otherwise, until they are 18. At present an effort is being made to change this law so as to enable any pupil who is 14 years of age or over and has completed the eighth grade to receive an age and schooling certificate. The effect of such a provision is manifest. The parents would become the truant officers. Those parents of laggards who care little for the progress of their children, and seem to be chiefly interested in the time when they may go to work, would probably take an interest in having their children do their very best, if the law were thus changed. Under the new Massachusetts law the individual who wishes to work after he is 14 years of age must be able to show reasonable regular attendance during the year following his thirteenth birthday. The following are the principal features of the laws as they apply to persons between 14 and 16 years of age:

1. Must read well enough to complete the fourth grade in the schools.

2. May work but 48 hours per week.

3. Must be certified as to health by a physician.

4. May not be employed in any of a long list of dangerous employments enumerated. 5. Must be employed at regular work for wages at least six hours per day or must be in school, or must have written permission from the superintendent to be employed at home.

A defect of the former law has been corrected by requiring the employer to return to the superintendent of schools the working certificate of any minor as soon as his employment ceases. Thus the

attendance officer is enabled to see that the minor is either at work or in school.

The difficulties experienced under the new law in several mill cities of Massachusetts have been similar to those of Lawrence-the mills run 54 hours per week, while children may work but 48 hours per week. The following is quoted from the Lawrence report:

The law compelling children to remain in school until their sixteenth birthday, unless they be regularly employed under a proper certificate, would have affected but slightly the conditions which prevailed for a good many years. But the passage, in conjunction with it, of a law which limited the hours of labor for minors under 16 to 8 in any one day, complicated the situation considerably. Children, to be sure, can still leave school to go to work at 14. But if employers do not wish to hire them under the 8-hour day law, then they are virtually compelled to remain in school until they are 16. That is what actually happened this year. There was a temporary dullness in the textile industry at the time these laws became effective. There was, too, considerable practical difficulty in fitting an 8-hour day for these minors to the regular working schedule of the mills. Upon the part of a few of the largest employers of minor labor there was no effort made to adjust their mills to the demands of the 8-hour day law for these children. These mills not only ceased to employ minors under 16, but discharged all under that age already on their pay rolls. In this manner, about 600 boys and girls were forced out of employment around September 1. More than 100 of them reentered school of their own accord. Many others received employment as soon as they reached their sixteenth birthday. A considerable number of them found employment, even before they became 16, in the two or three mills which continued to employ children under 16, in spite of the 8-hour day limitation. About 50 were found to have removed from the city. Nearly all the rest are at home, in not a few instances taking the place of the mother who, in order to keep the family income sufficient for actual needs, has gone into the mill in the place of the son or daughter forced out of employment as a result of the 8-hour day law. The law authorizes the superintendent of schools to issue permits to children under 16 who are "profitably employed at home." A careful investigation of all these remaining cases is already under way, and home permits will be issued wherever the reported facts seem to justify it.

Consulting psychologist.-Two cities-Seattle and St. Louis-have added to their equipment for effective work with children who deviate from the normal by organizing centers for laboratory and observational purposes. In St. Louis the center is called the psycho-educational clinic, and a trained clinical psychologist has been placed in charge.

Course of study.-Revision of the course of study, as in former years, is in progress in many cities. Salem, Mass., issues its course in looseleaf form to facilitate minor changes. In Worcester a minimum and maximum course is being worked out, the minimum course containing all the essentials, but omitting many details of the maximum course. This course is designed for schools attended largely by children who speak at home a foreign language. In Newark the changes in the course look toward the correlation of evening, day, and summer schools. In East Orange, N. J., the entire course for grades and

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