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through the newspapers, and because formidable looking reports are often cast aside. Some schoolmen, however, object to using the newspapers on the ground that they are thereby "advertising" themselves. A superintendent who was complaining about lack of interest among the parents in the schools of his city was asked whether he reported the progress of the schools through the local papers. He replied that he did not believe in advertising himself. He failed to grasp the idea that school news is not for the purpose of boosting a superintendent, but to call attention to the needs of the work of the school so that it may become more efficient. In several cities, as Fredonia, Kans., there is an educational issue of the local paper. In some other cities there are daily school news notes. On the whole, the public is becoming better informed regarding the schools than it was a few years ago. The tendency is toward greater publicity by means of printed reports and newspaper articles.

That the schools can work to advantage through women's civic improvement clubs and through parent-teacher associations has been thoroughly demonstrated in many of the smaller cities. Such clubs are often instrumental in the introduction of kindergartens, manual training, and domestic science. The superintendent of one school utilized the women's clubs of the city by asking that each club give some consideration to the question, What can be done to improve the efficiency of your schools? Each club discussed the question and sent a representative to present to the teachers the ideas of the club. In the opinion of the superintendent of schools. in that city, the plan aroused interest among the women of the city in better schools.

A monthly mimeographed letter addressed to parents is one of the features of the schools of Shenandoah, Iowa. In these letters the superintendent discusses, among other things, the necessity of punctuality, regular attendance, and methods of preventing diseases among school children. Other methods reported for arousing interest in school work (already described), include credits for home work, school exhibits, visitors' days, and the use of the school building as a social center.

WIDER USE OF THE SCHOOL PLANT.

Social and civic centers.1-The wider use of the school plant has not been confined to the larger cities. Of 1,334 of the cities of 30,000 population and less reporting to the Bureau of Education, 503 use the school buildings for other than school purposes; 171 report that the school buildings are used as polling places. Of the 71 cities of all sizes reporting to the Russell Sage Foundation that

1 See also chapter 21, p. 455, of this report.

they employ some paid workers in carrying on evening activities other than those of the regular night school, 24 are in cities of 25,000 population and less.

Many more of the cities under 25,000 could open their school buildings for social center purposes. Statistics at hand show that of 1,334 of these cities reporting, 314 have auditoriums in at least one grade building and 888 have auditoriums in the high-school building, while 95 of the grade buildings and 450 of the high-school buildings have gymnasiums.

VACATION SCHOOLS.

In many of the smaller cities the school buildings no longer stand idle three months during the summer vacation. No statistics are available showing how many of these cities conduct summer schools, but during the past year there has been an increase of 147. There are two types of vacation schools: One aims to educate through play and to keep the children off the street; the other to help children who have lost time or who are capable of gaining a grade. These schools are usually in session from four to eight weeks. The following are extracts from a few of the many letters received at the Bureau of Education regarding vacation schools:

Carlisle, Pa. The summer school is for high-school students who have failed. The term is from June 30 to August 22; had a total enrollment of 30 students at the end of the term; 16 passed their examinations. The term for 1914 had an enrollment of 26; of this number 23 were promoted.

Bloomfield, N. J.-The vacation school is in the foreign section of the city, with no play grounds near, and the children have nothing to do but run and play in dirty streets. The school was organized to assist them in passing a profitable vacation. The girls were taught to sew; the boys were given useful work in woodworking; the smaller children were given kindergarten training, and all were given much practice in oral English, something needed by these people.

Mount Pleasant, Pa.-The discipline in the summer school was perfect, without effort; retarded children made remarkable progress on short-time instruction hours; attendance was regular without the services of an attendance officer.

Montclair, N. J.-The number taking examinations at the close of the term was 142; of this number 90, or 64.8 per cent, were promoted. This reports merely the educational side of the work; the results from the three play centers can not be measured by figures.

EVENING SCHOOLS.

In many of the smaller cities, school boards have opened the school buildings for evening schools, most of which are supported from public funds. During the year evening schools have been established or evening school work extended in 170 cities. Although no proof is necessary to show the value of such schools, the following examples are typical of what the opening of the school buildings for evening schools can do for young men and young women:

Nearly all the evening school pupils at Spartanburg, S. C., are mill operatives. Many of them are illiterate and are taught to read and write. One 17-year-old boy who had finished the sixth grade in the day school was employed as lineman on an interurban trolley line and attended the evening school where he learned something of the rules of mensuration which he used in his work of cutting cables for guy wires to steady the poles and for getting the exact length of trolley wires on curves. His wages were increased 50 per cent before the evening school closed.

The evening school at Morris, Ill., has increased the earning capacity of many of the pupils enrolled. A clerk was advanced to the position of bookkeeper, a young man was given employment as typist in a law office, a young woman was employed as stenographer in a shoe company's office, another was employed as typist for a public library, and three entered business colleges with advanced standing.

The evening school of Peabody, Mass., is composed almost entirely of non-Englishspeaking foreigners who have acquired after several terms a fair working knowledge of English.

Although progress has been made in extending the use of school buildings for evening classes, many school reports lament the fact that the attendance at evening schools is irregular and that half the students drop out before the close of the term. In some instances it has been discovered that the courses are not suited to the class of students. The method now followed in most schools in planning evening courses is to discover what the people want before a course is advertised.1

SPECIAL SCHOOLS AND CLASSES.

As yet the smaller city schools have not seriously attacked the problem of caring for the feeble-minded and seriously backward children. In answer to a questionnaire submitted in 1913 by Dr. J. E. W. Wallin, then of the University of Pittsburgh, only 28 of the smaller cities reported such schools, 11 of these being in New Jersey, where children three years behind grade must be placed in a special class; 24 of these cities give a special examination before admitting pupils to classes for backward children; 5 require a medical, psychological, and educational examination; 9 a medical or psychological; 3 a psychological or educational; and 6 a psychological examination. Dr. Wallin finds that the preparation of the teachers for these schools has been gained mostly in special summer courses; that 21 cities use the Binet tests and that only one of these maintains a child study laboratory or psychological clinic. Of the cities of 25,000 population and less reporting to Dr. Wallin, 34 have ungraded classes. The average number of pupils to each class is 15. In 10 of these cities the classes are wholly ungraded, while the others are for backward and truant children and for special help classes. Dr. Wallin concludes:

That the classes for the feeble-minded are relatively more numerous in cities above 25,000, while the ungraded classes are relatively more numerous in cities below 25,000.

1 For further details of evening school work, especially for foreigners, see chapter 20, "Education of Immigrants," p. 425.

This is probably not due to the fact that there are relatively more feeble-minded and seriously backward pupils in the larger cities, but to the fact that the smaller cities have not yet become thoroughly alive to administrative educational problems affecting these children. The alleged explanation that there are not enough seriously defective children in the smaller cities, say conservatively in cities of 10,000 and over, to make up a class is without foundation.1

There are different plans in operation to help retarded children up to grade or to make them more efficient. In a few cities, the overage children are given about half time in the shops and the other half in the regular classroom or in a classroom under a special teacher. Other cities employ one or more special teachers to help forward children who for one reason or another have fallen behind their classes. The following plan in operation at Franklin, Mass., is one of the common methods:

One teacher works among grades from one to four, inclusive, while the other works in grades five to eight. These teachers visit the different buildings on stated days, having regular schedules for their work in the different buildings. The regular teachers select those pupils who are backward because of absence on account of sickness or otherwise, those who are slow to grasp principles, or weak in any particular subject, and send them to the special teacher for individual instruction. Each regular teacher is careful to state explicitly the real difficulty of the pupil, so that the special teacher may lose no time in finding the weakness and thereby is able to help at once the pupil in his difficulty.

The special teacher keeps an exact record of the number of pupils helped, the difficulty to be overcome, the number of times the pupil is sent, the progress made, and the results. The regular teacher also keeps a record of those sent and the results.

The superintendent reports:

From the records at hand a great saving of time and strength to the regular teachers has been accomplished; a large number of pupils have been kept up to grade, and will be promoted. Otherwise, many of these pupils would have failed of promotion, which means double cost of instruction for these same pupils.

HEALTH OF THE CHILD.

A problem still to be solved by the smaller cities is that of health inspection. Of 1,300 of those reporting, only 516 have medical inspection, more than half of these being in those few States making medical inspection compulsory. Of these 516 cities, only 86 employ a school nurse and only 12 a physician for the entire time. There can be no doubt that medical inspection in many of the smaller cities and towns is perfunctory, even in those States where such inspection is compulsory. Many school boards decline to employ a medical inspector on the ground that an examination by a physician paid only a few hundred dollars a year would be superficial. In a few of these cities inspection is made free by the physicians acting in cooperation. Jeannette, Pa., a city of about 10,000 population, was one

1 Mental Health of the Child, ch. 18.

of the first cities to introduce medical inspection of this type. The superintendent of the Jeannette schools says of the operation of this plan:

In this community medical inspection is conducted practically without expense to the taxpayers. The school board has, however, equipped a room with everything necessary for the examination and the work was begun five years ago. The people of the community were assured that the work would be suggestive merely, and they were asked to cooperate. All the children were examined; they received cards indicating defects; and their parents were advised to see the family physician or dentist, as the case might be. Free clinics were offered for those who did not feel financially able to have the work done. No nurse has ever been employed, but the teachers were asked to follow up the work as much as possible and to report to the superintendent the results noted. Many children had operations of a minor nature performed, and there was a decided improvement in the care of the teeth and general personal appearance.

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The cost of the necessary equipment for this plan does not exceed $150. As there is no other expense attached to the examination, any small town can do the work. Our experience has shown that as a result of the free medical inspection the children are cleaner and neater in appearance; incipient cases of tuberculosis are discovered in time to be successfully treated; trouble with adenoids is detected in many cases; defective eyes are helped before it is too late; a bad heart found in time to save. These and many other instances have convinced Jeannette that medical inspection is very much worth while.

From a recent questionnaire it is ascertained that there has been a rapid increase in the cities requiring medical inspection. The consensus of opinion among schoolmen in the smaller cities is that such inspection will not be made to yield its best results until school boards are enabled to employ a physician who can devote practically all his time to the school and that a school nurse is absolutely essential to secure the best results; and that in a small city a school nurse is probably more effective than a medical examiner alone.

OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS.

The number of small cities that have established open-air schools is worthy of note, considering that the first open-air school in this country was opened only seven years ago, and that in 1910 there were only 10 such schools in the United States. To-day there are open-air schools in 130 cities, 40 being in the group of cities of 25,000 and less population. Some of these, however, have only open-air kindergartens, while others have open-air rooms for anemic and tuberculous children. Some few cities have introduced the cold-room idea. This plan has been tried at Middletown, Conn., with 1,200 pupils. Reports from that city say that the pupils have improved physically and that the teachers are not so exhausted at the close of school.

That the health of the pupils in the schools at Alameda, Cal., may be conserved, the school buildings are constructed on the convertible

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