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MEXICAN BOOTH SPONSORED BY THE ARTS AND CRAFTS CLUB AT THE PAN AMERICAN FIESTA OF THE STUDENT PAN AMERICAN LEAGUE, HAMMOND (IND.) HIGH SCHOOL

Her leadership of the group is none the less real for being unobtrusiveand indirect.

Cooperation of Other Teachers

Because the Pan American club is concerned with many phases of life and culture in the other Americas, its activities bring together teachers who may not have correlated their work before. Its success depends on their cooperation.

One school, for example, reports a joint meeting of the Spanish Club and the Homemakers Club which enlisted the cooperation of several departments not usually thought of as having much in common. Since the Homemakers planned to serve mate, or Paraguayan tea, they asked the Spanish Club to give a short account of yerba mate as one of the program numbers. The botany teacher helped a student to prepare drawings of the plant; the art instructor furnished an exhibit of sketches by Molina Campos showing the methods of brewing the tea on the pampas; the commercial department ordered a package of mate and typed several copies of the directions for preparing it so that each club member might be presented with a small sample and the recipe; the Spanish teacher demonstrated the approved manner of drinking the tea from a silver-rimmed gourd and bombilla given her by a visiting Paraguayan; and the mate was actually made in the foods laboratory of the home economics department.

In one city, the Pan American clubs in the schools reported the cooperation of many departments and teachers. The commercial art

departments created posters and displays. The sewing departments made flags and costumes for entertainments. The woodworking departments produced flag staffs, holders, and props for entertainments. School papers issued special editions dealing entirely with the neighbors to the south. Drafting departments devised lettered booklet covers. Physical education departments staged interpretive dances. Music departments trained students in folk songs and instrumental arrangements of music from the other American republics. Printing departments ran off programs and school papers. English departments developed schedules to permit students to gain full significance of Pan American relationships. Libraries obtained Pan American pamphlets. Arts and crafts departments assisted in designing and making costumes.

Recognition of Administrators

In a recent survey of some representative Pan American clubs, the advisers in all parts of the country, regardless of subject fields, grade level, or club schedule, listed the need for more time for club work and mentioned the lack of time as the greatest single factor retarding their improvement. Some administrators recognize the importance of clubs and plan an activity period each week for them. Some relieve club advisers of responsibilities in other ways. In general, however, not enough allowance is made for the enormous amount of time, much of it after school hours and away from the school plant, which an adviser gives to a live Pan American club.

PAN AMERICAN CLUBS IN THE OTHER
AMERICAN REPUBLICS

While the Pan American club and many other extracurricular activities have a necessary place in the high-school and college life of the United States, in the other American republics there is comparatively little extracurricular activity as it is known in this country. The reason for the difference appears to be, in a measure at least, in the purposes for which secondary schools exist in the respective countries. Training young people for citizenship, including participation in civic affairs, is one of the important functions of the high school in the United States. On the other hand, the secondary schools in the neighboring republics have placed more emphasis on preparing young people for their studies in the universities and in other institutions above the secondary level while offering fewer opportunities for the development of leadership and initiative by means of a student-activity program within the school. Students, who show more interest in the national affairs of their country than do students of the same age in the United States, often turn their attention to political activities which are not a recognized part of the

school program. However, some student groups, similar in purpose and organization to the Pan American clubs of the schools of the United States, have been reported in the other American republics. STUDENT CLUBS IN VENEZUELA

La Guardia de Honor del Libertador, a student organization with ideals of inter-American cooperation, has existed in Venezuela for more than 10 years. Its founder states in a message to the young people of the Americas:

Our institution . . . has 10 years of continuous activity and the first members are either university students, teachers, or professional people who work to promote our ideals, forming a second section so that today we have an institution among the students of the different states of the country and also among the ex-students, not only in Venezuela, but also in various other countries of the Pan American Union where our institution has been founded.

OTHER MANIFESTATIONS OF INTEREST IN PAN AMERICAN CLUBS

There are indications that other student groups dedicated to promoting better inter-American understanding have been created in other American republics. History clubs, geography clubs, correspondence clubs, and English clubs in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, and Uruguay are evidence of increasing interest in learning more about the United States and the other American republics through extracurricular activities.

INFLUENCE OF TEACHER AND STUDENT EXCHANGES ON

PAN AMERICAN CLUBS

Besides the expansion of the organizations described, better interAmerican understanding among students in all of the American 1epublics is being fostered through teacher and student exchanges. Many have been visiting and studying in countries other than their own. Ideas have been exchanged and new concepts formed. Visiting teachers who observe the extracurricular program in the secondary schools and colleges of the United States are impressed with its extent and importance in secondary education in this country. They have attended Pan American club meetings as guest speakers and have participated in club life as members as well. One result has been an increased interest in their own countries in extracurricular activities which lead to better inter-American understanding.

STUDENT CLUBS AND THE U. S. CULTURAL RELATIONS ATTACHÉS

Inter-American student activity has been aided by the work of the cultural relations attachés of the United States embassies. These representatives have facilitated the exchange of letters, flags, pictures, stamps, books, music, periodicals, and souvenirs between the students of the United States and those of the other American re

publics. Even the lapse of time involved in sending and receiving mail by boat has not dampened the enthusiasm of young people throughout the Americas who continue to show increasing interest in making direct contacts with their fellows in other parts of this hemisphere.

OFFICIAL ACTION IN BRAZIL AND CHILE

The Minister of Education of Brazil, Senhor Doctor Gustavo Capanema, in April 1943 addressed all elementary and secondary school principals in that country on the observance of the bicentennial of the birth of Thomas Jefferson, asking that appropriate celebration of this important date take place in all Brazilian schools. It is significant that the minister considered it of nation-wide importance to commemorate with appropriate ceremonies in each school the anniversary of the birth of a leader of another American republic.

In 1943 the Pan American Day message of Minister of Education Benjamín Claro Velasco of Chile to the students of that country requested them:

To organize in every school a Pan American club, for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the students of the other American republics and, particularly, to make more pleasant the life of the foreigners who are studying in the country.

The minister also outlined a comprehensive program as a guide for Pan American club members and advisers. The effect of this message has been felt in the United States in a marked increase in the number of letters from clubs and individual students in Chile.

PAN AMERICAN CLUBS OF 22 HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES OF THE ST. LOUIS AREA HOLD CONFERENCE ON INTER-AMERICAN PROBLEMS AT THE HIGH SCHOOL, WEBSTER GROVES, MO.

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INFLUENCE ON THE INDIVIDUAL

The Pan American club, like most other extracurricular organizations, provides opportunities for the development of the individual members. The very nature of the organization, the purpose of its founding, the scope of its program, and the varied methods available to carry out this program combined to foster originality and growth for the individual student. It is the variety of activities in this particular student organization that makes the Pan American club an unusually excellent medium for leadership in an educational program.

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The qualities most frequently called forth are initiative, resourcefulness, and independence and maturity of thought and judgment. Furthermore, the student who identifies himself with a democratic organization such as the Pan American club is participating in a cooperative enterprise which calls for exchange of ideas, concessions, and arbitrations. The aims of the Pan American club suggest the means of procedure, which must be most open and free so that each member has not only the right but the duty to have a voice in planning the activities. By following parliamentary procedure, individuals have the opportunity to learn voting, elections, and all the

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