pendent period. In spelling, children pronounce words to one another. Now and then individuals list words they need to learn to spell in connection with work they are doing for projects and activities. The room arrangement described on page 38 is conducive to mutual helpfulness among pupils. The activities just described are not busy work. In each case the teacher has helped the children plan them so that their activities are part of the total program. School Services In many schools children are encouraged to perform services for the school. Such services are not always taken over by clubs and councils. In some schools in Connecticut, New York, Texas, and other States, individual children take turns working in the library during certain independent periods, checking out reading books and receiving books returned to the library and keeping the records required. In a Connecticut city, arrangements are made for some of the children's independent periods to be used for work for the school, such as mimeographing the school paper and announcements, making plans and practicing for school dramatics, giving service on or for the student council, or conferring with the guidance consultant. Appropriate planning for the use of independent periods for the dozens of activities in which boys and girls can engage makes it unnecessary for pupils to be taken from regular class activities. In a Wisconsin school the sixth grade takes care of younger children while their mothers attend school meetings. In this school, upper-grade pupils hold themselves responsible for contributing to lower grades whenever programs of the younger pupils can be enriched in this way. A sixth-grade girl who visited Mexico, for example, once sat in with fifth-grade pupils while they planned a study of Mexico, gave them information, and helped them decide on activities and select reference books and other good reading about Mexico. In a South Carolina school where the children's help is needed, the boys and girls do most of the work around the school except fire the furnace. The children help organize and assign the work they do. Children who clean the toilet rooms are paid. All other work is considered a regular responsibility and is shared by the children as part of the work expected of them in keeping their school a good place to study, work, and live. They have great pride in the way the school and grounds look. The mill in the community sends men to do repair work upon request. In some Oklahoma and Alabama schools, sixth-grade children mend broken toys and make new ones for the first grade, help younger children with their overshoes, and help check out books from the library to boys and girls who wish to read at home. Other school services carried on by children in schools of different States include taking down the flag; arranging flowers for entrance hall, classroom, and auditorium; caring for a flower bed on the school grounds; checking in supplies; distributing milk. Through all such services, if not carried to excess, children learn the ways and attitudes of being good citizens. They need the teacher's guidance and help in planning and evaluation. They gradually learn to work independently of her at other times. Children learn gradually to take individual responsibility for their work and actions during independent periods. In a good many schools, the boys and girls have developed enough sense of responsibility for the teacher to let them move about as they wish, plan and exchange materials with other pupils, go on errands, get drinks and go to toilets and lavatories, and clean up the space about their desks when the period is over. Working independently, children develop a sense of group responsibility. Practices useful in helping children work alone with profit include the following: (a) Children are provided with an environment that in- (b) Children of the classroom as a whole are led to see (c) Teachers arrange for periods when the childern can (d) Teachers coach children who help others in order that pupils who are taking the initial steps in skills may be guided in learning correct methods. (e) Teachers and children plan time schedules for work for the school, such as assisting the librarian, helping on the playground, taking part in dramatics, answering the telephone, or receiving visitors. (f) Preliminary discussions of the class as a whole and conferences between teacher and individual pupils provide children with plans. Independent periods are most successful when each child has a specific job and knows how it fits into his group's total program. Student Councils Schools organize student councils with varying degrees of benefit to the children. In some schools, the council appears to confine its efforts to activities that are merely remedial, such as policing halls and study groups to maintain order, keeping scraps of paper off the playground, and checking on tardiness. Such councils may have value, but not as much as the councils that have more constructive programs. Some of the latter are the outgrowth of teacher's study of children's developmental needs and real problems. Councils with constructive programs seem to be in keeping with modern theories of child development, and results can be seen in improved practices and attitudes of the pupils. Following are examples of council activities with emphasis on purpose, kinds of activity, organization, and results. Purposes of Student Councils A school in Connecticut, which seems fairly typical, states the purpose of its student council thus: To unify students and faculty and help promote the welfare of the school. A school in Indiana has a student council that systematically provides for cooperative services to school or community and draws children together in their planning. Before this school had such a student council a spirit of competition had developed. Children seemed to work against one another more than they worked together. They tended, for example, to work for better records than others, to study to make higher grades than others, to take part in competitive types of recreation, to try for awards, and to enter school contests. Too few school activities were drawing children together in their planning and their study. Even when groups were formed for projects, the children had a tendency to pit themselves one against another. After studying the situation, teachers and principal decided to sponsor more activities that would draw pupils together and began by introducing the student council idea. A Maryland bulletin says student councils should provide for: (1) Experience in solving problems democratically; (2) cooperation between staff and pupils; (3) cooperation between school and community; (4) community service; and (5) all-round development of individuals. Kinds of Activity One of the activities of the first planning committee of one council was to study the dismissal plan of the school and recommend interesting activities for children who remain in school after some have gone home in the afternoon. Other activities carried on by this council include cooperating with parent-teacher groups on paper sales to raise a fund for use in the school; arranging for a trained student committee to take steps to keep the movie projector in good condition and to take charge of the projector when films are shown; maintaining a Service Girls' Club of eighth-grade girls to assist teachers occasionally, to substitute for teachers who must be absent from the building for short times, or to take charge of rooms until substitute teachers arrive; maintaining a traffic club of seventh- and eighth-grade boys to check on bicycle safety and other traffic problems. The club also arranged for students to be on call to help teachers with such activities as banking milk money, keeping ledger and accounts for milk money, answering the telephone, attending to certain library duties, and working out ways of making the building more attractive. The council has a coordinated program, a constitution, and systematic ways of working adapted to the requirements of the school's total program. The student council in a Maryland school prepares a council newspaper called Pupil Council News; sponsors a poster display on good manners; carries on a "litter bug" drive aimed at keeping school grounds free of paper and other litter; and with their sponsor, has charge of school banking. In a New York school, each room is represented on the Council and also sponsors a younger class. Representatives of the council report council news to younger pupils. This council also is well organized, has a constitution, and is a recognized part of the total school program. Student councils also sponsor school activities in which all grades have a part. In one school, the student council with the teacher sponsor has complete charge of the annual Old Home Day celebration in town. A feature of the occasion is a parade of floats representing each graduating class in the history of the school. Parents and other adult citizens take part upon invitation from the council. Results are the community's increased interest in the school and the children's increased community spirit and civic consciousness. Some school systems, such as the one in a certain Missouri town, have an organized program of student council activities that cut across grades. These activities are placed in charge of committees who are responsible for such duties as school safety, helpful and interesting noon hours, cafeteria duties, and lunchroom activites for children who bring lunches from home. School pride is |