them to movies and the local historical landmarks. They asked the Latvians to locate their country on the map for the class to see. On a map of the United States, they pointed out interesting places for the Latvians to visit when they could and explained what the places mean to Americans. Bob invited Petrus to attend a circus with him and both boys said they had more fun than they had ever had before.

Petrus brought some Latvian storybooks to school, and the American children tried to read them. Petrus in turn received such good baseball coaching that he turned out to be a better batter and pitcher than most of the American boys.

Often children develop an interest in people of other countries because they know someone who has been in another country -a brother or sister in the Service, a playmate whose parents travel, or a classmate who has lived in another country.

Packing outgrown clothes to be send to children in other countries, Fort Wayne, Ind.

In a certain Delaware second grade, a child who had been in Japan with his parents was greatly interested in Japan and the Japanese people, among whom he had a number of friends. His interest in Japan carried over into other countries. He fre

quently sought information about life in other countries. He added greatly to the children's interest in people who live in other countries and frequently made contributions to class discussions. In a fourth grade in the same school there was a little girl who had lived in Holland. She had also been in South America and other places. She contributed much to her classmates' interest in other countries and gave them added incentive to learn about other people and about the geography of the countries where these people live.

Another class in this school wrote to aviation companies for materials about airlines and places that could be reached by air. Fourteen companies answered the children's letters with pictures, maps, folders, and flight folders to aid travelers. After studying the materials and letters received, the children drew maps of the United States and placed on them the airline routes. Since every child felt that some day he would really fly, each tried to learn more about the country that appealed most to him. Teachers who help their students organize their work around major interests and problems teach study skills when the children ask such questions as where and how people live and how it happens that people are alike in some ways and different in other ways. A fourth grade became interested in studying about people of other countries. Different groups in the grade selected a country to study. This was the time when the teacher placed most emphasis on the use of the globe in learning about world geography. The pupils were introduced to earth forms and to location geography in connection with their work on the country of their choice. The children's greatest interest in the study was the people's ways of living.

Through the practices observed in the improvement of children's social understanding and experience there are a number of important common elements:

(a) Instruction begins in the school or home with

ideas, practices, or situations familiar to the child
and attempts to broaden his horizons to include
interest in the children of other countries.
(b) Part of the curriculum deals with activities in
social living, such as improvement of the environ-
ment, understanding of home and community liv-
ing, economic competence at the children's level,
conservation of the natural resources, recreation,
and safety.

(c) Among outcomes expected are progress in the fol-
lowing types of development: (1) first steps in
education for better home living; (2) ability and
desire to be useful and responsible citizens; (3)
understanding of the history and development and
needs of the home community and of our nation;
(4) recognition of the significance of our natural
resources and the vital importance of conserving
them; (5) understanding of the people of the
world and of organizations for international co-
operation; (6) mastery of essential facts and their
interpretation in geography and history.

Enjoying Creative Expression

The most common fields for creative expression in the schools observed are various forms of art and handcrafts, dramatics, puppetry, rhythms, music, and dancing. Some teachers feel that they lack ability to provide such experiences for the children. In school systems where consultants are provided, teachers are developing ability to help the children to have more creative activities. A number of the schools visited are able now and then to employ classroom teachers who have special interest and training in art or music and who in their respective buildings will serve as consultants to the other teachers in those fields in addition to having charge of their own classrooms.

The fields which school systems most often emphasize are art and music. Probably much more is being done than observers were able to discover. Art especially and music to some extent are used in connection with projects and activities such as better home living, conservation activities, or gardening, to which other subjects also contribute. Thus the children have opportunities for engaging in creative expression that are often not revealed in program plans. Creative experiences, in addition to being worth while in themselves, afford desirable changes in routine work and relief from tension.

A major aim in creative activities is to provide two groups of experiences for children; first, experiences that have meaning in terms of immediate life situations; and, second, experiences that contribute to the development of the individual and create interests that may continue throughout his life.

Art in Everyday Living

In the more modern schools, children's experiences in art are closely related to everything else that they do in life situations. Children of a first grade in a California school, for example, produced lovely creative work in art related to their home and family experiences and to the school activities connected with these. Because of the free and creative atmosphere in which the children worked, they seemed to produce water color and crayon work that were original and charming. A group of Montana fifth-grade boys and girls learned to knit and crochet and got great satisfaction out of making interesting soft toys, mats, and other articles for home and school.

In a Wisconsin county first-grade pupils included many art experiences in their study of places to live. In small groups, the pupils gathered pictures and asked their parents and neighbors for information about ranch houses, two-story houses, bungalows, and apartment buildings.

The class visited several homes under construction and took one trip to a lumber yard. The initial activities gave them the idea of building "our dream house." They built their house large enough for the children to enter and play. The boards that the school provided were cut to fit at the lumber yard. The children's plans were for a ranch-style house with a kitchen, living room, dining room, and bedroom. They asked the industrial arts

teacher to cut the windows. The rest of the work was done by the children themselves in the classroom. The pupils made the outside of their house look like the big white shingled exteriors that were characteristic of some of their homes. So excited were they about their plans that they invited the mothers to come to see them begin the building. The mothers were asked to return when the house was completed. It was a great satisfaction to many of the mothers to see what effective skills their 6-year-olds had developed in handling saws, nails, and hammers.

The boys and girls obviously gained appreciation of proportions as they planned the size of each room in the house. With the teacher's help, they got some feeling for placement and spacing when they decided where to put the windows. They discussed how pretty a big white house would look. As they drew their plans, the placement and size of the picture window and the front door were problems. Opinions differed, but after discussion a group decision was made and the door and window were placed accordingly.

Art Experiences Related to Other School Activities

Some of the Wisconsin schools have an art teacher or consultant on call. The time the children spend on art, however, is by no means limited to the time the art teacher reserves for them. Pupils in grades 4 to 8 sometimes have home art, industrial arts, and manual training. They may have experiences with a wide variety of materials, such as clay, wood, cloth, leather, metal, oil paints, water colors, crayons, and paper. In everyday activities there are many opportunties for thinking and planning, and appreciation of beauty. Some of the classrooms have unusual paintings, sketches, and block prints made by the children. Colorful draperies add beauty and interest to classrooms. Pupils who cannot express themselves with their hands sometimes enjoy creative writing. Pupils produce plays, radio skits, and poetry. The art teacher may spend from 2 to 4 hours with a group that asks for her help, depending on the plans the teacher and children have made for the use of her time.

Most people's desire for their children to have experiences in art is so great that some creative art activities are usually encouraged, even in school systems where for years art has been taught merely as a subject with little relation to life or even to other subject matter. Evidence of progress toward creativeness and exercise of imagination were observed in schools visited.