Uncle Grant turned over to the boys his paper, which showed that Harney will earn: next year 0.00 "You see," he explained, "the more valuable you get, the more easily you can make yourself more valuable. And so, when Harney is forty, if he did as well as I did, his total earnings will be $99,320.” "Whe-e-e-e-e-w!" This was Harney. Bud was speechless. The Difference-and Why "Now." went on Uncle Grant, "let's subtract all that Bud will have made by the time he is forty from what you will have made. The difference between $99.320 and $24,388 is $74,932. And now"-Uncle Grant turned directly to Bud -"listen carefully. High school requires your attendance nine months of a year or 270 days. Three more years is 810 days. Divide the difference between your probable earnings and Harney's probable earnings by those 810 days and you get $92.50 a day as the price of the high-school education you are giving up-to earn eight dollars a week. "But-but-" still it was Harney and not Bud who spoke, bewildered. "You needn't say it. I know it already." Uncle Grant smiled. "I am only guessing. Bud may be a heaven-sent genius who will make a million-you may have a kink in your brain which will keep you a street-car conductor or a ribbon clerk all your life. But the average lad who goes to work minus an education, stays a cheap man all his life. The plums of a fair earning capacity come to the man of education-not because he can translate Greek or knows the date when Attila was born, but because he has learned to think, because his mind is trained, alert, at its best, just as the strongest untrained man can't compete with a much slighter, but well-trained boxer or wrestler. It's training which counts-and which is worth money, big money. And so, Harney, lad, I don't think I'll get you a job. I think Uncle Sam will have more use for you trained than untrained, more use for the taxes you can pay than for those Bud can pay, more use for you as an economic asset as a trained and educated man than for one who must be content to take the unskilled laborer's reward, more use—” "Excuse me, sir!" Bud interrupted, his face red. "I'm off to mother to tell her I don't know half as much as I thought I did-$92.50 a day!"-The American Boy. VOCATIONAL COURSES FOR THE COMING SCHOOL YEAR For the coming school year the State Board for Vocational Education intends to furnish financial aid to not less than six agricultural schools in as many different leading agricultural districts of the State. Of the seventeen high schools now carrying on home economies work, it is to be hoped that a large number will qualify to meet the requirements of the Smith-Hughes Act. For the coming school year a vocational "general machine shop course" is being organized in the Humboldt County High School at Winnemucca. This course is intended to train boys for employment in the railway shops and in the various machine shops and garages of the community. There will be an initial equipment of not less than $4,000. At the Pershing County High School at Lovelock, a vocational course in "automobile and gas engine repairs" is being organized with an initial equipment of not less than $4,000. This course is intended to train the boys for employment on either the farm or in the automobile repair shops of that city. In the Clark County High School at Las Vegas, a vocational course in "railway carpentry" is being planned with a view to training the boys for employment in the local railway shops, which constitute the leading industry of that community. The greater number of boys leaving this high school seek employment in the railway shops, so it is hoped to be a splendid step in giving the boys some intensive training before such time as they feel that they are obliged to leave high school for the above-mentioned employment. Carpentry has been selected for the coming year because of the high school being already equipped with wood-working equipment. Because of the fact that the greater number of students leaving the commercial department of high school go into the railway shops, the possibility of establishing for the first time in the State a vocational "railway commercial course" is being seriously considered. In the cities of Reno and Sparks a part-time trade extension course in railway work is being planned for two groups of boys from the respective high schools of these two cities who will alternately for two weeks at a time work in the railway shops as apprentices. While the Reno group is being employed at the shops, the Sparks group will be taking intensive instruction in supplementary courses very closely coordinated to the industry. At the end of two weeks, when the Reno group returns to its respective high school, the Sparks group will enter employment for two weeks in the railway shops. The plan is not to take boys already enrolled in the high schools, but to find boys already employed who have left school with insufficient training to make good in the world-in other words, to bring back the industrial misfits between the ages of 14 and 18 years into the public schools where they belong. The employment at the shops is calculated to not only furnish the most practical kind of intensive instruction, but to a considerable extent to furnish the necessary support for attending school every other two weeks. R. A. J. Entered as second-class matter May 22, 1919, at the postoffice at Carson City, Nevada, under the Act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized The opening of this school year presents to the teachers of Nevada Definite suggestions of details will be presented in the October issue NEW TEXT- AND SUPPLEMENTARY BOOKS ADOPTED BY STATE TEXT-BOOK COMMISSION, JUNE, 1919 A brief statement in regard to the adoptions made by the Nevada Text-Book Commission, June 17 to 21, 1919, is given to assist teachers in the selection of books where there are optional adoptions. No Bookkeeping text was adopted for use in the hands of the pupils, as under the State Text-Book Commission law there is no authorization for the adoption of a text in this subject. However, since the School Code requires work in Business Forms and Elements of Bookkeeping and the teachers are therefore required to give this work, Schoch & Gross's "Elements of Business" (or some similar text) is to be furnished the teacher by each district as a basis for the work in the eighth grade. The revision of the Course of Study, to be issued within a few months, will give full details in regard to the plans for the work. The Tarr-McMurry "New Geographies" are the adoptions for the coming year (1919-1920) on account of the unsettled conditions due to the war and the new United States census to come next year. Likewise, the present optional history adoption ("Mace's School History" and "Montgomery's Leading Facts in American History") is retained for another year on account of conditions due to the World War and the desire of the Commission to further investigate the best treatment of our national history from the newer viewpoint of subject matter and emphasis. "On application to the State Board any school district of the State may be authorized to try out any text or texts in history classroom use approved by the State Board of Education." In choice of the language series the State Text-Book Commission selected "Live Language Lessons" and "Oral and Written English" as the two best fitted for the needs of the schools in Nevada, with this expression of opinion: "It being the sense of the majority of the Commission that the 'Live Language Lessons' seem better fitted for the use of the rural schools." Any district has a free choice as to which of the two series is to be purchased for use in that school. This expression of judgment was made simply to aid rural schools in selecting a series. The spelling texts offer a choice between the Pearson and Suzzallo "Essentials of Spelling" and "The New World Speller," both of which contain far less words than the "Hicks Champion Speller," which has been used for the past eight years. "The Hicks Champion Speller" contains about seven thousand words, "The New World Speller" about five thousand words, and "Pearson and Suzzallo" a little over three thousand. The latter is a one-book speller, to be used from the second to eighth grade, while "The New World Speller" is a three-book text, which does not reduce the word list as radically as the other text. In making the adoption of method readers the State Text-Book Commission endeavored to offer a choice of methods without offering such a wide choice as would interfere with sound progress in the State. Similar action by other States offered a precedent that seemed worth considering. "The Beacon Method" is retained so that those who have obtained satisfactory results in its use may continue this system. "The Natural Method Reader" uses the "storyapproach" or analytic method, with the phonic system built on the family groups, as in the Gordon system used for the eight years previous to the adoption of the Beacon method. There is thus afforded to the teachers of the State the opportunity to select that method which appeals to each one as best suited in her judgment to secure strong results in reading, and there should come from this latitude afforded a distinct contribution to the best teaching of this most fundamental subject. Those who prefer the Gordon system of phonics can use the Gordon method with the Natural Method Readers, thus combining the "story-approach" and analytic method with the family group method of phonics. LIST OF CHANGES IN TEXT-BOOKS 1. The new text in Bookkeeping (to be used in the hands of the teacher) is Schoch & Gross's "Elements of Business Education" (or similar text). 2. "Industrial Art Text-Books" take the place of the "Prang Drawing." 3. In Language and Grammar an optional adoption; either— Driggs: "Live Language Lessons," Book I for Grades 3 and 4. Potter, Jeschke & Gillett: "Oral English," Book I for Grades 5 and 6, and Book II for Grades 7 and 8. 4. Music in the Rural Schools-Meyers: "School Music Reader." 5. Reading-"The Natural Method Reader" on an optional basis with the "Beacon Reader" in the grades from 1 to 5. Content Readers-The Holton-Curry First to Fifth take the place of the "Wheeler Readers," on the optional basis. 6. Spelling-Either Pearson-Suzzallo: "Essentials of Spelling," or Wohlfarth-Rogers: "New World Speller," Book I for Grades 1 to 3; Book II for Grades 4 to 6; Book III for Grades 7 and 8. Gray, Reid, Wright Company, Reno, Nevada, is the State Depository. INDUSTRIAL ART TEXTS In the Industrial Art Books the work for the first year will be taken as follows: First and Second Grades take Book I; Third and Fourth Grades take Book II; Fifth and Sixth Grades take Book III; and Seventh and Eighth Grades take Book IV. After this first year of work the grades will be able to take the more advanced books according to the amount covered. Some teachers will find questions arising as to the books, which are not met in this brief statement concerning these new adoptions. They should write to Superintendent W. J. Hunting, Secretary of the Nevada Text-Book Commission, or to the Deputy Superintendent of the district in which they are teaching. EXCHANGE PRICES OF SCHOOL BOOKS Before deciding to turn in the old texts in the case of a new adoption of text-books, each teacher or school officer should study the exchange price charged and notice the small reduction allowed in most cases. Unless the book is absolutely worn out so as to be unfit for use by the pupils, the value as a supplementary text to be used in addition to the required book of the new adoption would be much greater than the few cents allowed as a reduction on the exchange price. (Notice that the "exchange price" is the price at which a book can be purchased when an old book of the displaced series is turned in.) Two or three cases will indicate the small allowance made in this exchange price. Mace's School History can be bought for 6 cents less where the displaced book is turned in. The use of another text as a supplementary text is thus lost for the 6 cents allowed in reduction. Or the Montgomery's Leading Facts of American History can be bought for 11 cents less where the displaced book is turned in. In the case of the several readers it is seen that from 2 to 13 cents is allowed |