CIVIC PATRIOTISM AND SPECIAL DAYS

As Memorial and Flag Day approach, the minds of the children are receptive to the special message hidden but slightly in these memorial occasions. If your school is to close before these days arrive, make a place beforehand for these topies in some reading, history, or civie lesson.

If teachers group for study the various choice selections available on such topics as Decoration Day and Flag Day, having the children read from the home library wherever possible, and from the school library in any case, so that they bring in their personal contributions of the poem or other selection that has gripped their thought and feeling, either memorized or for expressive reading-if the whole class or the whole school is set to work on such a project, there will be a genuine relish for the significant meaning of the occasion, and a lasting impression will be made.

For Memorial Day, suppose we gather around Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" and Francis Miles Finch's "The Blue and the Gray" such additional selections as Mary Andrews's "The Perfect Tribute" (no class should study the "Gettysburg Address" without having read to them, or reading for themselves "The Perfect Tribute"; this piece of fiction gives a true picture of the man Lincoln and this great occasion); also, "Gettysburg-A Mecca for the Blue and the Gray," by General J. B. Gordon; and "Bivouac of the Dead," by Theodore O'Hara.

For a Flag-Day study follow the same plan, using from readers and reference books selections easily obtainable. One of the State's series of readers, The Searson & Martin Sixth Reader (pp. 169–172) gives a most appropriate poem to use for this purpose. "The Name of Old Glory," by James Whitcomb Riley, is a stirring center for such study.

The list of "Additional Readings" found at the close of this selection is most excellent. Ask your children which of these they like best, and why.

Of course, all the older pupils should know the Gettysburg Address by heart (mind and heart) as well as "America" and "The StarSpangled Banner." Do they know the song "America the Beautiful"? Have you gotten hold of "The American's Creed"? If you have, do your pupils know it? This is good "Civic Patriotism" material-as good as can be found among the many choice pieces. Some have other selections in mind that are of equal worth. Make use of such, for school days for this year are rapidly drawing to a close. This may be your last chance to impress these things upon the group of children under your care in this school.

"The Perfect Tribute" can be bought from Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. It may also be found in the Howe Fifth Reader. Every school library should have this selection and a good biography of Lincoln.

"The American's Creed and Its Meaning" is a little book put out by Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, New York. It should be in every schoolroom. It gives the history and background of this creed. Your boys and girls will be better prepared to understand the spirit of our Nation and the call to sincere citizenship if this "American's Creed" becomes their treasured possession.

LETTER TO SCHOOL TRUSTEES OF THIRD DISTRICT

FALLON, NEVADA, May 1, 1920.

To the School Trustees, Churchill, Humboldt, and Pershing Counties: If you have a good teacher, why lose her?

If there is to be a change, why not settle it early?

There is more chance of retaining a good teacher if you offer her her reappointment and a new contract early. Some districts put off the selection of new teachers or the rehiring of old teachers until the middle of the summer. Can you think of any one good reason for not settling the question earlier if that proves possible? Try signing up contracts before the end of the present term. If you and your teacher are satisfied, this course will work to the benefit of district and teacher. I heartily commend this policy to your consideration. Contract blanks again will be sent you to assist in the plan. Remember teachers are scarce and will be. And good teachers are never too plentiful.

CHAUNCEY W. SMITH,
Deputy Third District.

KINDERGARTENS-MORE KINDERGARTENS

Here is an article for the thoughtful consideration of teachers and school officials. The Nevada Educational Bulletin would like to receive the opinions of those interested in this subject as to the adaptability of the proposed plans in this school situation:

Nevada has but five towns which support kindergartens at the present time, and, when one considers the value of the kindergarten training from a moral standpoint alone, it would seem we should work for more kindergartens. Our state kindergarten law makes it very easy for any community where there are ten parents with children of the kindergarten age to secure a kindergarten, and the chairman of Kindergarten Extension of the Nevada Federation of Women's Clubs has had printed copies of the law, an outline entitled "How to Secure a Kindergarten," and forms of petitions to be used, which can be secured by addressing Mrs. J. P. Perazzo, Wabuska, Nevada.

Mrs. Perazzo, as chairman of Kindergarten Extension, has been untiring in her efforts to establish kindergartens. But she has found that the greatest difficulty has been that our law provides that only a professional kindergartener can hold such a position in this State, and we would not have it otherwise, for the establishing of the foundation of a child's moral nature is delicate business, and we mothers are pleading for only professionals, for the primary grades, at least. However, few of our towns feel able to support a teacher who must receive at least $100 per month for teaching ten or twelve children for half a day. Where tried it has been found this condition also has led to discontent among the grade teachers, who feel quite aggrieved at one of their number being so privileged.

So the plan of combining the kindergarten and first grade has been suggested, since this plan has been worked out suecessfully at Oakland and other large cities where kindergartens are not an experiment. The plan offers much to districts where the teachers must teach two or three grades in one room. First, the kindergartener is also a trained primary teacher with a certificate for that work also, whereas sometimes our primary teacher is any high-school or Normal graduate, who feels too timid about discipline to attempt upper-grade work. The writer has heard and read in applications too often this: "I am prepared to teach any grade, but prefer the first four grades." But the first grade is the most important of all the grades until we come to the first year of adolescence, and should of all the grades have a professionally trained teacher. This we should find in the kindergartener.

Second, our first-grader is little more than a baby and should, we are told by the best educators, be on his feet for games every twenty minutes. As a teacher, I ask you to tell how any teacher with forty pupils in two grades, or three. can do this? So the plastic little bodies of our tots must remain cramped in their seats or playing at the board until teacher can get back to them. Two very bad things grow out of this tired bodies and a dislike for school, and a habit of loitering and wasting time. School loses its charm, through nothing to do, and there is little valuable "busy work" which a child can do without instruction from the teacher when it is being done. If the first-grader came to school to the kindergartener, in the afternoon, from 1 until 4 o'clock, or even 3:30, he would receive more actual instruction than is now gained from the two sessions, and might have number games. perception games, games for teaching morals, etc., that are impossible with the present system. Writing might be started at the kindergarten tables to rhythm-songs with big crayons. and arm movement taught from the first, which is not usually the case now. All the first-grade arithmetic learned through games easily and pleasantly would be retained for the next year, because your child will play these games all summer at home.

One of the great faults with the kindergarten is that the child dislikes the strict discipline of the first grade after the freedom and individualism allowed in the kindergarten. This would be overcome with the kindergartener for a teacher, for, as she gradually distinguishes the work of the babies from those having had one year of kindergarten training, she will increase the discipline for those of first grades. At the same time, with only one grade at this time, she can carry the moral training of respect for the rights of others, and the happy family ideal along, strengthening it for another year, and by being with her pupils constantly can instill right methods of "How to Study."

There is one other point about this arrangement that would greatly improve our present school system in our four-room

schools. Under the present order there is a great gap between
the second and third grade, which seems impossible to bridge.
The pupils entering the third are accustomed to baby play
and ways, and have little foundation for getting down to
personally getting a lesson. This, I believe, would be over-
come, since the teacher following the kindergartener would
have the second and third grades together and might see the
defects of the present plan more readily and overcome them.

Again, in our four-room schools the combination of fifth
and sixth is a bad one. Usually fifth-graders are not adoles-
cents, but, being placed in constant association with nervous
irritability of beginning adolescents, get too good a start for
the next year, and we find the sixth grade requiring stronger
teachers every year. Put with the fourth, I believe that this
would be more readily overcome. The eighth grade would then
be separate and have the supervision of the teacher alone-a
plan which is being thought well of in rural towns to improve
the work of that grade.

The writer has taken this matter up with the Deans of the Colleges of Education at three leading teachers' colleges of the country, and each signified his willingness to try the experiment in training if the experiment would be tried also in the schools. As we all know, too much of our training is spent upon these wonderful experiments in our training schools which we find we are unable to use, in actual practice, because we are so bound to present systems.

The Department of Kindergarten Extension desires to pre-
sent this matter to the thoughtful consideration of professional
teachers, and see if we cannot find a better way to do more
for the foundation building of our school work.

DEPARTMENT OF KINDERGARTEN EXTENSION,
NEVADA FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS.

PART-TIME EDUCATION—A GREAT OPPORTUNITY

Almost every school in Nevada will be able during the coming year to extend its usefulness by taking advantage of the opportunity afforded by the State Part-Time Law. This law is to be viewed as an enabling Act which permits a school district to organize classes for boys and girls who have left school to go to work, and provides for reimbursing the district for not less than one-half of the salaries paid for conducting and coordinating such part-time classes.

The Part-Time Law opens a great opportunity to the business and industries of the State. Employers, with few exceptions, are alive to the fact that their youthful employees need training specifically directed toward making successful men and women and good citizens. They are glad to comply with the legal requirement that they excuse the boys and girls from work for at least four hours a week to attend classes in citizenship, health, and vocational subjects. This is so obviously to their advantage that the most progressive firms in the United States have for some years been paying for the entire cost of instruction as well as giving the employees "company time" to go to school.

This provision gives a great opportunity to the young people who, because of either shortness of vision or shortness of money, leave school to go to work. There is no doubt that every day of schooling means, on the average, from ten to one hundred dollars added to the total earnings of the student, and from this point of view alone the instruction paid for and given him by the school, in time paid for and given him by the employer, is equivalent to a present of respectable proportions. If we add to this the intangible but very real satisfactions arising from intelligent interest in work, improved social status, and the development of taste and appreciation, it is clear that the benefits of part-time instruction should make a strong appeal to young people at work.

Part-time education includes training for citizenship-not stereotyped "Civil Government," but instruction in right thinking and right acting in regard to the pupil's relation to his family, his social group, his community, and his work. From the standpoint of the future state, it is a great opportunity to develop a citizenry capable of carrying onward and upward the banners of democracy.

Part-time education is a great opportunity for the schools of Nevada. From a purely selfish standpoint it will pay to get into closer touch with the new and significant movement in education, the movement toward bringing teaching into more intimate contact with life by making it function toward a livelihood. The slogan of the cooperative electrical campaign, "He profits most who serves best," may be apropos in reference to the benefit the school is thus enabled to confer upon the industry, upon the individual, and upon the State. It must be remembered, too, that, in molding the future through preparing workers for citizenship, the school is helping to shape its own destiny as well as that of the other institutions of civilization. In a larger sense, however, the great opportunity for the schools is to render a new kind of service-a real and vital service-in improving the prosperity, the moral and social standards, and the democratic ideals of a part of our population otherwise lost to the influence of our schools.

To make the most of the opportunity the schools must have the cooperation of those whom they would serve; business men must be shown that the instruction will apply to the work to be done in their establishments; and part-time pupils must be convinced that what they learn is in line with the interest that impelled them to seek employment. In other words, part-time education must be real vocational education; it must function in concrete ways to the advantage of those who are to cooperate with the school in carrying it on.

How to make the best use of this opportunity deserves careful thought on the part of the school administrators. The State Department of Vocational Education stands ready to serve in every way in its power. Do not hesitate to ask for its assistance in "putting over" this important job. -H. H. B.

ADDITIONAL UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS FOR SERVICE MEN

Teachers are asked to help spread the news contained in the following announcement. A little personal interest on the part of teachers may give just the needed information, and help some young man to make