It guarantees that all the money raised by the State and 60 per cent of the money raised by the county shall be used for teaching. The money cannot be used for the construction of elaborate buildings to satisfy community pride at the expense of the children. It must be used for education.

It is reported that, with the money provided by this amendment, California will be able to establish a statewide minimum salary of fully $1,300 a year. The present average annual salary in California rural schools is about $1,000.

The people in Montana have voted a much more liberal support for their State University, and thereby avoided a crisis in their educational history.

Other cases might be cited also showing the noble manner in which the people have taken hold and are going about solving the problems of pressing need for financial support for their schools.

The problem of more adequate financial support for Nevada schools is one that is pressing and one that calls for constructive thinking and action on the part of the people of the State.

The children of today are the citizens of tomorrow, and the State cannot deny to them their heritage of a free and adequate training for good and intelligent citizenship. A proportionately larger support from the State and a corresponding lessening of the burden of local taxation for schools is one of the remedies already suggested in the BULLETIN.

Better salaries for teachers is not the only phase of this question that should concern the people of the State in general and the school officials and the teachers in particular. Higher educational qualifications and professional training of teachers are questions that must be given serious consideration, as is also the providing of better school buildings and facilities and comfortable living conditions for the teachers.

AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVIC PATRIOTISM

The names of Roger Williams and Patrick Henry, two of our early Americans, have recently been selected for the Hall of Fame at New York University.

Who were these men; what did they do; for what principles did they stand that they should be considered worthy of a place among our great Americans?

In the teaching of our country's history we should make the subject seem real and vital to our pupils. Do they "warm up" to the subject, so to speak, and do the teachings they receive at the hands of their teachers make them better Americans and better citizens?

Who are citizens; what makes us citizens; what are the rights and duties of citizens; are some citizens better than others; do you know the meaning of our country's flag; why should we love and defend our flag? These are a few of the questions that can be asked to bring the subject home to the pupils.

And, bringing the subject concretely home to the school itself, there are many ways that civic patriotism and good citizenship can be made "alive" for the pupils-the citizens.

Do the school citizens take a laudable pride in their school? Are they and the teacher jealous of the school's good name and honor? Is the school property protected and kept neat and clean? Is there a school creed, and do the pupils know it and really "believe in" it?

Previous issues of the BULLETIN have a number of articles bearing on the teaching of Civic Patriotism. Read these again.

"The Meaning of America"; "Displaying the American Flag"; "Salute to the Flag"; and "Civic Patriotism and Special Days" are some of the articles referred to.

Do your pupils know the American's Creed, and can they give the Salute to the Flag, and give it with a will and heartily?

WHY I LIKE TEACHING

Below are given the essays of the teachers who won the second and third prizes in the contest conducted last summer among summerschool students in the United States.

There are many reasons why we should like teaching. The importance of the work is second to none, and it is a great privilege, as well as an awful responsibility, that the teachers have of shaping the future of the boys and girls of the Nation.

Read again the first-prize essay of Superintendent Dixon, which appeared in last month's issue of the BULLETIN. Read the two essays in this issue thoughtfully, and as you read put yourself as much as you can in the place of the writers. The greatest reward of teaching lies not in the small salaries that the teachers get as "pay" for their work, but it lies in the noble service that the teachers render by virtue of their position.

Keep these three essays near you, and read them frequently:

Second Prize

ELIZABETH PARDEE, New Haven, Conn.

Before choosing any profession as a life work, the advantages it offers and the disadvantages to be encountered should be considered. In every career one finds both. I like school teaching because I believe that, more than in any other profession, the advantages accruing far outweigh the objections.

I have an inquiring mind, a thirst for knowledge, a desire constantly to try out in practice the ideas found in books; in other words, to reduce to a scientific basis the theories that I think ought to work for the improvement of the rising generation. And nowhere is the opportunity afforded as in the schoolroom.

There, too, is offered the most interesting study in the world-the development of the human mind.

The work cannot become monotonous or routine, for each day brings new problems. And for every subject presented there are almost as many different mental reactions as there are minds.

Another reason for my preference for teaching is found in the fact that longer vacations are given than in any other profession. The teacher has time and opportunity to seek

new scenes; to rest and relax; and to follow courses of study at some summer school, under inspiring and enthusiastic professors who rearouse zeal and ambition. And in addition to the ten weeks' vacation in the summer (the usual business position affords three), there are the Christmas and Easter holidays that give time for pause and readjustment at just the seasons when one feels this need, though people engaged in other lines of work are usually busiest at those times.

Again, the compensation (under the salary increases given in almost all parts of the country recently) compares favorably with that offered to women in other professions. Experience has shown that the brilliant woman, here as elsewhere, wins recognition, financial and otherwise; and in no field is there greater opportunity for the development of initiative.

Finally, if we believe that the greatest among us is he who serves best, we find in the teaching profession an opportunity for all of us to achieve greatness. I believe that no oneneither the parent nor the pastor-fills, under our present scheme of life, so useful a place in society as does the teacher. He or she not only teaches "reading and writing and 'rithmetic," but is called on to supply instruction in morals, manners, and training that children should get in the home, but in many instances do not receive from their busy or careless parents.

Third Prize

B. WITKOWSKY, Brooklyn, N. Y.

I shut my desk and looked around the large pleasant office where I had spent so many happy though busy and warm hours in that hot Washington of the summer of 1918, and asked myself why I was giving it all up, why I was going back.

I came to Washington and joined the ranks of those stenographers and typists summoned by Uncle Sam to handle the tremendous correspondence and clerical work which were as essential "over here" to winning the war as soldiers, ammunition, food, clothing, etc., were effective "over there."

I was done with teaching forever, with its small monetary return and resultant discomforts, its lengthy vacations when it was essential to toil in other fields to eke out a scanty existence. And, now, in spite of it all, I was going back. Once again, I asked myself: "Why?"

The answer came to me in a vision of flashing eyes, smiling lips, and bright faces. They were the magnets drawing me back. To what? To feel again the joy of teaching boys and girls, to see the light of understanding dawn in mischievous eyes, to feel the triumph of "getting things over," to hear once more the confidences of hopeful youth, to know again the joy of guiding offenders into the path of right. Small wonder I missed these thrills in the commonplaces of office routine.

And the small monetary return? What had become of that? I would return in spite of it, secure in the thought that the American people would finally recognize the importance of

education in counteracting the effects of I.W.W.-ism, Bol-
shevism, and Internationalism, and would signify their reali-
zation by granting to the teachers a remuneration in keeping
with the professional nature of their work.

This importance has been recognized and an increase
granted sufficient to make teaching a profession which offers
leisure, opportunity for culture, for travel, for intercourse
with the most brilliant minds in lecture-hall, the most talented
on stage and concert-hall, and a background of education
which will enable appreciation and enjoyment. Are not these
to be coveted?

Then, there are the numberless advantages of contact with persons of education who must of necessity constitute the personnel of every school.

For the ambitious, advancement beckons on every side; along whatever line one may long to specialize, all fields are open, with only one requirement-proficiency.

To those whom circumstances have placed in need in a declining old age, whither all are bound, a pension soothes the closing years which may be spent in well-earned and independent rest and repose.

To enjoy all of these advantages I returned to take up teaching once more, and never once have I regretted this step. Teaching is its own reward, as all who have taught know only too well.

To those who are about to take up their life work, no better choice could be made than to take up teaching.

FIRE-PREVENTION ESSAY CONTEST

The essay contest on "Fire Prevention," suggested by Governor Boyle in October, will be further explained at the State Institute meetings, December 20-23.

The contest will probably be brought to a close in March, 1921. Full explanations will be made in the January issue of the NEVADA EDUCATIONAL BULLETIN. The rules governing the contest will be given in full in that issue. Schools desiring to take part in this contest of civic helpfulness and to win the coveted flag, should be gathering material on the plans and purposes of fire prevention. -W. J. H.

EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE

There was held on December 6 and 7 in Sacramento, Calif., one of a series of regional conferences called by the U. S. Commissioner of Education, P. P. Claxton. These regional conferences are the sequel to the general conference called by Commissioner Claxton at Washington last May, and were planned to afford a common opportunity for educational effort to meet the critical situation that has been facing the schools for the past two years or more.

Problems and successes, criticisms, and plans for forward movements, legislative and training-school plans, enthusiasm and earnest discus

sion, practical and ideal purposes, challenge and comradeship, all filled the time of the meetings with a heartening sense of the invincible determination today to make our schools fit for the task before them.

NATIONAL SCHOOL-WEEK OBSERVANCE

United States Commissioner of Education P. P. Claxton has designated the week of December 5-11 as "school week" throughout the United States. The issue of this number of the BULLETIN has been delayed and will not reach the teachers in time for this observance at the designated time. However, Nevada teachers should use such opportunities as they have to bring the question of better schools before their children and the people of their communities. This is “a part of the nationwide campaign for the improvement of the schools and other agencies of education, including larger appropriations for the pay of teachers and for buildings and equipment." This campaign is not confined to the school officials and teachers alone, but the appeal and suggestions for help have been sent to the Governors, State Departments of Education, the public press, the churches, women's clubs, parent-teacher associations, chambers of commerce, boards of trade, Rotary Clubs, labor unions, farmers' unions, and all patriotic and civic organizations throughout the land.

The specific suggestions pertaining to the public schools of the States for "school week" are:

That in all universities, colleges, and normal schools the convocation hours of the week should be devoted to a discussion of education in general and of their own particular needs; That in all elementary and high schools teachers should devote one period during each day of the week to this subject, telling the children about education in their local communities and in State and Nation, how the schools are supported and how much money is spent for them, their economic, social, and civic value, and other facts of interest, such information as many schools give in regard to other subjects;

That all schools and debating societies holding meetings during this week take for their subject of debate some topic relating to education in local community, city, county, or State;

That during this week themes of essays and compositions in elementary and high schools relate to education;

That on Friday afternoon and evening community meetings in the interest of education should be held at all schoolhouses, both in city and country, for the purpose of discussing the condition and needs of the schools of the several communities, the means of meeting these needs, and of remedying conditions.

It is further suggested that state departments of education should provide information through the public press and otherwise in regard to conditions and needs of schools in the several States; that city and county superintendents likewise provide information in regard to the condition and needs of