Last Monday, "Doc" Sears entered the building carrying upon his usually serene, pink brow a cloud of furrows. He did not shake hands with the lever of the time-clock with anything like his customary gusto, but moved it down instead with the flabby press of a tired, somewhat dismal gentleman.

"That's not literally 'punching in,'” I commented cheerily. "Why, that clock hardly gasped. Er-you're not very happy this morning?"

He worked his card into the file before answering. "Oh well," he said at last, "I suppose you who are protected by youth and curiosity look forward to captivity as an adventure." He smiled faintly. "You have probably not had your week-end darkened by the shadow of the coming Department Conference. It comes upon us today, you know. But you will come to recognize it soon enough as an ogre that will be put off with nothing less than the routine sacrifice of at least one sweet hour of your life."

He moved to his letterbox to poke for his keys. He entered the elevator after Miss Wishymous. She offered him a hestitant, "Good morning!" as the cage took off into education. But Sears' thoughts were not winged by his customary cheer. His smile was merely on his lips.

"No," I assured Miss Wishymous, after he had left us on the third floor, "it isn't you. It's the Department Conference this afternoon."

I met "Doc" Sears again at lunch.

"I didn't notice the topic for the conference," I said, making conversation as I set down my tray. "What's on the agenda?" He buttered a roll with dignity. "The aim of every faculty conference," he declared, "is four o'clock."

"But-"

"It is an aim set by the instincts and confirmed by the wisdom of experience. It is an aim often lost sight of by good people who think that a conference can achieve other goals. It is the only aim that every conference can really hope to attain-though far too few do. This coffee is delicious. It is always the objective of my lunch." He took a slow sip. He beamed.

"But what do you do at a conference?" I asked. "You just don't sit and pout, do you?"

He put down his cup. "Each man has his own devices, I suppose. I don't pout. I conjure up the good lines of the Bard, or

the timeless insights of the seers who told us yesterday the headlines of tomorrow. Or I think up letters to the Times. Or, frankly -" a sigh!"-I do nothing but resign myself to wait, knowing that even an appendectomy comes to an end."

"And of the topic under discussion?"

"That topic was under discussion forty years ago," he said simply. "In fact, the Topic is always under discussion. But what will your little professional thinker-on-the-feet add to it today? The topic may be a fine one, certainly. I dare say it is noble, with the patina of years of deliberation. It is as lofty as a spire, and as well-grounded. But it has been comfortably settled for years, and what is the need of settling it all over again? Yes, my boy, the Topic is always under discussion: the trouble is the discussion is always under the Topic."

"And your advice is-?"

"Simple: when anyone at a conference invites your honest opinion, be silent."

THE CONFERENCE. That afternoon I entered the Conference Room quite early, and was surprised to find "Doc" Sears already inside. He was sitting in the chair nearest to the door.

I thought the meeting proceeded profitably. The chairman was hospitable. Miss Sparkcoeur, the main speaker, was sprightly. She spoke on Reading, presented charts with provocative statistics, and made comments which challenged thought.

Next to "Doc" Sears sat Mr. Gus Haww, the irrepressible department jokester, who kept making sub rosa comments to punctuate Miss Sparkcoeur's address. But when that lady, toward the end of her talk, asked, "And what else do you think would make our boys better readers?" Gus Haww made signs for silence to all about him. He raised fingers, waved down with his hand, creased his forehead into weird patterns, and cackled soundlessly.

Only a hardy few ventured to rise to their feet. And soon the meeting was over.

"Gus Haww," Sears told me the next day in the "smoking room," "is a boor. But his instincts are essentially correct: the aim of all conferences is adjournment."

I protested. "Do you really believe that you can't get some good ideas there-like this about committees of boys to present some phases of the study of a book in the way she described?"

"Doc" knocked out his pipe, then waved a deprecating parabola. "As to that, it is sheer romantic asininity to suggest that a horde of street Arabs can present a lesson. No boy can teach-he is ignorant of the five Herbartian steps."

That sent me laughing. "The Formula! The good old Formula! We can't do without it, eh?-Still, a new idea or two, carried away from a forum, might improve a man's instruction?"

"If I can't teach by now," chuckled Sears, "I never will. My young dreamer, it is a disillusioning truth that no conference ever blew fire into clay. No Mexican hairless can become a Great Dane after a convention in a kennel.”

"But what of new thoughts, creative campaigns, pioneer-"

"As to method, I judge a book by what it covers: I recommend the right ones to my boys. That is the essence of pedagogy. What better do you have?"

THE BEST WAY. What better indeed, I reflected. Ah, Sears! You stubborn, pink-cheeked, lovable Bigot of the Best! Time is ahead of us, and new thoughts, new ways to bridge the darknesses and voids. Time is ahead of us, and light-and new boys to shepherd along the roads to the sun. Take off your blinkers. The ways of Yesterday were good ways, but Tomorrow's lads may fly more scenic, swifter paths. And who are we to tell Tomorrow it can have no rocket-ships? We are earth-bound. We are pedestrians. We tread slow paths hewn out of rock. But Tomorrow builds its pathways out of light and air, and clasps hands with far Chungking across the North Pole. Tomorrow has the ways of the Great Magic Circle. And who but a despot and a fool would clip the wings of the future to keep alive the maps he feels at home on? Keep on safe ground, "Doc" Sears-on your safe ground. But let boys try, fumble-fly. For the Best Way of All is not yours— is not yet, is not yet.

"A Department Conference," I told him, as we were leaving to go to our rooms, "is not as bad as you think. It can be a Cook'stour to new horizons, and a gathering of educational scientists. suspect that its goal is not four o'clock, but tomorrow."

I

"You are stubborn through naivete," sighed Sears. He leaned forward. "I am a poet," he announced frankly. "I believe that autumn is the twilight of the seasons: it is sacrilege to waste a ray of it in conference."

I threw up my hands. I chuckled. I shrugged. I suppose you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

HENRY SEIDEMAN

Brooklyn Technical High School

MATERIALS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR WARTIME TEACHING Inter-American Education: A Curriculum Guide. By Effie G. Bathurst and Helen K. Mackintosh. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1943. 66 p., illus. (Bulletin 1943, No. 2.) 15 cents.

Gives a comprehensive picture of the curriculum with its potentialities for inter-American education.

Physical Fitness Through Health Education for the Victory Corps. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1943. 98 p., illus. (Victory Corps Series, Pamphlet No. 3) 20 cents.

U. S. War Department, Industrial Personnel Division, Pre-Induction Training Branch. Four Supplements (PIT-331-334) to Pre-Induction Training in Voctional Departments, and Trade Schools (PIT-330). Prepared by the War Department and the U. S. Office of Education, Vocational Division. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1943. (10 cents each.) Free from directors of vocational education, State departments of education; the U. S. Office of Education, Vocational Division; and the War Department, Industrial Personnel Division, Civilian Pre-Induction Training Branch. Titles of supplements:

PIT-331. Pre-Induction Vocational Training in Auto Mechanics. PIT-332. Pre-Induction Vocational Training in Machine Shop Practice. PIT-333. Pre-Induction Vocational Training in Aircraft Maintenance. PIT-334. Pre-Induction Vocational Training in Electrical Signal Communication,

The aforementioned supplements give information on Army needs for specialists for each occupation named in the titles and suggest desirable content for courses needed for the occupations specified. Useful for teachers and supervisors.

The Changing Far East. By William C. Johnstone. New York, Foreign Policy Association, 1943. 96 p., illus. (Headline Series, No. 41.) 25 cents.

Gives a survey of the development of the patterns of East-West relationship and the changes produced by Japan's conquests as a basis for understanding the impact of the present war and for planning the necessary period of reconstruction.

Jobs and Security for Tomorrow. By Maxwell S. Stewart. New York, Public Affairs Committee, Inc. (30 Rockefeller Plaza), 1943. 30 p. 10 cents. (Public Affairs Pamphlets, No. 84.)

Presents a summary of Security, Work, and Relief Policies, a report of

the Committee on Long-Range Work and Relief Policies to the National Resources Planning Board, together with the recommendations for the revi sion of the Social Security Act proposed in the 7th annual report of the Social Security Board and excerpts from National Resources Development Report for 1943, by the National Resources Planning Board. Includes a brief comparison with the Beveridge plan.

International Organization After the War. Roads to World Security. Analysis by Max Lerner and Edna Lerner, Teaching Aids by Herbert J. Abraham. Washington, D. C., National Council for the Social Studies, National Association of Secondary-School Principals, 1943. 56 p. (Problems in American Life. Unit No. 15.) 30 cents.

Literature in American Education. Prepared for the Modern Language Association of America, by Howard F. Lowry (and others). New York, Commission on Trends in Education of the Modern Language Association of America. 1943. 29 p. 25 cents.

An exposition of the importance of literature to the common man in a democratic society.

Our Armed Forces.

Publication of a revised edition of "Our Armed Forces," popular, illustrated book written especially as an introduction to the Army and Navy for high-school students, is announced by the U. S. Office of Education.

The new edition of this source-book for high-school boys and girls brings them up to date on most recent changes in regulations and the organization of the many branches of the armed services. Three new charts showing the organization of the Army Ground Forces, the Army Air Forces, and the Army Service Forces have been added, as well as illustrations of Army branch insignia for officers and noncoms, and Air Force badges.

The 136-page "Our Armed Forces" can be ordered from the Infantry Journal, 1115 17th Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. Single copies are sold for 35 cents. In quantities of four or more, the price is 25 cents.

Educational Radio Listing Service Inaugurated.

Inauguration of a monthly Educational Radio Program Listing Service to aid teachers throughout the Nation was announced by the Federal Radio Education Committee and the U. S. Office of Education, of the Federal Security Agency.

Twenty-seven network programs are on the first list which has been forwarded to all State superintendents of schools for distribution to local schools.

Programs on the first list issued are: Invitation to Learning, Weekly War Journal, Reviewing Stand, Transatlantic Call: People to People, University of Chicago Roundtable, N. Y. Philharmonic Symphony, Army Hour, Lands of the Free, NBC Symphony, The American School of the Air, The Sea Hound, Science at Work, Cavalcade of America, Gateways to Music, Prelude to Victory, Report to the Nation, Passport for Adams, This Nation