of Education Library at 110 Livingston Street is a general collection for the use of teachers and school officials. It probably will be reorganized somewhat in the near future to make it more useful to its clientele. The Bureau of Reference, Research and Statistics also has a reference collection of professional books. The Curriculum Library contains city textbooks, many courses of study from other cities and states, and a pamphlet file. The Bureau of Libraries at 110 Livingston Street is a general clearing house for problems in the organization and administration of libraries in the schools. Advice and any assistance possible will be given on request. A pamphlet, "Guide for Librarians in the Elementary and Junior High School" is available on request. To show the increased recognition of the importance of using books for information, the following story, quoted from the Saturday Review of Literature, of a new book just now published will be of great interest. "This book will be one of America's most widely circulated books of 1943, perhaps one of the year's most important reference books, yet will not appear in the bookstores. Fifty thous and copies have been printed, and for those who own a copy it will be, next to food and water, an essential to life. It is composed of interviews with scores of seamen who have survived sinkings by submarines; from their stories of a tough fight for life has been built up a series of suggestions to help other men who are adrift for weeks on the ocean. Every operator, officer, and member of the crew of American merchant ships will receive one of these literary life-preservers, and an emergency copy will be stowed on lifeboats and rafts. Survivors from sinkings, opening the lifeboat copy during their first hours afloat, will find encouragement as well as precious information to aid in saving their lives. It is a significant commentary on the basic strength of the printed word, that in this most primitive, elementary, and desperate fight for life in a waste of ocean, the most valuable new weapon has been found to be a book." THE ANTIQUARIAN'S CORNER Stop all presses! INFLATION HITS MOPPETS. Recently while the Antiquarian was waiting his turn to purchase his quota of chocolate cup cakes at a Brooklyn bakeshop, a little boy-no more than five-rushed in, crying as if his heart would break. "Mommy," he sobbed to the woman standing nearby, "Mommy, you can't buy anything for a penny any more! You can't buy any candy for a penny. Even a lollipop is two cents!" Having always thought that the lollipop was a modern invention, imagine the Antiquarian's surprise to find it mentioned in Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1848), which he has just finished rereading. You may remember that old Mr. Sedley was allowed to take his little grandson for a walk on Sundays only if he "promised not to give the child any cakes, lollipops, or stall produce whatever." Curious to see whether this was the first mention of lollipop in English literature, the Antiquarian took down the L-M volume of the O.E.D. Of course, if you're not interested in scholarly research, you can just skip the following excerpt from the Oxford English Dictionary: 1796 GROSE Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), Lollipops, sweet lozenges purchased by children. 1812 H. & J. SMITH Rej. Addr., Tale Drury Lane, and buy crisp parliament with lollipops. 1835 MARRYAT Jac. Faithf. i, That in the petticoat age we may fearlessly indulge in lollipop. 1844 DISRAELI Coningsby I. IX, The irreclaimable and hopeless votary of lollypop 1860 All Year Round No. 46. 459 Upright glass cases such as country dealers keep lollypops in. 1884 SALA Jour. due South I. XV, (1887) 205 the consumption of lollipops [was] phenomenal. Just between you and him, the Antiquarian found Vanity Fair a pretty dull book whenever Becky Sharp doesn't appear in its pages. When she is around, V.F. is truly a masterpiece, and Becky's letters to Amelia are sheer delight. In one, she tells about the aging and rich Miss Crawley and at the same time teaches the difference in use between who and which: My dear, Miss Crawley has arrived with her fat horses, fat servants, fat spaniels-the great rich Miss Crawley, with seventy thousand pounds in the five per cents, whom, or I had better say WHICH, her two brothers adore. In reading Vanity Fair, the Antiquarian also noticed that slang, like history, repeats itself. Thackeray, realizing that the early ex 'You know. pository chapters might be boring his readers a bit, opens Chapter VI with this promise: I know the tune I am piping is a very mild one (although there are some TERRIFIC chapters coming presently). Or this even more telling passage: "What can you want with a shepherd's dog?" the lively little Southdown asked [of Becky]. "I mean a moral shepherd's dog," said Becky, laughing and looking up at Lord Steyne. "What the devil's that?" said his Lordship. "A dog to keep the WOLVES ('!!) off me." Having by such easy stages gotten around to sex, the Antiquarian cannot drop the subject just like that. Neither does he want to enter into a controversy on sex education with Miss Fitzpatrick [see article on page 29 of this issue of High Points]. All he wants to indicate by the following incident is that there is need for some kind of education. You may remember that to get Ration Book 4, applicants were required to fill out a small form. One woman, very shy, very diffident, came to the Antiquarian seeking information, form in hand. Almost in a whisper she asked, "Where it says uh ... SEX... what should I put... white?" M. N. MATERIALS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR WARTIME TEACHING NEW CATALOGS Two catalog revisions are now available for distribution, Transcriptions for Victory and Scripts for Victory. The new Scripts for Victory Catalog includes approximately 50 recently acquired radio scrpts. More than half of them have been broadcast over national networks. Eight are from the Cavalcade of America series and deal with current naval history. A series of five Victory Corps in Action scripts was written for Victory Corps units and tells in dramatic form what boys and girls of our secondary schools are doing to win the war. Copies of each of these catalogs are available on request to the Educational Script and Transcription Exchange, U. S. Office of Education. NEW PUBLICATIONS OF OTHER AGENCIES U. S. Civil Service Commission. The Way to a Civil Service Job; Information for High-School Students Regarding Opportunities for Civilian War Service. Washington 25, Civil Service Commission, July 1943. 22 p. Illustrated. Free. (Supply limited.) Gives digests of examination announcements and procedures for applying. U. S. Department of the Navy. The Story of You in Navy Blue. Washington, Department of the Navy (1943). 49 p. Illustrated. Free. A recruiting booklet answering questions that young women ask about service in the WAVES. VISUAL AIDS U. S. Navy Films on Aviation. Navy aviation training films and film-strips are now available to schools through the U. S. Office of Education. They have been released for civilian use to the U. S. Office of Education and may be purchased from the contract distributor of all Office of Education visual aids, Castle Films, Inc., 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y. REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR STUDENTS Monthly Allowances for the Dependents of Soldiers. Office of Dependency Personal Affairs of Military Personnel and Aid for Their Dependents. Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C. Services to the Armed Forces. ARC 296. The American National Red Cross, Washington 25, D. C. Stein, Ralph, and Brown, Harry. It's a Cinch, Private Finch. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1943. The Army and You. Bureau of Public Relations, War Department. Available from local Selective Service Boards, 1943. The Soldier and His Uniform. Bureau of Public Relations, War Department, Washington 25, D. C. REFERENCES AND AIDS FOR TEACHERS A Manual of Law. Selective Service System. Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C. Introduction to the Army. A Guide for Three Community Meetings. Civilian Pre-Induction Training Branch, War Department, Washington 25, D. C., 1943. COMMUNICATION ARTS VICTORY CORPS AIDS Teachers Enjoy the Arts. Prepared for the Commission on Teacher Education of the American Council on Education by Ray N. Faulkner and Helen E. Davis. This report on the role of art in the education of teachers in general will be especially interesting to those teachers charged with developing the communication arts and skills among pupils. May be purchased from the American Council on Education, 744 Jackson Place, Washington 6, D. C., for 50 cents. English for Victory-A Manual of Practical Materials for the English Class room. Lesson plans, materials, suggestions for teaching English as a vital tool for democratic citizenship. The pamphlet was prepared by a committee of the New York City Association of Teachers of English, under the chairmanship of Shirer Van Steenburgh of James Madison High School. NEW U. S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION PUBLICATIONS Some Source Materials From Government Agencies on Wartime Consumer Education for Use by Administrators and Teachers in Elementary and Secondary Schools. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1943. 11 p. (Leaflet No. 67.) 5 cents. Bulletins and pamphlets issued by the several Government agencies which are of interest to consumers in wartime are listed under the name of the department or agency primarily responsible for them. Occupations for Girls and Women in Wartime: Selected References. Washington, D. C. U. S. Office of Education, 1943. 17 p. mimeo. (VE-ND Misc. 3688.) Free. Annotated references to selected books, periodicals, and pamphlets published from July 1940 to June 1943 dealing with the various aspects of occupations for girls and women which are essential to the war effort References to war production occupations comprise the main division of the circular, and those pertaining to nursing and to the various military and naval services for women make up the appendix. WARTIME EDUCATIONAL ADJUSTMENTS The Baltimore city schools last month issued a 238-page printed bulletin entitled Educational Adjustments to War and Post-War Conditions. The publication which deals with "redirecting the conventional work" contains reports from eight subcommittees of the War Issues Committee of the Baltimore schools on: Education for the Air Age, What "We" and "They" Stand For, Baltimore and War Changes, Maintaining Morale, Economic Factors in War and Peace, The Armed Forces and Civilian Mobilization, Keeping Physically Fit, and Planning for Peace. NEW 16mm FILMS A Letter from Bataan-One-reel sound film, showing conditions under which American soldiers lived and died on Bataan. Stresses the importance of conservation of rubber and of fat salvage on the home front. OWI film, available from your nearest film library on payment of small charge. Black Sea Fighters-Seven-reel sound film, presenting the actual story of the Russian Black Sea fleet's 250-day defense of Sevastopol. This is the first comprehensive full-length documentary of naval warfare to be released by any of the United Nations. Available for sale or rental through Brandon Films, 1600 Broadway, New York 19, N. Y. Loaded for War-Two-reel sound film in color, showing the work of the American railroads on the home front. Available from Santa Fe System Lines, Railway Exchange Building, Chicago 4, Illinois. |