BIBLIOGRAPHY

American Council on Education, Washington, D. C., issues a pamphlet-The Other Americas Through Films and Records. 1943. Full descriptions of films and recordings with suggestions for use. Fine Appendix with films listed by countries, guide to film sources, and guide to record sources.

American Film Center, Inc., 45 Rockefeller Plaza, N. Y. C., issues Film News, Latin American Supplement, Oct. 1940-lists 46 films on Latin America.

*Heimers, Lili, Director of Visual Aids Service. Pan Americana: visual and teaching aids. N. J. State Teachers' College, Upper Montclair, N. J., c. 1940.

*Heimers, Lili. Aids for Spanish Teachers, c. 1941. Published by G. E. Stechert & Co., 31 East 10th St., N. Y. C, 50¢.

Latin American Village, South American Educational Aids, 121 Monterey Ave., P. O. Box 231, El Monte, Calif. The 1943 catalog lists numerous visual aids. However, except for posters, the cost is prohibitive for public school use.

National Education Association, 1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, D. C. Latin American Backgrounds; a bibliography prepared by their Research Division. Page 45 has an appendix on teaching aids.

*National Education Association, New York Branch, Dept. of Visual Instruction, 21 West 46th St., has a valuable two page mimeographed leaflet-Curriculum Notes: Sources of Visual Aids; War and the Schools Program.

National Foreign Trade Council, Inc., 440 Fourth Ave., N. Y. C., has a list of Latin American Film Sources compiled as to distributor, title, description, and terms.

Office of War Information, Washington, D. C., has a catalog of War films, including list on Latin America. Some are obtainable at the Bureau of Visual Instruction.

Pan American Union, Division of Intellectual Cooperation, Washington, D. C. Films and Slides on Latin America, 1941. Films are listed under names of various distributors, from whom they can be rented, purchased, or borrowed. Gives number of reels, length of running time, mm size, whether silent or sound, technicolor, grade levelelementary, high school, or college.

Progressive Education Association, 310 W. 90th St., N. Y. C., has A Source Unit on Mexico, by Ruth Gifford in the Foreign Language Program for Progressive Secondary Schools, prepared by Rocky Mt. Workshops, 1938.

Scholastic Magazine, 430 Kinnard Ave., Dayton, Ohio, has a monthly section devoted to scientific sound films. Write for two articles: South America: an introduction through four sound films, by G. H. Griffith,

*Publications teachers and librarians will find especially helpful.

Feb. 24, 1941. Still reproduced from films discussed in article, available. Also, Recordings as significant aid in teaching, by J. R. Miles.

U. S. Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, Att: Miss Jessie A. Lane, Washington, D. C., sends publications listing audio-visual aids. U. S. Office of Education, Library Service Division, Washington, D. C., will send, on request, a Teachers Manual for Studying Our Neighbor Republics.

*Williams, Paul T. Film Round-Up No. 1 on Latin America. Albany, University of the State of New York, Bureau of Radio and Visual Aids, N. Y. State Dept., November 1942. This is a list of 16 mm. films and states whether for rent or loan; gives running time, and, in most cases, date of production. Full names and addresses of distributors are given at the end of the list.

*Publications teachers and librarians will find especially helpful.

High Points

ANTIQUARIAN'S CORNER

A pun with which the Antiquarian closed a recent column has brought some grape-vine protest and brings again to the fore the old, old question, "Is punning the lowest form of wit?"

To this, Henry Erskine (1746-1817) made the admirable retort, "It is, and therefore the foundation of all wit.”

The Antiquarian filched the preceding sentence from his favorite antiquarian William S. Walsh,* to whom he is also indebted for much of what follows.

For instance, he tells us that one of the few great writers who objected to the pun was Addison, his objection being that nothing is true wit which cannot be translated into another language. Accepting the challenge, Walsh cites the following examples:

There is Killigrew's jest for example. He proposes to make a pun on any subject.

"Make one on me," quoth King Charles. "Ah, the king is no subject." Try that in French, "Le roi n'est pas un sujet." Try it, in fact, in most modern languages, and it loses nothing by translation.

A gentleman who squinted asked Talleyrand at a certain critical juncture how things were going: "Mais, comme vous voyez, Monsieur." ("Why, as you see, sir.") Good English again.

And not only that, but precisely the same joke is written in excellent Greek by Hierocles. A one-eyed doctor greeted a patient with "How

*Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities (Lippincott, 1893).

are you?" "As you see," replied the latter. "Then," said the physician, "if you are as I see, you are half dead."

A man ploughed up the field where his father was buried. "This is truly," said Cicero, "to cultivate a father's memory." ("Hoc_est_vere colere monumentum patris.").

Sydney Smith, who also looked down on the pun, was nevertheless guilty of many very famous ones himself. One of them was made at the expense of a Mrs. Grote who was famed for the bad taste of her costumes. One day, as she swept by in an especially outrageous head-dress, Smith pointed her out to a friend, with the words, "That is the origin of the word grotesque."

Thomas Hood, on the other hand, was unashamedly in favor of the pun and he didn't always care how good it was or whom it hit. He liked best his own ghastly joke on the solicitous undertaker who was seeking "to urn a lively Hood."

And here is William Walsh's own favorite, to judge by his enthusiastic exegesis.

A would be masher of middle age, who was looking at a house, asked the pretty servant-girl whether she was to let with the establishment. "No, sir," was the answer; "please, sir, I am to be let alone." Here is a pun which hits with both its barrels; each of its two meanings speaks a volume. The one informs the querist that his admiration must not be expressed too warmly; the other, that an eligible offer is not likely to be ill received. M. N.

MATERIALS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR WARTIME TEACHING New U. S. Office of Education Publications

Annual Reports of the United States Office of Education for the Fiscal Years, 1941-42, 1942-43. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1943. 88 p., 15 cents.

Report of John W. Studebaker, U. S. Commissioner of Education, to Paul V. McNutt, Federal Security Administrator, covering some of the more important activities of the U. S. Office of Education for the biennium which began July 1, 1941, and ended June 30, 1943.

Teaching as a Profession. By Benjamin W. Frazier.

Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1944. 35 p., illus. (Pamphlet No. 95.) 10 cents. Topics discussed in this pamphlet include: General nature of the profession; opportunities for specialization; teacher supply, demand, and placement; nature of the teacher's work; working conditions, requirements for becoming a teacher; and opportunities for preparation.

New Books and Pamphlets

Latin America and World Struggle for Freedom. Prepared by Ryland W. Crary for the Committee on Experimental Units of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Boston, Ginn and Company, 1943. 120 pp. illus. (Unit studies in American problems.) A guide and working outline for the study of Latin America, one of a series of units which teachers may use in developing courses that give major attention to the continuing problems of society.

*

Post-war Education

Education for International Security. Proposals of the International Education Assembly; endorsed by the Liaison Committee for International Education, Harpers Ferry Meeting, September 1943. New York, 1943. 30 p. 10 cents, single copy. (Order from: The School Executive, 470 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y.) The Liaison Committee for International Education, composed of representatives of 30 educational organizations in the United States with special interest in international education, invited educators from 26 countries to join with them in the study of important educational problems connected with the war. This report presents the conclusion and proposals of the first meeting of this International Education Assembly.

*

Correspondence Study

The Hill County Plan for the Use of Elementary Education. By Sylvia Haight and Rex Haight. Missoula, Mont., State Department of Public Instruction, 1943. 100 p. illus., 50 cents, single copy. (Order from: Associated Students' Bookstore, University Campus, Missoula, Mont.) Describes how eight scattered school districts in one Montana county, all with closed schools, used the services of the State Correspondence School and jointly employed a supervisor to direct the scholastic and social education of their children. Under this plan, the pupil, as a part of his school program, makes observations of his natural surroundings, participates in group activities, makes excursion to points of interest, and engages in various personal or cooperative projects.

Helpful Hints for a Navy Recruit. Illustrated pamphlets designed to introduce a boy to the Navy and to answer questions he most frequently asks. Distributed free by Bureau of Personnel, Division of Recruiting, Navy Department, Arlington Annex, Arlington, Va.

*

How to Learn and Like It. Leaflet on importance of learning while fighting. Describes opportunities offered by Navy Educational Services Program. Distributed free by Bureau of Personnel, Division of Recruiting, Navy Department, Arlington Annex, Arlington, Va.

British Youth Answers the Call to Service. Illustrated pamphlet describing war activities in which British youth engage. Available free from British Information Services, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N. Y.

Progress in Freedom. "Pictorial record of what the people of Britain have done and are doing to enrich the lives of all who live in Britain." Available free from British Information Services, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N. Y.

New Publications of Other Agencies

Federal Security Agency. Division of Personnel Supervision and Management. The Federal Security Agency Invites You To Live and Work in Washington. Washington 25, Federal Security Agency, December 1943. 19 p. (Processed.) Single copies free. (Supply limited.) Gives new and prospective workers in the Federal Security Agency helpful information about living in Washington.

U. S. Army, Recruiting Publicity Bureau. Wacs in the Army. Washington, Army Recruiting Publicity Bureau, 1943. 12 p. Free. Shows what the WACS do and how they are assigned to their jobs,

U. S. Coast Guard. A Message to You.. from the Coast Guard Spars. Washington, U. S. Coast Guard, (1943). (Folder 8 p.) Illustrated. Free. Gives qualifications, training, and pay for service in the Spars.

Introduction to Citizenship Education; A Guide for Use in the Public Schools by Teachers of Candidates for Naturalization. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1943. 50 p. 10 cents. Free to teachers of citizenship classes conducted under the supervision of the public schools from the Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Philadelphia, Pa. Designed to acquaint the teacher of citizenship with the problems that confront him, and to help him apply to his work the best of teaching methods and materials.

This Democracy of Ours; An Interpretation of American Democracy for Use in Public Schools by Candidates for Naturalization. Adapted from a statement prepared by Thomas H. Briggs. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1943. 44 p. Illustrated. 10 cents. Free to students in citizenship classes conducted under the supervision of the public schools upon requisition of their teachers, and to such teachers, from the Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Phil., Pa. Explains democracy as it exists in America, and analyzes what it has to offer.