depend for stability, security, and intelligent direction may be endangered. In a democratic school system, the teacher or student is assumed to be the unit of thought and action, and each is given ample opportunity to demonstrate abilities or creative talents of value to the individual or the group. As never before, all of us must play parts as counselors, diagnosticians, actors, and teachers. We should counsel with sympathetic understanding on difficulties that arise out of family dislocations due to parental employment in war industries or absence from home in the service of the armed forces; we must be aware of the psychological effects of these abnormal conditions on the adolescent's physical and mental development, personality, medical needs, emotional stability and feeling of insecurity. Where all members of a staff are busy planning and working together to maintain all that is implied in "retraining for good citizenship" through subject-matter motivation, it is most likely that the student body will be exposed to situations that build self-confidence, stability, and a sense of security. Teachers, supervisors, and administrators alike can do much to create that frame of mind that helps one forget hates, fears, and sorrows by focusing attention on the need for concerted action for a noble cause. Through the medium of the various subjects taught, a realistic picture of the urgent need for united action to win this war may be presented by emphasizing some of the following: 1. Art classes can do much to integrate the personality through creative exercises that dramatize the need for good nutrition, the values in working together, the dangers of waste and carelessness, and the values in fine workmanship. 2. English courses can motivate reading and writing skills by showing the present need for these skills in various positions in the armed forces. Letter writing is most important at this time. The great need now is to improve low reading ability and to lengthen the listening span. Interest may be developed through appropriate readings about the home, war, business, community and other countries. 3. Foreign languages may be utilized as valuable aids in understanding foreign cultures. Pan-American unity may be stressed. 4. Home economics and cafeteria classes can render valuable service through lessons on food values. Home expenditures and home management problems should bear resemblance to actual conditions. The importance of rest, recreation, and diet should be taught. 5. The library should have a maximum use as a research laboratory especially with reference to problems growing out of the war. 6. Music has power to relieve tensions and to heighten the general feeling tone of all, irrespective of nationality. Glee clubs, bands, and orchestras have dynamic qualities that tend to compensate for disturbing and distracting factors. 7. Physical education should develop in all a desire to have good physical and mental health as well as self-discipline and selfconfidence. The need for cooperation in community activities and games should be learned by all. 8. Mathematics exercises and problems should grow out of gov ernment activities; personal budget difficulties, community spending, methods of raising revenue, graphing of present problems, the use of equations, fractions and decimals in preinduction courses are all motivated by present conditions. 9. Science classes should learn what substitutes may be used for wood, metals, rubber, oil, medical supplies and drugs or other articles classed as critical materials. Studies may be made of accidents and absenteeism in industry, and improvements may be suggested. 10. Social studies classes should discuss the effects of war on the home, on business, trade and on individual development. Trends in industries should be followed with studies of employment shifting. The movement of families within neighborhoods should be noted and the effects of consumers' habits on health should be investigated. Important historical or geographic facts may be presented to the school through radio skits, dramatizations, press releases or panel discussions. 11. Shop subjects should provide a setting for the development of abilities and attitudes necessary for successful adjustment. The Importance of performing knowledge and skill activities with speed and accuracy should be pointed out. Hobbies leading to vocational skills that may be useful in the armed forces should be developed. DEMOCRATIC PROCEDURES IN PRACTICE. Democratic practices that tend to give teachers and students freedom to develop individual potentialities are fundamental to the functioning programs in most vocational schools. All schools should be constantly experimenting and exploring possibilities for better teacher and pupil participation in the organizing, planning and carrying out of school activities. For example, the best democratic principles are applied when teachers are sponsoring curriculum changes, organizing club and extra-curricular meetings, conducting monthly conferences, serving on special committees, promoting particular programs, planning home room topics, recommending changes in school policies, participating in assembly offerings, and in coordinating departmental assignments. Likewise, students are applying the best principles in thought and action when they conduct elections, take part in the general organizaion, sponsor special school performances and affairs, take charge of moving picture programs during lunch hours, suggest visual aid programs, serve on student patrols and service squads, recommend changes in teaching methods and course materials, take charge of student assembly leaders, lead in home room discussions, compete for membership in the Honor Society, help write dramatic presentations and school publications and meet with the board of governors as members of the G.O. In the purposeful planning for such participation, it is assumed that, in the last analysis, the teacher is really the one from whom the student gets the greatest benefit; similarly, unless the school can induce students to plan procedures without dictation, valuable educational opportunities will be lost. But the inspiring teachers have faith that this plan will help individuals find the best answer to pressing problems in the future as it has in the past. At this time, it is especially necessary for instructors and administrators to be well versed in the findings of psychology, mental hygiene, biology and educational philosophy concerning the maintenance of good physical and mental habits. Unless we can remain integrated in trying situations and unless we have a satisfactory understanding of ourselves and others, we may not be able to solve our own problems. Likewise, our mission remains unfulfilled unless we can help adolescents understand themselves and others about them and the problems that prevent the forming of satisfying personal relationships. If the basic principles of education that place values on human efforts are to be upheld, it follows that an administrative setup should inspire stability through individual participation, freedom of thought in planning, intelligent action in teaching, and independence of spirit in cooperation. When vital decisions are agreed upon through intelligent group action, the results should add up to much more than the efforts of the same individuals working alone. Classrooms will not reflect the true process of democratic living if the tyranny of tradition works in the interest of the favored few. Social Studies Curricula for the SIDNEY BARNETT, High School of Music and Art The following is a plea for greater quantitative and qualitative participation by New York City's social studies teachers in the activities of subject matter professional associations organized on regional and national lines. We were designated to serve as delegates of the Associations of Chairmen and Teachers of the Social Studies at the Convention of the Middle States Council for the Social Studies held in Philadelphia on Friday, Saturday, March 24, 25 as part of Schoolmen's Week. The program for this convention had been prepared by committees of teachers from the six regions comprised within the Middle States Council, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, with New York City teachers playing an active part in this preliminary planning. The major interest of these programs centered in the formulation of social studies curricula for the world of tomorrow, particularly in the fields of World History and American History. In order to secure coverage of the workshops in both fields, one of us attended the workshop in World History and the other the workshop in American History. The following represents brief reports with respect to our observations in each field and a final obiter dictum representing our combined reactions and recommendations. THE HIGH SCHOOL WORLD HISTORY COURSE. This workshop had before it for consideration five alternative proposals for curricular revision of prevailing one-year courses in World History. Plan A was the recommendation of the New York State Department of Education for its tenth-year course in World History. Plan B was a course of study proposed by Professor Erling M. Hunt, Chairman, Department of History, Teachers College. Plan C was the course of study in Modern History recently adopted for the New York City's high schools by the Board of Superintendents and approved by the Board of Education. Plan D was the course of study in use in the New Brunswick High School. Plan E was the course of study, still in experimental form, in use in the Baltimore schools. We believe that Plans B and D merit the attention of New York City teachers. We are, therefore, reproducing them herewith: Plan B World History Course This course traces the growth of both Western and Oriental civilizations to modern times and, after establishing a basic chronology, deals with the forces that have molded and are molding the modern world. The three outstanding characteristics of the program are attention to the Far East, emphasis on the story of civilization rather than the story of national states, and inclusion of non-political aspects of modern history. I. The beginning and spread of Western and Oriental civilizations. (About 12 weeks) The story of fire, tools, domestication of plants and animals, writing, government, science, art, religion, literature, changing ways of making a living, changing social classes and their relationships, and diffusion of civilization by trade, migration, and conquest. To about 1700 A.D. II. The establishment of modern nations. (About 4 weeks) Political development in England and France from feudalism to strong monarchies to democracy (to establish a basic chronology for modern times together with an "overview." Incidental attention to other modern states. III. Modern world civilization. (20 or more weeks) The story of modern science: Changing economic life-the story of commerce and business, industry, and agriculture; rising standards of living. The growth of democracy: the rise of the common man; humanitarianism, social reform, and programs for social security; organized labor; the changing role of the state; religion and the status of the church; public education and the wider diffusion of knowledge. |