Our vision is being greatly broadened by the process of education. Things that were not seen before are appearing, and old things are seen in a new light. This gives rise to new standards and to the reshaping of old standards. It is a time when the conservative finds it exceedingly difficult to maintain his poise and judgment, and to face even the appearance of being "old-fogyish" and "unprogressive." It is a time when the new is sure to get a hearing and, unfortunately, often a following, before it has fully justified itself. The spirit of the times is one of change; and the fear of falling behind the forefront of progress often impels to hasty and ill-considered adoption. While there are many lines of progress that are perfectly clear, there are also invitations to leave the well-tried paths that need careful consideration before it is safe to accept. It is the purpose of these Annals to indicate the current of educational activities, and, without assuming positive decisions, to emphasize the movements that seem to be onward, as well as to call attention to the swirling places of retrogression and danger. The great mass of material in the stream of events makes selection difficult but absolutely necessary. If the choice has been well enough made and clearly enough pictured, at least the current of the stream should be evident. And, being evident, it should be full of vital interest and meaning to all who have at heart the possibilities of that great organic, dynamic forceeducation.

The Year 1912-A General View.

There was some criticism of the public schools during the year; but much of it bore evidence of a lack of familiarity with existing conditions in the schools, or was founded on the exceptional cases which never furnish a safe basis of judgment for either the merits or demerits of any extended public effort. There was also suspicion of commercial exploitation in some of the criticisms-a factor of which the American people have had good reason to beware in recent years. Notwithstanding these evidences, however, there is much in the school conditions and in the school work that needs improvement. No one who knows

the public schools, or the private schools either, for that matter, claims that they are all they should be. All that is claimed is that they are as good as the stage of development and the demands of the respective communities or clienteles involved will permit. While in some respects every school and school system can and should lead its community, in the really determining things only such progress can prevail as the people will support. Probably the most severe, as well as the most just, criticism that can be made against the public school has been its failure to lead the people as frankly and fearlessly into better school conditions as it should have done. Although it is not always easy for school workers to project and support ideals in the face of known or expected opposition, tact and courage often clear the way for these better things. At all events, it is quite clear that both school boards and school workers are employed to serve the best interests of the public, and fear and selfish desire, on the part of either of them, only lower the integrity and value of such service.

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In marked contrast to the glaring headlines of some of the articles published during the year concerning the failure of the public school, was a statement in an editorial in The World's Work for July, to the effect that "There is no better leadership in any department of American life than the leadership of the best minds now engaged in public educational work." The training of teachers is constantly growing better and the pay for their services steadily increasing. During the last ten years the pay of male teachers has increased 38 per cent and of female teachers 27 per cent; and the increase goes on. Moreover, everybody who knows the present mood of the educational world and who interprets public sentiment intelligently knows the ever-increasing earnestness of the people about this very subject." And this better pay means that a better type of person is being attracted to and retained in the teaching force of the country. This better teaching force and this better support cannot fail to bring better results. Or, as the editorial referred to states, The movement for better schools, schools better fitted to the needs of the people, gathers volume and earnestness every year." To this a

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thoughtful editorial in one of our prominent daily newspapers has added: "A noteworthy trend in public thought is the constantly widening interest everywhere manifest in popular education. While the school system itself is now in the crucible of criticism, it is likewise experiencing the beneficial impress of the work of competent revisionists, who will certainly succeed in rearing an educational structure fully adapted to the needs of the times. And this work is being stimulated by the readiness with which the taxpayers are voting large sums for the physical needs of the schools. Equally significant and running parallel with the school movement is the extensive special programme planned by secular and religious societies. These activities are tokens of vast import to the republic. They mean that a race of men and women trained for the great problems of the future will be on hand when the children of to-day assume the responsibilities of government."

Probably nothing indicates more clearly the widening field of educational interest than the increasing part taken by prominent educators in public movements, and in the solution of public questions, which have in the past been regarded as practically outside the province of the school. The popular magazines, which are becoming so fully the forum of the people, now have frequent articles and discussions by such prominent educators as Doctor Eliot, Doctor Butler, Doctor Jordan, President Faunce, Jane Addams, Doctor Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation, and others. And even President Wilson, who has recently enlarged his sphere and province as a schoolman to include the whole of our great nation, manifests a continuance of his interests and desires as an educator by articles that he is contributing for the instruction of the people. And the field of interest of these educators has broadened to include general social activities; questions of peace and of justifiable war; problems of health, of conservation, of political and social economy; considerations of means of proper recreation, of civic betterment, of a higher type of citizenship; and the means for the promotion, in general, of all that tends to improve the morality and religion of the people.

Many are wondering what the school of the future

shall be. Doctor Kerschensteiner and many of his followers in the present vocational trend are convinced that it will be a school whose entire course of study will be permeated by manual work. One thing at least seems quite clear, and that is, that it shall have to provide more nearly for the real needs and capabilities of the largest possible percentage of pupils. Until it is more fully determined, however, what most nearly meets the needs of pupils at the various stages of their development, we cannot be certain that we have solved the problem. In the past much was made of the nature of the child, at present everything is being tested on the basis of the destiny of the child; and it is quite probable that the school of the future shall so combine these two ideas as to give us a high degree of practical training, built upon a firm foundation of intellectual and spiritual development and the possibilities of human beings for physical health and enjoyable rest and recreation.

Probably no one thing, in the changed and changing conditions of affairs, is influencing school organization and the course of study more seriously than the demand that somewhere during the period of formal education young people shall receive the kind of training that will prevent them from entering upon the serious business of life as mere novices. Questions of earning and spending may no longer be ignored during the twelve to sixteen years of the school's opportunity. That the pupil is permitted to take up the toga of citizenship without the knowledge and skill which will enable him to apply his energies in some desired and desirable direction, is beginning to cast serious reflections upon the efficiency of the school. There was a time when the home provided all the training in these directions that was expected, and the task of the school was the comparatively simple one of providing knowledge and culture according to the demands of the community or the aspirations of the pupil. This was during the days of farm and village life, the days when industries were small and the apprenticeship system fully cared for the youth who would take up a trade, and even very largely cared for those who would enter upon a profession. But social and economic conditions have changed, and indus

try is conducted upon a scale and under a competition that calls only for the highest skill and efficiency. Wasters of good material and consumers of unearned wages are no longer welcomed for apprenticeship by the industrial world.

As the wages for unskilled labor have not kept pace with the cost of living and the increased demands of a more complex life, the conditions that face the unprepared beginner are far from promising. This is especially true of the girl who is compelled to earn her own living. As the average girl wage-earner of eighteen gets less than six dollars per week, the hardship and temptation involved in a lack of training that makes her worth so little to the industrial and business worlds are not pleasant to contemplate. And, naturally, much of the blame for her poor economic position is placed upon the school. At least, both business and industry claim that this class of workers comes to them with so little practical knowledge and skill as to be worth little for their work. But there is another phase of the problem in which the girl is concerned. She may marry, and that with little knowledge, and less skill, concerning the fundamental things upon which the comfort and welfare of the home depend. In a modern wageearning home this is apt to be the case. Hence the public is looking to the school for the solution of this problem also. While the school cannot do all, it is undoubtedly the best-equipped agency for doing a great deal. Its opportunity has shifted from storing the mind to training the life. And the public which supports it is looking to it to solve the problem of how best to do this.

But efficiency for participation in life does not depend upon the so-called practical training alone. A good education embraces many things,-familiarity with the conventions and implements of knowledge; a self-discipline which brings the life into helpful accord with the highest social welfare; and appreciation of such ideals of life as the beautiful, the true, and the good; as well as efficiency for meeting the opportunities and duties of life. And no system of education can be complete or successful which does not provide for all of these essentials. The justice of the criticism to which the school has been subjected is found not so much in its failure to do what it has under