GENERAL EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

This is the age of the school. Society has suddenly become aware of the tremendous potentialities of education. Growing weary of the long effort to reform society bodily of its major ills advocates of reform are turning to the schools as the strategic points in the contest for general progress. They feel that it will take less time and energy to educate youth in harmony with certain ideas than it would to root out the evil conditions which prevail in the various walks of life. The work of the W. C. T. U. and allied bodies in securing the passage of laws requiring the teaching of the harmful effects of stimulants and narcotics was one of the earliest examples of effort in this direction. At present the number of interests claiming special emphasis for their ideas in the instruction of the school has become legion. Many of the claims are valid and should be recognized; others while worthy do not deserv the attention which their advocates insist on; there may be a few which should not be encouraged. It is the responsibility of superintendents in cities, counties and the state to exercise careful discrimination in encouraging the various proposals which are offered. They should bear in mind that youth are to be protected not exploited, and that the value of ideas must be measured not only according to their inherent good, but also in relation to other ideas and proposals. Educational progress is indicated not by the number of new ideas which are carried out in the schools, but rather by the careful selection of ideas. Considering the growing complexity of the school and the increasing unrest regarding the character of the instruction of the school, it seems well to give this word of counsel in connection with the discussion concerning general activities and movements in education.

To show how rapid the educational progress has been in late years it is but necessary to picture the school of today with that of a generation ago. The complete modern school plant represents the product of the finest thought and most careful study and investigation. The schools are carefully graded, special schools conducted for special groups of children-the defective, the wayward, the retarded; particular lines of work have special supervision; the courses of study are carefully outlined; the methods of work and the programs show a wide variety,-plays and games, dramatizations, construction of concrete examples of work; texts on which have been lavished the finest thought in authorship and publication; teachers with ability and genuine professional spirit; school buildings, which in architecture, construction and equipment embody the best ideas of the late but rapidly developed science of sanitation, heating, lighting and ventilation; with the schools of a generation ago, where the instruction and the methods of instruction were formal and rigid, the texts

inferior, libraries and maps limited in number and value; the attendance irregular; the grouping of children-old with young, backward with those far advanced-almost heartless; buildings which violate nearly every principle of modern science; teachers many of them of limited scholarship and no normal training.

Picture also the modern rural school with its up-to-date schoolhouse where the lighting is unilateral, the heating provided for in a modern heating system; with its libraries and maps, its hot lunches, school gardens, its work in agriculture, manual training and domestic science, its trained and enthusiastic teacher, and its social center meetings. Surely we have reason to be proud espcially in the State of Washington of the progress which our public schools in city and country have made.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION.

The movement for vocational education is the concrete expression of the general effort at the democratization of the public schools. It is natural in its scope, and is enlisting the support of educational bodies and governmental organizations. Many states have made extensiv investigations of the needs of vocational education, some have enacted laws on the subject, and others are contemplating doing so. There is a National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education. President Wilson appointed a commission in accordance with an act of Congress, which has recently brought in a report recommending federal aid for vocational education. The aid is to be given for the purpose of assisting in the training of suitable teachers, and in paying the salaries of teachers of agriculture and industrial arts. It is altogether probable that some legislation along these lines will be enacted by the federal government.

The problems that arise in connection with offering instruction in industrial lines are numerous and complex. One of the first questions is the financing of Vocational education. Already the schools require quite generous financial support from the public, and how the burden of the added cost of vocational education is to be distributed is a serious problem. Again, how shall the work in vocational education be incorporated in the existing school system? What changes in school machinery shall be made? What provisions shall be made for vocational education in rural districts and small towns? What are the concrete needs of the State of Washington for vocational educa tion? These are problems of such serious concern that before any legislation is attempted, their solution should be worked out. That this work might be done thoro the state superintendent, in response to a request from the Educational Council of the Washington Educational Association appointed in 1914 a Vocational Commission. The commission consists of seven members as follows: Prof. H. G. Lull, University of Washington, chairman; Ben W. Johnson, Seattle; Prof. F. O. Kreager, Washington State College; Mrs. Lizzie Jones,

county superintendent, Everett; Supt. W. M. Kern, Walla Walla; A. J. Rhodes, Seattle; H. L. Hughes, Spokane. In addition an advisory board of some fifty or more members was appointed, consisting of prominent men and women in the state interested in the subject. A meeting of the advisory board and the commissioner was held in Tacoma on June 24th, 1914. The commission has been working for some time, and expects to complete its report and recommendations and present them at a second meeting of the advisory board. Final recommendations will then be made to the next legislature.

SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE.

Truly wonderful is the progress which has been made in the design and construction of school buildings. In this volume we are printing several cuts showing types of school buildings which are being constructed over the state. It is no uncommon thing to be traveling along a road right through the forests in the western part of the state, and to come suddenly upon a modern one-room schoolhouse, with ample playground and well kept outbuildings; or in the eastern part of the state to come upon such a building in traveling through the rural districts. It is hard to measure the valuable results which have come from the supplying of plans and specifications by this department for one, two and three-room school buildings. These plans were prepared in 1911 and have been used all over the state in the erection of buildings. Where these plans are followed the common errors of wrong lighting and unsatisfactory heating and ventilating systems are avoided.

In the cities of our state have been constructed buildings of the very finest type to be found anywhere. There is scarcely a city or town which does not have a modern high school building. In the large cities the buildings are not only built according to the most scientific principles of construction; but the design is truly artistic. Particular types of these high school buildings are the Lewis and Clark High School, Spokane; the Lincoln Park High School, Tacoma, and the Franklin High School, Seattle.

In some cases the communities have been over-anxious about erecting fine school buildings, and as a result have involved the school districts financially. Fortunately these cases are very few, and with the excellent laws governing the contracting and paying off of indebtedness, and the careful supervision of public finances thruout the state, there is little danger that these cases will become numer

ous.

PANAMA-PACIFIC EXPOSITION.

At the Panama-Pacific Exposition to be held at San Francisco next year much emphasis is to be put upon the development of education. There will be congresses of learned societies, of educational bodies from all over the world, and exhibits and displays of work which is

being accomplished in education in various states and nations. These displays are to be housed in the Palace of Education. The Exposition Commission of this state, in soliciting the co-operation of this department, limited their apportionment of the exposition fund to be used for education to $4,000, and specified that the exhibit should be housed in the state building. The state superintendent and the committee and officers of the Washington Educational Association felt that this sum was utterly inadequate to represent in a feeble way the development of education in the State of Washington, and advised the commission that unless a much larger appropriation should be made, they felt that no educational exhibit at all should be attempted. The refusal of the commission to increase their appropriation has caused those engaged in educational work in the state to withdraw all support in the task of preparing an educational exhibit.

It hardly seems necessary to justify the position taken by the educators of the state. Other industries were granted larger appropriations by the commission. And if we were to measure education as a business surely it is the largest business in which the state is engaged. With an investment of over $30,000,000 in the common school plant and an annual income and expenditure of approximately $14,000,000, with an army of 238,663 boys and girls enrolled, a teaching force of 8,639 persons, with thousands of other school officers and employes, surely education is the chief business of the state. Nor does this include the investment and enrolment in the private schools of the state, and in the higher institutions of learning which would need to be represented in a comprehensiv educational exhibit. It is indeed a serious reflection upon the state and a profound disappointment to this department that the educational interests will not be represented in any but a meager manner if at all, in the great educational displays at San Francisco. The only remedy for the situa tion apparently lies in a supplemental appropriation by the legislature specifically for the preparation of an educational exhibit in the Palace of Education.

POPULAR INTEREST IN SCHOOLS.

The public is taking a greater interest than ever before in the welfare and progress of the schools. Where the people are generally satisfied the school elections draw out but a small number of voters, but if there is any issue at stake the number who vote increases wonderfully. The chief evidence of the interest of the people at large in the schools is shown in the various movements for linking the school with the community. The Parent-Teacher Associations or Mothers' Congresses have now become quite numerous all over the state, and in their frequent meetings all phases of the relation of parents and teachers in the common work of education of the children are considered. The state meeting of these allied bodies which occurs annually draws representativ patrons of the school from all over the state. The last one was held at Olympia in the spring of 1914.

Meetings of directors are becoming common also. Generally the meetings are open to all the members of a community and the important problems and policies discussed. Directors' meetings are now a part of all educational associations, particularly of the Washington Educational Association and the Inland Empire Teachers' Association.