collection of paintings, etchings, and engravings of foreign and American artists.

The museums as well as the libraries co-operate with the schools. Photographs and lantern-slides from the collections are sometimes sent to the class-rooms, and members of the staff of the museums often give lectures on special topics in the

Courtesy of the National Cash Register Co.

A LARGE AND INTERESTED SATURDAY CLASS

Two thousand Dayton children spend a Saturday morning listening to a well-known children's story writer in the N. C. R. schoolhouse.

schools. History, Science, Art, and other classes frequently visit the museums with their teachers to study certain collections as a part of their school lessons. Free public lectures are often given at the museums.

In

Libraries and museums are usually managed by a Director, who is responsible to a small board of trustees. Sometimes the trustees are quite independent of the city government. other cases the Mayor of the city and other city officials are ex-officio members of the board. The libraries and museums are maintained by contributions, interest on endowments, admission fees (on certain days), and city appropriations.

4. HOW THE SCHOOL SYSTEM IS ADMINISTERED

Nearly every city has a separate Board of Education, the members of which are in some cities chosen by the voters, in others appointed by the city's chief executive. The Board has complete authority over the schools.

The executive officer of the Board of Education is the Superintendent of Schools, who has varying powers in different communities. In many cities he has a great deal of influence on the selection of teachers, the choice of text-books, the mapping out of study programs, and the determination of matters of school policy. In some cases he has also the duty of holding examinations for candidates for the teaching force, and issuing licenses to the successful ones.

The city is to a great extent both supported and controlled by the state in its management of schools. The compulsory school attendance law, in communities where it exists, is a state law. Before a child can start working he must obtain an employment certificate, stating that he has complied with the requirements of this law. The law is usually enforced by local authorities. Also, it is the state and not the city that has the power to levy taxes for school purposes. But the state can grant a city the right to lay a school tax. This is a weapon which the state has held over cities and towns to compel them to maintain educational standards up to a certain definite level. State inspectors visit the local schools, and if conditions in them are not as they should be state funds may be withdrawn from the support of such schools until they have been brought up to the required standard.

The state educational laws are enforced by an executive officer called in some states the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in others the Secretary of the State Board of Education, and elsewhere by still other titles. The constitution of every state contains a definite set of provisions regarding the state school system.

Each state system of education is independent of that of any

of the other states. We have not in this country a uniform American system of education in any legal sense. Education is not specifically mentioned either in the Declaration of Independence or in the United States Constitution. The founders of this country thought that education was a local and not a national function. Yet an American system of education has grown up, in spirit if not in form, and the federal government has given its increasing support to education throughout the country.

Since 1867 there has been a federal Bureau of Education, a branch of the Department of the Interior. The purpose of the Bureau is to collect such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the states, to diffuse information about the organization and management of school systems and methods of teaching, and to promote the cause of education throughout the country. Recently public opinion has favored the establishment of a separate Department of Education, whose head should be a member of the President's cabinet. At present the Bureau of Education has no direct power; it acts in an advisory capacity.

Our public school system owes a great debt, however, to the federal government. Shortly after the Revolutionary War the government passed an ordinance requiring a section of every township,* or one-thirty-sixth of the entire North-West Territory, for the maintenance of public schools. The ordinance included these words: "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged.” The money from the sale or lease of these school lands has formed the biggest share of the public school endowment in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Eastern Minnesota, the states formed out of the North-West Territory. The states admitted to the Union before 1848 each reserved the one section in each township for school maintenance; those admitted after that date have each reserved two sections,

* A township consists of 36 numbered sections of one square mile each.

with the exception of Utah, which has reserved four. This plan, together with later grants from the national government, has formed the backbone of our public school system and has helped to make it the greatest in the world to-day.

5. ASSOCIATIONS THAT CO-OPERATE IN PROMOTING EDUCATION

Co-operating with the public educational system are a number of agencies, which offer no form of direct education but aid the existing educational authorities. Among these are the National Education Association, the various parentteacher associations, and the Foundations. The last-named group includes the Russell Sage Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, both liberally endowed by their founders to promote social welfare and educational betterment. The General Education Board was incorporated by act of Congress in 1903 with the purpose of promoting education in the United States without distinction of race, sex, or creed.

6. How YOU CAN HELP

Your chance to help your community in its tremendous task of educating all its citizens is right here and right now—in school. Your community expects you to make good in your class room and in your school life. Here, as a school citizen, you are laying the foundation for your broader life as a citizen of the larger community. The better you prepare yourself, by doing good work and by being a good citizen in school, the better fitted you will be to lead in community activities when you have left your school days behind.

Let us see what it means to be a good citizen in school. Good citizens are thoughtful of the welfare of others, and careful and not wasteful about their own and other people's property. Good citizens are a help and not a hindrance to their community. Therefore, the good school citizen is punctually on time at school, and regular in attendance. He realizes that the school

is his property as well as that of others, and he takes care of it and does not abuse it.

Your teachers and your other school authorities are representatives whom the community has placed here to help you in your training as a citizen. They can do much to help you, but they cannot make you a good citizen. for yourself.

You must do that

TOPICS FOR REPORTS AND DEBATES

1. A Day in a Kindergarten.

2. The Value of a High School Education.

3. How Our Schools are Paid For.

4. What the Elementary School Does to Make Good Citizens. 5. Learning a Trade in School.

6. How the Compulsory Education Law Works.

7. A Visit to One of Our Museums.

8. A Good School Citizen.

RESOLVED: That the legal age for leaving school should be raised to sixteen.

RESOLVED: That a national system of elementary education be established in every state.

QUESTIONS

1. Why does the government take charge of schools in this country and not leave education in the hands of religious or other private organizations?

2. Why did control of education in this country fall to the state and not to the federal government?

3. What were some of the subjects studied in school during colonial days? How does our modern course of study differ from the one of those days? Give reasons for the changes.

4. During the late war the examination given to test the fitness of men for the military service seemed to indicate that nearly twenty million people in the United States over ten years of age could neither read a newspaper nor write a simple business letter. What is the significance of this, if it be a fact?

5. How much does it cost in your community to educate a boy or girl from kindergarten through the high school?

6. How much did it cost to maintain your school during the last fiscal year? For what items was this money spent?

7. Where did the money come from? How was it raised? Why should persons who have no children in the public schools be taxed for the support of the schools?

8. How much does your city spend each year for education? Your state?