exemplified in the appearance of school grounds, the conduct and achievements of the children, and the appearance of halls and corridors of the building. School sportsmanship is shown through activities of yell leaders and pep assemblies. The council arranges for children to conduct games and auditorium and stage activities. Children have charge of lost and found articles. The council helps plan social and recreational affairs, arranges for pupils to help in the school library and with motion pictures.

The student council in a Massachusetts school asks all classes in school to make and display posters on safety, and each year takes charge of a play day, a clean-up day, and a candy and ice cream sale for the school. These activities have been helpful in developing interracial understanding in the school, which is in a neighborhood of both white and Negro families.

In a North Dakota school, the student council helped with ar

rangements and practice for a spring music festival or pageant called "Salute to Our Home State and Our Home Town." The school staff hoped that through the pageant children might develop increased love and respect for their native land through increased understanding of their home State and city. As a result, all grades, classes, schools, and community groups are closer together in civic aims and spirit.

In an Oklahoma school, the student council is primarily respon

sible for the safety patrol throughout the school. The older girls. help supervise games at recess and help keep younger children in the proper play areas. Patrol boys help people cross the walks, retrieve balls, and place traffic signs at street intersections.

In a Connecticut school, the student council was instrumental in carrying out a soil erosion project in which the boys and girls filled in and grassed a path which had been cut by students and citizens across the corner of the school ground and a neighbor's lawn. In an Illinois school, the council has a part in planning for outdoor classrooms, fireplaces, and gardens; sponsors a clean-up campaign and makes a report to the mayor; and plans square dancing parties with "squares" for children as well as adults.

In at least two schools in Oklahoma, the primary responsibility of the student council is school safety. In one of these, the older girls assist in supervising games at recess and help keep younger pupils in the proper play areas. Older boys constitute a safety patrol. They place traffic signs at certain street intersections and aid young children in crossing walks and in retrieving balls that have rolled into dangerous play areas.

In a school in Kansas where the work of a student council is limited temporarily to safety, the council is responsible for bicycle safety, including activities to teach pupils the facts about bicycle hazards as well as safety. All the schools in town are included. The work is done in cooperation with the city traffic department. It is believed that as a result of the campaign during the past year all the children who ride bicycles to school have successfully passed a safety examination and have had their bicycles licensed.

In a city in Massachusetts where the council has charge of school safety, the children place signs in the neighborhood of the school to help pupils recognize safety hazards. All classes make posters calling attention to things the children consider to be safety hazards. The council meets with the regular student safety patrols and reports to representatives of classrooms on measures the patrols think important.

Organization and Sponsorship

The basic organization of student councils appears to be about the same in all schools. One Maryland council, which is probably typical in this respect, has a president, a vice president, secretary, and representatives from each class. Committees are appointed by this group for special projects and disbanded when their work is done. A Massachusetts school provides opportunities for the chil

dren to get council experience by organizing a council in each classroom as a branch of the main student council.

In the school just mentioned, a sample business meeting of the student council included a report and a discussion of unfinished business. Then the group took up the new business and the work of that particular meeting. The business of the meeting was to plan for the election of new officers for the year. The children were concerned with how to get nominations made, how to get them before the school to be voted on, and how to get the children acquainted with the nominees.

Patrol boys and girls explaining a study of school safety, Hammond, Ind.

All the councils visited have faculty or staff supervisors or sponsors. Whereas the members of the student council are usually selected with a view to giving many children opportunities to participate, the staff advisers are sometimes selected for certain qualifications. For example, one school system publishes a handbook to guide students and staff advisers in their work on the council. The following excerpt from a Maryland school bulletin shows the qualifications desired in staff advisers:

1. Interest in student organizations

An important requisite for advisers of student council organizations is a strong desire for the improvement and enrichment of school life.

This desire on the part of the advisers should be based upon a sincere conviction that problems of school life are best solved and activities are best carried on by means of the active participation of pupils in student organizations.

2. Willingness to work

The success of student council organizations bears a direct relationship to the amount of time and quality of effort expended by advisers in furthering student programs in the school. Participation in pupil planning activities, preparation of materials, coordination of action, evaluation of programs, and attendance at committee meetings are some of the activities which are the advisers' responsibilities.

3. Ability to work well with children

It is essential that the faculty sponsors be individuals whom the pupils like and respect. They should have enthusiasm and evidence an earnest desire to work with children. As in the case of all teachers, they should be alert to the personalities, abilities, interests, and needs of the individuals within the council by stimulating, guiding, and enriching pupils' experiences.

In one Oklahoma school system, the student council is primarily organized to coordinate school activities that are selected by the different rooms to be carried on through the year. A list of primary responsibilities in one school follows:

First grade

Second grade

Third grade

The work includes reading the weather report, and putting out the green flag to indicate fair weather and the red flag for bad weather. When the green flag is out the children know they can play outdoors.

This group carries on a bulb-planting project.

The children take up absence slips and help teachers report sickness and other absences.

Fourth grade These children run a parking lot for bicycles and clean paper and other litter off the school yard.

Fifth grade

This group edits the school newspaper.

Children's Appraisal

When members of student councils are asked what they get out of the experience, their replies run somewhat as follows:

Q. Do you think your student council has helped the school?

A. I remember when the council talked about helping new pupils to feel at home. I think our council helped some of them.

A. I think our student council has helped the school because the representatives make reports to their classes. The reports give the other children ideas.

A. It is nice to get acquainted with boys and girls who are older or younger than we are.

A. Our council helps us have safe playgrounds.

A. When our school has programs and exhibits, our council helps.

Q. What do you think you get out of being on the council?

A. I used to be afraid to talk to a group, or even in class. Now I can talk. I am still afraid, but not so much. Today I can tell you how I feel about the council.

A. I have made new friends through the council. Before I was elected to the council, I had just a few friends to play with. Mostly they live in the neighborhood where I live. Sometimes I thought, I wish I had someone to play with. In the council I get acquainted with children who live in other blocks.

A. It feels good to do something useful, like helping with the school exhibit. In the council I have more opportunities to do such things.

Student councils contribute to the all-round program for the development of children in several ways:

(a) A student council may be initiated to solve a specific
problem or it may have general cooperation and
school unity as its aims.

(b) Student councils help children increase their ability
to work together smoothly, to conduct business meet-
ings with more ease, and to talk to a group with
greater ease and effectiveness; to extend their circle
of playmates or friends and to learn to know and to
work with children with whom they might otherwise
have few contacts; and to feel satisfaction and
achievement in giving service to the school.

(c) Student councils that have a constructive program
seem to promise more developmental experiences for
children than those that are merely remedial, al-
though the stage of development of teachers and
children in good educational practices must be con-
sidered in selecting experiences.

(d) Most of the schools work for a student council or-
ganization that affords the greatest number of chil-
dren the most opportunities to participate.

(e) Service to the school is the major goal of most of the
council members.