for the smaller pieces at the bottom so we can get at any kind of wood we want quickly. Now when a boy decides on a model he can easily choose the kind of wood best suited for it.

In all the shop problems I feel if we can train the child even in a small way to be neat, to be accurate, to be careful, to be economical of time and material, to train his hand to work with his mind, much has been accomplished. "The working hand makes strong the working brain." MARGUERITE HORRIGAN,

P. S. 59, Manhattan.

CORRELATION OF SUBJECT MATTER

Over and over again the great educators of the day are emphasizing the importance of making a closer connection between the child's school life and the experiences of his outside world. He is to see and feel that the daily class room work is closely associated with real life and that it is a definite preparation for his future work. As this fact is driven home to us more and more strongly, we as Ungraded Class teachers are striving to meet this need by centering the school activities of our class rooms about a theme which touches intimately the lives of the children in our particular vicinity. We are aiming to choose as centers of interest those which are a part or may be a part of the real life of the child's environment.

One school neighborhood, it is true, presents accessible, interesting and living centers which may be quite foreign to a class in another section of the city. In the store, however, as a central theme, we find possibilities which are not only of universal interest but are a reality in the daily life of every child and home. Curiosity may be aroused concerning what is in the store, where it came from, how it got there, how made usable, how measured and what it is worth. In making these investigations we reach out into the fields of geography, history, language and arithmetic, and the work of the days, weeks and months is built up in a natural and vital way.

In its broad sense, the store opens up varied possibilities. There is the grocery store, the dry goods store, the millinery, the stationery store, the butcher shop and the bakery, each of which may furnish vast and valuable material for study.

For the minute let us confine ourselves to the grocery store, alone. Many of us have, or have access to, the model store equipment which is now in many of our schools. As our first step, it is quite essential that as a class or in groups we visit one or more of the local stores, prefacing each visit with discussions as to the definite point or points which we wish to observe. One committee group may be held responsible for equipment and general arrangement; another for price marks and bills and still another for neatness, cleanliness and general appearance.

With this preparation in stock we begin to plan out the building and arrangement of our schoolroom store. At once need arises for woodwork on part of the older children in providing the necessary shelves, counters,

boxes and bill files. There is a need for scales, measuring cups, and telephone directory. Each child and possibly the teacher, may be able to add his own contribution of labor or commodity. All of which appeals to the child and tends to make the store making process a fascinating occupation. Our store equipment seems quite complete when some boy or girl suggests that we still lack vegetables, fruits and nuts which comprise a part of most stores. Clay and plasticine solve the problem. In our nature lesson we become interested in the various fruits and vegetables of the season and from time to time we mold, color and add them to our store collections. Real nuts may be gathered.

Boys and girls begin to print or typewrite signs, price lists, and advertisements. The poor speller begins to detect his own weakness. He takes on an added interest in the spelling words he needs to know. His spelling lesson becomes one full of purpose and value. Here, as later in making out bills, writing necessary letters, narratives and compositions we find those words which naturally build up the lists for our spelling lessons. We are learning to spell words which are used not only in school but are practical in life outside.

Every real store has some one in charge who oversees, understands and knows extent of equipment. Our store calls for some one to officiate in this capacity. He inventories and classifies entire stock and determines selling prices, which involves practice in reading and number. Helpers are chosen to look after neatness, cleanliness and care of material.

Two or three of the older girls go to the cooking room for cooking lessons. It is quite natural that they are interested in the soups and broths which they have been taught to prepare. They take delight in explaining to other members of the class the soup making process. This interest broadens out into the factories from which our cans of soup are shipped. Where are they located? Is it possible for us to visit one? Curiosity leads us naturally and with a definite purpose out into the subjects of geography and language, oral and written. The many spices on the shelves each have stories of their own which plunge us still farther into the industrial world. The bars of soap readily suggest questions about the soap making process; which gives us material for study a later day.

One little girl has a father who works in a candy factory. She is interested in the chocolate bars. It delights her to tell her class-mates some of the facts in the candy making process which she has learned from father. Through her the class enjoy a profitable visit to the factory. It is through these experiences that the fund of material derived for English becomes the sort Dewey characterizes as “having something to say rather than having to say something."

In the play telephone, excellent exercises in dialogue are furnished. Tableaux may be arranged and for the timid child puppet plays furnish valuable devices for conversational exercises between customer and salesman. Simple dramatization exercises may suggest themselves. The children love to play the story of Lincoln as clerk in the country store.

The child afflicted with defective speech works with an increased effort to overcome his difficulty so that he may become a more efficient salesman. Every child aspires to the position of storekeeper.

In the fields of number the possibilities are unlimited in studying weights and measures, actual prices paid for things and usual quantities purchased. Playing store involves the making of bills and the changing of money; children take turns acting as salesman or cashier. Excellent practice in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions comes into play following in all cases the common practices of real life as closely as possible. As in real stores a stock taking sale at reduced rates may be advertised. Numerous other exercises suggest themselves and a vast amount of vital subject matter may be dealt with in a material way, quite on the level of the child's experience and interest.

In using the store as a center of interest we may, it seems, provide activities which are real to the child and full of interest and action, which radiate into the various fields of our school curriculum, which tend to promote a social spirit, provide for spontaneity and aim to make the child aware of and alive to the environment in which he lives. It is Dean Balliet, I think, who says that the fundamental function of education is to develop the power of interpreting the meaning of our environment and the world in which we live so that we may keep on being educated after our school days

are over.

MARY E. SODEN, Brooklyn Model School.

BOOKS AND REVIEWS

Mendel's Principles of Heredity. By W. Bateson. Published by Cambridge University Press, England, also by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1913.

This volume was first published in 1909, and in 1913 certain additions were made bringing it up to date. The book embraces in a comprehensive fashion the whole principle of Mendelism and much of the work which has been done along the Mendelian lines since 1900, the year of the rediscovery of Mendel's papers on heredity.

It contains a clear exposition of the laws of heredity together with specific examples of their application in the field of Botany and Zoology, including the human. For this reason both to the student of heredity and to the breeder, the book should be of high value.

The author also discusses the relation of the facts discovered to sociology and human evolution-all of which should prove of absorbing interest to the general reader.

A biographical account of Mendel himself together with a translation of his original papers completes this already excellent work. FLORENCE DE L. LOWTHER, Barnard College.

BOOKS RECEIVED

The A. B. C. of Woodworking: a Practical Manual for Home and School. By Charles G. Wheeler, B. S. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $2.50.

The American History Story Book. By Albert F. Blaisdell and Francis K. Ball. Little, Brown and Co., Boston.

Busy Builder's Book. Bertha B. and Ernest Coff. Ginn & Co., New York.

Stories in Prose and Rhyme for Little Children. Frances McKeen, American School for the Deaf, Hartford, Conn.

NOTES AND EXCHANGES

American Education: Industrial Education. Our Old Friend, the Examination. Personal Analysis. The New York Meeting of the N. E. A. How to Make History and Civics More Practical. Robert Judson Aley, President Elect of the N. E. A.

Education: A study of Junior High School. Patent Medicine Formulas in Our Public School Curriculums. A Plea for the Library in Public Schools. War as National Discipline. Commerical Education. Educational Exchange: James Whitcomb Riley. A New Efficiency Factor. The Crediting of Voluntary Reading. Suggestions for Primary Work. Memory Gems.

The Elementary School Journal: Course of Study in Drawing in the Elementary School. Tests of Efficiency in Rural and Village Schools. Spelling Abilities of Iowa School Children. English in the Elementary School. An Experiment with the Individual.

The Training School Bulletin: Report of Special Classes, Norwood Public Schools. Special Class Physical Training. Special Class Work in Kansas City. Dramatization as an Aid in Teaching of English. Current Literature on Feeble-Mindedness. A Contribution to the Standardization of the De Sanctis Tests.

Poet Lore: Whom the Gods Destroy, A Play in One Act. The Paolo and Francesca Theme in Modern Drama. The Happy Prince, A Play in One Act. An Ancient Realist. Hamptmann's 'Emanuel Quint.'

Florence Nightingale School

FOR

NERVOUS AND BACKWARD CHILDREN

BOARDING SCHOOL:

238th Street and Riverdale Avenue. [Tel. Kingsbridge 316]
DAY SCHOOL :

315 West 87th Street. [Tel. Schuyler 9121]

¶ Organized by teachers experienced and zealously interested in the work of educating nervous and backward children. ¶ Most approved special methods of teaching are employed. ¶ Individual instruction by graduate teachers, experienced in the training of difficult children.

Kindergarten, Elementary and Manual Training Departments

THE BOARDING SCHOOL is in the centre of a former private estate. There are lawns, flower beds, shade trees and a small truck garden where each child has its individual plot. The School is open the whole year.

THE DAY SCHOOL opens October 4th and closes the end of June.

FULL PARTICULARS UPON APPLICATION. RUDOLPH S. FRIED, Principal