To increase vitality of the children of the class by correction of posture.

To win the "growing tall" contest.

Charts, two tables, two measures, two blocks, a yardstick, a recording stick and a blackboard.

Dr. George H. Kirby, Director of Clinical Psychiatry, of the Manhattan State Hospital, Ward's Island, will hold a clinic in psychopathology at New York University during the coming year on Mondays at four.

The object of this course is to lay the foundation for understanding some of the difficulties of adaptation shown by school children in whom no essential underlying mental defect is demonstrable. Conduct disorders, unusual moods, nervousness, peculiarities of mental make-up and various psychopathic traits will be viewed as evidence of a disharmonious development of the personality which may seriously interfere with the child's adaptability and capacity to acquire knowledge. The common neuroses and psychoses of childhood will be studied. Case reports will include the facts of heredity, social history, type of mental make-up, special disturbing situations, and the physical and mental examinations. The general principles of management and treatment will be considered in connection with the cases presented. The data of modern psychiatry will be used to illustrate the chief problems of mental hygiene and to show the opportunities for constructive work in this field during childhood.

A small experimental school called Laboratory School will soon be opened at 157 E. 72nd St. as an extension of the work of the Social Research Department of the Neurological Institute. This school will receive as pupils about ten children under ten years of age who for one cause or another have been failing to progress in school but who, so far as can be ascertained, test normal mentally. The tuition is free and the children will be kept through the school day. Miss Eleanor H. Johnson will act as executive officer.

CLASS MANAGEMENT

CLASS ROOM DECORATION

There are three prime factors of success in class room decoration, namely:

1. Harmonious coloring of walls.

2. Pictures (a few).

3. A balanced arrangement of the furniture of the room and whatever is placed upon the walls either for decorative purposes or for study. Of these three factors the greatest, by far, is balanced arrangement.

Satisfactory and therefore effective class room decoration depends mainly on the arrangement of the contents of the room-even to the children and the teacher-not on the contents themselves.

Much has been written on the necessity, importance, value, etc., etc., of the cultivation of good taste as a part of the work of elementary school training. There is no doubt about good taste being a desirable thing to possess. It pays in many ways to have a cultivated taste. It is, however, a difficult thing to make grow and flourish largely because its cultivation is too intensive. The possessors of good taste get their holdings in it largely by constantly associating with good taste things. But, if this last be true all the more necessary is it that children, when in the class room, have constant association with a tasteful environment.

The silent influence for good which a tastefully ordered class room has upon the future thought and actions of the average boy and girl cannot be measured, but it is bound to be considerable, and when such surroundings if constant, are coupled with a teacher whose manner and voice are of the right sort the lasting qualities of the effect are doubled. But the class teacher, alone, cannot be held responsible for class room conditions even on the matter of class room decoration. The principal cannot escape his responsibility in this matter. If he is cold to the importance of class room decoration there is little hope of his teachers being enthusiastic over the subject. If effective class room decoration is to prevail in any school the principal must take a strong helping hand in establishing and maintaining it. The principal's office above all other rooms in the building should reflect good taste.

Now follow the ten commandments:

I. Do not decorate the blackboards. It can't be done. The blackboards should be kept within the sphere of their purpose. They need no ornamentation any more than does a sheet of writing paper or a drawing board. They should, however, be kept clean. Have all work erased from the boards immediately after the instruction which resulted in such work, has come to an end. There may be exceptions to this precept, but if there are they but prove the rule.

II. Do not use the doors or cabinet walls as bulletin boards. Pictures, posters, or examples of class work should be displayed in some particular place made suitable for display purposes.

III. Do not allow wall displays of class work to get stale. It would be very profitable in many ways if class rooms would present new and fresh arrangement of displayed work every Monday morning. To make this weekly change would require but little time and attention commensurate with the effective though silent influence which a change would have on the class spirit.

IV. If you desire to display something on the class room walls don't “stick it up anywhere." Place it deliberately on the walls in an appropriate place so that it will form a part of a determined plan of display, otherwise, keep it off the walls.

V. Keep the window shades balanced.

VI. Make of the teacher's desk a model of good design in balanced arrangement. It is not enough to "keep it in order." A fresh bouquet of flowers placed on the desk every morning-or a rearrangement of the old bouquet will do quite as well if the flowers are still fresh-will have a wonderful influence on the pupils for good in the way of deportment either physically or mentally. In making the above statement the fact is not lost sight of that school location has a deal to do with floral decoration-so have the seasons. However, a teacher who is alive to the importance of floral decoration will find some way-once in a while at least-to have flowers on her desk.

VII. Keep the window-sills free from litter. They should not be made the resting place of drawing models, constructive work results, bottles, cans, books, or a host of other things often found upon them. The only thing which can be placed upon a window-sill without offence is a plant, and a healthy one at that, not one that is dead or dying. It is an absurd excuse to give for the "messing up" of window-sills that no other place is afforded where things may be "put." Make an urgent and logical demand to the proper authorities for the necessary "places to put things" and see how quickly the demand will be honored.

VIII. Have pictures hung, when possible, a little above eye level. When placed above the Dado moulding which is generally about seven feet above the floor, they should be large enough not to appear lost on the wall. They should be hung with two wires so as not to rest upon the Dado moulding.

IX. Make quality rather than quantity the characteristic feature of your display material. It may be said, however, that the decoration of lower grade rooms may be more lively in color and more in quantity than those of the upper grades.

X. Remember that the most effective method of teaching is by example. Be careful, therefore, how you preach good taste. It would be wise, however, not to let flagrant breaches of good taste on the part of the children pass without correction.

FRANK H. COLLINS, Director of Drawing, New York City.

CARE OF TOOLS

Every one will agree it is very necessary that the children learn to take good care of the tools. Many valuable lessons may be taught indirectly through this medium. In one of the Ungraded Classes, a teacher found the boys thought it made no difference whether they were careful of the tools or not, but when, as the result of lessons in civics, the boys found that their fathers as taxpayers supplied the very tools of which they had been so careless, their point of view changed and they mended their ways. So may the lesson be taught that good results can be obtained only when the tools are kept sharp and clean and used for the purpose for which they are intended. When the boy realizes that when it becomes necessary for him to use undue strength because of the dullness of the tools all joy is gone from the task, he is a step nearer to the great lesson of efficiencyand as he works he learns that orderliness and carefulness are sure to bring good results just as a lack of them will bring failure.

In our own class we have three work benches equipped with all the necessary tools. We start with the idea of a place for everything and everything in its place. Having so many supplies we found this absolutely necessary. In fact we were very chaotic until we planned in this way. We have a housekeeper; a different boy each week, whose task it is to arrange each bench for work every day. That is he places the saws, try square, hammer, gauge, pencil and ruler on each bench ready to be used. The other tools, as planes, knives, chisels, not to be used immediately, are left in the racks in the bench closets until needed that they may not be injured or cause injury to the worker.

When the cleaning up period comes at 2.45 all work stops, the two boys working at each bench put their unfinished work on shelf in front of the room, clean the bright parts of the tools with oily waste and put them in their proper places in the bench closet and brush the top of the bench clean.

A shop problem that used to bother me quite a little I found solved in an Ungraded Class I visited. After the sewing lesson a girl went around with a magnet on a string and picked up all the pins. I use the magnet now for nails and my lowest grade boy enjoys himself immensely picking all the nails he can find and placing them in the proper box. Once a month the older boys look after the tools, decide which they can sharpen, and which must be sent to the grinder.

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We have a clothing closet in our room large enough to serve the purpose of a lumber closet and consequently we can order enough wood for the entire term. One day when the wood arrived I asked two boys to arrange it the way they thought best, and their way worked out so well that we have never changed. They arranged a shelf about three feet from the floor and placed the boards on it resting on their edges. They left spaces