Bamberger's Toy Department could end his story by descending the escalators and going to the intersection of Broad and Market Streets again. Teacher: How many think it would be a good idea for a longer theme to tell about taking a friend from out of town on a visit to the Four Corners intersection, then to Bamberger's, through Bamberger's to the Toy Department, then from the Toy Department to the street for a visit through the city? How many think it would be an interesting longer theme? (All the children raised their hands.) Perhaps we shall arrange to have something like that for one of our longer themes. How many took for their topic a description of Broad and Market Streets, or the Four Corners as seen from a high window? (Three pupils raised their hands.) Rose, will you tell us what you saw? Pupil: I entered the Kinney Building, and I took the elevator to the tenth floor. I entered the office of Clark, Dodge Company, Room 1008, and the office boy came and asked us what we wanted, and we asked to let us look out of the window. We went to the window, and we saw the flow of traffic on Broad Street, while the traffic on Market Street stood still. Then the lights changed, and traffic went the other way. Here and there I saw automobiles and the people looked like little specks, and the yellow trolley cars looked like the little cars in the Bamberger Toy Department, because they seemed very small. The traffic tower was not exactly in the intersection of the streets, but more on the left corner. There was a policeman sitting in the tower and a policeman standing. The policeman who was standing regulated the traffic. Teacher: Will you tell what you saw, Frances? Pupil: Rose and I rode up to the tenth floor, and we entered the offices of Clark, Dodge & Company, Room 1008. We entered a luxurious room and looked down from both windows. From that distance Broad and Market Streets looked like a gigantic multiplication sign, trespassed by a constant flow of traffic. At that distance it seemed as if the cars were crawling, and the people, though hurrying, never seemed to get anywhere, and yet they all seemed unmindful of each other and of the displays in the windows for the coming holidays. The rush of people crossing the street made the traffic tower and its lights look like a lighthouse at the terminus of two rivers. Teacher: Who can suggest any good points or bad points in her talk? Pupil: She used a lot of comparisons which made her talk seem very realistic. But she should have contrasted the quiet office with the busy street below. Teacher: Good. Any other suggestions? Pupil: She compared the signal tower with a lighthouse. Another Pupil: She showed us how it looked. It looked like a big multiplication sign. Another Pupil: She also said that the trolley cars run by the Public Service looked like the trains in Bamberger's Toy Department, and the people were hurrying to and fro seeming to get nowhere, and they were attracted by the display in the windows. Another Pupil: She used good English and good words. Teacher: Anna, suppose we hear from you! Pupil: Upon entering the railroad station, I was attracted by the atmosphere that prevailed there. There seemed to be a continuous flow of people going inward and going outward. Upon the arrival of a train, a crowd would surge forth into the arms of waiting parents and friends. Above all the noise could be heard the voices of the cabmen and people trying to peddle their wares. You could hear the hustle and bustle of commerce in one of its great forms. Upon the arrival of a new train, the people would again surge forward in great bunches. In approximately ten minutes the train would be filled to the screeching of the wheels and loud noise, and it would again rush forth and you would again see people, always looking for the incoming, never for the outgoing. Teacher: Who will criticize her talk? Pupil: She could have compared the people in the station to a flock of sheep. Another Pupil: She did not name what station she was in. I think it would improve it if she told the name of the station, as the Pennsylvania Station. Teacher: In writing your theme for tomorrow, I wish you would limit yourself to one page. Before you begin to write, you should have in mind a clear outline of what you have to say. If you change your point of view, be sure to say so. Has the secretary entered the assignment? The class is excused. Jellies and Fruits When the jellies and fruits are arranged on the shelf, For the winter, called Fancy, of summer-dream gold. FREDERICK HERBERT ADLER. The chance fortunes of "the road" gave us a seatmate who was evidently an expert in the making of the finest glass used in art work. It was, to us, an opportunity to get an insight into another field of artistry than that of journalism and teaching, to which we had given our life. According to our habit, therefore, we encouraged him to speak of that with which he was familiar and we were ignorant. Thus both of us were, for the time being, entertained and profited. Glass, he said, or, at least, that kind which was intended to be used for real, high-class art work, whether landscape or portrait painting, had to have a particularly fine and smooth texture and surface. No common and cheap product, no mere window-glass, would answer. Even the best of glass blown by machine blowers would not successfully take and carry the finer tints and the natural and individual aspects and expressions that are necessary in a highly artistic and natural portrait. It had been discovered, however, that when the human mouth and lungs were employed in blowing glassinstead of using mechanical "blowers"-then, and only thus, an approximately perfect result was attainable. The portrait produced would almost speak again, in response to the artist's loving touch,— the medium itself being a product of intelligence, fashioned and finished by so personal a thing as the very breath of inborn and imparted human life. The thought is suggestive and heartening to the true teacher and educator in the classroom. Books may have their place; schoolhouses and schoolrooms are necessary; school committees and boards of education cannot be dispensed with; curricula and various other kinds of educational machinery may be necessary and useful. But beyond all these in importance to the finished product of the schools is the personality of the inspired and faithful teacher. This is where we get down to the bed-rock of the whole process. There must be the human touch, the real, live, enthusiastic, dynamic personality of the instructor. There is no substitute for this. No mechanical invention ever yet created a living soul. But our Arnolds of Rugby, our Mark Hopkinses of Williams, our Mary Lyons, our great Authors and Philosophers and Statesmen and noble Missionaries and Presidents and Crusaders are all educators. We grow wise in proportion as we catch their spirit. There is no other real education. We can get it from no other medium. The Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor has figures to back that statement in a report just issued on "Public Aid to Mothers with Dependent Children." Bureau Publication No. 162, Washington, D. C. Home care is cheaper and better than institution care, the bureau states, citing the experience of New York City, which, in 1923, spent $28.40 a month to care for a child in an institution, but only a little over $15 a month to care for a dependent child in his own home. Forty-two states now have "mothers' pension" laws, providing for aid to children in their own homes, and 130,000 children are at any one date receiving such aid, but the total number of children who need such help is probably close to 350,000 or 400,000, the bureau estimates. The extent to which available appropriations meet the need varies greatly from state to state, as is indicated by differences in ratios of children aided to general population. New York, Nevada, California, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Montana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Delaware, Maine, and North Dakota were at the top of the list, in the order named, reporting aid given to more than 200 children per 100,000 of the total population. South Dakota, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Iowa, Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan, Utah, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arizona, and Ohio reported ratios of 100 to 200 per 100,000 of their populations. Oklahoma, Washington, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Florida, West Virginia, and Vermont had ratios ranging from 31 to 95. Arkansas, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia reported less than 20 children aided per 100,000 of their populations, the figures for the last three states almost reaching the vanishing point: 8.5, 4.4 and 1.4, respectively. In Maryland (except for two counties) the mothers' aid legislation has become inoperative because of defects; in several other states practically no use has been made of the law, and in many states where excellent work has been done in some localities the law has been ignored in others. Even in the states reporting the highest appropriations, however, the possibilities of constructive application of this aid have by no means reached their limit. The chief problem at the present time is not to obtain new state legislation or amendments to existing laws, but to obtain appropriations and to raise the standards of administration, so that the laws may mean something to the children they were intended to benefit. The first mothers' aid laws were passed in Missouri and Illinois in 1911. The early laws tended to restrict aid to widows; now some states permit aid to be granted to any mother with dependent children, and some permit other relatives to receive aid if they are caring for needy children. Six states give aid to expectant mothers. Colorado also gives aid to fathers with dependent children. The amount of aid allowed per child has tended to increase, though 20 states place a maximum of $30 or less a month on the amount |