The educational record of the province of Quebec, 1 juillet 1943, Juillet - Septembre

[" oo Beg Ear 2 ae copa 2 I LE: = se = ssi i vs a se se 2 , Ÿ = 45 a 7: + = > its, = = oa iat A = 4 Zz SE 5 a 5 E ES = 1943 ORE Be = 5.TE i a 8 : = = A Sénat SR Ÿ = \u2019 EEE ag = ished BX NE oy Re ® Soin ES Sr Ney Sir, = x Seg, = = È Le.% | har = $ ee is Se Publ Quarterly Si Se $3) 2 | td a A, À A ; $ $ = i 3 > e Gi.3 = SEPTEMBER 2 = = - sas = se A sn se 5 Si i ar y x 5 | à 5 = GE iis 4 a 3 a 3 J CORE RE = a # J Fes ps a = La I Ni % 3 À BS = A 2 3e § = JULY Ses W $ 3 2 BE Fi # x Ni bit se i da ge Th gs 5 3 | = RN = = ot = i Ae SR 5 = = = = SE A a © = 3 i hi eS .TE = ke 3 + od 5 a = Se | cs 8 = > SN = 5 2 .5 3X = = i 5 3B > mu ee & or he 5 2 a A Ne oS = fs x SS - 3 \u201cny se A x .Si Nd SN S a HR ; 3 x A Ne Le wi 2 \u20ac x , , Wo Se SN £8 * Vid AY 8 .Rot Sa 5 0e + = : sé % = Sa OF THE = ES =.THE .à $ se se oN 3 sh ne a $ $ = 5e = = = SY i ES Nn fi Se 3 48 RECORD .= = se = a = WS 3 2e iB ant .= a es WO se PROVINCE OF QUEBEC ae Se DUCATIONAL = Se No a 8 a ON Ne A i .S ce = = SR Si | a Ë > LIX, \u20ac = 5 a 3 = SEX = 2 SES Soa = SN ni SN A = a it =.fh J.SS Ni A .EARN HIGH, VIII YEAR \u2014 TURNING A MODEL AIRCRAFT MOTOR NACELLE ON THE LATHE 8 « 4! - =~ = \u2014\u2014 _\u2014 PAL, TPR ea = \u2014\u2014\u2014_ aE _\u2014_ = Le -\u2014 = \u2014 0e \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014e ui er al = av - \u2014 DAWN O, keep the world forever at the dawn, ot Ere yet the opals, cobweb-strung, have dried, 3 Ere yet too bounteous gifts have marred the morn F Or fading stars have died.Ü O, keep the eastern gold no wider than ie An angel\u2019s finger-span, And hush the increasing thunder of the sea To murmuring melody .Hi In those fair coves where tempests ne'er should be.: Hold back the line of shoreward-sweeping surge i And veil each deep sea-pool in pearlier mist, Ere yet the silver ripples on the verge Have turned to amethyst.Fling back the chariot of encroaching day And call the winds away Ere yet they sigh, and let the hastening sun Along his path in heaven no higher run, 4 But show through all the years his golden rim % With shadows lingering dim Forever o'er the world awaiting him.3 Hold every bird with still and drowsy wing, 1 That in the breathless hush no clamorous throat A Shall break the peace that hangs on everything A With shrill awakening note; : Keep fast the half-seen beauties of the rose 2 In undisturbed repose, i Check all the iris buds where they unfold Impatient {rom their hold, 4 And close the cowslips\u2019 cups of honeyed gold.Keep all things hushed, so hushed we seem to hear The sounds of low-swung clouds that sweep the trees; Let now no harsher music reach the ear, No earthlier sounds than these, When whispering shadows move within the grass, And airy tremors pass Through all the earth with life awakening thrilled, And so forever stilled, Too sweet in promise e\u2019er to be fulfilled.O, keep the world forever at the dawn, 3 Yet, keeping so, let nothing lifeless seem, ks But hushed, as if the miracle of morn i Were trembling in its dream.3 Some shadowy moth may pass with downy flight À And fade before the sight, While in the unlightened darkness of the wall The chirping crickets call; From forest pools where fragrant lilies are A breath shall pass afar, And o'er the crested pine shall hang one star.MARJORIE L.C.PICKTHALL. THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD July-September, 1943 CONTENTS Editorial.1200000 0004 L LA a Ada ea ea a es a a ee a ae eee ee 6 The Usefulness of the Teacher\u2014Especially in Time of War.W.P.Percival The First Survey of Canadian Education.W.P.Percival Act Respecting Compulsory Attendance .Ce The Teaching of Citizenship through the Social Studies.W.H.Brady Reading Instruction of the Slow Learner in the Primary Grades R.O.Bartlett A Natural History Museum in the School\u2014Part 1.F.O.Morrison National School Broadcasts.iii.The Book of Job in Literature and Life.E.C.Woodley William Douw Lighthall.J.Murray Gibbon E.J.Pratt.ALL Le a a a a a a ae se» Pelham Edgar Choral Speaking for Schools \u2014Part III.C.B.Rittenhouse Minutes of the February Meeting of the Protestant Committee.Book Reviews © ss es sow es ee woes es as es es sew es mos + + + + + + + 9 + + 6 9 4° 1 8 2 = 1 8 0 0 5 5808 140 146 150 161 166 167 172 178 181 RCE ne SES ES EN is a 1 A THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD A quarterly journal in the interest of the Protestant Schools of the Province of Quebec, and the medium through which the proceedings of the Protestant Committee of the Council of Education are communicated, the Committee being responsible only for what appears in its Minutes and Official Announcements.Vol.LIX MONTREAL, JULY-SEPTEMBER, 1943 No.3 EDITORIAL COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE ACT After a struggle lasting nearly half a century, an act demanding the compulsory attendance of children has been placed on the Statute books of the Province of Quebec.The chief features of the act are: 1.Every child must attend school every day in each year on which the public schools are open, in accordance with the regulations named by proper authority, from the beginning of the school year following the day on which he attains the age of six years until the end of the school year in which he attains the age of fourteen years, unless he receives effective instruction otherwise, is prevented from attending school by illness or infirmity, has been expelled from public school, has successfully completed the elementary school course, if he is under ten years of age and resides at a distance of more than two miles by the shortest road from the nearest public school which he is entitled to attend or, being of any age, resides more than three miles from that school if the school board has made no provision for conveying pupils to school free of charge.2.School boards are obliged to receive in school all children from five to sixteen years of age domiciled in the municipality, and in the grades provided.3.Tuition is free in all elementary grades.Even in the higher grades the monthly fee cannot be exacted from a child who has not completed the school year in which he attains the age of fourteen years.In the case of indigents, no fees can be exacted until the end of the school year in which the child attains the age of sixteen.4.The school census must be made in September instead of in January and the age of each pupil must be entered as from the first of July preceding.The census must indicate whether or not the child attends school.5.School attendance officers must be appointed each year by resolution of the | school board.These may be the secretary-treasurers, but may not be school commissioners, trustees, or teachers.Such attendance officers have the power of constables.6.Parents or guardians who do not oblige children to attend school every day are liable on summary proceeding to a fine of not more than twenty dollars for each offence.= om =\" tit fit bi W | anf J vy | in const 1 ate sil wel o ft bf iS for EDITORIAL 131 7.Proceedings may not be begun by reason of the absence of a child from school on a day regarded as a holiday by the church or religious congregation to which he belongs.8.The teacher or principal of every school must give the attendance officer every week the full name, age and address of every child enrolled in the school who has been absent or expelled, and must furnish other information required by the attendance officer.Failure to do so renders such persons liable on summary proceeding to a fine of not more than twenty dollars.The co-operation of all is necessary in order that the new act may be thoroughly effective.The act respecting compulsory school attendance appears on page 146 of this issue.SCHOOL BROADCASTING The radio has become an essential feature of ordinary life.Over the radio we hear news, the best thoughts of men and women, music, drama, church services, entertainment.The schools should avail themselves of the radio.For many years children in the United States have listened to radio presentations.The Provinces of Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and British Columbia are broadcasting excellent programmes several times each week, and the remaining provinces are interested.Quebec has gone a long way in connection with visual education and should keep pace in the field of radio as it should in all other progressive movements.The Ministry of Transport is willing to grant radio licences free to all schools which are in receipt of grants from the Department of Education and that use radios for educational purposes.Application must be made through the Department of Education.Though we expect to have almost six hundred schools in operation next Fall, only thirty-nine radio licences have been applied for.Attention is drawn to the outlines of the programmes on page 166.These programmes have been devised for Grades VI-X and will be broadcast every Friday within school hours from October 1943 to April 1944.Special arrangements are being made by the C.B.C.to have these broadcasts heard in the schools of the Province.The programmes will be of great appeal, consisting of news, which will come fresh from the Central Newsroom of the C.B.C.and will be a summary of the events of the week, two series entitled \u201cMy Canada\u201d and the \u201cWay of Free Men\u201d and a fourth series of which the tentative title is \u201cProud Procession\u201d referring to the achievements of Canadian pioneers.Every listener\u2019s experience should be enriched through hearing the broadcasts.Booklets concerning the broadcasts are available and will be widely distributed.Any teachers who do not receive them should write for copies to the Department of Education. 132 EDUCATIONAL RECORD If principals and teachers will have their pupils listen and will write to the Department expressing their thoughts concerning both the programmes and the reception, they will do much to help forward this method of classroom instruction.ALTERATIONS TO THE LAW CONCERNING TEACHERS\u2019 PENSIONS At the last session of the Legislature important alterations were made to those sections of the law which concern teachers\u2019 pensions.The most important changes are as follows: 1.Male teachers will not receive a pension until they have taught twenty years and have reached the age of sixty.Women may still retire and claim pensions at fifty-six years of age.2.Stoppages on salaries are to be paid at the rate of five percent for men and three percent for women.The stoppages paid by men will allow widows whose husbands were entitled to a pension to receive one-half of that pension, provided the marriage took place before the officer became sixty years old.3.The former maximum has been removed.The pension is based on the average salary during the ten years of highest remuneration to a maximum of seventy percent.\u2018 4.Persons who have taught in private schools may have five years of such service counted towards pension.The altered articles of the law now read as follows: \u201c519.Every male person who is sixty years of age, and who has been employed as an officer of primary education, during a term of twenty years or upwards, shall be entitled to an annual pension, fixed according to the number of years he taught, and for which he has paid the stoppages.Such person may, however, discontinue teaching at the age of fifty-four years, but he may not begin to receive his pension until he is sixty years of age.\u201c520.Every female person who is fifty-six years of age, and who has been employed as an officer of primary education, during a term of twenty years or upwards, shall be entitled to an annual pension fixed according to the number of years she taught, and for which she has paid the stoppages.Such person may, however, discontinue teaching at the age of fifty years, but she may not begin to receive her pension until she is fifty-six years of age.\u201c521.The pension of every officer of primary education shall be fixed at the sum obtained by multiplying two one-hundredths of his average salary for the ten years during which his salary was the highest, by the number of years he taught up to thirty-five years.After the 1st of July, 1943, the pension of no officer of primary education who is on the retired list shall be less than the sum of two hundred and forty dollars, increased by five dollars per year of teaching above twenty years, up to a total of three hundred dollars.\u201d 524 of the said act is amended by replacing the words: \u2018is obliged to retire from teaching for any of the reasons above-mentioned\u201d, in the third, fourth and fifth lines of the first paragraph thereof, by the words: \u2018retires from teaching\u201d.ss 3 of | the on, J Et tant 73 Of éf of af qu de 34 i EDITORIAL 133 528 of the said act is amended by striking out the words: \u2018\u2018at the expiration of one year from the month of January following the sending of such notice\u201d, in the seventh, eighth and ninth lines of the second paragraph thereof.\u201c534.The widow of an officer of primary education shall, during her lifetime and so long as she remains a widow, receive one-half of the pension which her husband was receiving or would have been entitled to if he had been on the retired list.\u201c535.Such half-pension shall not be due if the officer married after attaining sixty years of age or when he was on the retired list.\u201c536.In the event of an officer of primary education having married before the 1st of July, 1943, the years of teaching from his marriage up to the said date shall not be counted for the purposes of the half-pension, unless such officer has paid into the pension fund, in addition to the stoppages then payable by him, a sum equal to one-half of such stoppages.In the case where any such officer has died or ceased teaching less than six years after the 1st of July, 1943, the half-pension shall not be due if such officer has not paid the above-mentioned additional stoppage for a number of years equal at least to the difference between such period of six years and the number of his years of teaching subsequent to the 1st of July, 1943.\u201c537.An officer of primary education who has not paid, at the required time, the additional stoppage contemplated in the preceding section, may have all his years of teaching counted for the purposes of the half-pension by giving notice in writing, before the 1st of July, 1944, to the secretary of the administrative commission of the pension fund and by paying the amount of the said additional stoppage in not more than ten yearly instalments, with interest at the rate of four per cent computed from the 1st of July, 1943.\u201d \u201c541.The pension fund of officers of primary education shall be made up of an annual reduction or stoppage of five per cent in the case of male persons and of three per cent in the case of female persons, from the salary of every officer of primary education, as well as from that of every lay person teaching without a diploma in schools of commissioners or trustees.Professors of music, drawing and other specialties, holding a diploma recognized by the Roman Catholic or Protestant Committee of the Council of Education, employed continuously in schools of commissioners or trustees and who do not come under the provisions of the preceding paragraph, may pay into the pension fund of primary education the stoppage payable by officers of primary education and, in the event of such payment, the provisions of Part VIII of this act shall apply to them.\u2018The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall be deemed to have been in force since the establishing of the said pension fund, and, as from the 1st of July, 1943, the persons contemplated in the said paragraph shall be bound to pay into the pension fund the stoppage therein mentioned unless at the said date they are forty years of age.\u201d \u201c551.An officer of primary education or any holder of a diploma of qualification who opens a private school or accepts a position therein, with the authoriza- PT I Lo ORNE putin étre date EDUCATIONAL RECORD tion of the Superintendent, to whom he must apply therefor, shall be entitled to a pension, provided he regularly pays the stoppages on his salary.\u201c552.An officer of primary education or any holder of a diploma of qualification who, prior to the 1st of July, 1943, has taught in a private school without paying stoppages, may, for the purposes of his pension, have not more than five years, during which he has so taught, counted upon paying before the 1st of July, 1945, the stoppages for such years.\u201d THE ORDER OF SCHOLASTIC MERIT The ceremony for the conferring of the degrees of the Order of Scholastic Merit will be held on Thursday, October 7th, in the High School of Montreal, when the following awards will be made: First Degree Mrs.Annie Rexford Bulman, Stanstead College.Mrs.Mary R.Copping, Joliette Intermediate School.Miss Elizabeth A.Duff, Chelsea, Que.Miss G.Elsie Elliott, Shawinigan Falls High School.Miss Muriel H.Leitch, St.George's School, Quebec.Mr.Alex.M.McPhee, B.A., F.R.G.S., Guy Drummond School, Outremont.Mrs.Bessie S.C.Osborne, Magog High School.Second Degree Mr.David M.Herbert, Mus.Bac., L.R.S.M., etc., Baron Byng High School, Montreal.Miss Ethel M.Pinel, Supervisor of Household Science, Montreal Schools.Miss Annie D.Savage, Baron Byng High School, Montreal.Mr.William A.Steeves, B.A., M.Ed., Macdonald College High School.Third Degree Mr.Herbert J.C.Darragh, M.A., Superintendent of Schools, Montreal.The statute under which the Order of Scholastic Merit was created was passed in 1928.The first awards to Protestants were made in 1931.Regulations adopted by the Board to govern the awards read as follows: 1.That the Order of Scholastic Merit shall consist of three degrees with the following titles: Merit, Great Merit and Distinguished Merit.(a) The first degree, for merit, shall entitle the recipient to receive a diploma and bronze medal, and to wear a blue ribbon.This degree shall be awarded to persons recommended by the Board who have demonstrated that they have attained a definite degree of success as teachers or administrators.(b) The second degree, for great merit, shall entitle the recipient to receive a diploma and silver medal, and to wear a blue ribbon with white stripes.This degree shall be awarded to persons recommended by the Board who have demonstrated that they have attained a definite degree of success as teachers *Deceased. 0; it Out iv di ol, Fa mp ave sf i | or EDITORIAL 135 or administrators.In addition, they should have made efforts to advance their professional status by academic or by meritorious service to the teaching profession.(c) The third degree, for distinguished merit, shall entitle the recipient to receive a diploma and gold medal, and to wear a blue ribbon with gold stripes.This degree shall be awarded to persons recommended by the Board who have demonstrated that they have attained a superior measure of success as teachers or administrators.In addition, they must have made some distinct contribution to the teaching profession by producing writings of merit, or by means of other endeavours, or they must have had their ability recognized by the award of higher university degrees.2.The period of minimum service for the award of any of the degrees in the Order shall be twenty years.Exceptions may, however, be made in special cases at the discretion of the Board.When recipients are presented the following formula is read: \u201cMr.Chairman: I have the honour to present the following recipient in order that you may confer upon him the (first, second, third) degree of the Order of Scholastic Merit with the (bronze, silver, gold) medal of the Order and the diploma of (merit, great merit, distinguished merit).\u201d (The speaker will read a brief biography of the recipient, after which the chairman will confer the award.) When conferring the degrees the chairman says: \u201cIn virtue of an Act of the Legislature of the Province of Quebec, and by direction of the Protestant Committee of the Council of Education of the said Province, it is my duty and my pleasure hereby to confer upon you the Order of Scholastic Merit of the (first, second, third) degree.This is a public recognition of your distinguished services in the cause of education.It is awarded with the fullest confidence in your integrity and in your continued devotion to the sacred cause to which your life has been consecrated for the publie good.\u201d Including those to be granted this year, the following persons have been recipients of the awards of the Board: First Degree: Isabel Archibald, Helen S.Armitage, Harriet Avery, Ruth P.Bibby, Julia Bradshaw, Annie E.R.Bulman, Gladys H.Butler, Alice M.E.Buzzell, Margaret A.Cameron, Beatrice E.Coffin, Mary S.R.Copping, Elizabeth A.Duff, Mina B.Duncan, Elsie Elliott, M.Hope Glass, Agnes Elizabeth Grant, Alice J.Griggs, Victoria Hilliker, Florence E.Hodgins, Elizabeth Horton, William E.Jones, Jessie H.Lamb, Muriel H.Leitch, Margaret Lindsay, Helen D.Locke, Marion O.Mackenzie, B.A., Elizabeth Macklem, Berith Manson, C.Ida McColm, Florence McCurdy, Oliver F.McCutcheon, Armita McDowell, Jessie McGregor, Alexander M.McPhee, B.A., F.R.G.S., Christian C.Murphy, Idonea R.Nourse, Bessie S.S.Osborne, Agnes Pease, Elizabeth Pibus, *Thomas Ingram Pollock, B.A., Emeline A.Schoff, Grace Shufelt, Elizabeth Y.Simon, Edith C.Soles, Minnie Thompson, Hildred Vail, S.Ella Vibert, Esther E.R.Walsh, May J.Weed, Elizabeth Anne Wright.Second Degree: Claude A.Adams, B.A., M.R.Campbell Amaron, B.A., William E.Black, M.A., William H.Brady, B.A., Florence B.Brown, Novah E.Brownrigg, B.A., Helen M.Buzzell, Ethel L.Gale, B.A., Helen E.Guiton, *Deceased. 136 EDUCATIONAL RECORD Mary Cameron Hay, B.A., David M.Herbert, Mus.Bac., H.Gordon Heslam, B.A., Mead C.Hopkins, M.A., Eldon C.Irvine, M.A., Ruth E.L.Knowlton, B.A., Arthur E.B.Lockhart, M.A., Alexander R.McBain, M.A., Hazel I.Murchison, B.A., Ethel Maud Pinel, Clement Edward Ployart, B.A., *Alphonse J.Primeau-Robert, René E.Raguin, J.Margaret Robinson, Annie Savage, Dorothy J.Seiveright, M.A., George A.Stanton, L.R.A.M., A.R.C.M., William A.Steeves, B.A., M.Ed., Frederick Norman Stephen, B.A., Herbert D.Wells, M.A.Third Degree: Isabel E.Brittain, M.A., *Howard D.Brunt, B.A., Ph.D,, Herbert J.C.Darragh, M.A., Thomas M.Dick, B.A., Elmer S.Giles, M.A., Sinclair Laird, M.A., *David C.Logan, B.A., Catherine I.Mackenzie, B.A., *George William Parmelee, D.C.L., LL.D., Léa E.Tanner Parmelee, M.A., Walter P.Percival, M.A., Ph.D., *Elson I.Rexford, D.C.L., LL.D., William O.Rothney, M.A., Ph.D., *W.Allan Walsh, B.A., Edward Carruthers Woodley, M.A.THE FIRST CANADIAN SURVEY OF EDUCATION A report of the first Survey of Education of a Dominion-wide nature appears on pages 140-145 of this issue.Published in April last, it has already created much interest throughout the country.The report has been described in editorials across Canada as \u2018\u201c\u201cA Charter for Education\u201d, \u201cA Blueprint for Education\u201d, \u201cA Pattern for Education\u2019 and \u201cA Plan for Education.\u201d Every right-thinking Canadian would like to feel that we have good educational systems of which we can indeed be proud.There are some factors, however, which do not harmonize well with this desire.The main one is the unwillingness to pay for it.School commissioners and trustees are frequently elected on retrenchment policies, or at least on a platform not to raise the taxes.In order that the information and the recommendations contained in the report may become known to the public at large, teachers, parents and friends of education are urged to read and discuss it.Copies may be obtained upon application to the Department of Education, Quebec.*Deceased.ADDITIONAL LIST OF PERSONS IN HIS MAJESTY\u2019S FORCES AIR FORCE NAME RANK ScHOOL McMurray, Gordon A.Three Rivers High Byron, LaBonté LAC Sawyerville High fs a as THE USEFULNESS OF THE TEACHER\u2014ESPECIALLY IN TIME OF WAR 137 THE USEFULNESS OF THE TEACHER\u2014ESPECIALLY IN TIME OF WAR* - Allow me to congratulate one and all upon their success in graduating as teachers.Some are members of the second graduating class of this wartime School for Teachers conducted at McGill University instead of at Macdonald College.These graduates have another distinction, a very important one.The members of the elementary and intermediate classes this year are graduating with higher academic qualifications than have been possessed by any other graduates for corresponding diplomas in the eighty-six years during which the old McGill Normal School and its successors have been in operation.That is a distinction of which they can be justifiably proud and is a standard from which I hope this Province will never recede.They have also another distinguishing feature that they are the smallest graduating class on record.The matter of qualification is vital to the teaching profession.Standards of teachers must be high in every respect for on their shoulders, in large measure, rests the burden of the successful upbringing of our children.This is no light task, especially in wartime, when many parents are away from home or are weighted with duties that they do not normally bear.That there is a great shortage of manpower and womanpower in this country at present is evident on all hands.More are needed in the armed forces and bills are posted everywhere calling upon people to enlist in His Majesty's service.The age for enlistment has gradually been reduced.So desperate is our position in this respect that high school pupils are now hearing the call.Factories, offices, stores, restaurants and farms make frequent appeals for help.Not only manpower and womanpower are wanted but even boypower and girlpower.The school, too, calls.Boys and girls need to go to school.To go to school they must have teachers.They need trained teachers.They need the best of manhood and womanhood to teach them.Those who are graduating today have, in my opinion, chosen a good vocation during this war.I hope that every graduate is the right kind of man and woman, and that he will enter the teaching ranks and stay there for the duration of the war.This is not a selfish wish.The primary object today is, of course, to win the war.But this war is not to be won only on the battlefield.The keeping up of morale is an essential element of victory.Nothing can help to keep up morale so much as the knowledge that the nation\u2019s children are safe and well cared for, and nothing can undermine it so fast as the consciousness that children are being neglected.This is why teachers are so important and they should know that their services in school are urgently required.This fact is widely acknowledged.National Selective Service itself admits that teaching is a very high priority occupation.Many fathers will be happy to enlist in the armed forces and many mothers will be glad to work in factories and in other places where they can be of *Address delivered on June 10th, 1943 at the Closing Exercises of the McGill School for Teachers, in Moyse Hall, McGill University.is i: A Rh fH ii De: 4 ii FTE Lh te i Ree AR AE gH il Bi 138 EDUCATIONAL RECORD use if they can be assured that their children will be kept in school and be well looked after during the school day.We need teachers to stay in the profession during the war.Without them, schools must close.That is the bald fact.So great is the shortage of teachers now that any teacher who goes into any other occupation whatever leaves a classroom vacant, and anywhere from ten to forty pupils without a teacher.This will be particularly true in the rural districts, but the shortage is so great that it may apply even in urban centres.We shall welcome back to the ranks any qualified teachers who have not been teaching recently, provided that they are young in spirit and are familiar with modern teaching methods.This appeal is made especially to those who can serve in rural districts, for we are faced there with a shortage of well over one hundred teachers for next September.I submit to such people that they will be doing most effective patriotic service by returning to the classroom.Teachers must go into their classrooms and do a better job than has ever been done there before.They must not only act as teachers but be playmates, companions, centres of inspiration, morale builders, guides, philosophers, friends, mothers, fathers.They must put gloves on the hands of the youngest to keep them warm in winter and put gloves on their own hands all the year around when they are in contact with the older ones to keep them from flying off the handle.And if they can use nice, fine, soft, silk gloves for this purpose so much the better.There is much question today as to whether the barriers to the teaching profession should be let down.That there is much demand for the relaxing of requirements is apparent.But it scarcely makes sense to let down barriers to a profession such as teaching upon which such severe demands are made.It seems to me to be much wiser to grant temporary permits in case of necessity to those who have certain qualifications and to whom we need but say \u201cthank you\u201d after the war.Neither the Department of Education nor the school boards will be under any obligation to them afterwards.If they have enjoyed their teaching and think they have found their calling, they may enter upon their course of training, become qualified and enter the ranks by the usual channels.In spite of what many people think, the teachers of Canada are much better trained today than they were a few years ago.As recently as 1928, for example, forty per cent of the teachers in Nova Scotia did not have any normal school training, and sixty per cent of them had only two years or less of high school education.A similar story is told in many other parts of the Dominion.We must maintain at least the standards which we have reached.Two bills of great significance to every teacher have passed the Quebec Legislature during the past month.The first was the school attendance bill.It is well known that Protestants have been asking for such a bill for forty years.Now one has become law.Teachers must do their share in making the bill effective by looking for and reporting every failure to enrol as well as all absences.If all co-operate we shall have a school attendance record of which the province will be proud instead of ice = «> wn = + THE USEFULNESS OF THE TEACHER\u2014ESPECIALLY IN TIME OF WAR 139 knowing that many children were being starved educationally because the State did not see that every parent did his duty in this respect to his children.The second bill will affect all teachers who stay in the ranks long enough to merit a pension.Of course, few young girls graduating today look forward to teaching until they are fifty-six years of age.Usually they regard teaching as a stepping stone to something else.It may be that, but when they learn that after twenty years of service they can obtain a pension based on their salary during the best ten years many may stay in it or may come back to give the benefit of their experience and to enjoy the fruit of their toil.That the influence of teachers is enormous has been amply demonstrated in Germany where, in the short space of a decade, indoctrinated teachers have built up a nation of enthusiastic Nazi youths.I would like to see our teachers make a serious attempt to unify our disunited country.That they could do so in a generation I have little doubt, if all interested persons would turn their minds in this direction.That the foundations are well laid is shown by the way in which our Protestant pupils can converse in French more easily now than they could.This much at least has been accomplished in a decade.In his new book on Montreal, Stephen Leacock has paid tribute to this, for he says: \u2018\u2018Each language is also taught in the schools of the other, and very well taught, as a school subject.Montreal schools use the direct method of teaching, not the wretched grammar and translation of Ontario, New York, and such backward localities, but the natural way of teaching, naming things, not translating names, calling a spade une pelle.\u201d We are too much a people of shreds and patches, a nation not only of reds and blues, but also one of pinks and many other hues.We are not only British in origin in Canada but we are French and Ukranian and Dutch.If we stay this way we shall not emerge from this war the great nation we should be.If we want to become truly great after the war we must merge all origins and become only Canadians.Our statesmen, our clergy, our teachers should recognize this and proclaim it from the rostrum, the pulpit and the classroom teacher's desk.There is not much time in which to do it.We must do it now.We are fighting for freedom of speech among other things but we must get some definition of that.We should not be free to undermine and to separate.We should only be free to work in the common interest, not against it.It should be in methods of co-operation that we should be free, not as pirates and anarchists to plunder and destroy.This is what teachers must teach.Teaching must go on during the war.It has done so during all other wars.Children grow up.When the war started four years ago the members of the present graduating classes of the School for Teachers were but thirteen and fourteen years of age.In a year or so we shall have pupils in school who were very young or perhaps not even born when the war began.Whatever their age, the children are growing and they must be educated.To be educated they must have teachers, and that is why you are so very necessary.Go to work; like your work; and stay on the job.W.P.PERCIVAL. HE.a.29 140 EDUCATIONAL RECORD THE FIRST SURVEY OF CANADIAN EDUCATION President Roosevelt has enunciated four freedoms which are needed in the post-war world: Freedom of Worship, Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear.A fifth Freedom is necessary for the children of Canada, namely, Freedom of Educational Opportunity.Such freedom can, I believe, be assured to them if the recommendations are fully implemented that are contained in the Report of the Survey Committee of the Canada and Newfoundland Education Association handed last Spring to the Federal Advisory Committee on Reconstruction.\u2018 Though previous surveys of education have been made in the provinces, this is the first nation-wide educational survey that has ever been conducted in Canada.It was performed by leading educators of the Dominion and reflects their joint opinions.The recommendations contained in the Report are neither idealistic nor fantastic, nor is the solution of the educational problem beyond the reach of the Canadian people.The Committee made great efforts to be moderate, practical and to face facts.Though the Report maintains that provincial autonomy in education should be maintained, it avers that its maintenance is by no means incompatible with national progress.Its findings show that there are many outstanding needs in Canadian education, the chief of which are tabulated in a fairly definite order of merit: Health examinations and follow-up treatment for all children.Increased grants distributed more nearly on the basis of need.Better selection and more adequate preparation of teachers.Payment of higher salaries to teachers.aponT An adequate programme of education and especially secondary education for all pupils regardless of location.on Expenditure of money as an inducement to the establishment of larger units of administration.Aid in the provision of better buildings.Special schools\u2014agricultural, commercial, technical, industrial.sœeu Complete programme of practical education.10.Programme of counselling and guidance.11.Additional supervision, e.g., helping teachers.12.Complete library service.13.Scholarships to enable students to proceed to advanced education according to their interests and aptitudes.14.Transportation in rural areas as an aid to better school service.15.Part time education for pupils from 16 to 18 years of age.National progress is linked with progress in education.A generation that neglected to educate its children would soon witness their deterioration.In this age of super democracy, when Jack is as good as his Master and youth as good as age, when there is talk of adolescents of nineteen, eighteen and even seventeen if jp das res on THE FIRST SURVEY OF CANADIAN EDUCATION 141 years of age voting and thus having as potent a voice in the direction of the country as mature individuals, it becomes more necessary than ever that they shall be able not only to read and write but to think, and to do that deeply, logically and unsentimentally.This is asking so much of young people that it is obligatory on the part of those who grant them privileges and rights to ensure the possibility of their securing the tools of thinking through a sound education.The Survey Committee deliberately placed the possession of good health at the head of the new deal in education.It would indeed be a new deal for children if, when they were sick, they would be scientifically cared for and would have all their ills attended to as surely as the sun would set that day\u2014that all colds would be checked in their inceptive stages, that all children\u2019s diseases would be controlled, that they would not have to run the gamut of chicken pox, measles, German measles, whooping cough, and that dread, but easily controllable scourge of diphtheria.Coupled with medical attention, we need dentists to put children\u2019s mouths in order and prevent them from suffering from decayed teeth, lost teeth and pyorrhea.That all Canadian children do not have the same opportunity became increasingly clear as the Survey progressed.Some have good physical conditions, others poor; some have good teachers while others have those that are not so satisfactory.Children in the city are taught by a teacher for the whole day while some in rural districts where six, eight or more classes are taught by one teacher in one classroom obtain no more than thirty or forty minutes of instruction per day.What obtains in different school districts within a province holds also among the provinces.The bald truth is that some provinces in this fair Dominion provide school facilities that are much superior to those provided in others.To remedy the poor conditions and bring the weaker to the level of the stronger constitutes a major problem.The amount of money spent on the schools of Canada last session was $146,832,642, being about $65 per pupil.Of this figure, $15 goes to pay sinking fund, leaving only $50 for the housing, equipment and instruction of pupils, including supervisory services, services of school principals and everything else.This means that a fair sized \u2018classroom of thirty pupils costs the government and the taxpayers of the municipality $1,500, exclusive of charges for bonded and other indebtedness and interest payments.The Report recommends that the amount of money spent on education be doubled by providing another $144,000,000 per annum.This may at first appear to be a radical recommendation.But let us look at some of the things which the people will get for their money: services to make children healthy, to have their teeth attended to, nutritious food for needy children, bringing the opportunities of country districts towards the level provided in the urban centres, providing good buildings and equipment for all children, transporting to school children who live in remote districts, keeping pupils in school for a longer period of time, training teachers better and paying them more equitable salaries, giving scholarships to gifted children and providing better facilities for the handicapped.Another sum of $59,000,000 is required for capital expenditures following the cessation of hostilities. 142 EDUCATIONAL RECORD The figures set for the new expenditures do not provide for anything that is fantastic or idealistic.They represent the expenditures for a very moderate, practicable advance in education quite in keeping with the aspirations and temperament of the Canadian people.This advance is within the nation\u2019s reach as soon as the necessity for the present extraordinary war expenditure is past.Another of the recommendations of the Report is that the capital expenses for schools be paid for in future out of special funds.Obviously, a school municipality that has a good sized debt cannot offer the same school facilities to pupils that one can that is free of debt, and the opportunities for children are restricted in communities so handicapped.The administration of schools needs to be improved under the four heads of supervision, enlarging the unit of administration, improving the plant and equipment, and making the school attendance record better.Throughout the Dominion of Canada there are 20,610 administrative units which means that there are probably 100,000 individuals on school boards.In some small districts there are more men and women on school boards than there are pupils in the schools under their control.Three quarters of the school boards employ only one teacher.At least four fifths of the schools throughout the Dominion of Canada are too small to be effective either educationally or financially.This is proved by the fact that there are many hundreds of school boards where the assessment is less than $5,000.Fancy trying to administer a school system with a total valuation less than that of a small city house! Some pupils in the older provinces are attending school in buildings that are over one hundred years old.These are ill built, ill lighted and ill adapted to modern requirements.Thousands of schools are dingy and dirty; many of them are without modern heating, ventilation, water supply, lighting, playgrounds, or library facilities.Excellent plans for school buildings have been designed and many schools have been erected according to them.The programme needs to be accelerated and completed.In addition, because of the depression and the war much new construction has been delayed.Altogether some forty-four million dollars\u2019 worth of new school building is imperatively needed throughout the Dominion immediately following the cessation of hostilities.The Survey Committee considers that all children should be educated to sixteen years of age and so recommended.In addition, the members think that the country will benefit by seeing that all children go to school for at least part time during their seventeenth and eighteenth years.The adoption of such policies would show that Canada truly cares for her children and intends to give them all a chance to make the best of themselves.If a child is educated full time to sixteen years of age and half time to eighteen I will be content to leave him to make his own way in life.The schools at present do not grip the child's whole being sufficiently.That they have improved greatly in the present generation is undoubted.No longer is there constant war between teacher and pupil.On the contrary, most children like school, and school has certainly a great influence upon their lives.But it has not yet reached that desirable apex at which it will enable all boys and girls to attain their full stature.The crux of this problem, of course, is the teacher.When teaching attracts the best minds and the best personalities in adequate 1 fat i it ful hat 7 fred 510 A tt .THE FIRST SURVEY OF CANADIAN EDUCATION 143 numbers so that every pupil will be able to have a living inspiration and ideal every year of his school life and in every classroom we shall have better school systems.The public demands certain qualities of heart and mind of its teachers.These include sound scholarship and high professional skill.To acquire these necessitates years of intensive preparation.Robust health of mind and body, maturity of judgment, integrity of character, sympathetic, understanding of youth, enthusiastic devotion to duty and a wholesome attitude towards life are also required.In addition personal magnetism and leadership are essential.In short, prospective teachers should be the most capable and most promising young people graduating from our schools and colleges.What inducements to choose the teaching profession are offered to them?An analysis of the salaries paid to school teachers in the whole Dominion shows that 74.99, (55,838 teachers) receive less than $1,223 per annum, 49.9% (35,885) less than $782 per annum and 24.9%, (17,492) less than $537 per annum.Of these figures, the median salary of $782 per annum indicates the level above and below which is found the salaries of fifty percent of Canadian teachers.It is the figure which may be taken to indicate the typical salary.To expect to secure satisfactory personnel for the salaries commonly paid to Canadian teachers is to expect much.The Survey Committee thinks that the median salary of teachers all over Canada should be equal to that in the Province which now pays the best salaries.This is $1,321.If this median salary is paid to teachers it will probably mean that the type of person wanted will be attracted to the ranks and, once in the service, will probably stay there longer than has been the case in the past, for such action will make the profession more attractive to able and ambitious young people.This should result in the schools giving more satisfaction to pupil, parent and state.During the past decade school curricula have been greatly revised and improved in every province of the Dominion with the result that the courses of study offered compare favourably with those obtainable elsewhere in the English speaking world.Nevertheless many more advances can be made but these depend upon the following: 1.The moulding of public opinion from its present conservative standards of insistence upon academic curricula.2.More money being invested in schools in order to bring needed reforms into effect.3.More co-operation by school boards to eliminate the little red schoolhouse and all small schools and amalgamate them with those in larger centres or to build new central schools.The emphasis has been changed from the teaching of subjects to a deep realization that the child to be taught is the raison d'être for the school.Instead of merely teaching subjects, the emphasis is to be placed on the following: 1.The establishment of principles of morality.2.The importance of physical well being.3.The inculcation of worthy citizenship and the building up of good social customs. EDUCATIONAL RECORD 4.The implanting of right attitudes towards work.5.Training for citizenship.The school curricula are thus showing a tendency to break away from the former single college preparatory track so as to offer diverse cultural, vocational, avocational, social and character forming educational experiences suitable to the demands of individual lives.For many years, progressive thinkers have maintained that the high school should not be merely a college preparatory institution.This is a commonsense position because it is well known that the majority of high school graduates do not now wish to go to college.A great deal of weight has been attached in the past to the completion of college matriculation requirements, and this has become almost a fetish to many.The day has passed, however, when the academic curriculum can be maintained to be superior to any other.Men and women who can use their hands are not thereby inferior to those who can use their brains nor is the person who can use his hands deprived in any way of the possibility of using his head.The contrary claim indeed is being made that the schools have been too much divorced from life and from the work of the world.Consequently, the idea is gaining ground rapidly that children must prepare themselves in some way to make a living and that the school can play its part in the process.The day has probably dawned when no person should reach adulthood without having become skilled in at least one art or craft.An education that leads towards such a goal would be revolutionary in Canada.Yet this is one of the objects at which the Survey Committee deliberately aims.Hitherto school offerings have remained similar both for boys and girls.When girls were allowed to enter secondary school it was thought that they should follow the boys\u2019 curriculum.Provision for some differentiation, however, is inevitable if boys and girls are to be trained along lines that will fit their needs.As girls may be expected to be more domesticated than boys, they should have their tastes cultivated along useful home lines.Many women have more time for reading than have men.This fact of life should be recognized in the schools to the extent that girls\u2019 tastes in literature should be nurtured with great care, and the encouragement given to them to read the treasures of the past should be enormous.They should be well schooled in reading materials for every age, as they will probably be expected to care for their children, their parents and grandparents, as well, perhaps, as younger and older brothers and sisters.Every child likes to hear a story! Household Science or Home Economics cannot be overlooked for any girl who is to perform the functions that can naturally be expected of her.Taste in dress is essential for every women who wishes to make the most of herself and her family.Attractiveness in home furnishings, decorations and appointments must be taught if men and women are to be surrounded with beauty.The choice, preparation and manner of serving food should be learned by every girl from experts who have studied the science and art of balanced diets and other food requirements.A knowledge of the rules of etiquette is needed by all.A great advance would be made if all educational authorities concerned throughout the Dominion would accept, for admission to college, the completion of any approved provincial high school curriculum extending over four years 0 rem Te TE = fs THE FIRST SURVEY OF CANADIAN EDUCATION 145 after the completion of the elementary school.This standard should apply, without other restricting academic qualifications, for admission to any university, normal school, technical school, agricultural college, or other institution of higher learning.Based on such standards, institutions themselves could set up their own methods of selection for continuation and graduation.To meet the needs of small towns and rural communities, a new kind of high school is required that will offer to the pupils there the same facilities that are available in more favoured communities.This need is being met with the formation of the modern \u201ccomposite\u201d high school.Where there are many comparatively small communities within a narrow radius, one composite high school can offer one or two curricula; others should suit pupils that desire different courses of study.Pupils should be encouraged to go to the school that meets their needs and, when necessary and so long as they can profit from the courses, they should be given help towards transportation or subsistence allowances.We need many more high schools in Canada where offerings will be available for trades such as cabinet making, drafting, radio making and repair, machine shop, metal work, home mechanics, automobile repair, motor mechanics, foundry work, weaving, tailoring, jewellery, ceramics, printing, forging, pattern making, concrete work.The Report deals with many other phases of school life.It shows the importance of the new activities that have become part of the work of the school such as debating and athletic societies, and recommends that special teachers be employed for these extra-curricular activities.It emphasizes the need for guidance, for no surer tie can bind parents and children to the school than the realization that the teachers are concerned about the welfare of each pupil.Guidance of some kind has always been given by the most interested teachers to the most interesting pupils.The Report states that the schools of Canada have never tackled seriously the problems of gifted and retarded children and recommends that five thousand special classes should be provided for them, and that $3,000,000 per annum should be procured for scholarships to keep gifted children in school.In accordance with the recommendation that pupils should stay in school until they are sixteen years old and that all should be in school at least part time till they reach eighteen years of age, the Report recommends the adoption of a 6-4-4 or some other fourteen year plan of schooling and the establishment of Junior Colleges or Advanced Secondary schools in which the curricula will be academic, technical, agricultural, commercial and household, so that it will appeal to both sexes and suit all tastes.It further recommends that demobilized men and women should not be compelled to reach an arbitrary percentage of marks, but that they should be admitted to schools and colleges on the basis of their ability to perform the work required.Basically, the Report of the Survey Committee seeks the general and permanent betterment mentally and physically of Canadian youth, and points the way to some starting points and even to some distant educational goals.Underlying all is to make our schools serve democracy better than they do today.The country will never regret giving its sons and daughters an education that will enable them to stand up on their feet and make the most of themselves.W.P.PERCIVAL. 146 EDUCATIONAL RECORD ACT RESPECTING COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE His Majesty, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, enacts as follows: 1.Section 2 of the Education Act (Revised Statutes, 1941, chapter 59) as amended by the act 6 George VI, chapter 20, section 1, is again amended by replacing paragraph 19 thereof by the following: \u201c19.The words \u2018monthly fees\u2019\u2019 mean the contribution which may be exacted in respect of each child who attends certain public schools;\u201d.2.Section 69 of the said act is amended by adding, at the end thereof, the following: \u2018\u201c, who shall be obliged to admit to the grades provided in such schools every child domiciled in the municipality, from the beginning of the school year following the day on which he attains the age of five years until the end of the school year in which he attains the age of sixteen years\u2019.3.Section 96 of the said act is amended by inserting, after the word: \u2018fee\u2019, in the eleventh line thereof, the words: \u201c, if any,\u201d.4.Sections 257 to 263 of the said act are replaced by the following: \u201c257.School commissioners and trustees may fix a monthly fee for grades above the elementary or primary elementary grades, when they determine the school tax.\u201c258.Such fee shall be uniform for the same grades in all schools of the same municipality.\u201c259.The monthly fee shall be payable to the secretary-treasurer by the father, mother, tutor or guardian of each child attending such a school and having completed the school year in which he attains the age of fourteen years.260.The commissioners and the trustees may also, at their discretion, require the teachers to collect the monthly fee in their respective schools, at the beginning of each month, and, in such case, the receipts signed by the teachers shall have the same legal value as if they bore the signature of the secretary- treasurer.The teachers charged with the collection shall, at the end of each month, remit to the secretary-treasurer the sums collected and a list of all the pupils who have paid the monthly fee.\u201c261.The monthly fee shall be secured by the same privileges and hypothecs as the school assessment.It may be collected in the same manner and at the same time as the school assessment, or may be exacted monthly and in advance, except in municipalities in which the collection is governed by a special act or by a by-law of the school corporation.\u201c262.No school fees may be exacted from indigent persons.\u201c263.School boards, in the report which they are bound to send to the Superintendent, shall state the amount of monthly fees fixed for the municipality, and the amount of such fees actually collected.\u201d I = BP ACT RESPECTING COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE 147 5.Section 285 of the said act is amended by replacing the first paragraph thereof by the following: \u201c285.The secretary-treasurer shall make, every year, during the month of September a census of the children domiciled in the school municipality, and the | school commissioners and trustees shall see that he performs such duty.In such census the secretary-treasurer shall distinguish between boys and girls and between children of each of the ages from five to seventeen years, inclusive.The age to be entered shall be that of the child concerned on the first of July preceding.For each such child the secretary-treasurer shall indicate: a.If he attends school in the municipality; .If he attends school outside the municipality; + c.If he takes night courses or special courses during part of the year; or d.If he does not attend school; and, in the case of a child of from six to fourteen years, inclusive, the reason why he does not attend school.\u201d 6.Section 288 of the said act is replaced by the following: \u201c288.A summary of the census shall be sent to the Superintendent before the fifteenth of October, on the form supplied by the latter.\u201d 7.The said act is amended by inserting, after section 290 thereof, the following division comprising sections 290a to 290y inclusive: \u201cDIVISION IVa \u201cCOMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE \u201c290a.Every child must attend school every day, in each year, on which the public schools are open in accordance with the regulations made by the proper authority, from the beginning of the school year following the day on which he attains the age of six years until the end of the school year in which he attains the age of fourteen years.\u2018\u201c290b.Such obligation is complied with by: 1.Any child who attends a school under the control of a school board or any other school organized under the laws of this Province; 2.Any child who receives effective instruction at home.\u2018\u201c290c.Such obligation shall not affect: 1.Any child who is prevented from attending school by illness or infirmity; 2.Any child who has obtained a certificate showing that he has successfully completed the elementary or primary elementary school course or another equivalent official certificate; 3.Any child who has been expelled from public school according to law and the school regulations; 148 EDUCATIONAL RECORD 4.Any child under ten years of age residing at a distance of more than two miles, by the shortest road, from the nearest public school to which he is entitled to be admitted, and any child who resides more than three miles, by the shortest road, from the nearest public school to which he is entitled to be admitted, if, in either case, the school board makes no provision for conveying children to school free of charge.\u201c290d.The attendance officer of the municipality may, on the written request of the father, mother, tutor or guardian of a child, release the latter from the obligation to attend school for one or more perioods not exceeding in all six weeks per school year, when the services of such child are required for farm work or for urgent and necessary work at home or for the maintenance of such child or his relatives.Such release is granted by means of a certificate stating the reasons therefor.\u201c290e.During the hours when public schools are open, no one shall, on pain of a fine not exceeding twenty dollars, employ any child before the end of the school year in which such child attains the age of fourteen years, unless a release has been granted under the preceding section.\u201c290f.The father, mother, tutor or guardian of every child obliged to attend school under this division shall see that such child complies with such obligation every school day.\u201c290g.Every school board shall appoint one or more attendance officers who shall supervise the observance of this division in the school municipality for which they are appointed.\u201c290%.With the written authorization of the Superintendent, two or more school boards may appoint the same attendance officer.290:.The attendance officer shall be appointed and his remuneration fixed by resolution of which a copy shall be transmitted to the Superintendent within fifteen days.42907.An attendance officer shall be appointed every year, before the first of September, and any vacancy shall be filled within fifteen days from the date when 1t occurs.\u201c290%.If an attendance officer is not appointed within the prescribed delay, the Superintendent shall appoint an attendance officer and fix his remuneration, which shall be payable by the defaulting school board.\u201c2907.No school commissioner, school trustee or teacher may be appointed attendance officer, but the secretary-treasurer may also be attendance officer.\u201c290m.Every attendance officer shall make a monthly report to the school board and an annual report to the Superintendent, on the forms prescribed by the latter.\u201c290%.Every attendance officer shall perform his duties under the direction of the school inspector and the Superintendent.ci id ai Ap) pe an i 5e | y i ACT RESPECTING COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE 149 \u201c2900.For the purposes of this division, every attendance officer shall have the powers of a constable.He may, without a warrant, enter industrial or commercial establishments, places of amusement or playgrounds, where any children obliged by this division to attend school may be employed or assembled, and may, without a warrant, apprehend and take to school any child obliged to attend school who is absent therefrom.\u201c290p.The secretary-treasurer shall furnish the attendance officer with a list of all children domiciled in the municipality who are obliged to attend school, according to the annual census, and shall communicate the same to the school inspector on demand.\u201c290g.The attendance officer shall investigate all cases of offences against this division of which he has knowledge or which are brought to his attention by the school inspector or by a teacher, school principal or ratepayer.\u201c2904.The attendance officer shall make use of persuasion and, if that does not succeed, he shall give a special notice to the father, mother, tutor or guardian of the child who is absent from school though obliged to attend.\u201c290s.Any father, mother, tutor or guardian of a child obliged to attend school who has received the notice contemplated by the preceding section and does not see that his child goes to school every school-day, shall be liable, on summary proceeding, to a fine of not more than twenty dollars for each offence.The court or judge may, instead of imposing a fine, require any person found guilty of the offence contemplated in this section to sign a bond, with one or more sureties, to pay a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars if the child therein mentioned does not attend school in accordance with the requirements of this division.\u201c290;.The proceedings contemplated in the foregoing section shall be brought by the attendance officer or by the school inspector, who may also give the special notice contemplated in section 290r.\u201c290%.In all proceedings for offences against the provisions of this division, the child\u2019s age shall be deemed to be such as his appearance indicates, failing proof to the contrary.\u201c290.No proceedings shall be taken by reason of the absence of a child from school on a day regarded as a holiday by the church or religious congregation to which he belongs.\u201c290w.The teacher or principal of every school shall, every week while the school is open, give the attendance officer the full name, age and address of every child enrolled in such school who has been absent or expelled therefrom, and shall furnish on demand such other information as the attendance officer may require.\u201c290x.Every secretary-treasurer, attendance officer, teacher or school principal who refuses or neglects to perform the duties imposed upon him by this division, and every person who hinders the performance of such duties, shall be liable, on summary proceeding, to a fine of not more than twenty dollars.\u201c200y.The fines imposed under this division shall form part of the local fund of the school board concerned.\u201d 8.This act shall come into force on the first day of July, 1943. 150 EDUCATIONAL RECORD THE TEACHING OF CITIZENSHIP THROUGH THE SOCIAL STUDIES W.H.Brady, B.A., Inspector of Schools The idea of democracy pre-supposes an intelligent, informed electorate, capable of making decisions after weighing the pros and cons of every question concerning its welfare and the common good.That is why every advance in the long struggle for human freedom has been accompanied by a firm faith in education.In the Renaissance, the Reformation, the democratic revolutions, education was, in theory at least, a weapon in the hands of the leaders.Each of these movements hoped to achieve an ideal society by means of education to produce general intelligence, good will and character.In the last century we have witnessed an amazing growth in the idea of universal education in all the countries possessing a democratic or near-demo- cratic form of government.If the faith in education of our leaders in the past was well-founded, should we not have seen a corresponding growth in efficiency in the working of democracy?Instead, we have found many disturbing factors in our democratic way of life, due principally to the fact that great masses of people are still too ignorant to make right choices and are the prey of small groups of unprincipled men who, by exploiting this ignorance and apathy, gain control of the machinery of government in the interest of a very small proportion of the population\u2014thus robbing many people of their chances of improving their condition.It is not the democratic ideal that has failed nor the thesis that democracy depends on an educated electorate.What has failed to produce the desired results has been the type of education on which we pinned our faith.It is not enough to be able to read, write and calculate.A good citizen needs a wider preparation than that.The real purpose of education is to produce desirable changes in human beings.We have thought that all we had to do was to imitate the education of the past, especially the education that came into being during the Renaissance, spread it widely enough over the rising generation and then, by some miraculous process, we should have good citizens.Hence the old emphasis on Latin and Greek, with the later admission of Mathematics into the charmed circle.Still the most highly regarded training in our High Schools is one that was suitable for an English gentleman of about the year 1850.Education in a democracy has more recent problems to face.Modern inventions have complicated life everywhere and the fact that poverty still exists in the midst of plenty is an evidence that we have not yet learned how to manage for our own good the gigantic physical force we have created.More than ever the school must play its part, for in this generation the school has become the chief agency in training the child of today to be the citizen of tomorrow, more and more supplanting the place once filled by the home and the church.An American writer said recently: \u201cIn this eternally fluid society our schools must not be solid rocks which like milestones will but indicate where things have passed, but barges bringing vital contributions.And no social entity can offer more precious cargo than education, for no cther agency can so fully achieve the THE TEACHING OF CITIZENSHIP THROUGH THE SOCIAL STUDIES 151 embedding into the hearts and minds of men and women that process of free intercourse, group discussions and mass implementations of policies upon which, in the final count, the good life of to-day and of to-morrow depends.\u201cIt is obvious that this group training is training in the democratic mode of living.The schools can not, and probably should not, assume the burden of trying to reshape society.The process, however, by which a world of free men will come into existence should be the chief concern of education, its paramount responsibility, its monumental achievement and its everlasting contribution to true civilization.\u201d\u2014Alpern.Also, to quote from the Thirty-fifth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part I, \u201cIf \u2018school is life and not just preparation for life\u2019, the acquisition of habits, attitudes and techniques that will facilitate adaptation to life in a changing world, rather than detailed information, should constitute the paramount aim of education.Since that world is peopled by individuals organized into functional units, every child should be trained to live and participdte in the activities of groups; and since the fact that individuals differ in their abilities to perform the various necessary functions in group life has been established, every child should likewise be trained to evaluate his own abilities in terms of the requirements of changing situations.\u201d Some objectives pertinent to this paper, those affecting Citizenship teaching, may be summarized as follows: ULTIMATE OBJECTIVES 1.A desirable type of personality.2.A new and better social order.More Specific Objectives 1.Understandings.People should understand: How Canada and other countries came to be what they are.What is meant by democracy.The weaknesses and strength of democracy.The obligations and limitations of democratic government.How our country is governed.The place and function of education in a democracy.International relations.What is meant by freedom.As far as possible the nature of the universe.2.Abilities.People should be able to: Observe, listen and discover.Collect and weigh evidence.Perform civic duties, e.g., select a leader, be leaders, fill an office, act on a committee, conduct a meeting.Live democratically\u2014at home, at school, everywhere.Co-operate for the common good.N.B.\u2014The development of most of these abilities requires practice in living\u2014 an activity programme.Rr re i.À A RSS PS QE 152 EDUCATIONAL RECORD 3.Appreciations.People should appreciate: Social and civic organizations.Services rendered society by others.Freedom to speak, act, worship and pursue happiness in one\u2019s own way.4.Attitudes.People should have an attitude of: Research\u2014desire to find out things, to make sure of things, be open- minded.Critical judgment\u2014not to be led by prejudices and propaganda.Sincerity, truthfulness and honesty.Seeking to conserve national and world resources.Tolerance of race and religion and of weakness in others.Co-operation in improving social conditions and meeting human needs.Service to humanity and desire to do one\u2019s share.Justice and fair play.Sensitive to the disparities of human circumstances, and a desire to correct unsatisfactory conditions.Respect for law.Supreme respect for human beings\u2014will not tolerate the exploitation of an individual to any cause whatever.Expectation of a better social order than now exists.Willingness to accept change for the better.Love of peace and hatred of war.You may say: \u2018The place for all this is in the High School\u2014not at the stage we represent\u2014the middle and upper elementary grades.\u201d It is true that the High School affords a wide field for this type of education, but it must begin even from the Kindergarten, because it represents what should be the basis of all education.It implies placing the emphasis on the child and not on the course of study.How is the elementary teacher to play his part in achieving these objectives?This may be done in two ways: first, by his own attitude toward society, and second, by the skilful use of the tools at hand\u2014the subject matter already in the curriculum.1.The type of teacher we visualize has a genuine desire to do the best for his pupils\u2014to turn out good citizens\u2014but a realization that they must be good citizens here and now in the surroundings in which they are actually living.To realize this objective he must himself have had a good grounding\u2014a preparation which has made him aware of the problems of modern society and some understanding of their origins and causes.He must be up-to-date on what is going on in the world to-day, and know how to relate developments to his own living and teaching day by day.I have known holders of intermediate diplomas who seldom look at a newspaper, or if they do, confine their attention to the society page, Dorothy Dix and Margaret Currie.The world is in conflagration and they are blissfully unconscious of the fact.We need to be imbued with the determination to do our share in helping to keep alive in the world and to perpetuate that love of freedom and of a Christian civilization handed on to us by our forebears.The younger generation is laying down its life to prevent the ruin of civilization or + \u2014 we THE TEACHING OF CITIZENSHIP THROUGH THE SOCIAL STUDIES 153 and to fill the breach left open by the betrayers of democracy.Shall not we on the home front do what we can to train up a generation that will not only know enough to prevent such a disaster happening again, but have the wisdom and knowledge necessary for building up the New Order which we say is to come?2.I am not advocating the addition of any new subject to the course of study, but making use of what we already have.The subjects that lend themselves most naturally to training in citizenship are what we call the Social Studies\u2014History and Geography.In History we learn the sources of our institutions.For example, our Grade V assignment tells about Canada under an absolute monarchy\u2014a sort of totalitarian state, in which the people had no say whatever, in which a handful of officials representing the King of France and the Church did the governing, taxing, and even the thinking for the people, who perpetuated on this continent a group with a sort of peasant mentality.In Grade VI\u2019s course we see the growth of responsible government with the coming of the Loyalists and the later immigration from the British Isles.This leads naturally to our various means of governing ourselves, the municipal council, the provincial and federal parliaments.In Grade VII we learn the germ of the democratic idea as contributed by the Anglo- Saxons with their \u201cMoots\u201d and \u2018\u2018Witans\u2019\u2019.Later we have Simon de Montfort and his Great Council, and then the development of the two Houses of Parliament.All of these should be investigated and their outcomes in our present governing devices shown.In Geography we begin in the Primary Grades with the study of the community.From the known environment of the child we proceed to make him acquainted with the more remote and unknown.The human element is the most prominent\u2014the earth in its relation to the people living on it.The social point of view needs to be emphasized, how people live together under different climatic and physical conditions.This should lead to an understanding of and tolerance for different racial customs and beliefs, the development of the idea of world citizenship, which is the ideal toward which we strive.Different forms of government can be investigated, and the difference brought out between the totalitarian states and those with the democratic ideal.Closely related to the Social Studies, although not usually included under that head, are Moral and Religious Instruction and Health Teaching.In these the teacher has a wonderful opportunity to teach the highest ideals of citizenship, how to behave toward our fellow-beings, the practice of the Golden Rule.We are preparing for the New Order.No better preparation can be devised than to follow out the teachings of our Lord, who spent His three years of active ministry in laying down the basic principles for a New Order.It is most essential that our children should understand the secret of the stability of character and stamina of the British people in the face of great danger.It is based on three centuries of Bible teaching.A good citizen maintains his own health and desires the best possible health conditions for his community.Accordingly, our Health teaching is very essential.Much can be learned about the way to teach other subjects by the success we have had with our Junior Red Cross programme.Here the pupil learns about i \u2018 Ve J He Hi 1 na 154 EDUCATIONAL RECORD health by practicing health habits.He learns about self-government in his Red Cross meetings.In short, we may say that the Junior Red Cross represents democracy in action.Its programme is democratic.The children elect their officers, plan their programmes and activities, and think for themselves.All this encourages initiative and emphasizes what is of fundamental value in training for the democratic way of life.In my opinion, the best way to carry over this enthusiasm and lasting interest into the Social Studies proper is by transferring this method of approach.This results in the enterprise.Many enterprises or projects of high social value can be planned without departing from topics suggested by our courses in History and Geography.The highest value in an enterprise is doubtless its training in Citizenship.It requires co-operation and joint endeavour.It is practice in social living under intelligent supervision.The children act as a group.Leaders as well as followers are needed.It is agreed that school results have been the poorest in the field of civics.Here is an opportunity to realize the highest social values and civic values from the content of our present course of study.A few topics for enterprises in the field of citizenship training follow: Grade 4.\u2014How our Community is Governed.Grade 5.\u2014How our Province or our Dominion is Governed.The Government of New France.Grade 6.\u2014The Story of our Canadian Parliament.The Struggle for Responsible Government.Forms of Government in North and South America.Grade 7.\u2014 Democracy vs Totalitarianism.The Story of The Mother of Parliaments.In any grades.\u2014 What is a good citizen?How can I help my country?Canada at War.Other methods of approach to the problem of Citizenship Teaching are the socialized recitation, dramatization, such as a meeting of the Town Council or School Board ; trips to the City Hall, Fire Department, Police Station, or Court.If not too remote from Ottawa, a visit to the parliament in session is of great value.A good book on Civics is We are Canadian Citizens, by Goldring.It is published by Dent.THE SUCCESSFUL TEACHER NEEDS: The education of a college president, The executive ability of a financier, The humility of a deacon, The adaptation of a chameleon, The hope of an optimist, The courage of a hero, The wisdom of a serpent, The gentleness of a dove, The patience of Job, The grace of God, and The persistence of the devil.Syracuse Bulletin.Loz fo m=y INSTRUCTION OF THE SLOW LEARNER IN THE PRIMARY GRADES 155 READING INSTRUCTION OF THE SLOW LEARNER IN THE PRIMARY GRADES Roland O.Bartlett, M.A., Inspector of Schools.Every class of unselected children contains a few children who find difficulty with reading, a comparatively large group that progresses normally and a few children who learn very easily.It is therefore very important for the teacher to discover quickly in which group each of his pupils should be classified in order that his methods may be adapted accordingly.The group which is likely to cause most concern is that which learns most slowly.Most administrators bring pressure to bear upon teachers to have all children attain what is called a desirable minimum standard.Because this standard is well within the achievement of the average group, no great concern is felt for them.The average group may not achieve, relatively, as much as the slow group, but the slow children must \u2018make the grade,\u201d and so, much attention is focused upon them.It is the purpose of this paper to suggest methods of teaching reading so that a larger percentage of slow learners may do better work.In teaching reading, as it is in other things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.It is far better to adapt methods to suit an individual's ability than to use a uniform method of instruction with a whole class until disabilities become so pronounced and critical in the child\u2019s life that radical procedures must be resorted to.The efficient teacher, therefore, will not wait for trouble to develop but will attempt to discover a child\u2019s probable success with the reading programme when he enters Grade I.Many School Boards require children to be six years of age before enrolment.Most of these children will be ready to begin reading on the Pre-Primer level of instruction.However, a few will require greater maturity.The problems of selection of these immature pupils and the programme of instruction for them have received much attention in recent years.It is now fairly well established that success with reading depends upon a number of factors of which the following are important: 1.A degree of maturity represented by a mental age of six or more and sufficient mental alertness or brightness to insure rapid progress in learning.2.Good health and freedom from organic defects so that the pupil can give careful attention during periods in which he receives guidance in learning to read.3.Sufficient social adjustment and emotional stability so that the pupil can \u201c participate with pleasure in the activities of the group.4.An adequate fund of ideas, or background of experience, to enable him to grasp the meaning of passages in early reading activities.5.Sufficient facility in thinking to enable the pupil to grasp simple relationships, perceive sequence, reorganize ideas, and engage in simple problem- solving activities. 156 EDUCATIONAL RECORD 6.Ability to understand readily and use fluently the vocabulary and types of sentences found in reading books for beginners.7.Efficient work habits which enable the pupil to follow directions and to concentrate on the activities involved in learning to read.8.Sufficient sensory ability to insure accurate visual and auditory discrimination of words.9.Adequate motor control to make the muscular adjustments involved in learning to read.10.Keen interest in learning to read.Many of these factors can be observed by the teacher who knows what to look for.Standardized reading readiness tests may be very useful to supplement these observations.Several good tests are available, such as the Metropolitan Reading Readiness Tests and the Gates Reading Readiness Test.For a more complete discussion of the type of instruction for those pupils who exhibit characteristics of pupils who will not succeed with the ordinary Pre-Primer programme, the following books should be consulted: 1.Guidebook for the Pre-Primer Programme of the Basic Readers.Before We Read.Curriculum Foundation Series.2.Reading Readiness by Gates and Bartlett.3.Reading Readiness by Lucille Harrison.To attempt a more difficult programme than that suggested in these books invites failure.Sometimes poor methods will result in discouragement and disordered personality.Very often the child develops a bad attitude towards reading which is very hard to break.In reading, as in every other subject, a good start is essential.Introducing a child to the Pre-Primer should not be difficult.Before he begins to read he must be familiar with the basic concepts involved, as well as the vocabulary and modes of expression.The reading vocabulary should be taught in preliminary stories or discussion, during which the teacher will write the words and phrases on the blackboard.It matters little whether this preliminary work is composed of stories by the teacher or a discussion of the pictures which accompany the reading text.The important thing is that he must be interested and follow the conversation attentively.When he begins to read from the Pre- Primer, he should be required to read each line silently before he reads it orally.Leading questions are asked before the silent reading of each line.Usually, these questions are suggested in the teacher\u2019s guidebook or manual.The teacher should make it a rule never to accept a halting, hesitating calling of words, nor permit a child to continue if his reading indicates that he is unprepared.When this occurs, the teacher should give additional developmental work and drill upon words by using more lessons similar to those used in teaching the vocabulary of the selection.After the selection has been read every child in the class should be required to do the exercises in the reading workbooks.These exercises focus attention on many of the words which have been learned.The slow learner requires much more of this kind of drill than is contained in the ordinary workbook.The teacher should, therefore, construct supplementary exercises which should be ff fe i ff of d he! INSTRUCTION OF THE SLOW LEARNER IN THE PRIMARY GRADES 157 somewhat similar to those in the workbook.Suggestions may be obtained from the many workbooks which accompany basic reader texts, such as McKee and Stormzand, The Progressive Primary Teacher and One Hundred Ways of Teaching Silent Reading.One of the objectives of the pre-primer period is to teach fifty to seventy-five \u201csight\u201d words.These must be learned so that they will be recognized instantaneously.For the slow learner much more teaching is required and, consequently, the words must be introduced more slowly.The New Basic Readers provide for this contingency.In place of one pre-primer to introduce this basic vocabulary, three pre-primers are now available.To provide sufficient repetition of the basic vocabulary when the Elson Basic Readers are used, the following pre-primers are suggested: Percentage of Percentage of common words common words 1.More Dick and Jane Stories 86% 4.Here and There 459, 2.Frolic and Do-Funny 529, 5.Rides and Slides 469, 3.Playing with Pets 529, \u2018No pupil should be taken to a higher level until he has achieved a considerable degree of fluency with pre-primer reading materials and an ability to perform the exercises contained in the workbooks successfully.This is of first importance for the pupils who learn slowly.When the pupil progresses to the primer level, the teaching problem is to enable him to recognize a large number of words by various techniques and, at the same time, to develop favourable attitudes and interests in reading.Greater fluency must inevitably result.Evidence of this growth may be observed by the teacher in the following ways: 1.Vocabulary Growth, (a) The pupil will anticipate words by clues from the pictures which characterize primary books.(b) The pupil will derive the word from the context in which it is used.(c) The pupil will anticipate how the story ends.(d) The skill with which the pupil masters about 150 sight words.(e) By the skill with which the pupil identifies the rhyming sounds of words which he hears (not reads).(f) The pupil will recognize words by sight and sound, (i.e., visual and auditory) of initial consonants such as h, b, p, s, m, n, d, t, th, w, wh, g, c, j, f.(g) By the ability to pick out small words within large words, such as, at in rat.2.Development of Interest, (a) Is eager to read.(b) Likes to look at books, and prefers to read rather than merely to look at pictures.(c) Comments intelligently on what is read. 158 EDUCATIONAL RECORD Again, at this level the child should not be advanced to Book 1 without reading fluently from primers.When this fluency is not achieved after reading through the basic primer prescribed on the course of study, the child must continue to read other primers whose vocabulary repeats the vocabulary which is contained in the basic primer.For this purpose the following primers are suggested for use after the Elson Basic Primer: 1.Jo-Boy Johnson Publishing Co., Richmond, Va.2.Ben and Alice American Book Company 3.We Play Augsburg Publishing Company 4, Bob and Judy Lyons & Carnahan 5.Little Friends at School Rand, McNally & Co.The child who enters upon the next stage of reading development is ready for a most important and joyful reading experience\u2014the reading of many books independently, or with little help from the teacher.These books necessarily must be of Pre-Primer or Primer level of difficulty.It is not-enough to provide pupils with an abundance of reading materials and time for reading.The slow pupils, particularly, require much attention in order that bad habits may be avoided.In addition to this, there will have to be much silent and oral reading to insure growth in word-recognition and interpretation of what is read.Silent reading exercises will be varied, and will include reading for information and pleasure.Much of the oral reading should follow silent preparation.This gives the pupil greater familiarity with the material and it enables him to recognize larger units at one fixation of the eyes, thereby improving his eye movement habits.Finally, it improves the quality of the oral reading.Dramatizing a selection helps the pupil to interpret its meaning more fully.It helps the teacher to determine if the child has the right concepts.This is of great importance for the slow learners who need to have their concepts clarified frequently in addition to a larger amount of drill with word recognition techniques and correct pronunciation.The child who has completed this stage of development satisfactorily will show the following characteristics: Becomes absorbed in the content of simple books.Reads silently with no lip movements.sos = Reads in thought units, rather than by words.4.Is versatile in unlocking unknown words, i.e., uses simple phonetics, contextual clues, etc.When this stage of development is reached the pupil progresses very quickly.Comprehension, interpretation, speed of silent reading and fluent, accurate oral reading develop rapidly.At this stage the pupil reads sufficiently well to enable him to secure much information about things beyond the scope of his immediate environment.Read- 8 & 5 BE B 5 = 5 58 2 5 5B =\u2014- \u2014\u2014 pvc \u2014 TE 6 INSTRUCTION OF THE SLOW LEARNER IN THE PRIMARY GRADES 159 ing experience is no longer restricted to school readers.Moreover, much material is now available for pupils at this stage.Numerous books are written and bound in very attractive form.The competent teacher will provide a programme to acquaint the pupils with the books available and to encourage the pupils to read them.This may be done by: (a) Telling the pupils about parts of a story and having the pupils read the rest of it.(b) Encouraging pupils to tell about the stories that they liked best.Enthusiasm is contagious.(c) Displaying the books on a table, and by many other devices.This period is important for another reason.Nothing succeeds like success, and the achievement of the pupil makes him naturally interested in reading.The competent teacher will take full advantage of this to develop permanent attitudes towards reading.The time of rapid progress in reading brings with it certain problems.Growth in reading is so rapid that it is difficult to provide for the individual needs of the pupils.A very flexible plan of grouping children is therefore essential.Teachers find this difficult.Usually three sections are made.The best readers read a great deal independently, and most of the time is devoted to the average and poorer groups.This can be done because the teaching of the superior group is more a problem of selecting proper materials than one of teaching word recognition, correct interpretation, oral reading, etc.The materials which are required for a satisfactory programme of reading at this level include: 1.The basic readers and workbooks.2.At least three sets of readers on each level of difficulty.About ten or twelve copies of each set for a grade of thirty-five pupils should be a sufficient number.It is not advisable to purchase more because the children should be grouped.(See Stone, Better Primary Reading).3.Silent Reading Exercises, such as Gates-Peardon: Practice Exercises in Silent Reading.Pupils who have completed satisfactorily the period of rapid progress should reveal the following characteristics: 1.They should interpret accurately materials which they have read in the various curricular fields.2.They should read more rapidly silently than orally.3.They should be very versatile in unlocking words by different methods.4.They should ask for books related to topics about which they are interested.5.They should have established the habit of reading independently.[EPR 1 160 EDUCATIONAL RECORD As one would conclude logically, most of the methods suggested in this paper are those which the efficient teacher will use with all children.That is inevitable.The learning process is essentially the same for those who learn quickly as for those who learn slowly.The difference lies in the fact that the slow learners require a great deal more instruction and experience with each new skill that is to be taught.The road to success is the same, but the rate at which it is traversed is markedly different.To care for the needs of slow learning children requires close cooperation and thorough understanding of the problem by the administrators who are responsible for school policy.To be sure, methods are important.However, if the school administration is not fully awake to the problems, the results will be only partly successful.In conclusion, let me repeat what has been stated so frequently in former sections.The secret of success with the slow learner is to provide an abundance of reading material on any level of difficulty so that the child may continue to read on this level until he reads with a considerable degree of fluency.Secondly, the pupils should be taught by groups, which are arranged according to the success which the child has with his oral reading, silent reading exercises and standardized tests.The following suggestions may be useful for teachers of the slow-learning group: 1.Establishing of rapport between teacher and child.This is very important because the teacher must gain the child\u2019s confidence.\u2018 2.The enthusiasm of the teacher must be such that it stimulates in the child an interest in learning to read.3.The child\u2019s ability and rate of learning must be known by the teacher.4.More individual observation of the child and analysis of his oral and written responses are necessary than with the average child.5.More material to suit the child\u2019s individual needs is required.6.A longer preparatory period is usually necessary.7.An abundance of concrete instruction with objects motivates and vitalizes the work, thereby creating a greater amount of interest.8.More time should be spent on discussion to promote associations in the mind for deeper interpretation.9.There should be more incidental and easy reading.10.Writing of individual experiences clarifies and organizes the child\u2019s thoughts.11.A greater use of kinaesthetic technique of word-recognition is usually beneficial.12.More attention should be devoted to the perceptual processes of discovering likenesses and differences of words.13.A greater amount of drill should be given on all methods of word-recognition.14.A better systematic check of the child\u2019s skill and rate of development should be kept than is usually necessary with the average child. 1 d A NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM IN THE SCHOOL 161 A NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM IN THE SCHOOL\u2014PART I Frank O.Morrison, Ph.D., Department of Entomology, Macdonald College Familiarity, though generally held to breed contempt, often spells knowledge rather painlessly acquired.Such is the function of the school museum of natural history.To this end it should be accessible to everyone at all times and should not be a locked room to be entered on rare occasions by natural science classes only.As a rule, space and the time alotted to the care of such a project must be very limited.It is therefore wise to keep the exhibits few and simple.Representative local material is of more educational value than rare exotic examples.The collecting and preparing of material for a museum may well be a continuous project for successive student \u2018\u2018Natural Science Classes\u2019 or \u2018clubs\u2019.If such a club can be expanded to include locally intrerested amateur naturalists, so much the better.The science teacher should be the guide.What to collect; how to collect it; and how to preserve, prepare and exhibit it are often the most difficult problems.It is proposed here to discuss these problems briefly in a series of papers of which the following is the first.Collecting and Preparing Animal Specimens.Each museum will have a botanical section and a zoological section.The latter concerns us here.It will be, of necessity, subdivided.These lesser divisions may be as numerous as space and time will permit.Three major sections suggest themselves at once: Invertebrate animals, Vertebrates, and Fossil and other exhibits of an historical nature including the handiwork of prehistoric man.Invertebrate animals will be considered here.Vertebrates and Fossils will be dealt with in the next article.Exhibits of Invertebrate Animals.The invertebrates form such a large group and are as yet so poorly known by the layman that they offer great possibilities.The greatest difficulty they present lies in the smallness of their size.On the basis of size it may be well to discuss them here under three headings: (1) microscopic forms, (ii) macroscopic forms which can be successfully dried, (iii) soft-bodied macroscopic forms which must as a rule be preserved in liquid.The first two of these will be discussed here.(i) Microscopic forms are difficult to show and, in many if not most school museums, must be neglected.If, however, the school is equipped with one or more monocular or binocular microscopes, representatives of the microscopic invertebrates may well be included in the museum.Material will consist of two types: prepared stained microscope slides, and living cultures.Prepared slides will, in general, have to be purchased from supply houses unless facilities and trained help are available for home preparation.If courses are given in biology the standard materials required by the curricula will be collected first.All slides must be kept in suitable filing boxes or cabinets, preferably so constructed that individual slides are kept separate, horizontal, level, and protected from dust and light.Light fades the colours of the dyes.Manufacturing racks or cabinets may be another manual training project.If no course work is offered in the school it may be advisable to keep on hand only a few slides of organisms often 162 EDUCATIONAL RECORD heard of: e.g.Hydra, Paramoecium, a colonial protozoan, a liver fluke, the scolex of a tapeworm, the proboscis of a housefly, spermatozoa, biting and sucking lice, etc.Living cultures can only be maintained if the help is adequate; they may be purchased or made up from time to time for special occasions.Amoeba purchased from a supply house may be cultured in petri dishes containing one grain of boiled wheat, a few grains of sand and a little distilled water.They require renewal every two months.Paramoecium and related ciliates swarm in a culture made by adding to an open dish of distilled water a handful of timothy hay or oat straw and allowing the infusion to stand uncovered until decomposition is well under way.The culture of many other invertebrates is discussed in detail by J.G.Needham et al in their compendium, \u2018Culture methods for invertebrate animals,\u201d\u201d Comstock Pulishing Co., Ithaca, N.Y.The use of large illustrations, photographs and charts hung on available wall space, should not be overlooked as a method of presenting the biology of the microscopic forms.(ii) Macroscopic Invertebrates which can be successfully dried.This group offers by far the greatest scope.They are probably also the logical group to start collecting first.In general, they can be collected locally and their numbers added to continually so long as more room is available.In numbers of species the insects dominate.Among the non-insect species, however, may be included certain starfish (if the collector lives near the coast), the shells of clams, snails and other molluscs, and the corals and exotic sponges, which may often be secured by the class as a whole corresponding with some similar age group studying biology in Australia, the West Indies, or elsewhere.The St.Lawrence and Ottawa rivers contain at least two types of green freshwater sponges.If these are collected with some water and at once boiled in a saturated solution of copper sulphate in fifty percent acetic acid, they may be dried and mounted on cotton under glass without loss of shape or color.The insects are practically innumerable.To collect them, one requires a very limited amount of equipment including an aerial net with a strong, rigid frame and handle.The net ring should be of strong, springy wire from eight to fourteen inches in diameter.The bag must be strong, durable, fine enough to retain small insects and yet thin enough to make captured specimens readily visible.Bobbinet is a satisfactory material.The net should be fastened to the ring with a strip of durable muslin.It should be twice to three times as long (deep) as the diameter of the ring and should taper to a rounded point about three inches in diameter.The second requisite is a killing bottle.This is made from a glass jar about half the size of a pint fruit jar, with a wide mouth and cork or rubber stopper, as screw tops are awkward.A thin layer of potassium or sodium cyanide (very poisonous material which continually gives off deadly fumes) is put in the bottom of the jar, a layer of dry sawdust is put on top of this, then a piece of blotting paper and a thin layer of plaster of Paris, which is allowed to set.The ardent collector may want several small killing bottles for his pockets and one or more large jars.One bottle should be retained for collecting butterflies and moths only, as they shed scales over other specimens.A little mass of paper ribbons (cut from newspaper) in this bottle reduces the struggling and hence the damage done to specimens.Small rectangles of paper folded into Ig ey ne a n he ir k he A NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM IN THE SCHOOL 163 envelopes may be used to carry home individual moths.A \u2018\u201ccigarette-fifty\u2019\u2019 tin will hold many of these envelopes.Forceps are recommended for removing specimens from the jar to the envelopes.The best place to begin collecting insects is in a patch of flowers.Swing the net sidewise over a flowerhead uatil the insect is safely inside, then with a twist of the wrist fold the bag across the ring thus imprisoning the specimen.Place the net flat on the ground with the ring down and the bag folded across on top of it.Open the killing bottle.Lift the tapered end of the net with the left hand, leaving the ring on the ground.The insect will go up to the light.Insert the right hand with the open bottle underneath the ring and raise it until the insect is imprisoned in the bottle by the net.Place the stopper in the bottle over the netting and await the effect of the gas.When the insect is quiet, take the stopper off the bottle, remove it from the net and insert the stopper again at once.When some experience has been gained, the collector may go further afield and collect by sweeping or beating a strong net through vegetation, or may sift beetles aad other forms from the soil.Numerous other schemes for collecting will occur to each individual.Moths, water beetles and water bugs are attracted to lights at night and may be collected around automobile headlights, plate-glass windows, open windows, etc.If a white sheet is hung up at night in a dark place, moths lighting on its surface are easily captured by placing over them a recently opened killing bottle until they are overcome by the gas.Regular light traps may be constructed by placing a light above a cone (with or without baffles) beneath which is attached a strong cyanide bottle.If fermenting mixtures of fruit juices, molasses, etc., are painted on trees, fence posts or even window-sills and if the spots so treated are occasionally visited with a flashlight, interesting forms may be secured.It is valuable and instructive too to bring in living larval forms (grubs, maggots, caterpillars) and rear them indoors.This is a source of life history groups for the museum.To do this, a supply of the host plant should be brought in too.A simple rearing cage consists of a flower pot filled with sand, a small glass bottle and a lantern glass.Place the base of the host plant in a bottle of water and bury the bottle in the sand.Place the living larvae on the plant.Cover with the lantern glass and keep the lantern glass covered with cheesecloth.Keep the sand damp.Usually all stages, including the eggs, may be secured in such cages.As soon as the collector is home, the day\u2019s catch should be sorted out, and the specimens to be retained should be pinned.Only the standard length, sharp- pointed, black, steel, insect-pins should be used.Household pins are too thick and corrode badly.Pins may be purchased from biological supply houses.They are numbered from 00 to 5 in order of increasing thickness.Numbers 2, 3.and 4 are best for general use.There is a right and wrong place to pin insects.Pinned wrongly they may not stay on the pin or may have certain structures so obscured that specialists cannot name them readily.Best results are obtained by pinning beetles through the right wing cover; grasshoppers, flies and bees through the right side of the thorax in front of the wings, and bugs just to the right of the middle line and just behind the thorax.The pins should be pushed 164 EDUCATIONAL RECORD right through the specimens from the dorsal (top) side to the ventral side.A very small specimen may be glued to the side of the pin or better still to a small cardboard point, through which the pin is placed.Colorless or white shellac makes the best glue.Very little should be used, care being taken that at least all the structures on one side of the specimen are readily visible.It is advisable to have the insects just high enough on the pins that the pins may be grasped by the finger and thumb without touching the specimen.If a block of wood has fine holes drilled in it to the depths of one and one-eighth inch, three-quarters inch and three-eighths of an inch, respectively, it will serve as a pinning block.Putting the pin point in the deepest hole the insect is shoved up as far as the depth of the hole will allow.The other holes are used for pinning the data tags, and the result is a uniform job.The higher data tag should carry the place and date of collection and the collector\u2019s name, the lower the name of the insect.Neat printed tags which only require that the date be added in India ink may be purchased, or typed sheets may be reduced by photography.The usual form is: Macdonald College, P.Que.25 Vv 1943 J.Doe.Small labels make neat collections.If for any reason specimens become hard and dry before they can be pinned, or, if it becomes necessary to remove a specimen from a pin, this may be done without breakage by first relaxing the specimen.To do this, leave the specimen on a small piece of glass on some wet sand in a covered container for twelve to twenty-four hours before handling it.A few crystals of carbolic acid added to the water used to wet the sand will prevent fungus growth.Butterflies and moths are often the most interesting insect groups to the amateur.When these are to be collected, it is necessary to have a spreading board on which the specimens are so extended before they dry so that the wings, antennae and legs may harden in symmetrically expanded positions.Such a board is readily constructed.It must have a groove wide enough to admit the body of the insect.If the groove tapers from one end of the board to the other it can be made to accommodate bodies of different sizes.It should be so deep that, when the pin carrying the specimen is pinned in the bottom of the groove, the wings may be spread horizontally on the sides of the board above the groove.The wood should be soft enough to enable the specimens to be pinned to it easily.The wings of the insects may be spread by gently extending them by means of a pin point used behind the strongest veins, and they may be held in the extended position with strips of paper pinned down over them or strips of glass laid on top of them.Legs and antennae can be held in place by crossed pins.The whole procedure requires a little practice, but it is not difficult.For further directions on this and other matters with regard to insect collecting, the reader is referred to Alexander B.Klots\u2019 paper: \u2018\u2018Directions for collecting and preserving insects\u2019.This is available for fifteen cents from the Department of Entomology, Ward's Natural Science Establishment Inc., P.O.Box 24, Beechwood Station, Rochester, N.Y.Another class of easily dried exhibits which cannot be called animals but which would be filed in this section of the museum is made up of numerous A NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM IN THE SCHOOL 165 evidences of insect activity, e.g., honeycomb, nests of solitary wasps (in plant stems, tree trunks, etc.), mud dauber wasps\u2019 nests, paper wasp-nests, the engraving of bark beetles, burrows of wood boring forms, insect damaged books and grain, insect cocoons, and the scales of scale-insects.Boxes and drawers for showing insects should be sturdy, insect tight (to keep out pests), lined with material soft enough to hold pins (cork, balsa wood, the backing off linoleum, or even corrugated cardboard), and should be covered tightly with a removable lid or glass cover.These too may often be the work of manual training classes.If glass topped cases are used, highly colored specimens should be protected from the light, which fades them.If wooden covered boxes are used, the standard Schmidt Box, sold by all supply houses, is an excellent type.The so-called *\u2018 riker mounts\u2019\u2019 consist of cardboard or wooden boxes of varying dimensions, preferably one to two inches deep.An even layer of absorbent or non-absorbent cotton is placed on the bottom, and on it are arranged the specimens to be exhibited.The whole is then covered with a sheet of glass and solidly bound with passepartout or gummed binding linen.These lend themselves well to displaying related forms, life-histories, examples of mimicry, etc.Of special interest in rural areas are mounts showing all stages of the development of serious pests, such as the European corn borer.Specimens will be readily identified if sent to the Division of Entomology, Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, or the Department of Entomology, Macdonald College, P.Que.The specimens must be packed adequately.The sender should indicate whether or not they are to be returned to him.Within the invertebrate section of the museum, specimens should be arranged according to the groups to which they belong.Similarly, the insects belonging to the larger groups or \u201corders\u201d and families should be kept together.For this purpose the library should contain such books as J.G.Needham\u2019s \u2018Introducing insects, a book for beginners\u201d, Jacques Cattell Press, Lancaster, Penn.(1941); J.H.Comstock\u2019s \u201cAn Introduction to Entomology\u2019, Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, N.Y.; F.E.Lutz: \u201cThe field book of insects\u2019, and W.J.Holland's \u201cThe butterfly book\u201d.Dermestid beetles and clothes moths are the worst pests of insect collections.The best protection is tight insect proof containers and regular fumigation of boxes, etc., with naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene.Regular containers for these dry fumigants may be built right into the insect drawers.(iii) Soft bodied macroscopic forms will be considered in a succeeding article.\u201cWe did not cross the Channel to fight for England, but we believed that we were going to fight with England for Canada.We fought with England our ally.I still prefer to be governed by Anglo-Protestants than to be under the control of Hitler or of Mussolini or under any other guardianship whatever, when Protestant England leaves me, a French Canadian, the right and entire liberty to practise my faith, to speak my language, to maintain my traditions.It was for that that we fought at Dieppe.\u201d : 0° Father Armand Sabourin. 166 EDUCATIONAL RECORD NATIONAL SCHOOL BROADCASTS-\u20141943-1944 For Grades VI-X The following material will be presented over the radio on Fridays within school hours from October to April inclusive, 1943-1944.Teachers and pupils are urged to listen.A.News: The first ten minutes of each Friday broadcast will be a news period in which the significant news story of the week will be treated.The background material will be developed and explained so that the news period will be particularly useful for current events discussions, and will provide more material than might normally be available in the Press.This news will again be prepared by the C.B.C.Central Newsroom.While the news may not in each case occupy the first ten minutes, the succeeding play will not start until ten minutes after the broadcast period begins so that teachers can arrange their time accordingly.B.My Canada: A nine weeks\u2019 series from Friday, October 15th to Friday, December 10th inclusive.This will be an imaginative interpretation of each of the nine provinces, possibly using as a key character a boy or girl who will represent the province, dramatically speaking.The theme of the series is that there are intrinsic differences between the provinces, that these differences represent a rich national culture and that the members of each, province are all fellow Canadians.C.The Way of Free Men (suggested title): A six weeks\u2019 series from January 14th to February 18th inclusive.This will dramatize in simple terms some of the principles of democracy, such as tolerance, majority rule, equality of opportunity, respect for the Law and equality before it, the privileges of living together in communities and the contributions the individual must make in return.The treatment will be in terms of the average school child's experiences.D.Proud Procession (suggested title): An eight weeks\u2019 series beginning Friday, February 25th.This will be a set of programmes on pioneers in various fields of Canadian achievement, stressing the variety of opportunity and stimulating the desire for accomplishment.The subjects from which the selections are to be chosen are: Science, Industry, Music, Engineering, Public Life, Geology, Community, Medicine, Art, and Aviation, from which eight will be chosen.It is a pleasure to be with you, and a privilege to address you\u2014you, who are so particularly interested in the Province of Nova Scotia.I have been giving a great deal of time and thought to Education as I am anxious that all others should have what I missed in my boyhood days.It has been a handicap all my life.I have laboured harder in order that I would get in the end what I thought would be a reasonably good education.HONOURABLE A.S.MACMILLAN, Premier of Nova Scotia. RE Be Pe ee a THE BOOK OF JOB IN LITERATURE AND LIFE 167 THE BOOK OF JOB IN LITERATURE AND LIFE E.C.Woodley, M.A., Department of Education, Quebec The Book of Job is one of the masterpieces of world literature and, in the translation found in the authorized version of the Bible in English, must be ranked among the finest literary works in the English language.Not only because of a certain similarity of content but especially because of its magnificent imagery it is in the same class with Milton\u2019s Paradise Lost.That this estimate of the place of the book in our literature is not an exaggeration is borne out by the wealth of testimony from outstanding critics and writers who have come under its spell.We shall name only two.In his lecture on the hero as prophet, Thomas Carlyle says: \u201cI call it, apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever written with pen.One feels, indeed, as if it were not Hebrew; such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism or noble sectarianism reigns in it.A noble book, all men\u2019s Book! It is our first oldest statement of the never-ending Problem,\u2014man\u2019s destiny, and God\u2019s way with him here in this earth.And all in such free flowing outlines; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity; in its epic melody, and repose of reconcilement .sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation, oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind ;\u2014so soft, and great; as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars! There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of equal literary value.\u201d The other testimony is that of the English critic and historian, James Anthony Froude.Job, he says, is: \u2018a book of which it is to say little to call unequalled of its kind, and which will one day, perhaps, when it is allowed to stand on its own merits, be seen towering up alone, far above all the poetry of the world\u201d.It is difficult to classify the Book of Job under any ordinary literary type.It has sometimes been regarded as an epic and at other times as a drama.It partakes of both forms and may probably be described best as a dramatic poem.The scenes range from heaven to earth and most of them deal with different phases of the spiritual struggle which takes place in the mind of Job as he faces the great problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a good God.The dramatic form of the book is seen in the work when considered as a whole, for it consists of a prologue giving the background which throws Job's problem into clear relief and an epilogue which describes the reward of Job\u2019s integrity and faithfulness to God.Between these sections, which are very vivid oriental pictures, lies the body of the book consisting of dialogues in which Job and his three friends discuss the question of why the righteous suffer.Then Elihu, a young man who had been an interested listener, enters the debate and expresses his views in a very self-confident manner.God finally intervenes and rebukes both the false logic of Job's friends and the impatience of Job himself.Job retracts the hasty words he had uttered in his pain and perplexity, and rests in faith upon the divine revelation of the ultimate purposes of God as far as he can grasp them. 168 EDUCATIONAL RECORD The following outline will show the main divisions of the book: 1.The prologue: chaps.1-2.2.The debates with the three friends; chaps.3-31.(a) Job's bitter outcry prompted by his sense of loss, his suffering and bewilderment; chap.3.(b) The actual debate with the three friends in three cycles of speeches; chaps.4-14; 15-21; 22-31.3.The speeches of Elihu; chaps.32-37.4.The speeches of God and the submission of Job to the divine will; chaps.38:1-42:6.5.The epilogue; chap.42:7-17.An examination of the structure of Job suggests comparison with a Greek drama of the more rigid type.The main difference is that in the Greek drama the dialogue is carried on between the chorus and the character who occupies the stage.If we conceive of the three friends as occupying the place of the chorus, the book of Job becomes essentially a Greek drama, a strange blending, however, of tragedy and comedy, as in the end the sufferings and loss of Job are transcended by the reward: \u2018and the Lord turned the captivity of Job\u2014and the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning\u2019\u2019.The Greek drama with which Job is most akin is Aeschylus\u2019 Prometheus Vinctus.In many respects Prometheus and Job are kindred spirits and each had an innate sense of his own integrity.But the issue of the two dramas is very different and the behaviour of Zeus and Jehovah are in no way parallel.The Book of Job deals in a dramatic way with the ageless problem of reaching some philosophy of life which will reconcile human suffering with faith in the ultimate goodness of God.It is a problem which must be faced by every human being who is satisfied that life is more than meat and the body than raiment and who regards the fatalistic philosophy of Omar Khayyam as an insult to human intelligence.Job has lost everything he prized and his body is racked with pain.He cannot understand why he should be the victim of evil circumstance.Why was he born and why was he allowed to prosper for a time and taste happiness if, in the end, his earlier experiences were only to make his present suffering of body and, still more, of mind, the more terrible?In pain and bewilderment he cries out: \u201cLet the day perish wherein I was born! Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul!\u201d Learning of his trouble and desiring to bring him to a right frame of mind, Job's three friends come to sympathize with him and also to proffer spiritual advice.The three are Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar.They are good men according to their own light, but are quite incapable of understanding the agony that is in the soul of Job.They are traditionalists of the narrow orthodox type who have a ready, if superficial, explanation for everything that happens in human © THE BOOK OF JOB IN LITERATURE AND LIFE 169 life.While they are sorry for their friend Job, they know exactly what has brought about his present unhappy condition and tell him so in language which, while poetic in phrase and form, is barbed with cruel rebuke.There is only one explanation of suffering say these friends.It is the result of sin or wrong-doing of some kind.God is just and, if he allows men to suffer, it is as a punishment for their sin.The lesson to learn from suffering is to cease from behaviour which is displeasing in God\u2019s sight.In a real sense suffering should be welcomed if it turns a man from his evil way: \u201cBehold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty\u201d.So speaks Eliphaz, and he is supported by the traditionalist Bildad: \u201cFor inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out .Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he uphold the evil-doers\u2019\u2019.Zophar, a man fanatically zealous, is impatient when he sees that Job will not accept the orthodox explanation without question and rebukes him with the words: \u2018Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.Canst thou by searching find out God?Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?\u201d Bildad\u2019s advice is that Job should confess his sin and: \u2018\u2018set his heart aright\u201d.Then all his trouble would be past.But Job indignantly rejects the counsel of all three friends.He is faced with a terrible moral dilemma.Like his countrymen, he finds it difficult to dissociate suffering from sin, yet, while conscious of his own general unworthiness, he cannot admit that he has sinned to such a degree as to merit the series of afffictions that has come upon him.He has always regarded God as just in his dealings with man, but he cannot reconcile his sufferings with the justice of God.He is utterly bewildered and cast down.But one thing he refuses to do.He will not sacrifice his moral integrity by confessing sin that he has not committed.He is unable to find any solution of his problem or any explanation of his suffering: \u2018\u2018Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard; I cry for help, but there is no judgment.He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and hath set darkness in my paths.\u201d But even in his darkest hour he catches the glimmer of a possible answer to his cry.He has been thinking only in terms of a brief human life.What if God\u2019s purposes are only to be fulfilled in a continued life beyond the grave?For one moment there is a break in the clouds that overshadow him and his faith carried him as on wings into the unknown future: \u201cI know that my Redeemer liveth and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God\u201d.That triumphant assertion of faith became the inspiration of the noblest theme in Handel's music.From this high level, however, Job falls again into the agony of uncertainty.Of one thing only is he sure and that is the integrity of his own soul: \u201cLet me be weighed in an even balance that God may know my integrity.If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands, then let me sow and let another eat, yea let my offspring be rooted out.\u201d We now reach the one literary problem that the book presents.Following Job's bitter outcry against his treatment and his charge against the divine justice, 170 EDUCATIONAL RECORD a new figure appears in the narrative.He is a young man named Elihu who has been an interested and increasingly indignant listener to the debate between Job and his friends.He only speaks because he feels that his own convictions will not allow him to remain silent: \u201cI am young and ye are very old, wherefore I was afraid and durst not shew you mine opinion.I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom,\u201d but he continues: \u2018Great men are not always wise neither do the aged understand judgment, therefore I said, Hearken to me: I also will show my opinion\u201d.Then follows a long section, extending over five chapters, in which Elihu expresses his views.The opinion of scholars is divided regarding the introduction of Elihu into the book.He is not necessary to the drama.His views do not contribute any vital element to the solution of the problem of suffering, and his language differs in some important aspects from that used in the rest of the book.On the other hand, it may have been felt by the compiler of the book that Job\u2019s challenge of God and His ways with men had gone too far and that a correction was needed at this point.In a sense, Elihu\u2019s speeches act as tone-relief in a drama which has become too intense.It is strange, however, that no mention of Elihu is made in the prologue.\u2019 Elihu enters into the debate chiefly as a defender of the righteousness of God.He has been shocked beyond measure at the language of Job which to him appears blasphemous: \u201cWhat man is like Job who drinketh up scorning like water?which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity and walketh with wicked men, for he hath said: It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.Therefore, hearken unto me, ye men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity\u201d.Then follows a fine description of the greatness of God and the eternal justice of all his dealings.While, however, we recognize the zeal of Elihu as praiseworthy, he does not afford much aid in the solution of the meaning of suffering.His views are almost identical with those of the three friends.Suffering is associated with sin, although Elihu tends to the view that it is inflicted less in actual punishment than with a preventive purpose.If men know what will happen when they sin, they will watch their conduct more carefully.To the man actually suffering, Elihu can only offer the advice that he should make a salutary use of the experience: \u201cLo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.\u201d While Elihu has been speaking, clouds have been gathering in the sky and, as he concludes, the storm bursts upon the little company.Then from the midst of the struggle of natural forces a voice is heard by the awe-struck men as God speaks to silence their petty arguments: \u201cWho is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?declare, if thou hast understanding.Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?or who laid the corner stone thereof, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy\u201d.Then follows a wonderful catalogue of the marvellous works of God, with question after question to which man can give no answer, but of which God holds the secret.Job listens and his THE BOOK OF JOB IN LITERATURE AND LIFE 171 companions are silent also.The problem that has perplexed them is not solved specifically, but it is seen against the background of the infinite power and wisdom of God.The purpose of suffering may not be fully understood, but it is clear that the friends are wrong in always associating it with sin.In some way it has its place in the development of that moral character in which, rather than by any physical attribute, man 1s linked with God.Faith takes the place of perplexity and there the matter rests.Job\u2019s outcries of doubt and rebellion pass like a summer shower as a sublime submission takes their place: \u2018I know that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be witholden from Thee.Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?Therefore have I uttered that I understood not.I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee.Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.\u201d The so-called friends of Job are rebuked for their folly and return whence they came, but with Job's forgiveness for their harshness: \u2018And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends; also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before\u201d.So the mighty drama ends.We cite, in conclusion, the words of a famous English teacher and critic, Professor Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch: \u201cStructurally a great poem, historically a great poem; philosophically a great poem; so rendered for us in noble English diction as to be worthy in any comparison of diction, structure, ancestry, thought .I conclude with these words of Lord Latymer: \u2018There is nothing comparable with it except the Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus.Itis eternal, illimitable.its scope is the relation between God and Man.It is a vast liberation, a great goal-delivery of the spirit of man; nay, rather, a great Acquittal\u2019 \u201d.HENDECASYLLABICS O you chorus of indolent reviewers, Irresponsible, indolent reviewers, Look, I come to the test, a tiny poem All composed in a metre of Catullus, All in quantity, careful of my motion, Like the skater on ice that hardly bears him, Lest I fall unawares before the people, Waking laughter in indolent reviewers.Should I flounder awhile without a tumble Thro\u2019 this metrification of Catullus, They should speak to me not without a welcome, All that chorus of indolent reviewers.Hard, hard, hard is it, only not to tumble, So fantastical is the dainty metre.Wherefore slight me not wholly, nor believe me Too presumptuous, indolent reviewers.O blatant Magazines, regard me rather\u2014 Since I blush to belaud myself a moment\u2014 As some rare little rose, a piece of inmost Horticultural art, or half coquette-like Maiden, not to be greeted unbenignly.Tennyson. 172 EDUCATIONAL RECORD WILLIAM DOUW LIGHTHALL John Murray Gibbon, Montreal The handicap which the Canadian poet before the Great War had to overcome as compared with his British or American brother poets, was lack of a home public large enough to make his poetry pay.On that account, as a rule, he could be only a part time poet, earning the wherewithal to pay the rent, raise a family and be a good citizen in some other more profitable profession.The author of whom I am sometimes reminded when I read both the prose and fiction of William Douw Lighthall, of Montreal, is Sir Walter Scott.Both of them graduated from High School and University to enter the legal profession, both took deep interest in the folksong of their native countries, both were antiquarians, steeped in historical lore, both had the gift of the pen.But Scott found in his age and country a large and ready made public, and with his early metrical tales made a fortune which enabled him to live in style and devote most of his time to writing.When involved in debt by poor investments, Scott's pen flew all the faster, for he knew that in this way he could recoup his fortunes, whereas our Canadian poetically minded lawyer had to stick to his law for his bread and butter, devoting much of his spare time to public spirited service of his community and writing only in the odd hours that remained until he retired from practise at the age of eighty.William Douw Lighthall was born in 1857 of United Empire Loyalist stock which had strains of both military, New York and British blood.Maternally, he was great-grandson of Major James Wright (McIntyre), Chief of the Clan, Commander of the British settlers in the War of 1812, who had established homes along the river Chateauguay.The headquarters of the British officers was at Major Wright's house.W.D.Lighthall describes the land of his Colonial American ancestors in his poem The Loyalists where \u201cAlong the leafy Hudson, clime most gracious under heaven, In unbounded plenty flourished many a thousand yoeman farms; Cherishing the cheer of Holland, mother of the cheer of England, And the blood of twin stocks mingled that were children of the sea.\u201d His remoter paternal ancestors were English Normans.His father was the Dean of the notaries of Montreal, so there he went to High School, where he distinguished himself by becoming Dux.At McGill University he was at the top, or near the top, of most of the classes, winning the Shakespeare Gol Medal in English literature when he took his B.A.in 1879.He also took a year in medicine, then, with law as his life\u2019s profession in view, he graduated as B.C.L.in 1881 and M.A.in 1885.The spirit of Confederation was very much alive.Indeed, he dedicated his collected verses Old Measures \u201cTo the Poets of Confederation, My friends and Companions\u201d.This spirit expressed itself in his practical life by his serving in the College Com- wn = ET ee \u2014 \u2014 WILLIAM DOUW LIGHTHALL 173 pany of the Prince of Wales Regiment from 1877 to 1878 and later in the Royal Victoria Rifles.Among his early verses are those of his National Hymn, dated 1883, of which the following are four: To Thee whose smile is might and fame, A nation lifts united praise And asks but that Thy purpose frame A useful glory for its days.We pray no sunset lull of rest, No pomp and bannered pride of war; We hold stern labor manliest, The just side real conqueror.For strength we thank Thee; keep us strong, And grant us pride of skilful toil; For homes we thank Thee: may we long Have each some Eden rood of soil.Thou hearest \u2014Lo, we feel our love Of loyal thoughts and action free Toward all divine achievement move, Ennobled, blest, ensured, by Thee.He visited Italy in 1881, and, in spite of the charms of Venice, Florence and Rome, reveals in his lyric \u201cCanada not Last\u201d that he was homesick for the maples of his native land.Yet his love of the classics is indicated in the titles and themes of many of his early poems\u2014for instance, that entitled Homer (dated 1883).Poetry, however, had to remain a side line.He had entered the legal profession, following his father\u2019s footsteps, and this proved exacting.On the outbreak of the Riel Rebellion he wished to volunteer for service, but his partner, who was the Colonel in one of the regiments going West and who had a large family to support, feared that, if the two of them left the firm, his wife and family would suffer, and prevailed on him to stay.To our poet\u2019s first slim volume of verses, published in 1887, he gave the title Thoughts, Moods and Ideals with the young lawyer's apologetic subtitle Crimes of Leisure.Several of the poems in this volume had appeared in Goldwin Smith\u2019s periodical The Week.Goldwin Smith and Lighthall eventually became warm friends.To use his own words, Lighthall\u2019s \u201cfirst real book\u201d was a volume in prose entitled: The Young Seigneur; or Nation-Making, published in 1888, under the Frenchified nom de plume of \u201cWilfred Chateauclair\u2019.This was a loosely constructed romance on the theme of nation-making, in which the chief characters are an educated and travelled French-Canadian and an Ontarian sympathetic to the French, both politically-minded.Incidentally, this romance includes an excellent translation of the French-Canadian chanson \u201cA la claire fontaine\u201d.In the folksongs of the habitant, Lighthall felt that the best traditions of seventeenth century France were being preserved\u2014love of music, warmth of sentiment, romance, pleasure in work (most of these folksongs as sung in Canada are work-songs), delight in the charms of nature.The Young Seigneur was welcomed as a new phase in Canadian literature, and received many flattering reviews in publications throughout Canada as well as in England and the United States. vint area r cos RE sas PRESS A MISE ét a LR ae AN LE SM TES a té CHA OL An 174 EDUCATIONAL RECORD The names of most of the Montreal poets of that time would mostly have been forgotten had it not been for Lighthall\u2019s first anthology, Songs of the Great Dominion, published in England by Walter Scott, in 1889.Here one finds accomplished verses by George Murray, classical master of the Montreal High School; John Reade, literary editor of the Montreal \u2018Gazette\u2019, whom he calls New Merlin of the West; William McLennan, a professional man, who was happy in his novels and translations of chansons; John D.Logan, \u2018\u2018Barry Dane\u201d, whose poetic gift is described as \u2018\u2018a resource of recreation from business,\u201d George Martin, Arthur Weir, John Talon-Lesperance, Mrs.Leprohon and Katherine Livingston Macpherson.The strength of this anthology rested, however, more on the contributions by authors from other parts of Canada, such as Charles G.D.Roberts, Charles Sangster, Frederick George Scott, \u2018Seranus\u2019\u2019 (Mrs.J.F.W.Harrison), Duncan Campbell Scott, Isabella Valancy Crawford, Bliss Car- man, Pauline Johnson, Charles Mair, William Wilfred Campbell and Archibald Lampman, names that have become household words in Canadian literature.Lighthall was inspired to make this anthology by seeing a similar volume of Australian verse in the shop of Eben Picken, the bookseller, a remarkable character who carried his love of books to such an extreme that he refused to sell to any customer unless he convinced Picken that he also really loved books.Here is the first part of W.D.Lighthall\u2019s tribute to him: EBEN PICKEN Picken of Beaver Hall, what modest hand, Or thoughtless, wrote thy sign?\u2018\u2018Bookseller\u2019\u201d\u201d thou Forsooth!\u2014Though goodly word it be, and graced By learning, honor, men of fair repute.Not this the operation of thy days, No barter thought, no views of bank account, Silver and bills, profit, advertisement; Not this thy avocation\u2014but to lead The novice soul along the temple path To the hid shrine, the thirsty heart to find Some quenching draft, the world\u2019s delights to lift Before the unthinking.Gentle Levite thou Of Art and Wisdom and Humanity And the inclusive ONE.To thee we fare To meet the souls of poets, and converse With sages, known or called from quarters strange By thy skilled wand.That unpretentious door Leads where wise Plato visits still the earth And Shakespeare calls his airy host to view: Ah, what a world is there, delectable Serene, of perfect grace, the land of Thought! The Songs of the Great Dominion created a new interest in Canadian poetry among English-speaking people throughout the Empire, particularly on account of an enthusiastic review by Theodore Watts-Dunton, and a three-column letter to the London Daily Telegraph, written by Edwin Arnold, who wrote a review of this anthology while sitting at a balcony overlooking Niagara Falls.One of the poems which Edwin Arnold picks out for commendation is Lighthall\u2019s own Sonnet on Montreal.Reign on, majestic Ville Marie! Spread wide thine ample robes of state; The heralds cry that thou art great, And proud are thy young sons of thee.Mistress of half a continent, Thou risest from thy girlhood\u2019s rest; We see thee conscious heave thy breast And feel thy rank and thy descent. WILLIAM DOUW LIGHTHALL 175 Sprung of the saint and chevalier! And with the Scarlet Tunic wed! Mount Royal's crown upon thy head, And\u2014past thy footstool\u2014broad and clear St.Lawrence sweeping to the sea; Reign on, majestic Ville Marie! The Young Seigneur and Songs of the Great Dominion made such a stir in Montreal literary circles that Lighthall felt the time was ripe for the Society of Canadian Literature, which he originated and organized towards the end of 1889.The programmes of the meetings dealt with Canadian writers in other parts of the Dominion, and paved the way for later organizations, such as the Canadian Authors\u2019 Association.It was followed by his Canadian National League.In 1891 he edited a shorter form of Songs of the Great Dominion for the same publisher, and Canadian Poems and Lays for the Canterbury Poets Series.The most ambitious and the most successful of his prose works was his romantic novel, The False Chevalier, published in 1898, by Edwin Arnold and reprinted in several later editions.Based on a packet of old documents, this presents a vivid picture of France preceding the Revolution and, in the first years of the Reign of Terror, with a young French-Canadian, misled by ambition, as the leading figure.Several of the descriptive passages might well be classified as poetry, though printed as prose.The neighbouring Iroquois Reservation at Caughnawaga keeps the Mont- realer from forgetting that the real natives of Canada are the Indians.Lighthall, who wrote a history of Montreal in 1892, to commemorate its 250th Anniversary, was always a keen antiquarian.He founded the Chateau de Ramezay Museum in 1895, and, in 1912, was President of the Antiquarian Society and is still Honorary President.In 1898 he wrote a brochure describing his discovery of a prehistoric Indian burying-ground in Westmount.This he followed up with A Link in Iroquois History, and Hiawatha the Great which he renamed The Master of Life.In poetry this interest was expressed in such poems as The Caughnawaga Bead-Seller \u201cKanawaki\u2014\u2018By the Rapid'\u2014 How the sun amidst thee burns! Village of the Praying Nation Thy dark child to thee returns.All day through the pale-face city, Silent, selling beaded wares, I have wandered with my basket, Lone, excepting for their stares.\u201d For several years, Lighthall was special Counsel of the Indian Department and, in 1909, was made an Iroquois Chief, with the name \u201cTiconderoga after the stronghold on Lake Champlain, on the occasion of the 300th year of where The Master of Life was dramatized by two hundred Iroquois with great splen- - dor.In later years he has developed very interesting parallels between the civilizations of the Maya Indians of North America and the Chinese, as evidenced in their decorative motifs and their astronomical calculation of time.He has also proved that the Iroquois came from Paraguay and conquered two-thirds of South America before invading North America.Municipal affairs took up a great deal of his time with the turn of the century.From 1900-1902 he was Mayor of Westmount, and in 1901 founded the cuite BR FRASER ENE LE bes apd root MOREA HEI os tu ARUILIM ETRE 034 passa, isla EI IICHEE DERI ALAR ast AIH Hata Rilidii canny 176 EDUCATIONAL RECORD great Union of Canadian Municipalities.He has introduced much municipal legislation into Parliament.At the same time he was writing extensively on Imperialism, for instance, Canada a Modern Nation (1904) and The Governance of Empire (1910).With the outbreak of the Great War, he returned again to poetry with A Song of Sons written on December 5th, 1914: Like as a lioness, wounded for her whelp, Britannia stands, in bleeding strong disdain, And we for whom she bleeds, shall we not help?Thrills there not in us her undaunted strain?Yea, Motherland, we haste o'er ocean's tide, Eager to fight and perish, by thy side.From 1914 to 1917, he was in the Victoria Rifles Reserve, and in 1915 founded the Great War Veterans\u2019 Association, now The Canadian Legion, from which the Duke of Connaught established The British Empire Service League.Five poems reflecting \u201cThe Great War\u2019\u2019 are included in Lighthall\u2019s volume of collected verse entitled Old Measures, published in 1922.Of these perhaps the most significant are The Trembling Mountain and To France, expressing his deep affection for the race which had contributed so many of the fellow- citizens whom he admired.: We knew thee, France, in times of peace, And willing sought thy gracious thrall; The modern heir of ancient Greece, The kind, the gay, the light of all; We knew thee, yet we knew thee not, Sun-tressed Minerva of the Dawn! Till by thy dauntless side we fought Darkness and all its Satan-spawn! Again shall peace and light return Again men's hearts shall flock to thee How bright thy beacons then shall burn! How deep our homage then shall be! Then thou shalt build thy noblest Arch, Then thou shalt sing thy song supreme, And all the world shall join thy march, Toward thy best and greatest dream! The Société Francaise has recently republished this poem.Among the poems in Old Measures which Lighthall classifies as \u2018\u2018Philosophic\u2019 is his memorial tribute to Sir William Van Horne, the great railway builder, who had made the C.P.R.a practical reality: VAN HORNE Of storied race, yet claiming not descent, Merit the sole nobility of men He held.And first, the merit of the heart.His will of bronze, though such as Caesar's own, Fit for imperial conquests, to whose force Grim Nature bowed her Rockies; his vast brain, Ingenious, swift, wide-ranging; fount of wit That turned the gravest graybeards into boys; Energy sleepless; even his subtle love Of Beauty, and acquaintanceship with her; The artist hand; the artist soul and eye That saw the loveliness the careless pass,\u2014 (The fair reality of our human dower)\u2014 All these his gifts were less than one supreme, The bigness of his heart. I WILLIAM DOUW LIGHTHALL 177 Around his bier Assembled all the leaders of the land, Bent heads mid banks of flowers.But obscure, In lowly hall upon a humble street The Colored People weeping mourned his loss, And gently said: \u201cHe was our greatest friend.\u201d Van Horne, the best friend of the lowliest! What prouder title can descent afford?Thou wert the exemplar of thy chosen rule.In his later poems, Lighthall has tended to throw off the shackles of rhymed metre and allow his poetic fancies to take flight in free verse.This does not mean that his choice of words has become careless,\u2014indeed the diction is so happy that rhyme would make it stilted and artificial.The first of these free-verse poems which I shall quote appeared in the 1934 Poetry Book of the Montreal Branch of the Canadian Authors\u2019 Association: THE OLD MASTER Sitting among my pictures I hold in my hand my battered Claude Lorrain,\u2014 Bruised, and blobbed with scraps of molassic varnish; Unrecognized, like a Venus rolled in the mud Who seems to have lost the signs of eternal beauty.I turn a strong light on the canvas, Not hoping.The landscape brightens.A brilliance stands out in the corner, Above the clouds, above the stark and resolute Peak,\u2014 A marvellous blue, so tender, living, celestial, So tremulous with the pearly intimations of sunrise, That assuredly, Claude, you were \u201che who set the sun in the sky\"; And you, Claude, saw that bit of the eternal beauty, And left it that I too might find it And ache, like you, to find it again in Eternity.Another philosophic poem in free verse appeared in the 1936 volume of this Poetry Annual, and with it my brief survey will close.If I were to add anything, it would be to say that, in his eighty-fifth year, his mind is as alert as ever, and his interest in the poetry of his Canadian contemporaries, young or old, was never more keen.THE BEE IN THE PANE Fate, the Black Puma with the yellow eyes, And inextinguishable hate for human kind, Crouched, with her blazing stare fixed on me, While I sat in the Palace of Dream, Desponding.A shadow flew in at the window;\u2014 A great bee fought at the pane, \u201cWhat stops me\u2019\u2019 she raged, \u201cfrom my sunlight, From my lofty acacia blossoms?\u2019 \u2014 (What a Tantalus feast To see from a glittering prison!) \u201cYou are like me, O Sister,\u201d I answered, \u201cOur world is the same strange prison, \u201cYour fret and despair are human,\u2014 \u201cBut your case is harder than mine, \u201cFor death is your only portion.\u201cSo, Sister, | haste to your rescue, \u2018And lift you, although you fight me,\u2014 \u201cAs I do when God lifts me \u201cAnd lets me out of the window.\u201d How swift was her rise in the sunlight, Away to the locust blossoms That swayed in the azure sky! And I, from my lesser frustrations Mount also into the sun. nc ER est tete as RENE RS SRE ENTREE EME HT 4 0 Ea rar A HE SD ET de « ATEN DOE E41 4 MM MEET IE Sea EMMI SPIT SE RAL AA DAEUDES ROD mecs UHR MI QU RAIN NT RIDE Apte RE et Me NE a Ea eb ay A Dh lant Se a ee 178 EDUCATIONAL RECORD E.J.PRATT Pelham Edgar, Ph.D., Toronto In zest for living and good fellowship, buoyancy of speech, and passion for the sea, Ned Pratt stands for the Elizabethan spirit as well as any writer of the modern age.His temper is under better control, although you can mark in him no deficiency in the capacity for righteous anger.He will make a friend in a moment and hold him for a lifetime.There is in him no lack of decent dignity, but it does not extend to the denial of his Christian name to acquaintances even of the shortest standing.After all, the best loved writers are of this type, and it is no derogation to their merit that you can speak of Ned Pratt and Robbie Burns.The affectionate familiarity of Alfy Tennyson or Bobby Browning has not established itself as common usage.We are justified in thinking of Professor E.J.Pratt, Ph.D., F.R.S.C., not only as a singularly attractive human being, but as a genuinely important poet.We are within the mark in saying that in one field which he has made peculiarly his own he is unsurpassed by any poet of our day.He is a most satisfying master of heroic narrative, displaying from poem to poem a Prattian compound of whimsy humour and seriousness, of tenderness and playful satire, that is original in no usual degree.His touch indeed is so unmistakable that every page is stamped by his own peculiar mark, impossible to be confused with the manner of any other writer.He was a comparatively late beginner in poetry.Born in Newfoundland, where his father was a Methodist minister on constant circuit, his formal schooling was not so oppressive as to dash his spirits.By permission I jot down some extracts which a student of his, Mr.H.Rex Wilson, contributed to Acta Victoriana last year: \u2018\u201cAt 15 Eddie Pratt was apprenticed to a drygoods merchant, but he retired from the trade in some disgust after his three years were up.At one point he had reached that rung on the ladder of success where he was allowed to preside over the brown sugar and the corsets.From this dizzying pinnacle he was unjustly pulled down by his master after the following episode: \u201cHouse instructions contained the injunction that the sale of corsets was to be carried on according to a psychological formula.The salesperson was supposed to offer the customer a size smaller than what was obviously the correct one.However, a most uncommercial frankness prompted Pratt to offer a huge customer the large size.She was incensed at this and complained to the proprietor that she had been insulted.Pratt was charged with disobeying instructions, but he still claims that he followed them to the letter, and the correct size ry was \u2018super large\u2019.\u201cFollowing a brief flyer in the patent medicine business, he went to the Methodist College in St.John\u2019s to complete his matriculation requirements.In the patent medicine venture he and his partner produced what they called a Universal Lung Healer made of sarsaparilla, spruce tips, and wild cherry bark.They sold several gross of this mixture producing a comparatively handsome profit and a basis for the rumour that the concoction provided inspiration in as 545 = em 04 en \u2014 5 ?; 1 E.J.PRATT 179 later years for his poem, The Witches\u2019 Brew.The unsold stock was frozen (by frost action, that is) causing small loss to the proprietors, but effectually closing out the business.\u201d After a couple of years of teaching in northern Newfoundland, Pratt went to Toronto where he registered at Victoria College in Philosophy.After graduation in 1911 he took courses in Theology, his career culminating in a thesis on Pauline Eschatology\u2014his first published work.Unfortunately the whole edition was burned in his furnace during the first year of his marriage, and he has never read the printed version.His first long poem, Clay, written a few years later, never even saw the dignity of print, but suffered in manuscript the same smoky end.Dr.Pratt\u2019s own words recall this abortive entry into the poetic field where he was destined to score so many future triumphs: \u201cI had graduated in Philosophy; had, in fact, actually taken my Ph.D., and I was consumed with a desire to write a philosophicolyrical drama in which all I had learned and taught in philosophy would be presented to the public in a verse composition.I spent two years upon it, which really meant two summers and two Christmas vacations, and in my chesty self-confidence I thought that, in this full-dress, five-act play in blank verse interspersed with a few choruses, I had something which was Elizabethan in character.It was certainly something Elizabethan in carnage\u2014in the number of persons despatched through their bloody exits.I dignified this poem with a title, Clay, but I had enough sense to submit it to a few of my friends who were also literary critics, particularly my honoured chief, Professor E\u2014\u2014\u2014.I remember now their attempts to say something nice about it without betraying altogether their critical integrity, but I detected a sober undercurrent of scep- ticism\u2014a mood of \u2018This will never do\u2019, although it wasn\u2019t bluntly articulated.I came to the bitter reflection that those critics who were also personally friendly towards me, did not like the production.Then I went to see a publisher who said: \u2018Yes, we'll undertake to publish it, but at vour expense\u2019.As my salary then was so low it wasn't taxable, I said \u2018No! \u201cI went home that evening and piled up the twenty typed copies of Clay and I said to my wife: \u2018I am going to burn them! She replied: \u2018If you think you must, all right, but before you do so, answer one question: Why did you call it Clay?\u2019 and my only answer was \u2018Why not?\u2019 There was something ominously prophetic about the title.All the hopes of two years crashed, and I shall not forget the effort of the will as well as of the fingers, when I tore the tremendous manuscript to shreds in all its copies and sent it into the flames.It was like the strangulation of a child.\u201d * The lecture from which these lines are taken is at once a commentary on Dr.Pratt\u2019s own methods of writing and an important treatise in miniature on the art of poetry in general.He continues his comment upon his martyred poem: \u201cIt was full of theories and reflections of theories about life, ethical maxims, philosophical truisms, bald, very bald, generalisations\u2014practically the whole cargo of the department of philosophy and psychology as it existed twenty years *The relation of Source Material to Poetry (unpublished). anip CHE HERTHA PIRE ER TE EE ME IE RS ee ee EEE ae Es OEM EN SEEN NSP ES CA CO ae = QU [EHH BEE TO M EC I RE EH A EE 180 EDUCATIONAL RECORD ago in the University of Toronto.I came around to the conviction that philosophical and ethical insights wherever they find their way into poetry should be emotional renderings of experiences actually lived or imaginatively grasped.For the writing of that alleged poem all that was necessary was a fountain pen with unlimited paper, a text-book on ethics, and an armchair.\u201d From the deadly seriousness of the unfortunate Clay, Pratt swung violently to the hilarious extravagance of The Witches\u2019 Brew, which Selwyn and Blount of London published.From that day his reputation was established.None of the work that followed had the daring inconsequence of his first extravaganza, but, serious though his themes might be, his humour and his irony found constant play.The only piece of length where seriousness was to prevail throughout is that powerful ode on the theme of death that he called The Iron Door.For the most part the major poems that he was to write have been narratives of actual or imagined incident and, whether true or feigned, his concern for accuracy of detail never flags.Two of his poems in particular, The Roosevelt and the Antinoe and Brébeuf and his Brethren are triumphs at once of conscientious labour and high imagination.The impulse that prompted the former may quite naturally have been his inborn passion for the sea and his zest for heroic action.This every reader familiar with his work might infer, but it is not generally known that the work was not attempted until a week's visit to the ship Roosevelt in New York harbour, and constant intercourse with the actors of that great drama of the sea had familiarized him with every detail of the rescue.Brébeuf and his Brethren is in equal degree the fruit of industry and high imagination.It is an odd thing that a member of the United Church should have written the greatest Catholic poem of the century.It is a remarkable thing that within 2,500 lines of poetry we are given the gist of events that are scattered through two volumes of the Jesuit Relations and a volume of Parkman's history.Some people think that poetry is a prolix and unnatural way of saying things that might be more cogently and succinctly expressed in prose.This poem, on the contrary, is evidence of the supreme condensation with which a great poet can manipulate events, elevate them, and present them with concentrated power.A group of Pratt\u2019s musical and literary friends worked hard for a year on an arrangement of this poem to be presented as a musical and dramatic pageant near the site of the martyrdom outside the town of Midland.Dr.Healey Willan has made headway with the musical score, and the poem has been recast for dramatic presentation.The defeat of Hitler will be the signal for the resurrection of the idea, and Canada will have an annual or biennial festival that will make old Huronia a place of pilgrimage.An important poem by Dr.Pratt, The Truant, has recently appeared in the Canadian number of the American quarterly of poetry, Voices.His most recent book is the noble poem Dunkirk, the master word on that great theme.Ca ges.es em \u2014 > = \u2014 | Lh «> Ts Ce = \u2014