will result in a kind of repression tha will defeat the real purpose of all teaching of English, which is to encourage the free and natural expression of thought. Annual Meeting-Indiana Association Teachers of English The annual meeting of the Indiana Association of Teachers of English will be held in connection with the meetings of the Indiana State Teachers' Association on Thursday, October 30. At the morning session there will be a discussion of the timely topic: "Better American Speech." Those who will take part in the program and the departments they will represent are as follows: Mr. E. H. K. McComb, Indianapolis-the high school; Mabel Wier, Evansville-elementary schools; Richard Park, Sullivan-rural schools; Mrs. Elizabeth Claypool Earl, Connersville-library. All of these persons are especially well qualified to lead in the discussion of the topic chosen by the program committee. Mr. McComb, Principal of the Emmerich Manual Training High School, and formerly Head of the English Department, has, for years, been one of the leaders in the "Better Speech" movement of the National Council of English Teachers. Miss Wier is an unusually strong teacher of elementary school English and was highly recommended to the program committee. Richard Park, one of our most energetic county superintendents, has long been making a campaign for better English in the rural schools and should be entirely competent to point out their needs. Mrs. Earl is President of the Indiana State Library Association and is familiar with every phase of library work and especially with the relations possible between the library and the school. With such a practical topic and such able teachers on the program, the meeting should be one of unusual helpfulness, to old teachers as well as to new. After the four persons named above have opened the discussion of the topic, the general meeting in Caleb Mills Hall, Shortridge, will adjourn to smaller rooms nearby and those who took part on the program will become. chairmen of the sections they represented, high school elementary school, rural school, and library. The officers. of the association are very desirous that teachers come to the meeting prepared to enter into the round table discussion. of these group meetings, so as to put life into these meetings and get the most out of them. On Thursday afternoon, the English teachers will have the pleasure of listening to an address by Prof. Charles S. Pendleton of the University of Wisconsin. All English teachers who have heard Prof. Pendleton can assure those who have not that they will hear something that will be worth going home to try out in the class room. The theme of the address will be: "Reconstruction in the Teaching of English." Prof. Pendleton will also give an address at the general session on Friday that will be interesting to English teachers on "The Socialized Recitation." At the business meeting of the association, the principal business will be the proposition to make the association a more active organization than it is at present. This is highly desirable for two reasons: 1. The National Council of Teachers of English now gives to all state English associations whose constitutions it approves representation on its board of directors proportional to the number of members. 2. With a more effective organization the Indiana association could profit by supporting a large number of research projects that are being carried on by the National Council. The officers of the association are: Mrs. Rosa M. R. Mikels, Indianapolis, President; Lillian E. Chambers, New Castle, Secretary. "TURN ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY." The following may be of interest to those who desire to see the English language advanced, as well as to musicians. Music News, Chicago, says: The London correspondent of "Le Courier Musical" (Paris), in its criticism of "Monsieur Beaucaire," now running in the English metropolis, dismisses the work of Marion Green (formerly of Chicago) with the curt statement that he pronounces French with "an American accent." This accentuates anew the attitude of all Europe toward the language question. In every one of the European countries they expect-nay, they demandthat any American appearing on their stages shall pronounce and enunciate their languages impeccably. This they assume to be the one thing needful for logical or successful performance. But do the French and Italian art ists carry the same feeling into their American work? Not by any means. They have told us so many times that we ourselves believe it to be Gospel truth that Grand Opera is possible at its best only in French or Italian, and not only do we submit to this imposition from all foreign artists but we also allow them in their song recitals to use their own language exclusively if they choose, ignoring ours entirely. They all over Europe - criticize Americans who have not a perfect knowledge of their languages, even the most unlettered of the public being supercritical about the most minute questions of pronunciation. And, in return, we allow them, when they choose to sing to us in our vernacular, to simply murder the English language. We feel flattered that they should deign to learn even a song or two in our language, and we consider their mistakes and their abominable pronunciation as cute or fetching. By Fannie Knowlton Baker, Teachers College of Indianapolis. We have been much gratified by the results so far secured from our Grammar Grades in our study of the American Indian. We have visited the museum at the State House, where the children carefully observed and listed many kinds of stone implements and other things made and used by the Indians. Upon our return to school they identified and sorted many specimens similar to those we had seen. We have had also some excellent complete but short written descriptions of the Indian as he was when the English founded their first colonies in America. Pictographs, represented and interpreted in our reference books, proved extremely interesting and we all tried to tell upon the board a short story which the class attempted to read. The teacher found much in this exercise which aided in the psychological measurements of the young artists. The methods employed by the In dians in cooking brought before the class a study of their foods and the methods by which they were obtained and prepared. The children were quick to see that some things done by the Indians could be very easily accomplished by campers, hikers or picnic visitors to the country, and I fancy will be eager to try broiling a recently. caught fish on a hot stone or baking it in a clay casing in an earth-pit oven. Perhaps our most pleasing accomplishment is the beautiful necklaces woven upon the Apache bead-looms by girls ranging in age from eight to fif teen years. Ingenuity and artistic taste in the designs and choice of colors; manual skill and dexterity; keen observation and good judgment, have all been manifest in these most attractive tasks. Very little suggestion was used at any point of this work to lead. the children to reach out beyond their immediate problem. Voluntarily they began planning and studying designs for dyeing materials and rugs to be woven on our large looms; questioning about colors, materials, quantities, sizes and patterns; to make strips to use in the weaver's bed-room; or upon our pretty polished floor. We are now about to begin a study of the methods by which Indians of all tribes contrived to communicate with each other. Very little stress will be laid here upon the spoken language, inasmuch as that subject is indeed large-far too great for graded school work; but we shall stress gestures, signals, signs and pictographs and may also glance briefly at some pictures of the records left by the Incas and the Aztecs; by the Lollers and the cliffdwellers. This will tend to the study of the history of our own alphabet and the development of our mother tongue. The Teacher and the Community By Ruth Patterson, Teachers College of Indianapolis. If the year 1918-1919 was officially known as "The Children's Year," surely the year 1919-1920 can be known, unofficially at least, as "Community Year." At every turn community activities are springing into being, community sings are being held, community organizations are being effected. And the natural, logical center for the community is the school house. Here we have a large, more or less commodious building, usually located near the middle of the district it serves. It is non-sectarian and, to be hoped, nonpartisan. It belongs to all the people, and is used only by those under twenty years of age. It occupies ground all the year round and is open to the pub lic, not more than eight hours, five days a week, ten months in the year. Why should the school house be of no use to the public in the evenings? Why should it be closed to them in the summer? For the simple reason that in most districts the community is unorganized. "I agree that this is so," says the teacher, "but why tell ME about it?" Because the teacher has her finger on the pulse of the district. Because she has, if she cares to think about it, a more intimate knowledge of the people than any other person. Because there is no one better fitted than she to start the ball of organization rolling. "But how?" gasps the teacher who has had no experience in work like this. Let me tell you. Give a party. Oh, not a party all by yourself. You have a whole room full of helpers. The purpose of this series is to give from personal experience help to teachers who are for the first time attempting to do social service work of this kind and so we will swing right now into the details of the first party. Taking for granted that the school authorities are with you in your enterprise, and that you have obtained the proper permission to use the building, your next step is to interest the janitor. It is going to make a little more work for him, just as it is for you, but if you can get him interested his help will be given willingly. These details. attended to, present your "project" to your school. Wouldn't it be fun to have a Hallowe'en party at the school house some evening, and invite our mothers and fathers? There are four things to be planned for, i. e., invitations, decorations, refreshments, and program. The wording, executing and decorating of these invitations can easily be woven into the composition, penmanship and manual periods of your school program. The most important decoration of corn. stalks, and pumpkins, can usually be borrowed from some friendly gardener, and others can be made during the manual work period. But do be careful about fire! If the building is equipped with gas or electricity, be content to let the lights go unshaded, and if portable lights must be used, borrow lamps with enclosed flames, rather than to use the artistic, but under circumstances like these, criminally dangerous candles. A candle inclosed in a fresh pumpkin Jack-o-lantern would be safe enough, but a good substitute can be made by cutting large pumpkin heads from paper, with slashes of the proper shape for eyes, noses and mouths. These, pasted to the windows, with the light from the rooms shining thru, give the building a delightfully "spooky" look, and fill the approaching guests with pleasurable thrills. The refreshments must be simple, and you must not provide them yourself. You spoil things if you do. If apples are plentiful, ask each child to bring a few, and solicit some from the grocer or owners of trees in the vicinity. Or ask each child to bring a penny, buy popcorn, appoint a committee to pop it and have a witch serve it from a kettle swung on three sticks over a red paper fire. The more things you borrow, and the more help you ask from the people, the more interest you are going to awaken, and this interest is the beginning of the community spirit which you wish to develop. Before the fateful evening arrives it would be well to lead your pupils to determine just what their duties as host should be, and to bring to them a full realization that rowdy noise is not a part. A very good rule and one that seldom works a hardship, tho it sounds almost harsh, is "No children admitted without parents." This fully impresses upon both sides the fact that this party is planned for the parents. For the program, the old-fashioned Hallowe'en games will suffice. To refresh your minds, here are a few, briefly outlined." 1. Have a tub of water and a number of apples with stems, and "bob" for apples. The successful "bobber" is the one who can, with hands held behind back, retrieve an apple from those floating on the yielding surface of the water, by clutching the stem in his teeth. A large apron, to protect the clothing, should be a part of the paraphernalia. 2. Give each pair of contestants a long string, with a marshmallow or dried fruit in the middle. Standing the length of the string apart, with the string swinging between them, its ends held in their respective mouths, each endeavors to "eat in" the string and reach the prize first. 3. Hang apples from strings in a doorway, and ask the guests to try, with hands held behind them, to take bites from the swinging fruit. 4. Place a number of dried beans in two plates at one end of the room, and two contestants, armed with case knives, at a goal line at the other. At a given signal they are to run to the dishes, scoop up knives full of beans, and return to the goal. The winner is the one who brings back the greatest number of beans. 5. Fortunes written with a fresh pen dipped in lemon juice, or milk, are invisible until held over a flame, when, if passed rapidly to and fro for a second, they magically appear. The list could go on forever, but when the closing time comes station yourself at the door and with a handclasp and a personal good-bye further the friendships so well begun. Second Grade Number By Frances M. Kelsey, Teachers College of Indianapolis. Since the formal teaching of number is delayed in most systems until the beginning of the Second Grade, it is most necessary that it should be introduced carefully. In the First Grade the children have learned to count, perhaps to one hundred. They have learned incidentally to find the pages in their readers, to count in groups of two, five and ten,-perhaps to one hundred. In their games they have sorted things into groups-have counted the children; in fact in every good school children are constantly dealing with little problems connected with their daily life which involve sorting, counting and grouping. As they have learned to write they have also learned to make the figures. All of this knowledge, while gained in an incidental way, an inventory discloses, to be a well organized body of number facts. Now at the opening of the second year, the approach to the more formal knowledge should be made through the same familiar game channels. There are, however, two things to consider seriously: First-Each new number fact presented should appeal to the child's perceptual intelligence. Second-When a fact is thoroughly grasped, the drill should follow, and once presented, never lost. All of the child's future love for number and consequent success in dealing with the intricate processes as they appear from grade to grade depend upon the skill developed from the very beginning in handling the fundamentals, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I have said that the presentation of number facts should appeal to the perceptual intelligence. It is this phase of the teaching with which this article is concerned. It is necessary that the child should see and handle objects in order that he may discover relations among them. This is the child's nat |