In the high school at Beverly, Mass., we teach spelling in every year of our five-year course, and are by no means sure of our product even then. Except in our largest city schools, I consider the study of a modern language unessential, especially where the high school is a finishing, as well as a preparatory, school.

In this modern educational factory, besides the usual fundamentals of heat and ventilation, there should be the maximum volume of natural light, for not even in the chemical and physical laboratories is good light more important. In no other course is there so much writing as in the commercial course, and no other school work imposes on the pupil more eye-strain than does the writing and transcribing of shorthand notes. For efficient work in bookkeeping, there should be flat-topped desks, thirty to thirtyone inches high, twenty-seven inches wide, and not less than forty-two inches long, with at least one bank of drawers. For each desk there should be two movable safety inkwells. Paper, pens, ink, rulers, and all other supplies should be uniform and of good quality. "A workman is known by his tools,” and good tools have much to do with the production of good work.

Except in the largest schools, it is hardly feasible to attempt much work in office practice, altho this phase of a well-rounded course is invaluable, when the work can be carried on under proper conditions. Provision may well be made, however, in any high school sustaining a commercial course, for offices very simply equipped to afford practice in wholesaling and banking.

Modern textbooks should be used. In adopting a shorthand system special care should be taken to put in a standard system, so that efficient teachers of the system may be obtained in emergency, and so that pupils may, if necessary, complete quickly in some near-by school the course begun in the high school.

It is a capital error to equip a typewriting department with a few each of all the better-known kinds of typewriters. Such a plan promotes friction among pupils, and very seriously interferes with unity in the teacher's work, which at best is, in this subject, not at all easy. By the way, it may be said that to attempt to teach typewriting without a teacher present in the schoolroom to supervise and direct the practice is little short of foolishness.

Not because of any inherent defect or lack of excellence in the one widely-known double-keyboard machine, but solely in the interest of standardization, it is better to use single-keyboard machines; and for regular work the ideal equipment would contain only one style of typewriter for regular practice, with such single examples of other widely-used machines as would enable the pupils to become somewhat acquainted with the method of operating them. To expect, however, that any normal pupil, in the ordinary school course should be able to operate, at a salable speed, two typewriters so dissimilar as the Smith Premier and the Remington, is to expect the impossible.

I agree with what Mr. Lakey says in other respects regarding the use of modern office devices in the schoolroom.

The teacher makes the school, and our school plant for turning out commercial pupils as a product needs a better-paid, more carefully trained operating force than is now available to supply the tremendous demand. It is of the highest importance that the officials of our state normal schools recognize the need of really first-class commercial departments in their institutions where advanced work in the subject-matter and thoro training in these branches can be obtained. Higher salaries are an important desideratum, but they do not directly add to the supply of properly-trained teachers when there are, as now, almost no professional training schools for commercial teachers.

You cannot take good flour from the mill unless you put good wheat into the hopper. Mr. Lakey does not too strongly emphasize the fundamental importance of thoro work in the grammar grades on what we have always known as "the common branches." Our school "factory" cannot turn out a marketable product unless we have good "raw material."

No factory can pay dividends or command the support of its stockholders unless it can market its product profitably. Close co-operation with local and near-by business men, with the employment departments of the typewriter companies, and with former pupils of the school will tend to create, in time, a feeling of confidence among the undergraduates and their parents that it is worth while to take the commercial course, because when it is creditably completed the graduate does not need a "pull" to "get a job."

In Beverly, pupils in good standing at the mid-year exams are permitted to take, at any time thereafter, positions acceptable to the director of the Commercial Department and to graduate with their class. The theory is that they will learn as much in the office in the interim as if they had stayed in school, and it allows a wider margin of time to place our pupils in the right kind of positions.

M. D. FULTON, New York City, N.Y.-Advertising is the name applied in the business world to publicity schemes. The public are their patrons. It is right, it is good business, it is necessary that our wares are laid before the public.

Schools are dealing in a merchandise-ideas, powers, skill. The public are their patrons. They need to know, they want to know the nature, kind, and methods of distribution of these wares. If there is anything more conspicuous than anything else in the make-up of the speaker upon the topic-Mr. Lakey-it is his concrete illustrations. They are specific and to the point. He has referred to the two-session plan of the German schools, to the aid of penmanship in actual business, and to the use of actual papers.

I wish Mr. William McAndrew, principal of the Washington Irving High School in New York City, were here to speak upon this point himself. Certainly the growth of this system from three hundred to more than three thousand girls within a few years was due in large measure at least to an organized scheme of publicity.

THE EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF
COMMERCIAL TEACHERS

J. ASBURY PITMAN, PRINCIPAL OF THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, SALEM, MASS. We are in the midst of a marvelous industrial development. The markets of the world are open to us as never before. There is a steadily increasing demand for men who have been trained to appreciate our industrial and commercial opportunities and to supply, in these particulars, our national needs—men who shall concern themselves with the great questions of production and distribution instead of those who are content to deal merely with the records of the business transactions of others, or to fill other positions of minor importance. Many of our large manufacturers and merchants will be trained in the higher schools of technology, commerce, and business administration, but the public high school, too, must offer, for the benefit of those students who are denied the privileges of the higher institutions and yet who hope to occupy in the world of business positions of large responsibility and who are ambitious to become successful business men, practical vocational courses which are also broad and cultural.

The duties of any business fall naturally into two general divisions: those of initiation and those of administration. The latter, of course, include the routine of office work. Important as this is in bringing to a

successful issue the activities of "the man higher up" in the exercise of initiative and the larger administrative functions, it is not enough, either from the standpoint of the individual or the state, that the commercial department of the secondary school shall limit its field to the training of young men and women for the performance of these duties of office routine with fidelity, intelligence, accuracy, and rapidity. The training for the responsible and unselfish duties of citizenship, which depends upon the education of the heart as well as the education of the head and the hand, must forever constitute an integral part of public-school education; and under no other condition is education of any sort a just charge upon the public treasury. From the standpoint of public support, the object of the course must not be primarily "to make money," but "to make men." The crying need of the world of business, today, is less of self and more of service.

That certain of the commercial subjects possess a distinct disciplinary value has long since ceased to be a debatable question. It is conceded by all that the power of self-control that finds expression in close application and concentration is developed in a high degree by many of the commercial studies, if properly taught. This is an invaluable kind of mental discipline, but the power of initiative and self-direction is greater; and more important still is the ability successfully to meet the vicissitudes of life because of the invaluable possession of a thoro and well-rounded general education.

Certain general conclusions concerning commercial education in the secondary school have been reached and widely accepted. It is agreed that the course shall be not less than four years in length, and that it shall be fully equal in educational value to any other course offered. It is also generally admitted that it is not inconsistent with the idea of industrial efficiency to make the chief end of technical education the development of character, intelligence, and general power. Commercial education must aim to develop intelligent and useful citizens before it trains them to become efficient clerks or accountants. The office boy who possesses the capacity for growth may soon become the employer of the bookkeeper whose training was limited to the technical work in which he is engaged. It is also acknowledged that altho accuracy and rapidity of execution in such subjects as shorthand, typewriting, and bookkeeping are absolutely essential, we should not sacrifice the greater ends of education to secure them. We must train the student to see things in the large and with clear vision to deal with large interests with originality and with force. To be more specific, commercial courses must deal with problems of production and distribution, with questions of finance and business administration, as well as with the subject-matter and the necessary practice which shall prepare students for the duties of various clerical positions.

Our teachers in this department of the high school must have a thoro education in such fundamental branches as make for culture and general

intelligence and afford a necessary foundation for the technical subjects of the curriculum; they must have a practical, working knowledge of the strictly commercial subjects; and they must have a thoro training in the principles of education, in special methods, and in school and class management.

In no other department of the secondary school is there a more attractive field than that open to teachers of the commercial subjects; and among no other class of educators has the demand for adequate professional training been stronger than among these teachers themselves. The discussion of this question has occupied a large share of the attention of this department for many years. In 1905 the National Education Association adopted this resolution: "We look upon the preparation of teachers of commercial schools and departments as a pressing problem of commercial education, and we commend this question to our higher schools of commerce and university schools of education, to our normal schools, and to further consideration by this body." Similar resolutions have been passed by educational associations and particularly by associations of commercial teachers in all parts of the country. In Massachusetts similar expressions of this need led to the establishment, at the State Normal School at Salem, of a department for the professional training of teachers for this line of work; and colleges, other normal schools, and private schools have also been stimulated to respond to this demand. The dictum of the Committee of Fifteen that "the degree of scholarship required for secondary teachers is by common consent fixed at a collegiate education. That no one-with rare exceptions-should be employed to teach in a high school who has not this fundamental preparation" has been generally accepted. The Committee of Seventeen goes farther and demands definite study of a large group of professional subjects, and opportunity for observation and practice teaching with secondary pupils. Many states. now require, as a preparation for teaching in the elementary schools, four years of high-school study and at least two years of professional study in a normal school. For high schools, the four years of college work should be supplemented by professional training, which shall be as thoro and complete as that insisted upon for the elementary teacher. These requirements can be met in full only by an independent professional school or by the department of education in a large university.

Until recently the chief source of supply of commercial teachers has been the private commercial schools. They have received many graduates of colleges and normal schools to whom they have imparted the necessary technical knowledge and skill, but few, if any, of these private schools have suitable facilities for the professional training of teachers. This is not their function. Moreover, altho they do not excessively emphasize the element of drill, it is given at the expense of instruction, and they develop in many of the teachers whom they train a point of view, not to say a spirit, which makes their instruction narrowly technical.

Few of the colleges have given their attention to business education, but should the commercial subjects be introduced into the college curriculum they are likely to be taught by professors whose attitude is naturally and necessarily academic. It is their business to teach subject-matter rather than method. No college course in the commercial branches can properly train teachers unless it is conducted as a branch of a department of education or unless attention is given to special methods of instruction exemplified and practiced in suitable secondary schools. The higher schools of commerce and business administration are training a limited number of men for the more responsible positions in independent high schools of commerce and for the more important places in the commercial departments of large high schools, but a large proportion of these students have secured their pedagogical training elsewhere.

The growing demand for trained teachers of the commercial branches and the limited opportunity for adequate preparation afforded by other educational institutions leaves an attractive field for the normal school. In the East, however, perhaps to a greater extent than in the West, there still exists a prejudice against any attempt to train teachers for any department of the secondary school in these institutions designed primarily for training teachers of the elementary grades. Nor is this attitude wholly traditional. The normal school has its limitations, and it is conscious of them. But the question that is of interest to us is not whether the normal school should undertake to prepare teachers for all departments of the high school but whether it can successfully train teachers for the commercial courses. The normal school cannot claim to be a substitute for the college, but it should be able to offer technical instruction which shall be equal to that of the best private commercial schools, and it has facilities for pedagogical instruction which should command the respect of graduates of colleges; moreover, it may be expected to possess ample facilities for observation and practice; and, in a course of four years, it should find it possible to give a substantial general education.

Whether the course is three or four years in length, no student should be admitted unless he has the full equivalent of a high-school education, nor unless he possesses, in an appreciable degree, some of the essential natural qualifications for teaching. The course may be sufficiently flexible to make it possible to receive students from both commercial and classical courses. Elective courses of one, two, or three years may be offered to meet the needs of graduates of colleges, normal schools, and private commercial schools, and of other advanced students who have had experience in business or in teaching. This liberal provision for the admission of students complicates the question of administration, but it will be the means of attracting to the institution many of its strongest students.

On the side of general education, the training should be as broad and as thoro as time and the claims of technical and professional education