portant to the boys, is secondary to the principle of participation. Any boy who comes out for the squad and wants to play is given the opportunity to play. Consequently, there are no squad members whose only game activity consists in sitting on the players' bench.

It costs no boy any money to play. Activities of the Four Lakes League are supported by receipts from the student activity fee and the varsity games, plus some assistance from the board of education. Under these conditions ALL boys who wish can go out for a Four Lakes squad regardless of economic status. With an approximate varsity squad of 30 boys at each high school and 100 boys in the league games, a total of 350 high-school boys practice and play football under school supervision and regulation rules at Madison.

Basketball

In basketball, the same conditions generally prevail. Forty-two squads on the sophomore, junior, and senior levels, under the general supervision of a faculty member at each school, practice at least once a week and play their games on Saturday mornings. At the end of the season the championship of each Four Lakes League is decided by tournament play. The recreation department of the board of education supplies all the necessities for basketball activity, except, of course, individual equipment. With 15 to 20 boys on the varsity and sophomore squads and about 10 on each league squad, a total of 535 boys play basketball on regulation courts under official rules and under responsible supervision."

At West, boys who have never made the varsity team in football but have played 3 years in Four Lakes League competition are given the regular varsity award. Thus there is a goal of accomplishment for any boy to shoot at if he has the desire and persistence to do so, no matter what his degree of athletic proficiency.

The number of high school boys playing basketball in interleague or interscholastic competition for 1949-50 is as follows:

The Library Club

The educational principle that students should do for themselves (and not have done for them) is well illustrated in the activities of the Library Club at the A. D. Eisenhower High School, Norristown, Pa., a 3-year senior high school enrolling more than 1,300 pupils.

During the school year of 1948-49 the Library Club had a membership of 23 pupils, who worked a total of 95 hours a week as student libraryassistants. Most of the individual members worked from 4 to 5 hours a week. Of course, not all the student-assistants do the same type of work; to the fullest extent possible, the librarian and the assistant librarian take into account the individual proficiencies and the desires of the members, instructing them in one or another of various tasks, such as—

charging and discharging books

shelving books

reading shelves

recasing and repairing books

typing book-pockets and cards

shellacking books

opening new books properly
stamping new books

serving as secretary to the librarians

assisting with clerical work

assisting with reference work

assisting in reading-guidance

There is no set schedule for the daily work of the student assistants but the following may be regarded as a typical day:

Period 1-discharge and shelve books

Period 2-sort mail; prepare periodicals for use; mend books
Period 3-read shelves; mend books

Period 4-read shelves; attend to mechanical preparation of books; assist at charging desk; help with reference questions

Period 5-Read shelves; paste book pockets in books; assist with circulation and

reference

Period 6-arrange circulation; help with clerical work; put library in order
After school-assist at desk; read shelves; look up periodical and book references

At the beginning of the school year the librarians inform all homerooms that membership in the Library Club is open to pupils who can qualify. The candidates who apply are then screened by the librarians on the basis of reliability, aptitude for the work, and ability to give the necessary time to library duties. Pupils thus selected are assigned to the library until the quota for each period is filled. They receive special credits for library assistance, one credit for each period of work. For example, a girl who spends four periods a week in the library gets four special credits on her permanent record. These credits do not appear on the pupil's report card, because no achievement grade is given. But there is little doubt that the achievement marks of the library assistants in other scheduled subjects benefit by their library work.

Pupils now out of school who have had library experience like to come back to talk with the high-school librarian. Both she and they believe that their experience has given them confidence and a great deal of useful knowledge about books. Some of the former members have gone on to college and specialized in library service; one is now assistant librarian at the Haverford College Library, and another is librarian at the Valley Forge Hospital Library.

The purpose of the Library Club at Norristown is to enable members to be more adept in the use of books and the library, to train them to serve the school through the library, and to provide them work and prevocational experience.

The Play Tournament

A persistent problem confronting teachers is how to achieve better participation by pupils who show evidences of poor adjustment to the class. Sometimes such pupils are encouraged to participate better by a particular technique of instruction, or by an act of friendliness or by consideration of the individual pupil's interests on the part of the teacher. Sometimes a different approach to the whole teaching-learning situation can be adapted to a particular class so that ALL pupils in the class express a high interest.

The last approach has been used with considerable success in the classes in speech fundamentals at West High School, Madison, Wis. This subject, an introduction to speech and dramatics, is offered as an elective in the senior year. There is little doubt that Fundamentals of Speech attracts

pupils. In 1948-49, 110 seniors, more than one-third of the graduating class, registered for the class and were scheduled into 1 of 4 groups.

As a matter of policy, the instructor is eager to enroll boys and girls of widely varying abilities. Frequently pupils who consider themselves inept in speech have remarkable talent in pantomime and drama. For that reason the instructor prefers that classes be grouped heterogeneously. The procedure followed in class emphasizes extensive pupil participation. After units on pantomime and voice, classes begin extensive reading of one-act plays with intensive classroom study of one or two as production problems. Then, from among those pupils who volunteer in each class, directors are chosen, and they in turn "choose sides" until every pupil belongs to a producing group, either as actor or director. Each cast must select its own play and handle its own production problems. Last year, 6 groups from 2 of the classes and 7 from the other 2 classes produced a total of 26 plays involving 110 pupil-actors, pupil-directors, and pupil-stage managers. The 26 plays were rehearsed by pupil-directors before, during, and after school, and were staged in the school auditorium before members of the class and other pupils. Classmates were asked to evaluate each play and performance; on the basis of their evaluations, the best performance was chosen. The top four plays last year, according to pupil evaluations, were given before additional groups, such as the school assembly, Girls' English Club, PTA, and Drama Club.

The activity as described has been carried on for 5 years; during this time there has been ample evidence of the stimulation of pupils of lesser ability to act and otherwise participate in the play tournament. In addition, the appraisal of performances by all the pupils in Speech Fundamentals has resulted in sharpened critical judgment.

The role of the teacher is that of sponsor and resource person, and the spotlight is on pupil activity: selecting the play, assigning parts, directing action, appraising effect. The technique is a combination of workshop and laboratory method and capitalizes on the potentialities of the pupils as teachers. The activities are real. The culmination is performance before one's classmates, and critical appraisal by them. The emphasis is on the quality of the group's work, even to the extent that pupils are given a group grade for their particular play-performance. The written part of their unit examination consists of one question, "What is your idea of the value of the work we've just completed? Be specific." Consequently, in Fundamentals of Speech the pupils are not mystified by what the examination questions will be. Nor is there any tendency for them to give pat answers, the type one finds commonly in regurgitative learning.

When pupils are enthusiastic about their school work, the period ends with the work accomplished, not with the ringing of the bell. Rehearsals for the play tournament at West High School only begin during the class period; they progress and conclude during uncounted hours outside class. That the pupils willingly devote extra time to their activities is proof enough of their motivation. Though the aim of the instruction is to develop the abilities of all pupils in Speech and Drama Fundamentals, one particular result has been the complete cooperation from boys and girls who by their own admission have not been too well adjusted to school. The pupils like Speech Fundamentals. They say, "It's different."

Pupil Activities and Homeroom

Relationships between extraclass, homeroom, student council, and assembly activities are promoted in diverse ways by various high schools.3 At Quakertown Junior-Senior High School, Pennsylvania, for example, the extraclass and student council activities hinge on the homeroom program. The guidance counselor is the staff member delegated to coordinate homeroom activities. Homeroom teachers meet regularly with

It is the viewpoint of the author that homeroom and student council activities, and to some extent assembly activities, are part of the mainstream of the effective highschool program, and are not to be considered as merely additional extraclass activities. This viewpoint, however, is a controversial one, for in many secondary schools the homeroom and student council have the status of extraclass activities.