of the trips. Boys and girls have written letters about their experiences to friends.

Some schools help prepare children and parents to get richer experiences from travel by calling their attention to historical landmarks and memorials and what they stand for. History classes listened with interest to reports that children gave after week-end trips. People at home like to see snapshots taken on trips, and children sometimes study in school about how to improve their photography.

Boys and girls who live in cities are especially fortunate when their parents take them on week-end trips to parks and other outdoor spots. This is often one of the few ways which they have of learning first-hand about trees and grass and their usefulness; about soil and rock formations and how they came to be; about our natural resources and their conservation.10 Sleeping out of doors in a tent or a cabin is an exciting experience to city children.

Sometimes schools arrange for children who have visited parks to help other children and their parents to plan week-end trips. People traveling can often pick up helpful folders or other informational material which they can take home to be useful to others who are planning similar trips. A teacher who is familiar with what can be learned in the parks of the local region can help children and parents have trips that are educative and that add interest to the school program and give meaning to the children's study. Information about spots for fishing and hunting and game laws regarding them is helpful to people planning trips. Many people like to know good places to stay all night. It is a helpful and interesting experience for the children to supply the facts.11

To places of government.-When the pupils and teacher in a rural school in Iowa were studying new roads and systems of highway patrol and new laws and regulations governing automobile travel, it was brought out that none of the children had ever been outside Iowa. Since part of their study had been concerned with how and where the laws of Iowa were made, including a trip to the State capitol building, it seemed natural to compare Iowa with Nebraska. But to make good comparison was not possible without seeing Nebraska-at least that was what the children thought. Could they take a trip to Lincoln, Nebr., and see the capitol there and get their own information about some of the things they were

10 See also: Conservation Excursions. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1939. Federal Security Agency, (Office of Education, Bulletin 1939, No. 13.) 61 p.

11 See also: The Place of Subjects in the Curriculum. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office. 1949. Federal Security Agency, (Office of Education, Bulletin 1949, No. 12) p. 14-16.

curious about? They could and did. It required three cars to take the school-the teacher's car and two family cars. It required a week end. But what an experience it was!

The children saw that the fine roads which they liked so much to travel on in Iowa extended into Nebraska-a national highway stretching far ahead across the level country, on and on. Where? On their United States road map they looked at the States aheadColorado, Utah, Nevada, California! What were these States like, they wondered. Now they would have an incentive for reading to learn what they could not immediately learn through travel. They would have a use for map study. They would improve their ability to understand and use both books and maps.

Along the way the boys and girls observed the wide level farms, the broad pastures and many cattle. They saw more acres of wheat than they had ever seen. They passed fields of corn, alfalfa, oats. They saw many hogs and chickens.

When the State Capitol spread out before them, the children mentioned differences in appearance.

"It's newer than ours," they said. "And it is low-all except the tower."

The teacher explained that the building was planned to look beautiful against the level Nebraska landscape. She told them it had been rated as one of the ten most beautiful buildings of the United States. She said that unusual lines and simplicity of construction could be accounted for by its being built at a time when artists were making special effort to suit public buildings to the uses that would be required of them as well as to the location and landscape.

Inside the building, the pupils looked into the offices of the State officials. They compared the organization of the Nebraska Legislature with the organization of the Iowa Legislature. They walked through the Nebraska State Museum and saw in the interesting exhibits the emphasis on pioneer life of the plains. They examined relics from the several Indian tribes that once lived in Nebraska. They were awed by the fossilized remains of prehistoric life.

The pupils made note of points they wanted to read about. They frequently met people who helped them-the Nebraska State patrols, operators of filling stations, the guards and guides in the State Capitol. There were new opportunities for observing the courtesy of officials and business people and for being courteous in return. There were many incidents and questions which would send the boys and girls to their books for more information at

home. Their home environment was indeed becoming wider and more significant.

The school camp. In many places provision has been made for children to have some experience in camping. Usually this has been in the summer. As a rule nonschool agencies have provided opportunities for camping experience. It has seldom reached a large percentage of the children. In 1945 about 5 percent of the girls and boys enrolled in public and private schools in the United States had had some type of camp experience.12

More recently a few schools are including a week or two in camp in the regular curriculum for every child before he leaves the elementary school. Although the programs have a similar framework, the experiences of individuals and of separate groups are different. Camp Hi Hill, for example, where the children of the Long Beach schools get their camping experience, is located in Angeles National Forest, a 3-hour ride from Long Beach. There boys and girls have opportunity to observe trees and birds and streams, mountain sunsets, rock formations. They discuss the variation of vegetation at different altitudes and on northern and southern slopes. They visit the ranger station and gain understanding of the fire lanes and lookout tower.

The camp activities vary with the topography and conservation needs and the plants and animals of the region. The pupils also have the experience of planning their camp, living together, and of being responsible for the chores necessary to keeping their camp a good place to live in while they are there.

The travel experiences just described-visiting places around home, getting better acquainted with the home county, traveling to a larger city, traveling to parks, seeing places of government, and having camping experience-have been like windows of the community through which children get their first glimpses of an outside world. The children who participated made the first steps between their local environment and the outside. They made friends with new people. They learned that other people, too, want to be kind and helpful. They looked at other peope's ways of doing things and made comparisons. Things that had so far been just part of the world in books became a part of a real world -their own. Such knowledge gives life to what books say.

In some instances boys and girls who traveled beyond their community found opportunity to share with the people at home

12 Mackintosh, Helen K. Camping and Outdoor Experiences in the School Program. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1947, (Federal Security Agency, Office of Education, Bulletin, 1947, No. 4.) p. 3.

interesting phases of their experience. On their trip some wrote post cards to their friends and families. Back at school they gave talks to groups of children who had not taken the trip. They wrote travel news for the school paper. Their experiences gave them a lasting interest in what they had seen.

Travel experiences must be prepared for and planned appropriately for every separate place to be visited. What is there of importance to visit nearby? Will a trip help the boys and girls solve problems important to them? These questions must be considered in deciding whether to take a trip.

In Health and Nutrition Activities

With the movement toward making good health a way of living rather than a subject of instruction, many schools work out

programs that fit local situations or are partially based on local rather than general needs. Areas of emphasis here include: Food and nutrition, recreation, relaxation, sleep, clean and sanitary environment, and safe and happy living.

Food and Nutrition

A Spanish-speaking school13 in San Marcos, Texas, gave particular attention to a school-community health program, beginning with a health-screening test of all children in the school. Signs of malnutrition in many of the children led the school staff to develop a school-garden project and hot lunch. Staff-parent meetings after school were means of helping the parents to become cognizant of the children's nutrition needs and to become acquainted with ways of meeting them with proper diets from foods available in the United States in home gardens and neighborhood stores. Helping prepare the school lunches was a further means of mothers' learning more about good diets in the United States, particularly about the foods available in the locality.

In Denver, Colo., as a sixth-grade class was planning its health program, someone suggested that they study the value of balanced meals.

"What's the use studying about balanced meals?" asked one pupil. "The people around here haven't enough money for balanced meals."

"My mother cans vegetables," said a girl. "She gets them from Grandfather's farm. They don't cost anything."

"Mother taught me how to can strawberries," said another girl. "Maybe we can think of ways to improve our meals without having to spend extra money. Would you like us to talk about it?"

The children mentioned things to do. A number of children said they could pick fruit and get vegetables from nearby farms. They would harvest them on shares. They could can or preserve the food in school and use it for school lunches.

"Then we would have more nearly balanced lunches, even if we couldn't have balanced dinner or breakfast."

Still, sugar and spices were needed to preserve the food. The children had to have kettles to cook it in and jars to keep it. Some of the parents donated jars. Kettles were borrowed from homes and restaurants. Parents as well as children were interested in the project. Children in the five lower grades frequently asked questions about what was going on in the sixth grade. Everyone set to work. In a short time in the school store room was a supply of easily prepared fruits and vegetables.

Someone proposed a series of demonstration breakfasts and luncheons. Parents and representatives from the other grades

13 Inter-American Understanding and the Preparation of Teachers. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1946. (Federal Security Agency, Office of Education, Bulletin 1946, No. 15.) 100 p.