Current Educational Publications: The Place of Intelligence Among Human Endowments; A Royal Road in Number Wor

Cornell, Mary E.

Kroll, Harry H.

English

James Madison University

January, 1924] THE VIRGINIA TEACHER 23 bulletins -will, during the meeting, illustrate the talks. L, P. Benezet, leader. The program ot the conference on Thai School and the Community follows; Parent, Teacher and School, M. E. Moore; City Schools and Community Service, Paul C. Stetson; A Rural School Community Program, Mabel G. Bush; The Boy Scout Project, Loren W. Bar- clay: and School and Community Possibili- ties, Charl 0. "Williams. Frank Cody, leader. The program for the conference on Major Objectives of Elementary Education follows: How Shall We Select Subject Matter of the Elementary' School Curriculum, William H. Kilpatrick; Reorganization of Subject Matter in the Elementary School, P. G. Bonser; Re- organization of the Elementary School to Meet Major Objectives, Charles L. Spain; Research in Relation to the Attainment Objectives in Elementary Education, Ernest Horn; Relation of Supervision to the Attainment of Major Objectives, Fred M. Hunter. Jesse M. Newlon, leader. Other conferences include Civic Education under the leadership of Jeremiah Rhodes, San Antonio, Texas; Character Education, un- der the leadership of J. E. Burke, Boston, Mas- sachusetts; Training Teachers in Service, un- der the leadership of J. M. Gwinn, San Fran- cisco California; and Problems of Junior High and Intermediate- Schools, under the the leadership of Ben G. Graham,New Castle, Pennsylvania. The National Council of Education will hold three sessions Tuesday and Wednesday after- noons and Thursday mornings,, February 26-28. Prior to these sessions a luncheon will be held in the French Room of the Congress Hotel, Monday afternoon at 12:30, February 25, for officers, chairmen and members of com- mittees. Tuesday afternoon, February 26, the Coun- cil will meet in the Playhouse theater. The pro- gram follows: President's Address; The Work of the Bureau of Education in Alaska, John J. Tigert: The Relation of Professional Spirit Among Teachers to Public Education and the Devotion of Citizenship, Olive M. Jones; Re- ports of the Committee on Reorganization of the National Council of Education, the Joint Committee on Health Problems in Education, and the Committee on Extension Education. The Wednesday afternoon session, Febru- ary 27, will be held in the Banquet Room of the Auditorium Hotel. Reports will be given for the Committee on the Status of the Amer- ican Woman Teacher, the Committee on Il- literacy, the Committee on Vocational Edu- cation, and the Committee on State Funds for the Support of Elementary and Secondary Schools. Thursday morning, February 28, 9:15 o'clock, a joint session will be held with the topic conference of the Department of Super- intendence, dealing with, Improvement of Teachers in Service, at which there will be reports of the Committee on American Teach- ers Colleges, the Committee on Training Teach- ers in service, and the Committee on Partici- pation of Teachers in School Management.— Journal of the National Education Association. CURRENT EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATIONS THE PLACE OF INTELLIGENCE AMONG HUMAN EN- DOWMENTS The Mind in The Making, by James Harvey Robinson. New York: Harper and Broth- ers. 1921. Pp. 235. $2.50. One approaches a view of this work in these latter days with fear and trembling. There can be no half-way ground in one's attitude—you violently favor the author's way of looking at things, or you violently op- pose it. Nor do you marvel that at the Universi- ty of Tennessee such a storm occurred as to shift the scholastic equilibrium of some half- dozen-odd professors and all but blow the head off "The Hill." A cantankerish, mod- ernish professor simply favored the point of view of Robinson. The president of the col- lege fired the prof and his cohorts for the very valid reason that he held to a violent dissent- ing opinion. Robinson, with some of the restraint that characterizes the scholar and some of the fearlessness which characterizes the innovat- or, pleads for a wider knowledge of truth. What that truth is, or may be, he does not pretend to say. In science, he contends, we have as a race achieved something of truth, while our religion and sociology remain an unimpaired heritage of the middle ages, or even of ancient times. He would have us bring mankind up to date. This proposition calls into question our whole social system,—our morals, because our concept of human conduct is the thought of mind two thousand years ago; our insti- tution of marriage for the same reason; and that great problem of sex because such notions as we have of the biologic relationship between male and female belong to the' cogitations of the medieval mind that mistakenly regard- ed sex as something unclean. The author nowhere says that we should tear down these 24 THE VIRGINIA TEACHER [Vol. V, No. 1 established notions and institutions. He is no iconoclast. Neither is he committed to their perpetuation. He says simply that a study of, a scientific approach to, our problems, is what should take place. What may be done afterwards by way of readjustment should be the result of the findings of the truth. If it should result in the destruction of our va- rious theologies, our present form of racial perpetuation, or our system of government, he would contend that it was altogether fit- ting that this should be so. The use of Intelligence—that is the solu- tion. For, says the author, intelligence is the rarest of human endowments- Man has a mind made up of equal parts of the brute, the savage, and the child. He is naturally hide- bound with physical, moral, and mental iner- tia. He despises to move; he despises to think so terribly that he refuses almost utterly to think. Whereas, taken by and large, of all the millions of humanity created, scarcely one great mind occurs each century. To their customs, institutions, and habits of thought all men are wedded. Conservatism is deep in the seed of the race. Wherefore the world wags on, and what was good enough for his daddy for the most part remains good enough for the son. Man has conquered many of the forces of nature, has solved many of the riddles of the universe, but his own mind today remains what it has always been; equal parts of the savage, the brute, and the child. Harry H. Kroll A ROYAL ROAD IN NUMBER WORK Number Projects fob Beginners, by Katherine L. McLaughlin and Eleanor Troxell. Phila- delphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. (Lippincott's School Project Series.) Pp. 110. $1.20. This little book proves that number work can be presented in such an easy, natural and delightful way that before one realizes what is happening the child is imbued with a desire to count, measure, divide, and sepa- rate into parts as a result of that natural inner urge which teachers are trying to awaken in children today. Instead of the old way of pouring a few necessary number facts into the child, and drilling constantly until the required amount of work has been covered, this book gives some very delightful experiences in number work developed through various projects and ac- tivities of some experimental kindergartens and first grades. It should be interesting and helpful to all primary teachers. Mary E. Cornell. OTHER BOOKS OF INTEREST A Treasury of Plays fob Women, edited by Frank Shay. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 1922. Pp. 443. $3.00. Mr. Shay Includes fifteen one-act plays, one two-act play, and two of five acts; Maeter linck's "Death of Tintagiles" and Miss Mil- lay's "The Lamp and the Bell." But to select plays possessed of dramatic intensity and suitable for only women to cast was a problem, because, says the editor, most of such plays were written "for girls' schools, Sunday schools and institutions of like nature. They are neither dramatic nor interest- ing." This is nevertheless a valuable collec- tion. One-act Plays, by James Plaisted Webber and Hanson Hart Webster. Boston; Houghton, Miffiin Company. 1923. Pp. 320. $1.40. .Eighteen one-act plays—"wholesome, in- telligible. and interesting"—classified as plays of mood and character, dramatic episodes, and plays of fancy. A fresh collection with ex- cellent editorial trimmings, especially thirty- four pagest on "Fundamentals of Dramatic Presentation" and a discriminating bibliogra- phy. A New English Grammar, by M. A. Leiper. New York: The Macmlllan Company; 1923. Pp. 362. $1.20. Recognition of changing usage in language and an infusion of numerous non-grammatical idioms In the study of grammatical rules gives to this textbook for teacher training in- stitutions a special appeal and a definite val- ue. The Mastery op French, Book II, by G. P. Fougeray. Syracuse; Troquois Publishing Co., Inc. 1923. Pp. 532. $1.76. A direct method textbook complete in it- self. The lesson-by-lesson vocab^arles are in an appendix with French and BngliEh words on the reverse sides of the page. How to Teach a Trade, by R. W. Selvidge. Peoria: The Manual Arts Press. 1923. Pp. 111. $1.00. Pour distinct phases of training are rec- ognized by the author: (1) The things one must be able to do, which represent skill; (2) The things one must know, which repre- sent information; (3)The problems one must solve, which represent the calculations one must make; and (4) The practical application of these on real jobs. 

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