teachers are now organized in classes and are receiving instruction on Thursday and Friday afternoons of each week from faculty members of the State Normal School. Instruction is being given in psychology, principles of teaching, history of education, sociology, physiography, and geography method.

The results have been so satisfactory that the teachers as a body have become enthusiastic and inspired with a desire to further their professional advancement. All of which means that in a very short time every teacher in the Quincy schools will be a graduate of a State normal or some other professional training school. The movement has raised very noticeably the standard of the work that is done in the schools.

man.

Trenton, N. J. Ebenezer Mackey, superintendent of city schools.A feature in the Trenton schools is the system of extension courses of study through which the teachers take work for a college degree under professors or instructors of the University of Pennsylvania or of Columbia University. Courses are maintained in such subjects as sociology, psychology, methods of teaching, English, and GerAs many as 65 per cent of the Trenton teachers have been enrolled in one year as students in these extension courses. Teachers of exceptional skill and efficiency who pursue such advanced professional courses of study are eligible to four special increments in salary, amounting to $160. Any teacher may have leave of absence for a year of study, for educational travel, or for the benefit of her health without forfeiture of salary, except the pay of a substitute at the salary of a beginning teacher.

Gloucester, Mass. Freeman Putney, superintendent of city schools.— A "Teachers' lecture course" is making itself felt in Gloucester and in adjacent towns. One lecture each month is given in this course, on Friday afternoons, the schools closing on each lecture afternoon to enable the teachers to attend. It is supported by such people of the district as see in it a valuable privilege and are eager to avail themselves of it. A merely nominal charge, $1 for the series of eight lectures, is made to meet the expense of securing eminent talent.

The lectures are intended to be inspirational rather than pedagogical in character. By having the lectures in the afternoon, all the teachers can be present.

Monnessen, Pa. H. E. Gress, superintendent of city schools.-For the past two years a series of lectures on literature and education has been given the teachers by an instructor in the West Virginia University. This year arrangements were made so that those teachers who wished to take work for college credit could do so under the direction of the instructor.

Trinidad, Colo. J. R. Morgan, superintendent of city schools.In order to have teachers do a certain amount of reading along professional lines, the Board of Education of Trinidad, Colo., passed a resolution to the effect that no certificate would be renewed unless the teacher had done a minimum amount of professional work each year preceding the expiration of her certificate. Fewer teachers will be dropped from the list, as all of them have become interested in various lines of professional study.

Bozeman, Mont. R. J. Cunningham, superintendent of city schools.-Beginning with the summer of 1913, teachers are required to attend a summer school of recognized standing one summer in each four. The rule implies that a teacher must submit a certificate showing that she received credit for at least two courses while in attendance at the summer school.

Sedalia, Mo. J. P. Gass, superintendent of city schools. For the last three years there has been an extension class for the teachers of the grade schools, conducted by the Warrensburg Normal for the benefit of the teachers of Sedalia, and for the last two years an extension class has been conducted by the University of Missouri for the benefit especially of the teachers of the high school and others. Credits toward graduation are given by both these institutions to those who complete a course and take the examination.

Schenectady, N. Y. A. R. Brubacher, superintendent of city schools.— To promote the standard of teaching, the teachers of Schenectady are allowed a sabbatical year for study and travel with one-third payment of salary. The conditions are as follows: The teacher must map out a course of study in some recognized institution of learning and have it approved by the superintendent of schools in advance. In cases of travel, her itinerary must be approved in the same way. A teacher may have such sabbatical year once in ten years, and in exceptional cases once in seven years.

Each teacher accepting such leave of absence agrees to teach in the Schenectady schools for at least three years. If she fails to return after the leave of absence, she refunds the amount of salary advanced. If she leaves after less than three years' service, she refunds a pro rata amount of the salary advanced. These provisions have been accepted by many of the Schenectady teachers.

Council Bluffs, Iowa. J. H. Beveridge, superintendent of city schools. Every teacher in the elementary schools is required to give a model lesson with her own pupils before the other teachers of the building with which she teaches. She may select her own subject for presentation, the idea being that no opportunity will then be given to the teacher to excuse herself because she would rather have presented some other subject.

96887-13- 4

CARING FOR THE PUPILS' HEALTH.

Chicago, Ill. Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, superintendent of the Chicago public schools, report, 1912.-Upon no single question do more letters of inquiry come to the superintendent than upon that of sex hygiene. The burden of the letters is in regard to a scientific basis of instruction. It was decided in the latter part of the year not to attempt any instruction on the subject in the high schools. But on the 1st day of May the board adopted the following recommendation, which was presented by Dean Walter T. Sumner, chairman of the committee on sex hygiene:

The committee on sex hygiene reports that there is widespread belief that special instruction should be given in the city on the question of sex hygiene, and that the best way to approach this matter, in the interest of the children in the public schools at the present time, is through the parents. It therefore recommends that $2,500 be set aside for the teaching of sex hygiene to the parents of the children of the public schools of Chicago, to be distributed as follows: $1,000 to be used during the present school year in securing physicians to give two lectures in school buildings to parents, the physicians to be selected by the committee on sex hygiene and the superintendent of schools, and the remainder of the money to be devoted to the same purpose in the fall of 1912.

Steps were taken immediately to have 20 courses of 2 lectures each delivered in various parts of the city. There were present at the first 20 lectures 907 adults, and at the second 20, 1,303 adults. The lectures to men were given in the evening; to women in the afternoon. Three of the women physicians were qualified to explain in language other than English-Russian, Polish, Bohemian. Several physicians reported a personal interest on the part of the parents which led them to seek advice after the close of the lectures. Many mothers brought their little children with them to the lectures. It has been suggested that it would have been well to invite parents to bring their older children with them, because the lecture heard by parent and child would form a subject of conversation that might not otherwise be broached by the parent.

Birmingham, Ala. J. H. Phillips, superintendent of city schools, special report, 1912.-The following outlines of the afternoon lectures to mothers have been prepared by Dr. J. S. McLester, medical inspector of the schools and a member of the committee on extension courses. These outlines are intended as a guide to indicate the general character of each lecture and in no sense as a restriction upon the lecturer: LECTURE I.

Relation of mother to child from conception until the age of entering school.

(a) The physiology of pregnancy.

(b) The obligations of the mother to the unborn child.

(c) Prenatal influences.

(d) The laws of heredity.

(e) The age at which most children receive sex enlightenment and its usual sources. (f) The mother's duty to anticipate with suitable instruction these influences. (g) The first lessons in sex enlightenment.

LECTURE II.

The normal phenomena of adolescence.

(a) Reproduction our highest and most sacred function.

(b) The significance of menstruation and its physiology.

(c) The fallacy of the current belief that continence is harmful; its necessity and value.

(d) The consequences of abuse and unethical exercise of the reproductive functions. (e) The social diseases and the widespread suffering caused by them both in the guilty and in the innocent.

The material as well as moral value of clean thoughts, reading, and conversation, and the beneficial influence of physical exercise.

(g) The parents' duty to teach frankly these facts to the adolescent boy or girl.

LECTURE III.

The hygiene of the home.

(a) Cleanliness, apparent and real.

(b) Food-kind, amount, preparation.

(c) Fresh air-its value in promoting health and in preventing disease. (d) Tuberculosis in its relation to the home.

(e) Typhoid fever in its relation to the home.

(f) Scarlet fever and other infectious diseases in their relation to the home. (g) Notable disease carriers the mosquito, the bedbug, the fly, the rat.

LECTURE IV.

The problem of the child.

(a) His nervous system and early training.

(b) The value of sleep.

(c) His exercise.

(d) Food.

Parkersburg, W. Va. Ira B. Bush, superintendent of city schools.—To incorporate the subject of sex hygiene in the course of study boys and girls were taught in separate classes. When once begun this part of the course became the part least subject to sentimentality, and its effect was not morbid but elevating. A study of reproduction in the lower orders of plant and animal life was used to introduce the subject. Several books were used for reference. Talks were given by the teachers and by eminent physicians a woman physician for the girls and a man for the boys. The talks of the physicians were confined to the care of the health as affected by the sex organs.

St. Cloud, Minn. C. H. Barnes, superintendent of city schools.Just at present the schools are conducting a "good-health" campaign. Lectures are being given in the various schools on some phase of the subject by some 25 of the leading professional men and club women. The city is to have a good-health week at Arbor Day season and a general cleaning up will be carried on. The pulpit, press, homes, county medical association, ladies' clubs, moving-picture shows, etc., are cooperating. Essays will be written by the pupils and the best ones published in the local papers.

New Orleans, La. J. M. Gwinn, superintendent of city schools.As a part of the cooperative work carried on by Tulane University and the public schools, all senior students of the City Normal School are required to take a course of three hours a week in school hygiene, given by three specialists from the university who go to the normal school to give the course. In connection with this work a sanitary survey of all public-school buildings in the city is planned. This survey will be made by the pupils of the senior class of the normal school, under the direction of Dr. Creighton Wellman, professor of hygiene in Tulane University, and Dr. Edmund Moss, chief medical inspector for the public schools.

The physical welfare of the child has received special attention during the past two years. In addition to the usual provisions for medical examination, under the direction of the department of school hygiene, through the liberality of the members of the Louisiana State Dental Association, without expense to the school board, the teeth of the children have been given a thorough examination by qualified dentists, some 30 or 40 dentists having participated in the examination. Full charts and reports have been made of these examinations and free dental services rendered in Tulane University dental clinic to all who could not afford to pay for such service. Reputable oculists have volunteered to examine the eyes of children, and free glasses are supplied by a local business firm to all who are too poor to pay and who apply to the firm with the prescription of the oculist and with the approval of the chief medical inspector of the public schools.

Des Moines, Iowa. W. O. Riddell, superintendent of city schools.— There is no medical inspection in the schools of Des Moines. Instead, five trained nurses spend their entire time in looking after the health of the children in the schools and in many homes.

Elyria, Ohio. W. R. Comings, superintendent of city schools.-The Elyria Board of Education began the medical inspection of school children four years ago, under competent physicians. Much good resulted, but there was a large failure in getting indifferent parents to heed the somewhat formal notices and requests. This year a trained nurse is getting far better results, because she follows cases up and convinces the parents of the needs, and shows them how to proceed. She has succeeded in getting the dentists to take their turns in treating the indigent, and she has also secured the opening of the local hospital for a free dispensary on Fridays, after school. From 5 to 25 appear there weekly for help.

Reading, Pa. C. S. Foos, superintendent of city schools.-The school physician, as medical inspector, has no authority in his official capacity to do anything more than to examine the report. That