to banks all involve this, as, in fact; do all situations where the pupils must gather the data with which they work. In this instance the whole program aimed to provide only such plans and information as would necessitate the greatest amount of activity on the part of the pupils.

Of course, the actual application of this program was not the same in all classes. Where teacher-guidance prevailed, better results were obtained than in classes where teacher-domination made itself felt. Consequently it is possible to describe only the general application of the daily plan as it was actually carried out by many pupils and teachers.

Personal Accounts. As an approach to a classroom consideration of thrift from this standpoint of habit-analysis, the teacher on the first day raised the question of account-keeping. This focused the attention of the pupils on their own experiences. A class discussion on the value and use of accounts in business was immediately inaugurated, and an opportunity was afforded the teacher to present some statistics gained by a preliminary account-keeping on the part of 1,000 school chldren during the second week in December. From data secured during this week, it was discovered that pupils earned 25% of their money and received 75% as gifts. The children were interested in this experience of their fellowclassmates and were immediately anxious to discover what results such an effort on their own part would produce. An interest in account-keeping was thus stimulated, and most classes were anxious to proceed.

In the art classes small account books were constructed, with separate columns for itemized records of daily incomes, expenditures, and savings. The folders holding these were appropriately decorated with slogans and designs. The pupils had previously been asked to note all of their earnings, gifts, and expenditures, beginning with the Friday morning preceding Thrift Week, so that a whole week's information would

be available when the subject of budgeting was considered on the last day. At the close of Monday's lesson, the first day's items were entered in each personal account book. Succeeding entries were made daily during the remainder of the week. These accounts served to establish a core for the whole program.

Means of Obtaining Money. The second day was devoted to discussions, problems, study, and compositions on means of obtaining money. This was shown to be a very important attribute to thrift because of the frequency with which opportunities for a direct or indirect acquisition of money are overlooked. It was also pointed out that some means of obtaining money, although demanding the expenditure of more time and energy, are not as remunerative as others, and that frequently a closer analysis of intended enterprises will prevent losses. The experiences of boys and girls were found to be sufficiently complex to furnish a fruitful background for such a study.

As an introduction to the second lesson, teachers raised questions regarding the number of forms of obtaining money represented in their classes, the extent to which they were carried on, and the amounts realized from various kinds of enterprises. To enable the pupils to classify the activities and to ascertan other profitable activities, the following scheme of classification was presented:

1. Service and labor of all kinds-running errands, household and home duties, working in stores, cutting lawns, odd jobs, etc.

2. Salvage-magazines, papers, auto tires, medicine bottles, etc.

3. Manufacture for sale-wagons, toys, favors, bird houses, etc.

4. Merchandising newspapers, gum, peanuts, programs, home-made candy, etc.

5. Incomes-allowances and gifts, to which no specific duties or obligations are attached. 6. Saving--through denial and self-service.

Problems involving each major item under the scheme of classification were given at the close of the first day's lesson

with a request for similar problems from the pupils. In order to secure as large an amount of self-activity and thinking as possible, the problems given by the teachers were in the form of situations for which the pupils supplied the details from their own experiences. It is only possible to give a sampling of these.

1. The two Smith boys have decided to earn money with which to buy a bob sled. They contracted to carry ashes from several furnaces. In how many weeks would they be able to buy a sled if they lived in your neighborhood?

2. A newsboy, seling The Detroit News, decided one Friday night that he would earn 80 cents before going home. How many papers was it necessary for him to sell?

3. Is it cheaper to make a pound of fudge than to buy it at the store?

In the English classes, on the same day, children were led into a discussion involving means of earning money. Pupils as a rule welcome the opportunity to relate money-making episodes to which they look. with pride. As adults, most of us still cherish some of our youthful gains. The question, "Who from his own experience can write the most accurate and best statement of an incident involving the earning of money?" was raised. Many of these reports have been gathered, and some are indeed quite naive.

The best of the compositions were sent to the Department of Instruction. (Standard quality of penmanship was a consideration in making the selections.) The type of compositions received may be illustrated by a short article written by an A-6th pupil:

"How I Earned Money."

"One day as I was walking along the street, I saw a little girl not more than two years old leaning out of a two storie window. As I thought she would fall out I ran into the house, up two flights of stairs and grabbed the girl just in time. Her mother came and gave me five dollars for the girl was dear to her. That is how I earned my first money."

Bank Day. It is only natural that the question of caring for money should follow a study of its acquisition. In life many losses are incurred through carelessness and

ignorance. Many people habitually carry large sums which are spent when temptations arise, while others are relieved of their possessions by grafters and crooks. Floods and fires have often wiped out savings of a life time when stored in “home banks." The cancelled check, a receipt in itself, has saved others both money and trouble. These and many other types of losses could be avoided through the proper use of banks.

Many teachers felt that children ought to receive first-hand instruction as to the importance of banks and banking methods in actual life. A few of the children had accounts of their own, but the knowledge of the majority ended with father's pay check. Consequently, arrangements were made whereby the 30,000 children in the four upper grades would visit the branch banks nearest their respective schools. The visits were made in groups of 40.

In many cases definite objectives for the visits were developed through preliminary classroom discussions which embraced the principles of opening accounts, both commercial and savings; the making and withdrawal of deposits; the making and repaying of loans; foreign and domestic exchange, etc. Moreover, all branch bank managers were provided with a definite itinerary, supplemented with displays, this itinerary having been formulated by a committee of bankers and schoolmen. The following is a copy of the instructions sent to branch bank

managers:

Placard "A"-Receiving Teller's Window
Commercial and Savings Exhibits

Signature cards, deposit slips, and pass books. Instructions

Both the commercial and savings functions should be actually worked out on the material in question, giving in each case the minimum amount of balance the bank is willing to take from children. All blanks should be filled in, giving illustrative names and amounts.

Placard "B"-Paying Teller's Window
Exhibits

Check, savings receipt, customer's draft, and
memorandum of cash for payroll.

A general placard showing the value of saving and thrift.

These exhibits were in many cases supplemented by explanations and answers to questions. Pupils in the advanced classes undoubtedly profited a great deal from the visit, while many of the younger folk were surprised to learn that a dollar would open an account, and that any one of them could do business with a bank. The bank was no longer looked up to as an imposing institution behind a marble front and too far removed from their lives to be entered. only the suspicions regarding bankers and banking which many children entertain were eradicated, the visits were well worth while.

If

Spending and Saving. Spending and saving are so closely related that it was thought best to handle them together. If saving alone were emphasized, there would be the danger of striking the results without giving any attention to causes. In the last analysis saving is only possible through judicious expenditure. Very often saving instead of spending means a loss in the long run. The problem was to stress the fact that judicious expenditures on present needs are necessary in order to save for more important future uses.

To further vitalize the lesson, problems of saving and spending, given the pupils at

the close of Wednesday's arithmetic lesson, were considered. These were situation problems much like those on ways of obtaining money. A few are here presented

to illustrate further.

1. A Western Union boy finds that bicycle tires wear out in 6 months.

How much should he lay aside weekly to be able to pay cash for new tires?

2. According to a U. S. Treasury budget plan, 7% of a family income was allowed. for health, recreation, and education. How does this compare with your expenditures for the past week?

3. What part of this week's income would you have to save to buy a copy of the Popular Mechanics Magazine? Youth's Companion? St. Nicholas?

The work in the English classes was again correlated with arithmetic. Reference was made to novel ways of saving and to the sacrifices made by artists and inventors. The attention of the pupils was directed to these by questions from the teachers, such as: "What sacrifices were made?" "What habitual expenditures were considered unnecessary?" "What difficulties were overcome?" Almost every boy and girl has at some time saved for something very much. desired. The experience was familiar, and interest aroused in similar and better ways of saving was keen. There were also many group enterprises which were full of novel plans. Children like to know how to finance their clubs. Consequently, accounts of successful plans were enthusiastically received. Through such stimulation pupils were led to write some very creditable compositions.

The lesson on saving and spending was thus spent in discussions, gross analysis of personal accounts, problems, and composi

tions.

Budgeting. It is true that budgets mean very little to children, but that is sufficient reason why pupils should become familiar with our present day panacea for political

misgovernment. No better approach to the subject could be made with pupils than through an analysis of their own accounts. If people are to spend judiciously, they must have some plan for so doing.

An introduction to the subject was made through checking over the week's accounts. (The accounts had now been kept for seven days.) These were totaled and balanced, but this merely revealed the total amounts received, spent, and saved. In order to intelligently understand these receipts and expenditures thus represented, it was necessary to classify them. Teachers at this time suggested that the accounts of families, according to budget plans, are kept under the headings of rent, food, clothing, health, recreation and education, church and charity, and miscellaneous. It was not considered practical to analyze the pupils' accounts on this basis, so the classification below was given.

1. Utility-food, clothing, shelter.

Attention was again called to the group of 1,000 children who had already been given some experience in account-keeping. The pupils were informed that on the basis of the above classification these thousand children spent 55% of their incomes for utilities, 10% for movies, 10% on educational supplies, books, lectures, musicales, etc., 15% for refreshments and amusements, 10% was given to charity and churches. This led to similar analyses and comparisons. Care was taken by the teachers that comparisons be in the form of percentages or fractional parts, with no reference to total amounts.

No attempt was made to formulate budget plans for children. However, they were

better able at the end of this work to understand how the budget is constructed and operated in every day life. It was explained that the real secret of thrift in any business, large or small, depends upon careful planning.

Time will be required for any actual determination of actual results from Detroit's Thrift Week. However, if interest is a factor in the learning process, the teachers have every reason to believe, judging from the attitude of the children, that their efforts were not spent in vain.

W

E

are all aware that the demands being made upon the public school today are both increasing and changing. We are all aware that there are, roughly speaking, two kinds of improvements that may be made in education; first, the kind of improvement that can only be made with more money; and, second, the kind of improvement that could, or should, be made without requiring any more money. Of course, during the last four or five years, with the falling value of the dollar, we have heard a great deal about the former group of improvements - improvements in pensions, salaries, buildings and equipment, size of classes, and the like. I want, however, to discuss an area of educational improvements that for the present does not contemplate more money, which presupposes the kind of organization we now have, the kind of teachers we now have, and looks toward the better adjustment of our educational aims or purposes.

The readers of The Detroit Journal of Education are composed almost wholly of seventh and eighth-grade and high-school teachers; therefore, I shall take my illustrations from this area. I assume, then, that we are thinking in terms of the schooling of our boys and girls from practically 12 to 18 years of age. Now, we are looking at the history of this whole situation. We Americans have been thinking for many years of our obligatory, uniform education from 6 to 12-or to 13 or 14 years of age, in some cases-and we have learned to think in terms of the work of those children. Historically, we have, however, learned to think of education from the ages of 12 to 18 in terms of the select, in terms of the most able, with one or two excep

*All rights reserved, 1921, David Snedden.

tions for orphans or delinquents. We have thought of those continuing in school at this age as aristocrats, protegés of wealth. The modern American high school, the successor of the Latin school, like the high schools or corresponding schools of other countries, was organized around the educational needs of the relatively able, the relatively well-circumstanced, the relatively prosperous, those who would go into the higher occupations and assume the larger responsibilities of our public life.

We are well aware that the most difficult problems of educational purpose are always found in the higher reaches of education. But our problems grow out of the fact that we are being compelled-literally driven by force of circumstances to adopt a new view with regard to the education of people between 12 and 18. A principal in the western part of this country told me that in the last few years his school had forced out thirty-five per cent of the freshman class, and he was proud of the fact! It was a sign of merit in that school that his course of study and methods of teaching should be so administered that this thirty-five per cent should be forced out!

You have under consideration in Michigan legislation which compels attendance of boys and girls up to 18 years of age, for at least part of each working day, in a school. The next question is: What are you going to do with them when you get them into the schools? You hope you will help them. You hope you will meet their needs; but you are going to have a very hard problem in doing it.

We have all seen the attendance at our high schools in recent years multiply three times as fast as the population of this