DERAL GOVERNMENT IN THE PROMOTION OF CERTAIN
IVITIES OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE

YSICAL EDUCATION AND
HYGIENE

O men out of 5,991,000 ex-
ed in the draft rejected for
al military service.

out of 100 rejected "for
UNITED Ary service of any kind."
al inefficiency is costing the
in billions each year.

(Placed in is experimental basis for tion tatement that this loss could aterially reduced and leave $185,313 is pnomic balance in the workture of thopulation alone over and This sum is the cost of prevention of for an agest $1,000,000,000 a year." lems confpittee appointed by Herbert and schooer.

cation of rtment of Education would ver and disseminate for the of local school boards facts should be available for their ince in providing adequate ams of physical education instruction in health and

'ne.

TEACHER TRAINING

Approximately 40,000 teachers last
year had no training beyond ele-
mentary school graduation.
At least 54 per cent of the Nation's
700,000 teachers have less school
training than normal-school grad-
uation or its equivalent-the
minimum accepted in advanced
countries.

The best results can not be ex-
pected in those schools where
unskilled labor is put on a skilled
job.

Federal research and encouragement would cause the States to increase the number and raise the standards of their teachertraining institutions, and to raise certification requirements.

RESEARCH WITH RESPECT TO CUR-
RICULA AND METHODS OF TEACH-
ING

Rapidly changing conditions make
traditional courses of study in-
adequate.

Material that does not function in
the life of the pupil makes up too
large a part of each child's course
of study.
Children's talents are only partly
developed and their time wasted
by poor methods of teaching.
Research data are needed by local
school authorities in the scientific
formulation of curricula.

A Department of Education,
through a division of research,
could have ready for distribution
on request compilations of the
best current thought on educa-
tional aims and objectives, mini-
mum essentials in courses of study
and scientific methods for realiz-
ing the desired outcomes in terms
of habits, skills, and attitudes.

94041-24. (Face p. 8.) No. 1.

Doctor STRAYER. You will note that we propose that the department provide for the coordination of existing educational work of the Federal Government as may be determined by Congress. Our suggestion is that the Bureau of Education, the Federal Board for Vocational Education, and certain other Federal education boards and bureaus, might properly be remodeled. We have not proposed in the bill itself just what shall be done; we have simply said that Congress shall determine. If this bill were to become a law, it would then be a question of what transfers would be made by Congress to the department. We propose, with the cooperation of the Federal Government, that the promotion of certain educational activities of national importance be included as the possible work of the department. You will find there certain suggestions as to the size of the department. Take the issues of Americanization and of illiteracy; our census figures give us more than 5,000,000 illiterates in the United States. You will remember, I am sure, that our Army figures gave us, out of the 5,000,000 men who were tested, 24.9 per cent of them could not read an English newspaper or write a letter home. Now, some place between the Federal census of 5,000,000, and the Army figures of 24.9 per cent, lies the truth with regard to the size of the problem of removing the illiteracy in the United States.

Take the question of Americanization of the foreign born; I do not believe that there is any issue of protection against a foreign foe to-day that is comparable, in importance to the future of this country, to the issue of providing opportunity of education for the foreign born who live here among us. The issue of equalization of opportunity is one that will not down. The Bureau of Economic Research has given us the best evidence that has ever been prepared. They show that the average per capita income in one State is as little as $43, and in another State as great as $120.

If there is anything that is characteristic of our modern industrial society, it is the mobility of our population. A failure to provide education in any section of the United States is a failure to provide education for the whole United States. The issue can not be segregated. You can not build a fence around an ignorant population. You can not leave the issue of providing education in the United States solely to the question of whether or not the local community is able to pay the bill.

Mr. TUCKER. You can not do it, Doctor?

Doctor STRAYER. I do not believe you can. As a matter of fact, of course, we have not.

Mr. TUCKER. We have done it, have we not?

Doctor STRAYER. No; I would say we have not, for this reason, that from the beginning the Federal Government has supported public education.

Mr. TUCKER. I understood you to say at the outset that this was a matter clearly for the States.

Doctor STRAYER. No; I said, if I may be pardoned-

Mr. TUCKER. Yes.

Doctor STRAYER (continuing). That the control and the administration of education is left to the States, and our history for 100 years or more has been one of State, Federal, and local cooperation in the support of education. The distinction is between control and administration on the one hand, and support on the other.