of the division heard criticisms on sentence structure and advised on doubtful points in punctuation, and other matters of form. At the close of the period he took up the themes belonging to his group for an inspection of the written work, His own theme he gave to the members of his own group in turn. The president's theme was expected to be a model, but members of the group were free to criticize it in any way it needed.

I spent the class hour in going from group to group. Sometimes a section would have something so good that it could hardly wait for my visit. The best things were read to me and points on which the groups could not agree were referred to me. I have found that the president is especially delighted when some member of a group who has not been a credit to it begins to improve. The whole group, indeed, exults in his success and is eager to have me know of his improvement. Sometimes I find in a group a certain error that the entire class needs to consider. When this happens I call attention and explain the point. The intimacy to which the pupils admit me is surprising and I find that this tones down my criticism. I can offer it as only one friend to another.

As this plan involves considerable extra work for the presidents I have recognized this by a slight addition to their term grades, but the extra credit, I think, affects their interest very little. They do the deed for the deed's sake.

We also kept a record of our outside reading. This furnishes us with a common interest, for when one finds an unusually good story or book, he naturally wants the group to share in his pleasure. This class read more in this term than any other class I have ever had.

I took up the written work about once a month, looked it over and graded it. I was surprised to find how little I had to correct in the way of faulty sentence structure, punctuation or spelling. This left me free to comment on other things, method of presentation, diction, etc. I never asked the members of the group to grade the papers they corrected. A pupil who was failing was reported to me privately by his president and I gave him at once such aid as I could. As a matter of fact we had but one failure in the class. He had had a long record of failures to which he added in this case, by leaving school before the end of the term.

I never asked the class how they liked the experiment. We had a number of visitors who were deeply interested in our work. When they wanted information I turned them loose among the class. I never asked them what they learned there, but they usually insisted upon telling me of the enthusiasm they found. At the close of the term a number of personal notes were placed on my desk. They had been written by the group presidents in behalf of their respective groups to thank me for the freedom and enjoyment our methods of work had given them. They said that the work had been unusually hard but that it had also been unusually stimulating and helpful. Several difficulties presented themselves, indeed one may see at a glance that the plan is far from perfect. It works better with older pupils. It is sometimes difficult to find the right students for leadership. It does not always cure ingrown laziness on the part of certain individuals. But it does what I expect it to do. It enables us to be mutually helpful and to accomplish even more in theme writing than was possible by the old method.

THE PRINCIPLE APPLIED IN A GEOMETRY CLASS.-One of the writer's former students has furnished him with an account of a self-conducted geometry class which showed the same spirit of initiative and ability to plan and push its work forward that Miss Clark found in her history classes. This class finished its text three weeks sooner than other classes had done and did besides much original and outside work of its own devising.

One morning I learned that a contest had been planned. The girl who made the neatest geometrically designed doily or centerpiece, and the boy who drew the best plan for the school grounds were each to receive pennants. The most interesting feature of this experiment was the class spirit. There was always a spirit of wholesome competition as well as a determination to stand by one another and give proper assistance to the weaker pupils, so that all might complete the course. One weak student dropped out of the class after trying in vain to do the work. This was a genuine disappointment to the other members of the class who had worked so hard to save her. Many times through the year the pupils expressed themselves very strongly in favor of having their other teachers adopt the plan used in this geometry class as a better means of getting them into the subjects. At the end of the semester one of the boys said that he considered the experience he got from the self-conducted geometry class as worth $600.00 invested at 6 per cent interest, compounded annually.

THE DEVELOPMENT AND SUPERVISION OF GROUP ACTIVITIES

OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

These are naturally of the widest variety and afford even more opportunity than does the socialized class for individual initiative, leadership and social coöperation. We have already referred to the problem of supervision and as that phase is only indirectly connected with the present paper we shall say nothing further about it. Supervision is of course necessary that the best educative values may be realized. The social values are loyalty, lawfulness and coöperation. Besides this the members of such groups have their intellectual outlook broadened and enriched. In comparatively small schools some interesting work is being done to weld the school as a whole into a true social group. Miss Wilson, principal of the Crawfordsville (Indiana) High School, writes of her school as having the spirit of a large family. The girls are organized into a "Sunshine Club" which does much for the social interests of the school and of the community. The boys coöperate as honorary members. The "family reunions" of this school do much to keep alive the

spirit of social solidarity the influence of which upon the individual is marked.

CLUB ACTIVITIES IN THE LINCOLN NEBRASKA HIGH SCHOOL.In the larger schools the subordinate groups are essential to the development of the social life. The vice-principal of the Lincoln, Nebraska, High School writes thus of their development of student activities:

The most extensive activity is the Nebraska Radio Association, a group of Lincoln High School boys who meet weekly, have parliamentary drill and discuss wireless telegraphy. They have at several of their homes some very complete and expensive wireless apparatus, so that they can listen to government messages from Tampa and other long distances. Many of these boys have become exceptionally skillful and could easily obtain positions with the government if they so desired. This is an interesting illustration of a practical intellectual benefit due largely to the coöperative activity of a self-organized group.

Another thing that we are doing in Lincoln High School is to divide all the students into "home-room" clubs. The student reports at this home room when he comes in the morning. Here the roll is taken and on Monday mornings they spend a forty-minute period in this home room. Each teacher may use this forty minutes as desired. In some rooms they use the time studying but in others they have organized clubs for special purposes, in one room for pleasure, in another for baseball, but the one I have in mind to especially tell you about is the one where they have organized a club for the purpose of raising money to assist needy students. In this club they are really doing something for somebody else and it brings about a democratic feeling in a work which benefits themselves in doing for others.

Then we have various high school organizations such as the Ciceronian Debating Society which meets bi-weekly for parliamentary drill and debate. During the year they also have parties and suppers and occasionally a dance. The largest organization is the Junior Civic League. In the High School this includes all the Freshmen. In the Grade Schools it includes all the upper grades. They study home civic conditions and several times a year they make excursions to various points of interest about the city for the sake of learning about their home town. A number of divisions of this league have started to do some special thing for their section of the city. I am enclosing a little paper, "The Civic Standard" which will give you some idea of what they are trying to do."

STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS AT THE SIOUX CITY HIGH SCHOOL.— In the Sioux City, Ia., High School among other student organizations there is one called the Hi-Y boys which, while organized by the secretary of the Y. M. C. A.,

is made up entirely of high school boys, not necessarily members of the Y. M. C. A. These boys meet every Friday evening at the high school at six o'clock where

Quoted from a letter from Vice-principal J. J. Marshall, Lincoln, Neb,

they have a light luncheon in the lunch room for which there is a charge of 15 cents. They usually have a speaker for the occasion. Recently they had a "dad and sons' meeting" where every boy was expected to bring his father. This was very successful. Their motto is clean speech, clean living, clean athletics. This club of boys has done more to clean up athletics and to bring about a desire on the part of many boys for higher living than a group of men could do in years. Most of the boys have signed an agreement to refrain from cigarette smoking. While many have slipped back it has nevertheless been a lever which the club has used to help pull themselves away from the habit.

The girls' friendship club ought to promote cleaner living and cleaner thinking on the part of the girls and I think it will. The literary societies give our boys and girls opportunity to develop along declamatory and debating lines. The question has often been put to me by college professors who have had some of our students, "Why are your students so strong on their feet and so much more able to express themselves than students from many other high schools?" I have decided that this ability is largely due to the clubs.

Our work in student musical organizations tends to develop along lines that are a little higher than those developed in athletics and opens up a new vista to many who thought they had no musical ability whatsoever. Our school plays have the same effect. A number of boys who did very poor work in their studies before they took up music have become much better students since taking up this and other forms of group work. Athletics help to keep more of our boys in school. Many who would drop out at the end of the first year or who would flunk along semester after semester manage to pull through so long as they have the athletic goal before them.7

OVER-SOCIALIZED HIGH SCHOOLS.-One practical feature of all student social activities is that of their cost both in time and money. Their reasonable limitation in these particulars provides an important means of training for high school pupils. There is no doubt that the student activities of many high schools are excessive and this has caused some critics to raise the 'question as to whether they should not be suppressed altogether. On this point Principal McCowan, quoted above, has this comment:

I feel that there are, very often, over-socialized high schools. When I came to Sioux City six years ago the social organizations were running riot. Each organization was permitted to have as many social affairs during the school year as it pleased. There was no limit to the expense. Reports from the parents of some of the pupils brought out the fact that the social life of the high school was costing many of them twenty-five to thirty-five dollars a year. A parent in one case, who had a daughter in school, complained that her assessments and dues had amounted to twenty-five dollars. The expenses of the boys were naturally higher. For some of the parties given by the boys' clubs the assessment was five

7 Quoted from letters from Principal J. S. McCowan, of the Sioux City, Iowa, High School.

dollars apiece, and two dollars was very common. Now, the annual expense to each member must not exceed two dollars. No assessments are permitted. Club parties used to cost $250.00, now no club is permitted to spend more than $55.00. I think the cause of the excesses lay in the fact there was no faculty supervision. Clubs used to be allowed to do exactly as they pleased without any suggestion from the authorities. Suggestions were resented. Some parents were forced to take their children from school because of the expense of the social life.

I think, however, that properly directed student activities are a very fine thing for American boys and girls. In order that they may have the greatest value, however, they must be properly directed and controlled or, instead of the results being good, they can be only bad.

COMMENTS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS.-In the following paragraphs are given the opinions of college students as to the benefits they derived from student activities in their high school days. It will be noted that they emphasize the value of the training in responsibility through self-directed enterprises and the tendency of such organizations to develop democratic coöperation among different types of students. These two points perhaps include much of the value of student activities.

The one social activity of my high school life which I recall as of most value was the senior class play. The entire responsibility for the play was taken by the class. They made their arrangements for a coach, for a theatre and for the advertising, all, however, subject to the approval of the principal. Every phase of the undertaking was discussed enthusiastically and without restraint by the whole class. We all gave our ideas and all had our parts both as individuals and as members of committees. Much democratic feeling was developed by these plays. One should also mention the awakening of the spirit of united effort and the subordination of the self-interests for the common good.

Another student writes of the business as well as literary experience she derived from work upon the school paper. The following account of the work of the literary societies in a school, while presenting nothing unusual, does illustrate the energetic way in which pupils take hold of the self-conducted enterprises.

One illustration of the coöperation that developed among the students of these societies is that of a "Fair" given by my society in one of the halls of the town on a Saturday. Money was needed by the high school for books for its library and each society contributed to the fund. For six weeks we prepared for this "Fair." Committees were appointed, each being responsible for some phase of the undertaking. Each student had some particular part at certain time. All helped to decorate the hall. Each borrowed furniture from some one in the community and was responsible for the care and return of it. The girls made