ties of the Hot Lunch." Many teachers saw at once how it could be effectively. carried out in their schools. Later Miss Jones and Miss Jackson of New Brunswick came up and gave demonstrations in the project. Later, when reports were handed me, I found that hot food had been served in 11 different schools, that 22 different kinds of food had been prepared, and that 4,097 school children had been served. All this work was done on the ordinary "station" type of stove. One teacher, who had a very nice jacketed heater which afforded her no place to heat the vessel used for cooking, was so determined to do something for her pupils in this line that she set the pan inside the stove to allow the contents to boil. She had to confine herself to one kind of food.

Teachers reported to me that there had been fewer colds, and much less crowding about the stoves during recess periods. I am egotistical enough to believe that it was due to the hot food they had received.-Florence L. Farber, Sussex County.

As I view it, the helping teacher's work is divided into two main aims: (1) helping the teacher to discover her needs; (2) directing her toward ways and means for meeting those needs.

I have set about accomplishing these aims as follows.

Upon my first visit to each school the purpose uppermost in my mind was to show the teacher that I had confidence in her ability. It has always been my firm conviction that in nine cases out of ten we can get out of teachers and children whatever we are confident they can do. I attempted to pick out one thing that each teacher was doing well and sometime during the day to let her know my opinion. I kept note of this particular feat of hers and tried to use it in group meetings later on. . .

The public in a number of communities had to be initiated into the secret of the benefits derived from physical education. This was accomplished by having on every possible occasion an exhibit of this phase of the school work. We always saw to it that the children of those opposed to the work took part in the exercises; this usually worked. . . .

While our main drives have been on physical education and history, geography and civics, we have tried not to neglect the other subjects. Naturally this year's work has been unique because everything has been connected up with war work to as great an extent as possible. It goes without saying that all of our schools have been most active in Red Cross work of all kinds and in the buying of Thrift Stamps and Liberty Bonds. I have made arrangements in all my schools to see that this work is carried on under direction during the summer.-Mabel L. Bennett, Union County.

The war activities which have been introduced into the schools this year are doing what educators have dreamed of for years. The school is being more closely identified with life. School work is "motivated." The boys and girls are doing more real' live work than ever before and they are getting a real education-an education for service. The three R's of the school' are no longer Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic, but "Relief, Rescue and Reconstruction.".

Children get real joy in making something which is going to be of service.

Many times I have been greeted with enthusiastic clapping when I have gone into a schoolroom carrying Red Cross materials to be made up. Eight hundred and seventy-four of the country children of South Warren County are now proudly wearing Red Cross pins and are learning the lesson of service.

The war gardens of Warren County are being worked harder than ever this year and are proving a success. The children are busy fighting the Germans, which they call the weeds and the pests.

The regular work of our schools has not suffered because of what the children are doing in Uncle Sam's fight-doing with cheerfulness and enthusiasm. Arithmetic, language and geography are taught better than before. Children have something to figure for, something to tell about.

The parent-teacher associations have recognized the need of increasing their efforts in the closer drawing together of the home and the school. The three all-day meetings of the Warren County Council of the Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations which have been held during the year were most satisfactory. About 75 delegates from all parts of the county attended each of them. Encouraging reports were given from each association. .

Another need which is felt by the mothers, teachers and doctors of our county is a nurse to follow up the work of the medical inspectors in the schools. This will be one of our problems for next year.

Besides having meetings for mothers and for teachers, it was felt necessary to reach even more people and to give the public a chance to see and to hear about the new work in the schools. This was done at the township commencements, which were attended by over 2,000 people. The seven commencements in the southern part of the county which I planned and attended were a real joy. As you suggested, the exercises were of a patriotic character. Physical training, too, was demonstrated by rhythm and folk plays.—Vera M. Telfer, Warren County.

We planned in the fall to do the following things:

1. To encourage the improvement of the physical condition and
equipment (grounds, buildings) in every way possible

2. To improve the reading

3. To see that physical training was taught according to the
monograph

4. To follow the monograph on geography, history and civics
5. To have the schools help in winning the war

Realizing that brick cannot be made without straw, and that in rural schools it is very necessary that the children have some occupational work, this was stressed first.

The physical training has been popular in all the schools. The children have liked it and so have the teachers, even the oldest and most brittle of them. They have all grown younger and happier in following the physical training monograph. Several times folk-dances have been given as a part of the program at the parent-teacher association meetings, and the parents have always been very much pleased. Some of the teachers had had physical training in the normal schools; some of them had taken it at summer school. Did you hear of one of our teachers who was so very enthusiastic over his summer's

work that he told one of the state officials that he could teach as much physical training in ten minutes as the ordinary person could teach in half an hour? Those teachers who had had work in physical training were greatly helped by the instructor at the first county institute in the fall. When Miss Packer came in the spring the teachers had many questions for her and we profited more from her visit with us then than we would have done earlier in the year. . . .

There seems to be hardly room in this report for the war activities but they are to-day the biggest factors in our schools. Practically all the schools have joined the Junior Red Cross. They are all so proud of their pins and their certificates, which we are having framed. And the children are all so anxious to do something.

The boys and girls have invested well in War Thrift. We estimated that the children in the northern part of the county had invested $5,000. This has meant industry and thrift for these boys and girls. They realize their responsibility and are proud of the work they are doing for Uncle Sam.

The making and conservation of food has also been a controlling interest in our schools. The children on whose school ground food was often found last fall have developed a conscience for food conservation, and the remains of lunches are no longer wasted. The boys and girls have entered into the spirit of using substitutes for those foods needed for the allies. They are not only conservers but they are producers. In every school there are boys and girls helping on the farm and making gardens. One of the oneroom schools sent in an order for $10 worth of garden seed. The children made up the order and got a lot of practical language work and arithmetic out of this one phase of the garden work. No stituations have to be invented for vitalizing the subject-matter. We have live topics for every branch of the school work and we are trying to make the most of them.

The schools and teachers are doing their part in encouraging the Red Cross work and the buying of War Savings Stamps and Liberty Bonds. Numbers of patriotic meetings have been held by the schools. Spring Valley school, in Hardwick County, gave a patriotic program on the Sunday before the launching of the Third Liberty Loan. The teacher had decorated the room with flags and Liberty Loan posters. It was very attractive and there was a full house to hear the program. A speaker from Blairstown gave an address and took subscriptions for the Liberty Loan. The meeting was very successful. Eight schools competed for the medal given for the best four-minute speech on Liberty Loan.—Margaret E. Taylor, Warren County.

NEED OF AMERICANIZATION IN NEW JERSEY

Among the young men who came to Camp Dix as a result of the draft, in the first contingent approximately 21 per cent were, by the standards there imposed, illiterate; in the second contingent approximately 25 per cent were illiterate, and in the third contingent 33 1-3 per cent.

Some of these men were from New Jersey.

In the census of 1910 more than five millions of persons in the United States above the age of 10 were found to be illiterate. Of these, 113,502 were reported from New Jersey.

Quoting from the United States census of 1910, there are 113,502 illiterates in New Jersey, representing 5.6 per cent of the total population 10 years of age and over, as compared with 5.9 per cent in 1900. The percentage of illiteracy is 14.7 among foreign-born whites, 9.9 among negroes, and 9 among native whites.

For all classes combined, the percentage of illiterates is 5.8 in urban communities and 5 in rural. For each class separately, however, the percentage of illiteracy in the rural population exceeds that in the urban.

For persons from 10 to 20 years of age, inclusive, whose literacy depends largely upon present school facilities and attendance, the percentage of illiteracy is 2.4.

These are startling figures, and they are enough—unless measures are taken at once to correct this state of affairs by public education to give any intelligent American a feeling of apprehension. The war has revealed the necessity of democracy as a form of government, but it must be an intelligent democracy. A democracy cannot be intelligent if so large a portion of its citizens are illiterate.

It is of the highest importance that in New Jersey, as well as in other states, measures should be adopted to give the rudiments of an English education to this large mass of illiterate citizens.

Moreover, such an education is necessary before we can give these persons a comprehension of the fundamental ideas of American life, citizenship and institutions, and of allegiance to the principles upon which the government of the United States is founded.

A law requiring education in the rudiments of English and Americanization of all illiterates between 16 and 21 should be enacted.

PHYSICAL TRAINING

The provisions of the physical training law were reported in the last Annual Report.

One year's experience in the operation of the law has proved its worth. It is popular with the public, with teachers, and with the children themselves. Physical training has made schools more interesting; it has given new life and new enthusiasm to hundreds of schools throughout the State. The exercises have been given chiefly