children into an informal group, near to and facing the teacher, is a much more natural and satisfactory arrangement. (8: 41)

[Similarly] during the singing period. In the schools observed, the children, with the exception of those in one kindergarten, were either seated or standing in a ring. Better results would be obtained if the children were gathered into a group standing near the piano where they could hear the teacher easily. They would realize then that this was the time primarily for singing. When standing close together and near the piano, they get the effect of the blending of voices; the teacher can easily place the monotones near her or near a child whose voice is true; a small choir may be assembled quickly for small group singing, etc. (8: 52)

Wide heavy kindergarten tables replaced by narrow folding ones. The size and kind of table used in seating kindergarten children is an important routine factor in saving time and energy and improving instruction. This fact is brought out in the following comments by Miss Temple on the kindergarten equipment which she observed.

The tables now in use are of the older type, six feet long or more and two and one-half or three feet wide. They are made to accommodate children seated at all four sides. Narrow tables eighteen inches wide lend themselves to a much more satisfactory arrangement of the children with reference to the light and to the teacher, but more of them are needed for the same number of children. It is convenient to have some of these narrow tables of the six-foot length and others of the three-foot length. They may then be used singly by small groups of children or combined in various ways, according to the number of children in the group or the type of material with which they are working. When the entire class is to do the same work, directed by the teacher, an arrangement by which all face the teacher is usually best. When the class is divided into groups of different sizes for different kinds of work, other arrangements are more satisfactory. Furthermore, in a room equipped with small tables as well as with larger ones, the problem of seating the children at tables of the right height for them is very much simplified. One or more of the small tables

may be made lower by cutting an inch or two off the legs to accommodate the smaller children. Chair legs may be cut to correspond.

The tables described are folding tables, which may be easily disposed of when the entire floor space is needed for games or other physical activities or when the room is needed for assembly purposes. Three tables six feet by eighteen inches and six tables three feet by eighteen inches would be adequate for a group of thirty children. (8: 8)

Class grouping for primary reading. — Another example of the improvement of instruction by special seating or grouping of children is found in the arrangement of a group in primary reading. When the section that is reading does not consist of more than twenty pupils, small chairs are provided and the children grouped in semicircles near the teacher. This arrangement enables the teacher and pupils to speak in low voices and still be heard distinctly; it enables the teacher to observe carefully each child as he responds; and it provides a compact audience situation in which interest and attention can often be better secured than in the more spread-out arrangement that prevails when the little chairs are not available.

3. Routinized passing and marching by pupils. — The third phase of classroom routine is the organized orderly passing of pupils. This is a feature that is often overemphasized in extremely formal schools and entirely neglected in schools that overemphasize freedom and initiative. The desirability of such routine in social life is clearly illustrated in the traffic situation described above on page 58, and in the saving of life through fire drills. It is obvious that quick, quiet, and orderly passing by pupils to the board, or through the cloakroom, or through the halls, saves social confusion and energy in exactly the same manner as does traffic regulation at a busy street corner. Consequently, a teacher who drills her pupils carefully in these matters is not only

saving much time and energy for various school activities but is also training in habits that are closely paralleled in social life. A beginning teacher should observe carefully the methods of organizing assembly and dismissal used by various teachers and imitate the most successful. She should observe also such matters as the children running on tiptoe to and fro in the primary grades and pupils having regularly assigned places at the blackboard in all the grades.

4. Handling materials. Monitors economize time for teacher and class. - The fourth factor in routine management is the handling of materials. The greatest economy of time and energy can be effected here by enlisting the pupils as monitors. Many children are perfectly competent to perform monitorial services. The selection of such competent ones even in the first grade is amusingly described by Myra Kelly in her entertaining book of school stories and romance entitled "Little Citizens." The stories concern the fictitious Miss Bailey's first experiences in a slum district in New York. Miss Bailey's selection of monitors is described in the following words:

An organized government requires a cabinet, and, during the first weeks of her reign over Room 18, Miss Bailey set about providing herself with aides and advisers. She made, naturally, some fatal and expensive mistakes, as when she intrusted the class pencils to the care of one of the Yonowsky twins who, promptly falling ill of scarlet fever and imparting it to his brother, reduced the First-Reader class to writing with colored chalk.

But gradually from the rank and file of candidates, from the well-meaning but clumsy; from the competent but dishonest; from the lazy and from the rash, she selected three loyal and devoted men to share her task of ruling. They were Morris Mogilewsky, prime minister and monitor of the goldfish bowl; Nathan Spiderwitz, councilor of the exchequer and monitor of window boxes; and Patrick Brennan, commander in chief of the forces and leader of the line.

The members of this cabinet, finding themselves raised to such high places by the pleasure of their sovereign, kept watchful eyes upon her. For full well they knew that cruelest of all the laws of the board of education, which decrees "that the marriage of a female teacher shall constitute resignation." This ruling had deprived them of a kindergarten teacher of transcendent charm and had made them as watchful of Miss Bailey as a bevy of maiden aunts could have been. Losing her, they would lose love and power, and love and power are sweet. (6: 89-91)

Monitorial system extensively used in New York, 1805–1830. — In New York City the use of monitors had an interesting history, for from 1805 to about 1830 even the instruction in the schools was given by them in large rooms containing only one teacher to over two hundred pupils.

When a child was admitted, a monitor assigned him his class; while he remained, a monitor taught him (with nine other pupils); when he was absent, one monitor ascertained the fact and another found out the reason; a monitor examined him periodically, and when he made progress a monitor promoted him; a monitor ruled the writing paper; a monitor had charge of the slates or books; and a monitor-general looked after all the other monitors. Every monitor wore a leather ticket, gilded and lettered "Monitor of the First Class," "Reading Monitor of the Second Class," etc. (4: 103)

Monitors only for mechanical aspects; middle-grade example. It goes without saying that the use of monitors for instruction in a modern elementary school is not to be advocated now. The above quotations, however, illustrate the fact that some children are perfectly competent to assist the teacher in many mechanical matters, and take great delight in doing so. An example of the reasonable use of monitors at the present time is found in the following account presented in one of the author's classes by an experienced teacher in the middle grades,

Monitors are chosen for two weeks to pass paper daily for arithmetic, language, penmanship, and drawing; others are appointed to collect and pass out pencils which are sharpened and fumigated twice a week; two children are given the duty of cleaning and replacing the erasers every noon, while two others wash the board and water the plants; a large boy is given the task of caring for the ventilation and another the raising and lowering of the window shades. After the first few days I am absolutely relieved of all responsibility for this part of school management.

Time wasted by kindergartens in preparing materials. Another phase of economy of time with materials is illustrated by the large amount of time which many primary and kindergarten teachers spend in getting materials ready for children. The waste which is thus entailed is described by Miss Temple in the following observations:

There are unquestionably many kindergartners who spend much more time in work of this kind than is necessary or desirable. The work seen in the . . . kindergartens goes to show that the teachers often prepare the [materials] for the children so completely that there is little left for the children to do. For example, they draw outlines of objects for the children to cut, instead of giving the children the more valuable experience of trying to cut forms without the help of an outline, or they cut out rather elaborate paper forms, drawing lines where the children are to fold, leaving for the children only the last step or two of the whole process of construction. The results are likely to be excellent, but they do not represent the children's work. If the teachers would plan simpler forms of occupation and would be satisfied with cruder products, they would be able to develop in the children a degree of independence in handwork which does not now exist, according to the reports of the first-grade teachers who receive the children from the kindergartens. (8: 19)

This quotation illustrates clearly that careful study of the best methods of providing and handling materials not only saves time and energy but may also result in methods