which give the children valuable training. The same fact was illustrated by the monitorial services of children which give them excellent training in simple routine responsibilities. 5. Physical conditions. Proper ventilation and lighting conserve energy. The fifth routine factor to be considered in economizing time and energy is attention to the physical conditions of the classroom. This is important not only from the standpoint of the temporary and permanent effects upon health but also from the standpoint of waste of energy. If a room is poorly ventilated or lighted, the energy of the pupils which is available for concentrated study is diminished.

Teacher may supplement the ventilating system. — The teacher should acquaint herself with the ventilating system and try to coöperate effectively in its management. If it does not work, she may be able to take steps to supplement it. For example, in two recitation rooms which I have used there was an ample supply of fresh air from the inlet in the wall near the ceiling in one end of each room. But in each case the outlet was placed in the wall near the floor directly under the inlet. As a consequence the air circulated very well in one end of the room, but three fourths of the room received practically no benefit from the system. Upon the suggestion of the teacher a metal deflector was made by the engineer and fastened on the inlet in such a way as to send the air diagonally across the room, thus providing a supply of fresh air for nearly all parts. In case there is no ventilating system, the teacher can at least provide for ventilation boards on the window sills. These will make it possible to keep the windows partly open during recitations in cold weather. The teacher should not rely upon her own impressions concerning the condition of the air in the room, for her sense of smell soon becomes fatigued in such a way that it does not inform her of the conditions.

Arrange so that pupils do not face the light. In regard to lighting, the teacher's first duty is to arrange so that

pupils do not sit facing the light. The frequent neglect of this simple precaution is very striking. In kindergarten rooms it is not uncommon to find many children placed so that they face low windows and receive the full glare of the light directly in their eyes. Such positions handicap them seriously and waste much energy.

Avoid shadows on the page. The second precaution is to arrange so that there are no shadows on the page at which the child is looking. In other words, there should be the same degree of illumination all over the page. If this is not the case, the pupil of the eye is constantly readjusting itself to the different degrees of illumination. This is not only a waste of energy, but it is often quite distracting and annoying, although the reader may not be clearly conscious of the cause of the annoyance. We have extreme examples of this variation in illumination on a day when shifting clouds cause a rapid alternation of sunshine and shadow. The eyestrain under these extreme conditions is quite noticeable. When one side or half of the page is well illuminated and the other part in deep shadow, the eyes may experience the same phenomenon on a smaller scale some fifty to a hundred times as they follow the lines of a single page.

Single source of illumination best. The first step usually taken to avoid such a situation is to provide that the light shall come from a single source. The pupil can then easily sit in such a position that there are no shadows on his page. If there are two sources of light, the possibilities of sitting so as not to have shadows and at the same time not to face a light directly are greatly reduced. If there are a great many near sources of illumination, as in a railroad coach at night, the page may be streaked with light and shadow. In constructing schoolrooms it is now quite common to provide that the light shall come only from one side (namely, the left), in order to avoid shadows. Even when light comes

from more than one side in a room, the teacher, by proper manipulation of the shades and by proper directions to the pupils, can greatly reduce the loss of energy which would result from reading under conditions that cause strain or distraction.

Hygienic conditions improved in kindergartens recently. Many of the activities provided for children in the oldfashioned kindergartens required such small movements and such concentrated attention as to result in serious nervous strain.

Great improvements have been made in kindergartens recently by providing activities and conditions better adapted to the health of little children. These improvements are summarized by Miss Luella A. Palmer in the following quotation.

Health is the first consideration in the education of little children. Most of the kindergartners have discarded the occupations which were found injurious to the children's eyesight, very few overstimulate with nervous excitable play, and practically none forget to pay attention to the demand of the little bodies for free muscular movement. Yet the crying need of our kindergartens is for still better hygienic conditions. This is seldom the fault of the kindergartner; she knows the value of fresh air and sunshine, of space for free activity, of large blocks for building, of digging in the ground, of opportunities for individual children to rest or exercise as they desire, but many kindergartens are placed in such conditions that these good things are denied to the children.

We have grown much since Dr. Stanley Hall in the Forum of January, 1900, criticized the kindergarten, particularly with regard to health conditions. Most kindergartners do the best they can in this respect. Wherever possible they have work in the open air, they ventilate the room, sometimes clean it themselves if janitors are careless, they keep the light out of the children's eyes, they try to have comfortable seats, to alternate periods of rest and activity, to have the atmosphere of the room quieting to the nerves, and they wash the children who come dirty, often the first weeks of

kindergarten are devoted to different methods of impressing cleanliness. At mothers' meetings the topics are care of the child, his food, rest, and play. (7: 106)

6. Maintaining good order. An important timesaver.— The sixth and final routine factor which we shall consider in our discussion of economy of time and energy is good order. By good order we mean noninterference of the pupils with each other and proper attention by each child to the activities of the class as a group. It is obvious that the failure of any child to attend to the business in which the teacher and group are engaged is an important source of waste in the classroom.

Troublesome children. Sometimes mentally and morally defective. As a rule the teacher may assume that if the other conditions of instruction are properly provided for, most of the pupils will behave themselves. There are nearly always, however, a few pupils whose selfish instincts are so strong, and whose social instincts and self-control are so weak, that they will not coöperate readily. Just as criminals in social life cause an enormous amount of social waste entirely disproportionate to their numbers, so these instinctively selfish and noncoöperative children cause a disproportionately large waste of time in the work of social groups in the school. Fortunately, the most extremely defective of such children are now recognized by science as being permanently mental and moral defectives and are not permitted in the regular public schools. Among such mental and moral defectives are idiots and imbeciles. Readers of this book probably realize that such defectives cannot be trained as ordinary children are trained, and that even with the best of training they will remain mentally and morally defective all their lives. Children who are endowed with slightly higher mental and moral powers, but who still are permanently mental and moral defectives, are often encountered in

the elementary schools. In the juvenile courts and psychological clinics of cities, special studies are now being made on a large scale to determine the best methods of diagnosing and dealing with such boys and girls.

Example of troublesome defective child. - The point for us to notice is that the presence of such a child in a classroom may greatly increase the disciplinary difficulties. An example of this fact is shown by the following observation of the discipline in a fifth grade before and after such a child was removed. The room contained fifty children, and the observer writes as follows:

Upon my first visit four boys and one girl were inclined to be troublesome, the girl especially. She was seated at a special table, and during a music lesson repeatedly turned about and grinned at the other pupils. She made no pretense at taking part in the work of the room, either then or later during the arithmetic and geography recitations. One could see she was a "terror." At recess she passed out with the others in quite an orderly manner, but on returning she kept the lad who was to close the dressing-room doors waiting two or three minutes, standing exasperatingly in his way. The teacher merely said, " Hurry up, Mary," and continued her work.

Upon my second visit the troublesome girl was not at the table. I ascertained that she had been expelled and that the mother was at her wits' ends to know what to do with her, so unbecoming was her conduct at home and on the street. Her teacher regretted that she had been unable to help the girl and had recommended that she be placed in an institution. Doubtless the city authorities would determine the advisability of this procedure through tests and investigation. Meanwhile, the boys in the room had settled down and the whole class was interested and busy.

Noncoöperative pupils even among ordinary children.- No hard and fast line can be drawn to separate the abnormal, nonsocial, difficult disciplinary cases from the more ordinary children with somewhat normal social instincts. Even after