of the studies—a large core of constants providing for common needs and for exploration. This decreases in grades 8, 9 and 10. Not as many different lines of work are provided, this would be absolutely impossible in a school the size of Shillington. It is very significant, however, that variety is provided even here. It shows what even a small school can do. Summary. Summing up this brief analysis, the following conclusions may be made:

1. Detroit does not believe that pupils in the several curricula who go on to the Senior High School need to have any choice of subjects. That the only provisions necessary for the varying needs of pupils are

(a) To provide a comparatively small number of subjects especially for those who are planning to leave school early and

(b) To provide a wide variety of subjects for all to take.

It is clear that with Detroit the common needs as represented by the common subjects and exploration are more important aims than providing for varying needs by a choice of a variety of subjects.

2. Radnor believes that the varying needs of pupils demand a certain amount of alternations even in grade 7 and an increasing amount in subsequent grades; that a preliminary period of exploration is not necessary for all and that it is comparatively unnecessary either from the standpoint of common needs or of exploration for those who are planning to continue their schooling to take much in the line of shopwork or other industrial arts work. Whatever is desirable can be taken as additional work. It is, of course, only fair to say that the Radnor High School does not have as complete a shop equipment as Detroit.

3. The Shillington school is necessarily very limited in the variety of subjects that can be offered. As a result the field for exploration as the term is used in larger schools, is very small. Varying needs are provided for very little, if any, except by variations in treatment of the usual school subjects. Differentiation is chiefly between a few so-called commercial subjects and algebra and a foreign language. It is difficult to see how much variety of work can be provided in a small school. In all three programs, we can at once see that the work offered and the general plan are vastly superior to that in our regular 7th and 8th grades.

Exploration and Guidance. Turning from curriculum organization to the field of guidance and exploration, we find ourselves in a comparatively new and unorganized field. Practically all agree that no junior high school is complete without some provision for these elements. If we could examine the inner workings of the three schools already discussed, we would find some very interesting attempts. Exploration has already been sufficiently discussed. In addition the following statements will be sufficient:

1. Nothing can take the place of actual experience in and exploration of various fields of work.

2. This exploration should be in a wide variety of subjects, and should extend over more than one year.

3. To be effective it should be compulsory, required of all.

4. Definite provision should be made for gathering together data obtained from such exploration work and checking them up.

5. Some person should be designated as a counsellor, who could bring such data to bear upon each individual case.

The Guidance program is one for the whole school: it cannot and should not be relegated to any one period, nor to any one subject. It is better to speak of guidance programs and guidance activities than of guidance periods. Both Detroit and Radnor have well organized programs of guidance. Shillington evidently recognizes the need and is attempting to make a place for it. Guidance, properly understood, is a distinctive feature of the junior high school; it is indispensable if we are to provide for the varying needs of boys and girls in grades 7 and 9. It is based, in its conception, on individual differences and varying needs.

One interesting development of the guidance program is the course in Vocational Civics just described. Note that this course is an attempt to combine text-book work on occupations and personal investigations and experience, that may be properly called laboratory work. It tries to utilize and co-ordinate all school subjects and school activities for the purpose of giving pupils the basis for an intelligent choice of occupation. From this point of view it is vital to the work of the school.

Student Activities. We come now to one of the most interesting and important parts of the junior high school program. It is also one of the most difficult to discuss. While it is impossible to prove the truth of the statement, I believe that the success of any Junior High School is determined more largely by the organization of student activities than by any other single factor. It is this that is responsible for the real "spirit of the junior high school." The variety of clubs, the chance for initiative, the responsibility, the freedom, the opportunity for cooperative effort are all so different from the life of the lower grades and so splendidly suited to the needs of boys and girls of this age.

How slow we have been to recognize this need in pupils! Even after the value of these activities has been recognized, how few schoolmen are willing to provide a place for them on the regular roster! They are still extra curricular in most of our schools. It is still most difficult to secure a place in the hierarchy of school credits for them. It is unnecessary to add anything to the discussion of the place and function of these activities. I will merely reaffirm my belief that any junior high school will be seriously handicapped, to say the least, unless it very definitely organizes student activities for educational purposes.

Teaching of Geography, Followed by a Demonstration Lesson

MODERN CONCEPTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY

J. RUSSELL SMITH, Professor of Economic Geography, Columbia University

The position of geography is a very peculiar one. It is a subject of fundamental importance but it lies under the curse of not having many well paid positions to give it an adequate professional status in educational institutions, where people are after all being trained chiefly for jobs. In that respect geography differs greatly from geology. Students of geology may advance to good positions in the geological surveys of the state or nation. Or they may be employed by oil and mining companies. Therefore geology early obtained an important position in the curriculum of the colleges and especially in that of the universities. Geography, on the other hand, has been of relatively small importance in college courses and there has been none at all in our graduate work until a very recent time.

Not more than twenty-five years ago G. Stanley Hall said there was no such subject as geography. But last week Nicholas Murray Butler said that geography might be made the center of the curriculum of the elementary schools. I will quote his own words:

"Upon reading a recent text in Human Geography, the question rose in my mind whether it did not contain a fruitful suggestion for the integration of the work of the elementary schools. Of course, physical exercise and training lie outside of its possible scope. But it might be that human geography could be so treated as to be the basis and starting point for every other point of useful and appropriate instruction during the elementary school years. It goes without saying that language teaching could be based upon it. So could the teaching of Mathematics, whether Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry or Trigonometry. So could History, Economics, and at least some aspects of literature.”

I point to another class of evidence to prove my statement that geography is picking up. About twenty-two years ago I conceived the idea that there was a future in this country for a man who knew something about economic and commercial geography. I looked about only to find that there was, at that time, not a single course in geography, in any American university. There were many courses in geology and physiography, but in geography as such, not a single one! In the German universities dozens of courses in geography were offered,-two, three or even ten courses per university in a great variety of subjects, well sub-divided and taught, at times, by men of international reputation. How is it today?-more than a dozen American universities offer courses in geography. In several places the subject is being taught in fairly elaborate form. At the Chicago University they probably have

the best organized system, but a number of other places have made a good showing. The University of Pennsylvania has a well organized department; Columbia has many courses and other institutions have several courses. Every spring brings to my desk, and to the desks of others, requests for men to start work in geography in some college or university.

Why is geography thus picking up? Partly because we have a growing appreciation of the concept of education as contrasted to mere training. Twenty years ago the person who wished to prepare for business went to a so-called business college and took a business course. He learned some tricks about how to do certain things. He learned how to keep books and how to make calculations in business arithmetic. He studied forms of letter writing and learned how to keep a bank account. Sometimes he studied shorthand and typewriting and was prepared for a job as clerical assistant to someone who supplied the brains and managed the business. These business college students were prepared to be hands not minds. Happily we are getting a superior appreciation of the value of education as contrasted to mere training, as is indicated by the development of the commercial high school. This has helped the status of geography. I think every commercial high school teaches some geography.

The Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in the University of Pennsylvania was founded forty-two years ago because some one got the idea that a man would be benefited if he studied economics, politics, sociology and business, in addition to courses that related to literature and history. That there was a need for this type of collegiate education is proved by the fact that this kind of college course has been copied in almost every State from Maine to California. Geography is in all places a part of this course. The Chicago School of Economics not only requires two general courses in geography, but also a course in the geography of North America for the Bachelor's degree in the School of Economics.

The war has helped the improved status of geography. For two or three years most of us looked each day at a map in the daily papers; we acquired the map habit. We learned that there are other countries than our own even though we might have lived in Missouri. In many ways people came to see that most international affairs rested to a great extent on a geographic basis. At the outbreak of war our government placed great power in the hands of the President. He could do as he would with our imports, exports, industries, etc. He could do anything -but what dared he do? Only those things that were helpful. After an era of wild guessing and missing it appeared that economists and geographers seemed to know best what could be done. Suddenly we had

a call for geographers and the call could not be adequately met. They were in the War Trade Board, the War Industries Board and the Shipping Board. The so called "Inquiry" which gathered information for a year and a half before the Peace Conference met had many geographers, as did also the staff of the Commission that went to Paris. All of these things have helped to place geography upon a new status.

I now want to take up the second part of my remarks, the changing concepts of geography. I refer to the ancient statement of G. Stanley Hall-that there was no such subject. He had some grounds for his allegation.

First concept. Cape Geography. Geography began as a sailor's geography, with capes. A sailor must know where the capes are or he could not get home. So geography, having been born in New England a hundred years ago, was a scientific aid to the men coming back from the sea with their fish. How could they get home if they did not know exactly where all the capes were? Should the ancient need of the New England fishermen control the course of study now? Within a month one of the leading geographers of America was indignantly telling me that his children were compelled at school to learn the names and locations of capes on the coast of Alaska. Why? For no reason at all except that capes were the style a hundred years ago, and they linger on as a sort of vermiform appendix.

Second concept is what I call the encyclopaedic miscellany stage of the curriculum. Ordinarily geographies have to be sold before they can be used, and unless some pedagogic idea stands guard many "scraps" of information are apt to get in. At one time the New York Herald ordered its reporters to mention every leading citizen in the State of Connecticut once every six months. The paper mentioned every leading citizen once in six months, and most of those mentioned subscribed for the Herald. Do you see the point? Every little town everywhere wants to see if it is mentioned in the new geography text; the book must be a good book; otherwise, it probably is not a good book. I would feel quite flattered if my farm should be mentioned in some one's else geography besides my own. Suppose all our towns were mentioned in the book and you had to teach it to the child! The newer concepts of teaching geography disregard the "encyclopaedic miscellany."

The Third. The masquerade of the elements. When Stanley Hall said there was no such a subject, twenty years ago, he had grounds for his statement. I have before me a diagram which I am afraid the lighting may not permit all to see.

I did not patent it; it was published some years ago by Dr. Fenneman of Cincinnati, and he was not the first to see geography in relation to its elements. It is true that a satisfactory geography tells a consider