Chirisophus

All the living graduates of the 30 largest universities are approximately equal in number to the members of the teaching profession in the U. S.-- 700,000.

Of these 700,000, some 12,000 reported at Chicago at the annual convention of the department of superintendence of the National Educational Association. Some came dressed in the fashion of 1913. Some came in the latest cutaway swagger. Some came in no fashion at all. But nearly every one of the 12,000 had something to say and had a good time saying it. Each acted as his or her own Chirisophus.*

Olive Jones. The center of gravity was Miss Olive M. Jones. She is President of the N. E. A. (National Education Association). "Creeping dangers are threatening the schools of the nation," said she, of which the creepingest appeared to be an unwarranted demand for tax reduction. She spiritedly denounced fiction-writers for misrepresenting the schoolteacher's place in society.

Prize. The general give-and-take of counsel and advice was interrupted by the announcement of a prize. It is a peace prize to be awarded for a 5,000-(or less) word plan. But the plan must be nonpolitical. It must be a plan to promote peace by education. [This was the great theme ot an educational convention in San Francisco last year.] The prize is $25,000. Its giver is Raphael Herman/-, of Detroit. Members of the jury of award include: Banker Robinson of Los Angeles, President Jones of the N. E. A., Governor Baxter of Maine, President MacCracken of Vassar, Scientist Milliken of California.

Fitch. The nastiest remarks of the convention week were made by Albert Parker Fitch, famed preacher and ex-professor of Amherst. Dr. Fitch said that schoolboys and college boys were stupid. They swear, said he, and read immoral books and athleticize themselves and are remarkably bad. This speech received most of the press-comment. Said the press, in effect: "Once we listened to Dr. Fitch as the great Jeremiah of our age, but he begins to talk too loud. The louder he talks the less we listen."

Other points made in language more sober and staid were:

P: A "teachers' bloc" should be formed to promote the interest of teachers in legislatures, local and national. The immediate aim of the teachers' bloc (at present a reality without a name) is the Educational Bill. Teachers are unanimously in favor of a Cabinet post for a Secretary of Education (TIME, Nov. 26).

P: Active John J. Tigert, Commissioner of Education, reported on his problems in Alaska. He reminded the country that his predecessors had introduced reindeer into Alaska and that reindeer dividends had been the chief source of support for Alaskan education. He reminded people that the problem of supplying education to sparse populations in so vast a territory was immense.

P: O. L. Reid, Superintendent of Schools in Youngstown, Ohio, pointed out that the three R's are less important in education than they once were. The typewriter in the case of 'riting and the adding machine in the case of 'rithmetic relieve the schools of much drudgery in the preparation of pupils in such essentials. Only reading today is without mechanical substitutes. More time can now be spent on more advanced subjects.

P:The periodical examination was moved against as "unsound, unscientific and generally meaningless." The examination mark, said several speakers, has been found by educational psychologists "to have absolutely no fixed relation to mental capacity or intellectual ability." Professor Freeman (University of Chicago) stated that "the retentive capacity of the student never is accurately indicated by the written examination."

*Throughout Xenophon's Anabasis, one Chirisophus habitually functions as spokesman.

/-Born in Koenigsburg, Germany, he made a fortune manufacturing steel specialties. His name is linked with Acetylene. Unmarried, a Unitarian, Mason (32DEG), he supports many good things.