liberal legislation for the purpose of enabling boards in the villages and smaller towns to supply the necessary facilities for the proper conduct of their schools.

Taking up the second point, that of compelling legislation, I will say that we find in many of our communities the following conditions existing:

The architect will go into the town upon the call of the school board that is looking for plans for the new school building, and will lay before them the things that are necessary to make a modern school building a success; he will show them the necessity for ventilation, proper lighting, sanitary closets, easy stairways, and all of those things that go to make up a satisfactory school building; and he immediately finds that the board is possessed of a commercialism that prevents them from ever adopting any of these ideas because they cost some money. You may lay before them the necessity of the thing in order to preserve the health of the children, and it does not appeal to them. They frequently think that it is the foolish vagary of an architect that knows too much. Now, when I am describing this board to you today, I am not speaking of an ignorant board. Such a board is frequently found composed of the best men of our most progressive communities. If you go into their stores, their workshops, their factories, or their offices, you will find them equipped with all the modern devices of the age for the accomplishment of the best results in their special pursuits. They are in no sense ignorant; they are men of intelligence and ability; they are men who, if they were building a house for themselves, would build it in the best way possible; but when they go on a board of education, they are so conservative or economical in the handling of the funds of the district that they will not pay one cent for things that look like fads to them. They will frequently say: Why, I have a good house and it is not ventilated." Probably in that house of theirs, with three or four occupants, you will find more cubic feet of air than with the best system of ventilation can be given to a schoolroom for sixty pupils. Argue as you will, lay before them the necessity of the case, and show that there must be greater provision made for the ventilation of a room in which there are sixty pupils than for one in which there are six; you cannot influence their minds; and when the result is reached, you will find that the board has turned down the provisions for ventilation as being extravagant.

The result is that when we get thru erecting a school building under the control of a board like this, they have a ruined house. The teachers cannot reach these men, because with them the commercial instinct is developed to such an abnormal extent that they look upon the one that is teaching school as being entirely impractical and incompetent to deal with these problems. Even if the school-teacher is well read and well posted on the subject of modern schoolhouse construction, and if he

offers to give any advice to his board, the chances are that the president or some member of the board will politely inform him that he has been employed to run the school and not the school board. The question is how to deal with cases of this kind. The architect cannot control them, the teacher cannot persuade them, and there is only one thing that they will respect and bow to, and that is the law. To meet these cases, we need compelling legislation; we need legislation that requires every set of schoolhouse plans, before they are used for the construction of the building, to be examined and approved by some competent authority. The law should designate just how much air should be supplied in a given length of time to each pupil confined within the limits of a schoolroom. We need to have attached to this law fines and penalties in proper amount so as to make the authority of the law respected. When this is done, indifferent school boards and incompetent architects will cease ruining public-school buildings. These measures that I am advocating are not new, for some states already have them in existence. Massachusetts requires these standards for all of her school buildings, and enforces her laws by the police power of the state.

I have now outlined the difficulties; I have at the same time suggested remedies. The difficulties are of a twofold nature: first, boards that do desire to build sanitary school buildings cannot do so for the lack of funds; second, many boards that could build proper school buildings do not do so for the reason that they cannot be made to realize the necessity. The first may be cured by means of enabling legislation, that is, making our laws more liberal so that more means can be at the disposal of these boards, and in this way permit them to give the people the buildings that the people actually want, but cannot get because the legislature has said they cannot have them. Second, we want laws to protect the health of the child in school while we are educating him for the responsibilities of American citizenship. We want these laws to be so liberal that the very least damage possible will be done to the health of any child while he is in school. We want these laws framed in such a way and with such penalties that they will command the respect and obedience of the school boards and officers that have charge of the school buildings of the state. Without this, failures must continue to be made, the people's money will be wasted, the health of the children will be undermined, and we shall keep sowing the seeds of disease in the rising generation, until shortly we shall be reaping a bounteous harvest of early deaths.

I would suggest that a committee be appointed to correspond with the officers of the various state educational associations for the purpose of agitating the question of securing the necessary state legislation for controlling the construction of school buildings; that this committee be empowered to prepare practical laws, especially along the line of

compelling legislation, and to urge local state associations to secure, if possible, the adoption of these laws.

There is hardly a state, in the western half of the United States at least, but that, with a very small effort, the influence of all of the teachers' organizations in the state, and of the state and local boards of health, could be secured to push and agitate this question. All it needs is someone

to take the initiative.

We are dealing today with conditions existing in the twentieth century and must use twentieth-century methods. These are the times of organization; individual effort counts for but little in these days. If we at this meeting make a start to secure the result of intelligent state legislation, we shall have made good progress on the road to success in the near future; we shall see our efforts crowned with success in laws wisely regulating the building of public-school houses.

THE VALUE OF TRUANT SCHOOLS

MRS. JOSEHPINE AHNEFELDT GOSS, MEMBER BOARD OF EDUCATION, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

The chief value of truant schools is their efficiency in bringing under school influence and discipline those delinquent juveniles who, owing to the imperfections of the public schools, cannot be reached by ordinary methods. Every truant is a living illustration of a weakness in our school system. Were the schools perfect, there would be no truancy; but they are conducted and directed by human beings with human frailties, and consequently have deficiencies. It is the duty of school boards to adopt a policy which will remedy such deficiencies as far as possible. They cannot be eradicated, but they can be reduced to a minimum.

Truancy is an evil pertaining especially to city schools; and the larger the city, the greater the truant problem. In the country truancy is an educational problem, but in the city it is a sociological one. In the country the truant simply stands still mentally, while in the city he goes. to the bad morally. Truancy is chiefly found in those overcrowded districts of congested population where the manner of living is low and poverty and immorality abound. Truants sometimes come from pleasant home surroundings, but such are exceptions to the general rule. The truant is not a criminal; he generally has entered the highway which leads to destruction, but has not committed crime. To rescue him from temptation is a problem for the truant-school management, and unless it successfully solves the problem, it has no value. Wisely conducted, a truant school is an active ethical force in society.

It is by compulsory legislation that society finds its truants and compels their attendance at school. The systems of dealing with them are

as diversified as the states and territories of the union, while methods are as different as the cities of our country. Thirty states, one territory, and the District of Columbia have laws compelling the attendance of children at schools. The required time for attendance varies from eight weeks to the entire school year. In many cities and towns there are local schools under local management for dealing with truants. Many cities have separate and distinct schools for truants; others send them to ungraded schools, or to special teachers. Good legislation is a great aid for efficient truant schools, but their true value is found not so much in law as in the character of teachers who conduct them. As the glory of the American navy is upheld by "the man behind the gun," so the efficiency of American schools is maintained by the teacher at the desk.

In considering truancy it is necessary to study its causes, which, in a general way, can be divided into five classes: physical and mental defects in the child; bad home influences; poor teaching and bad management in school; the cigarette habit; and a desire to be active and do something in productive life. Most cases can be traced to two or more of the above causes. All of them can be reached by good school management, excepting cases that arise from bad home influences, which can only be neutralized.

It is little realized how many children enter school handicapped by physical defects. Many have defective vision, others defective hearing; many have defects of the spine and breathing capacity; while others have weak muscles, or do not perform all their bodily functions normally. During the past year thousands of school children in the Chicago schools have been examined, and the record is astonishing. In many schools 32 per cent. of the young children did not have normal eyesight, while in one school nearly one-half of the pupils had poor eyesight. In those schools where the pupils come from homes of poverty the physical defects of children were more numerous and marked than among children from good home surroundings. Children with physical defects are expected and required by ignorant teachers to do regular grade work. They are physically incapable of doing it. As a result, when they are old enough to run away from school they do so, and become truants.

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More than any other cause bad home influences drive children to truancy. Parents are ignorant, itinerant, intemperate, and indifferent; and their children become truants. Children who do not have enough to eat at home are not brilliant pupils in schools. Children from homes of disorder and distress do not readily submit to school discipline. Some children have vicious parents, and are incited at home to defy school authority and break school laws. Yet more than all others such children need school training, and, if their needs are too much for the grades, they must receive their education by special work.

Occasionally a boy becomes a truant because of poor management on

the part of his teachers. The teacher may be "a nagger," or may take a personal dislike to the boy, which he feels and resents. I have known good teachers to fail utterly in dealing with individual cases. Teachers are subject to human prejudices, and often unconsciously deal unjustly with their pupils. Sometimes a child is driven to truancy by his teacher. I know one case in which the teacher desired to send a child to the truant school because the child was older than the grade, poorly dressed, and obliged to be tardy each session-the age and dress spoiled the appearance of the room, and the tardy marks spoiled the appearance of the register.

The cigarette habit is a pernicious cause of truancy which must be met with keen weapons on the part of the teachers. Fully one-half the truants of Grand Rapids are cigarette fiends who have lost vim and courage on account of the insidious habit. The best prevention in the grades is reading and talking about its evil effects; but literature and lectures upon the subject should emphasize the fact that it wholly unfits boys for games and sports, in which they all naturally like to take part and excel. In some states there are anti-cigarette laws, which are said to be very effectual in eradicating the evil. All connected with schools can do no better missionary work than to urge anti-cigarette legislation and its enforcement.

A few boys become truants because of their ambition to get out in the world and do something. They do not realize the benefits of school discipline in preparing for life. They simply see life and wish to participate in its activities. Were such boys understood and rightly directed, they would not be truants, but good students.

In a large city a truant school cannot be done away with, but, by good administration, its membership can be kept small. For the consideration of school boards the following are suggested as good preventives for truancy first, a good superintendent; second, good principals; third, good grade teachers; fourth, pleasant schoolrooms and large playgrounds; fifth, something for children to do with their hands.

The superintendent should be, not only a thoro educator, but a man of large human sympathy and philanthropic instincts. He should have an intense love for poor and defective children, and an appreciation of their trials and difficulties. He should not only possess all these attributes, but should be able to impress them upon his teachers and make them feel his sympathy and philanthropy. Such a superintendent saves many a boy from destruction.

Much depends upon the principal in preventing truancy. She should be an experienced teacher capable of doing good teaching, knowing good teaching, and appreciating good teaching. Above all she should know children, their wants, their needs, their trials, and their tribulations. She should have firmness in dealing with parents, tact in dealing with her