efficiency depend; an arithmetic emphasizing an application of principles instead of principles for application, fails to sense the relation of the school to individual development and social service.

Persons responsible for public-school curricula can ill afford to be indifferent to social needs. They should recognize the fact that the materials of the curriculum are intended as means to an end and not as an end in themselves. The first test to which subject-matter should be submitted is that of worth-whileness in the sense of meeting social needs. When it has stood this test, it is then time to consider it from the standpoint of the appeal it will make to the child.

The Child Factor in the Evolution of Subject-Matter. With an improved knowledge of general psychology, with improved methods of determining children's reactions to subject-matter, with improved methods of determining the progress of children and the factors involved in that progress, there has come a deepened sense of the need of a better knowledge of the relation of subject-matter to the child's interest.

This deepened sense of the finer adjustment of subjectmatter to the interests of children has already borne fruit a hundredfold, and consequently has been no little factor in determining change in subject-matter.

ADAPTATION OF SUBJECT-MATTER TO THE CHILD'S
INTERESTS

No better examples of the adaptation of subject-matter to the instinctive tendencies of the child can be cited than those of reading and arithmetic. Excepting the so-called method

readers, which in reality are methodized and not psychologized materials, most of our newer readers are fine examples of the adjustment which has taken place under the inspiration of this point of view.

Present Status of Reading. The primer and the first and second readers of the newer sets of readers are examples of the recognition which has been given to the child's predominating interests. The pupil fresh from the kindergarten or the home has had a touch of make-believe and fancy. His imagination knows no bounds. Like the fabled frost it travels far and near in boundless space. The folklore and fairy tales of these first books are admirably suited to nurture this most fundamental psychic process and to utilize it in mastering the technique and in forming the habits necessary for further progress.

By the time the third and fourth grades are reached the imagination is no less marked, but it has reached another phase of development. In the preceding years the plausibility of the "tale" was never questioned. In fact the question of probability never arose. In these later grades reason and experience begin to assert themselves. Tricks are still enjoyed but they must approximate the truth. Practical jokes are immensely enjoyed in these grades, especially jokes played upon animals or by animals. This period is peculiarly adapted to animal stories. The Story of a Donkey, The Story of a Toad, most of the Mother Westwind Stories, Merry Animal Tales, and some of Thompson Seton's and Warner's stories are admirably suited to third and fourth-grade children. The animal hero is of rare interest to these children.

The psychic outlook, so far as reading is concerned, is somewhat changed by the time the intermediate grades are

reached. Heroes still hold a prominent place in the child's interest. The animal hero, however, yields in interest to the human hero. Greek myths and similar stories receive an astonishingly hearty response. Robin Hood is a fine example of the sort of hero that is enjoyed by children of

this age.

Unfortunately the terminology of these stories offers a serious handicap to their usefulness. Literature of this kind is full of difficult words which are seldom used in any other connection. Perhaps a wise revision of these stories for the purpose of eliminating unusual words is advisable. . At any rate this particular difficulty should be partially or wholly removed, either by revision or by a better selection. The materials for the grammar grades have kept pace with the psychic development of the child. Heroes are still in demand. Neither the animal hero nor the human hero who dominates and controls for personal and selfish reasons will do. The heroes of Tennyson's Idylls of the King meet a hearty response. Moreover, the young people of the grammar grades are already contemplating life's problems. They are interested in most phases of literature which portray human endeavor in pursuit of lofty ideals.

Most of our newer readers have been adapted either consciously or unconsciously to these psychic outcrops of the children of the elementary school, who are on their forward march toward racial ideals and personal and social responsibility.

Present Status of Arithmetic. - Those who are responsible for the newer arithmetics, especially the books for primary children, have shown much appreciation of the psychic needs of children relative to the mastery of numbers. The

materials have been made much more concrete and attractive. The sequence of materials to problems is closer and the employment of materials within the experiences of the children is much more common, all of which mark a decided advance in formal number work.

Present Status of Other Subjects. - Other subjects reveal a marked adjustment of material to meet the psychic needs of children. The old deductive grammar is all but gone, physiology has been reorganized in the interests of children, historical materials have been vitalized through the use of letters and stories of the children of earlier times. Even spelling and writing are recognized as human instruments for the conveyance of thought instead of rare accomplishments through which one can achieve renown.

The process of reconstruction based upon the social and psychic needs of children has been steady and commendable. It must ever go forward. Social needs will continue to change and a better insight into the laws of mind will necessitate constant adjustment of subject-matter. halt means a stay of progress, while a continuous adjustment of materials in response to new conditions is progress itself.

A

CHAPTER IV

ORGANIZATION OF SUBJECT-MATTER

Living Organisms. -An examination of simple plants and animals leads one to the conviction that the distinct parts of each are in harmony with the welfare of the whole. When parts in a complex arrangement are so conditioned that they work in accord with the purpose of the greater whole, the whole is an organism and its structure is organic. All life operates and reveals itself through organisms. From the simple structure of the amoeba to the highly complex and beautifully adapted organism of man, we find processes conditioned and determined by the character of the life that is revealed.

In the light of biological science it is sufficient to suggest that the parts of living organisms have been developed and assembled through the constructive processes of hereditary variation and selection. The law of the survival of the fittest determines the varying structures of living organisms. Inanimate Organisms. Not only does life manifest itself directly through the organism which nurtures and reveals it, but it reaches out through this organism to its immediate environment which it adapts and arranges for the purpose of extending its freedom. Thus man has laid hold of his environment and organized it. He has cut trees with which to construct houses, built boats and bridges with which to cross streams, made tools with which to