In the exhibits illustrating special education in agriculture by far the most notable was the "Collective Exhibit of Sixty Colleges of Agriculture and Agricultural Experiment Stations of the United States." Nowhere on the exposition grounds, perhaps, were the processes of education more completely exemplified, for here were model laboratories for every branch of agricultural education fully equipped, in charge of experts, and, so far as possible, actual laboratory demonstrations were carried on.

Valuable as these model laboratories were, however, they were far surpassed in interest by the research work displayed in this exhibit. A well-known educator recently said that in no field of education is there today so great an opportunity for a man to make a name and fame for himself as in the field of agricultural research. For, while the realms of the classics, of mathematics, and of pure science have been exploited through periods of time extending in some cases at least through centuries, research in agriculture is but in its beginning. The jury was much impressed by the splendid results already attained and by the yet more splendid promise of future gains in this field. We congratulate Chief Rogers and the exposition management on the great success of this first collective exhibit of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations in the United States.

Besides this collective exhibit, the United States is represented in this group by displays from various state agricultural colleges and experiment stations. Most notable among the institutions thus shown were the agricultural colleges of Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee. From each of these came exhibits showing original research and experimentation of a very high order.

It may be added that the beginnings of instruction in agriculture were shown in the exhibits of the rural schools of several states, and the study of the products of the earth, their planting and cultivation, and of harmful insects and their destruction, was a fruitful subject of the agricultural schools. This subject, which touches everyone so closely on its practical side, is coming to the aid of the farmer and fruit-grower, and will bring rich blessings to mankind.

The chairman of the jury of Group VI, Special Education in Commerce and Industry, said in his report to the department jury:

The exhibit of Indian schools was found limited in amount and poor in quality. The only exceptions to this statement should be made in favor of the Indian schools on reservations in the state of New York.

Negro schools were creditably represented by institutions in various parts of the South, and in states as far north as New Jersey and Missouri. In the main, these exhibits were of students' work in wood and metal for boys, domestic science for girls, and from schools for such special trades as boot- and shoe-making, textile word, etc. The amount of material represented by negro schools was large and its quality good. The jury would probably concur in the statement that the wood- and metal-work from Hampton Institute was the equal of any similar work examined. The negro schools of the state of Missouri, particularly in Kansas City and the Lincoln Institute at Jefferson City, and the negro schools of St. Louis, call for special mention. These schools show much work which seems to indicate that they have gone far toward solving the problem of industrial education for the negro.

The jury was disappointed at the limited showing of the evening-school work for the United States, but, while making this statement, desires to call attention to the excellent exhibit of the evening school of trades in Springfield, Mass., and the work centers of the city of Boston.

The exhibit of the evening schools showed that the idea of continuation schools was a prominent one with them, with classes in millinery, dress

making, typewriting, and other branches for young persons beyond the school age.

The state institutions for the deaf and dumb and the blind from several states were represented by classes of students with their teachers, and the latest methods of teaching these unfortunate persons were illustrated almost daily. Crowds were constantly observing and studying the classes whenever an exercise was given, and were alike interested and instructed by the "living exhibit."

Of the special forms of education classified in Group VIII time will not permit me to say more than a word. The latest text-books, school furniture, and appliances were displayed, plans for extension schools and vacation schools were exhibited, and correspondence schools explained their modus operandi to large numbers of interested listeners. In text-books and school furniture America seemed to lead the world, and showed striking advancement over Chicago ten years ago.

No report can be made of the exposition without at least a reference to the charts and statistical tables that were found everywhere and that were of great value to the student. Of the foreign exhibit it is not within my province to speak. Our own country presented charts and tables that were studied by large numbers. Thru the wide influence of the Bureau of Education, exerted here as elsewhere to the great good of our schools, the charts were sufficiently uniform in plan and matter to form a valuable basis of comparison in the data given by them, and the information presented by them became doubly important as a consequence.

It is to be regretted that it is possible to present here only a superficial view of this marvelous exhibition of the work of American teachers. While defects were seen and might be pointed out, the Educational Exhibit as a whole made a most profound impression upon the thoughtful student, and will prove a source of encouragement and inspiration to the teachers of the land for many years to come. The predominance of the tendency of American education in all grades of schools toward reaching an end which is expressed in a material creation is most marked, and probably is an evidence of the impression that the mine and mill, factory and foundry, are making upon the education of our youth.

In a country that has no national system of public education, the striking resemblances of the state public systems must excite comment. This resemblance was seen not only in public-school systems, but also in the exhibits of the most advanced institutions of learning, and confirms the opinion of the optimist that American schools are working in harmony with the intangible, yet none the less real, American idea, that has lived thru the generations, and that is leading our beloved nation upward to the goal of a free, united, peaceful, prosperous, God-fearing, and man-loving people.

As we contemplate that marvelous array of cities and states, of empires and republics, presenting to the gaze of the world the choicest products of

the choicest minds of the world, forgetting for the while the intense rivalries that have long existed, remembering only that each city, each state, each empire, each republic, brings its best gifts to teach its fellows, and comes to its fellows in humility to learn what better there is to learn—as we contemplate all this, we feel that, below or above the bickerings of business and the strife of war, there exists a universal brotherhood, which is typified by the wonderful exhibition just closed at St. Louis; and we realize that the whole world is not only wiser, but also better and nobler, because of the Universal Exposition at St. Louis.

III. LESSONS FROM THE UNITED STATES EXHIBIT OF
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

BEN BLEWETT, MEMBER OF THE JURY OF AWARDS, GROUP I, ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

POSITION ACCORDED EDUCATION

Those of you who did not realize the fact thru the exquisite pleasure of seeing it have been told time and again how the scheme of organization of the Universal Exposition at St. Louis recognized education as the alma mater of modern manhood, and enthroned her in her own magnificent palace, established in the seat of highest honor. You know how the whole world, the islands of the sea, and the great empires vied with each other in showing what they were doing for the development of intellectual and moral power thru the training of their children and youth. You know the artistic form and the vast extent of the installation that made suitable setting for this, the most significant part of the exposition. These things need, at this time, but be mentioned, not reviewed.

It was no accident that gave to education this recognition, unapproached in the previous universal expositions. The recognition but measured the growth of an influence that had become a dominant power in the life of men, in every occupation, in every land. In other palaces you saw the processes of national living; in the Palace of Education and Social Economy you might discern the animating principles of these processes as shown in the national ideals toward which the youths were trained. One stood in open-eyed amazement before the displays made by Japan in industries, manufactures, and arts; yet the explanation of her marvelous achievements was complete to one who studied her scheme of education and its development.

Education was accorded its honorable position on its merits, and to educators was given the most difficult problem to be worked out by exhibitors.

Mind manifests its power thru material forms that attract at a glance and that, in large measure, may be comprehended without weariness. Even one uninitiated in the uses of machinery can quickly see the import of the rotary steam-engine. The processes thru which the powers of the intellect, of the

will, and of the soul are unfolded and trained are much more difficult to illustrate in ways that will seize the eye and be easily understood. To illustrate these processes was the problem given to the educators, and its solution was accomplished with unparalleled success.

INSTALLATION

In the Palace of Education, Group I was assigned to elementary education under four classes:

1. Kindergarten.

2. Elementary grades.

3. Training and certification of teachers.

4. Continuation schools, including evening schools, vacation schools, and schools for special training.

The display from the United States in this group had distinct significance; first, in its evidence of the existence of an American system of education; second, in the demonstration of the treatment of the peculiar and complex problems of metropolitan schools; and, third, in the promise of a brighter future for rural schools. All the conditions of actual schoolroom li e were realized as nearly as could be.

One state presented models showing the development of school buildings, from the log cabin, thru successive advances, to the modern high-school building. Another showed a modern rural-school building, in size and equipment just as it would be used. Other states, thru biogens, thru moving pictures of large size, and thru photographs of almost every conceivable typical school condition, left little for the imagination to supply. One city, daily for a period of six months, showed living classes of children engaged in such schoolroom work as could be conducted under such distracting conditions.

Graphic charts gave, in forms easily read, historic and statistical facts, and the relation of the various parts in lesson plans and courses of study. The photographic illustrations were a distinct improvement over that old type which showed rooms of children very conscious of the fact that their pictures were being taken. In these the photographer had caught characteristic groups of children at typical school work; and every inch of the picture told its tale to the examiner. The selected and typical work of individual pupils, and the corrected or uncorrected work of whole classes, either in written exercises, in drawings, or in the materials employed in manual training—all these made it possible for an earnest investigator to get close to the purpose of the work, its method and its results.

There were several distinct schemes of installation in the different states: first, that in which the work was grouped by towns and counties; second, that in which it was grouped by subjects, the work in any subject being collected from all parts of the state; third, that in which it was grouped by subjects, a subject being assigned to some one town; fourth, four large cities made exhibits independent of the other parts of their respective states. Twenty-nine states and three territories were represented.

Here was the state that justly boasts of its public school established over two hundred years ago, and by its side the vigorous young territory that stands knocking at the door of the Union. Here was the great metropolis with all its complex life and here the rural school of the wilderness into which only the pioneers had as yet pushed. And here were all the stages of institutional development lying between the widely separated extremes.

AN AMERICAN SYSTEM

That the participation in the exhibition was so universal excited the greatest surprise and admiration, and was most impressive in the evidence it gave of the existence of an American system of education. With the school unit of organization being, as it is in almost every state, the small district with its local board, and with no central authority to direct or even suggest plans for shaping and strengthening the work, a chaos of plans seemed inevitable. Yet the direct opposite of this was plainly the actual condition of the work. From Massachusetts to Louisiana, from Pennsylvania to California, from New York city to the rural school of Arizona, the same purposes dictated the general scheme of the courses of study, the same pedagogic philosophy determined the relation of the several parts of the work in this general scheme; and the differentiations were only such as local conditions and individuality in administration made inevitable. One whose estimate was formed by that which attracted the eye easily, and who had no opportunity for close examination, would tell you that manual training was receiving an unwarranted attention-an attention beyond that given to other material or apparatus for educating. But this impression did not remain with one who read the outlines of courses of study, or examined those parts of the exhibits which, from their nature, need not and could not be conspicuously installed.

Although the school journals, the reports of administrative officers, and the frequent coming-together in great meetings have kept American teachers in close touch with each other, and presumably familiar with the actual practice, still this assembled evidence of unity in work was startling in its conclusiveness. France and Germany, with their highly developed centralization of control, showed no closer recognition of a common directive principle, nor a greater uniformity of results. The United States has evidently accomplished this end thru the healthy incentive of friendly rivalry and thru sympathetic co-operation. The creed of the American schoolmaster could be read in each unit and in the display as a whole as plainly as if it had been printed on illuminated tablets:

1. It is our function to direct the natural and balanced development and training of the intellect, will, and soul of the child, giving to the spirit the power to comprehend the environing world and to react upon it.

2. Under the conditions of our social institutions, there are but few artificial barriers of custom which can prevent the individual from selecting the life that he wills to follow,