s natural resources.

America today is wasting its human possibilities even more prodigally
than its material wealth. The latter deficiency is being brought to a
halt. Shall the human side receive less attention? A sharply divided
line between home and school is no longer clearly drawn. Parents'
associations are being formed and are cooperating with the
school-teacher. To what end? To the better moral and intellectual
atmosphere of the home. Physical education has had its vogue, but too
much as an endeavor apart, not as a necessary element in the whole.

The pedagogical world is now becoming convinced that physical defects
are more often than not the basis of mental incompetence, and this
leads logically to the teaching of the laws of right living in a
practical way, not merely as lessons from books, but as daily
practice. This practice must eventually go into the home, where the
most of the child's hours are spent. It is as useless to expect good
health from unsanitary houses as good English from two hours' school
training diluted by twelve hours of slovenly language. Hence the
imperative need of such teaching and example as can be put into
practice; and since immediate house to house renovation and change of
view are impossible, the school must provide for teaching how to live
wisely and sanely, as well as for clear thinking and aesthetic
appreciation. Practical hygiene, food, cleanliness, sanitation, all
must eventually be exemplified by the schoolhouse and taught as a part
of a general education to all pupils, boys and girls.

If this sounds like socialism, let us not be afraid, but educate for
five or ten years all children, so that homes may be better managed,
and then it is to be hoped there will be no need for such school
training. To live economically in the broad sense of wise use of time,
money, and bodily strength is the great need of the twentieth century.
This is practical economics. This is something which cannot today,
except in rare instances, be learned at home, for conditions change so
rapidly that grown people may not keep up with them. Mothers' ways are
superseded before the children are grown.

The school, if it is maintained as a progressive institution and a
defense against predatory ideas, is the people's safeguard from being
crushed by the irresistible car of progress. I repeat, standards may
be set by the school which will reach and influence the community in a
few months. Such standards s