Landsmaal) in his characteristic Landsmaal, and this sentiment is receiving enthusiastic wings from large numbers of the rural population.

With the revival of old customs and folkways came the standardizing of quaint old dress and costumes that were still in use by many of the peasants. They are quite striking and picturesque and are being worn more and more, especially on occasions like weddings and other social gatherings. They are known as nasjonaldrakt (national dress or costume). Children in cities, too, wear them on special school days and parades. A pleasant sight that will long linger in the mind of an on-looker is the children's procession in a 17th of May celebration. In Kristiania or in any of the larger towns, on the Constitution Day, one will see thousands of school children parading in nasjonaldrakt, each one carrying a goodsized flag, singing national songs. Each school unit is headed by the respective school banner and the trophies that may have been won during the year, and a boys' music band. At the capital this feature of the celebration is always reviewed by the King and the Queen.

We have already mentioned the unique and extensive literature of Norway as one of its greatest educational assets. It is peculiarly educational in character, because, on the whole, it reflects the cultural unfolding of a people within a specific racial environment. The great masters have been able, both by variety of form and by profusion of production, to almost crowd out secondary or third-class authors. The result has been that all literature read and studied in the schools is of a high type, instructive and edifying. It is not the purpose of this article to enter into a close comparative analysis of Norwegian literature, but simply point to the fact that here we have a vast field of educative material that is like a large body of water into which rivers and innumerable lesser streams of cultural elements have for centuries been emptying, and from which educators may now constantly and liberally draw. While this great aggregate of cultural inheri

tance finds its most direct application in Norwegian education, yet many of its elements and forms of expression are universal both in origin and type, and may thus be profitably adapted to conditions in other lands.

The cultural inheritance of any people should be so conserved in the system of education that it can be readily and constantly taken advantage of in the adjustment of the environment and of the educative material of the schools to the individual needs of the pupils. This would mean flexible curricula that may be readily adjusted to local and individual needs. No stereotyped or ironclad form calculated to fit all cases is possible. Schools are not factories in the sense of turning out uniform products made by accurate machines, rather they should be thought of as gardens where a large variety of seeds have been sown and where different methods of cultivation are necessary, but also where a large variety of flower and fruit are expected.

What lesson may this have for America? While we do not have so great an accumulation of cultural elements, neither so deeply rooted in the make-up of the people, as in the old world, yet we do have a great deal more than is made use of in our educational philosophy and practice. The serious and character-molding experiences of our western pioneers, e. g., as well as those of the Pilgrims and the Puritans, have as yet not become a real heritage to our children. No direct contact has been effected between the ideals and aims of our forefathers and present educational aims and practice. That such a contact is necessary in a firm and safe national evolution, history plainly shows. The greatest mistake in the French Revolution was the attempt to break to pieces the cultural inheritance of the people, that had been centuries in the making, and substituting artificial forms instead. Russia is making the same mistake today and is suffering dire consequences. The cultural inheritance of a people is a part of the life of that people and must be reckoned with in educating as climate and soil in the cultivation of plants. We cannot afford to

ignore the cultural factors in our national make-up, in determining the kind of education our children should have. We must take into serious consideration the philosophy of the founders of our institutions as well as the cultural experiences of the people, in establishing aims in education.

By constant endeavor to conform our educational aims to our national cultural setting, we shall find not only a more satisfactory solution of our educational problems, but also a better conception of what is really true Americanism. In a sense this means to "go back to fundamentals" in our educational philosophy.

My Caravan

My caravan comes down at dawn

Into the valley of the day,

Whence pallid night has but withdrawn
Her shades, and rosy pencils stray

To trace the masts of cloud-built ships:
Comes down to drink at morning springs
Where wonder rises to the brim

And clings

To Youth's expectant lips.

Never did camels sweetly shake

The music of their tuneful bells
As here the pages of the hour wake
The sleeping glades to sudden smells.
Here nibbling flocks upon the wold

Stray by the pools. Their snowy fleece

That hides white thoughts my words for Youth
Release,

Yields to our palms bright gold.

Valley by valley as we pass

Gives all its treasure: at the noon
Flowers we cull among the grass;
Sense we the magic of the moon.
The kind stars steer unerringly
That I may lead my caravan
Laden with cargo of young souls
Where ran

The herald-feet of sympathy.

LINDA RIDER.

Voice Training-Its Place in the English Class

C

AUGUSTA COLBY, SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

OUNT the speaking voices you have heard and liked. You can easily do it, for such voices are not many. It is not difficult to tell why you approve of them. You enjoy their richness of tone, or their clearness, their flexibility, smoothness of enunciation, or their perfect pronunciation. It is rare to find all these qualities combined in a single voice. Perhaps it is almost impossible here in America. We are too young and lusty a nation, too much absorbed in constructive work to recognize or place much value on niceties of speech or tone. Yet we are constantly criticized for our laxity in this respect, and most of us recognize the need for some remedy.

What are we going to do about it? I may as well confess that I know of nothing that can be successfully done in a schoolroom to remedy defects of tone. It is quite possible to aid a pupil with a disagreeable voice or one pitched too high, but this is always a matter for individual training under a teacher skilled in voice placing. Few teachers of English have been prepared for this special work. Nor can the music teacher solve the problem for us. She has to deal with groups rather than with individuals. Classes meet for music only once or twice a week. Voice training, in order to be successful, must be a matter of daily practice with a piano. Persistent effort is necessary on the part of the pupil. It would be a difficult thing to get an ordinary child to realize this, and even more of an effort to have him practice regularly.

Enunciation can be remedied in the English classroom. Enunciation drills and lists of words to be pronounced may be used with some success, though it is difficult to tell in concert work if each pupil is performing the drill correctly. Phonics

are of some assistance but occasionally produce ludicrous results. One class, I recall, had learned that the combination c-a-p was always cap: therefore capable became capable. I never succeeded in permanently correcting this error.

Lists of words commonly mispronounced may suit one locality but be a waste of time in another place. Lists given in school text-books usually include a large number of words not ordinarily contained in school children's vocabularies. Children will ask for help with new words or will consult the dictionary. It is the familiar words about which they are careless.

I used with some success, for a number of years, a list of about one hundred common words mispronounced by children of Central Maine where large numbers of pupils came from farms where old or obsolete terms and expressions persisted. The pronunciation of just, been, catch, can, shall, partridge— to enumerate only a few-was typically Yankee. The contagion of their speech spread mightily among our French children who were highly imitative and adaptable. While all of us were aware of the evil, I doubt if any teacher wholly succeeded in the corrective measures she applied. Drill on the most common of these errors began with the earlier school years and pupils who had been in attendance from the first grade were much more exact than those who had entered later. The farther a pupil advances in the grades, the more complicated his school life becomes. He is so occupied with a wide variety of things that he has a scanty amount of time to give to any one of them. Quite generally by the time he reaches junior high age, he thinks in terms of mathematics only and English he pushes aside as of minor importance. We must catch our pupils' attention early if we are to catch it at all.

I remember a fifth grade who, with one exception, always used "may" and "can" correctly. They had been drilled in the proper usage of these words during their first school year. The single exception had recently come from a neighboring state. In spite of the corrections and jeers of his mates, he continued to use "can" for "may."