Can you remember the big noise we had over the last election? And can you remember just why we had it? . . . sure, because we have not one, but many political parties ... political parties of every size. and description. When you go to mark your ballot you don't see just one candidate for President . . . this is democracy. The individuals, the people . . . that's you and I... make the decisions of government . . . because democracy is government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The government is there to serve us not to suppress us.

I guess sometimes we fail to hear that wise bit of advice: "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance," and we have to fight. We don't fight for a dictator or leader we fight for our friends, our families, our ideals... we fight for democracy.

You guys are individuals .. there's nobody just like you, Tom, or just like you, Smitty . . under democracy we have freedom of expression . . . individual expression. We can show our worth in the manner we think fitting. We have opportunity too, opportunity to do as we think. It may be large or small, but it's ours to use.

You know, I think the finest symbol of democracy and us, its individuals, is the Statue of Liberty. You can see her as she stands high, head erect, holding out the torch of freedom . . . in a world of dark

ness.

She and I speak for the most perfect way of life .. yet devised by man. WE

SPEAK FOR DEMOCRACY!

Gloria Chomiak,
Wilmington High School,
Wilmington, Delaware.

I speak for democracy, because two generations back my ancestors could not; be

cause if I do not speak of it, if many more do not speak of it, there may come a time when we too, will not have the right to do so.

For today more than at any other time governing powers are pitted one against another. It seems a crisis has been reached, and must be broken. We who believe in democracy cannot trust to our living it alone. We must stand up, and speak and be heard in its cause.

And what is this thing called Democracy? It is a thought discovered in ancient Greece; a thing a Slavic serf dreamed of too much and paid for with his life; an ideal, started in its practice by a model Parliament of England; and bitterly struggled for in Louis' France.

It is leavening of revolutions, a stepchild of Utopia; a system, first defined as a government for and by the people in our own country, where it has grown to what we know and love today.

It is a government that has been developing for hundreds of years, and shall develop for hundreds more; a government that has outgrown an initial stage wherein it served the citizens of Greece: citizens who did not include the underprivileged and the captive, and who constituted but a frac tion of the population. It is a government that has weathered the time when a landladen Polish baron frowned upon it, think. ing of his foreign serfs, tilling their foreign fields for his benefit alone. He worried little for he could dispose of them at his pleasure if he found one who thought in their number.

It is a government that has grown great since that medieval year when England's people first had representatives before their King the first representatives before authority a people ever had.

It won a place for itself during the bitter civil war of France, when people were hungry, and angered with the extravagant caprices of those who ruled through heritage, and it found a home in the New World when honest colonists learned to demand a rule by their own choice.

It has grown from a privilege of the few to a right of the common, risen from a persecuted idea to a mighty ideal upheld in safety by millions. It has developed into a system whose imperfections can be remedied; and whose virtues are a God-given right.

For this democracy is a natural system. Men were created equal in their rights and their responsibilities. And is not intelligent participation in governing among them?

Men were given individual minds and desires. Ought not they have a right to voice them?

Democracy is a system with flaws, because through the ages men have erred and do err, and a democracy is only as right as its people. Democracy is able to abolish its principles by its own excess.

A cynic spoke the truth about it when he said that democracy can make each man his own oppressor. Yet, I believe that greater men have said a truer thing about democ racy: that the peoples' government cannot shall not perish from the earth. Anne Pinkney, Trinidad High School, Trinidad, Colorado.

I speak for Democracy.

Perhaps you're wondering who I am. I am a symbol, existing only in the minds of men.

As a symbol I stand at the shores of our country.

As a symbol I cover the whole land, I exist elsewhere, but never so much as here. Can it be you don't recognize me?

In one form I stand and welcome many travellers to our land. I am robed in skirts of iron, and I hold a bright torch aloft in my right hand. All peoples have thought of me in their dreams, many have defended.

me.

Do you recognize these words-"Give me liberty or give me death"? They were spoken by one of my defenders, Patrick Henry, and in times of stress have been echoed by millions after him.

What did I mean to Patrick Henry and those early patriots of our country? I meant enough to them that they risked their lives in honor to set up a country in which I should reign supreme. They wrote our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution which today stand as models upon which many governments are founded. They conceived the truths that all men are created equal in the sight of God and man, and so wrote into the Constitution of my country these things which I stand for: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the right to vote, trial by jury, freedom of the press, and the right to do as you wish if it doesn't harm other people.

As you see, without me none of these would have any meaning and that is why you find my name written so many times in our Constitution.

To the men who followed these early (Continued on page 92)

A

DMINISTRATORS of school and pub

lic libraries are strengthening the programs of cooperation between the two agencies as one of the best means of aiding youth to continue to read, to study, to discuss, and to keep informed about topics of current importance. Furthermore, civicminded men and women are assisting youth to lend significance to their efforts. Community activities carried on by and for youth make headlines in some local newspapers while in others the work continues to develop patterns that have proven their worth.

Some public libraries have a chief of youth service with 25 or more professional staff members assigned to various strategic posts in the system. Public libraries in smaller communities may have one young adults' librarian or a readers' adviser in charge of both work with youth and adults. All libraries, however, report busy programs with much still left to be done.

Concord, N. H., is an example of a community of less than 28,000 population that

Basic material for this article was furnished by youth departments in public libraries of the following cities: Baltimore, Md.; Brockton, Mass.; Brooklyn, N. Y.; Cleveland, Ohio; Concord, N. H.; Denver, Colo.; Detroit, Mich.; Min. neapolis, Minn.; Mobile, Ala.; Mount Vernon, N. Y.; Newark, N. J.; New York, N. Y.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Sacramento, Calif.; San Antonio, Tex.; Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.; Washington, D. C.; White Plains, N. Y.; Youngstown, Ohio.

has established excellent facilities for reading and discussion for its youth. There is a reading club for junior high school, another for senior high school students, and also a weekly radio program conducted by junior and senior high school students, with the young people's librarian as moderator on the subject of books enjoyed by the teenage. The library has a separate room on the first floor well stocked with books for use by youths. These are arranged to aid the young people in finding what they want with ease. Sports stories, animal stories, adventure tales, adult fiction enjoyed by youth, and biography, for example, are clearly so marked on the shelves. The room is bright and cheerful and attractively furnished with blond furniture and woodwork-round and rectangular tables, Windsor chairs, blue leather-covered couch, and wide window sills. Students bring to the room examples of their accomplishments in school art, literature, and guidance programs. Teachers and youth appreciate the information and inspiration of this new service.

Growing in Brooklyn

Brooklyn, N. Y., reports the opening of a youth library in the Bedford Branch with the assistance of a former "gang" of win

dow-breaking youth, now a public-spirited group of loyal library users. The service includes an attractive browsing room where popular books and magazines are available and where friends may find comfortable "conversational corners." A phonograph with plenty of the latest in "bebop and sweet and swing" is there. But the service is not concerned solely with fun. Problems of young people are of prime concern to the youth librarian. Such things as finding jobs-what to do where to go-whom to see. The librarian in charge says, "The service aims at having an answer for every question whether it is to decide a bet or write a term paper. If we don't know the answer, we'll at least know where to send you for it." The library has agreed to help these youth to the fullest extent in their vocational, educational, and social problems.

Numerous activities are planned and several volunteers in various fields-handicraft, music, drama-have offered their time and knowledge to help young people. The drama group which meets Wednesday evenings at the youth center offers an opportunity for discovering much neighborhood talent. A newspaper of youth activities, written and printed by the young people themselves, is another project.

"One of the most gratifying aspects in

establishing this new Youth Library," said the chief librarian of the Brooklyn system in announcing the opening, "is the way in which the young people of Bedford pitched in and helped set it up. Their unflagging Their unflagging efforts, their enthusiasm and teamwork in bringing this about are a splendid example of democracy at work. For our part, we of the Library feel it is in just such cooperation the library of today can be truly a part of the community."

A new Junior-Hi Room has been opened in the Ella K. McClatchy Young People's Library in Sacramento, Calif., which is widely used and appreciated by the junioryoung adults. They also have a new monthly publication called The Junior Hi Bookliner.

Washington, D. C., has opened a pleasant room on the main floor of the Central Library for "young adults." It has a recreational reading collection as well as a small collection of reference books to answer informational and school assignment questions.

White Plains, N. Y., Public Library has acquired a full-time librarian to work in the Young People's alcove.

Mobile Public Library, Mobile, Ala., is also among the libraries to report a new Chief of Young Adult Department who is planning many new projects. Tacoma Public Library, Tacoma, Wash., acquired a fulltime young people's librarian in July of this year. This library is concentrating on building up its book collection and publicizing its new service for young people.

Brockton, Mass., whose young adult's li brarian has recently been changed to fulltime duty, has a well developed program in its Young Adults' Room at the Brockton Public Library. This room is set up to provide a link between the children's room and the adult department and to carry over from school assignments to adult education. There is close cooperation between the high school and the public library in this city of 65,000 population. The school librarian and young adults' librarian meet often for discussion of mutual problems and exchange of ideas. Each serves as the interpreter for the other. The young adults' lirarian is free to visit the high school informally. Her philosophy of work with youth calls for individual, informal, and definitely personal service to the young people who come for information, guidance, and inspiration. An attempt is made to encourage the young people in the transitory stage between childhood and adulthood to

84

develop as individuals as well as to become identified with the group.

The Brockton High School Library Monitors' Club, with 43 members under the direction of the school library, the boys' and girls' room, and the young adults' room of the Brockton Public Library cooperate on

at least two programs a year. One was the Book Week Assembly at the high school and a second was the Spring Book Festival, featuring junior high and elementary school interests. The part-time staff of the public library is drawn largely from the Library Monitors' Club since the training that they have received in elementary library techniques is of distinct value. Each of the club members serves at least 2 hours a week in the high school library. The club and the young adults' room representatives prepared a radio program on the subject of

Photograph courtesy Oregon Journal newspaper shows Quinland Daniels, junior, and Claudette Juhlin, sophomore, Lincoln High School, Portland, Oreg., in Central Library recereation room learning about other teen agers' problems.

Public and School Library Cooperation. This successful broadcast was repeated at the American Library Association Regional Conference for New England at Swampscott, Mass., in October 1949. The program was evidence of close cooperation between school and public library in what is, after all, a common goal-the best possible library service for the young folks of Brock

ton.

Another project of the young adults' librarian in Brockton should be mentioned. It is a reading survey which is now in its fourth and final year. The objective of this study has been to learn accurately what titles were being read. As a testing sample

the first 250 transfers from the boys' and girls' room were taken. Their library cards were given an extra symbol (Y) in front of the number. The registration period was extended to cover the senior year in high school. Ordinarily reregistration is required at the end of 3 years. The daily circulation is checked for the titles borrowed on these numbers and a record kept in the young adults' room, the adult department, and in the branches. All filled cards are kept and sent to the young adults' room to be checked for use. A different colored ink is being used for each branch and department.

The finished survey should show what titles were borrowed, the proportion of fiction to nonfiction, the types of both. Fiction is being roughly classified into short stories, historical, mystery and detective, animal, western, classics, careers, World War II, sports, humor, religion, problems of youth, sea stories, light fiction, and miscellaneous. And this year a new class-science fiction-will have to be added. Nonfiction is recorded by class anyway. It is not going to be an accurate record of who took what, nor of every book circulated on the 250 cards. A few of these people have moved from Brockton. Sometimes the staff is so rushed that the circulation for a day does not get thoroughly checked. But it is felt that the survey indicates trends and that it should give a fair idea of where the collection needs building up-whether there is increasing maturity of interest and whether the transition to adult books is being made.

In Pittsburgh, Pa., considerable progress has been made in closer cooperation between school and public library in the matter of book selection. The librarian of the young adults' room is invited to attend the book selection and order meetings of the school librarians and one school librarian represents her group at the school meetings for the young adults' room. In this way the books produced each year are thoroughly read and discussed and then bought by either schools, or the public library's young people's department, or by both. This plan has worked so well that attempts are being made to bring about a similar arrangement with parochial schools.

School librarians and a representative group of English teachers in Youngstown, Ohio, meet with the young people's reading specialist at the public library to hear reviews of the best teen-age books of the year. (Continued on page 94)

each of the four major topics under consideration at the conference. A complete report of the proceedings, including the committee recommendations, has been compiled by the Office of Education.

of the Committee on the Organization of State Departments of Education. J. Cayce Morrison, Coordinator of Research and Special Studies in New York, was chairman

of the Committee on the Services of State Departments of Education. Committee sessions were alternated with sessions of the whole group in developing the workshop report.

One of the half-day sessions of the National Council of Chief State School Officers was devoted to the presentation and discussion of the three committee reports which made up the 55-page mimeographed report

systems; (3) colleges and universities; (4) residential schools for handicapped children; and (5) national voluntary agencies devoted to the interests of handicapped children.

The major problems considered at the 3-day meeting included those relating to: (1) The place of special education for exceptional children and youth in the total school structure; (2) the preparation of qualified teachers; (3) financial and legislative considerations; and (4) the proper coordination of various services for exceptional children and youth.

Exceptional children include those who are so different from what is supposed to be normal in mental, physical, or emotional traits that they need educational services in addition to or different from those accorded children in general. The blind and the partially seeing, the deaf and the hard of hearing. the crippled, the delicate, the speech defective, the socially maladjusted, the mentally retarded, as well as the mentally gifted are among those needing special consideration.

The conference pointed out not only the progress that has been made in the States but also the inadequacies that still exist in local, State, and Federal programs. Of the estimated four to five million exceptional children of school age, less than 15 percent have been reported as being enrolled in special schools and classes. An undetermined number are being helped through the efforts of regular classroom teachers, but it is certain that all too many are still without the services they need at school, at home, or in the hospital. It was strongly recommended by the conference that communities, States, and Federal Government unite in making special educational services available to all who need them.

Through committee organization, a statement of recommendations was prepared on

IN 1942 the National Council of Chief State School Officers organized a Study Commission, composed of one representative of each of the 48 State departments of education, to study those educational problems of most immediate and pressing interest to the Council and to make reports and recommendations based on their studies. For several years the Study Commission functioned almost wholly through its Planning Committee, composed of nine Study Commission members appointed by the presi dent of the Council, which met two or three times annually to plan studies, draft reports, and agree on recommendations.

In 1947 the Study Commission initiated, at the request of the Council, a comprehensive study on the organization, services, and staffing of State departments of education and related problems. After some preliminary work on the study the Council decided that progress could be greatly accelerated. through utilization of a Study Commission workshop and authorized one for the fall of 1949.

This workshop was held at Biloxi, Miss., November 27 to December 10, 1949, and was attended by representatives, including two chief State school officers, of 32 State departments of education and several consultants from the U. S. Office of Education, the National Education Association, and the Council's office in Washington. T. J. Berning. Assistant Commissioner of Education in Minnesota, was director of the workshop. The group was divided into three committees to carry on the production work. Leo P. Black, Director of Supervision and Curriculum in Nebraska, was chairman of the Committee on the Legal Status of State Boards of Education and Chief State School Officers. G. Robert Koopman, Associate Superintendent for Instruction and Educational Planning in Michigan, was chairman

report and others to be developed later will form the basis for a manual on State school administration which will result from the actual experience of members of State departments of education.

Education Writers Awards

ENTRIES FOR the Education Writers Annual Awards to be made in May 1950 for the calendar year 1949 will be judged as follows:

1. Outstanding article or series of articles dealing with education which appeared in a newspaper during 1949.

2. Outstanding article or series of articles on education which appeared in a magazine of general circulation, on a wire service release or radio or television program during 1949.

3. Outstanding work of interpreting edu cation through the media of the newspaper during 1949.

4. Outstanding editorial dealing with education which appeared in a newspaper or magazine of general circulation during 1949.

Applications for awards, accompanied by exhibit of writing to be considered, should be submitted not later than March 25, 1950, to Millicent Taylor, Secretary-Treasurer, Education Writers Association, The Chris tian Science Monitor, Boston 15, Mass.

Any working member of a newspaper, magazine, news service, the radio, or television may submit an entry. The Board of Judges includes Floyd Taylor, Director. American Press Institute, Columbia University, chairman; Harold V. Boyle, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Associated Press; Belmont Farley, Director of Press and Radio. National Education Association; Harold Taylor, President, Sarah Lawrence College, and G. Kerry Smith, Chief of Information and Publications, U. S. Office of Education.

by Frank L. Sievers

יז

HE YEAR 1950 marks the twelfth year since the establishment of the Occupational Information and Guidance Service in the Office of Education. During this time, especially since the passage of the Vocational Act of 1946, more commonly known as the George-Barden Act, more landmarks for guidance services in the United States have been set than during any other period.

Prior to 1946, Federal funds for the guidance programs were available only in the area of supervision. The George-Barden Act made funds available for supervision, for training guidance counselors, for the salaries and necessary travel expenses of guidance counselors on the secondary and adult levels, and for instructional equip ment and supplies used in such counseling. Consequently, State plans in more than 40 States have been expanded to include provision for some or all of the services mentioned as reimbursable within the act.

The interpretation of the act by the Commissioner of Education encourages States to make adequate provision for supervision and counselor training with the research necessary in each before reimbursement is contemplated at the local level.

These liberal and far-sighted policies offer States a framework for the expansion of guidance services toward the end that all who need them will be served more adequately. It is too early at this time to estimate accurately the full effect of the GeorgeBarden Act upon guidance services in the schools of the various States, but some emerging trends are evident. It is one purpose of this article to present a brief summary of the State-Federal relationships through which the guidance services operate and describe some of the developments apparent in implementing the provisions of the act.

In keeping with established practices, each State is encouraged to view its needs and draw up a plan which meets these with

in the framework of the existing laws. The liberal stipulation of meeting minimum requirements allows each State maximum freedom in patterning a program uniquely adapted to the needs of individuals within its boundaries. Thus, industrial Ohio will function on a very different plan than does agricultural South Dakota. California, with its great variety of work opportunities, climate, and topography, will need to utilize a different approach to its guidance program than will South Carolina with its numerous small agricultural units. States are functioning, therefore, under plans that permit a wide diversity of services within the safeguard of providing an adequate basic program for its residents. Briefly, services include provision at the local level for complete, adequate, systematically recorded information about all pupils, information about occupations and training opportunities, counseling the individual, assisting the pupil in assessing his potentialities and in taking steps to make intelligent decisions in the light of knowledge of himself and available opportunities, follow-up of the individual, and research for the purpose of improving the services of the school to the individual pupil. In practice, Federal funds are insufficient to reimburse local services in most cases, but this liberal pattern of potential reimbursed programs has an influence on all local planning.

Counselors in schools are encouraged to think of the services of the guidance program in three broad areas: Services to the individual, to the school staff in offering assistance in their understanding of pupils, and to the administration in reorganizing the school's program in the light of the needs of boys and girls.

Training of Guidance Workers
Emphasized

An analysis of annual State reports for the current year indicates some recent

trends in developments within various States. One of these concerns the training of guidance personnel. Under the leadership of the National Office, a number of regional meetings of State Supervisors and Counselor Trainers and a 1948 national conference were on this theme. Various committees, working prior to the 1948 meeting, prepared material for consideration and subsequent meetings permitted further refinement of the committee work. Bulletins upon Duties, Standards, and Qualifications of Counselors; Occupational Information; Analysis of the Individual; Counseling Techniques; and Administra tive Relationships of the Guidance Program have been published and are available from the Occupational Information and Guidance Service of the Office of Education. It is expected that bulletins on The Basic Course, Supervised Practice in Guidance. Services, and In-Service Preparation for Guidance Workers will be issued in the immediate future. Institutions of higher learning have sensed the need for trained counselors and are taking steps to provide training for potential counselors at the graduate level. A steady increase in the number of institutions and in the listing of guidance offerings is revealed by examination of the periodic publication of the Office of Education, Offerings in Guidance Work in Colleges and Universities. The heavy demand for the bulletins upon counselor preparation and the marked increase in training courses indicate a new era in the preparation of counselors.

An interesting development aimed at providing a more realistic approach in the preparation of counselors at the preservice level is indicated in the growth of internships. Arrangements are made by the counselor trainer whereby a local counselor in an outstanding guidance program assumes the responsibility for providing the trainee practice in actual guidance situa