thus far referred to, faulty ideas as to that curious prison of the sport spirit-the gymnasium, and lack of courage in financing student sport. We have long been influenced by some stultifying conceptions with reference to the gymnasium. The gymnasium would scarcely exist were it not for the inclemencies of our climate, save where crowded city conditions and great distances prohibit the use of open spaces. Obviously, the gymnasium should be simply the outdoors tempered and sheltered; the same general ideas of spontaneity and rivalry should operate in its use as in outdoor sport. But for a time the gymnasium became a conception unto itself; it housed classes and the mechanisms of muscle building, one drilled en masse to music or count, attendance being by the chart and time-clock. This has been the factory stage of student athletics, the production of muscle by the inch after foot-pounds of work done. It suited a few bulging men, and it was perhaps the best our handicapped departments of physical education could do until the renaissance should come; spontaneity was lost and could come only with a rebirth of the idea of sport under suitable conditions and with a realignment of the gymnasium with that idea. That the gymnasium concept has already begun to be affected is evidenced in many of our large colleges and schools. The new gymnasium is not a building so much as it is "outdoors indoors" in which, when the weather necessitates giving up the outdoors, games can be played under cover, and in which competition rather than drill is encouraged. Coordination also of all the facilities, including the gymnasium, gives a new aspect to that adjunct. As put by one professor, the whole development then becomes the "country club" for undergraduate and alumnus. This does not preclude the provision near the campus of minor facilities for the hurried few, to whom tennis courts, a pool and a small gymnasium at the campus will be useful. But for the body of students there is more likely to be spontaneity and a general exodus to the field of sport, if the major athletic plan is organic and unified and singly located, whether the place be near, as is the good fortune of some colleges, or far, as may be the necessity in many city colleges. The problem of financing the type of athletic facilities described is feasible enough if we somewhat modify our present methods. Our colleges spend large sums on stadia, counting themselves not to have begun to live until this is done. There are two motives behind this movement; one is based upon a belief in advertising educational wares through heralded inter-collegiate teams; the other is based upon financial necessity, the stadia being a means of support on the one hand for the major teams and their coaching staffs, and on the other hand, though incidentally, for the minor sports of the average student. Abroad it has been found possible to defray the expenses of general sport by a not heavy fee, charged each student by the college as part of his term bill, supplemented by a membership fee in the crew or team to which he belongs. We here are too timid in this matter. Clearly, every student ought to bear his share of the burden of community health through sport. If such a charge were imposed on each student as part of the term bill, college sport could be nourished with less dependence upon the "box office" success or failure of spectacle sport. This certainly is a consummation to be desired as tending to decrease professionalization in the conduct of our great contests. An increased diversion also of "spectacle" earnings to the provision of general facilities would be useful to sport, and incidentally salutary to the more showy phase of our athletics. We will demand not less expenditure on intercollegiate sport so much as more expenditure on the opportunity for sport for everybody, the great spaces necessary to student play being then considered nearly as essential an element of endowment as lecture hall or chapel. Our departments of physical training have done increasingly useful work under enormous difficulties, but the fact that they are obliged to have "statistics" and "files" and "records" to the degree that they do, and a watchdog policy of supervision over attendance on sport, perhaps indicates the handicaps under which they work. It is well-nigh a contradiction in terms to find that colleges "require" so many hours per week of physical work on the part of students; the phrase is a measure of how awry the situation is. No such degree of formalism in systems and records and requirements as exists in our present athletic organization would be necessary if sport could really exist and were given its proper place by faculty, trustee, benefactor and alumnus. The desired spontaneity, tradition and student opinion are bound to come once the general conditions are conducive. Around true sport gathers a social life of rare delight and variety suited to the college period of a young man's life, aiding in organizing much else in the philosophy of his fellowships and intellectual beginnings. The modern athletic equipment will include a place for expression of this social element-the field club-room, which, like the 'common room" and the dormitory, will throw men together at their peculiarly sociable moments. In the main, inadequacy, lack of balance and faulty emphasis exist in most American colleges to-day. Yet, to criticize the commercialization of our existing intercollegiate sport, the professionalizing of its coaching staff, the overemphasis on win ning and the apparent absurdities of devotion to which the will to win drives Alma Mater's sons, is to touch only upon symptoms, upon sympathetic nerves, rather than upon the main difficulty. The trouble is not with the athletics we have, so much as because of the athletics we have not. Create the conditions for real sport, provide the basic elements of beauty, space, variety, leisure, in a logical and free collegiate scheme, provide adequate equipment and financial support, and these other matters will gradually come into focus instead of being irritating and for the moment incurable. The exaltation of the spectacle will become a less pressing need, the idolatrous duty to "support the team" with the last breath and the last dollar will be diffused and sublimated and duplicated in a not less sane view of sport as a participation by each and all. The worship of the prowess of athletic idols will perhaps not be less, but our regard for lesser sportsmen will be more. Our athletics will become what they should be, physical zest in the spirit and atmosphere of the rivalries of chivalry from which one famous head master of a famous school has said that sport derives. And the athletic comradeship will be for the many, not for the few alone. And thus, among the second things of college life, sport will better serve the interests of the first things of the spirit for which the college primarily exists. LEONARD W. CRONKHITE BOSTON EDUCATIONAL EVENTS COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY ENROLLMENT IN GREAT BRITAIN THE total number of full-time students, both men and women, in the colleges and universities of Great Britain in 1924-25 was 41,794, according to the annual series of comparative statistics recently issued by the University Grants Committee. There were in addition 14,128 part-time students, of whom 10,758 were men and 3,370 bridge and 164 at Oxford. Beyond this 881 part-time students were classified as research students. were women. In an introductory note the committee explains the decrease in the full-time enrollment as compared with the 1923-24 figures of 19231924. There were 59 fewer women students and 1,039 fewer men. This fall in the total number of men students is not really a serious matter, since it is more than accounted for by the decrease of 1,458 in the number of students assisted under the Government Scheme for the Higher Education of Ex-Service Men, of whom only 263 were in attendance during 1924-25, as against 1,721 in 1923-24. The exservice men still in attendance during the current year are very few, and by the end of it this exceptional factor in the statistics should have disappeared. It may therefore be hoped that the decline in the total number of full-time students, which has been continuous since the high-water mark of 1920-21, will now come to an end, and will be succeeded by a small but steady increase. The committee records its satisfaction in the "increase of 257 (189 men and 68 women) over the preceding year in the number of full-time students entering for the first time upon a degree or a diploma course." Analysis of the statistics shows the following figures, best presented in table form: Of the full-time students, 2,460 were from outside the British Isles but within the British Empire, and 1,351 were from foreign countries. Analysis of the full-time enrollment by faculties shows that there were in arts 10,950 men and 8,941 women; in pure science, 5,165 men and 2,164 women; in medicine and dentistry, 7,896 men and 1,631 women; in technology, 4,156 men and 49 women; in agriculture, 746 men and 96 women. There were 1,844 full-time students following a research course, of whom 291 were at Cam THE EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE ENGLISH LABOR PARTY A TOTAL expenditure of £107,000,000 a year -an increase of about 50 per cent. on present expenditure is involved in the proposals for education in England presented by the Trades Union Congress and Labor Party. The report, as drawn up by the education advisory committee, is said to be "an authoritative declaration of policy on behalf of the labor movement." It was issued shortly before the general strike of early May. The main recommendations are as follows: Children under seven should be taught in openair nursery schools, it being the duty of local authorities to provide such schools, where required by a sufficient number of parents, for children over two and under five. Primary education should be "the education . . . of every child in the community" till about the age of 11, at which age all children should be transferred to separately organized schools providing some form of secondary education. The school age should be raised to 15, and maintenance allowances should be provided for all children over 14 in need of them, at least 80 per cent. of expenditure being borne by the treasury. The number of places in secondary schools should be calculated at 20 per 1,000 of the general population, and school fees should be abolished in secondary schools. Authorities should be required to provide one university scholarship for every 50 secondary school pupils. At universities all "scholarship" payments should be made according to need and the cost of students' living reduced. . . . Experiments should be made with "intelligence tests" and examinations should be adapted to the needs of the schools. The organization and financing of educational research is suggested as a subject calling for inquiry. The size of classes should be limited to 50, and reduced to 40 within a period of five years. There should be no new appointments of unqualified teachers. Special grants to intending teachers during the educational period should be discontinued, and the eventual aim should be a full course at a university for all intending teachers, to be followed by professional training. All school buildings and equipment should be made to conform to certain specified conditions within a definite period, without distinction between council and voluntary schools. The staff of school nurses ... should be largely increased, and use should be made of part-time school doctors. Extension of dental treatment is asked for, and the abolition of parents' fees. The provision of special schools is urged for all mentally and physical defective children. A midday meal, it is suggested, should be provided by all authorities as a part of the ordinary school curriculum, where the school doctor advises it or the parents claim it, the cost to be recovered from the parents except "where payment would deprive the family of other necessaries.'' The committee estimates that the carrying out of these proposals would involve an increase of about 50 per cent. on present expenditure, making a total expenditure of £107,000,000 a year. EDUCATIONAL WORK AMONG THE MINOR NATIONALITIES OF SOVIET RUSSIA THERE are about one hundred and fifty nationalities represented in the territory controlled by Soviet Russia. Educational and cultural work among these nationalities in their respective native tongues is being undertaken by the People's Commissariat of Education, according to a report recently received from the Washington office of the Russian Information Bu reau. It is reported that written alphabets have been produced by the National Minority Council for eighteen nationalities which formerly lacked them, such as the Votiaks, Mordvans, Chuvash, Kalmuck and nationalities in the Northern Caucasus. Text-books and primers have been printed for use among these peoples in their own tongue. The statement reads, in part, as follows: In the current year the council proposes to extend the school system by 15 per cent. At the present time there are among the national minorities 5,252 elementary and intermediate schools and 4,937 politico-educational establishments. Particular attention is now concentrated on the training of native teachers, for which purpose there were founded forty-two pedagogical academies and eight national minority departments at the faculties of the different universities, as well as seven national agricultural schools and five departments at the Russian agricultural schools. Four national departments are to be opened this year at the medical colleges, which is of particular importance to the Eastern races among whom quackery is still thriving. Five hundred and ten students from the national minorities are attending at the higher schools. There are national departments at the universities of Moscow, at the pedagogical institutes of Kuban, Vyatka, Kazan, etc. Educational work has been started among the Assyrians in Northern Caucasus and in the cities of Moscow, Leningrad, etc. Educational activity is being conducted among the Ukrainian and White-Russian settlers in Soviet Russia. The number of schools for the White-Russians has been increased this year nearly tenfold (336 as compared with 36 last year). The number of schools for the Ukrainians is to be increased to 830. There is also to be an increase in the number of schools for the Koreans. More complex is the educational situation in the extreme north, where there are hardly any native teachers and educators available. Twenty-eight boarding schools are to be opened this year for the Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Yakuts, Tungus, Buryats and Mongolians. Similar schools are to be opened for the Yukagirs, Kamtshadals and Esquimos. The training of native teachers is making considerable progress at present, and it is expected that over 3,000 teachers for the national minorities will be turned out in the current year. There are now in Soviet Russia forty-five pedagogical academies for the training of national teachers for Poles, Latvians, Esthonians, Germans, Finns, Hebrews, Armenians, etc. Altogether these pedagogical academies take care of twenty-six nationalities comprising a population of over 16,000,000. The number of students enrolled in the national minority pedagogical and agricultural schools in 1925 included 622 Tchuvash, 316 Mari, 1,429 Tartars, 304 Mordvans, 1,494 Jews, 358 WhiteRussians, 499 Ukrainians, 186 Latvians, and about 1,000 representative of other small nationalities. In order to overcome the difficulty of securing sufficient instructors for the national schools, linguistic departments are being established at many of the higher schools to train teachers who are familiar with one or another of the native languages. THE RESOURCES OF THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCE MENT OF TEACHING THE annual report of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, just made public, shows that the total resources of the foundation are now $29,356,000, of which $15,660,000 are held as general permanent en dowment, $1,346,000 as endowment of the division of educational inquiry, $11,032,000 as a reserve for liquidating pension obligations aceruing after 1928, $793,000 to assist colleges and universities to adopt the new contributory plan of contractual retiring annuities, and $525,000 as an emergency reserve. All the investments are in bonds, a list of which is given in the report. During the year 1924-25, the foundation began the payment of 72 new allowances of an annual value of $108,000, 28 to former teachers and 44 to widows. The average age at which teachers on allowances from the foundation retired was 67.14, precisely the same as the average for the past five years, during which the average retiring allowance has increased from $2,126 to $2,188, and the annual expenditure of the foundation for teachers and their widows in associated institutions alone has grown from $844,000 to $1,106,697. Estimates indicate that this sum will increase to approximately $2,241,000 in about 1944, and then begin to decrease until about 1985, when all the approximately 4,000 teachers who have expectations from the foundation, and their widows, will have received their allowances and pensions. To take care of such increases the foundation has accumulated a reserve fund which now contains $11,000,000, to be spent, principal and interest, leaving the original endowment intact after all expectations have been satisfied. THE DISPUTED TITLE TO COLORADO SCHOOL LANDS EDUCATORS in Colorado are appealing to friends throughout the country to urge congressmen to pass H. R. 10360, which is a measure to preserve certain lands in the vicinity of Durango for the schools of Colorado. Senate Bill 2585, drawn for this object, passed the senate on April 29. "Serious opposition to the passage of this measure in the house" is anticipated by the Colorado School Journal. The Journal quotes a letter of Fred E. Sisson, register of the Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners, in which evidence is sought to prove the state's right to continued title to the lands in dispute. The letter reads in part as follows: We have before us ten letters from the commissioner of the General Land Office, Washington, D. C., ordering adverse proceedings against a number of school sections on the charge that the lands are mineral in character, containing valuable deposits of coal, and were known to be such prior to the date the rights of the state would have attached. [The lands against which adverse proceedings have been ordered are then listed.] Before issuing notices of these charges, we would request that you advise us if these lands or any portion thereof have been sold by the state, and if so to furnish the names and addresses of the transferees. When this information has been furnished, in the event that these lands or any portion of them have been transferred, we will ascertain from the proper county officers the present owners of the land, and then issue formal notices to the state and all persons shown to have an interest in the land, of the charges and give them an opportunity to file an answer. The Colorado School Journal urges friends of education to ask their congressmen to vote for H. R. 10360 and to "help to get the evidence to place before the commissioner of the general land office that will prove the state's right to continued title to these lands." PROVISION FOR HOUSING FOR MARRIED GRADUATE STUDENTS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY THE Harvard Housing Trust, organized by a group of university graduates, will provide for the married graduate students of the university several apartment buildings, to be built within half a mile of the university. The increasing cost of housing in Cambridge, it is pointed out by the directors of the new trust, has been felt acutely by the married graduate students of the university, of whom there are annually as many as one hundred and twenty-five in one department alone. They find it almost impossible to get rooms within reasonable distance of the university. The trustees have secured a tract of land in excess of half an acre. The property adjoining is being rapidly and considerably improved. The new buildings will have a Charles River and Soldiers' Field view. The group will be ready, it is expected, this September. The |