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F4itor's Nvote: Tis s thewjouirth andfinal of a seis.of articlesrerigj the Wiluette pblic Schiol System /'repared t'y Lucy Rogers Hazwkins «'el knoum to our readers as t/he author, of "Northt Shore Personalities," .a rcgukr feature of WiLuZTTE LuE. Writisig from the standpoint :of a layma;', Mrs. Hawkins presents a concise word Picture of iwhat she actually otiserved in a poinstaking ,Study of just wthat 'hoppens in the dailyi routine of our puiblic schools. These articles wmere presented szot in, any crtical senise, but solely in thse hope that they ui'uld be enliqhtening to al residentts of the coniiuiiy.ý, mid of particuilor value to those villagers who have become cstablishcd here in 7ecewl years. Othér instaliments appeàredin.successive issues Of VILME, I L FE. I HAVE chosen to. begin and- end' this fourth. and final instailmfent on the Wilmette public sc hools by quoting f rom John Dewey's "ea gogic.,Code. His words interpret very *well indeed the underlying spirit of 'Wilmette teacbing: "The true center of correlatiori on the school subjects is not science, nor literature, nor history, nor geography, but the cbild's own gociai activities." * Pi-ease note that phrase, "the cbild's own social activities." I found theseý activities througbout the classroomnsI that I visited, andi especiaIby interest- ing were those i Logan and High- crest schools, which I inspected on my second 'visit. -Supt. J. R. Harper hiinself took me -around to'* these schools. We began with Logan, the first of. *the west side schools' Being first, iis now an old and out-dated build- î ng. t is bard to make an old-style gchool building look informaI and *cozy. but it is only fair to say that ins cnuw Pnuus'q"': 'rhe kindergarten has been dressed Up with many plants,, with curtains, and wth picturés. Mrs. Davenport has 27 childrefl. I saw in her room ample evidence of 'a recent field trip to a f arm. Faratig la the Mv ltarming was in the very air. 'On a low table by the windows was a model. fanu, equipped with house and barns, - ~~ - ni- an---fd tur- tains, the pilloivs had al been made by the children . By the way, ,cracker- boxes are the sine qua non of the. scbools. I saw teieerweein Wilmette, also in 'ýinnietka. ' Thev are used for :eerytbing, under' tht Sun. -Once more 1 heard' the termi to which lI am *becoming accustomed, "free play," It is sed to denote the individual'activitv within a group. A chooâ child divern sçrewed1 to the floor. No chance ini a roorn of. this sort to rearrange the furniture into the natural groupings called for by various activities. 1 asked Mri. Harper what was done with the old type of desks as, they were çiscarded, and he said they, took off the tops and made themn into wooden plates. Onie room on the second floor was enîpty, "the only empty room in the entire school sys- teni." commiented Mr. Harper. ht is being used for projects and other activitiesý. At -the. moment we looôked in, two boys, .wer e searchjng for Thanksgiving plays. Downin the baseinent .vas. a v ery pleasant. auditorium, painted yellow and green and equipped ith a little stage and simple drops."We do the best we---an -Wi-h what we have," re- marked Mr. Harper. Time was fleeting. Ve' hastened BUStsY itlth Eyptiaii rjc ýown -as or over to Highcrest school, tit. out on the west 'edge of bad' one child at a time move about OU the edge of the circle i time to her beat. *As we left, I heard her ask. a boy to pick a rhythm and beat it for a playmate 'to try out. Letter Provides Interest Across the hall. the cbildren wer e discussing a .speëial delivery letter,. It had corne from a former teacher, wh14o suggested that the cbildren mnigbt like to send old clothes to. some pootr children. she knew. The teacher, Mrs. O0ldendorf,. asked how many stamps it: toô.k for special1 delivelry Qostage., Then she called somfe. of the c-hildren to stand, beside her and, take turns reading from the letter. I judged it was written in -manuscript writin g, othllerwise the children could not have read it at a distance of a couple or more feet. On the. blackboard were some no- tain."Thermometer 24, degrees." -Write s5ick children ." Covering one section of the board.was a-big crayon sketch., It, had massive pillars at each end and long lines between with little fat-bellied figure eights ii Tows. 1 thought of sparrows sitting on tele- graph lunes, but somehow the picture did flot suggest birds to me. 1 asked Mr. Harper what be thought it was., After some study he gave up guess- ing, too, and leaned over to ask a littie. boy about it. The boy said it was a football stadium. "0f course," said. Mr. Harper. "Doni't you see the goal posts and the people in the bleachers (those figure eights, mny dears)." As we left, Mr. Harper told me that Mrs. Qldendorf bad been especially skillfut ini the application of progres- sive methoçls in ber years of primary teaching in South ETvanston and. seemied the logical person to eniploy as director W.hen Higbcrest was organilzed as.aprmiysco1 Wearrived at Miss Wager's room at the very m omen t :the cbildren were putting away their, chairs and getting ready to go outside to play.ý Mr. Har- per ýdrew her out skillfully., and she gave nme a good -bit ,of information about ber teaching: methocis. Every- thing revolves a-round the social life of the child, you will not 1e. Something New Every Day as tne mimmai.8* isiLezv -. they had made crauberry jelly. And rounds of the rooms, 1 noticed the colIected1 thtebhidren in one-corner they> were financing the. rock garden transition phases of tbe Wilmette of the long narrow roorn and was outinl the. hall by an apple sale. I system. In one roous there were seat showing the children how paper ws agog over suc>i ambitious proj- units, by which I mnean seats attached cereal cans, bottonis of tin cans, clay etu in a kindergarteti, but 1I was to chairs. These units are m~obile. In pots, rattles could be used -to make gitilf more ammazed to see the. house another roorn the seats with which I rhythmic noises. The childîzen then lut*. aioxt roomu, a bouts in which have long- been familiar were to be gathered up thesr noýitse-niakers, -and the cracker-box furnîture,, the cut- seen, seats screwed to.the floor, desks she beat a rhytbm for thÇni.kThen she and other pets, taking turns ech day. Tho.. Parents Again Miss Wager's comments about read- tng were especially interesting. -She, said she had tbree children in ber roomwbo read,with- praictically uo help from ber. She spoke about one