teacher and
child alike. The school authorities of Cincinnati destroyed both knot
and rope by giving to their teachers and principals this injunction:
"Make your school fit the needs of your children and your community."

The old-time, machine-minded school superintendent, filled with the
spirit of co-operative coercion, assembles his teachers. "Now let's all
work together," he exclaims, "Here, Susie Smith, this is what you are
to teach your pupils, and this is the way in which you are to do it." It
was in quite a different spirit that Mr. Dyer said to each one of his
teachers: "You do your work, I'll do mine, and together we will make the
schools go." It was in this spirit that the teachers were called
together to confer on the reorganization of the course of study. Each
teacher in each grade had her say in the matter. If the most
insignificant teacher in Cincinnati said to Mr. Dyer: "I have an idea
that I think would improve the work in my grade," his invariable reply
was: "Then try it. There is no way to determine the value of ideas
except to try them." By that policy Mr. Dyer surrounded himself with a
group of vitally interested people, each one suited to the task in which
he believed implicitly, and each one fully convinced that the success or
failure of that part of the Cincinnati school system with which he was
immediately concerned, depended directly upon his efforts. No wonder the
schools succeeded!

III Vitalizing the Kindergarten

The kindergartens are at the basis of the educational system of
Cincinnati, and they are in charge of a woman who believes in herself
and in her work. Perhaps the people of Cincinnati are not justified in
believing that their kindergartens are the very best in the whole United
States, but Miss Julia Bothwell, who directs them, says, modestly
enough, that she has visited kindergartens in many cities, adopting
their schemes and improving in response to their suggestions, until she
is convinced that no other city in the land can show a better
kindergarten system than that of Cincinnati. In truth, her plan is
ordinarily referred to as the "Cincinnati idea."

Cincinnati children begin their kindergarten work at four and a half or
five, entering the first grade at six. While in the kindergarten they
play the games and sing the songs that all kindergartens play and sing,
but with this difference: their plays and songs are built around the
things that they do.

The yellow October le