of public welfare are committees on American citizenship, juvenile protection, legislation, motion pictures, recreation, and safety.

The department of education is made up of committees on art, humane education, illiteracy, kindergarten extension, music, school education, and students' loan fund; and the health department includes child hygiene, physical education, and social hygiene.

The resolutions adopted by an organization usually anticipate its future progress and program. For several years resolutions have been adopted by the parents and teachers on the bill to establish a Federal department of education, with a secretary in the Cabinet; the bill for Federal aid for the promotion of physical education; the bill to reduce the sale of drugs and narcotics; the program for peace; the effort to suppress the sale or distribution of salacious literature; the effort to secure better motion-picture films; and the wiping out of illiteracy.

WORK OF COMMITTEES

A good example of the procedure of a committee is the campaign to eliminate salacious literature from bookstands, which has been instituted by the committee on standards of literature. Three "information forms" have been prepared and distributed.

The first form deals with: The "glorification of the woman libertine," in literature and on the stage; periodical literature ridiculing virtue and making vice attractive, which is sold at reputable bookstores and family drug stores; reputable dealers who do not wish to sell objectionable literature and will welcome some basis for discrimination; the insidious process of becoming accustomed to evil which has led to confusion with regard to standards of decency; the fact that parents are at a loss to know how to select literature for the family reading table; how organizations may be provided with bases for asking cooperation of reputable dealers; to find for reputable dealers a consensus of opinion on dangerous literature of value in shaping their policies; the aid in interpreting and enforcing existing laws which a survey will give public officials; the problem of photoplay regulation and other fields in which confusion as to standards of decency exists.

The second form is addressed to parents, and it takes up questions regarding their own reading habits and the effects of certain types of stories upon the character.

Two other forms contain directions for the procedure of active workers in the survey and a data sheet for use in judging a story.

The parent-teacher associations have been working on this problem for more than three years in the interest of the morals and character of the boys and girls of high-school age.

Another important movement is that of bringing representatives of national organizations together for counsel and advice on questions

of common interest. The National Congress of Parents and Teachers sits in the following councils, although it is not bound by the actions or opinions of the groups: The National American Council and the National Committee on Law Enforcement. It had membership on the (moving picture) committee on public relations, but withdrew just before the committee was dissolved. It has membership upon the committee on public relations of the National Safety Council.

The California Parent-Teacher Association has installed a radio program service to its 32,000 members in Los Angeles and to the Berkeley membership. This new method of informing the parentteacher associations has also been inaugurated in Missouri and in Boston, where the Massachusetts Parent-Teacher Association gives a 15-minute talk once a week at the Shepard Stores Radio Station.

PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS IN HIGH SCHOOLS

Parent-teacher associations in high schools have become a factor in the solution of many of the present-day problems of high-school boys and girls. This is indicated by the reports of their activities in various States. Group action by parents has settled many difficult questions which would have baffled individual parents, even when they apply to their own children.

High-school parent-teacher associations in Illinois stress the value of nourishing food, more rest, less excitement, no indiscriminate automobile riding, no cigarette smoking, an appreciation of good music, of good books, and of good times at home, athletics of every kind for every boy and girl, hikes, glee clubs, orchestras and bands, dramatic clubs, neighborhood parties, and suitable dress.

The Austin High-School Parent-Teacher association of Chicago, with 1,573 members, claims to have the largest membership in the State, including a 100 per cent teacher membership.

At Springfield, Ill., the matter of testing the law barring secret societies from high schools was brought before the parent-teacher association in a resolution and adopted. A test case supported by both parents and school officials was tried in the courts. The validity of the law was sustained.

A high-school parent-teacher association in Spokane, Wash., undertook to understand the school better by use of a list of queries prepared by the school principal and used as the basis for the program of the association throughout the year. It brought to the attention of parents such questions as, what course their child is taking; whether the child is ahead or behind her grade; the equipment used for her work; the child's interests in school aside from regular classes; the responsibility for moral training; actual knowledge of the library and whether the child is using it; cooperation

with the teacher. Parent-teacher associations are organized in several high schools in six cities of Washington State.

Not only senior high schools and junior high schools nave parentteacher associations in Oklahoma but also ward schools, the opportunity school, the school for crippled children, and a "find yourself school." The Oklahoma State organization has developed these activities within three years.

LEGISLATION

Since all of the interests of the fireside are affected by National and State legislation, it is considered by parent-teacher associations the duty of all parents to study bills that are introduced into State legislatures and into Congress. Therefore parents are urged to give strict attention to laws affecting child labor, education, and all public welfare measures. In one State the members of parent-teacher associations are urged definitely to study the qualifications of those who aspire to fill public offices in order to work for a better National, State, civic, and community government. Monthly bulletins of these organizations in some States publish a list of the bills pending in the legislature, with comments on the status of the bills and the action taken by the State board of managers for or against them. Other State organizations urge their members to give their assistance in promoting good legislation and in defeating bad legislation.

PRESCHOOL STUDY CIRCLES, MOTHERS' STUDY CIRCLES, AND READING CIRCLES

The formation of preschool study circles, mothers' study circles, and reading circies, fulfills the original purposes for which the National Congress of Mothers came into existence.

Realizing the universal lack of knowledge of child training, the Washington State branch of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers promotes these circles in order to study all problems of child nurture prior to the school age and to promote training for motherhood and home making. Among the subjects in these programs may be found such questions as the child as heir to the past; how the child impulses can be strengthened or subdued; putting good in the place of evil; the blighting effect of fear, etc.

Among the States reporting that special emphasis has been placed upon these study or reading circles are California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Washington.

Sixty-one reading circles have been organized in Los Angeles County, Calif., in which it is stressed that the reading circle is the training ground for efficient membership in local associations; that it is a place where every mother may ask herself how nearly she approaches 100 per cent efficiency, and where mothers may work toward this end. Cooperation with the county library is one of the

necessities of this work. In many of the reading circles the home reading courses of the United States Bureau of Education are used as guides to the reading. Leaders are trained in these circles who go into districts to interest the parent-teacher membership in reading. Council Bluffs, Iowa, reports that 12 preschool-age circles are organized, and others are reported in Des Moines and Iowa City. Membership in these circles includes mothers of children under 6, expectant mothers, recently married women, engaged women, and others who are keenly interested as nurses, kindergarten and primary teachers.

Such circles are organized in seven counties in Colorado, and nine new circles were started during 1923-24. In Georgia the preschool study circles have been active for several years, and the movement has grown and has proved itself valuable. The work is to be operated from the extension department of the State college of agriculture.

Preschool circles have been in operation for several years in Washington State, where it is reported that there are 35 affiliated preschool circles. In a few of the States training for parenthood is emphasized. Kansas City, Mo., has 42 active circles.

METHODS OF READING CIRCLES

The first large reading circle in California for mothers was organized in Glendale, Los Angeles, by the chairman of the committee on education of the federation of parent-teacher associations. From this organization the idea spread, and there are now 61 circles in Los Angeles. The second largest group is in Berkeley. Methods of this group, as well as of the other circles, are patterned after the original Glendale circle.

The aim is the enrichment of child life through the application of scientific knowledge of child development. Meetings are held in the children's room of the public library once each week from 10 a. m. to 1 p. m. The reading is done by the same person each week, for the listeners grasp the meaning better when they get accustomed to the same voice. Handwork is carried on during the reading, and there are frequent interruptions for discussions and suggestions from personal experiences from members. Each member brings her own light lunch, and a tea committee serves tea. The half-hour for luncheon is the opportunity for mothers to become better acquainted.

The Berkeley circle has chosen the reading course of the United States Bureau of Education, No. 21, "Twenty Good Books for Parents," for their reading. All books in the course are on the library shelves, and from two to six copies of some of the books are provided. By questions placed upon the blackboard, the leader outlines the reading taken up at each meeting, and reports on the book under consideration are given in response to the roll call. Reviews of

magazine articles enliven the program, and clippings of interest are placed upon the bulletin board. Dues of 25 cents per year are used to meet the expenses of the meeting, for subscriptions to the Child Welfare Magazine, School Life (issued by the Bureau of Education), and the Federation for Child Study bulletin. This is characteristic of the other reading circles in the State of California.

BUREAU OF PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS AND COOPERATION WITH UNIVERSITIES

State headquarters for the parent-teacher associations of Indiana are established in the extension division of the Indiana University at Bloomington; the Indiana Parent-Teacher Association functions. as a bureau of the extension division. A member of the staff of the university acts as the executive secretary, and the university in addition furnished clerical assistance. The extension division acts in an advisory capacity to the associations on questions of general policy and specific undertakings.

In 1923 Tennessee parent-teacher associations affiliated with the University of Tennessee through its general extension service. An office is furnished to the North Carolina Parent-Teacher Association by the extension division of the North Carolina College for Women, at Greensboro.

COOPERATION OF STATE DEPARTMENTS OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

State departments of public instruction cooperate with parentteacher associations by making surveys, issuing literature, by sponsoring lectures, and by furnishing State headquarters for the associations.

The office of the Texas Congress of Parents and Teachers is located in the State department of education at Austin, and in Massachusetts the university extension department of the State department of education cooperates with the Massachusetts Parent-Teacher Association by offering courses to parents on such subjects as story-telling, appreciation of music, music for mothers, interior home decoration, and child study.

PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS IN CHURCHES

The parent-teacher association has found a field of usefulness in the church. In some of the States these organizations are bringing the parents and the teachers of the Sunday schools together.

The home and parent-teacher section of the general Sunday school board of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has issued for this work a general leaflet on home and parent-teacher work and another leaflet on the mothers' club of the section on home and parent-teacher work. These leaflets are used as organization leaflets throughout the South.