impracticable to gather the men together in classrooms in the evening; second, the men are too weary after the labor of the day to do school work in the evening with enthusiasm and success. Evening work has to be done in the cells and must be individual, the teachers going from one cell to another. The incentive of meeting with others in the classroom is lacking, and only the few retain their zeal for study under such conditions.

Two kinds of correspondence study are found in prisons—one carried on through an ordinary outside correspondence school, the other through an organization within the prison itself. The first is useful for men of some degree of education who wish to take up some special branch of advanced work that can not well be provided in the prison. It is of very limited application. The inside correspondence school is essentially cell study, with the work corrected by a corps of teachers. Such a school has been in successful operation in the Massachusetts prison for many years. These schools are open to the same objections and have the same advantages as evening schools.

Day schools are in operation in 19 prisons. The chief objection raised against them is that they interfere with shopwork, and thus lessen the products of the industries. On the other hand, it is claimed that the loss of time is negligible, that the men do not work all the time anyway, that the output may be kept up by increased efficiency and improved management, and that the highest welfare of the men and the good of society should not be sacrificed to the output of the shops. This view has been well stated by a superintendent of prisons in these words: "We have been running the prisons in the interests of profits; we will run them hereafter in the interests of the men."

THE BEST TYPE OF PRISON SCHOOL.

It is not possible to determine from the statements made how many of the schools reported really deserve the name. Measured by a proper standard, many of them doubtless may be regarded as crude experiments.

A real school must be properly organized and equipped for its work. It must have a recognized place in the activities of the prison. Its work must be systematic, continuous, and efficient. Intermittent efforts to help a few individuals do not constitute a school. It is doubtful whether a poor school is better than none; it is certain that the best is none too good. Pedagogy has no problem more difficult than the one it faces in prison, and must draw on all its resources to attain success.

The day school is undoubtedly the best type for prisons and the one that should be adopted wherever possible.

Schoolrooms should be light, clean, and attractive.

The school should be open all the year. The schoolroom is the best summer resort the prison can offer. Vacations help the civilian teachers, but are an affliction to the inmates. Prison schools should be managed in the interests of the convicts and of society. Periods of work and rest can be adjusted for civilian officials, but the round of the inmate is continuous.

Each man should be in school six days in the week, and provision should be made for an exercise on Sunday for those who wish it. A holiday is not a day of rest for a prisoner. The school period should be like a ray of sunlight in an environment of gloom. Locked in a narrow and cheerless cell on days set apart in the outside world for rest and pleasure, the convict welcomes an opportunity to spend even a brief time in the environment of a classroom, where he may get a glimpse of a larger and a better life.

The ideal prison school must have a corps of well-informed, trained, and enthusiastic teachers who devote their whole time and energy to their work.

SCHOOL SUPERVISION.

The success of any school system rests, to a large extent, upon the person who directs it. This is especially true in the case of schools in prisons. Very little satisfactory work can be done without intelligent supervision.

It is not evident from the answers given how many of the schools reported are in charge of civilian teachers who give all their time and thought to the work. It is suspected that in many cases the prison chaplains have nominal charge of the schools, leaving the real management to inmates. It is known that in some cases school work is wholly in the hands of inmate superintendents. One prominent warden says he prefers to have it so, on the ground that it promotes self-reliance and arouses interest. It is claimed that an inmate can get into closer touch with the men and can better understand them and their needs. Others assert that inmates should not be employed, either as supervisors or teachers, on the principle that if one would lift others he must stand on higher ground.

The weight of opinion and experience, however, favors the view that the planning and supervising of the work, at least, should be in the hands of a civilian head teacher, a man broadly educated, skilled in the art of teaching, morally clean, sympathetic, and sound in his judgment of men. The man who directs a movement so far-reaching in its purpose should stand on high ground in every sense. His knowledge of human nature should be extensive, and he should be a student of the problem he confronts. He should be a pedagogical expert who can select and properly train a body of teachers. He 92946°-13- 3

needs to accumulate experience by constant application to his task and continuous service.

No inmate can possibly meet the requirements of the position of head teacher. He lacks the education, the training, the outlook upon life, the experience, the authority, the energy, and enthusiasm required. He may have ability to do the mechanical work of a school; he may even have the capacity that can be developed into efficiency in school work; yet he needs training and direction. This assistance must come from a competent head teacher who understands the school problem and how to solve it.

It may be said that the chaplains are qualified to act as head teachers. Granting this, it is still true that they have neither the time nor the energy for this line of work in addition to their other very important duties. The inevitable result of such an arrangement must be that the schools are practically managed by inmates.

The evident conclusion is that the highest success of the school work in prisons demands that the head teachers be civilians, specially fitted for the work, who have no other duties to perform.

INMATE TEACHERS.

While there seems to be little doubt of the desirability and even necessity of having civilian head teachers in prison schools, it is not so evident that all the teachers must be civilians. In fact, inmate teachers are quite generally employed. There are considerations, besides the economic one, that favor this plan.

There are all kinds of men in prison. There are men of unusual ability and men of fair average character. If the best qualified are selected and trained they make very satisfactory teachers, with the help and guidance of the head teachers.

One great aim of prison effort should be to raise the standard of community life in the prison itself. To accomplish this end, it is necessary to leaven the social body with the idea of mutual responsibility and helpfulness. In this effort to improve the prison community from within, inmate teachers of the right kind may be most helpful. They know the inner life of the prison and once enlisted in a movement for the general uplift become potent factors for the common good.

Men can not be greatly helped by those who look down upon them as inferiors; the sympathetic guidance of those having common interests may produce better results. Convicts are men like ourselves. They are not all bad and few of them are wholly bad. There is good material for teachers among them, and it is a part of the task of head teachers to find and develop it. It would, in some respects, be better to have civilian teachers of the right kind instead of inmates,