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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION,

Washington, November 5, 1913.

SIR: One of the greatest needs of our elementary and secondary schools, both public and private, is the need for suitable material to supplement the meager outlines and brief statements of the textbooks in geography, history, hygiene, nature study, agriculture, and other subjects. This need is greatest in country and village schools, which are without access to public libraries. Among the publications of the Federal and State Governments, reports, bulletins, circulars, and special documents, are thousands of pages of matter of highest value for this purpose. Frequently these are published under titles that in no way indicate their fitness for this use. Very frequently the usable matter covers only a few pages in a document of several hundred pages. Few are the teachers who know of the existence of any of this matter. If this bureau had sufficient funds, it might render a valuable service to thousands of schools and millions of children by carefully selecting this material, classifying it by subjects, grading it for classes according to their advancement, and having it reprinted for general distribution, either free of charge or at a price only sufficient to cover the cost of printing. If this could be done, the school work in these subjects might be made far more interesting, thorough, and practical than it now is, but the bureau has no funds with which to undertake this important work. To the end that teachers and school officers may have some knowledge of the nature of some of this material, I have had the accompanying briefly annotated lists of a few of these publications prepared by Mr. Frederick K. Noyes and ask that they be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education.

Respectfully submitted.

To the SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

4

P. P. CLAXTON,

Commissioner.

TEACHING MATERIAL IN GOVERNMENT
PUBLICATIONS.

INTRODUCTION.

For the purposes of this bulletin, teaching material is defined as follows:

1. Any publication suitable for text use.

2. Any publication containing pictures or facts which may be serviceable in illustrating or supplementing the texts already in use. Such a publication may be useful as collateral reading or may furnish the basis in whole or in part for a supplementary talk by the teacher.

3. Any publication which may add to the value of a library in the course of accumulation by school or teacher; such publications, for instance, as source documents, annuals, works of reference, or reports of detailed investigations, the results of which are likely to stand for some time. But publications of this kind which are too voluminous, technical, or expensive are generally excluded.

HOW THE LIST HAS BEEN SELECTED.

The method of selection is indicated in part by the definition of teaching material just given. In addition, the following classes of publications are omitted:

1. Generally speaking, publications of minutely local interest.

2. Works on scientific, sociological, or economic questions 10 years old or older. This rule, like all others given, is laid down for general guidance rather than for inflexible observance.

3. Books containing only a few pages of available matter and many pages of unavailable matter.

4. Speeches in general, especially those delivered in the course of legislative debates.

Possibly the objection may be raised that too much material has been barred; but on the other hand this bibliography makes no pretensions to being complete. Rather it is intended to be suggestive of the vast stores of teaching material which lie embedded in Government documents, many of which give no indications, from their titles, of their value for educational purposes. It remains for other lists, compiled for special localities or covering special topics

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