News Notes 



The several state universities, colleges and normal schools of the Pacific 

 northwest are planning their summer sessions this year with special reference to 

 the needs of visiting teachers who wish to attend the annual convention of the 

 National Education Association, to be held in Portland, Oregon, July 7-14. 

 Convention week will constitute a vacation period for the summer schools, 

 dividing the session into halves, thus making it possible for teachers to get the 

 full benefit of the convention without sacrificing their summer courses. The 

 following schools offer summer sessions: State University, Eugene, Ore.; 

 Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis, Ore.; University of Washington, 

 Seattle, Wash. ; Normal School at Cheney, Wash. ; State Normal, Bellingham, 

 Wash.; Ellensburg State Normal; The State Normal school at Monmouth 

 Ore.; The State Normal School at Lewiston, Idaho. 



The College of Hawaii is fortunate in having connected with it Prof. Vaughan 

 MacCaughey who is a most able naturalist and a lover of all the wonderful out 

 of door life of Hawaiian Islands. Prof. MacCaughey does not let us forget him 

 for he writes concerning the food plants of ancient Hawaii to the Scientific 

 Monthly and of several remarkable plants to the American Journal of Botany. 

 The most interesting account of "The little end of Hawaii" to the Journal of 

 Geography and gives an account of the orchids of Hawaii to the Plant World. 

 He gives a most practical paper in Science on the Botanical field excursion in 

 collegiate work. We are glad that we have Prof. MacCaughey to make such 

 interesting reports to us of life in the land of his adoption. 



In the very interesting conservation, Bird and Arbor Day Bulletin, published 

 by the State Board of Education, of California, Dr. Margaret McNaught 

 strikes this timely warning note : 



"Too often the observance of the day is an end in itself. The people of the 

 school district gather on the school grounds. An appropriate program, planned 

 by the teacher, is successfully carried out by the children, at the close of which 

 all those assembled show much interest and industry in the planting of trees 

 and shrubs. Then the shovels and spades and watering pots are gathered toge- 

 ther and placed in wagons and automobiles; the fathers, mothers and children 

 laughingly crowd in among them and everybody goes home happy in the con- 

 sciousness of a day well spent. March 7th has been celebrated. 



Next morning interest has waned. The children return to school and 

 continue their school studies, while the trustees and other "grown-ups" go 

 about their regular round of duties. The trees, planted with so much formality 

 are neglected, and for want of water droop their branches under the hot rays 

 of the noonday sun, then drop their leaves and die. They, too, were only a 

 part of the celebration of the day. 



Nothing could be farther from the spirit of the law that sets aside Luther 

 Burbank's birthday in the school year to be known as Conservation, Bird 

 and Arbor Day." 



A paper by Pres. Charles W. Elliott, published by the Rockefeller general 

 education board entitled "Changes needed in American secondary education" 



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