SCHOOL DEPARTMENT 



Edited by ALICE HALL AV ALTER 



Address all communications relative to the work of this depart- 

 ment to the editor, at 53 Arlington Avenue, Providence, R. I. 



BIRD AND ARBOR DAY 



Perhaps the greatest value of festival days and anniversaries of all kinds 

 lies in their significance, and especially in the appeal which they make to those 

 who observe them. The appointment of a new anniversary is a matter of far 

 more import than it might at first seem to be. Authority alone, even of presi- 

 dents, governors, or other ofi&cials of the people, cannot make a festival, or 

 even a fitting anniversary, out of a particular day. Upon those who take part 

 in the observance of the day falls the responsibility of its success 

 and continuance. 



In the long-forgotten past, when man approached Nature with a child- 

 like fear and imagination, it was not difficult to people the universe with 

 deities whom he must propitiate, and in whose festivals he must share. 

 Throughout later ages, it has seemed consistent with man's maturer judgment 

 to pay some annual tribute to heroes and patriots, to celebrate events of national 

 importance, or to commemorate experiences which have had lasting influence 

 in shaping human environment and in molding character. The days set apart 

 by different peoples for such formal acknowledgment of man's indebtedness to 

 great lives, great events, and great ideals, ought to be true festivals and signal 

 anniversaries, rather than mere holidays, given up to feasting and ordinary 

 pleasures. 



Arbor Day is a very recent anniversary, while Bird and Arbor Day combined 

 is as yet observed in comparatively few states. This day has been set aside 

 in the hope that man may be brought closer to nature in a practical, suggestive 

 and inspiring way. Whether the day fulfills its mission, it is the privilege of 

 this generation to determine. 



Possibly not one of our school anniversaries carries with it such fresh- 

 ness and buoyancy as this festival of the trees and birds. This is because 

 spring is the expression of each New Year in its youth, not only budding trees 

 and returning birds, but also freshly coated animals, flooded streams and 

 lengthening days of luxurious sunshine, remind us that the transcendent mira- 

 cle of Nature is taking place. To appreciate this miracle, we must share in 

 the general transformation of our surroundings. 



Who that has ever stepped on the yielding ice among the hummocks of a 

 marshy pasture, or picked a treacherous way along the gullies and sink-holes 



(126) 



