SCHOOL DEPARTMENT 



Edited by ALICE HALL WALTER 



Address all communications relative to the work of this depart- 

 ment to the Editor, 67 Oriole Avenue, Providence, R. I. 



AWAKE TO THE TIMES 



A familiar precept says: "Do the duty that Hes nearest thee." Never was 

 this admonition more needed than now, when duties of many kinds crowd upon 

 one, jostling one's accustomed habits of action, upsetting, as it were, for the 

 moment, all preconceived ideas of personal preference and estimates of service. 

 From all sides come instructions as to what to do, how to do, when to do, where 

 to do, and from all sides, too, come appeals so urgent that only the selfish, 

 indifferent, and idle can hear them and shirk the responsibility they impose. 



For the instant, one is swept from the familiar moorings of everyday routine, 

 helplessly groping for some stable anchor. The kaleidoscopic changes in world- 

 issues from day to day grow in number and intensity until one is forced to 

 "speed up" every mechanism of mind and muscle, to keep abreast of the whirl- 

 ing destinies of the nations. Once wide awake, however, to the fact that, shaken 

 as we are to the very foundations of life, a sublime reconstruction of society is 

 in the making, we look forward with hope to new ideals and a new goal. It is 

 useless to try to prop up the old life so rapidly vanishing, or to attempt to 

 understand the onrushing events, which outline daily more clearly the new life 

 ahead, by means of processes now outgrown. 



The day has come when one and all must act together, think together and 

 bridge over together the old and the new. Are you personally awake to the times? 



The scope of readjustment necessary to accomplish this personal reconstruc- 

 tion is very broad, so broad, indeed, that it reaches out to the small interests of 

 life as well as embracing the larger. In the storm of events of world-wide bear- 

 ing through which we are passing, there may seem to be little place for bird- 

 study and smaller need for effort in Audubon Society work. It is a mistake, 

 however, to get the idea that people are too busy to pay attention to the 

 birds or to nature in general either in the field or along educational lines. A 

 moment's reflection will convince anyone of the importance and benefit of 

 pushing steadily ahead in all of these undertakings. Two items from the front 

 are as good as more proof that bird-study and bird-work are of value now. It 

 is stated, on authority, that Canaries, kept in the trenches, detect the onrush 

 of the loathsome and poisonous gases, which are a constant menace to miUions 

 of lives, before any human being is aware of the danger, and that thus these 

 tiny songsters act as a safeguard, not only to soldiers, but also to civilians in 

 their neighborhood. 



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