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. 



PRESENT AND FUTURE RESPONSIBILITIES 



One has only to glance through the pages, or even the tables of contents, 

 of most of our weekly and monthly papers and magazines to realize that the 

 press is striving unremittingly to acquaint the public with changing conditions 

 and responsibilities, in the endeavor to educate as well as to interest its readers. 

 Running through The Scientific Monthly, for example, appear such articles as 

 'Education of the Public and Conservation of Native Fauna;' 'Modern Natural 

 History Museums and Their Relation to Public Education;' 'The Banana, a 

 Food of Exceptional Value;' 'The Conservation of Platinum;' 'Snow and Its 

 Value to Farmers;' 'The Cheapest Source of Increased Food Supplies;' 'Insects 

 and National Health;' 'Zoology and the War;' 'The Girasole, or Jerusalem 

 Artichoke, a Neglected Source of Food;' 'A National Park Policy;' 'The Work 

 of Museums in Wartime;' 'The Application of Organized Knowledge to National 

 Welfare;' 'Beekeeping and the War;' 'Plant and Animal Life in the Purification 

 of a Polluted Stream,' etc. These few titles are cited to illustrate the range of 

 subjects which affect human welfare and in which everyone ought to take an 

 interest. It is not necessary to refer to a publication bearing the name 'scientific,' 

 to find articles dealing with topics of this nature, since, in some form or other, 

 they appear increasingly for the benefit of all classes and ages of people. The 

 significance of this condition is that in times like the present, it is a national, 

 yes, and an international necessity that everywhere, even in the remotest dis- 

 tricts, enlightenment along broad lines with reference to future responsibilities 

 be furthered in the most practical and beneficial way. "The future of any 

 nation is secure, if it lives up to its possibilities. Its national problems will be 

 solved and solved thoroughly and intelligently," says an English writer. Con- 

 sidering that, on the average, without special incentive, nations as well as 

 individuals do not attain to half their possibilities, it becomes clear that in 

 periods of stress like the present, not only nations but also every individual 

 member of them must rise to a higher level of intelligence, training and activity 

 if the problems and responsibilities so constantly multiplying are to be met 

 sanely and successfully. Through education alone, "without any unusual 

 incentive" it is stated that one may improve to the point where he may attain 

 to 60 or perhaps 80 per cent of his possibilities, by the aid of trained experts 

 upon whom would devolve the task of mapping out a system sufficiently flexible 

 and thorough to attain such a result. 



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