THE LOWER EDUCATION

Co-incident with increased interest in higher education is the announcement to the effect that the cost of public school education has risen rapidly, indeed amazingly, since 1914. Such a statement indicates the indubitable fact that while the press and public have been waxing clamorous and often hysterical over the state of colleges and universities, the schools have been growing if not better, at least more expensive.

There is a minimum of romance as seen from the tabloid point of view, in the three "R's" and yet they are extremely necessary in pedagogics. Fundamentals rarely are valued at their true worth and such a generalization applies well to the basic ideals of teaching. The little red schoolhouse has joined the immortals but its work is being continued in elaborately constructed buildings under the supervision of teachers who are better trained and fitted for their positions than ever in the history of the nation. In this case, at any rate, expansion has not resulted in degradation, and the American public may remain contented that its investments in elementary schooling are bringing valuable returns.