EDUCATION AND THE WAR: The present European War is affecting education to a far greater extent than wars of the past. This is inevitable because never before have the foundations of world civilization been so shaken. Inasmuch as education, its philosophy, institutions, and practices must in the long run express the spirit and forms of the civilization on which it acts, any far-reaching changes in the nature of that civilization will be reflected in education. The immediate effects of the present war on education are similar to those of previous wars, but on a much larger scale, due to the magnitude of the conflict. The es sential external elements of education are teachers, pupils, and money needed to carry on the work of educational institutions. War de mands the service of teachers and pupils for the army and navy and for the industries upon which these fighting forces depend — agricul tural, manufacturing, and extractive. The im mediate result is a shortage of teachers, a de crease in the enrollment of pupils in all classes of schools, particularly in secondary and higher institutions ; and an actual decline in the num ber of institutions) for not a few have been obliged to close their doors entirely for the period of the war at least. The increased cost of carrying on education in a regime of rising prices, a common phenomenon in war time the cost of labor, supplies, salaries, etc.—affects education adversely. Moreover, the shifting of labor to those industries where wages are high draws from educational institutions both teach ers and others connected with the schools. The rise in the cost of living also prevents parents from keeping their children in school, so that there is a tendency for fewer pupils to pass out of the elementary to the secondary higher schools. These factors tend to decrease the quantity and quality of education and the num ber of courses and subjects available for study. In the higher institutions less promising ma terial remains from which the leaders of the future must be trained. Thus the war has
brought on a national emergency in education which has led to earnest efforts to provide, in part at least, adequate remedies.
Higher institutions of learning, for example, have very generally modified existing and in troduced new courses. Examples of modified courses, taught with a view to making them contribute directly to the war, are those in topography, chemistry, physics, medicine, engi neering, psychology and French. In these sub jects emphasis is laid on the construction and interpretation of military maps, telegraphy and telephony, war surgery and infectious diseases common in war, sanitation and hygiene, bridge and highway engineering and surveying, chem istry of foods, gases used in warfare, dietetics, psychological tests, and military conversational French. New courses, not before customary, include those in military tactics, ordinance, storekeeping, military history and historical courses directly on the war, both from the European and American point of view. A large amount of research work along special lines has been carried on as a result of direct re quests of the government.
Remedies suggested by the government to meet the emergency, in many cases already adopted, include appeals to elementary, second ary and higher institutions to fit their educa tional policies to war needs. That of the Com missioner of Education, 22 May 1917, is notable, 'Suggestions for the Conduct of Educational Institutions During the Continuance of the Warp urging enforcement of school attendance laws in elementary and high schools, suggesting continuation classes and evening schools for minors and adults, requesting normal schools to double their efforts to train teachers, and advising higher institutions to reduce expenses, keep open all the year, to lay special emphasis in summer schools on courses adapted to war needs to stimulate research, and to prevent the scattering of the faculty or student body so far as possible.