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Show PLAN IS TO REACH ALL ILLITERATES The American Legion was the chief factor In broadening the scheme for adult education at the recent conference, confer-ence, aimed at elimination of illiteracy, held In Washington, declared Dr. Homer Ho-mer Seerley, president of the Iowa State Teachers' college, a delegate to the conference. Chief among these recommendations were those for provision of 'more education edu-cation than now provided, particularly In regard to matters of citizenship, which will be brought about by an investigation in-vestigation as to competency of every natlve-boin citizen as fully as the foreign-born is examined, Doctor Seerley said Another feature of the conference was the report of "Group C," that section sec-tion of the work in which the American Ameri-can Legion was most vitally Interested. Garland W. Powell, national dire, -tor of the Americanism commission of the Legion, clearly enunciated the aims of the conference at Its inception when lie said, as chairman of that roup : "We believe that the chief aim of this conference is to provide that every man and woman in the United States who cannot already do so be taught to speak, read and write the English language. lan-guage. We further believe that thu first elements of citizenship should be a part of such Instruction." On this was the principal work ol the conference founded. An attempt had been made by elements of the conference con-ference to make combating of illiteracy illiter-acy apply only to native-born Americans, Ameri-cans, but the Legion and other agencies, agen-cies, co-operating in Group C, declared against this, aiming to bring those of foreign birth into the scope of the campaign. cam-paign. The recommendation of the group in which the Legion participated was that the United States commissioner of education edu-cation be requested to appoint a committee com-mittee of at least nine persons, with professional experience in this field, three of whom are to be members of Group C of the illiteracy conference, for the purpose of reviewing the materials ma-terials submitted by G-roup C of this conference and forwarding the results of their work to those engaged in illiteracy illit-eracy work In the United States. It was further recommended that the commissioner secure representatives of the entire country on this committee. commit-tee. - The report of the subcopunittee of thl group on textbooks and materials urged use of certain principles in selection selec-tion of textbooks for instruction. These principles include texts that conform to the ability of adult students; that do not violate psychological principles of suggestion ; that conform to accepted accept-ed methods of teaching ; such text should contain fundamental items of Information on health, food, hygiene and sanitation; with suggested texts for specific groups of native-born illiterates, illit-erates, foreign-born illiterates and intermediate in-termediate and advanced texts for all groups. Consolidation of rural schools is growing in favor, according to the reports re-ports to the conference. One-room schools are disappearing, data showing that 1,82S consolidations were effected in the school years of 1921-1922, with 14 states not reporting. At least four of these states are known to lie making considerable progress in the work of eliminating single small schools. In some cases these are being Improved, Hot by removal to a distant central location, lo-cation, but by natural growth in two and three-room schools. There were 1.890 consolidated schools in the United Unit-ed States in 1920. There are now approximately ap-proximately 15,000 of such schools, and a decrease of 8.500 one-room schools is noted in the three-year period. All this has had a salutary effect on the salaries of school teachers, resulting, result-ing, in turn, in higher mentality for the teaching profession. Beginning of illiteracy il-literacy Is traceable, in many instances, in-stances, to rural schools where incompetent incom-petent teachers and insnllicient supervision super-vision have prevailed. The conference on illiteracy, called by the Legion, was the first national attempt at-tempt to settle on some means for eradication of Inability to read and write the English language, much of which is to be found among illiterate Immigrants, and native-born negroes and whites in certain sections of the country. The Legion'3 part In calling of the conference was determined by the national program of education, re-indorsed re-indorsed by every succeeding national convention since the first meeting in Minneapolis. I |