Much more emphasis on the undertakings in the attempt to have children accept responsibility, and to engage in a type of activity which has a definite moral social value, is to be found in the schools in which children are responsible for the morning exercises, or for publishing a school paper, or for preparing a school festival.  One of the most notable achievements in this type of activity which the writer has ever known occurred in a school in which a group of seventh-grade children were thought to be particularly incompetent.  The teachers had almost despaired of having them show normal development, either intellectually or socially.  After a conference of all of the teachers who knew the members of this group, it was decided to allow them to prepare a patriot’s day festival.  The idea among those teachers who had failed with this group was that if the children had a large responsibility, they would show a correspondingly significant development.  The children responded to the motive which was provided, became earnest students of history in order that they might find a dramatic situation, and worked at their composition when they came to write their play, some of them exercising a critical as well as a creative faculty which no one had known that they possessed.  But possibly the best thing about the whole situation was that every member of the class found something to do in their cooeperative enterprise.  Some members of the class were engaged in building and in decorating the stage scenery; others were responsible for costumes; those who were strong in music devoted themselves to this field.  The search for a proper dramatic situation in history and the writing of the play have already been suggested.  The staging of the play and its presentation to a large group of parents and other interested patrons of the school required still further specialization and ability.  Out of it all came a realization of the possibility of accomplishing great things when all worked together for the success of a common enterprise.  When the festival day came, the most common statement heard in the room on the part of the parents and others interested in the work of the children was expressed by one who said:  “This is the most wonderful group of seventh-grade children that I have ever seen.  They are as capable as most high school boys and girls.”  It is to be recalled that this was the group in whom the teachers originally had little faith, and who had sometimes been called in their school a group of misfits.

Some schools have found, especially in the upper grades, an opportunity for a type of social activity which is entirely comparable with the demand made upon the older members of our communities.  This work for social improvement or betterment is carried on frequently in connection with a course in civics.  In some schools there is organized what is known as the junior police.  This organization has been in some cases coordinated with the police department.  The boys