Although particular emphasis today is being placed upon the immediate necessity for concrete wartime defense education, probably one of the most pressing and urgent needs of such education is to help children of all ages to understand the significance and importance of continued democracy for them.

Within the past few years many schools through the development of school philosophies and the determination of school objectives have revealed a genuine interest in increasing the sensitivity of their students to current social problems.

The twelfth year program in social studies in the Horace Mann School is devoted to a study of American problems and issues not only of significance today but also of probable importance in the world of tomorrow. No one cognizant of present conditions will question the importance of making provision for the study of some of the issues and problems paramount in the contemporary scene.

One of the most important things a school can do in modern education is to attempt to determine the worth of its educational program in relation to the growth and development of its children. This article discusses the development of an evaluation program.

Probably one of the most vehemently discussed questions in present-day education is “Shall we teach modern problems in the schools?” It is necessary only to attend educational conferences or read educational literature to realize the sharply opposed attitudes toward the inclusion in the school program of the study of current social, economic, and political problems.

At the time of writing this article, only the units on England and Russia had been completed as cultures selected for study in the classroom. A general account of the treatment of these in the classroom, with special consideration given to the content, materials, activities, and general evaluation of classroom attitudes and interests, are given here.

The most vital function of the Horace Mann School is the function of educating children to live in a modern age. The School believes not only that it should develop excellent educational practices based on scientific experimentation and acceptable educational philosophy but that it should also demonstrate these practices effectively.

By cooperative planning and teaching, various phases of American life and thought have been brought before the students in the Horace Mann School; and through these means they have been made acquainted, insofar as it was possible, with the complex and changing life of the present day, together with the legacy of American civilization.

A discussion regarding the teaching of international relations in the elementary school.