Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/818

800 It is the function of some schools to provide better teachers according to present standards; it is the function of others to create new standards and ideals, and thus to lead to a gradual change in conditions. If it is advisable to have smaller classes, more teachers, and a different working hypothesis than is at present the case in the public schools, there should be some institution to show this. This the school in question hopes to do, and, while it does not aim to be impractical, it does not aim primarily to be of such a character as to be immediately capable of translation into the public school.

"The hypothesis underlying this experiment is that of the school as a social institution. Education outside the school proceeds almost wholly through participation in the social or community life of the groups of which one is a member.

"The work here outlined is based on the assumption that the more formal education of the school does not depart from the same general course that the unconscious adjustment follows, but organizes it. The school is a special social community in which the too complex social environment is reduced and simplified; in which certain ideas and facts concerning this simplified social life are communicated to the child; in which, also, the child is called upon to undertake not all kinds of activity, but those specially selected on the ground of peculiar adaptation to the child."

The Haskell Oriental Museum is a three-story and basement building erected by Mrs. Caroline E. Haskell to the memory of her husband, Mr. Frederick Haskell. At the present time the second floor only is devoted to museum collections, but in the near future the whole space of the building will be so occupied. While the most extensive collections are in Egyptology, there are other series. A biblical collection has been begun; the Assyrian collection consists almost wholly of reproductions; the Buckley collection, illustrating the religions of Japan—Shinto and Buddhism—was secured by Dr. Edmund Buckley during a long residence in the Island Empire. This last deserves more than passing notice; while rich on the Buddhistic side, it is notable in Shinto. Shinto is a religion of a barbaric people held by a nation in full civilization; it is profoundly curious and interesting. There is probably nowhere so complete an exhibition of this native Japanese cult as in Dr. Buckley's collection, containing as it does sacred objects, votive offerings, scriptures, prayers, and cult implements. Dr. James H. Breasted is in charge of the work in Egyptology and brings to it an unusual enthusiasm. Recently the Chicago Society of Egyptian Research has been established, with a threefold object: (1) to assist in Egyptian excavation, (2) to bring to Chicago a just share of antiquities so discovered, and (3) to inform its members concerning the ancient civilization which