Welsh Journals

SECOND YEAR.- (Continued). Pageant of Mediaeval England. Guildford. G. Bell and Sons. 3s. Social Life in Wales. J. Finnemore. Black. 3s. 6d. THIRD YEAR.- World History Series. Early Modern III. J. A. White. Cassell. 3s. Age of Discovery. J. A. Brendon. Edward Arnold. 2s. 6d. Expansion of Europe. J. A. Brendon. Edw. Arnold. 2s. 6d. NOTHING can filch from the Central Welsh Board the distinction of being the first education authority in the world to com- mend the teaching of the aims and principles of the League of Nations in secondary schools. Nor can the honour ever be wrested from Wales of being the first country to establish an Advisory Education Committee to further international education within its own borders. But other countries have caught up to Wales indeed, they may now almost lay claim to leadership. Welsh teachers will be interested to know what is being done, for instance, in Rumania. Amongst many and various activities are the following:- (1) Lessons in Training Colleges for Elementary School Teachers by order of the Ministry of Instruction. Candidates for posts in second- ary schools must also, by order of the Minis- try, attend "a certain number of lectures on the origin, aims, and work of the League of Nations", with a view especially to the in- struction of pupils in secondary schools. (2) The Ministry of Education organised a League of Nations week from February 28 to March 5, when one out of the two hours' history lesson was devoted entirely to the League of Nations. In the following week the Ministry received reports from 181 regular Grammar Schools stating that the instruction had strictly been carried out. (3) In Bucharest the "Fidac" Society offered prizes to scholars in Class 8 in the Bucharest Secondary Schools, when 506 children com- peted in an essay competition on How to reconcile the ideals of the League of Nations with our own national ideal". The prizes were distributed with great ceremony in the presence of the Secretary of the Ministry of Instruction, the Rector of the University, and the President of "Fidac". The People in Adventure. Leathes. Heine- mann. 3s. 6d. Making of Modern Wales. H. T. Evans. Hughes and Son. FOURTH YEAR.- World History Series. Modern IV. L. Cecil Smith. Cassell. 3s. Since 1789. J. A. Brendon. Edward Arnold. as. 6d. Modern History (Vol. IV. of Series). D. C. Somerville. G. Bell and Son. 3s. Modern Europe. S. Herbert. Macmillan. 3s. WALES AND THE WORLD by the Rev. Gwilym Davies, M.A. The model used throughout Rumania for the scheme of lessons on the League is that drafted by a group of Welsh elementary school teachers at Gregynog three years ago, and published in several languages by the Welsh League of Nations Union. The work already accomplished in Wales lias been a real stimulus in the fostering of inter- national education in the schools of Belgium. Two or three of the publications of the Welsh Education Committee have already been trans- lated into French and into Flemish for use in Belgian schools, and the Welsh children's wire- less message was read on Goodwill Day, 1927, in every Belgian school. Welsh teachers visiting Brussels should make a point of seeing the Brus- sels School Cinema-a large, plain room, fur- nished with a cinematograph. It has an entrance from the street, and is used, in turn, by all the schools in Brussels. The idea is so simple, and the cost is so small, that it is strange no urban education authority in Wales has thought of it. In Belgium, as in Wales, there is a movement in favour of English as the second language. In many of the State secondary schools there are classes reading such English classics as Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare". But the rate of ex- change — 175 Belgian francs to the 2-is so heavily weighted against Belgium that English school books are very expensive. Occasionally there is in a reading class only one book between three pupils. Miss Carter, a retired Belgian head- mistress, and the driving force behind the League of Nations work in the schools of Belgium, asked me as to whether we in Wales could possibly help in the provision of additional English books for use in Belgian schools. I felt the same need in Bulgaria, where, of course, poverty is much