"BETTER SCHOOLS" professes to be "a survey of progressive education in American public schools." It is written by Carleton Washburne, the superintendent of the public school system in Winnetka, Illinois, who has transformed his schools into an educational laboratory; and by Myron M. Stearns, a graduate of Stanford University and a magazine author of note. The collaboration is a fortunate one, the joint product being both instructive and entertaining, something which cannot be said of the majority of the many books now being written on the subject of secondary education.

Recognizing the seething ferment in American education today, "Better Schools" is an attempt to select for the layman and unspecialized teacher or school administrator some of the more outstanding and successful experiments, and to present them in a way that will help one to understand and profit by America's new school ways. They are remarkably successful in a non-technical way, and parents as well as educators of all ranks might profit by reading the material they present.

The volume is more or less of a challenge to parents and teachers who believe that the hope of better education rests in private schools, the authors standing by the "better" public schools zealously.

Harriet M. Johnson's almost unique 'Children in the Nursery School" is one of the latest analyzations of the youthful educational problem. It is published by The John Day Company and is a clear and practical presentation of the workings of an experimental school. The Nursery School the author describes was organized in 1919 by The Bureau of Educational Experiments. In view of the new realization of the first three years of childhood and the attendant establishment of nursery schools throughout America, the problem dealt with will have a wide interest in educational circles.

In discussing the environment offered by the nursery school, Miss Johnson insiders the child's activities and materials, his relation to other children and to adults, and his introduction to language and rhythm. She explains now the nursery goes about its attempt to scale civilization down to the child level in its behavior demands and to open up wider opportunities for alive exploration than an adult world call afford.