One would scarcely encourage the eighth- or ninth-year school children to attack the intricate adjustment and interplay of _Hamlet_; he would not like them to follow the baffling complexities of social, personal, and economic considerations through _The Pillars of Society_. But _The Merchant of Venice_ offers problems and situations which he can understand; in _Julius Caesar_ and in _Macbeth_, in _Wilhelm Tell_, and in the _Wallenstein_ plays, noble and finished dramas as they are, he encounters nothing that he cannot grasp. On the contrary, the ideas and the situations are such as he readily understands, and such as legitimately enlarge his horizon. The Shakespeare, at any rate, will probably be studied as poetry, and the children should be encouraged to act, in whole or in part, any play that they can study as literature. It may be that the facilities of the school will prohibit any attempt to stage one of these larger plays. In that event chosen bits may be given as dialogue or monologue fitted into a recital of the story, and a description of the situation. The teacher should always remember that the drama is oral literature, and the literature of it makes its legitimate appeal first to the ear. Children memorize so easily, that they will know the play by heart practically as soon as they have finished such a consideration of it as enables them to read it intelligently. If not, the striking and beautiful passages should be deliberately memorized. Should these dramatic performances be produced before a public? Most certainly yes. Let it be however small a public--two neighboring grades, invited parents and friends; but let the study and effort bear its legitimate fruit in the public presentation. Only when we lead them to turn back what they have gained into a community asset, have we done anything to train our children in social art. And this is so natural and easy in the case of an acted drama that it is a pity to miss the opportunity. Of course, they must love the thing they do. It must be made good enough to give, and be therefore offered. We shall gradually recover from the fright we have been in now for some time as to the children's desire to "show off." How can we be sure we should have had any art, if this motive had not mingled with the others in the production and publication of the art-product? Let us cease to give it an invidious name; instead of calling it the desire to "show off," let us call it the artists' passion--be he poet, painter, actor, what not--to communicate, to turn back into the common life this thing he has but drawn out of the common life to elaborate and beautify.