Be that as it may, social service is as surely needed in connection with training people’s minds as it is with saving their souls and curing their bodies. It is easier to train our vines to grow straight and sure and to cling to the lattices we choose for them, if at the same time the soil is watered and enriched that the roots may be strong, and all things harmful to the plant’s health are carefully kept from it. “As the twig is bent the tree’s inclined,” but the twig must be strong and healthy as well as straight, if the tree is to do its part in forming the forests our country must have if it would be prosperous. Surely anything that will make more effective the mental training and development of our country’s future citizens is as fully justified. THE VISITING TEACHER IN ACTION MARY FLEXNER VISITING TEACHER, PUBLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, NEW YORK CITY Walter preferred to play ball under the kindly protection of the Queensborough Bridge to attending school where he had no chance to show his ability as a leader. He had successfully evaded all the visits of the truant officer, and when his teacher asked me, a visiting teacher, to try my luck, I wondered what I should find. I called first upon his mother at her place of business and found her in thorough sympathy with the school, but apparently powerless to make her son attend. Walter took advantage of the fact that she left the house before he did, and as they alone comprised the family, he could disobey her and go to school or not as he saw fit. There was no one but himself to report to her in the evening just how he had spent his day. I chose supper time for my first visit, and found him, as I hoped, at home, a little tired from his day’s play and hungry, of course. His mother was there too. She was surprised when I told her that her son had not attended school that day, nor indeed for many days previously. We talked of many things, and just before leaving, I ventured to ask Walter what he wanted to be when he was a man. He was then twelve years old. He did not hesitate an instant. He wanted, he said, to be an architect. And then his mother showed me a little calendar he had painted which adorned the closet door. We struck a bargain. If he went to school regularly, I was to arrange with his teacher to give him a palette and brushes so that he could paint. It was possible to do this as he was in a special class in which the course of study is more easily adapted to the child’s needs.