The pioneer is abroad in the land, but he has had, and still has, formidable difficulties to overcome.

The percentage of routine-ridden schools is considerably lower than it used to be, and it is falling from year to year.

Of this there can be no doubt.

Each teacher in turn who reads this chapter will, I hope, be able to say that the school which is in my mind is not his.

But I can assure him that there are thousands of schools in which all or most of the evils on which I am about to comment are still rampant; and I will add, for his consolation, that it would be a miracle if this were not so.
The first forty minutes of the morning session are given, in almost every elementary school, to what is called _Religious Instruction_.
This goes on, morning after morning, and week after week.