A GRACE M. POORBAUGH LTHOUGH holiday fun is over, January, the month of snow, offers plenty of inducements to the scissors. The white, snowy days of January are a study in black and white, so our cut pictures should be done mostly in black and white. A few pictures suggestive of the season's work can be cut and mounted without attempting picture composition. This can be done for seat work as it is simple and needs no supervision. Give the directions clearly and definitely, then let the children work out these pictures for themselves. They need to be required to work alone, for they gain independence as in no other some snowy morning fold and cut a snow-flake and mount on gray; a snowman can be cut from white and mounted on gray; a pair of skates can be cut from black and mounted on gray. Of course the study of the Eskimo naturally suggests itself in connection with the geography work and there is hardly a limit to the interesting picture compositions which we can make in illustrating these stories. Four cut pictures representing Eskimo life were given in PRIMARY EDUCATION, January, 1910. The two cut pictures given this month illustrate the time of the child's life spent in snow frolics. What boy would not be interested in making a big snow ball like this? This picture is not complicated enough to require more than one lesson for cutting and another for pasting. IT'S ALL IN THE LEAD Forty years ago the school teacher had to get along as best he could with foreignmade pencils; now things are changed, and he has the privilege of using DIXON'S AMERICAN GRAPHITE PENCILS in all the schools under his charge. These pencils are not the result of an inspiration, but are the product of much care, thought, and study, in order to provide just the right kind of a pencil for the many kinds of educational work. Send 16c. in stamps and abundant samples will be sent to prove this fact. JOSEPH DIXON CRUCIBLE CO. Jersey City, N. J. STENCIL OUTFIT BARGAIN Extra large Stencil Outfit for all home decorations. It consists of 15 cut stencils on special oil board, 6 tubes assorted best oil colors; 2 brushes; 5 thumbtacks, also book containing full directions, a chart of colors, hundreds of up-to-date designs, etc. FREE:with every outfit a handsome stenciled Pillow Top, on a fine piece of Aberdeen Crash 20 x 20 inches. These stencils can be used many times, are especially suited for beginners. No drawing or tracing necessary. The complete outfit sent prepaid for the special introductory price of One Dollar. Send for our free new Fancy Work book, just off the press. FRENCH ART STENCIL CO. $430 EUROPE 1912 NOTES - Dr. (Sir William) Osler, now Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, has written for an early number of The Century of "The American Voice." This is a subject which Dr. Osler considers of much importance, and one on which he has made observations covering several years. A TREATISE ON TEACHING READ- heumatism Rh "was is a blood disease. It can be cured only by ridding the blood of extraneous matter. Hood's Sarsaparilla cures it, as it does other blood diseases. "The necessity for a good blood purifier," writes W. G. Skinner, Wakefield, Mass., first impressed on me when I took Hood's Sarsaparilla for a severe attack of rheumatism. As soon as I began to take this medicine, I felt better and in a short time I was entirely cured, and have been in good condition ever since." Get it today. In usual liquid form or tablets called Sarsatabs. ers, and now superintendent of the Schools AN UNUSUAL BOOK By RUTH ADSIT Supervisor of Primary Training, The Normal School, PRICE, 45 CENTS, POSTPAID FREE TO ANY SCHOOL TEACHER A beautiful $5 flag, 5x8 feet, for your school house. All we ask is a half hour of your time. Write immediately for our special Lincoln Day offer to schools-full particulars free. National Flag Ass'n, 806 Jackson Street, Topeka, Kansas. and is being read with a great deal of in- PHYSICAL terest by teachers, primary supervisors, 67-68 Days EDUCATION are recommended to write for First class on steamers. Visiting England, Holland, Apply to MISS MARY E, FITZGERALD 224 N. Hamlin Avenue, Chicago, Ill. "People are born not made who know how to take you on a summer tour. Miss FitzGerald is a natural leader." Mrs. Eva D. Kellogg in Primary Education *FREE TOURS TO EUROPE-In return for enlisting your friends' interest in our delightful trips. Every assistance furnished. Write to-day for our programmes and plan. University Tours, Box N. N., Wilmington, Del. SCHOOL-ROOM HELPS PRIMARY LANGUAGE CARDS a copy of it. Now is the time to subscribe, for will you receive free from the time your $1.75 is received all the issues for the remaining weeks of 1911, containing the opening chapters of HELPS Ralph D. Paine's great serial story of the Boxer rebellion, "The Cross and the IMPORTANT NOTICE The Post Office Department began in November to ship all magazines to central distributing points by fast freight instead of by regular fast mail trains as in the past. Although this change necessitated sending the "PRIMARY EDUCATION" to press two weeks earlier than heretofore, we have, in line with other publishing houses, been cheerfully co-operating to make the plan a success. This slower method of transportation will undoubtedly result in occasional delays in the delivery of "PRIMARY EDUCATION." We request therefore, and feel confident that our subscribers will be patient with any short delay or inconvenience that may for a time be occasioned by this change. Should it seem to any subscriber that there is an unwarranted delay in the receipt of the paper, kindly communicate with us after having made inquiry of your local postmaster. CULTURE Graded System of Physical By THEODORE TOEPEL, M. D. (b) Eight Grade Books of Physical Each, Complete. 36 Lessons. Stiff Paper. 200 ExerMuslin back. Each, By F. J. REILLY Manual of Simple Drill Regulations for Schools 26 Half-tones Cloth. List Price, 40 cents. Purpose of the book is to use best features of military drill for effective physical culture. Educational Gymnastic Play for Little Folks By FANNIE JOHNSON and JENNIE COLBY Illustrated. Cloth. List price, 60 cents. Twenty-six games for first two years of primary school. Song-Roundels and Games BY HENRY SUDER For Grades 1 to 12. Thousands of copies used in Chicago. Educational Publishing Co. All (sing) They all face out, clap hands and sing No, no, no, you must go, 'Tis a sunny day, Clap the hands, clap the hands, Clap the rain away. (The Sun chooses a child to take his place, the Rain chooses a child to take his place, and the game proceeds as before.) Winter Time Chilling winds that roar and blow, Frosty days and falling snow, Shorter days that colder grow; New Year bells that chime! Warmth and light and fires that glow, Toasting apples in a row, Poppers shaking to and fro, This is winter time! January 1912 TALKING TOGETHER Editor's Page Address EDITOR, PRIMARY EDUCATION, 50 Bromfield Street, Boston, Mass. A New Year's Wish "May every soul that touches mine Be it the slightest contact, get therefrom some good, One aspiration yet unfelt, one bit of courage For the darkening sky, one gleam of faith To brave the thickening ills of life, One glimpse of brighter skies beyond the gathering mist, To make this life worth while, And Heaven a surer heritage." Sometimes it is impossible to avoid the suspicion that many teachers are "putterers." The petty spirit that we so often deplore in the housekeeper, that habit of mind which cannot see the whole for its absorption in the parts, is surely present in many school-rooms, and is partly responsible, at least, for the familiar wail of "no time." There is something perpetually going on in class-rooms of this type, but much of the activity seems to lead nowhere and is more or less listless and indifferent. It is noticeable that children, under such teachers, soon lose their eager questioning attitude toward things in general and, while they may be forced to learn facts, they will as certainly forget the facts, for their feelings have remained quite unexcited. The teacher who allows herself to fall into the "puttering" habit becomes incapable of keeping a definite aim before her, of making decisions based on clear judgment, of consciously directing her energies instead of allowing them to be dissipated. Who has not seen the housewife who turns from one small task to another all day long, always working and always tired, but never "catching up"? No one can do everything in one day, but, by working intensively certain things can be accomplished. When you have decided what these things should be, pursue them single-mindedly in the face of any and every distraction. Such an attitude, persisted in, will react on yourself and on your pupils and you will both realize the keenest pleasure that life affords any of us the pleasure of accomplishment. Do not any longer be a party to what someone calls "the artificial production of stupidity in the schools." Using the School Plant The greater efficiency of the school plant is a subject that becomes more and more pressing each year, in large cities at least. The economic waste of using costly equipment but five hours out of the twenty-four, while many children remain half schooled for want of still further facilities, is apparent to every one, while teachers and parents agree in condemning part time classes, except in the very lowest grades. Of course, the practical question of rearranging schedules is a difficult one, but not too difficult, surely, of adjustment. Dr. Spaulding, Superintendent of Schools in Newton, Mass., has made some interesting suggestions in this connection. He says: "By some modification of the usual plans of organization, by Some changes in the daily programs-modification and changes which I am confident can be worked out without detriment, quite possibly to the advantage of the school work - it will be feasible to use much more than is now done the magnificent assembly halls, with which all our grammar schools are provided, kindergarten rooms that are occupied only mornings, and to bring into regular use the available space and rooms not suitable for regular class-rooms, and possibly to keep in constant use class-rooms that are now vacant about a half hour a day on account of recesses and some higher grade rooms that are vacant two hours a week on account of manual training, and thus to increase what, under present plans, is considered the capacity of the class-rooms, without allowing pupils to suffer for lack of sufficient individual attention by placing an assistant in a room of forty-eight or fifty children. of the same grade, presided over by an exceptionally strong teacher, instead of making two distinct classes of that number of children and giving up to them two class-rooms, as is now the usual practice. By careful and constant study of the actual conditions in each building, and by co-operation of principals, teachers, and public to that end, I am sure that the normal capacity of every grammar school and of nearly every primary school can be materially increased without real disadvantage to the children. The possibility of increasing the capacity of our elementary school buildings in this way should be exhausted before we think of resorting to part time classes, except perhaps in the first grade, where for many children a three-hour school day under ideal conditions is probably quite long enough." Our Educational Failure This country has consistently robbed Peter to pay Paul: it has pauperized the teaching profession in order to enrich the other professions. It has made great lawyers by eliminating great teachers. It has advanced medicine by pushing education into the background. Harsh though these statements be, they are true. Take any Southern State and look over the records of its jurists and its doctors, and you will be amazed to find how many of them were teachers first. And so go through the Union. These men were good teachers, and the most of them liked their work, but they found soon enough, all of them, that no career lay open to them in that line. So they turned to other professions. That is why teaching has become for men but a stepping-stone. We fail to understand that we have virtually told every energetic and good teacher that if he wants to do anything in the world he will have to go in for some other line of work. No profession has had the choice of such intellect and genius as the teaching profession and no profession has allowed so much intellect and genius to get away from it. This indictment is true even to-day. The hundreds of this year's college graduates who will teach next year will become the tens who are teaching the year after. The brainy men drop out one by one, though luck or fortune keep a few of them still in the schools. Yet it is more important that we have good teachers than that we have good doctors, or good lawyers. Good teaching means good lawyers and doctors later. There can be no getting away from the facts. We have made teaching a sacrifice for the man doing it. We have refused him due reward for his labors, and we still refuse him due reward. We take from him his self-respect very often and give him nothing in return. We force him to turn to professions where the financial return is at least great enough to keep body and soul together. Yet, a great teacher must be more richly endowed than a great lawyer. Why does the one acquire thousands where the other acquires hundreds? Why does the salary of the teacher not keep pace with the cost of living? Why do we spend millions for education and not pay the pilots more than a pittance? Is it any wonder that our school system and our educational system alike are being severely criticised both abroad and at home? - From the Charleston News and Courier "An honest, painstaking, efficient teachers' agency is a very serviceable institution for school boards schools, colleges and private schools, have been put there by means of teachers' agencies. The following excel "THE RIGHT TEACHER IN THE RIGHT POSITION MEA Eastern Teachers' Agency Telephone Connection 'ESTABLISHED 1890. Miss E. F. FOSTER, Manager. 6 Beacon Street, The Salary your qualifications deserve is increased by an agency registration. SYRACUSE TEACHERS' AGENCY extending its operations from the Atlantic sea board to A CORRECTION The Editor is glad to publish the following letters in reply to a news item inserted in the November issue. In passing, the editor wishes to say that these items of news are culled from various magazines and newspapers and this journal in no case vouches for their accuracy. To the Editor of PRIMARY EDUCATION: An agency registration places you in touch with vacancies of whole sections of the country. SYRACUSE CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL TEACHERS fear no examinations after taking our DRILL COURSE by mail. We prepare for any certificate you want, County, City, State EXAMINATIONS. COURSES in all subjects for civil service, kinder-gether and are a detriment to the cause of garten, home study. 50,000 Students. NOAH LEONARD, A.M., Manager, The Hier, Dept. G, SYRACUSE, N. Y. You will never rise higher than your aspirations; an agency registration broadens your opportunities to rise. AN AGENCY influence. you about them If it merely hears is something but if it to recommend a teacher and recommends RECOMMENDS you that is more. Ours THE SCHOOL BULLETIN AGENCY, C. W. BARDEEN, Syracuse, N. Y. Agencies are largely responsible for the increase in salaries the last few years. "Teachers are scarce in Canada. Salaries are low and the pupil teacher plan of the mother country is followed as it is also followed in Australia. These two factors, pupil teachers and low salaries, hang toeducation. The pupil teachers are not Normal students, as with us, but persons of fair intelligence, possessing some academic knowledge, and desirous of teaching in subordinate positions." It is quite unfair to Canadian schools and teachers and unworthy the intelligence of such a paper as yours. In Canada, we have no "pupil teacher plan," and never have had. Salaries are about the same as in the United States, nòt markedly lower. All our teachers must be graduates of Normal THE FICKETT TEACHERS' ACENCY Schools. In Alberta, the newest Province EDWARD W. FICKETT, Manager, 8 Beacon Street, Boston. Teachers Wanted at Once for all Grades. of the Dominion, there is a Normal School for training teachers (who come from REGISTER NOW. widely different parts of the world), so that they may understand our school methods. I am sending you that section of our regulations pertaining to teacher's certificates. Yours truly, Agencies create a demand for teachers by the constant presentation of their candidates. THE ALBERT TEACHERS' C. J. ALBERT, Manager 623 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Ill. Twenty-sixth year. Best Schools and Colleges everywhere our permanent clients. Western Offices: Realty Building. Spokane, Wash. Idaho Building, Boise, Idaho J. C. MACKAY, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada The Editor PRIMARY EDUCATION: MARY My attention has been called to a short article under the heading of "School News" on page 569 of the November issue of PRIEDUCATION. This paragraph is headed "Canada"and gives as information to your readers, the two following items, viz., that teachers are scarce and salaries low, because of the pupil-teacher plan being followed in Canada, as it is in Australia. Allow me to point out that the pupil-teacher system of training teachers is not in vogue in any part of the Dominion of Canada, and that, while salaries may be low in some ALBANY TEACHERS' AGENCY places, there are many others where the salaries paid teachers are quite as high as in 81 CHAPEL STREET, ALBANY, N. Y. instance, the initial salary paid to all grade other countries; in the city of Calgary, for Have you ever registered with an agency? It pays. teachers is $750.00 per annum, and advances are made on this up to a maximum of $950.00 per annum for female assistants. AGENCY All teachers in the Province of Alberta are THE PARKER TEACHERS' AGENCY required to attend Normal School, either before coming to the Province or after. This is true of all the other Provinces in the Dominion, except that in certain cases "Permits" are allowed, on account of the scarcity of teachers. I think it is due to your readers that you |