but we know that unfortunately they are not. The endeavor to get good, capable men for this position is the exception and . not the rule. The citizens of the township feel that the best talent in their community must be utilized for road supervisors, tax collectors, etc., and the borough voters occasionally find it necessary to rob their school board of good, capable men in order that they may make burgesses and councilmen of them. As a rule they are ready to vote for the candidate without taking the trouble to inquire as to his fitness for the position. It sometimes happens, however, that an issue is raised in a school district.

The people do sometimes get aroused in reference to school matters. They are at times willing to put themselves to a good deal of trouble in order to get a certain kind of men elected on the board. Unfortunately, however, it is not because these people, in a majority of cases, want their schools brought to a higher degree of efficiency that they are hunting for votes for their candidates, but it is because they think that too much money is being expended by their present board for buildings, school apparatus and teachers' salaries. They want men elected who will, as they put it, legislate for the taxpayers. The children's interests are with them a mere secondary consideration. They are to be put in the background, and the taxpayers' interests are to be taken care of. The school board that can get along with a minimum tax levy, and can at the end of the term have a balance in the treasury, is, in the opinion of these false economists, an ideal one. The problem that this board has to solve is not how to give the children of their district the very best possible opportunity to get a good education, but it is how to give a formal compliance with the law with the least possible expenditure of money. The success that a great many boards meet with in their effort to do their work in this economical way is truly surprising. In our cities, and in many of our larger boroughs, this false economy in school matters is now of very rare occurrence. It is to be earnestly hoped that it will be soon entirely gotten rid of in all the districts of our State.

The matter of the supervision of the schools under their care is a question that concerns every school board. What shall be the nature and the extent of the supervision of the schools in their district? A great many directors give the schools no attention whatever. They may probably know the names of their teachers, but they have no idea about their work, and they never assist or help them by visiting their schools or by speaking an encouraging word to them. But there is another class of directors, and while their name isn't legion, yet there are entirely too many of them, who overdo the supervising business. Several years ago we heard a popular school superintendent say in an address at a

county institute that he preferred a school board that was composed of good, hardheaded, practical business men, mechanics and farmers, to one that was made up of preachers, lawyers, doctors and school teachers. He said that professional men too often think that they are as capable of mapping out courses of study and arranging for the details of the school work in the schoolroom as the teacher, the principal or the superintendent who is in charge of the school. They will insist on having their theory put into practice, and will discard or modify the plans of the one whose business it is to know what is to be done, the one whom they have chosen to do the work, and whom they hold responsible for the results that are obtained. Too frequently directors of this kind have no knowledge whatever of the details of school work. They get some vague and indefinite ideas about school matters, and then they formulate theories that are as vague and indefinite as their knowledge. The Psalmist said, "My heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty, nor do I deal in matters great or in things too high for me." The difference between these directors and the Psalmist is that he knew what was too high for him and they do not. The old proverb says, "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." The ignorance of these meddlesome school directors may be bliss to them, but it is the reverse of bliss to the schools over which they are unfortunately called to rule. The doctor director would be very indignant if one who was not a physician would undertake to advise him how he should treat his patients. Such interference with his professional duties might not have any effect on the number of his patients, but it would very seriously affect the quantity and the quality of his patience. Now, however much you may differ with me in my statements as to the qualifications, or rather the lack of qualifications, of a great many of our schcol directors, I feel sure that you will agree with me when I say that our schools are entitled to and that they should have the very best supervision that can be obtained for them. Every year a great number of persons who have never taught, and who have not had the benefit of the normal training school, are put in charge of our ungraded schools. They know a little about the theory of teaching, but have everything to learn about the practical part of their work. From fifty to eighty children are given to each of them to practice and experiment upon. To these untrained and inexperienced young men and young women is given the very important work of starting many of their pupils in the way of knowledge, and of guiding and directing all of their pupils in their effort to get a good common school education. They do the best they can, but what does their best amount to? A man who can merely handle a hatchet and a saw and a few other tools,

and who has given him the necessary materials, can put up something that in many respects resembles a house, but it will be a very crude and misshapen one. The children of a great many of these inexperienced teachers are in about as lamentable a condition when they get through with them as is the house of this would-be carpenter when it leaves his hands. And, oh, the troubles and the trials and the vexations of the good practical teacher who gets hold of the spoiled product of these teachers! Like the Old Testament woman who had lost husband and sons and property, they can truly say, "Call me not Naomi; call me Mara, for I have been very bitterly dealt with." Now what can be done to remedy these defects in our educational system, and to get this intelligent and necessary supervision? The defects can be remedied and the intelligent supervision can be obtained by applying to our schools the methods that business men apply to their business.

A corporation has its share-holders and its board of directors, its general superintendent, its assistant superintendents, its foremen and its workmen. The shareholders and the board of directors ordinarily know nothing at all about the practical part of the business that is conducted by their company. They select a general superintendent who does understand it in all of its details, and he selects the other officials who must be good mechanics and must have the necessary tact to get along well with those who are under their charge. The different departments of the corporation keep in close and constant touch with each other. Every part of the work is thoroughly systematized. The general superintendent meets frequently with the assistant superintendents and foremen and gets from them reports in reference to their work and with them shapes and plans for their future work.

Each county in our state might be likened to a corporation. The people in the county are the share holders in this corporation. As the business corporation elects directors to look after its business so the people elect directors to look after their school interests. As the business corporation directors elect a general superintendent to supervise its business, so the school directors of the county elect a superintendent to supervise and look after the school interests of the county. Each school district in the county, township or borough should have a principal. Like the corporation superintendent, assistant superintendents and foremen, these school superintendents, assistant superintendents and principals should frequently meet and compare notes and exchange ideas in reference to their work. Through the assistant superintendents and the principals the superintendent could keep in touch with every teacher and every school in his county. The county and the state could then have a uniform course of study, could have the same text

books, and children going from one district to another or from one school to another in the same district would not be a misfit as they now are, but would be able to continue the work in the new school where they left off in the old. The inexperienced teachers would begin their work with every part of it thoroughly systematized, and they would have the counsel and the aid of experienced teachers who would be competent to advise and instruct them. "The business of school teaching should receive as careful direction as the business of enterprises whose object is the making of money." When it does receive this attention and direction, then and not till then will it meet with the success that is so earnestly to be desired and for which every conscientious director and teacher is so earnestly praying and faithfully working.

Governor Pennypacker, who was next on the programme, was unable to be present and sent as his representative Hon. J. Q. Stewart, who spoke as follows;

REMARKS OF DEPUTY SUPT. STEWART.

The Governor's absence on this occasion is a great disappointment to every one present, but his absence is unavoidable, as you have been informed by the Chairman of the Executive Committee. Your programme has no scarcity of topics from which to gather instruction and inspiration. I was much pleased with the address of President Coulter, containing as it does, so many helpful suggestions. You have a noble organization representing over sixteen thousand directors.

term.

Since the first meeting of this Association eight years ago, a great improvement in conditions has taken place, but on account of existing conservatism we have not yet secured the best results attainable to aid our public schools. We have a fine system, and in addition we have a good spirit behind it to aid the directors in their work. Not many years ago there were numerous districts in Pennsylvania having only a six months' We now have many districts with seven, eight, nine and ten months' term of school, and yet with our most liberal appropriations we have fourteen hundred and eighty-eight (1,488) districts with seven months, containing a total of eleven thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven (11,897) schools. We seem to be unable for some reason to get away from the minimum conditions prescribed by the law. This cannot be on account of the lack of means, for no State in the Union is better able to provide liberally

for the public schools than Pennsylvania. Not including Philadelphia we have in our State twenty-six thousand five hundred and eighty-three schools (26,583). Of this number it is to be regretted that about twelve thousand (12,000) close their schools at the end of the minimum term of seven months. It seems to me we fail at this point to realize the best results for the children under such conditions. Some districts claim that they cannot afford to do more. The cry was the same when the term was advanced to five months, and again when it was made six months, and subsequently increased to seven months. It is not easy to understand upon what basis of reasoning such discrimination can be made in favor of the schools of the cities and against those of the country. We hear a great deal in reference to township high schools, but so long as the directors of the townships are not willing to give the children better school privileges the most earnest efforts on the part of directors to establish township high schools will not accomplish the purpose intended.

According to the latest published report of the Department of Public Instruction, there was during the last year a decrease in the amount of taxes levied for schools. There ought to be no backward step in the administration of school affairs. The State is already doing its part, and is providing liberally for the public schools, but many districts have made little or no advancement notwithstanding the liberal appropriations for many years. Last year the legislature made a minimum teachers' salary of thirty-five dollars a month, to take effect June 1, 1904. This will doubtless prove to be a good thing in the interest of education, but it will not do to reduce the higher grades of salaries in order to add to the minimum. In such a case the Act will defeat its own purpose. Not only ought the minimum to be increased, but the maximum also. The districts can do this without feeling it to be a burden. Districts ought to do more than the State requires of them when they have the ability to do it.

Our teachers are fairly well qualified for their work as a general thing. They do the best they can considering the support which they receive from the districts. Let us get the spirit of the age, and do the very best we can for our children. The spirit of conservatism ought not to

be permitted to interfere with the education of the children. The State has done its part, and will continue to do even more in the future than it has done in the past to make our schools more efficient. Our normal schools are doing a good work in the line of professional training. They should be encouraged and liberally supported. Free text-books and supplies have been provided for. The several school boards ought to see to it that books be liberally supplied and worn-out books discarded. There are very many things which you can do as directors. It requires only a little observation on your part to ascertain the pressing needs of your district. Your convention is to be congratulated not alone on what it has accomplished, but on what is promised.

SCHOOL CURRICULUM.

The question, "Shall the School Curriculum be Enlarged or Contracted? What, Why, How?" was answered in a paper by H. M. Lessig, of Pottstown, as follows:

SHALL THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM BE ENLARGED OR CONTRACTED?

Mr. President, Fellow Directors, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is but a year since, at the convention of school directors of Pennsylvania, held in this hall, that much was said evidently with profit, much said which probably with profit could have been left unsaid, and possibly much more unsaid which would have been profitable, had it been said, relative to the over-worked, unappreciated and under-paid teacher in our public schools, and we congratulate ourselves that at last our voices are now to be raised, our opinions expressed and our services tendered towards the relief of the innocent, helpless and defenseless, the public school children of our Commonwealth.

The question, "Shall the school curriculum be enlarged or contracted? what, why and how?" is one of paramount importance. It has always kept itself before us locally, and at this time, in such a rapidly moving, progressive age, most vividly does it appear before us, the managers or directors of the greatest institution of our land, the common school system. Whether a suit of clothing is of proper color or shade, correct size and proper style or cut, can be intelligently answered only after acquaintance with the person who is to be the wearer, and knowledge is obtained as to the purpose for which the clothing is intended; so, to intelligently meet the question 'School curriculum, enlargement or contraction" must necessarily require the ascertaining as to the conditions and ca

a chair to reach the dough tray, to knead the bread or engage in kindred household pursuits; and if a compulsory study in our cities and towns, the cookery would be but a dabbling in pots and pans, while the socalled pure food stuffs, prepared for immediate serving, would still be procured from the corner grocery, as it were, and the hastily prepared meal as hastily partaken of by the respective families, regardless of the teachings of this particular branch. There is therefore no relief from this department; while it might be a finisher or polisher, it can never be a developer.

Music, Vocal or Instrumental, or Both ?— Yes, from this we might receive some benefits, but the introduction of such into our school curriculum should be for local adɔption or rejection, and not be legislated for all districts, irrespective of individual conditions-a sort of local option, so to say.

Nature Study?-Here we find that which we already possess, study of nature. The aim of nature study is not now being considered for the preparing for the scientific work of the high school. We must acknowledge that within the past decade science in all its forms has taken such rapid strides and the results of so much research added to the world's store of knowledge, that our course of study in the elementary schools was for some time severely strained to meet the demand or cry for elementary nature study. This we are happily meeting by correlation with reading. No truly up-to-date, progressive series of readers is without this particular feature, and some series make a specialty of the same. This work is also correlated with the study of geography, and I know that field-work in arithmetic has had embodied with it this feature also. This, then, being accommodated, and the most excellent benefits being available under our present standard of studies, no addition is necessary, merely a modification in the presenting or teaching of reading.

With nature study may also be connected scientific research in an elementary form, all having a tendency to broaden the mind, enlarge the field of information, making school life more pleasant and surely more profitable, and the pupils more wide-awake and observant. The correlation of this work with reading affords the child not only an opportunity to express the thoughts of another in the words of another, thereby being informed as to the correct form of expression, but also the most excellent opportunity in the recitation room, of expressing his own thoughts in his own words, and expressing by word picture that which observation and individual research has so indelibly stamped upon his memory and so highly enriched his storehouse of knowledge, two important achievements being accomplished-individual observation and personal expression.

Literature?-A special course in literature

is suggested, whereby the boys and girls may, at an early age, have an opportunity of obtaining an acquaintance with writers, their lives and works; that by such, the spirit of true manliness, uprightness of conduct, and proper consideration for their fellowmen, as characterized by so many of our noted writers, should be held up prominently before the eyes of our pupils, for their emulation and as incentives to be like them, and to instill a desire, yea, a demand for strictly first-class literature, instead of the cheap, trashy, light, nerveexciting reading material, so fascinating to young men and young women who have not earlier been trained otherwise.

The teaching of reading is not simply the pronunciation of words, placed in a line to form a sentence, but embodies spelling, letter sounds, expression of thought in words of others, literature, science, nature study, scientific research-all most beautifully and effectually correlated; oh! what pleasant and profitable recitations of the present reading class, so-called, compared to that participated in by some of us, when each pupil had probably the old reading book used by the father (what's good for the father is good for the son, as we are fre quently informed), and scarcely two books of the same kind in the entire class!

A great mistake in education has existed for years, and only in recent years have efforts been exerted to abolish worship of book-learning. Learning and education have been confused, but in so far as we are successful in having text-books used as guides only, in the same degree will the practical educational benefits be increased, and probably our present curriculum, with a few modifications and with changing methods of imparting information, will be found to meet all the requirements of our public school system.

The foremen of railroad builders, in reply to my inquiry, informed me that shorthandled shovels were used by all contractors, for the reason that they brought the men closer to their work, the shovel becoming practically an elongation of the man's arm, thus each workman feeling or touching his work, and this leads me to the most important, most essential branch yet to be universally introduced in our public schools-manual training. Here is the medium whereby the child learns and puts into effect his information by the sense of sight, touch and thought. How it develops the pupil's brain, his will-power to place upon paper, engrave upon wood, or shape his thoughts or ideas from rough blocks of wood or metal! It surely teaches him how to briefly yet correctly and intelligently express his thoughts, and places him upon a footing where from or wherewith he can strive successfully in the struggles of life.

This branch is debatable under so many forms that suffice it to sav at this time, if an additional branch shall be universally