Fun and humor are not to be despised. They lighten the gloom of life and furnish those flashes that make thought clear and striking. But even good things have their limitations. In teaching, free-trade in jokes may so demoralize the infant industries of thought that the imported goods ruin the market. It is much easier to hold the attention of a mixed company by story. telling than by work that does not lose sight of the main point. The role of reconteur is decidedly easier than that of serious instruction. The labor of listening is, too, much less of a task. And yet the possibility of teaching history or arithmetic in twelve easy cachinations may not yet be indisputably established. If the fundamental thought in institute work is entertainment, of course. all this is foreign to the subject. If the chief end of teachers' instruction is the cultivation of the fancy by combinations of grotesque ideas that produce spasmodic action of the spincter muscles of the diaphragm, the phunny phellow is right and this is wrong. Suppose, however, that the end be not forty smiles; that, instead, it be sober serious work on the weak places of teaching and studying, then imported levity is smuggled goods. Only side-flashes are permissible. The institute ought not, of course, to be funereal. It is fit occasion for light and life. The attic bees of wit and humor when they arise spontaneously from the recesses of instruction are to be encouraged. But still the phunny phellow is a debatable quantity-a conundrum very much like a pun at a sacrament. The instructor whose chief equip ment is a comic almanac is open to suspicion that something better is possible. All this is suggested is an open question suit able for debate as to the relative merits of the two ideas represented-fun and work. This discussion has no vinegar in it and it is believed that a free consideration in the same spirit will demonstrate the desirability of some change in the institute work in this regard.

THE best evidence that a teacher is trying to better himself in the work of teaching is the fact that he reads educational works and learns what others are doing to improve themselves in their noble undertaking.-Normal School Instructor.

PRIMARY DEPARTMENT.

[This Department is conducted by HOWARD SANDISON, Professor of Methods in the State Normai School.]

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GEOGRAPHY WORK IN THE FIRST YEAR OF SCHOOL.

T

HE geography work of the first year of school should be incidental in its nature. The pictures employed in the

various lessons, would, taken in relation to his surroundings, convey to him many geographical ideas. In the stories read, and in the familiar talks of this year would arise many points that are geographical in their bearings. In like manner, the study of animals and vegetation would furnish grounds for the association of these with their countries; and for associating these countries with that of the pupils in respect of distance, direction, etc.

The lessons on place, form, color, drawing, size, distance, and direction, are, however, geographical threads of the first year of school. These lessons may be so presented as to both fix clearly the ideas themselves, and systematically merge into the realm of geography. And this geographical turn will tend to fix more clearly the ideas of color, form, etc. In the lessons on place, i. e., position, the geographical bearing would not so much appear. It would seem to be more a work upon words. Yet it would have a direct bearing in that it would assist in enabling the pupil to see accurately, and to describe any object, any visible portion of the earth, etc. This series of lessons would include work on many words of the following nature: on, above, before, between, around, right hand corner, left-hand corner, middle, etc. In such lessons the order of steps is :

I. The teacher would place objects, as upon the center of the table, at the middle of the right side, or on left-hand front corner, and then having led the pupils to observe closely the position, remove the objects and have the pupils imitate.

2. Place objects, and while they were in position have the pupils describe orally their position; as, "The cube is upon the front right-hand corner of the stand.”

3. The teacher would place objects, and leaving them in position, have the pupils draw the objects in position, upon slate and blackboard.

4. The teacher would place several objects at once, delay long enough to have the pupils fix clearly their position, and then disarranging, have the pupils place from memory.

5.

Have the pupils place objects from dictation; as, “Place the ball upon the center of the stand; upon the middle of the left-hand edge."

In the work on color, form, etc., as threads for geographical ideas, the work would first be taken as usual in those subjects. For example, if the color were yellow it would be taught first simply as a color, and the children would be led to distinguish it by the usual means, such as color-charts, ribbons, and various objects.

In the next place its geographical bearing would be brought to view, in that the children would be led to think of the color as pertaining to various things that are touched upon to a degree in geography work; as,

2. RIVERS: as, the Hong-ho, Tiber, Arve.

3.

4.

MINERALS: gold, sulphur, ochre.

ANIMALS: Birds-Meadow-lark; Baltimore Oriole; Bullock's Oriole; Yellow-headed Blackbird; California Woodpecker; Wild Canary; Summer Yellowbird; Yellow-hammer; Warblers (nearly all). Mammals-Bats (some); Deer (some); Weasel ; Ground Squirrel; Puma. Butterflies Papilio turnus; Colias protodice; Pieris rapae.

5. PLANTS: Dandelion; Golden Rod; Pumpkin; Melons; Poppy.

In the conversation concerning the color as found in these, their regions would incidentally be spoken of, their distance and direction from the pupil's own region, etc. In a similar manner the ideas of form, size, etc, could be considered.

Above all things seek to know the right-which never crosses God's will—and having learned to "deal justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly before thy God," dare both to do and maintain the right.

GENERAL LESSONS ARE NOT ADDITIONAL

SUBJECTS.

It is usual to arrange for the first year's work, a series of lessons on place, form, size, distance, direction, color, etc., as general lessons. These are called general lessons, because the discipline of mind gained by means of them is general in its bearing, and because the ideas obtained from them are involved in many fields of work. The comprehension of any picture that is before the child for examination involves all of these ideas of place, form, etc.; the mastery of any word as a form, also involves them, as does the knowledge of every letter in the word; if they have not been fixed, to a degree, before the child begins writing, he must deal with them along with the writing: the same is true of drawing. A series of systematic lessons upon these topics, i. e., place, form, color, etc., are direct aids to the mastery of the common branches. Really they are ideas inherent in the common branches, they are not new studies. The criticism is frequently made that the public schools of to-day are not as efficient as the old ungraded schools, and that one of the main reasons is that the present system of schools is loaded down with too many studies. A recent criticism of the public schools says that the reason of their inefficiency is made manifest by a glance at the prevailing course of study, which consists, as there stated, of the following: Lessons in Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, Reading, U. S. History, Spelling, Writing, Physiology, Definition, Composition, Drawing, Form, Color-thirteen distinct lines of work, as the writer avowed.

The primary teacher, who presents this work on general lessons should understand the system in which she works well enough, and should see into the subjects for general lessons clearly enough to be able to show to any patron of the schools, that with the possible exception of Drawing these lines of work do not mean an enlargement of the course of study. And even this study is such an important introduction to writing, and renders the mastery of forms in reading so much more easy, and confers such added power upon the eye and the hand that both the time and mental effort required for it as a separate study are

more than made up by the ease in the mastery of the other subjects as a result of its study. "What's in a name?" Can Definition be mastered with less effort by being merged into the other studies, of which it is an inherent element? Is there, indeed, such a study in the public schools of to day, apart from Reading, Geography, and the others of the eight branches? Are not the ideas gained in a regular series of lessons in Form, necessarily involved in writing, primary reading, and other of the legal branches? And are they not as easily mastered when taken in distinct lines? To say that the schools of to-day have Mathematical Geography; Political Geography; and Physical Geography does not make it clear that the schools of the present have three studies, for one in the schools of olden time. It only indicates that educators of this period discriminate more carefully than those of the past. Geography, if well taught, in the schools of earlier days involved the ideas of political, mathematical, and physical geography in their necessary relations. Likewise, Grammar, or Language, if well taught, involved work in composition. The difficulty of school work has not been increased by differentiating the elements in the subjects carefully, and giving specific names to the divisions. The only danger is that the primary teacher will, because the work in general lessons has assumed specific names, as Form, Color, Place, etc., come to look upon them as separate subjects, and treat them as things in themselves -thereby losing sight of the truth that the ideas comprehended in the term 'general lessons' belong necessarily in the eight common branches and have been lifted out and arranged into distinct lines of work because of their general and necessary bearing upon these legal subjects. They are in them and of them.

THE GROUND FOR PUNCTUALITY IN SCHOOL.

THERE are several ways in which punctuality is viewed. Sometimes it is viewed as an outer habit merely. Sometimes it is considered as an inner quality. One teacher considers that the reason for having the child punctual is that his record on the reports may be clear. Another thinks that combination with his classes is the real ground for insisting upon the pupil's being punctual. Very