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PUBLIC OPINION.

NOVEL READING.

In a recent Contemporary Review, Dr. Weldon, head master of the Harrow School, Eng., dis'cusses the "Teacher's Training of Himself."

"It appears," says Dr. Weldon, "to be the particular danger of school-masters and schoolmistresses that their profession has naturally a cramping or narrowing influence upon the mind; it is therefore the primary duty of all teachers to take every opportunity of enlarg. ing and liberalizing their views. The school. master must not be a school-master only; he must be more than a school-master. He must be a man of wide interests and information; he must move freely in the world of affairs. Fill your pitchers, however humble they may be, at the wide and overflowing stream of human culture. It is my counsel, as a precaution against narrowness, that you indulge largely in reading. You can hardly read too much. It may be a paradox to say so; but I doubt if it matters much what you read, so long as you read widely. Novel reading I con. scientiously recommend. It will take you out of yourselves, and that is perhaps the best holiday that anyone can have. It will give your minds an edge, an elasticity. The peril of reading no novels is much more serious than of reading too many. Apollo himself does not keep his bow on the sketch forever, and most of us need relaxation as much as Apollo."

POLITICS IN SCHOOL BOARDS. Supt. A. S. Draper writes in the Educational Review on Plans of Organization for School Purposes in Large Cities. He declares the principles upon which good government of these schools rests and the lines upon which reforms must be placed to be:

1. The elimination of politics from the selection of school boards;

2. Small school boards with members representing the whole city, and not wards or districts;

3. The complete separation of school administration from municipal business;

4. The school system of a great city must not only have an autonomy of its own, but its administration must be through departments; that is, material affairs should be entirely separated from the work of instruction.

These are substantially the lines along which the present administration of the schools of Cleveland, O., is moving.

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the district schools so inferior, though their quality varies much from year to year. With a good teacher in charge, the country district school is better than the city graded school, because it is more free from mere machinery and better adapted to develop the individuality of pupils. Hundreds of men and women of high standing and wide experience to-day are thankful for the little wooden country school. house of their childhood days, in which the educational methods pursued were infinitely inore scientific and valuable than those now followed in many of our city schools. - Albert Shaw in Sketch of Leland Stanford, August Review of Reviews.

NATIONAL LITERATURE?

A PRACTICE which is, it seems to us, better honored in the breach than in the observance, is that for nationalizing literature for study in the schools. There just now meets our eye in an American exchange an article on the "Study of American Masterpieces in Grammar Grades." Surely literature, like religion, should know no political boundaries. Every child engaged in the study of literature, to say nothing of masterpieces, is entitled to have set before him for admiration and imitation, thevery best of the particular kind that is avail

able, without regard to the country of its origin. To divide literature for educational purinto English, American and Canadian, or on any other artificial lines, is, to our thinking, to degrade the subject and wrong the pupils.

- Toronto Ed. Journal.

HOW TO TEACH CIVIC DUTY. Hon. James Bryce has an article in the Forum upon the duty of inculcating patriotism in schools.

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He suggests that "The pupil should be made to begin from the policeman and the soldier whom he sees, from the workhouse and the school inspector, from the election of the town councillor and the member of the legis. lature which, if he be an American boy, he will see pretty often, and about which, if he be an English boy, he is likely to have heard some talk. The old maxim of Horace about eyes and ears ought never to be forgotten by the teacher either of geography or of history, or of elementary politics. An ounce of personal observation is worth a pound of gathered from books; but the observation profits little till the teacher has laid hold of it and made it the basis of his instruction. I must therefore qualify the warning against details by adding that wherever a detail in the system of government gives some foothold of actual personal knowledge to the pupil, that detail must be used by the teacher and made the starting-point from which general facts are to be illustrated and explained." Current history, or elementary politics, Mr. Bryce thinks, would be easier to teach than history in the usual sense of the.term.

So much for giving instruction. A much more important side is that of stimulating interest in public affairs and inspiring a sense of civic duty. "If well-written historical narratives, fresh, simple, dramatic, were put into the hands of boys from ten years onwards, given to them not as task books, but as books to read for their own pleasure, not only would a good deal of historical knowledge be ac. quired, but a taste would often be formed which would last on into manhood.

-Superintendent Brooks, of Philadelphia, in his report of the schools of the city, recommends "as a regular part of the instruction of every grammar school, a course to include the Constitution of the State and of the United States, definite instruction in our form of government, and the nature, and duties of the chief officers and the manner in which they are elected or appointed, and object lessons in holding primary and general elections. Especially should lessons be given in respect to the nature of the city government, explaining the duties of the various officials, the manner of their election or appointment, the length of their terms of office, etc. Every boy, and girl, too, graduating from our grammar schools should be able to trace the organization of the government of the city, state and nation from the nominations of the primaries' to the election of mayor, governor and president. The sentiment of patriotism should be cultivated also in connection with this instruction in civic organization and administration. The raising of the American flag over our school buildings is a movement to be strongly commended; and I trust that the day will come when the Stars and Stripes, as a symbol of the Republic, shall float over every public school in the country."

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THE COMMON SCHOOL FETICHES.

The talk about enriching the grammar school courses, which has followed upon President Eliot's paper on that subject three or four years ago, has reached all parts of our country, and seems to be producing tangible results of the very highest importance in the modifica tion of school courses. Looked at negatively these results may be said to be a reaction against making a fetich of third grade branches. The tendency to do this arose from the wish to be thorough in them. They are the fundamentals of education; they are the common basis of citizenship; we must make sure that they are thoroughly mastered, and therefore

we must give a great deal of time to them, must go over and over with them; we must get out of them all there is in them. Thus we thought, and thus arithmetic and geography became school fetiches. The result has not been what was anticipated. Instead of remarkable competence in these branches, we find woodenness, dreary drills, and intellectual torpor. It is now easy to see that such results must follow from such antecedents. Thoroughness is sometimes only another name for stupidity; and when we cease to work for the broadening and development of mind, and put ourself to the task of drilling any branch into the memory in such wise that it shall be all completely compressed, we attain just such thoroughness. The time allowed permits dawdling, the introduction of puzzles, the magnifying of trifles, the multiplication of

cases," and consequent intellectual torpor. Real education is not given in that way. This recognizes that by thoroughness we properly mean only the habits of insight and accuracy, which are cultivated by all studies properly pursued; and that insight especially comes of range even more than of repetition; so that the pupil who probes on into algebra when he is able to take it up successfully comes to be more competent in arithmetic than the one who keeps plodding in the latter, because his mind is kept fresh by the new field in which it works, and through the quired is enabled to see before escaped its grasp. "mastering" arithmetic by itself is made apparent. The relation which holds here between arithmetic and algebra is sure to hold also between geography and history, and between composition and literature.- Wis. Sch. Jour.

broader range acin arithmetic what Thus the fallacy of

POLITICS AND EDUCATION.

Mr. E. Haueisen, district clerk of Waupun, Wis., writes us as follows to the Wisconsin Sch Journal concerning Wisconsin methods:

"I think Dr. Rice is right when he says Absolute divorcement of the school manage. ment from politics was necessary. (July Journal, page 154) We all agree that teachers should not be engaged or rejected on account of their political faith. Up to the present date I have not seen a teacher's certificate wherein the superintendent has asked the applicant, 'Are you a Republican, Democrat, Prohibitionist or Alliance man?' No, and I am glad of it. No school board should be elected for the same reasons. Note the way our county sup. erintendents are (mostly) nominated: The convention's business is mainly to fight for the sheriff's and other fat county offices. Before this is accomplished they are worn out. When it comes to select the county superintendent they are in a hurry to get home or do not care whom they take-if he only belongs to the party and can draw votes (for others). They place him with the coroner and surveyor very respectable offices - but after all he is in the wrong place why? He should not be on any political ticket.

DRAWING SIMPLIFIED.

Professor Augsburg's "Text-Book of Form Study and Drawing," or "Drawing Simplified," is from the press of the Educational Publishing Company. An examination of it reveals something very unique. As the stone is trimmed and fitted for its place in the structure in process of building, so this little book comes well prepared to fill a place awaiting it in the ever-building structure of education. The mind's eye that saw the place for that work has looked along a new route and noted things heretofore unobserved, has combined ideas heretofore uncombined, and had the good sense to project them upon a plane of method and language low enough to instruct the young minds for whom the book was designed, and be a handbook as well for the teachers of the subject, for whom no better could have been designed. It is based on sound peda. gogic principles. It is just what the practical teacher has hankered after for years. To the teacher who is required to teach drawing, but who has not acquired the knack, it is a perfect boon.- Tribune, Salt Lake City.

EDUCATIONAL NOTES.

NEW YORK SCHOOLS.

From State Supt. Crooker's late report we learn that "During some portion of the year there were employed 5,292 male and 26,869 female teachers, a total of 32,161.

The number employed at the same time and for the legal term of school was, for the cities, 9,515, and for the towns 15,369, making an aggregate number of 24,884, which made the basis of the state quota of public money. Of the 32,161 who were employed for any portion of the year 2,694 were normal school graduates, 869 were licensed by the superintendent of public instruction and 28,598 were licensed by local officers and school commissioners."

PENNSYLVANIA.

The state appropriation for which the war. rants are now going out from the Dept. of Public Instruction, is five millions. Next year it will be five and one-half millions, and the same amount for the year thereafter, the recent Legislature having added a million to the appropriation for the two years, 1894 and 1895. -The Legislature of Pennsylvania has pro. vided that the salary of no county superinten. dent hereafter shall be less than one thousand dollars, and that in counties having over one hundred and ninety schools, or twelve hundred square miles of territory, or a school term exceeding seven and one half months, the salary shall not be less than fifteen hundred dollars.

The highest salary permitted is two thousand dollars, but the convention of directors called to elect a county superintendent may vote a larger sum, the increase to be deducted from the county's quota or the state appropriation.

The general basis of the salary is fixed at four dollars and a half for each school in the superintendent's jurisdiction at the time of his

election.

-Almost 1,000,000 pupils are enrolled in Pennsylvania public schools under the instruction of more than 25,000 teachers. Total school expenditure for '92 was over $14,000,000. The school property in the state is valued at $40,000,000.

-The Pennsylvania Legislature at its late session passed a law authorizing the State Superintendent to "grant without examination permanent State teachers' certificates to all applicants therefor who are graduates of recognized literary or scientific colleges, legally empowered to confer the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Bachelor of Philosophy, and whose course of study embraces not less than four collegiate years, Provided: said applicants are at least twenty-one years of age, and have taught at least three full annual terms in the public schools of the Commonwealth after graduation."

TEACHING IN IOWA. There is a scarcity of teachers in some counties. The reasons for this are numerous. The disposition of directors to cut down salaries and to hire the cheapest teachers is driving the graduates of our schools into other occupations. Then the custom in some cases, and it is a mean custom, too, of one teacher's underbidding another is driving some of the best men and women out of the profession. They are sick of the competition which sends fifty candidates for some really unimportant posi tion. The county superintendent too often thinks that it is his business to furnish teachers and for that purpose he issues certificates to those who are really unworthy because he imagines that it is his duty to do it. The remedy is twofold. In the first place the county superintendent must regard his oath enough to license only those who are qualified to teach children and youth; and, in the second place, teachers must refuse to bid against each other, and must resolve that they will have living salaries or they will not teach. This will bring salaries back where they ought to be, and then there will be competent teachers enough to fill the places.- Iowa Sch. Jour.

IOWA.-The executive committee of the State Teachers' Association at its meeting in Des Moines, in May arranged for a meeting next December. The location was not settled, but it seems probable that the sessions will occur at Sioux City.

CHICAGO SCHOOLS.

James Rosenthal, chairman on the committee on rules, has introduced an amendment looking to the practical divorcement of the peda gogical and business interests of the schools. To a reporter of the Inter Ocean he said:

"One of the material additions to the rules of the board, as presented by the committee appointed to revise the rules, is that 'all reports of the committee on school management involving questions affecting the educational department of the board, such as appointment and transfer of the teachers, changes in course of study, adoption of text-books, etc., shall have affixed thereto the written approval or disapproval of the superintendent of schools of the recommendations contained therein.' The purpose of this rule is to ascertain whether the recommendations are those of the committee or those of the superintendent. Very frequently the various committees made recommendations concerning educational matters without consulting the superintendent or even contrary to his opinion, after having ascertained it. The superintendent and his assistants are better qualified to judge of the merits of teachers, text-books, etc., than any member of the board, and should have full control in such affairs and should be held responsible for the educational standing of our schools. If the superintendent and his assistants are not able, then the board should not elect such, but should fill the positions with persons having proper ability.

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lic school system would be of higher standard if there would be less interference by the board members in the conduct of this, its most vital branch.

"Political pulls and friendship have much to transfer do with the appointment and of teachers as board matters are and have been conducted. The teacher of rare ability, without influential friends, and too modest to do campaigning for herself, is lost sight of and not recognized, for even though she might be recommended by the superintendent, the majority of the district committee or school management committee have pledged themselves to the support of some one inferior. To request the opinion of the superintendent in open board meeting concerning some recommendation made by a committee is considered by some contrary to parliamentary rules, and the president's ruling in favor of such request is appealed from and sometimes it is decided that the board should not be enlightened by the views of the superintendent. The superintendent and his assistants are constantly hampered in their work to improve the school system by the reckless assumption of authority by individual members of the board. I believe that the amended rule is too good to pass."

A FEW STATISTICS ABOUT THE WORLD'S FAIR CITY. To-day, careful estimates place the populaat 1,400,000, and the probability is that it is above rather than below that figure. The area within the city limits is 181 square miles. There is over $200,000,000 invested in manufacturing industries, producing annually upward of $550,000,000 worth of goods, and paying employees more than $100,000,000. The wholesale business of the city aggregates more than $500,000,000 and its commerce more than $1,500,000,000. Its meat products alone are valued at $130,000,000. The bank clearings are nearly $5,000,000,000 a year. $60,000,000 has been invested in public schools, whose maintainance costs from $5,000,000 to $6,000.000 a year. There are 800 private schools, 350 seminaries and academies, and four universities. The public library contains nearly 200,000 volumes, and has a circulation greater than that of any other in the United States. The other libraries of the city are estimated to contain over 3,000,000 vol

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ESTIMATES OF PUPILS' WORK. The following scheme for marking pupils, is used in the schools of Springfield, Ohio:

1.. Pupils who have habitually given full, prompt and correct answers, and show by the form of answer an understanding of the subject, are to be marked as Superior.

2. Pupils who habitually give full and prompt answers, though at times inaccurate in matters of detail, are to be marked as Excellent.

3. Pupils who are diligent in hours of study and show by their answers that they have given attention to the preparation of lessons, who usually are correct in their answers and do their work in proper school hours are to be marked as Good.

4. Pupils who in addition to the foregoing description (section 3) exhibit ambition and zeal in their work are to be ranked Very Good.

5. Pupils who hesitatingly follow the words of the text-book and have to be assisted in the expression of their knowledge by leading or supplemental questions are to be ranked as

Fair.

6. Pupils whose work, in the main, is poorly done and done under reproot by personal urging on the part of the teacher and by detention after proper school hours are to be ranked as Poor.

7. Pupils who habitually neglect their les sons, who, though personally labored with, fail to obtain accurate results, and who, notwithstanding all pains taken with them, show little improvement, are to be ranked Very Poor.

HURRY, AND THE CHANCE OF LIFE. In a paper on The Duration of Life of Nervous American, Dr. Julius Pohlman asks, “Is this so often quoted fearful nervousness' and 'early death' a fact or merely an assertion? What proofs have we for it? It seems very plausible, indeed, and apparently correct physiological reasoning to say that the individual's longevity is in inverse proportion to his daily hurry, all other things being equal. But not many years ago the equally misleading but equally plausible statement was accepted that the human race was grow. ing smaller with the advance of civilization. "First of all," the author continues, "the assumption that increased activity and greater hurry mean more rapid wearing away of the body ignores the fact that the human body is a wonderful piece of machinery, which not only renews itself constantly, but whose strength and power of endurance and capacity for more work increase with increased use up At to the point at which use becomes abuse. what time and under what pressure this dan. ger line is reached depends upon the individ. ual." The testimony of the executive officers of four of our largest life-insurance companies "from the material is quoted to show that standpoint of dollars and cents the life of the American is at least as good as, if not better than, that of the European, all other conditions being the same. And if we remember that probably the majority of the holders of policies of life insurances in this country is made up from those same active, pushing, and rushing men, a class among which death from overwork would naturally occur most fre quently, then the figures mentioned acquire additional force. A compilation drawn from every available source regarding the estimated duration of life at different years of age in America and in Europe gives figures that show that the chances of the American, from early manhood to a good old age, are, all through, a little better than those of his English brother and a good deal better than those of the Germans."

-The vote of the school children of Wisconsin for a state tree resulted in the choice of the maple by a considerable plurality. The total vote was 210,086, the maple receiving 47,241 and the oak 25478, and seven or eight other kinds a considerable number of votes. The voting awakened much interest and study of the dif ferent kinds of trees. In many city schools the election was made interesting and instructive by the use of the Australian ballot. It is noteworthy that the maple was the favorite tree in the choice of selections.

THE MODERN WAY.

The recent school-book battle in Minneapolis is not an achievement calculated to inspire much complacency in those who understand it and its implications. Book-agents, by the score tumbled over each other in indecent jostlings of themselves and the board of education. One text-book Napoleon is reported to have had the whole situation under his thumb, and to have pulled down and set up without rhyme or reason, and this was, mark you, in the vestibule to that white temple, the free American school, in which virtue, manliness and womanliness are to unfold their snowy purity! And these, God save the mark! are the evangelists of education, teaching men the better way! The place best suited to such display is the nameless dumping ground of a slaughter-house where crawling things and corruption reek. The actors best adapted to it are vultures and cormorants besmeared and besmirched with the offal in which they revel. By the way, where was that immaculate honesty we were assured had taken possession of the book houses? School Education.

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Another table shows the increase in number of certified teachers since the law of 1881. In that year the number uncertificated was - In public schools, 2,343 men, 9,901 women; in private (or clerical) schools, 2,229 men,' 12,200 women; in 1891 the numbers were 260, 3,145, 797, and 6,741 respectively.

Sunday morning classes have been started in Paris for the purpose of preparing primary teachers for the post of manual training instructors. It has also been decided to institute an examination for such skilled mechanics as wish to become assistant instructors. The examination will comprise five-and a-half hours' practical work, including the preparation of working drawings and the repairing of tools, and about two hours' paper work questions of theory.

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solutely necessary if the schools are not to be closed." It was also decided to send a petition to the Reichstag on the subject.

CHILDREN'S CHARACTERISTICS. Prof. Sully, of London, England, has asked parents or teachers of young children to sup. ply him with facts bearing on the characteristics of the childish mind. What he especially desires is first-hand observations carried out on children during the first five or six years of life. Any action or saying which was considered worth recording will presumably have some significance as illustrating either com. mon characteristics or the range of individual diversity among children. With the observa

tions there should be given the sex of the child and the exact age at the time of the occurrence described, also, if possible, a reference to any facts of temperament, surroundings, and previous experience, which serve to throw light on the observations. The point on which observations are more particu. larly desired are the following:

1. Under Attention and Observation.- Illustrations of the special directions of early Atten. tion and Interest (in looking, touching, etc.), and of the gradual widening of the field of observation. Instances of specially exact, as well as of hasty and inexact, observation.

2. Under Memory. Earliest manifestations of memory in recognizing persons, etc. Facts going to show what things the child remembers best. Memory for out-of-the-way facts, insignificant details, etc. Examples of strength of verbal memory in the child, as in noting the introduction of new words in the repetition of a familiar story or a poem.

3. Under Imagination and Fancy. - Instances of anthropomorphic fancy, child-myth, and personification of nature. How the child spontaneously fills up the unknown in space and time. Instances of apparent falsehood resulting from a vivid imagination. Imagination as interfering with observation and producing "illusions of sense."

4. Under Reasoning. First appearance of curiosity about the origin of things, of the child himself, of the Deity, and so forth. Childish puzzles or the things which appear strange and set him thinking (e. g., nature of dreams, the fact of his own previous nonexistence, birth, etc). Characteristic modes of childish explanation. How the child trans. lates our explanation of things, and generally puts his own childish meaning into our words (e. g., in misapprehension of descriptions, in misapplication of rules of conduct.)

5. Under Language.- First use of articulate sounds, characteristic omissions, alterations, and transpositions of sounds in repeating words(e. g.,in use of "klam" for perambulator.) Order of acquisition of different sounds. Invention of new word-sounds (e. g., "mum" for eatable.) Original applications of common words (e. g., in calling the panting of a dog "puff, puff.")

6. Under Pleasure and Pain.-First character. istic manifestations of pleasure and dis. pleasure (smiling, frowning, etc. Instinctive and acquired likes and dislikes for persons, animals, toys, etc.) Favorite modes of amusement.

7. Under Fear.-First manifestations of fear, more especially of the dark, of animals, of big moving things, as the sea, etc. Any facts bearing on the question whether such fears are instinctive, or are due to individual experience and to the suggestions of others.

8. Under Self-feeling. Illustrations of childish feeling for self. Instances of self-pity, self-caressing, etc. Directions of childish vanity (dress, display of strength, etc.) Jealousy, how excited. Manifestations of a feeling of property in toys, etc.

GERMANY. At the late Congress of German "Gewerbeschulmänner," held in Cassel, an interesting paper was read on Sunday technical schools and their future. The lecturer gave a historical sketch of the development of these schools, which were founded by ecclesiastics, described the Sunday technical schools of Hanover, Altona, Hamburg, etc. (there are 15,000 pupils in North Germany alone), and finally spoke of the efforts made by certain opponents to put a stop to this Sunday instruction. These efforts began in the sixties, but have not attained any success until last year, since when the schools have to be closed during morning service, a regulation which, unless it be speedily rescinded, will have the effect of completely destroying the fabric that has been so laboriously built up. After pointing out the advantages possessed by Sunday mornings over week-day evenings, the lecturer proposed the following resolution which, 10. Under Artistic Taste.- First crude maniafter some debate, was unanimously adopted: festations of taste. Special preferences in the "That the retention of several hours' uninter- matter of colors, forms, rhythms of melody, rupted instruction on Sunday mornings is ab. of verse, etc. Facts illustrating children's

9. Under Sympathy, Affection.- Examples of early feeling towards animals and human beings as bearing on question of innate sympathy. Facts illustrating the so-called cruelty of children (as pulling flies to pieces.) Special provocatives of pity (e. g., sight of a dead animal.)

ideas of " prettiness," "grandeur," etc. First manifestations of laughter, how provoked. First clear indications of a sense of the comical or ludicrous in children.

11. Under Moral and Religous Feeling.— Earliest known examples of respect for authority (e. g., ceasing to cry when spoken to in firm, authoritative tone.) First exercise of judicial function by the child in scolding (or commending) others or himself. Facts throwing light on child's first conceptions of right and wrong. Illustrations of crude feeling of jus. tice in little children. What especially excites a feeling of being injured or wronged. Illustrations of moral sensibility and of callousness. 12. Under Volition.- Imitation of others in words, gestures, etc. Illustrations of the effect of others' verbal suggestions on childish action. Examples of self-will, of defiance of commands. First manifestations of hesita. tion in acting and of self-restraint.

13. Under Artistic Production.- Spontaneous dramatic invention(" make-believe") in play. Original manual construction (building with bricks, etc.) Invention of stories. First draw. ings of animals, men, etc. (with facsimiles if possible.) Noticeable grades of progress in these spontaneous drawings. Prof. Sully's address is East Heath Road, Hampstead, Lon. don, N. W., England.

HIGH PRESSURE IN EUROPE. In an article in the Educational Times, (Eng.) the Rev. William Burnett, M. A., presents some important and startling statistics which have been gathered to show the effects of high pres sure in European schools upon the physical health and growth of children. One result of these inquiries at Stockholm was the following; "At the end of the first school year sev enteen per cent of the children medically examined were found sickly or ailing; at the close of the second year, thirty-seven per cent. were so; and after the fourth year, the number of sufferers had risen to forty per cent. Similar results were reported in Denmark. In both countries the cause appeared to be the same, the mental strain augmenting in proportion as the scholars advanced in the classes, although the hygienic conditions were unchanged. This was found to be especially the case with the girls, sixty-one per cent. of whom evinced signs of chronic ailments, more or less serious, and ten per cent. had curvature of the spine. The excessive length of the hours of study, at least in the colleges, seemed to fully account for this state of things.

In France the state of things was found no less unsatisfactory. No wonder! The primary schools are open for thirty hours in a week of five days (Thursday being a holiday,) and in addition the children have to prepare home. lessons in the evenings. In the Lycees and other secondary schools the case is even worse. There the boys generally enter at nine years of age, and they as well as their seniors, are doomed, on an average, to ten hours' work daily in class, or in preparation for class, with only four intervals of recreation, amounting in the day to three hours for the lower classes, and two hours for the higher. The regulations vary, indeed, in different places; but these, according to Dr. Rochard, are the hours in most schools. What are the results? The same writer states that it has been shown from statistics that, of the young men exempted from military service on account of weak health, those who have taken a Bachelor's degree are the most numerous. He also says, from his own observation as a physician, that nervous affections, brain diseases, dyspepsia, myopia, are largely prevalent in school. The only com. ment which suggests itself, for which we have space, is, "What fools these mortals be." Toronto Journal.

-R. H. Barringer, Prin. Liberty St., School, Rome, N. Y., writes: -I have received and examined Mrs. Kelly's "Leaves from Nature's Story-Book." I am more than pleased with the novel way in which the writer introduces the young child to the wonders of nature. Let such a book be placed in the hands of all our little people, for supplementary reading, and we may be assured that the day of the three R's is indeed past.

EDUCATIONAL NOTES.

STANDARD ARITHMETIC, EMBRACING A COMPLETE COURSE FOR SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES. By William J. Milne, Ph.D., LL.D. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: American Book Co.

This volume follows the course of most textbooks in arithmetic, with the notable excep tion that the Metric System, Divisors and Multiples, and a few other subjects, such as Progressions and Equation of Payments, which should be skipped by the children of the grammar grades, are placed in an appendix at the end of the volume. The oral examples are quite numerous, but even more of them would not have come amiss.

MERRILL'S WORD AND SENTENCE BOOK, published by Charles E. Merrill & Co., New York, contains an unusually large list of words selected and classified with respect to their meaning, and providing also a great number of dictation exercises which require the pupil to write the words in different combinations. It is an excellent book in the respect that in every lesson there is something which not only compels the exercise of the memory alone, but also of the reasoning faculty.

THOUGHTS FROM MARCUS AURELIUS. Boston: Ginn & Co. 206 pages.

Upon what Marcus Aurelius is, per se, no book review need comment, but whether it is the best selection of reading for children is a question. Marcus Aurelius is a philosopher searching always for the subtle moral signifi. cance of life. Is this a natural bent of thought for a child? Is it even desirable for a child that he should follow such lines of thought? The Good Book hints to us that even the best things may lose their excellence if "out of season." It may be well not to forget this in our present impulse towards best reading for the pupils of our public schools.

THE NEW ERA. By Dr. Josiah Strong, author of "Our Country." 400 pages. Library Edition, Cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Plain cloth, 75 cents. Paper, 35 cents. New York: Baker & Taylor Co.

I. The Nineteenth Century one of Preparation. 11.-The Destiny of the Race. III.-The Contribution made by the Three Great Races of Antiquity. IV.-The Contribution made by the Anglo Saxon, V.- The Authoritative Teacher. VI. The Two Fundamental Laws of Christ. VII.- Popular Discontent. VIII.The Problem of the Country. IX.-The Prob. lem of the City. X.-The Separation of the Masses from the Church. XI.-The Mission of the Church. XII.-The Necessity of New Methods. XIII. Necessity of Personal Contact. XIV. Necessity of Co-operation. XV.- The Two Great Principles Applied to the Two Great Problems. XVI. An Enthusiasm for Humanity.

This second work, by the author of "Our Country," which is now in its 160th thousand, is an application of fundamental principles to the solution of some of the greatest problems of the times.

As

The writer finds in history two governing principles which are its key-two lines of progress along which the race has moved. these lines spring from man's constitution, they are permanent and indicate the direction of the world's future progress. In this light the writer interprets the great movements of the times, and points out what he believes history, reason and revelation alike show to be the solution of the great problems of the age.

FROEBEL'S ᏞᎬᎢᎢᎬᎡᏚ. With explanatory notes and additional matter by Arnold H. Heinemann. Boston: Lee & Shepard.

The universal spread of the Kindergarten has given a new and vivid interest to all that relates to Froebel. In the selections from his letters never before published, just made by Mr. Heinemann, we are taken into the silent brain-chambers of the friend of children; and we see how he toiled painfully along the road pointed out by reasoning and experience before (in his simple phrase) he "found" the Kindergarten. This book with its explanatory notes becomes at once a memoir and a history of the system.

SMALL TALK ABOUT BUSINESS.

By A. E. Rice. A Banker's Business Hints for Men and Women. Published by the Fremont Pub. Co., Fremont, Ohio. 60 pages. 40 and 75 cents.

Books upon business topics are common enough, but we have seen none so practically helpful to all classes as this. The book has a pretty appearance-a gem of the printers' art. Just the thing for teachers.

THE

ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION OF INTELLIGENCE. By Edwin J. Houston, A. M., pp. 330. Cloth. New York: W.J. Johnston Co.,Ld., 41 Park Row, Times Building.

Edwin J. Houston, A. M., has issued a series of Advanced Primers of Electricity. The one entitled "The Electric Transmission of Intelligence," presents to the student in a concise and entertaining manner just those under lying principles and laws the knowledge of which is absolutely necessary to the correct understanding of the various methods employed in the transmitting of intelligence.

It deals with the Telegraph, Cable Instrument, Telephone, System of Time Telegraph, Electric Annunciators and Alarms in a sensible and practical Interspersed manner. throughout the book are " Extracts from Standard Works" giving to the student the opinions of those entitled to speak on subjects which they discuss.

LITERARY NOTES.

Milton Bradley Co.'s Catalogue of Home Amusements, comprises games, toys and puzzles, many of which will be of interest and use to the primary teacher. The Toy Clock Dial, Building Blocks, Educational Toy Money, and Sewing Cards are illustrations of the material that may be of equal use in the school as well as the home.

· Macmillan & Co, have just ready a new and cheaper edition of "The Memoriam of Dean Hole," which abounds in bright, sparkling an ecdotes of all kinds of people; "A Treatise on the Theory of Functions," by Prof. James Harkness, of Bryn Mawr College; and "Fo ia Litteraria," essays and notes on English literature, by Prof. John W. Hales, of King's Col. lege, London.

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·William Beverley Harison will publish on the 15th inst. "The Foreigner's Manual of English." This is prepared for use in mixed classes of without any foreigners, and can be used knowledge of the several languages, English only is used throughout. It has been carefully corrected to embody all of the sug gestions of Gouin, whose book appeared after completion of first MS., and during revision the Ms. has been successfully used in teaching Chinese, Polish Jews and others absolutely ig. norant of both written or spoken English. The lessons are arranged to give in each a concrete subject, and a useful vocabulary is given to enable the student to talk from the beginning.

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- Ginn & Co., will publish Sept. 1, "A High School Rhetoric," embodying the main principles of rhetoric in a progressive course of English composition by Professor John F. Genung.

- Longmans, Green & Co have in preparation an edition of the poetical works of Lord Lytton. There are to be three volumes, the first of which will contain "The Wanderers," first published in 1858; the second, "Lucile," the most popular of his writings; and the third, selections of the best of his verse. They have also in press another reprint from Mr. Anstey's contributions to Punch being "The Man from Blankley's: a story in scenes," which attracted more than usual attention on its appearance.

Ginn & Co., Boston, have purchased of Lee & Shepard Blaisdell's Series of Physiologies, a series which, we believe, combines in a remarkable way scientific truth, temperance instruction, and text-book merit.

-"The Story of My Life," by Dr. Georg Ebers, is the title of a delightful autobiography full of fascinating reminiscences, which will be published immediately by D Appleton & Co. This autobiogrophy tells of Dr. Ebers's student life in Germany, his association with movements like that for the establishment of kindergarten training, his acquaintance with distinguished men like Froebel and the brothers Grimm, his glimpses of revolutionary movements, his interest in Egyptology and the history of ancient Greece and Rome, and the beginnings of his literary career. It is a book of historical as well as personal interest, and its value is enhanced by the presentation of portraits.

- The Atlantic Monthly for August contains an article by Professor Nathaniel S. Shaier of Harvard University entitled "Relations of Academic and Technical Instruction." The author proves by arguments drawn from history and from his long experience as a teacher that the technical school to be successful, that is to do the best for its students, must be a part of a university. In the September number General Francis A. Walker, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has a paper entitled "The Technical School and the University." These two articles by men of high authority, representing both sides of this important question, should be of the greatest value to teachers.

— Houghton, Mifflin & Co. announce a volume of poetry by Dr. Thomas W. Parsons, to be entitled "The Shadow of the Obelisk, and other poems." This firm calls the special at

book

tention of schools and teachers to "Latin Lessons," by Henry Preble, formerly assistant professor of Latin and Greek at Harvard University, and L. C. Hull, of the Lawrence. ville School, Lawrenceville, N. J., a which will be found specially strong in its treatment of the order of words in Latin sentences; to "Riverside Primer and Reader," an admirable stepping-stone to "Fables and Folk-Stories," the simplest of the books of the Riverside Literature Series, and to "The Riverside Song-Book," containing classic American poems set to standard music, the text selected by W. M. Lawrence and the music by C. Blackman.

The Century Co. have in preparation "Poems of Home," by J. Whitcomb Riley, illustrated by E. W. Kemble; "The Public School System of the United States," by Dr. J. M. Rice, republished from the Forum. Mrs. Van Rensselaer's " English Cathedrals" is to be issued as a handbook, in convenient size by tourists. The new juveniles include a novelty in color called "Topseys and Turveys," a new Brownie Book by Palmer Cox; "Walter Camp's Book of College Sports;" and "The White Cave," by W. O. Stoddard.

Macmillan & Co. will publish early in the fall the first volume of Prof. Goldwin Smith's new work, "A Political History of the United States."

-The World's Fair will not be permitted to live only in the memories of those who saw it, and in the files of newspapers. The Bancroft Company, Auditorium Building, Chicago, have in preparation what they call THE BOOK OF THE FAIR, which will be a permanent and illustrated chronicle of the exhibits. The text is by Hubert Howe Bancroft, and the illustrations profuse. As pointed out in the preface, the exhibition of 1851 was contained in a single edifice of one million square feet, while the space occupied at the World's Fair of to-day is eight or nine times as great.

- In the department of Fads, Fashions and Fancies in the August Current Literature will be found an interesting page or two of the sarcasm and wit of contemporary French writers, while in the Philosophic department are some curious excerpts from the writings of Confucius and Mencius, the Oriental moralists.

“THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH"

BLAISDELL'S .. PHYSIOLOGIES.

Endorsed by the Physicians.
Endorsed by the Scientific Men.

Endorsed by the Moralists.
Endorsed by the Teachers.

Endorsed by the Women's Christian
Temperance Union.

TRUE, SCIENTIFIC, INTERESTING, TEACHABLE.

Blaisdell's Physiologies were written by a scholar and a teacher; by one who knows his subject and knows how to teach it; they are full of practical suggestions, and aids to

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GINN & COMPANY

BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO

instruction, and are thoroughly satisfactory
from every standpoint.
SUPERINTENDENT TARBELL,
Providence, R. I.

The leading purpose of the books of this series is to treat of the care and preservation of the health. The latest facts are given; and in each division the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics on the human system are shown with force, accuracy, and candor.

Many experiments with and without apparatus are suggested and explained in a manner that will be invaluable to pupils. The health notes, in the form of blackboard exercises, in the "Child's Book of Health," in physical exercises, in "Our Bodies, and How we Live," and in hundreds of suggestions throughout the volumes, form especially good features of the series.

IN USE IN

Boston, New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia,

STONE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

A

LOWELL, SOMErville, Chelsea, Springfield, & BROCKTON, MASS.; PROVI,DENCE, NEWPORT, & WOONSOCKET, R.I.; and many other cities and towns.

MONG other cities, has just been adopted for use, under the Minnesota law, for all the schools of the CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS.

Stone's History of England is found to be an eminently satisfactory text-book; one reason for this is the special feature of the book, giving so much prominence to matters of social life and progress, so that pupils get an idea of the manners and habits of the people, and of the state of society at different periods.

Sample copy for examination mailed for 50 cents.
THOMPSON, BROWN & CO., Publishers, BOSTON and CHICAGO.
Send for Sample and Catalogue.
ANDREWS MANUFACTURING CO.,

Lehigh Blackboard Cloth.

School Apparatus

76 Fifth Avenue, New York.

Blackboards.

A. H. ANDREWS & CO., 215 Wabash Ave., Chicago. of all kinds.

Keep your Schools to the Front.

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EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING CO., 50 Bromfield Street, Boston.

70 Fifth Avenue, New York.

262 Wabash Avenue, Chicago.

Are you using them?

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