THE fact that the meetings of all educational conventions are unusually large this year, is evidence of a wide-spread educational revival. The late meeting of the Ohio Teachers' Association at Cleveland was the largest in its history, and the same is true of the recent meetings of the New York Association at Ithaca, and the Pensylvania Association at Greensburg. The attendance at each of these meetings is estimated as high as one thousand. But the largest educational assemblage of the year is that of the National Associations at Trenton, N. J., which numbered some fifteen hundred. At each of these gatherings the ladies were gratuitously entertained, and both at Greensburg and Trenton the Associations were obliged to make appropriations of money to assist the over-taxed hospitality of the citizens. This raises the question whether our State and National Associations should continue the practice of promising free entertainment to lady delegates. We think the ladies would vote against it, on the ground that what is saved in expenses is more than lost in low salaries. The fact that a lady's professional expenses are less than a gentleman's is used to justify the great difference existing in their wages. Besides, the entertainment of ladies by citizens locates many of them at an inconvenient distance from the place of meeting, and otherwise deprives them of its full advantages.

THE size of our educational conventions suggests the importance of improving the character of their proceedings. We have attended three large conventions this year, and, in each case, have been disappointed by the failure of these bodies to grapple with vital questions and issues. We confess that it seems something like a farce to see a thousand educators spend three days in listening to a rapid succession of lectures and papers on a great variety of topics, of more or less importance, and finding relief in ever recurring "announcements" and profitless wrangles over points of order and ill considered motions. Is this result due to detailed programmes? The committees who lay out the work, seem possessed with the idea that the object of a programme is to "draw" a crowd, and so they crowd it with attractions, pressing each exercise into the least possible time. As an illustration of this, see the Trenton programme which provided for eighteen lectures and papers in three days. The best that could be done was to eke out a half hour for the discussion of Mr. Richard's paper on "Primary Instruction" and another half hour for the discussion of Mr. Joseph White's paper on "Christianity in the Public Schools", and this was done by prolonging the sessions! The fact is, that nothing will bring out the ability and strength of a convention like the thorough discussion of a great vital question, and such discussion should always crystalize into a brief statement embodying the views of the convention. The programme should not provide for more than one exhaustive paper each session, or three each day. Instead of a single paper of forty-five to sixty minutes in length, some of the sessions may each have two brief papers, say twenty minutes in length, simply affording a basis for intelligent discussion. The business of every convention should be intrusted to a live executive or business committee clothed with authority to prevent a waste of time and to direct the exercises to tangible, valuable results. Let us have a convention reform!

A NOVEL feature of the eastern associations is the attention given to elocution so-called. The Pennsylvania convention at Greensburg was beset by a troupe of "elocutists", male and female, ever ready to split the ears of groundlings with their rantings. It looked at one time as though they would take the convention by storm, and turn it into a grand "elocuting" carnival, but thanks to the pluck of the chairman of the executive committee, the danger was averted. The principal object of these performances is to afford entertainment, but how any cultivated person can be entertained by such mouthing as we heard, passes our comprehension. Some of the selections were in very bad taste, many were old and thread-bare, and nearly all were badly rendered. We were agonized during the performance, and astonished at the applause at the close. The good sense of the teachers finally found expression and the association relief. The Trenton convention was threatened with a similar infliction, but the protests from all quarters kept the matter within reasonable limits. While we enjoy real elocution, we have little patience with pretentious ranting and mouthing, and we query whether good reading is promoted by much of the so-called elocutionary instruction given in our teach ers' institutes.

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS.

The recent meeting of the National Associations at Trenton, N. J., was the most important educational council held in the history of the nation. Never before have twenty-eight States been represented in a similar body, and never before has the cause of universal education given such promise of a complete triumph. The public-school systems in all the Northern States are making unprecedented progress, and new systems are being organized in all the Southern States. The free school is soon to be a national fact.

The Trenton convention was also distinguished for the learning and ability of its membership. We have never before met so many eminent authors, scholars, teachers, and school officers, and the eastern press handsomely acknowledged the ability and talent manifest in the proceedings. After alluding to the fact that the members of the other learned professions are prominently before the public, the Daily State Gazette (Trenton) added:

The teacher does his work faithfully and conscientiously, and remains comparatively unknown, except to the discriminating few. Under this state of facts-and they will not be disputed by intelligent men-it is a matter of some surprise that there should be so very large a measure of intelligence in the profession. Among the teachers and professors in this city to-day, are men who as lawyers would have not only achieved high reputation, but have accumulated fortunes largely in excess of anything they can hope for from the profession they have embraced. We have been impressed by the appearance of the convention as a body, and we may be pardoned for expressing a doubt whether, in every indication of ability or cultivation, it is not at least equal to any convention of any other of the learned professions that could be brought together here. These men are really public benefactors. They devote to the cause of education-the cause of good government, morality, and religion-talents that in any other profession would assure their fame and fortune. Their choice of a profession may, in the first instance, have been in some degree fortuitous, but the man, conscious of his ability, and of the wider field open to him, who devotes himself to the work of education, does so from a sense of duty, and deserves the highest commendation from all thoughtful men.

We regret that we have space for only a brief summary of the proceedings.

NATIONAL SUPERINTENDENTS' ASSOCIATION.

The National Superintendents' Association met on Monday-President Bulkley, of Brooklyn, in the chair; Rev. Dr. Van Bokkelen, of Maryland, Secretary.

Dr. Hart, of Trenton, read a communication from Rev. Charles Brooks, of Massachusetts, urging the importance of establishing by act of Congress a national system of education. He held that it was clearly within the power of Congress to extend aid and encouragement to the several States in regard to public education, and further power should be secured by an amendment to the Constitution. The proposition met with little favor.

President Bulkley's inaugural address gave a history of the establishment of the National Bureau of Education, and expressed a deep regret that it is regarded with so little favor by members of Congress. This lack of appreciation is seen in the change of the Department to a bureau or mere office' with two clerks in the Department of the Interior, and in the reduction of the salary of the Commissioner from $4000 to $3000. On motion of Mr. Rickoff, ́of Ohio, a committee was appointed to take the subject into consideration. The committee subsequently made the following report, which was unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, It was in consequence of the earnest and often repeated recommendation of State and National Teachers' Associations, and especially of the action taken at the session of the Association of School Superintendents, held February 6th, 1866, in the City of Washington, that Congress finally established the Department of Education; and,

WHEREAS, The more recent action of the Senate and House of Representatives seems to indicate a want of confidence in such a Department as a useful agency in promoting the cause of education: Therefore, be it

Resolved, That this Association appoint a committee of three to act in conjunction with a similar committee from the National Teachers' Association, with instructions to confer with the authorities at Washington in regard to the best interests of the National Bureau or Office of Education."

Resolved, That the joint committee, appointed as above, be instructed to represent to Congress that it is the unanimous opinion of the members of this Association that such a Department at the seat of the General Government, clothed with all the powers, and having all the facilities contemplated in the law by which it was originally established, would be of almost incalculable utility in collecting and disseminating information for the use of the great multitude of school officers of every rank, who are now or who may hereafter be concerned in the organization and management of schools and school systems in scores of States, and thousands of cities and towns throughout the length and breadth of a territory which already covers almost a continent.

Resolved, That the said committee be further instructed to urge upon Congress that the causes which have impaired the present usefulness of the said department, whatsoever they may be, be not permitted to weigh against the continuance and liberal support of the department itself.

Resolved, That in petitioning Congress for the creation of a Department of Education in connection with the General Government, this association contemplates neither the establishment of a national system of education nor any interference whatsoever with the systems of education established in the several States.

Resolved, That the National Teachers' Association be respectfully requested to concur in the foregoing preamble and resolutions.

The National Teachers' Association concurred in the action proposed, and the joint committee was appointed.

Hon. B. G. Northrop, of Connecticut, read an excellent paper answering the

question, "Should Public Schools be free, or be supported in part by rate bills?" He stated that the rate-bill system had been tried in many States, but it was now abandoned in every Northern State except New Jersey. He presented a concise summary of the arguments in favor of free schools, and gave as his answer, "FREE SCHOOLS for the whole people."

Supt. George B. Sears, of Newark, N. J., read a paper on "The Primary Teacher", and Supt. H. F. Harrington, of New Bedford, Mass., delivered an address on "The True Idea of an American System of Public Schools." The Association held a meeting from 8 to 9 o'clock each subsequent morning, discussing, among other topics, "The Examination and Licensing of Teachers." The subject of school statistics was also discussed, and a committee with Hon. W. D. Henkle, of Ohio, chairman, was appointed to confer with the National Commissioner of Education. Supt. J. P. Wickersham, Pennsylvania, was elected President, and Wm. C. Creery, Maryland, Secretary, and the Association adjourned to meet at Washington next winter.

NATIONAL NORMAL ASSOCIATION.

This body convened on Tuesday at 10 o'clock, Prof. John Ogden, first Vice President, in the chair; A. L. Barber, Secretary. The entire day was devoted to the following papers and lectures: "How shall Normal Pupils be taught to teach?" by Rev. Dr. Joseph Alden, Albany, N. Y.; "The New Normal School Building at Winona, Minn.," by Prof. Wm. F. Phelps, Minnesota; "The Normal School Work in the South," by Prof. John Ogden, Tennessee; "Course of Study for a Normal School," by Prof. Fordyce A. Allen, Pennsylvania; "Normal Principles of Education," by John C. Harkness, Delaware; and "The Spiritual Element in Education," by Prof. Edward Brooks, Pennsylvania. Dr. Alden's paper was the only one discussed, and the time spent in its consideration did not much exceed thirty minutes. The discussion disclosed a diversity of views respecting the value of instruction in the principles of teaching.

The Association held a session from 8 to 9 o'clock on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings. Resolutions were passed confining the exercises in the future to topics bearing strictly on the functions of Normal Schools; providing for but one exhaustive address, and limiting all other papers to twenty minutes; and mapping out important practical work for the next meeting. Prof. John Ogden was elected President, A. S. Barber, Secretary, and Albert G. Boyden, Mass., Treasurer.

NATIONAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

This body met on Wednesday, Aug. 18, at 10 o'clock, A.M., President Van Bokkelen, of Maryland, in the chair; W. E. Crosby, of Ohio, Secretary. An ́ address of welcome by Judge R. S. Field, of the State Board of Education and the Board of Normal Trustees, was appropriately responded to by President Van Bokkelen, and the Association proceeded at once to business. Instead of following the proceedings seriatim, we have grouped the papers and addresses, thus indicating the subjects discussed.

I. Vocal Culture and Drawing.

Vocal culture was introduced by a class drill by Miss Swayze, of the New Jersey State Normal School, with readings by herself and pupils. Mrs. Ran. dall, of Oswego, N. Y., presented an excellent paper on "Natural Reading",

with illustrations; and on Friday, Prof. Monroe, of Boston, gave an admirable lecture on "The Voice and Its Training ", illustrated by Auxoux's models of the vocal organs. His reading was natural and expressive, and his selections new and appropriate. Prof. Woodman, of Dartmouth College, delivered a lecture on the fine arts, under the misnomer, "Drawing as a Branch of Elementary Education", to which subject he but briefly alluded.

II. Primary Instruction.

The first paper on this subject was by some mistake read before the Superintendents' Association. We refer to Supt. Sears's paper on "The Primary Teacher." He claimed that the most experienced and the best qualified teachers were needed in the primary grades. He sketched the proper method of primary teaching. Next Dr. Leigh, of New York, explained his "Pronounc ing Orthography", and illustrated his method of teaching reading by a primary class of boys and girls from the Soldiers' Orphans' Home of New Jersey. The President's introduction of the little orphans to the Association touched all hearts, and many eyes were suffused with tears. The next paper was read by Supt. Richards, of Washington, D.C., and was entitled: "Elementary Schools-Radical Defects and Remedies." He pointed out several important defects in our primary schools, and suggested three remedies-live teachers, good text-books, large and well-ventilated school-rooms. The paper was briefly discussed. What was remarkable in these papers was the failure to name object teaching as the one reform needed! True, both Mr. Sears and Mr. Richards plead for oral instruction and illustrations, but object teaching as a system was quite ignored.

III. Physiology and Botany.

Prof. James McClintock, of Philadelphia, delivered a very interesting lecture on "Physiology as a Part of Common School Education." The lecture was illustrated by a complete new set of Auxoux's Papeir Maché Models, Wax Preparations, Diagrams, and Natural Preparations, costing, it is said, over $7000. On Thursday, a paper on "Popular Science," by Mrs. Lincoln Phelps, of Baltimore, was read by Prof. Phelps of Minnesota. It was an earnest defense of the Linnæan method of studying Botany.

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IV. The Educational Question.

The true function of education was discussed in Mr. Harrington's paper on "The True Ideal of an American System of Public Schools", in Prof. Brooks's paper on The Spiritual Element in Education", in Supt. Wickersham's paper on "Higher Education", and in a paper by E. E. White, of Ohio, on "The True Criterion of School Education." Although these papers presented different phases of the same subject and from different stand-points, there was a remarkable harmony in the views advanced and in the conclusions reached.