(4.) The number changed from class to class is usually small. The disturbance in classes is very slight compared with the advantages gained by the teacher in being relieved of the necessity to drive the laggards, and drill and cram them to make them keep up with the average of the class.

The teacher was once obliged to spend most of her time upon the dull ones in the useless endeavor to force them to make up lost time, or to equal the strides of the more mature, more regular, or more brilliantly gifted pupils, and, of course, these latter pupils lost proportionately, and the net result of the process was to overwork the incompetent, and to hold back the competent ones.

The teacher, in the vain efforts to hold together the extremes of her class, separating more widely every day till the end of the year, became cross and petulant, and sank continually into the abyss of drill-machine pedagogy.

Under our present system we can make room, when needed, in the lower grades, and fill up the classes of our skillful and high-priced teachers. — W. T. HARRIS, City Superintendent of Schools, St. Louis.

SCIENCE IN RELATION TO TEACHING. Of all the applications of science to the practical arts, there is none that can for a moment bear comparison with its application to the art of teaching. Scientific education, as currently understood, refers to something of greatly inferior importance: it means instruction in sciences. Many of the teachers in our schools know something of these sciences, and do what they can to expound them. This, of course, is useful, but it is the lowest agency for the diffusion of science. Of the uses of science to themselves as professors of the art of teaching, or of its value in guiding the processes of education, it is not too much to say that the mass of teachers as yet know nothing. This however, is the main and essential thing now to be imperatively demanded, and which, when attained, will do more toward the universal promotion of science than all other modes of influence combined. Scientific education is far less a question of the number of hours per week that are to be devoted to this kind of study than a question of bringing scientific knowledge to bear upon the operations of the school room. PROF. YOUMANS, in Popular Science Monthly.

CHARACTER gives splendor to youth and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs—R. W. Emerson.

COUNTRY SCHOOLS. – II.

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Short Terms. - Another of the disabilities under which the majority of the country schools labor, is the short terms of instruction. While the city schools usually continue in session ten months each year, the country school averages but little more than one half of that time. The opportunity for education is thus less than it should be, and intelligence is correspondingly less. By irregularity of attendance also there is a failure to make the best of the opportunities offered, and the amount of possible good to be derived from the schools is still further diminished.

The sessions that would seem most suitable to the conditions of the. country, are a term of eight weeks beginning about the 1st of September, a session of twenty weeks beginning from the 1st to the 10th of November, and a session of eight weeks beginning about the 1st of May. This would give thirty-six weeks of school, which could be extended to forty weeks by making the intermediate vacations less. By this arrangement the long continuous term is in winter when there is the least demand for labor, and the long vacation is in midsummer, so as to avoid exposure of children to the great heat and to give teachers time for recreation in the form of rest and study. Since the experiment of Agassiz, at Penikese, summer schools for teachers are springing up all over the country, and the terms of the country schools should be so arranged that country as well as city teachers may be able to attend them.

Change of Teachers. — In most country districts the older pupils attend school only in winter, and the summer term is made up mostly of the younger ones, constituting in reality a primary department. This condition of affairs has given rise to the custom of changing teachers each term, employing a higher-priced teacher in winter than in summer. This custom works injury to the schools in numerous ways. No two teachers have exactly the same methods of instruction, and it always takes time for pupils to get accustomed to the new methods, and hence there is a waste of time at the advent of every new teacher. At the close of the short term, the teacher has become thoroughly acquainted with the peculiarities of the pupils and of the district, so as to be able to perform the best service; but at the commencement of the next term another comes in, and the process of making the acquaintance of the pupils is repeated. Teachers em

ployed for only a single term at one place take comparatively little interest in their work, and have but little incentive to improvement. The people, accustomed to migratory teachers, show them scant courtesy or ignore them altogether, and the school is altogether lacking in that mental vigor and high moral tone which would result from the interest and co-operation of teacher, pupil, and parent.

The true policy in regard to the employment of teachers would seem to be the payment of the highest wages that the district can afford, the standard of ability to pay being an enlightened appreciation of the value of education; the employment of the best teacher which the money will secure; and the retention of the teacher for the longest possible time. All proper encouragement and facilities should be given the teacher for attending institutes and special summer schools, and a lively interest should be shown by the parents in the teacher's work. A new idea or a new method introduced should be judged by its results, and not denounced in the outset. By careful attention to the selection and moral support of the teacher, the value of the schools may be more than doubled.

QUALIFICATION OF TEACHERS.

The one thing indispensable to the success of a school is a good teacher. In comparison, the functions of all other officers are of little moment; and if we could be sure of a supply of competent teachers, superintendents and examiners would at once become superfluous, and directors would be useful only in furnishing supplies for the schools. Practically, however, it is found that all teachers are not properly qualified, and that the utmost vigilance must be exercised continually to keep all aspiring incompetence out of the schools. All the machinery of superintendence and examination is devised to this end; but when the competent teacher is once secured, the work of the school goes on without the aid or interference of any

other person.

Scientific Knowledge. — The first and lowest qualification demanded of teachers is that they shall have a knowledge of the branches which they are expected to teach. It is not enough to be able to read, and so ascertain from the text-book whether the pupils repeat the text accurately, but the knowledge should be so thorough that text-books would never be a necessity in recitation. The knowledge demanded for the successful conduct of even a primary school, is varied and extensive, its scope is shown in the course of study.

Officers who have charge of the examination of teachers, have curious experiences in the discharge of their duties. Persons are continually presenting themselves as candidates for certificates, who cannot spell; who make fearful blunders in reading the easiest narrative; who are not able to solve the simplest problems of arithmetic outside of the accustomed routine, and who continually blunder in expression, both orally and in writing. Such persons are usually very persistent in their demands, and not unfrequently the refusal of a certificate is followed by the denunciation of the office. The literary qualifications now demanded for a first grade certificate, are the least that any teacher of any grade of school should possess.

General Culture. -- Besides the technical knowledge of the branches to be taught, teachers should have a wide and varied culture in matters of general human interest. It has been well stated that no person can be in full possession of his own powers until he is acquainted with the history of the past; and certainly it is scarcely possible to exaggerate the importance of historical knowledge in promoting the interest and efficiency of the school. This knowledge in its widest sense includes every department of literature; and there is no form of literary attainment that may not be turned to advantage in school processes.

This general culture should include also a knowledge of the present state of affairs in the leading countries of the world. Our morning newspapers bring us intelligence fresh from every known part of the earth, but a wide knowledge of present history is necessary to profit by this intelligence ourselves and to turn it to good account in teaching. Teachers in possession of this knowledge can make profitable use of newspapers, magazines, and everything that relates to current events, and the value of the school will be vastly increased by such processes.

The Mental Powers.— A knowledge of the mental powers, their modes of activity, their limitations, and the order of their development, is indispensable to the highest success in teaching. Without this knowledge good instruction may be given, but the processes are necessarily empirical and the work that of mere routine. With it, teachers have a key to most of the educational problems that are continually coming up for solution; they have a principle to guide them in new experiences; they can adapt their work to the needs of the pupils, and adjust courses of study to produce the best fresults; they are sufficient for any emergency that may arise in instruction,

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and they are not driven to make doubtful experiments which may increase the evils rather than diminish them.

Professional Knowledge. — The teacher, before commencing his work, should also have a very thorough knowledge of the economies of instruction, such as organization, classification, tactics, and discipline. Organization includes the general scope of the instruction, the course of study, and the proper distribution of the studies so far as time is concerned; classification has reference to the division of the school in the bases of attainment for the purpose of recitation; tactics considers the movements of pupils, so that there shall be no interference, and no time wasted; and discipline has to do with the means to secure order and promote the best interests of the school. Experienced teachers have written upon all these topics, treating them from both the theoretical and practical points of view; and there are now so many valuable treatises readily accessible that no teacher can have an adequate excuse for neglecting them.

The means of professional culture are within the reach of every teacher. The cost of instruction at Normal Schools, is usually less than at other schools where the same branches are taught, and these schools are now provided in nearly all the States. In some of the States, in addition to the Normal Schools, there are teachers' classes in academies and high schools, where tuition is free. Another agency for the instruction of teachers is the Teachers' Institute, now held annually in each county in those States where much attention is given to school matters. The lowest demand that should be made upon teachers in regard to these agencies for professional culture, is that they should attend the professional course of a Normal School or academy before commencing their work, and that they should be constant in their attendance upon institutes after entering upon their duties, and should take an active part in their exercises. - From "Principles and Practice of Teaching," by Jas. JOHONOT. Published by Chas. Scribner's Sons.

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Life is itself neither good nor evil. It is the scene of good or evil, as you make it, and if you have lived a day, you have seen all. One day is equal to and like all other days; there is no other light, no other shade; this very sun, this moon, these very stars, this very order and revolution of things, are the same your ancestors enjoyed, and that shall also entertain your posterity.