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row, crow, robin, or a mocking-bird; a tree is to them something more than a plant-it is an oak, elm or cedar. And so with all other objects, from the straight line, to which a youngster adds a little round spot thus forming the simplest picture of a plummet, to the elaborate landscape or figure.

Drawing has many uses that ought to endear it to every teacher and parent. Let us mention a few;

1. It practices the eye.

2. It aids memory.

3. It imparts knowledge.

4. It prevents a superficial examination of things, especially in na

ture.

5. It prepares the pupil for many branches of art and industry which are now closed against many because they cannot draw.

6. It aids the teacher in matters of discipline by preventing idleness from lack of occupation, or in weariness.

7. It cultivates taste and a love of the beautiful, and

8. It will pave the way for an art-epoch, when men and women will cease to consider money, fine clothes and the French ballet the ne-plus ultra of life and enjoyment; when they will seek to beautify their homes and schools by works of art, and regard science. as more necessary to themselves and their children than the Ledger and the fashion journals; when every house will have its library and pictures, and perhaps a bust; when our men will relinquish the cigar, (pipe and bottle, ahem!) and women the mirror, to seize the microscope! But we are growing quite dizzy in view of this prospective glory and therefore close for the present.

A PLEA FOR A THOROUGH PREPARATION.

BY MRS. C. W. ROBINSON.

[Part of an Essay read before the Institute at Black River Falls, September 6, 1871.

Childhood has little else than possibilities; but these are almost limitless. The little ones around us may become men and women, with hearts good, and true, and tender, with minds rich and active, and live happy lives, through which shall constantly flow the music of good deeds; or, strong of intellect, yet wanting principle, they may become very imps of wickedness and wretchedness; or, with hearts perverted, faculties undeveloped and minds run to waste, their lives may be mere child-lives, save that child-innocence has departed, and themselves mere cyphers in the sum of existence. And these after-lives, as we all well know, are almost wholly the result of early training.

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And this childhood, with its wondrous possibilities, is placed in the teacher's hands; and it is his, so far as a teacher's influence can go, to say into what realities these possibilities shall be developed, and not one will hesitate to say that the aim of the true teacher is to develop the possibilities of the childhood into the realities of a noble manhood and womanhood. But this is no light task. Nothing can be accomplished thoughtlessly. His aim must be kept constantly in view, even through all the wearisome daily details of the school-room. He must so instruct that the hearts of his pupils may be bettered, their minds enriched, and thus their lives rendered happier and more useful.

Heart culture, then, must be first attended to, for no matter how brilliant the intellect may be, or how highly its powers may be cultivated, if it is not balanced by right feeling and right motives, it is sure to be led astray. To instill right principles into the hearts of his pupils should then be the teacher's constant care. He need enter into no long and tiresome arguments to do this, nor in any manner usurp the work of the church or Sunday school. First, let him be himself what he would have them become, and the task is rendered easy. If they see in all his words and actions a strict regard for truth, and that he requires and expects the same of them, at the same time not placing in their way temptations to deceive, he will have no need to preach them long sermons on the subject. Just a little word, now and then, to help them see the right, will do the work; and so of other things, but this seems most important. A love of truth and honor once firmly estab·lished, the other steps follow easily. With the "word in season". the little word that shall help them see the right, never forgotten or neglected—and, above all, teaching them to love right for right's sake, and for love of Him who gave us hearts and minds and first told us what is right, the effort will not fail.

In mental training, nothing short of a symmetrical development of all the faculties of the mind will answer, if we would attain this noble manhood and womanhood. The memory must be cultivated, and at the same time the mind stored with useful knowledge. And right here what a field opens up before us. Why! the little child has everything to learn, and he will be learning something; if not that which is useful, then something useless or hurtful; and it must be the teacher's care, so far as his control extends, to choose what his pupils shall learn. And it is not enough that the proper text-books be placed in their hands. Children will learn to but little purpose from text-books alone; the details that are necessary to satisfy the childish curiosity are necessarily meagre in the book; but the bare facts are almost meaningless, and very tasteless to them; and, not understanding the necessity that after lite will bring for knowing these things, they will, if left to themselves,

be almost sure to leave them unlearned, or at least but half learned. But an interest must be awakened; their lessons rendered attractive; the bare facts clothed for them in the charming details and descriptions their eager curiosity demands, and very much supplied from the teachers' own resources. And when they tire of their monotonous tasks, and think them quite useless, as children are sure to do sometimes, charming glimpses can be given them from the vast fields of knowledge, as yet beyond their reach, and when they stretch out eager hands to grasp for more, the steps can be pointed out over which they must tread ere they can reach the coveted treasure. They can also be made to see the necessity of thorough present study, and an ambition can be aroused to master, soon and well, the first dull details of an education, that they may learn more of the beautiful and grand things of which their teacher tells them.

All this must be done in a manner calculated to awaken thought in their minds, for unless they are taught to think for themselves, so as to make each acquirement a stepping stone to a new and greater one, all they have learned will be but so much dead capital that they have no power to use or increase. They need not be told, in so many words, that the useful and beautiful things they learn are but secondary to the development and strength of mind they acquire at the same time; but the teacher should so teach that this may be the case; in short, should teach his pupils to think. In order to do this, he must not do all the thinking for them; must not explain so fully and make all the difficult points so plain that there is no use for close application on their part, else they will soon learn to depend upon him altogether. Nor must he (a more common and greater fault) give too little explanation. Perhaps a pupil comes to him with something in his lesson he cannot understand; he has studied it enough to see the gleaming of some beau{iful thought just beyond his reach; a single word throwing light upon the obscurity or directing him into the right train of thought, or even a word of encouragement will be of countless benefit to him, not only in helping him over this difficulty, but still more, inciting him to study more closely in the next one he finds, for every intellectual treat gives the mind a greater relish for the next. But if he receives some halfway explanation, he goes to his seat unsatisfied and discouraged. He will not try next time and the result is most disastrous; not so much on account of this one failure as that this leads to another, and he acquires the habit of careless study, study without thought. But how can one do the work of the successful teacher who is not properly qualified? From the little glimpse we have taken of this work we catch just an intimation of its magnitude, and almost wonder that the most thoroughly fitted should dare assume its responsibilities;

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but, upon looking around, how many we find eager to rush into the work, whose acquirements are taxed to the utmost to answer the examination questions, and how insignificant a part do these cover of the qualifications necessary for one who would lead the helpless, ignorant child up to the noble man or woman.

That teachers are not properly qualified, is, in a great measure, their own fault. So many rush into the work with no proper realization of its importance, having no thought of the necessity of any qualifications more than will enable them to secure a certificate, no thought of the fearful consequences that follow the imperfect training of so many young hearts and minds, and entering the school room with apparently no higher aim in view than to keep school until pay-day comes.

But teachers are not alone to blame for the lowness of the standard of teachers' qualifications. When parents realize the error of trusting to unskilled hands so great a work as educating their children, and school boards learn that cheapness is not the most necessary qualification, then we may look for speedy reform among teachers themselves. But teachers should not wait for this; they should lead, rather than follow public opinior. Their own sense of right and justice, and an ambition to do well whatever they undertake, should prompt them to occupy the highest possible ground in their profession.

And, ladies, in these days when "Woman's Rights" is everywhere agitated, this question of thoroughness possesses a peculiar interest us. In the teacher's profession, we are acknowledged to have equal rights with our brothers, and we can, if we will, stand side by side with them. That in the majority of cases we do not, is altogether our own fault. They are more apt to take the rule that guides them in other employments, and consider a thorough preparation for their work a matter of necessity, while we, so long taught the sufficiency of superficial attainments, do not see that necessity, and content ourselves with the least possible amount of preparation, and, as a matter of course, find ourselves outstripped in the race for success. To see that this is not necessarily the case we need only look at the many lady teachers who are acknowledged the equals, and even superiors, to those of the other sex. When we look for the secret of their success, we will always find that thoroughness of preparation and correctness of purpose characterize them. Better, then, to search out why we are standing in the background; better ourselves to remove the reasons when we can; ettber far, to show ourselves worthy to fill the positions already accorded us than to stand clamoring for more rights; better show in ourselves equal fitness for the work we now have, or, at least, equal willingness to thoroughly fit ourselves, thus gaining equal ability to do it well, before we claim any more equal rights.

NOTHING BUT LEAVES.

FROM THE JOURNAL OF A TEACHER, EDITED BY "PEN.”—PART II. JULY, 186.-I have been in school a week-long enough to become acquainted with the children and my work-let me try to fix on paper the impressions of this week and thus make a record of this new era in my life. With us teachers, schools are eras, sometimes epochs.

Monday morning was glorious, so clear and sunny, and had I not been on my way to school I would gladly have exchanged the busy, stirring city for the pleasant walks of the park. Although I passed through the very heart of the metropolis my thoughts were with the work that called me. I soon arrived at the place of my destination. It is a brown, frame building, situated on the corner lot near the Rock Island depot, and is known under the name of the Railroad Chapel. The locality is an unpromising one for a school. To the left is the depot with its gang of loungers and runners, its deafening noise of arriving and departing trains, its yelling coachmen and crowds of people and dogs, all excited, noisy, and some loudly profane. To the right, across a narrow street, and right opposite, we are "neighbored" by a number of saloons, barber shops, hostelries and boarding houses, all more or less of doubtful appearance, both as to buildings and inmates, as far as the latter are visible. In our rear we have a mixed neighborhood of foreigners of the lower and lowest classes; many are of African descent, more or less remote. The two streets on which the chapel is situated are narrow and filthy. What is a deep, black mud, and as we are below the

in rainy weather, is a cloud of dust now,

graded lots and streets near by, the heat is intense at midday.

Truly, it is a dreary place for a school. Its play-ground is the street and depot, where old and young loafers fraternize with the children or chase and beat them, as the case may be. But beaten, or chased, or pelted, the children always return to the depot, standing in the way of everybody, scouted and sworn at by the attendants, and driven off by a huge policeman who makes for them with a ferocious, "Get out, ye dogs, ye rascals!"

When I walked up to the school-house the first morning, the children stood in double file, curiously eyeing the "the new teacher." My good morning, children," was partly responded to, and then the whole crowd followed me into the building, where I found my colleague rocking on a chair and calmly smoking a cigar. He, (as well as all the boys,) had his hat on, nor did he remove it as he carelessly rose to exchange greetings with me. Mr. T. informed me that I was to teach the little ones in the morning and take his place in the main room

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