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Publishers of

Charles E. Merrill Co. English Classics, Books for Supplementary Reading.

Successors to MAYNARD, MERRILL, & CO.

Reed & Kellogg's Grammars, Etc., Etc.

Western Manager, J D. Williams, 203-206 Michigan Ave, CHICAGO

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.

378-388 Wabash Ave.

CHICAGO

Publishers of TEXT BOOKS FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
OUR SPECIALTIES: Hiawatha Primer, Book of Nature Myths. Webs er- ooley
Language Series, The Riverside Literature Series, Fiske's, Larned's and
Tappan's Histories.

D. C. Heath & Co. EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHERS

378 Wabash Ave., CHICAGO

L. W. WOOD, State Agent,

NEILLSVILLE, WISCONSIN

LITTLE. BROWN & CO.

Wisconsin Agent, M. N. PARKER

378 Wabash Ave., Chicago

AINSWORTH & COMPANY 378-387 Wabash Avenue,
CHICAGO, ILL.
Publishers of Lakeside Classics and Books for
Supplementary Reading.

THE

Educational Publishing Co.

228 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Ill.

F. L. MANASSE, Wisconsin Representative.
Action. Imitation and Fun Series.
8pr-gue (lassic ra ers.

Red Shield Edition of the Classics.

Rocheleau s Geogrˇphy of Commerce and Industry

TEACHERS' AGENCIES

PARKER THE Agency for Wisconsin, Northern Mich

igan and the West. Write for full details

of "The Parker Way" of placing teachers and

Teachers' Agency dealing with school boards. The most liberal contract of any Agency in the country.

MADISON

THE

WISCONSIN

ALBERT

C. J. ALBERT, Manager

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In correspondence with 8000 Schools and Colleges. Over 7000 teachers located. The best schools are our clients. Service prompt, effective and helpful. Address the Chicago Manager.

THE HAZARD TEACHERS' AGENCY
18th Year. The Leading Western Agency. Booklet free.
SPOKANE, WASH.

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The Manager, B. F. Clark, has had over twenty years' experience in finding the right teachers for the right places— rom the UNIVERSITY to the GRADES. Send for "Our Platform” (64 pages) giving over 500 letters from teachers.

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EDITORIAL COMMENT

BY PROFESSOR M. V. O'SHEA, THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.
WHEN SCHOOL BEGINS.

There is a popular theory that pupils do their poorest work in the Spring. It is commonly said that after the long winter's tasks children are exhausted; and when the snow commences to melt they pine for the freedom of out-of-doors. Some investigations made at home and abroad tend to show that pupils become fatigued more easily in May than in November, which is undoubtedly due to the fact that during the school session they expend nervous energy more rapidly than they generate it, with the result that there is a gradual lowering of vitality and endurance, so that the machinery of life, mental as well as physical, does not run so smoothly or so easily as when the pressure of energy is high.

But with all the disadvantages of teaching. fatigued pupils in the Spring, it is probable that there are still greater disadvantages of teaching ill-adjusted ones in the Autumn. Have you ever observed how restless boys especially become when the thermometer begins to fall below the freezing point, and stay down there? Then the windows of the school as well as the home are likely to be kept closed, so that pupils breathe only artificially heated air, oftentimes superheated and filled with irritating dust. This air is usually very dry, and is quite different in its effects upon the nervous system from the sun-heated air out in the open. Then, in the Autumn pupils become adapted only slowly to the régime of the school, mainly because they have become unaccustomed to the long hours of sitting. During the summer months they are, as a rule, very active muscularly. Every vital organ is healthfully stimulated through constant physical exercise. In an active motor life the lungs are fully inflated thousands of times. every day, while in school they may not be proper

No. 7

ly expanded once during the whole session, with
the exception of the few minutes spent on the play-
ground.
ground. The digestive and eliminative systems
suffer most under the restraints of the school,
especially during the period of re-adjustment.
The muscular system, which in a growing child
craves exercise, is in a school seat kept in an in-
active and unnatural condition. The moment the

pupil begins his work after vacation, practically
his whole organism is required to enter at once
upon an entirely different regimen. Each organ
must perform different functions from what it did
during the summer months, when the child en-
joyed the freedom of outdoors, and gave himself
up to motor instead of intellectual activities.

TRAGEDIES OF RE-ADJUSTMENT.

Whenever an individual, young or old, makes a fundamental change in his mode of life, a considerable period is always required for re-adjustment. During this period of transition he will be ill-at-ease, and he may even suffer actual pain through the inability of organs readily to forget their former functions, and to adapt themselves to the requirements of the new mode of living. This is especially true of the growing boy. If you will observe him in school about the last of September, after he has been shut in for two or three weeks, and especially if he is not given much time for games and plays in the open air, you will find him restless, discontented, giving his attention to his work with great difficulty, and ready upon the slightest pretext to abandon his studies for interests that appeal to his muscles. If the weather requires that the windows be closed, so that pupils get but little fresh air, you will find that the active boy will begin to complain of his head being "stuffed up" and then he will be in a very unfavorable condition for effective work.

Sometimes one can see the majority of pupils in a class-room with their respiratory passages partially or wholly blocked, and this will prevent easy breathing during the night as well as during the day. This is the unhappiest season of all for a pupil. In the course of two or three months most of the pupils will be likely to become fairly well adjusted to an indoor life, so that even in the Spring when they are fatigued they can adapt themselves to the régime of the school more effectively than they can during the transition from the freedom of the vacation to the restraint of the school.

GO EASY AT THE START.

The practical suggestion to be made here is that we ought to bring pupils by degrees to the work of the school in the Autumn. It is a serious mistake to start off school at full blast the second week in September, requiring pupils from the very beginning to spend five hours or more each day in a seat. Even an adult could not without considerable disturbance to himself physically make such a transition as this in his mode of living. It is surely impossible for a child to do it without a great deal of inconvenience, and even without serious interference with vital functions. It is well known that school diseases thrive particularly during the period of re-adjustment.

But if we could by degrees lead children into school life in the Autumn we might bring about

the transition without doing violence to the bodily functions. It ought to be possible to construct a school programme so that pupils could be in school for a half day, say, the first six weeks of the school; and then later an afternoon session of one or two hours could be added, if this should be found necessary in order to accomplish the required amount of work. One will run no risk in saying that at the end of the year the pupil will be just as far along in his work, if he spends only a half day in school the first six weeks, as if he spends twice this amount; and he will be in a sounder physical condition.

teacher and pupils is so marked and disagreeable during the first weeks of school that they do not recover from it during the whole year. How much more rational it would be to make the programme suited to the physical needs alike of teacher and of pupils, and in this way to reduce friction to a minimum.

THE TRIUMPHS OF EDUCATION.

It is not easy, if indeed it is at all possible, to trace in any detail the influence of the public school upon the social, industrial, and civic life. of so complex a community as New York or Boston or Milwaukee or even Madison. There are so many forces at work in these places shaping the thoughts and actions of the people that the rôle any one force plays can not be accurately determined. But take a simple community, and the cruder the better, such as Homestead, Butte, Deadwood, Lead, and the like, put in operation there a typical American school system, and note results. In the mining communities mentioned the population is very largely composed of foreigners engaged in mining and other industries that are not favorable to the development of the restraints, interests, and activities of American civilization. But in each of these places, as the writer has recently observed, there are schools manned by welltrained, up-to-date teachers brought from all parts of the country. The schools are well equipped with facilities for effective work. There are li

braries in close affiliation with the schools, and in most cases there are gymnasiums, and manual training and domestic science rooms. The life of these communities centers in large part around the schools. Musical and dramatic clubs are formed among the pupils, and they give entertainments of a creditable character. Parent's societies bring teachers and citizens together, and with happy results. In these and other ways the training in the schools reacts forcefully upon the entire community, and thus the tide of life, physical, intellectual, and moral is very perceptibly raised. And what is true in these relatively simple communities is unquestionably true in more complex ones,

Moreover, the teacher will find it easier during though many among us seem to doubt the value of

the first six weeks if her pupils have at least a half day in which to continue the activities of the vacation. It is a universal complaint among teachers that during the first weeks of school children are "restless," "inattentive," "mischievous," and even "stupid." Sometimes the conflict between

the public schools.

WANTED: MEN WITH EXHAUSTLESS ENERGY.

From every quarter of our country comes the report that teachers are getting scarce. Some of the cities seem unable to fill vacancies as they arise, so

that in Chicago last year it was stated that many children were running the streets because teachers could not be found to teach them. But the greatest need today in the educational field is for men who are made of material which will not wear out under terrific strain and stress. The writer knows of three superintendents of city schools who have recently broken down from sheer inability to withstand the nervous strain under which they have been living. The tax upon a superintendent's energy is becoming greater year by year because more and more is being demanded of him. The time is past in progressive communities when people will be satisfied with a mere mechanical administration of a school system. Present-day superintendents, in touch with the situation, feel a constant pressure to work out modern educational ideals into execution.

Never perhaps in the history of the world has there been such active criticism of shortcomings and defects in our educational practice. Everyone is lambasting the curriculum, the hygienic conditions of school buildings, the artificial and static methods of teaching; and, indeed, there are scarcely any features of educational work which are not subject to constant fire from the camps of profes

sional people as well as laymen. Citizens are becoming more and more interested in educational problems, and this usually means trouble for the superintendent. In an earlier day, superintendents and teachers could run the schools without fear of interference from any one; but now a large part of a superintendent's time is given to explaining the principles underlying his work to eager parents, and justifying the ways of teachers to men. In a great corporation, the president can assign certain duties to subordinates, but a superintendent can not refuse to listen to the advice as well as the protests of the people whose children he is theoretically responsible for.

For men who will not wear out, there are all kinds of opportunities in the educational field. Men who are capable of doing the work will be paid enough; only they must be able to do it. They must be so constructed that they can stand up before a sea of troubles day after day, month after month, and year after year. Men who like this sort of thing and can do it need have no fear that there will be a place for them if they cut loose from everything else, and give themselves absolutely to the requirements of the profession.

TIMELY SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS AT THE OPENING OF THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR

(Delivered before the teachers of the Sheboygan City Schools at the opening session of the fall term by Supt. H. F. Leverenz.)

THE

HE so-called long summer vacation is again a thing of the past, and while it has been a time for rest and recreation, to the true teacher it must also have been a time for laying in a large supply of physical, mental and moral strength for use during the coming ten months. Though we have been resting, I hope that the things which are of value to a good teacher and for a good school have not escaped us, and such are to be found, both in work and play, in application and in recreation.

It is a mistake to think that the teacher cannot and does not gather new material for her work unless she attends a summer school. The fact is that the teacher who benefits much by a course at a summer school will also find material of professional value when out in the woods for pleasure, when sight-seeing in distant parts of our great country or abroad, when on the ball or golf

grounds, or, perchance, while pitching the fragrant hay and the heavy laden bundles of grain. The true teacher can find some valuable material in any or all of these places. If we have not thus far taken a mental inventory of what we have gained during the past summer, it is high time that we set about doing so in order to hold our own in the profession where demands are unlimited and often, we think, quite unreasonable.

THE TEACHER'S NEEDS.

At the beginning of a new school year we naturally ask ourselves, what we shall be in need of. By asking this question we do not want to assume the responsibilities of the entire year the very first day for it would be a serious mistake to do this, but it is necessary that we take a general survey of that which we shall use in carrying out the work before

us.

We do not necessarily want to cross the river before it is reached, but we do want to look ahead and plan and prepare for the things of the future. We shall be in need of physical strength, to be sure, for any one who is under the delusion that teachers have "a snap" and that the schoolroom is a place for weaklings and for those who cannot be of use anywhere else, I would invite him to try it. The teacher needs, if any one does, a large amount of physical strength and the more she has of this and the better it is applied the more successful will be her work and the better balanced her school. The young teacher probably has never thought of protecting this valuable asset, either because it has seemed inexhaustible or it has been easy to furnish a resupply.

However, it is of the utmost importance to a good teacher to keep careful account of her physical resources. The best of our physical strength belongs to our school and any part of it wasted is just so much of a loss to the pupils under our instruction and to the community which we are serving. We may flatter ourselves that we can bridge it over for a day or two and make up in the immediate future, and we may think that we appear to be in first-class condition, but the truth, nevertheless, is that we are not at our best and that we are not teaching the best school after the greater part of a night has been spent away from home.

During the year I receive a great many inquiries about teachers who have been employed here, and who are seeking positions elsewhere. A number of cities ask the following questions: "Does she attend dances and late parties on the evenings of school days, and does she pay too much attention to social events, etc.?" These questions do not mean that teachers in those places are not expected to take part in the social doings of the community but that it is expected that the teacher will keep the best interests of the school in mind even when she enters into social functions, and that our social doings must be performed with a view of rendering the best services to the community. No one can convince me that he can teach just as good a school after he has spent the greater part of the night in some social function as if he had retired at the proper hour.

It is not my intention to dictate in any manner to you as to what social functions you shall enter into nor which ones shall be discarded. People

who possess the qualifications to be teachers of our children should be prepared to choose the proper environment, and the associates which will make them stronger and more efficient. We must choose the associates which enable us to retain our self-respect, the respect of our pupils and the community in which we live.

SPIRIT OF ENCOURAGEMENT.

"Few things cost less than encouragement and fewer still are worth more." The truth of this

quotation ought to appeal to every teacher, for encouragement does more to stimulate a child to action than any amount of external force. Encouragement, however, is not to give undue praise neither is it necessary to waste many words of praise over a piece of work well done. We can look encouragement, act encouragement and we can speak an encouraging word. Each method has its proper place and the successful teacher must know when to apply it. A word of encouragement from the teacher means more to the child than any one of us can tell. The child goes home and speaks of it and as a result he will dig and work and plan for the next and coming days as he has never done before. On the other hand, when the child fails to receive proper encouragement you will notice the opposite effect. Effort must receive appreciation and encouragement and results will be sure to follow. Let us train ourselves in encouraging our pupils in a manly and stimulating manner and I am confident that we shall find the results in our schools quite pleasing.

PERSONALITY.

We shall need a wholesome and attractive personality. It is unfortunate that some teachers do not seem to appreciate that their lack of success both as an instructor and as a discipliniarian is often entirely due to their lack of taste in regard to their personal appearance. It is not so much what we wear as how we wear it and we do more teaching as to proper fit of dress and coat and to proper combination of colors, etc., by the example that we set than by any amount of lecturing on this subject. You will lose or retain the admiration of pupils and patrons on account of your care in this matter.

Remember, I am not speaking of the things which cause you more than ordinary expense. They merely cost a little will-power and a physical effort, for it is cheaper to keep your clothes in

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