KEEP A-GOING. The first month of our year is a thing of the past. The second month has begun. The work is pretty well started. September was a busy and important time for us all. October is not less so. These are the weeks when the foundation is being laid on which will be built a year's success or failure. Those September days were strenuous ones. We cannot afford to relax and let things drift now that we have a good start. Let us head for somewhere and keep a-going.

CHILD NATURE.

A few years ago a little book for mothers called "A Study of Child Nature" was published by the Chicago Kindergarten College. There is so much. "usable" philosophy in that book which would be helpful to primary teachers that I want you all to know about it.

The study of child-culture is placed upon the broad basis of science, and instincts of the body; the mind and the soul are discussed in the order of their manifestation. The subject matter of the book is based on these three facts:

"First, the child bears within himself instincts which can be trained upward or downward.

"Second, these instincts give early manifestation. of their existence.

"Third, the mother's (teacher's) loving guidance can be changed from uncertain instinct into unhesitating insight."

INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS. Nothing else is so contagious as enthusiasm. It is the real allegory of the lute of Orpheus. It moves stones. It charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victory without it.-Bulwer-Lytton.

As things of life die without food and exercise, so a bad habit will perish if you cease to exercise it and to fed it with its proper thought.-Selected.

There are three kinds of teachers in the world: the will's, the won'ts, and the can'ts. The first accomplish everything, the second oppose everything, and the third fail in everything.—Adapted.

EPAMINONDAS.

Epaminondas is a character in one of the "Stories to Tell to Children" by Miss Bryant. I believe this particular story is a good one for teachers as well as children.

If you want to be convinced that it is possible for a little boy, or a little girl, always to be getting in trouble who is at the same time trying to do just what he is told to do, study Epaminondas.

AN "OLD FASHION" REVIVED.

It is again fashionable and quite the proper thing to teach the alphabet in school, not in the same way or at the same age our fathers learned it. perhaps, but it is quite generally agreed that a knowledge of the letters of the alphabet in their regular order is quite a valuable possession for children beginning fourth grade.

I offer a device I used with success in the second grade the singing of the alphabet forward and backward to an old tune.

CIVICS IN THE GRADES.

We are living in an era of teaching in which we are aiming to give our pupils much more than the old-fashioned drill in the three R's.

We are trying to help children to a realization of their best selves, and to teach them to appreciate the worth of good citizenship and the duties of good citizens to the several departments of city government. A practical and systematic course of study in "citizenship" for the grades was recently arranged by Albert C. Shong, Principal of the Nelson Dewey School, Superior. An outline of the course proposed by Mr. Shong will be found in "The Course of Study for the Public Schools of Superior."

PRACTICAL MANUAL TRAINING.

We believe that industrial training for our boys and girls is quite as important as is training along other lines long since recognized in the school curricula.

We believe, too, that if we can offer this training and at the same time plan to have our young peo

ple make things of practical value to themselves the interest in and value of the manual work will be increased.

A useful door-step mat which may be made of coarse binding twine is described below. (Fig. 1.) Material:

1. A frame similar to a quilting frame 30 in. by 18 in. with 3 in. headless nails inserted along sides and ends 111⁄2 in. apart. (Fig. II.)

2. A ball or spool of heavy binding twine. Begin at any corner and wind twine around nails as in threading a loom (Fig. III). Continue. winding until opposite side is reached. Change direction and continue to wind until threads cross each other as in Figure IV. Repeat the process described six times, or until there are six layers of twine in both directions.

Leave the width of two squares on all sides for fringe. Take a piece of the twine and wind in the same direction as the first row and at each intersection of the twines cross intersections x or double crossing, tie a slip-knot and draw tight. Continue until each intersection is crossed and knotted. Cut half way between nails and unravel twine for fringe.

INFANT REASONING?

Scene: The writer trying to read a favorite book. A four year old boy wishing to be entertained. Time: Sunday afternoon.

"Say, what's that car standing still up there on that railroad track for?"

"There is no engine hitched on to it." "Where's the engine?"

"Oh, its out in the round house." "Where is the round house?"

"Its a long way from here, too far for you to walk."

"What is a round-house for ?"

"It is a house to keep engines in." "What's the engine in there for?" "Because it is Sunday."

"Why is it in there on Sunday ?" "Because the engineer doesn't work on Sunday.' "Why doesn't he work on Sunday?" "Because it isn't right to work on Sunday." "Why isn't it right to work on Sunday?" "Because God wants people to rest and pray on Sunday."

"Say, where does God live?" "Up in Heaven."

"Where is Heaven?"

"Its where the good people go when they die." "Is God the boss of it?"

"Yes."

"Is God the boss of all the people?" "Yes."

"Did you ever see God?"

"No."

"Did anybody?"

"I have seen things God made." "What did God make?"

"He made everything."

"Did he make the engine?"

"No, he made the iron and some men took the iron and made the engine. He made birds and flowers, too."

It was getting too deep for me, and I wasn't making much headway with my book, so I said, "Let's get our hats and go for a walk and see how many flowers and birds we can see."

This from a four year old and yet think of the primary schools where children are simply drilled in abstract and arbitrary facts and little or no occasion furnished for the study of things and their relation to the children and their environment.

OCTOBER EVENTS.

The teacher often falls short of material for opening exercises as a variation of the usual song program. We suggest a talk by a pupil, who has had sufficient notice to prepare, upon the following on the dates given; or the teacher may give a morning talk-but better always to assign the work to pupils and the teacher to "help out" when neces

sary.

October 14, 1644-William Penn born. Give the state which was named after him. Tell of his life and character. famous treaty with the Indians. Talk about his

October 18-Helen Hunt Jackson born. Read her famous poem on "Autumn" given on another page. Talk about her other writings and of her interest in the Indians.

October 19, 1781-Surrender of Cornwallis. The older pupils who remember their history will be able to tell that this event ended the great war for independence.

October 27, 1858-Theodore Roosevelt born. He is our only living ex-president and is now hunting in the jungles of Africa. A live subject for talks by the children who have lived to see him make history.

October 31-Hallowe'en. Falls on Sunday this year, so need not be taken up in school.

DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH THE FIRST MONTH. It's been a long time since the little fellowand some big ones, too,-has studied out of a book. Since last June he has been romping and playing with never a thought of study. His mind has been far from teacher and school. In fact, he has more or less forgotten how to study, and to get down to the restraint of the schoolroom from the freedom of the brook, of the farm, of the swimming hole, is a long leap which can not be bridged even in a month.

Have patience, therefore, good teacher, with that child who comes to you this fall having apparently forgotten all that the poor (!) teacher who preceded you said she taught him. Children are children and nothing else. And while they are young let them enjoy to their heart's content the long vacation without fear of punishment when they come back to school, because, unlike their dear teacher, they have not spent all their leisure time in thinking of school and studying books!

SOME WASTES IN OUR SCHOOLS.

MISS DORA THOMPSON.

Taken from the standpoint of the teacher, the wastes in our school may be classified under two heads waste of time, and waste of energy. There are various ways in which much time may be wasted without our being aware of it. We endeavor to help our pupils to realize the value of time, to realize that if they are one minute behind in some class

exercise, it is not simply one minute that is wasted, but that it is that one minute multiplied by the number of people who have been kept waiting.

Call Classes Promptly.

When a class is called to the front to recite, if we allow the pupils to drag and saunter along, we are not only wasting time in that same ratio that once, but we are laying the foundation for much lost time in the future. It is easy to form the habit of being slow. This thought suggests a remedy, for tardiness at recess. Begin work promptly. A teacher was annoyed by many of her pupils coming in after recess about two minutes late. She finally adopted the plan of calling a class just as the sound of the last stroke of the bell ceased, and in a few days the tardiness at recess had been done away with. The pupils had been tardy before because they did not realize that they were losing anything if they were in time to pass with their class, but when they found that the work had actually begun before they arrived, it impressed upon their minds the need of being prompt much more forcefully than advice from the teacher would have done.

Time may also be saved by having two classes passing at once. When the class that has just recited is ready to pass to the seats, let the next class to recite pass to the front at the same signal. Especially if the classes are large, several minutes may be saved in this way in the course of a day. If this plan is adopted, it is necessary for the teacher to give all the directions for studying the new work before the class passes to the seats, but this is a help in saving time, for it saves questions being asked and answered. This plan also tends to reduce the number of questions asked. while legitimate questions should be asked and answered, many questions are asked in our schools that are unnecessary if the child has heard the directions given to the class. This is not so prac

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tical with the primary children where the teacher needs time between classes to do individual work, but in our upper grades and with upper form pupils it has proved a help in time-saving.

Plan the Recitation.

In giving directions there is a tendency for some of us to waste time. We are tempted to rely upon ourselves to think out the directions at the time we give them instead of having them clearly

thought out beforehand, and then they are wordy,

and not explicit enough to be understood without questions. In fact, there is no time-saver that compares with planning beforehand. Have your plans well laid and preparation made for a possible slip in the plan and you are master of the situation. Such preparation requires the expenditure of much of the teachers own time at first, but once done, no matter how many times in the course of her career, she teaches that kind of work, it will never again take so long, and the oftener she teaches it, the more time will she have to enrich the preparation already made. She is not only saving the time of her class for that day but she is increasing her own efficiency as a teacher.

Another rule that is a good one to follow is to see that all are attentive before an exercise is begun. The ideal in a class exercise is that each one in the class shall do every bit of the work. That ideal can not be realized unless all in the class are attentive from the first. If the attention of all is secured and held when Johnnie is called on to recite he will not be obliged to hang his head in shame because he does not know where Mary left off, and the teacher will not feel it her duty to take a minute or two to give a little lecture on inattention.

Not too Much Time to Individuals.

While we lay great stress on individual attention for pupils and sometitmes get to rating our own value to our school by the number of minutes we give to individual instruction, yet there are cases where a class exercise is just as valuable to all concerned and takes but a fraction of the time required to give the same work individually. For example, here is a reading class on the floor to recite. You know from experience that you will be obliged to stop several times during the period to call the attention of various children to the correct position of the body and the book. Why not

take a minute or two before beginning the reading and have the class stand and take the correct position for reading. This will call the attention of every child to it and will also impress each one with its importance, and the time saved can be used in the actual work.

Having a list of the new words in the reading lesson upon the board and drilling the class on their correct pronunciation not only makes better readers, but it saves time as well for the class is not obliged to stop and pick up several who stumble on new words. In the same way in the arithmetic class, by having it understood that no one is to touch the eraser until the direction "Erase" is given, much time as well as confusion is saved, for in many arithmetic classes, there is at least one who it seems does hardly anything but erase. Then because he has spent so much time erasing, either the class must wait for him or else go on and leave him to grow slower and slower in his work. It is hard, it is very inconvenient at first. to insist that if a wrong figure be written a line be drawn through it instead of it being erased, and the teacher will think she is wasting time teaching the class to do that, but those who have tried it for a few weeks are surprised at the gain their pupils have made in accuracy and also in speed.

In the Mechanics.

The plan of keeping the note books, drawing books, and writing books in a case or in the teacher's desk and having them passed at the time they are to be used, not only prevents their being misused by the owners, but it also saves the time of hunting them up when they are mislaid or even lost, and the attempt is made to find them before. the exercise is begun so that all may give their attention to the work at the first. Some primary teachers save a great deal of time by having a regular time at which they sharpen the pencils of the younger children. If this is not done for the youngest pupils the teacher's attention is frequently called away from a class to help some little one whose pencil is not in shape to be used. If the teacher attempts to save her time for her class by handing him the knife he will not only waste time and lead, but he is likely to use more of the teacher's time wrapping up a cut finger. A simple but effective cure for the waste of time incurred by the taking up of ink when the ink bottles freeze

and break during the cold winter nights, as they so often do in rural school houses where the room can not be kept warm all night, is a pan of sand kept under the stove. At night each child sets his ink bottle into it. The ink never freezes there and it is a saving, not only of ink, inky fingers, and inky floors, but also of time spent in cleaning up

ink.

It is also a waste of time to mark the mistakes in the exercises the children write, unless the children go over the papers again. We would not have the child write one paper that is not corrected, even to examination papers, but how often we see a class receive a set of papers over which the teachhas spent long, tedious hours of work, and each child glances at the upper left-hand corner (if that is where the per cent. mark is placed), and folds the paper as though that were the end of the whole proceeding. Of course, this arises from a misconception of the purpose of the examination or other written exercise, but if the child does not correct his mistakes he is more likely to make them again than he was in the first place because of the influence of habit in repetition.

Avoid too Many Classes. Time is frequently wasted in our rural schools by trying to have too many classes. The program left for the succeeding teacher to follow in one of the rural schools some time ago consisted of thirty classes. There were nineteen pupils in the school. Several of the classes were found to be only a few pages behind another class and the pupils were glad of a chance to "catch up" with the class ahead. The program was appreciably relieved. and it was no longer necessary to omit the last five or six recitations each night as had formerly been done.

Waste of Energy.

Although perhaps less noticeable than the waste of time, yet sufficiently prominent to challenge our attention, is the waste of energy. It is no wonder that our health gives way, and that as a class we look older than the people of any other profession. Ever since we first thought of teaching we have been impressed by every book on pedagogy, and by every educational magazine, and by every lecturer before teachers' conventions, and by every clergyman with whom we ever shook hands, and by every fond parent who ever visits school, and by all the people we meet socially, who seem to think that