LL over the state, from Superior to Kenosha

And from Florence to Cuba City, a great in

terest is being manifested in the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association, to be held at Milwaukee on Thursday, Friday, and SaturdayNovember 4-5-6. Never before have teachers generally expressed such a desire to be present and to hear and participate in the strong program which has been prepared by President John Kelley and the executive committee. The citizens of Milwaukee, through their civic organizations, are making every preparation to welcome Wisconsin's representative educators. The local committee of teachers will see that no stone is left unturned in their efforts to make all teachers feel at home in the state's metropolis during the three days of the convention. Diversions from the set program have been provided for in various sightseeing trips and tours of inspection. There will be receptions galore, big speakers, reunions, banquets to say nothing of

with five thousand of your peers in the same field of work. Meet and become acquainted with those big men and women who some day you will want to know that they may say a good word for you in an effort to secure a promotion in the world of teacherdom! And grow wiser in the knowledge of educational problems, learn the new in your work so

that you may keep pace with the advance in your profession, take part in the program and thus feel that you are one of that great army of character builders which is every day making boys and girls into men and women the citizens of tomorrow!

On to Milwaukee! November 4-5-6. Close your schools and go. The investment in money and time will yield the greatest income. The holiday season will relax the tension of schoolroom duties and make you a better teacher and a better citizen. On to Milwaukee! This year, for the first time, the general sessions will be held in the main hall of the Auditorium Thursday and Friday mornings while the sections will all meet in the various halls of the same building in the afternoons. The general session Saturday will be held at the Davidson theater. The information bureau and general headquarters will be at the Plankinton house as usual.

the live questions on the program to be discussed and the educational problems of the commonwealth which will at this meeting be definitely shaped.

Superintendents, principals, and teachers should importune their school boards at once to dismiss school on Thursday and Friday, November 4 and 5. The law authorizes such action with full compensation to teachers in actual attendance upon the meetings of the association.

Break away, teachers, from the hum-drum of daily routine for just three days! Come in touch

At each of the general sessions there will be three speakers and an elaborate musical programme, with the business following. Supt. Carroll G. Pearse, Milwaukee, has consented to be one of the speakers for the first day and will choose his

own subject. Another will be Dr. Helen C. Putnam, president of the American Research Medical college, Providence, R. I., who will speak on the subject, "The Educator's Responsibility for Vital Statistics."

On Friday the general subject will be rural schools and the speakers will divide the subject, State Supt. C. P. Cary, Madison,. speaking on one phase of it, President Fassett A. Cotton of the La Crosse Normal school and former state superintendent of Indiana, on another and County Supt. Leo P. Fox of Chilton on another.

The general session Saturday mornng will be addressed by Assemblyman C. F. Viebahn, Watertown, now chairman of the state board of examiners, on "Needed Educational Legislation," while Dr. Sybrant Wesselius, Grand Rapids, Mich., former state senator, will speak on the "Duty of the State to its Defectives," a subject upon which he is a national authority.

SECTION CHAIRMAN CHOSEN.

The chairman of sections are as follows: College, normal and high school section-C. E. Patzer, Milwaukee, chairman; President Kelley, ex-officio; Dr. Edward C. Elliott, Madison, and Prin. M. S. Frawley, Eau Claire, members of the programme committee.

City graded school section-Supt. S. B. Tobey, Wausau, chairman; Miss Katherine Williams, exofficio; Miss Margaret Canty, Milwaukee; Supt. G. F. Loomis, Waukesha; Supt. G. O. Banting, Stoughton, and Miss Carmen Savage, Manitowoc, secretary.

Manual training section-Newton Van Dalsem, Neenah, chairman; L. W. Olson, Madison, secre

tary.

Domestic science section-Miss Elma Hanson, Milwaukee-Downer college, chairman.

County training school section-Supt. W. E. Smith, Wautoma, chairman; Miss Winifred Edsall, Richland Center, secretary.

Rural school section-Supt. Leo P. Fox, Chilton, chairman; Miss Clara A. Purcell, Waupun, secretary.

State graded school section-Principal J. F. Riordan, Milwaukee county, chairman; County Supt. Mattie McMillan, Mauston, secretary.

Special education section-A. J. Winnie, Madison, inspector of schools for the deaf, chairman. Kindergarten section-Miss Caroline W. Bar

THE WESTERN AT LA CROSSE-OCT. 22-23.

There will be a big rally of teachers in the new normal school building at La Crosse, on October 22-23, when the Western Wisconsin Teachers' Association holds its annual meeting this month.

their knowledge to the best possible use, having in mind the good of others as well as of themselves. To be able to plane a board or to make a close joint, if carried no farther, ministers to the child's education in the same way as it does to be able to extract the cube root or read a page of Hebrew. There is a certain amount of discipline of the brain or of the muscles which accrues to such exercises, but the practical side is wanting. The nearer our manual training comes to introducing the boy to a trade, the more useful it will be to him and to the public. This is to be the next step, and I hope it will not be too long delayed.

Communications

B. F. OLTMAN
President Western Association.

Supt. B. F. Oltman of La Crosse county is the president this year and announces a strong program with a list of prominent speakers from this state and from outside territory.

Teachers in the western part of Wisconsin should not miss this big meeting.

PRACTICAL MANUAL TRAINING

HENRY SABIN

A large part of the work in the manual training department is lost for want of direction. For the same reason, no inconsiderable part of the youth's schooling goes to waste. When he leaves school he is ready to drift into any calling which opens itself to him. It seems to me that there is a most serious defect in our school system. We are met with the objection that "it is no business of the school to teach the boy a trade." Don't be too sure of that. The business of the school is, and always has been, to fit the pupils attending it to make the most of life. Morally they must be correct in action; physically they must be strong and healthy in body; and intellectually able to put

MEMBERSHIP IN THE W. T. A.

It is a matter of vital importance that members inform themselves in regard to changes in the constitution proposed by the Committee on Revision whose report comes up for final action. A copy of the report may be found in the Annual Proceedings of 1908, and will also be printed in the program for the annual meeting of 1909.

The most important changes proposed concern the matter of membership fees. A minority of the committee proposes that every active member shall pay an annual fee of one dollar. During the past there was a distinction on account of sex,-men paying one dollar; and women, fifty cents. There has been a demand for the change on the part of many women, who think the ancient distinction is a reflection on their professional standing. The distinction is a relic of past conditions and ideals when women occupied only subordinate positions.

Financial considerations make it inadvisable to cheapen the membership by reducing the annual fee. There are few teachers who cannot afford to pay an annual fee of one dollar. The growth of the association during the past five years-a growth not only in numbers, but in effective organization-has put a severe strain on the financial resources of the association. The annual deficits have not only exhausted the savings of past years, but have made it necessary to solicit contributions from local business men.

If the association is to be an efficient factor in the study of educational problems, and in shaping legislation necessary to solve the problems, it will be necessary to place at the disposal of the Committee on Education, and of the Legislative Committee, funds to meet necessary expenses. In the past, the association has not been able to appropriate funds adequate for effective work in these two directions.

There are some decided differences of opinion in regard to the second change proposed. Associate membership at an annual fee of fifty cents to satisfy those who may not be inclined to pay a dollar, will prevent loss in numbers. There may not be many of this class, and it may be wise to exclude them altogether. This is a question of policy. The report of the minority of the Committee on Revision places it squarely before the association.

D. H. Schuler.

Milwaukee!

November 4-5-6!

The Northwestern at Eau Claire, Oct. 15-16. October's "bright blue skies" are with us again. The big meeting of the year next month at Milwau kee.

The Western Association at La Crosse, October 22-23.

Miss Pearl Scallon, a Sauk county teacher, was drowned near Cazenovia late in August.

Supt. W. T. Darling of Florence is this year assistant supervisor of practice in the Milwaukee normal school.

Campbellsport, Fond du Lac county, in addition to those named last month, has voted a high school for this year.

La Crosse county claims for its new institution at Onalaska the largest agricultural and domestic science school in the state.

The subjects of manual training and domestic science this year have been introduced into the grades of the Appleton schools.

The Polk county training school opened Aug. 30 with an enrollment of forty and every prospect for another successful year.

The athletic association of the Monroe high school will start a paper in the interests of the school and its patrons.

Grantsburg suffered an epidemic of paralytic diphtheria last month and the public schools were closed for a short time.

H. S. Perry, formerly principal at Spooner, is now teaching in the Tennessee normal and industrial college at Morristown, that state.

The Green Bay board of education has adopted a rule that all high school students shall be required to prepare one study outside of school hours.

Professor C. B. Bacon of the Stevens Point normal has resigned to accept a chair in the Indiana state normal at Terre Haute, at a salary of $2400.

Talk with Prin. M. H. Jackson at Milwaukee about his trip to Europe next summer. Jackson is the boy who knows how to deliver the goods-all wool and a yard broad.

Have you had your old rickety, unsanitary school building condemned by the inspectors? Complain no more about these things. Write State Supt. Cary and he will do the rest.

Miss Elizabeth Dunham, a primary teacher in the public schools of West Bend for twenty-five years, was given a reception in the school hall last month and presented with a purse of $128.

The Plymouth high school opened this year with an enrollment of 208, ninety-eight of whom are non-resident pupils. Prin. J. J. Enright is the successful head of the Plymouth schools.

Mr. W. A. Odlum, formerly a teacher in the De Forest, Madison, and Viroqua high schools, was killed in an automobile accident at Seattle on August 13, where he had gone to care for his invalid mother.

The Vernon county training school for teachers

opened on Aug. 23, with an enrollment of fifty students, and later registrations threaten to tax the accommodations of the building to its limit.

The Rhinelander public schools offer for the first time courses in manual training and domestic science. They will be carried in grades six, seven, and eight and in the freshman year of the high school this year.

The subjects of manual training and domestic science have this year been introduced into the Beloit high school and made elective for the old students but compulsory for the freshman class and all future students.

The city superintendents' convention called by State Supt. Cary met at Madison, Oct. 1-2. Being the first of its kind to be held in Wisconsin, we shall give a full account of its proceedings in the November number.

Supt. Arveson of Langlade county reports tha for the first time in the history of his work there are more teachers than schools. Some other counties in the state may be glad to draw on Mr. Arveson's surplus.

I. C. McNeill, who failed of re-election at Memphis, Tenn., this year, is now in the insurance business in that city. He recently declined the professorship of ethics and philosophy in the University of Mississippi.

North Milwaukee has been the scene of a merry school war for several months over the re-engagement of one or two teachers. Local politics, society squabbles, and other trival matters seem to have caused the eruption.

Mr. W. F. F. Selleck, who intends visiting some of the teachers of the state this month, was formerly school superintendent in Minnesota and has been superintendent at North Yakima, Washington. for a number of years.

Mr. K. L. Hatch, formerly principal of the Winnebago agricultural school, is now professor of agricultural education in the University of Wisconsin. Mr. Hatch has won his laurels by faithful devotion to his favorite subject and this promotion is well merited.

Supt. A. P. Brunstad of Chippewa county caused the resignation of an Eau Claire teacher on Aug. 25, when he changed the name of Miss Genevieve Miller of Hixton to Mrs. Brunstad. Both are Stevens Point normal graduates and are now at home at Chippewa Falls.

Of the 115 graduates of the Wood county training school for teachers, sixteen have married and all except four of the remaining ninety-nine are in the active teaching work. Seventy students were enrolled in this school last year and it is taxed to its limit this year.

The Beloit high school has dropped the subject of trigonometry and many students have substituted arithmetic for it. Both the dropping and the substitution look like sensible acts and may be followed with profit by other schools whose curricula are overloaded.

With the opening of the Waukesha city schols this year under Supt. G. F. Loomis, four kindergartens find their place for the first time in the history of the city system. The necessary bonds for the installment of the manual training equipment will probably not be