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articles are presented in a simple and attractive form. No educational topic is more timely than this one of moral instruction and training.

Readers of the Journal who are not familiar with President Bryan's The Basis of Practical Teaching, (Silver, Burdett, and Company), should miss no opportunity to examine the book. President Bryan is not a stranger to Wisconsin teachers; and those who have heard him need not be told that his book is practical, interesting, and upto-date. It is not a large book, and its reading will not be regarded as a burden by any teacher. President Bryan is a student of modern psychology, child study, and biology, and he treats practical problems of education from the standpoint of contemporary thought. His style is simple and pleasing, and his treatment is so concrete that even those who are not familiar with psychology or biology can easily appreciate the principles he develops.

Psychological Aspects of Education.

Readers of the Journal are already well acquainted with some of the books written by Professor Ross of the University. On previous occasions we have pointed out that Professor Ross is perhaps the most brilliant writer in this country on social subjects. His latest work, Social Psychology (The Macmillan Company) is an effective study of such important topics as suggestibility in human association; the psychology of the crowd; the characteristics of the mob and the method of treating it; the psychology of fashion and conveñtionality; custom imitation and conditions affecting the sway of custom; rational imitation; conflict in human associations; the place of discussion when conflict arises; the results of conflict; compromise; public opinion, and the like. These topics are all of paramount interest to teachers, since the school is a social unit, illustrating all the tendencies which are found in larger social groups. It is within bounds to say that any teacher who will read and appreciate this book will be genuinely interested in it, and the life of his school will be illumined for him as it has not been before. The most essential thing for the teacher to realize is that his school is a social organism; that social forces are constantly at work re-enforcing his teaching or resisting it. The more penetrating student he is of these social forces the more intelligently he will be able to deal with problems of

organization and discipline as they arise in the every-day life of the school, and the better he will understand and appreciate his work. This book could be used very effectively in a teachers' reading circle. There is an excellent marginal analysis of the entire book; each chapter is summarized; and there are presented a number of practical exercises for discussion, which should awaken enthusiasm in any study group.

Doctor W. B. Drummond, in his Introduction to Child Study, (Longmans, Green, and Co., New York), has summarized the work that has been done up to date in the study of the child in respect to his physical, intellectual, moral and religious development. The book is designed particularly for teachers and parents in England, where child study has not progressed as far as it has with us. This accounts for the space which the author has given to a discussion of cautions to be observed in child study, and practicable methods of conducting the work. When the subject was new with us considerable attention was given to these topics; but in this country we have grown to the point where we have stopped talking about methods of work, and are devoting our energies to the solution of definite problems concerning child nature and the methods of treating it. Dr. Drummond's summary will be helpful to teachers who are unfamiliar with what has been done; but for those who have kept in touch with the work in this country nothing new will be found in this book.

A COURSE IN MORAL EDUCATION. BY PROFESSOR FRANK C. SHARP, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. The aims and methods of moral education form a problem too vast to be dealt with in a single paper. If therefore in what follows I have confined myself rigidly to a single factor where ultimately there will have to be a great complex of influences, I must not supposed to be disparaging other factors of equal or even greater importance. Narrowness of treatment is due, not to narrowness of sympathy, but to the desire for definiteness and concreteness. The problem, then, which I propose to discuss is the following: What can the high school teacher do to develop and strengthen the character of his pupils by means of a course of study correlated broadly with and not differing radically in kind from the other courses of the school? Upon the allied problem, what can be

done towards the same end in the classes in literature, history and science, my treatment of the immediate subject may also perhaps throw some little light.

The course to be outlined would presumably be given once a week throughout the year or at least through one semester. It would be undertaken. by a teacher who is so much interested in the work that he is willing to do it for its own sake without extra compensation, in other words by a man or woman who volunteers to do it. He sets aside some vacant period and invites those who wish to do so to enter the class. There will be no extra credits, nothing compulsory about the attendance, nothing to serve as an inducement except interest in the subject itself. The subject for discussion at the next session will be announced in advance in order that the pupils may have an opportunity to discuss it with each other before coming into the class, and to do any reading that may seem desirable. It may sometimes be advantageous also to require written reports upon the readings recommended or assigned. The recitation period will, of course, not be used for recitation, in the ordinary sense of that term, at all, but for a frank interchange of opinion and information in which the personality of each student will be scrupulously respected by the teacher, and the latter will play the role not so much of a teacher as of the leader of a discussion in which every view expressed has an equal right to attention.

The aim of the course will be not to impart theoretical information about ethics but to develop in the mind of the pupil a deep and ardent love for right doing. This can only be accomplished by showing him its significance, i. e., its relations and its value. Or if you want the sum in a single phrase, the aim of the course can be stated as the development of moral thoughtfulness. This, it is said, is what particularly distinguished the pupils of Thomas Arnold of Rugby. This, in any event, is what he especially aimed to instill. Most of us go through life, except in rare moments, somewhat like a somnambulist. We are not half aware of what we are doing. If we saw, or at any rate realized what issues hung upon our conduct how differently should we act! "Spirits are not finely touched but to fine issues," says the Duke in Measure for Measure. To awaken our pupils to behold the issues of life-this, then is our task. What it

requires is that we train them to see in their fulness the effects of their actions upon themselves and others, the effects both in the way of happiness and character, and train them to realize the value of the effects of right action, the evil and the hatefulness of the effects of the wrong. What this involves and how it may be accomplished is suggested in the program which is to follow.

The course as I shall present it will in its entirety cover four years. But it is not a question of all or none. Each year's work is quite independent of any other, though I believe they so far interlock as to form, taken together, an organic whole. The first year is devoted to a study of biogrpahy, the second to the forms and methods of contemporary progress, an examination of what is being done about us to make the world a better place to live in, and man a better person to live with. In the third year I shall place the ethics of the individual life, or the laws of right living. The fourth may be described as dealing with the conditions and nature of success. This abstract plan will be made more concrete in succeeding issues of the Journal.

A MAGIC CHANCE.

A group of little country maids,
Invited to a ball,

Said, "Thank you, no, we cannot go,
Our garb won't do at all.
How out of place we all should look
In gowns so straight and dun,
With ne'er a puff or flounce or ruff
Of lace so deftly spun."

"I'll mend all that," the hostess said, "Come in your simple dress,

And swift as speech, I'll cloth you each In snowy lovliness.

With here a ruffle, there a frill,

Fine laces and perky bows,
My magic wand, at my command,
Shall deck you like a rose."

The maidens went in rustic garb
So prim and smooth arranged.
When swift as sight, to fluffy white
Their sober gowns were changed.
With flounces they were so bedecked
One took the room of four;
Their puffs and lace filled all the space
Which ample was before.

This is no idle fairy tale,

You all can prove it true; For what was done that night by one Can now be done by you. If you would work this miracle, So simple yet so strange. Just pop some corn at night or morn And see the maidens change.

-Selected.

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It's the new year glad, that happy new year, we trust, for every teacher in the great common

T'S the new year-the glad, the happy new year, we trust, for every teacher in the great Common

make that work a cheerful one-by being so brim full of cheer ourselves that it will become contagious and the little ones will "catch it."

January is the month of cold and snow. Outside there is little of interest for the teacher or the children. But inside there is an abundance of pleasure and profit awaiting that school whose teacher is wide awake. On the opening day call up the festivities of the holidays just passed and have the children tell in their own language what they did and how they did it; what presents they received at Christmas; skating; snow-men; sliding down hill; etc. It will prove a good language exercise.

This month the Wood county training school furnishes much of the material for this department. Principal M. H. Jackson and Miss Etta Michaels contribute many valuable suggestions and offer timely helps on school management and the teaching of Reading. Their initials follow their respective contributions.

Mrs. Bradford and Miss McCormick-the Journal's old time friends are with us again. Mrs. Bradford begins her article on primary reading-it will be concluded in the February number. Every grade and rural teacher should read, study and digest these thoughts of Mrs. Bradford. They relate to the Common School Manual wherein she is the author of the best syllabus on the teaching of Reading ever published. Miss McCormick, daily carrying out in the schoolroom her practical plans, gives teachers, in a language to be understood, some of the best devices ever put in print and points out helpful things for the grade teacher.

The article on "Practical Picture Study" by Principal Kent will prove a helpful guide for those teachers who realize the value of art in the public school. Many requests have come to us to furnish a schedule of pictures for study by school years-and here it is. "Six Geographical People on a Journey," by Miss Rowena Arthur is an interesting game for recreation and profit on Friday afternons or during some stormy-day intermissions. Try it in your school.

You know Lincoln's birthday is February 12-a day for which you want to prepare this month. This year is the centennial of Lincoln's birth. One hundred years ago this immortal man first saw the light of day in a little Kentucky log cabin. Today the world honors him and his deeds and why at this most appropriate time should we not impress his virtues upon the minds of the rising generation? Some suggestive material is given for the event. There should not be a boy or girl in Wisconsin schools above the fourth grade who can not repeat the great Lincoln's Gettysbury speech. On the morning of January 29, Friday, don't forget to pay tribute to the memory of William McKinley, the martyred president, who was born on that day just sixty-five years ago. Valentine day (February 14) falls on Sunday.

Make for January the best month's record in your teaching career!

ARE YOU IN THE CONTEST?

Are you taking part in our monthly contest for which four prizes are awarded to those grade and rural teachers who submit practical devices in teaching? Remember this is open to every grade and rural teacher in the state of Wisconsin, whether or not his or her name appears upon our subscription roll. It is a chance for the live teacher to tell what he has done successfully and to be paid for his effort. For those who are not familiar with the conditions of this contest, we would ask them to turn to page 368 of the December issue where a full account is given.

All contributions to this contest received during the month of December will be set aside and judged on their merits. Announcement, however, of the successful winners can not be made until the February issue. All those received during the month of January will be judged again and announcement made in the March issue, and so on. We have already received some very interesting contributions from teachers who have long practiced successful devices.

Here's an easy way to earn $5.00 a month or to get a free subscription to the Wisconsin Journal of Education. Just try it once and see how you come out, and, remember further that this is not a contest for a single month. The prizes are to be awarded each month with the exception of July and August.

"YOUR OWN CANOE."

It is good to be kin to the noble and great,
It is good to be heir to vast estate,
But 'tis better yet, I think-don't you?—
To be able to "paddle your own canoe."

So smile on the humble as well as the great; For dead man's shoes never care to wait; But strive to be useful and brave and true And be proud to "paddle your own canoe."

SPECIAL JANUARY OFFER FOR the teacHERS' AGENCY.

January is the time to enroll for good positions next year. We have a special offer for those who will enroll during this month. A postal request gets the information free of charge. The Parker Teachers' Agency, Madison, Wisconsin,

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PRACTICAL PICTURE STUDY.

BY PRIN. CHARLES H. KENT, CHICAGO. (Principal Kent carried out in the Charles City, Iowa, schools a practical scheme of picture study which he presents below. Teachers will find the graded list a great help in their work. All of these

pictures may be obtained at a nominal price from the Perry Pictures Co., Malden, Mass.-Editor.)

Eighty pictures,-one each month of a tenmonth year, during the eight elementary grades,are herewith listed for study. The lesson proper is twenty minutes long, frequently substituted for the period usually given to drawing, one day a month. The regular teacher gives the study, although the results may and do easily correlate with drawing,, literature, composition, morals and history. The drawing teacher is often consulted as to the minor technique which the picture presents. Pupils are urged to suggest all the questions they wish to ask, and are permitted to ask each other questions about the artist, his life, the picture, the story of its first inception, etc. A succeeding day affords a chance to emphasize some of the facts and the lessons brought out, by oral reproduction, class discussion in review, or comparison of this artist and his picture with other artists and other pictures, incidents and experiences, brought out most easily in language work, history, literature and composition. The drawing or construction work period for the succeeding day is given over to illuminated decoration, or conventionalized symbolism descriptive of the artist or the picture, either centering about a miniature of the artist or picture or both, or some other picture or design bringing the picture story and study to mind.

Collection of Material.

All information about pictures is classified in a large ledger. The pictures are thus referenced in order; Le Rolle's "By the Riverside," (September, first grade picture) being, of course, on page one and so on. Each artist is indexed by name, and likewise each picture. On page nineteen (19) for example, one may write at the top, "Second Grade, May." Directly under, "Breton's 'Song of the Lark""; on the next, state that the original hangs in Art Institute, Chicago. All scraps of reference, clippings about artist or picture from art catalogs, are either pasted or written on that page. Likewise, all references to the artist or picture in books or magazines are written there. Thus a working beginning is made. For illustrative mate

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