A PLACING AGENCY FOR TEACHERS: Name. COME OUT WEST WHERE IT PAYS TO TEACH Our "placing service" is unique in the educational field. We do not send you printed notification blank telling you to "go after' vacancies, or rumored vacancies. We write up and send the employer a special bound report upon your qualifications, showing preparation, personality, credentials and experi ence. This costs us money, but places you in the position you desire. BUSINESS MEN'S CLEARING HOUSE, Chamber of Commerce Bldg., Denver, Colorado. THE AGENCY FOR QUALIFIED TEACHERS We are now in need of hundreds of qualified teachers for Grades, High Schools, Manual Training, Com Rocky Mountain Teachers' Agency 329 Empire Building Denver, Colo. mercial and Domestic Science positions throughout the entire West. We may be able to put you in a better position than you would secure through your own individual efforts. Booklet, "How to Apply for a School and secure promotion,' with laws of certification of teachers of the Western states, free to members. Write us today. WM. RUFFER, A. B., Mgr. The South Dakota Teachers' Agency Located at Pierre, the capital, is constantly in need of teachers for all classes of Public School Work. Send for registration blank and descriptive matter. THE BREWER TEACHERS' 1302 AUDITORIUM AGENCY BUILDING, CHICAGO the United States and Wisconsin Civil Government of For Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Grades Written expressly for Wisconsin, and especially adapted to Rural and State Graded Schools and to those High Schools that desire an Elementary Course in Civics in the Eighth or Ninth year. By W. C. HEWITT, M. Ped. State Institute Conductor of the Oshkosh State Normal School. THE WISCONSIN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION dance at the N. E. A. at Chicago during the OFFICIAL.-The only publication reporting the news of the State Department of Education, working in the interests of the State Teachers' Association, and devoting its pages exclusively to the advancement of Wisconsin schools. Official opinions on school law problems are rendered by the State Department of Education. TIME OF PUBLICATION. -The Journal is mailed the first day of each month, except July and August. SUBSCRIPTION RATES.-$1.25 per year (10 issues) in advance. Single copies 15 cents. DISCONTINUANCE.-The Journal is discontinued to subscribers when the time for which the subscription is paid has expired. An expiration slip is inserted in your last number. To avoid any delays remittance should be received before the 20th of the month following the expiration. ADVERTISING RATES furnished on application. Entered at the postoffice at Madison, Wis., as second class mail matter. Later This Month As the Journal does not come from the press again until September 1, we have adopted the policy of delaying the June issue. This number will hereafter be mailed on June 15, instead of June 1. Vacation The long summer vacation is again at hand, and teachers are planning how to while away their time during the heat of the summer. Many will attend the summer schools at the different normals or at the University. Stout Institute, whose summer session begins July 29th, will claim a large attendance from Wisconsin. Plenty of opportunity is also offered in the eastern schools for those who desire to take up work during their vacation. Quite a delegation from Wisconsin will see the old world. Of course, there will be a large atten week of July 6-13. Teachers Wanted Our Agency department is in need of the following teachers to meet calls from school officers: History and mathematics, $75. Commercial, including shorthand, several positions, $75-125. Inexperienced mathematics teachers. Men in science and athletics, $80-125. Besides these, many other calls are on file in our office for which we have not the right candidates. If you are interested write us at once. Not Too Late Many teachers have gained the erroneous idea that all positions for the school year are filled in May. Our Agency department is busy and very much so- up to the 20th of September. The positions obtained in August are very apt to be much more satisfactory than those contracted for in the earlier spring months. Many teachers are still available for work, and calls reach our office every day from school officers for suitable candidates. Those enrolling now should bear in mind that registration is good for one year, and they will receive our services for the balance of the present school year and through the busy season of next year. Making the Summer Count The long summer vacation should count for something with every teacher, and when September arrives the retrospect should show a gain in health, or wealth, or knowledge, or inspiration or all or part of them. Health is the first consideration. Get that and then go for the others. Idleness except in search for health is inexcusable. There is no reason why much can not be accomplished toward self-improvement. In fact, the time is not far distant when schools will be in session twelve months in the year and the teacher will be on a working basis with his business cousin. And then the pay will be twelve months, too-that counts! VOL. XLIV FOR THE TEACHER, THE SCHOOL, AND THE STATE JUNE 1912 EDITORIAL COMMENT BY PROFESSOR M. V. O'SHEA, THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN A Forward Movement There is some work being undertaken in Superior this year which ought to be of interest to every superintendent in the state. With the approval of Superintendent Maddock, and of Principal O'Connor of the Ericcson grammar school, Miss Elizabeth McCormick, known to every reader of the Journal, is devoting her entire time to teaching two types of pupils--those who are capable of progressing more rapidly than their classmates, but who need a little help in certain studies in order to be promoted into higher classes, and also those who are falling behind, and who need assistance in order to overcome special difficulties. The pupils go to Miss McCormick for short or long periods according to their particular needs as specified by their teachers. Inasmuch as she teaches the unusually bright as well as those who are tarded, it is not considered to be to any pupil's discredit to be sent to her for help. Indeed, pupils are eager to be given the privilege of going to her room. They stay there only long enough to receive their special instruction, when they return to their own classes. re This work is thoroughly in accord with present-day educational needs. In any school of four or five hundred pupils, it is about as certain as anything can be that there will be a number who could move on rapidly if they could have a little special assistance, and there will be others who will drop behind and perhaps become discouraged, unless they are helped over their hard places. To have one capable person in a school whose duty it shall be to give special instruction to all pupils sent to her by any teacher, seems an economic and effective method of recognizing individual differences among pupils. We were told in Superior that the experiment there is gratifying to all who are familiar with the results. NUMBER 6 Is This True? A successful teacher in an eastern city said recently that no woman could teach in the public schools for longer than five years continuously without breaking down nervously. She said that in five years a woman will give so much of her vitality to her work that she can never thereafter be in perfect nervous condition. She further declared that five years of teaching will change a girl's features so that instead of expressing unconscious joy in living, she will show strain and stress, and reveal a pessimistic attitude toward life. Is this true? Has the tragedy of teaching been overstated? If the facts are as presented. are they due to the inherent difficulty of the business? Or are they due to inadequate compensation, so that teachers can not secure the simple comforts of life essential to complete relaxation, and to the regaining of nervous energy expended in the schoolroom? One thing is certain. It is not an easy task to keep thirty or forty children in order for four or five hours a day, and at the same time lead them into possession of the knowledge and virtues necessary for life under modern conditions. We know a minister who is completely worn out after delivering two sermons on the Sabbath day. He says it is a great strain to be before his people for two or three hours at a time; the responsibility of having to interest and instruct them develops nervous tension. What would he do if he had to look after forty children four hours, five days a week, and forty weeks in the year? In the church, people are on their good behavior anyway; and they are mature, so that they can restrain their tempestuous impulses. But just the opposite is true in the school; which means that the teacher is under far greater nervous strain than the minister, or probably than most other persons. |