School, Joliet, Ill., one of the leading high schools of the country, has succeeded in almost completely eliminating cigarette smoking among high-school boys. This has been accomplished, first, by showing the evil effects of using cigarettes, and following this information by a request of pupils to sign an agreement to use no cigarettes during their high-school period. This agreement is signed by both boys and girls. Similar efforts have heen made in all of the grammar schools and Sunday schools of the city. Then, all the corporations in Joliet employing a great many boys and girls have agreed that no user of cigarettes shall be employed. The agreement reads as follows: "We, the undersigned, employers of labor of the city of Joliet, hereby go on record as opposed to having in our employ boys and girls under eighteen who are addicted to cigarettes, and we further agree to use our influence to eliminate cigarette smoking among all of our employees." The physicians of Joliet have signed a statement placing themselves on record against the use of cigarettes by boys and girls under twenty-one. Similar statements have been signed by the woman's clubs, business clubs, and other organizatious of the city. Finally, the enforcement of the state law against the sale of cigarettes has been accomplished through the efforts of the school attorneys of the city. Mr. Brown has told the writer that it takes time and some money and effort to do these things, but the public press has been extremely helpful in assisting in this movement, and has been willing to give all the space needed for the publication of reports and movements leading to the eradication of the evll.

School Patrons

note that in St. Louis, for example, there has been for several years a great organization of leading citizens who have co-operated with teachers in every kind of educational reform. This School Patrons Alliance appears to be gaining in strength and influence continually, and experience has shown that it has been of marked service in securing the support of the community for the requests made by the superintendent and the teachers.

We need in every community to get the people to appreciate that what is harmful to the schools is equally harmful to the community. Some persons seem to entertain the notion that what the teachers want is desired solely for their own advancement, but not for the good of the pupils or the community. But this is one of the unfortunate things that are likely to happen when the school goes on more or less apart from the community. What we do not keep in touch with we are apt to become suspicious of; and this is at the bottom of much of the indifference of citizens to the needs and demands of teachers. There ought to be a school patrons' alliance in every community, large or small, and teachers ought to work through it, or at least enlist its aid in securing reforms, and especially in combating evils.

What Next?

The newspapers report that recently some boys in Grand Rapids were tried in court on the charge of indulging in an expensive joy-ride. The judge who fined them took advantage of the occasion to give vent to his feelings regarding the shortcomings of the public schools, which he declared were accountable for the delinquency of these young offenders. He assumed that the public schools were solely responsible for the moral as well as the intellectual training of the young. According to his view, implied of course, the home, the church, and the community count for nothing in the training of youth. This is knocking these latter institutions pretty hard. If this same judge had found occasion to commend the actions of the young people, he probably would have ascribed their virtues to the home or the church or the community. Thus it is that to the school, which is already burdened with vexations and responsibilities, more of the same sort shall be given by judges and such like.

The November Convention

Everyone engaged in educational work in this state can probably find something of interest in the program of the approaching meeting of the W. T. A. in Milwaukee. Much time and effort have been spent by Mrs. Bradford in particular, and also by Mr. Bussewitz and the Executive Committee, in providing competent speakers, and in planning the program so as to meet the needs of teachers in every department of school and college work. The officers have had unusual success in securing able educational leaders from neighboring and distant states, such men as Claxton, Judd, Suzzalo, Allen, Hodge, Gunsaulus, Hone, Flagg, Fullerton, Burnham, Sexauer; and Mrs. Schoff, Miss Logan, and Miss Lennon. A number of the cleverest and wisest men and women in our own state-in the state department, the University, the colleges, the normal schools, the high schools, the elementary schools, the rural schools, and in special schools have been drawn upon for the general and sectional programs. Extraordinary efforts have been made to provide each section and each conference with an appropriate place in which to hold its meetings, and with suitable appliances to make its program attractive and practically helpful. There will be soothing and refreshing music after each address on the general program, and this will make it unnecessary for people to be coming or going while anyone is speaking. Teachers who want to hear what is being said this year will probably not be interrupted at any time.

How any teacher can stay at home while good things like these are being run off in Milwaukee is too much for us to comprehend. We might add that the program has been so constructed that teachers with worldly interests can find vacant spaces during which they may see what is happening on the stage, or make appropriate additions to their wardrobe. In the words of Shakespeare,-"Come one, come all," say we.

The County Training School

We stand ready to measure swords with anyone who says the county training schools are useless, or a menace to the sound development of the rural schools. It may be that at present some pupils graduate from these schools with a vacuum where there ought to be brains; but

this phenomenon is not peculiar to the training schools. Also, a few very young and very unsophisticated girls, and raw, unarticulated boys get teaching certificates from the county schools; but then it has not been found possible in the normal schools, the colleges, or the University to prevent a certain number of incompetents from receiving diplomas certifying to their intellectual, moral, and physical fitness to teach. There ought to be a general stiffening up in the requirements for teaching certificates of all grades; but as it is, the county training school is probably fulfilling its mission as well as the other institutions that train teachers. However, it ought to be possible now to require a highschool diploma for admission to a training school; anything less than this is certainly inadequate. If we were teaching in a county training school, we would make such a noise in regard to this matter that people would just have to sit up and take notice.

Summer Study

We can remember the time when a teacher who was graduated from a normal school or college was regarded as fully equal to any emergency that might arise in the pursuit of his business. It was not considered that such a teacher should keep up his study during his summer vacation, or at any other period. But how the times have changed! During the present summer the writer of these notes had the pleasure of presiding over classes of college and normal-school graduates who had achieved success in a variety of positions, but who were spending their summer in freshening themselves up in regard to recent contributions to educational theory and practice. They were a keen, enthusiastic, and optimistic body of people. They came from every section of the country, which is an indication that interest in educational progress is not confined to any one locality.

A teacher is likely to get more from one summer's study of education after he has been in service for a while than from a whole year's study before he gets into the harness. When one has been actually up against real problems, he is then ready to appreciate how people have explained them, and have attempted to solve them; but until he tries to deal with genuine problems, they are more or less unreal to him, and he is not likely to be tremendously excited

about their explanation or their solution. is often a great revelation to a college senior to be in a class with these experienced men and women, and see how they take hold of questions of teaching and discipline met by all teachers. We think it could probably be shown that the educational institutions of this state, which are engaged in the training of teachers, are doing as much in their short summer session for the improvement of teaching and the dissemination of wholesome ideas regarding education, as they are doing in their long academic year. The point we wish to make here is that everything practicable should be done to make the summer sessions as accessible and as attractive to teachers as possible.

A State Course of Study A superintendent writes in to us to inquire what we think about a course of study outlined by a state superintendent, and recommended by him for all the schools under state supervision. It is our impression that there is such a course of study in most of the states; at any rate we have examined those of a number of states. It seems to us that, taking things by and large, a state course of study is likely to be superior to one that could be got up by most of us working independently. Theoretically, a state superintendent will get the most competent people whom he knows to outline the work in the various branches, and it is highly probable

that in this way a better course will be evolved than would be the case if it were left for individuals to do as they chose. Really what a state superintendent aims to do is to get the best thing to be found in the world, and to make it effective in all the schools under his jurisdiction. He may not succeed in attaining his ideal, but the chances are that he will come nearer to it than could be done by letting every individual go his own way.

Freedom of Initiative At the same time it is without doubt true that there is here and there a teacher who could make improvements in any general course of study.

But in our own state, freedom is given such a person to put his ideas into effoct, if they can be shown to be an improvement upon the regulation course. Individuals are not held rigidly to the state program, although they are

Educational Legislation

At its last meeting in Milwaukee in September, the Committee of Fifteen reached an agreement regarding the essentials of a report to be made to Superintendent Cary respecting legislation affecting mainly the rural schools of the state. The Committee has, through its sub-committees, been making a careful study of various phrases of the rural-school problem, and the results of its investigations together with its recommendations will be embodied in a formal report which we hope may be printed for general distribution. We may have some comments to make on it in our next issue.

It would be of great advantage to educational progress in the state if the various organizations, and especially the legislative committees therof, could unite on a few measures to propose at each session of the legislature. As it is, or at least as it has been, every organization, through its legislative committee, goes to the legislature on its own hook, and worries the lawmakers about its special bills, framed to promote its particular interests. Sometimes one group of teachers throws mud at another group, and the wearied solons easily decide to leave things where they are. Now, this is all wrong. We can't get forward very fast unless we can act as a unit in respect to the matter of legislation. A leading legislator said to us recently, "You can't expect the legislature to do much for education when the teachers themselves are not agreed as to what is desirable."

Why should'nt the report of the Committee of Fifteen be made the basis for legislation affecting the rural schools the coming winter? Perhaps it would not be too much to ask that the interests of the rural schools should take precedence over all others next winter. These schools are in need of immediate legislative attention, and the law-makers should not be too greatly distracted by a multitude of bills relating to other phases of our educational system.

A Good Book For Teachers

As teachers we need all the advice we can get from any source regarding ways and means of preserving our own freshness and vitality, and effective methods of leading our pupils to form wholesome and sane habits of living. What doth it avail one to acquire much knoledge if at the same time he does not learn how to live so that he may put his knowledge into effect? Many a person loses his health in the pursuit of knowledge; and when this is the case he is more likely to be a handicap to his fellows than to be of help to them. And it seems particularly imperative that teachers should hold up the ideal of simple, rational, natural living under modern conditions, since these conditions tend toward an artificial and enervating mode of life, with unhappy consequences.

Dr. Lorand's new book, "Old Age Deferred" (The F. A. Davis Co., Philadelphia) present in a simple, interesting, and effective way the last word of modern science respecting a great number of questions pertaining to health, hygiene, and efficiency. The book can be heartily commended to teachers, alike for their own good and for the good of their pupils. It is the right sort.

Hon. P. P. Claxton

The United States Commissioner of Education who will give the principal address at the Wisconsin State Teachers' Association next month.

Educational Doings in the State's Metropolis Milwaukee: The first fresh air high school to be held in Milwaukee was opened last month in the building at the corner of 10th and Prairie Sts. With the smoke of a nearby fire filling the corridors of the Lloyd St. school, 900 children were marched into the open and the building cleared in a half a minute. The school attendance this year is greater than last by 2,078. The new spelling book has been introduced into grades four and five. A new course of study, household arts, has been installed in the north, west and south division high schools; at present it is an elective course; it will be, installed in the east division high school when the new building is completed. Walter Allen, so long connected with the Milwaukee schools, has been granted an indefinite leave of absence on account of illness; he is suffering a nervous breakdown. Appropriate resolutions were passed by the principals' association upon the death of Kirk Spoor of the Dale school. Prin. R. W. Cooley of Ring St. School has been selected as superintendent of Milwaukee's industrial schools. The special supervisors of the city schools have all had their salaries increased.

Manual Training School Given to LaCrosse Another public spirited citizen has come to the front in Mr. F. P. Hixon of La Crosse, who has given $70,000 for the erection of a manual training annex to the high school of that city. Plans have been completed and the new structure will be erected at once. Mr. Hixon has also agreed to equip the building when completed. This makes the third manual training school in the state made possible by the liberality of citizens. The other two are at Omro and Oshkosh.

A School Agricultural Fair

On Saturday, October 5, there was held at Livingston a high school agricultural fair, which is something new in the line of educational stunts in this state. Entries were received from most of the high schools of Grant county. A liberal premium list was provided, there were base ball contests between the different high schools, and in many ways the affair was not only unique but profitable to the teachers and pupils of the county.