In the supreme court last month a final decision was rendered regarding the Beach bequest to the city of Oshkosh. The decision was in favor of the city, making immediately available about $150,000 for the erection and maintenance of a manual training school. This makes a total of $200,000 for this new school, which will no doubt be erected the coming year. Supt. McIver is to be congratulated on the outcome of this contest and the prospects for such a valuable addition to the public schools of the city. Last summer the school board of Markesan, under the guidance of Prin. E. M. Cox, took their old course of study, cut it in two, and threw onehalf of it away. For the remaining half there was substituted four units of agriculture and four units of commercial work, which is called the com mercial-agricultural course. The freshman class this year was double that of 1909, and fifty per cent of them are taking this new course. Manual training and domestic science are expected to be introduced into the school very soon. In Oshkosh the teachers are obliged to report on the number of cases of corporal punishment each month. The month of November there were only eight for the entire system of schools, and eight of the buildings reported no cases. Supt. McIver has strongly recommended that sanitary bubble fountains be installed in all of the schools immediately; it is surprising to know that such a progressive city as Oshkosh has been so tardy in establishing this sanitary feature which is now to be found generally throughout the schools of the state. In the drowning of Robert E. Immerie at Sheboygan on November 22, the life of a most estimable young man and promising teacher came to a sudden end. Mr. Immerie was substituting in the Sheboygan high school for a classmate who was afflicted with typhoid fever. On the fatal morning, he took a plunge in the natatorium and. a few minutes later was found dead, the exact cause of which was not determined, though it is supposed that going into the cold water too soon after his morning meal produced acute indigestion followed by cramps which rendered him helpless in the water. Supt. E. M. Beeman of the Neenah city schools always outlines at the opening of the fall term, work for the teachers' meetings during the school year. Seven general meetings are planned, none being held in November on account of the state association, and none in either May or June. Bulletins are issued to the teachers in advance of each meeting so they may come prepared to speak on the subjects under discussion. Mr. Beeman recently placed in the hands of each teacher Dr. Elliott's outline for the measurement of teachers' efficiency, and asked each one to mark herself on each of the 100 points. One of the men in the state who has served long and faithfully and accomplished results is Prin. L. S. Keeley of Mayville. Mr. Keeley assumed the principalship at Mayville in 1890, and with the exception of about two years has held the position ever since. Probably one of the strongest departments here is that of German, the systematic study of which is begun in the fourth grade and carried through the four years of the high school. Manual training and domestic science have been carried on in the Mayville schools for the last ten years. A special teacher of drawing is also employed by the school board. During last summer, the school buildings were remodeled and sanitary drinking funtains and wash basins installed in the corridors. Two new pianos have recently been added to the equipment. The high school has a glee club and an orchestra, both of which furnish music for the local school. Milwaukee Prin. A. C. Shong of the Superior high school succeeds C. E. McLenegan of the West Division high school, his duties beginning this month. Mr. Shong has made a splendid record in the Blaine high school at Superior, and his success in this new position is clearly foreseen. The city association for public play and social education is urging the establishment of a department of public recreation. The city building inspector has condemned nearly all of the district school buildings so far as Christmas entertainments and civic centre meetings are concerned; probably only about six of the buildings will be available for these purposes, though an effort is being made to include eleven schools. The schoolmasters' club has petitioned the board not to put the ban on corporal punishment. The work of the visiting nurses in the public schools has been discontinued owing to a lack of funds to support By Augusta Stevenson, Formerly a teacher in the Indianapolis Public Schools. Illustrated by Clara E. Atwood. Price $.50. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston: 4 Park St.; New York: 85-5th Ave., Chicago: 378-388 Wabash Ave., The Riverside Press Cambridge. Farm Friends and Farm Foes. A Text-Book of Agricultural Science. By Clarence M. Weed, D. Sc., State Normal School, Lowell, Mass. 1910. D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers, Boston, New York, Chicago. State of New York. Sixth Annual Report of the Education Department. For the school year ending July 31, 1909. Transmitted to the Legislature January 24, 1910. New York State Education Department, Albany. Idealism in Education or First Principles in the Making of Men and Women. By Herman Harrell Horne, Ph. D., Professor of the History of Philosophy and of the History of Education, New York University; Author of "The Philosophy of Education" and "The Psychological Principles of Education." $1.25 net. 1910 All rights reserved. The MacMillan Co., New York. The Essentials of Character. A practical study of the aim of moral education. By Edward O. Sisson, Ph. D. Professor of Education, The University of Washington. $1.00 net. 1910. All rights reserved. The MacMillan Co., New York. A Text-Book in the Principles of Education. By Ernest Norton Henderson, Ph. D. Professor of Education and Philosophy in Adelphi College, Brocklyn. $1.75 net. 1910. All rights reserved. The MacMillan Co., New York. The Land of Living Men. By Ralph Waldo Trine, author of "In Tune with the Infinite," "What All the World's a-Seeking," etc. 12mo, cloth. 302 pages. $1.25. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York. Getting On. By Orison Swett Marden. 12mo, cloth, 325 pages. $1.00 net; postage, 10 cents. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., Publishers, New York. Be Good to Yourself. By Orison Swett Marden. 12mo, cloth. 322 pages. $1.00 net; postage, 10 cents. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., Publishers, New York. Stories of the King. By James Baldwin. Cloth, 12mo, 335 pages, with illustrations. Price, 50 cents. American Book Co., New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago. A Language Series-Book One. By Robert C. Met- Practical Elementary Algebra-First Year Course. Ernstes and Heiteres. Edited by Josefa Schrakamp. Joan of Arc-French Composition. By H. A. Guerber Cloth, 12mo, 68 pages, with notes and vocabulary. Frice, 30 cents. American Book Co., New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago. Travels In History. By Mark Twain. Selected from the works of Mark Twain by C. N. Kendall, Superintendent of Schools in Indianapolis, and arranged for Home and Supplementary Reading in the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grades. Illustrated. Price, 50 cents. 1910. Harper & Bros., Publishers, New York and London. Class Teaching and Management. By William Estabrook Chancellor, Author of "Our Schools:: Their Administration and Supervision." Illustrated. Price $1.00 school. 1910. Harper & Bros., Publishers, New York and London. The Young Forester. By Zane Grey, Author of "The Heritage of the Desert." Price $1.25. 1910. Harper & Bros., Publishers, New York and London. Harper's Book of Little Plays. By Margaret Sutton Briscoe, John Kendrick Bangs, Caroline A. Creevey, Margaret E. Sangster, and others. Selected for Home and School entertainments with an introduction by Madalene D. Barnum of the Brooklyn Training School for Teachers. Illustrated by Howard Pyle and others. Price, 75c cents school. 1910. Harper & Bros., Publishers, New York and London. The PARKER A where the candidate is individually con RECOMMENDING AGENCY Teachers' Agency sidered for specific positions upon the direct request of school officials. The service of two Agencies at the price of one. If you are not familiar with the "Parker" way— different from all others-write either office at once for free descriptive literature. Twenty-sixth year. Best Schools and Colleges everywhere our permanent clients. You want to read our new booklet Western Offices: HELP WANTED DURING SPRING AND SUMMER We want teachers to become acquainted with our opportunities for promotion. Vacancies in plenty for next school year. We certainly need help. All departments "from the university to the grades." Ask for our "Illustrative Lists.” Operates in all the Northwestern states. Minneapolis, Minn. Can assist Wisconsin teachers who are University, College, or Normal School graduates to choice positions. Needs a large number of well qualified teachers of Music and Drawing, Manual Training, Domestic Science and Commercial subjects. Recommends the right teachers to school officials. Write today for full information. TEACHERS! Speak of your education and experience. How to Increase Your Salaries REGISTER FOR PROMOTION. Vacancies now in all departments. Many needed to begin after the Holidays and Spring Term. Write for particulars. The GHURSTON TEACHERS' AGENCY, 378 Wabash Ave., Chicago SOUTH DAKOTA Offers exceptional opportunities for the advancement of teachers, and the South Dakota Teachers' Bureau is proving an excellent medium through which such advancement can be secured. Its managers are men of proven experience in the schoolroom and give personal attention to every case. Their wide acquaintance with employing authorities exercises considerable weight in the hiring of teachers. Write for 1911-12 announcement and registration blanks. The South Dakota Teachers' Bureau Box 235 X Pierre, S. D. EDITORIAL COMMENT BY PROFESSOR M. V. O'SHEA, THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. The United States Commissioner of Education has included in his financial estimates for the support of the Federal Bureau of Education for the coming fiscal year sums aggregating $75,000, to create and support a field force of consulting specialists in ten branches of educational work. The object is to make available to school men throughout the country the services of experts in such branches as vocational education, school hygiene, rural schools, accounting and statistics, construction of school buildings, and so on. The aim is service, not control. The plan proposes to render available to each community the experience of all, through the medium of a corps of field workers who can go wherever their services are needed, to supply counsel, information, and advice. This plan has been endorsed by the National Education Association, the Federation of State Teachers' Associations, twenty state educational associations, seventy-six universities, colleges, and normal schools, 400 city superintendents of schools, and by thousands of individuals interested in education. It has been approved by the Secretary of the Interior and by the President and his Cabinet. The additional funds needed are now before the House Committee on Appropriations. Many of us have long been hoping that the work of the Federal Bureau of Education might be enlarged, so that it would be of positive help in the development of education in our country. The plan proposed above is a step in the right direction. It does not seem that anyone could possibly object to the appropriation asked for. There ought to be some way by which the results of educational investigations throughout the country could be made accessible to all teachers and boards of education. The school men of Wiscon No. 2 sin could help in this movement by writing their congressmen to support this appropriation for the Bureau of Education. THE STUDY OF TRADE LANGUAGES. At the last meeting of the W. T. A., Mr. Siegmeyer, of the East Division High School, Milwaukee, discussed the value of foreign language study for pupils who intend to engage in business. He pointed out that the Germans are capturing the commerce of the world, partly because they master the languages of the people with whom they trade. A number of men of German nativity have been calling attention to this latter fact; and unquestionably it suggests a kind of work needing to be done in our own country. But Mr. Siegmeyer might have continued his observations, showing that the Germans know how to teach a language so that pupils will really master it in its spoken and written forms. It is not their aim to give a mere technical knowledge of a foreign language, at least a modern language. They appreciate that the purpose of studying a living language should be to acquire it so that it can be used. One can visit a German public school, and listen to pupils actually talking and writing the English language readily and well. They are compelled to employ it much as they do the native tongue. And it is this sort of experience that makes the German a superior practical linguist. We devote time enough in this country to the study of foreign languages, but we don't get anywhere with them. We learn the principles of grammar well, but we do not learn how to think in a foreign language, or how to speak it with facility, or interpret it correctly when we hear it. The teachers of foreign languages ought to devise ways and means of giving pupils facility in the use of a language after they have studied it |