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In the first place it is perfectly evident that never before in the history of the world has there been such a healthful interest in the cause of education as there is to-day. People in the great nations of the world are bending their energies toward providing better means of education for their children. Especially in

the United States it is true that the most beautiful and expensive buildings throughout the country are the school buildings. There is great expenditure of money for the purpose of providing the best in education from the kindergarten through the university. Where one family sent their children to college fifty years ago, ten do now. Again the number of organizations and institutions built up for the purpose of furthering the cause of education is almost innumerable.

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Witness the multitude of mothers' clubs, mothers' congresses, women's school alliances, women's leagues for better sanitation in school buildings, teachers' clubs, associations and reading circles, the increase and improvement of public libraries, traveling libraries, extension courses, correspondence courses, the multiplication of sewing schools, cooking schools, schools of domestic science, etc. To simply enumerate would occupy many pages. free lectures given by the board of education in New York city within the last ten years have been wonderful agents in the cause of education. During the year 1896-7 there were given 1,066 free lectures upon educational topics to the working people. The fact that 426,357 persons attended them speaks unequivocally of their popularity. Educational literature is growing more abundant every day. None of the popular magazines, even of the purely literary type, can get along now without one or more articles upon current educational topics in each number. Even the daily papers in many cities give considerable space to educational questions. I noticed in Sunday's Sentinel that of twenty mayors of Wisconsin cities, who indicated what their city would like in a Christmas stocking that eleven of them indicated improvement in school facilities. These men are all business men, not pedagogues, and the answers are very significant. It shows that the people are deeply interested in the cause of education, and that they are studying the interests of their children.

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into India, China, Japan, and the Hawaiian Islands. Thousands of young mothers and fathers are studying their offspring with minutest care and making records of everything they deem important. (Of course this is not inconsiderable!) Most of this is of no scientific value but it is an index of increased interest in and knowledge about children.

Throughout the country there are no less than 160,000 women (exclusive of teachers) actively engaged in some form of enterprise looking directly toward the betterment of educational methods and facilities. These women are among the leading women of their respective communities. This work takes various directions. Some of it is in mothers' clubs and mothers' meetings, other in parents' and teachers' meetings. In some, child-study as ordinarily thought of is the central topic, in others the kindergarten, foods and their relative values and modes of preparation, general health, sleep, fatigue, home lessons, care of teeth, care of body, clothing, exercise, tobacco, schoolroom sanitation, schoolroom decoration, manners, morals, etc., are considered. See School and Home Journal, Nov., 1898, p. 128.

Though much of the work is desultory and lacking in point, yet it all contributes toward a closer bond of sympathy between home and school, and anything that will further this end is highly desirable.

It may be presumptuous to claim all this as the direct outcome of recent child-study. It may be better to say as the modern historians are coming to do, that no one factor is a sufficient cause for any great movement, but that the spirit of the movement is "in the air.” But it is certain that interest in education in the larger sense is the dominant cause of all the activity. And I think it is not too much to say that a great deal of enthusiasm has been kindled by the newer child-study and that a very significant advance is synchronous with its advent. You may say that the questionaire has not accomplished it, the scales and balance have not accomplished it, optical and auditory tests have not accomplished it. However, eachhas given its quota through the results it revealed, and all have contributed to the greater interest in the child as the future heir of the present and this interest has accomplished it. By the various methods we have been enabled to know more intimately his possibilities, his points of strength, and his shortcomings. All have stimulated toward bettering means of developing his possibilities. (Concluded next month.)

Milwaukee, Wis.

F. E. BOLTON.

BOOK TABLE.

D. Appleton & Co., N. Y.

-LETTERS TO A MOTHER on the Philosophy of Froebel, by Susan E. Blew (311 pp.; $1.50), partially fulfills a promise made in the preface to "Symbolic Education," to complete, as time and strength permit, the commentary upon Froebel's Mother Play. A few subjects are selected from that book for more detailed study, nine in fact, each treated in the form of a letter to a friend. This volume deals with the philosophy of Froebel, which so many kindergartners fail to study, assuming that their interest in his practical plans with their own instincts will guide them sufficiently. Therefore many of them go astray, and have brought much needless reproach upon a form of training which they misrepresent because they have failed to grasp its inner meaning. The author, Dr. Harris says, "finds it necessary to take up the most important doctrines one after another, and show their equivalents in the different systems of thot that prevail. In some cases these systems are in harmony with Froebel, and in other cases there is profound disagreement.

The readers of the discussions in this book will readily concede that the exposition of the results of the theory of the kindergarten, and also the defence of its practice as against systems that conflict with it, are presented with a clearness and force new in the literature of the subject."'

--NUNEZ'S FIRST SPANISH READER, with brief vocabulary and questions on the text (204 pp.; 65c.); also SECOND SPANISH READER, by J. Abelardo Nunez (258 pp.; 85c.), received the gold medal at the world's fair in Paris and also in the Guatemala exposition, 1897. The questions and vocabulary are the only part of the books in English, and appear as an appendix. They are first and second readers for Spanish children, but most serviceable also for Americans who wish to learn the language by reading. The questions are supposed to be answered by the pupil in Spanish, and thus his knowledge of vocabulary, constructions, and idioms is rapidly built up.

The Macmillan Company.

-AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY of Literature, edited by Edwin H. Lewis (410 pp.), would rescue literature, especially in the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth grades, from merely formal drill, and make it an agency for the education of the emotions and the will. The editor has selected material for this-selections to be read aloud, and suited to the youth who are to read, all ranged under such rubrics as The nobility of animals, The heroism of war, The heroism of peace, The athlete, The adventurer, etc. Each topic has an introduction treating of it and the selections under it. They will be read with avidity, both the introductions and the selections, and the boys who have read them will have entered upon the emotional education which comes from true literature of power.

-NATURE STUDY FOR GRAMMAR GRADES, A manual for teachers and pupils below the high school in the study of nature, by Wilbur A. Jackman (407 pp.; $1.00), seems to us an important addition to the pedagogical equipment for the new grammar school. It is not a treatise to be learned, but a guide to the study and investigation of things, developing in each subject a series of queries with suggestions how to work towards obtaining answers. The work proceeds to applications of what is learned, to number work and manual training, and to the representative expression of it in drawing, colors, modeling and writing. The range of subjects is large, relations of plants and animals, meteorology, astronomy, physics, botany, physiology, agriculture, etc., looking in fact to a many-sided study of surrounding objects, rather than to systematic pursuit of a single science or a series of sciences. This is the true plan for such instruction, which as it seems to us, is now, after a long series of experiments, none of which have been fully satisfactory, finding its true character, matter and method. We heartily commend this work to the attention of those looking for guidance in true nature study.

C. W. Bardeen, Syracuse, N. Y.

-LETTERS AND LECTURES ON EDUCATION by Johann Friedrich Herbart, translated from the German and edited

with an introduction by Henry M. and Emmie Felkin, (285 pp.; $1.75,) will be heartily welcomed as a valuable addition to Herbartian literature in English. Here we have the six letters which have been preserved, written by Herbart to Herr von Steiger, whose sons he tutored shortly after he finished his university studies. Part of the contract was that he should make a monthly written report of the progress of the three boys, and most faithfully did he fulfil it. These letters show him a true teacher, who looks at his work in a large way, and studies the needs and character of his pupils. One learns from these letters what Herbart meant by a truly educative instruction. As these letters were Herbart's earliest writings on education so the Lectures on Education, which make up the rest of the volume, were almost his latest, being notes for the pedagogical lectures which he delivered at Goettingen in 1835, after he had served for a quarter of a century at Koenigsbury where he was Kant's successor. The translators are well-known, as they gave us in English dress the Science of Education, Herbart's systematic presentation of his theory. This volume throws great light upon the more important parts of that treatise, and students will find here a great help to a full understanding of it.

-A MANUAL OF THE ART OF QUESTIONING, for training classes, compiled from various works and especially from those of Joseph Landon, (92 pp.; 50 cents) treats in various ways of one of the most important of the teachers' arts, and we know no other manual so full as this. It has always surprised us, however, that writers on this subject do not recognize that the age of the class makes much difference with the type of questioning. As commonly practiced this art takes away from the pupil the organization of matter into a connected whole of presentation, so that he does not acquire the power of organizing his knowledge. He is prepared to match bits and shreds of information on to guiding questions. Nor do these manuals study how thoughtfulness may be promoted in pupils, how to make them seekers after the meaning of things rather than memorizers. To think, to systematize, to present in organic wholes of discourse-these fundamentals of sound teaching such manuals fail to show the beginner how to secure. Henry Holt & Co.

-AUS DEUTSCHen MeisterwerkEN, by Sigmon M. Stern, (225 pp.; $1.20), narrates in easy prose the chief stories out of Gedrun, the Niebelungensage, Parcival, and Tristan and Isold. The introduction gives an interesting account of these products of the earlier German literature, and thus prepares for the reading of the tales. The book does not require notes, but is equipped with a good German-English vocabulary.

-CYRANO DE BERGERAC, comedie heroique en Cinq actes, par Edmond Rostand, edited with introduction and notes by Oscar Kuhns, (202 pp.; 8oc.), produced a marvelous effect when first presented in Paris in 1897, and has since become widely famous thru translations in other lands. The original French play is here edited for school and college use. It is far more effective than the translations we have seen, and the nobleness of the play and its correct historical delineations make it very valuable for class study. Ginn & Co.

-SIR BEVIS, a tale of the fields, an adaptation of ''Wood Magic" by Richard Jeffries, edited by Eliza J. Kelley, (129 pp.; 35c.), tells in the introduction the rather sad story of Richard Jeffries, a student of nature at first hand and a writer on natural history yet but little known in this country, who died in 1887 at the early age of thirty-nine. These are charming stories of the boy, Sir Bevis, with whom the animals talk and to whom they confide the secrets of their lives. They will awaken interest in animal lives and make sympathetic observers of it.

-THE BACCHAE OF EURIPIDES, the text and a translation in English verse, by Alexander Kerr, (125 pp.), contains on one page the Greek and on the opposite the translation. This keeps close to the original, and gives one a vivid sense of the rush and excitement of this most interesting drama. The book contains no learned apparatus, no introduction and no notes; and is evidently intended to serve, and does serve, the true purpose of a literary production, to awaken interest and give pleasure.

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The more ideals a man has, the more contemptible, on the whole, do you continue to deem him, if the matter ends there for him, and if none of the laboring man's virtues are called into action on his part, -no courage shown, no privations undergone, no dirt or scars incurred in the attempt to get them realized. It is quite obvious that something more than the mere ideals is required to make a life significant in any sense that claims the spectator's admiration. Inner joy, to be sure, it may have with its ideals; but that is its own private sentimental matter. To extort from us, outsiders as we are, with our own ideals to look after, the tribute of our grudging recognition, it must back its ideal visions with what the laborers have, the sterner stuff of manly virtue; it must multiply their sentimental surface by the dimensions of the active will, if we are to have depth, if we are to have anything cubical and solid in the way of character.-Prof. William Fames in Talks to Teachers on Psychology.

No. 6

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BETWEEN SEED TIME AND HARVEST

Is a good opportunity to enquire about farming lands in South Dakota, only one day's ride from Chicago. Bountiful crops of Wheat, Corn, Barley and Flax reward the tiller of the soil. As a stock and dairy country South Dakota leads all the world. First class farm lands with near by markets can now be bought for from $10, $12, $15, and upwards, per acre, and this is the time to invest. For further particulars write to Geo. H. Heafford, General Passenger Agent, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, Old Colony Building, Chicago, Ill.

CREAMERIES IN SOUTH DAKOTA.

During the past two years the creamery industry has grown from a small beginning until at the present time there are one hundred and ninteen (119) creameries and cheese factories scattered over the State, and all doing well.

Four times as many creemeries are needed in South Dakota, and farmers or dairymen desiring free list showing where creameries are now located, together with other information of value to live stock growers and farmers generally, will please address GEO. H. HEAFFORD, General Passenger Agent, C., M. & St P. R'y, Old Colony Bldg., Chicago Ill.

ENUE

Journal of Education

MADISON, WIS., JUNE, 1899.

Vol. XXIX.

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THE JOURNAL announces with satisfaction the addition to its force of Mr. B. J. Castle, who becomes a partner in the business with this issue. He will assume the general business management of the paper, and will also conduct a legal department designed for the guidance of school officials. Mr. Castle's training and experience as a lawyer specially fit him for this work, and we believe that he will make his contributions from month to month of great practical value to school clerks and school treasurers. He is well-known in the state, and we doubt not will commend himself to our readers by his business management.

SUMMER SESSIONS have come suddenly in a number of our leading institutions for higher education, partly as a result of the experiment made by Chicago University, and partly

a natural growth and expansion of the

No. 6

summer schools which have been carried on of late years. Besides the University of Wisconsin, Cornell University, and the universities of Michigan and of Illinois are to have such sessions for the first time this year. Great advantages are thus offered to persons whose occupations prevent their attendance at the usual terms, and among such the largest class is undoubtedly that of teachers. To have a choice from almost the whole range of university studies, taught by the university teachers, and giving full proportionate credit towards a university degree, is certainly an opportunity much beyond that of a summer school. By the arrangements at Madison persons not seeking college degrees can have such advantages as used to be given at the Summer School, with such other work as they are able to carry on. The prospects are now excellent for a large enrollment this summer. CHANGES in school teachers are certainly much less lightly made than they were ten or even five years ago. Sometimes they are inevitable, and at others they are very desirable, but the yearly change almost as a matter of course was a serious evil. It is rapidly disappearing as a consequence of certain natural forces which are yearly becoming more effective. The most important is the strengthening of our schools in the aims and character of their work. Every year the standards become a little better. Not every person who has a little education may now take his place in the schoolroom for a time. Serious preparation for the work is required, and evidence of satisfactory experience more and more insisted on in making appointments to desirable positions. Consequently the number who undertake teaching as a makeshift for a few years diminishes. These conditions give character to the work of our teachers, so that there is less restlessness for change in communities; and the difficulties of securing a better position incline those in place to hold on to what they have. It does not seem likely that the shifting formerly so general will return. Rather we may expect to see the tendency to continuity strengthened more and more as the professional character of the teacher's work is more fully developed.

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