The two most popular peaks in the Sierra Madre are Mount Wilson and Mount Lowe. The former is reached by an ideal mountain trail. Near the summit is a picturesque camp where accommodations are furnished. The crest of the mountain is park-like, shaded by giant pines from under which the visitors may look across a trememdous gorge into the heart of the range on one side and across the valley to the ocean on the other. The heights of Mount Lowe are reached by railroad, cable and electric cars, the latter forming an interesting and ingenious system of mountain railway which extends to Alpine Tavern, an elevation of 5,000 feet. Here is situated a picturesque mountain hotel, constructed of logs. Half way up is Echo Mountain, where there is another hotel and observatory. A wonderful view of the valley, with Los Angeles and the ocean in the distance, is obtained. The balmy air of these pine-clad mountain heights is very invigorating. Other popular resorts, at a greater distance from Los Angeles, are Bear Valley, in the San Bernardino range, and Strawberry Valley on San Jacinto Mountain. In this favored section the pleasures of the seaside are not confined to the summer months. Even at Christmas it is a common thing to see people enjoying a bath in the surf. The best known and most popular of the seaside resorts of Los Angeles county is Santa Monica, situated nineteen miles from Los Angeles. Santa Monica is a well improved and progressive little city, with paved streets, miles of cement walk, good business blocks, and many charming residences, surrounded by flower gardens and shade trees. Its climate is as near perfection as could be imagined, there being little difference between the summer and winter temperature. Two miles north of this city is Santa Monica Cañon, a picturesque ravine, opening on the ocean beach, studded with large trees. This is a favorite picnic ground and camping ground. The track of the Southern Pacific Company runs from Santa Monica to the cañon, and on a wharf three-quarters of a mile in length, at which steamers and sailing vessels stop. The National Soldiers' Home is located about three miles from Santa Monica, and can be reached either by steam or electric cars. Redondo is another attractive seaside resort and is also a shipping port. It is twenty-two miles from Los Angeles, and is connected by the Southern California Railway and by a narrow gauge line. From two wharves excellent fishing can be had. Long Beach, a few miles east of San Pedro is a quiet family resort with one of the finest stretches of hard, level beach on the coast. One of the most characteristic and interesting features of California are her Missions. San Gabriel Mission, founded September 3, 1771, is twelve miles from Los Angeles, and can be reached by railway or tally-ho. It is still in a remarkable state of preservation. Its chief attraction is the Mission bells and the well-preserved belfry, where at one time hung five bells. This building is mentioned in "Ramona." San Fernando Mission, founded in 1797, twenty-one miles north-west of the city, is situated in the oldest olive grove in California. At Santa Barbara, a famous winter resort 106 miles north-west of Los Angeles, is the largest Mission building left by the Franciscans in California. At sunset each evening the old bells of the Mission ring the angelus, as they have for over one hundred years. Hardly three hours and a half from Los Angeles is Santa Catalina, an island twenty-two miles in length, a park in the Pacific, a mountain range at sea; a bit of the world by itself, which in its climate, natural beauties and opportunities for sport, comes as near perfection as one can find. It abounds in beautiful and lofty mountains, deep gorges, stupendous rock cliffs and precipices. The summers are equally remarkable. At Avalon a really hot period, as it is understood in the East, is unknown, and from May until November there is a succession of beautiful days without a suspicion of squall or storm of any kind. One cannot afford to miss the drive around Riverside, famous the world over for its oranges and beautiful Magnolia avenue. There are few if any more beautiful cities of its size in the world. Though the public buildings and private residences are of superior structure, it is not to them that Riverside owes her prominence. It is her miles of beautiful avenues and streets, tree-lined, flower-bordered, No written description can do it full justice. Through the center of the district in which are the oldest and most extensive orange groves, runs Magnolia avenue, and to say that it is one of the finest driveways in the world is to give it due praise. As a distinguished writer said, after a drive on Magnolia: "A drive down Magnolia avenue with the balmy morning air freighted with the fragrance of the orange blossoms is a never-to-be-forgotten event in the lifetime of those who have journeyed across dusty plains and paused to enjoy the restful climate and picturesque delights of Riverside." A mile distant and running parallel with Magnolia avenue is the new Victoria avenue, 130 feet wide, and on each side are ornamental trees and roses its entire length. All will be delighted with a visit to Pasadena, the "Crown of the Valley," a city of beautiful homes, situated nine miles north-east of the City of Los Angeles, at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountains, and connected with the city by four lines of railway. Here you can visit the Ostrich Farm, one of the rising industries of Southern California, which contains over 250 birds of all sizes. A trip down the coast to San Diego is among the delights to be enjoyed. Hotel del Coronado, across the bay from San Diego, is the largest hotel on the coast, and one of the largest in the world. Special N. E. A. rates have been made by the management. It is impossible, in the brief space allotted to this paper to do more than merely outline some of the main features of this section, which is attracting so large an immigration from all parts of the world. Those desiring further information will receive prompt and courteous attention from the managers of the Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles. Visitors are always made welcome here, where is found a magnificent display of the products of this section, and. no pains will be spared in giving full information concerning any points of interest in this glorious land of which the Southern California people are justly proud. MRS. ALBERTINE SMITH. THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY. The meeting was called to order by President C. K. Adams, who, after introductory remarks in which he pointed out the importance of the questions to be considered, and of the significance of conferences such as these, introduced Professor M. V. O'Shea, the first speaker on the program. Prof. O'Shea said that the better co-ordination of grammar schools and high schools was only one phase of a larger question. Beginning with the kindergarten, during which the child constantly tends to repeat impressions of his environment, followed by a more philosophic period and a reaction against authority, the child passes through a regular cycle of development. Great physical and mental changes take place simultaneously. Prof. O'Shea showed charts to illustrate this. There is a lack of articulation all along the line from kindergarten to the university. Teachers meet different attitudes of mind, in different kinds of work, and tend to apply the same method to different kinds of work. This leads to the first suggestion: there ought to be some way of bringing teachers of different grades together. Those who supervise and direct education should understand the relations which exist between successive grades of work, and make the transition in both method and content the proper one. State Superintendent said that he agreed with the main conclusions of the speaker who had preceded him. He believed it to be the duty of each of the three departments to do the work for which the pupil was there. The child and not the school should be the chief consideration. There is room for change, but every modification must consider actual conditions, and the interests of the great majority of the pupils in any one department should prevail. There is too much isolation. Principals and superintendents should not only know what ought to be done, but also how it ought to be done. There exists neither sufficient knowledge of nor interest in grade work, on part of principals. The high school should make its impress on the grades through the principal or superintendent. Courses need modification, not so much in what is put in as in what is put out. Principal Parlin, of Wausau, outlined their systems of interchange of work between grade and high school teachers. Professor Haskins opened the discussion of the second topic: "The latest movement in regard to the teaching of history in high schools and academies." He pointed out that history is comparatively a new comer in courses of study in high schools and academies, following by considerable periods of time the entrance of the natural sciences into school cur ricula. The discussion which accompanied the growth of the feeling that a man should know something of the subject which he intends to teach, led to the appointment of the Committee of Ten of the N. E. A., and of the Committee of Seven of the American Historical Association. The latter committee took up the problem much more broadly than the question of requirements for admission. Only one member of this committee being actually engaged in teaching in secondary schools, although three others had previously had such experience, the committee hestitated to act on its own knowledge, and sent out carefully prepared circulars to each of a large number of well selected schools throughout the country, all of which responded. These reports showed that more attention is paid to history in the West than in the East. One year courses in "General History" appear to be on the decline. Methods indicate a variety of work. The committee set forth that the teaching of history should not have for its aim the cramming of facts nor so-called laboratory work on short periods, but some ability to do historical thinking and to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of some field of historical study. The committee outlined a four years' course, embodying its idea of a course in "general history," submitted plans for condensing this into a briefer course, but it could see no way of telescoping these courses into a one year's course without destroying much of the value of historical study. The committee asserted the claim of history to a reasonable amount of space and a fair chance in competition with other branches of study, and felt that every school should be able to provide for a two years' course in history. The report of the committee will come from The Macmillan Press in a few days. Mrs. Grace Darling Madden, in continuing the discussion, also referred to the committee of seven and to the growing interest in the study and a growing efficiency in the teaching of history. In her judgment some of the leading errors in respect to work as often planned for the study of history are the following: (1) There is much teaching of facts for facts' sake. (2) A distaste is often acquired in the elementary school for the study of history, with which the secondary school must contend. (3) Insufficient preparation is made in the elementary school to fit the students for work of a higher character in the secondary school. (4.) The text-book is given so prominent a place that it is often used to the extent of too great an exclusion of well-chosen reference books of history. (5) Following the order of facts as marked out by the text-book is a fetish with many instructors. (6) History is often given a very subordinate place in the curriculum of the secondary school, when we consider that, if wisely taught, it gives direct training for intelligent citizenship. (7) The student is expected to commit to memory cutand-dried generalizations which many a textbook supplies. (8) The course of history as planned deals with the study of nations in isolation. (9.) Events and topics are frequently selected to be taught with no definite aim or purpose in view, guiding their selection. Students of different ages should be required to do work of different character. The order of this work should be as follows: First, accumulation of facts; second, their classification; third, independent research; fourth, original investigation. Mrs. Madden then outlined the work best adapted to high schools. "Elements of strength and elements of weakness in our high schools," was discussed by Professor Scott and Principal McLenegan. Professor Scott's discussion was centered about the following points: the following points: I. Elements of weakness. 1 Teachers are often not sufficiently familiar with the subject they are teaching. This is not confined to any one branch. Teachers sometimes have no definite aim. They do not see clearly what they attempt to accomplish. 2. Teachers are overloaded with diverse kinds of work and excessive instructional duties, leaving little or no energy for general reading, special and broad preparation. 3. Teachers frequently waste their energy in attempting to teach too many unrelated or slightly related subjects. Teachers are often selected in a hap-hazard manner, with little or no reference to what they are to teach. II. Elements of strength. 1. Teachers usually recognize the difficulties involved in the problem, and show that they have devoted some time to the serious consideration of them. Teachers are anxious to strengthen themselves. 2. School Boards are open to suggestions, and show a ready inclination to respond to reasonable requests. Inspection of schools during successive years has generally shown progress. The progress could be accelerated if there existed more harmony among the various factors which control education. Principal McLenegan stated that elements of weakness should be discussed more than elements of strength. He referred to his experiences as pupil in a district school and in a denominational college, and as a teacher in schools of different grades, all of which had led him to feel proud of our public high schools. He compared the give-and-take policy of our public schools with certain classes of private schools. Mr. McLenegan spoke chiefly of the problem of attendance. There are pupils in our public schools who have no right to be there the "saturated" children, the scatterbrains, baseball and football cranks. These should be made to give way to others who can profit by the teacher's instruction. Some of these points were raised in connection with the "war" which broke out in the Schoolmaster's Club, of Boston, over the question of too many pupils in the high schools. The speaker then applied the Spencerian doctrine of freedom to the right of attendance at school, and the relation of this question to the tax-payer. Pupils who will not work should, as an act of mercy rather than of punishment, be excluded from school. SUBSCRIBE FOR THE JOURNAL. SCHOOL GARDENS IN CHICAGO. Chicago, among other departures in the educational field, has school gardens. In them practical lessons in floriculture and farming are taught. In this country no such teaching, outside the agricultural colleges, exists to any extent in our public schools. In Europe school gardens are common, Germany especially having fine ones. Poisneak, an industrial town in the Duchy of Meininger, Thuringia, according to Prof. Herman T. Lugeus of the State Normal school, California, Pa., has the model school garden in Europe. is ten minutes walk from the school, itself. An hour a day is spent there by each child in learning practical agriculture. Each child has a patch and tools. Some family tables are daily in season supplied with vegetables as the results of the labors of the children. Chicago school children do not grow vegetables for their home table at the school; but at the Auburn Park school, Wright and Eightieth streets, a practical course of nature study is given at this time of the year. A large garden and vacant lot give plenty of room for planting and growing, and the teacher backs up her class-room work with actual garden lessons as soon as the soil is fit. The School Weekly. THE SCHOOL ROOM. TRANSCONTINENTAL COMMERCIAL HIGHWAYS. Commerce is carried on over the continents in various ways: 1. By porters, as the negro carriers in Africa. 2. By dogs, as the dog-trains in Greenland and Siberia. 3. By llamas, as in the Andes of South America. 4. By camels (caravans), as across the deserts of Africa and Asia. 5. By horses (sleighing on snow or ice), as in Russia. 6. By railroads. The following routes should be traced on the maps, and afterwards drawn on large blackboard outline map by the pupils. Caravan Routes. ACROSS ASIA. 1. From Pekin and Vladivostok to Kiachta and Lake Baikal, Irkutsk, Ekaterinburg, NijniNovgorod, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. This is essentially the course of the projected Russian trans-Asiatic railway. ACROSS SAHARA. 1. From Timbuctoo to Morocco and Fez. 2. From Timbuctoo to Tripoli. 3. From Timbuctoo to Mourzouk and Tunis. 4. From the lower cataract of the Nile to Central Africa. Great Railroad Routes. AFRICA. 1. From Alexandria to Cairo and Suez. ASIA. 1. Bombay to Madras. 2. Bombay to Calcutta. EUROPE. 1. Liverpool to London. 5. London to New Haven. 6. Lisbon to Reggio via Madrid and Marseilles. 7. Brest to Otranto via Paris and Turin. 8. Brest to Bucharest via Paris and Vienna. 9. Brest to Berlin, Moscow, Orenburg, Ural River, Irkutsk, and is being pushed on to China. 10. Cadiz to St. Petersburg. NORTH AMERICA. Canada. 1. Canadian Pacific from St. John, N. B., to Montreal and Victoria, B. C. 2. Grand Trunk from Portland Me., to Chicago. 3. Intercolonial from Halifax to Levis, opposite Quebec. United States. I. Northern Pacific from Duluth and St. Paul to Portland, Ore., and Olympia on Puget Sound. 2. Union Pacific from Chicago to San Francisco. 3. Atlantic and Pacific from Kansas City to San Francisco. 4. Southern Pacific from New Orleans to San Francisco. 5. New York & Erie from New York city to Buffalo and Chicago. 6. Pennsylvania Central from New York to Philadelphia, thence to Pittsburg, Chicago, and St. Louis. 7. Baltimore & Ohio from Baltimore to Washington, thence to Wheeling and Chicago or to Cincinnati and St. Louis.-Canadian Teacher. CONTRIBUTIONS. PHYSICAL LABORATORY WORK IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS. At the suggestion of several of the teachers of physics of the state, I have attempted in the following article to set forth certain ideas concerning the physical laboratory work in the high schools. These ideas which I realize not to be entirely in accord with those of some of our teachers of physics, are as follows: The function of the physical laboratory in its broadest sense is double. First, it must acquaint the student with the most common simple instruments and methods of physical measurement and give him training in accuracy of observation. This is by far the most important work of the laboratory. Second, it may be used for the illustration and verification of the principles which have been taught in the classroom. This last, which is made the principal part of the work in many schools, seems of minor importance since while it is in a way useful for students to go through the illustrative experiments for themselves, they understand the principles nearly as well if they see them performed in the classroom by the teacher, and it is my belief that most of the experiments of this type are either too difficult or too simple to be of much use in the laboratory, and in addition I believe it difficult to make most students do good work on experiments which give no definite quantitative results. If the teacher of physics has a large amount of time at his disposal it may possibly be worth while to attempt to carry out both the demonstration and the measurement portions of the laboratory work, but with the limited time which is alloted to the laboratory in most high schools, there seems to me no room for doubt that all of the illustrative work ought to be confined to the recitation room and the whole of the laboratory period devoted to quantitative measurements. Viewed from this standpoint the physical laboratory becomes a place not so much for teaching physics, as for teaching the methods of physical work, and above all for teaching that accuracy of observation and exactness of measurement which will find their uses in after life. These are of especial importance to the students who are looking forward to doing work in the university. For them a few experiments which teach accuracy in the fundamental measurements are worth more than any amount of work of the illustrative type. If a high school, either on account of lack of time or lack of means, finds it difficult to arrange a quantitative course covering the whole of the field of physics, excellent results may be obtained with one in which only a limited portion of the subject is covered. It is much better to cover one department of the subject well than to attempt to cover the whole in a fragmentary and disjointed way. But in all courses the importance of accuracy ought to be insisted upon. The student should be taught how to measure small lengths with accuracy, how to weigh, how to read a scale without errors of parallax, to take account of the error of the zero of an instrument, and in general to understand the possible sources of error in the experiments he performs. He should also understand and have much practice in the use of cross-section paper in plotting results. Another point on which stress ought to be laid is the importance of teaching thoroughly the use of the metric units. All the measurements ought to be made in centimeters, grams, and seconds, since the metric units are practically the only ones now used in scientific work. The high school offers the best possible field for teaching the desirability of the general introduction of these units into every day life and any step toward that end ought not to be neglected. I cannot say that I favor the making of measurements in both English and metric units as is recommended in many laboratory manuals unless it is done in one or two experiments to show the superiority of the latter. From the accompanying list suitable experiments for quantitative laboratory course may be selected, the directions for all or nearly all of which can be found in Chute's Laboratory Manual and in other text-books. Below is also given an estimate of the cost of apparatus for the whole of the above course, and also for a shorter course in density and heat for those schools which have little laboratory apparatus and do not feel able to purchase the instruments necessary for the more extended course. List of Experiments. Measurement of Length with the Vernier Gauge; with the Micrometer Gauge. Use of the Barometer. Use of the Balance to Determine the Zero; to Determine the Sensibility; to Perform a Weighing. Density of a Regular Solid from its Mass and Dimensions; with the Specific Gravity Bottle, Solids and Liquids; by Immersion, Solids and Liquids. Acceleration of Gravity with the Simple Pendulum. Modulus of Elasticity by Stretching a Fine Wire. |