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Journal of Education

Vol. XXIX.

MADISON, WIS., FEBRUARY, 1899.

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EDUCATION

208 East Main Street, Madison, Wis.

J. W. STEARNS,

A. O. WRIGHT,

EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS.

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE 81.00 A YEAR. [Entered at the Madison postoffice at second-class mailing rates.]

EDITORIAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Brief Comments-Rural School Teaching-Psy-
chology in High Schools.

THE MONTH....

Wisconsin News and Notes-Washington and Lin-
coln Reading List-High School Courses-The
New York Society for Child Study-Hawaii; Her
Unique Position-The First High School Course.
THE SCHOOL ROOM.....

Every Day Science-Composition Subjects from
Evangeline - Questions on Longitude-Three
Queer Cities-The Upper Regions of the Air-
The Trap Door Spider-The Curse of a Treeless
Region The Depths of the Sea-The Night Wind
-Some Canadian Geography-The Private Con-
versation-Play-grounds Prevent Crime.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Teachers' and Parents' Meetings.

THEORY AND PRACTICE..

Waste in Education-The Recitation-The County Institute from the Teacher's Point of View-Interpretative Reading in Literature.

BOOK TABLE..

EDITORIAL.

PAGE.

25-28

28-34

34-38

38-41

41-46

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last spring we reprint it in this number of the JOURNAL. It will be noted that its special points are: (1) a distinctive character to the different courses; (2) a moderate alternation of studies in the daily program; (3) the banishment of grade studies from the high school; (4) the further development of history and English; (5) a more advantageous arrangement of the mathematics. In the margin are printed some suggestions for the English and science work.

ELSEWHERE we publish a portion of a teacher's article on institutes which we clip from Midland Schools. We have taken the critical part and omitted that containing favorable comment because we discover nothing new in it, and because thoughtful and suggestive criticism-not mere fault finding-from this point of view seems to us likely to be valuable. The writer of the article does not fail to recognize the value of the institute as a means of exchanging views, extending acquaintance, getting out of the ruts, and rekindling enthusiasm. For these ends its value. is very great. Our problem is how to make the institute additionally valuable; and one of the 46-48 suggestions is to develop these aspects of it; to organize at least one exercise for exchange of views; to provide at least one social gathering and take care that it is made as useful and enjoyable as possible; to make, for example, the library and how to use it a practical exercise; to get the teachers out of the merely receptive attitude now so common by providing for some form of exercise in which they are leaders to present a topic; to introduce singing and drawing more generally; and to enter into a genuine effort to promote nature study in the schools. It is not desirable to let go of all we have been doing, but it is desirable to introduce some fresh features and to broaden the outlook.

SUMMER SCHOOLS will soon begin to receive attention on the part of progressive teachers. Economy properly enters into the considerations determining choice, but there is a wise and a false economy. Obviously wise expenditure is that for which you get the most, so that a light outlay may be a complete waste, and a larger one every way more profitable. To get into a broader atmosphere, superior means of study, new and valuable acquaintances, superior instruction-these are the things of most value. A summer school which is profitable will not be a mere cramming place, but will give inspiration and uplift ideals.

BECAUSE of considerable inquiry regarding the course of study for high schools recommended at the conference of high school principals and superintendents held at the university

PROFESSIONAL training is now required by law for all classes of teachers in Wisconsin except one. Aspirants at the county examinations have a test of some sort in the theory and art of teaching; most of our high schools give some instruction in this department; at the state examinations no certificate can be secured without a test in this department, and

for the life certificate the history of education must be added. College graduates alone may enter the field without any preparatory study of the principles or the art of instruction and management. Whether they come from our own institutions or from colleges without the state, they alone are required to present no evidences whatever of professional qualifications. The defect is the more striking because they are for the most part aspirants for the most influential and highly paid positions -for principalships-the headships of departments in our largest schools. Many of them. have such qualifications because the best colleges now provide pedagogical instruction, but the law does not require such. It is obvious that this defect ought to be remedied in justice to others as well as for the sake of the schools.

HIGH SCHOOLS have for some years been giving some instruction in teaching, usually under the title Theory and Art. A good deal has been learned in these years about the nature and limitations of the work. It has, for example, found its place in the course of study, which is effectively in the last year of the English course. Most of those who teach in the common schools follow this course, and students in other courses who wish can take the study as an extra. While this study has done considerable service, it has not been wholly satisfactory. One reason is that a satisfactory text-book is not at hand; but a more potent one is the traditions of the high schools. These are abstract and bookish, while such instruction needs to be, in part at least, concrete and real. Observation and discussion of actual grade work has been almost wholly neglected. There are difficulties about this of course, but none which cannot be overcome by tact and energy. Principals who expect to do institute work especially ought to push in this line, realizing that the experience is likely to vitalize and deepen their sense of the character and needs of grade work. One who has some supervision to do would find its effectiveness greatly increased by teaching of this sort. For the class recitations we believe that parts of the Report of the Committee of Ten may be used to much advantage. We specify, for example, the discussions of elementary work in the reports on English, on mathematics, on natural history, on history, and on geography-not the whole of these but the parts treating of elementary teaching. We believe the time has come for trying to make this instruction more effective.

SUBSCRIBE FOR THE JOURNAL.

RURAL SCHOOL TEACHING.

Rural schools have become differentiated from city schools by the operation of forces so powerful that they perhaps may be called permanent. We look to see a great extension of the influence of the city thru the development of better roads, of electric railways, of telephones, and other appliances, but we do not see how this difference is to be overcome in the schools. We are not sure that it ought

Too great uniformity in schools is to be deprecated as tending to reduce our society to a monotonous level. Rather it is desirable that city systems should become diversified, as they certainly tend to become by the development of manual training schools, commercial schools, and so on. The rural school, therefore, ought to be accounted a permanent and peculiar institution, and given a character of its own suitable to its conditions. We are much concerned just now with its weakness and stagnation, evils which certainly ought to be overcome, and can be overcome only by wise and vigorous efforts; but it should be a part of this effort to define more clearly what are the proper aims of such schools, and to devise means for realizing them.

One obvious consequence of recognizing their distinctive character is that those who are to teach in the rural schools require speWe have been cial training for their work. advancing rapidly of late in the differentiation of the kinds of teaching. It is now rare indeed for a primary teacher to become assistant in a high school; the experience rather disqualifies than helps towards such a post be

cause of the unsuitable habits and views which it begets. More lately we have ceased to value the general high school assistant, and ask for a science teacher, an English teacher, a language teacher.

The same process will soon separate the rural teacher. Already the transference from rural schools to city schools is much less common than formerly, because the city school prefers the high school or normal school graduate. Conditions, therefore, seem ripe for the introduction of special training for rural teaching. The demand for it has appeared in two or three counties in an effort to provide a special institution for it. The remark is common that conditions are so different in rural schools as to make normal instruction only vaguely applicable. The most obvious differences are those in organization and management, and in the ways of teaching necessarily resulting from having a large number of very small classes.

Psy

are now out of date and of little value. chology has recently advanced remarkably, and moreover more competent men have pre

pose of this article will be to call attention to a few of the later books, indicating so far as we can briefly the characteristics of each.

The less obvious are more vital. They are beginning to claim attention because of the disposition of rational pedagogy to adjust the school more closely to the conditions and de-pared texts of the desired grade. The purmands of life. Nature study and agriculture certainly ought to be made an effective portion of the course of study in rural schools. This the report of the Committee of Twelve fully recognizes, and makes the first large attempt to emphasize and bring into definite workable shape in appendices G and H. The first of these is entitled, "Enrichment of Rural School Courses," and makes suggestions for studies of landscape, atmospheric phenomena, and plant and animal life; while the second treats of "The Farm as the Center of Interest." Such instruction cannot be successfully given by untrained teachers; from which we infer, not that it must be neglected as impracticable, but that we must proceed at once to the work of preparing those who can give it.

Two strong arguments make this conclusion irresistible, a sociological and pedagogical one. The first affirms that the drift cityward cannot go on as it has for the past fifty years without involving social upheaval and disaster; and that the remedies for it are the improvement of rural life and the development of interest and delight in it, which are made all the more imperative by the rapid growth of knowledge on farming such as renders larger information and more intelligence necessary to success. The rural school must help to the formation of the new rural life, such as the increase of our population and the studies of our experiment stations have prepared the way for.

Pedagogically the new instruction would be modern in matter and method. It would escape from routine and bookishness, and deal with realities in vital fashion; for the formal training which now usurps so large a portion of school efforts it would substitute observation and reflection; in due time it would affect the whole work of the school, and help on that great change in the conceptions and aims of school work which many signs show to be close at hand. S.

PSYCHOLOGY IN HIGH SCHOOLS. .

"What text do you recommend for high school classes in Psychology?" is a question so frequently addressed to us, that perhaps a general answer may be timely. Fortunately texts for this purpose have greatly improved of late, and there are several which can be recommended with satisfaction. It may be said in general that the older type of texts, such as were published eight or ten years ago,

Mr. Lloyd Morgan is now recognized as perhaps the foremost English writer in this field, a thoroly competent scholar, a master in comparative psychology, and fully acquainted with the best modern works moreover possessed of a remarkably rich, clear, and vigorous style. It is not often that such a man finds time for the preparation of an elementary text, and that makes his Psychology for Teachers (Charles Scribners' Sons,) an exceptional book. The usual formal methods of presenting the subject are quite ignored, and the reader is led with charming directness into a fresh and stimulating discussion of practical matters, the significance and importance of which he is made to appreciate at once. book will teach him to think psychologically as few others with which we are acquainted can. It is not properly a difficult book, for it is admirably concrete and lucid, and yet we fear it may be considered hard by some high school classes, because of the range of the author's vision and the copiousness of his material. We are acquainted with no other short text which seems to us so attractive and valuable as this, provided the class is capable of dealing with it, and we think a senior class in a good high school ought to be capable.

The

We experienced a delightful surprise when we came to examine a small book written by a schoolmaster, who is otherwise wholly unknown to us. Mr. Colin S. Buell, principal of the Williams Memorial Institute, New London, Conn., has produced in his Essentials of Psychology, (Ginn & Co.) a simple, teachable and interesting little manual based essentially upon modern experimental studies. It is noteworthy for the number of easy experiments which it suggests, and for the problems requiring investigation and thot which are scattered thru its pages. The general plan of treatment does not depart from the long established English scheme, but there is a clear directness of statement, a well considered selection of matter, and a many-sided suggestiveness in the treatment which makes the volume very attractive. Altho it leans decidedly to the scientific methods it is not without an agreeable literary flavor, and we believe it to be entirely within the range of a fair high school class.

Mr. Reuben Post Halleck has produced a

very readable and instructive book in his Psychology and Psychic Culture (American Book Co.). It has a kind of eagerness and enthusiasm about its style which is infectious; its illustrative material is abundant and varied;

and the constant insistence upon pedagogical applications gives it a practical turn not undesirable for a high school text. The book, which is a very good one, would be improved by some trimming in parts to remove redundancies, and to reduce a little the length of it. Its teachings are modern, well arranged and effectively presented.

Prof. Ladd, of Yale University, is well known as the author of several elaborate and critical works in psychology and philosophy. His Primer of Psychology (Charles Scribners' Sons) has therefore the merit of entire trustworthiness which results from extensive and accurate studies. He tells us in his preface that it is the result "of the author's desire to make the experiment of telling, in a manner to correspond fairly well with its chosen title, the story of the mental life. As the dedication shows, a young friend was kind enough to offer herself as both subject for the experiment and judge of the result." It follows in general the traditional scheme of treatment, is carefully organized with topical headlines, and simple and clear in its expositions. The effect of abstract studies may be detected in its style and method, in which we somewhat miss the freshness, objectivity and wealth of practical and literary illustrative material which men less completely absorbed in such studies more readily attain.

One of the earliest of the better books of

this class still retains a claim to attention. Lessons in Psychology, by J. P. Gordy, (Hinds & Noble) had a directness and power which at once gave it wide currency. The author talks freely like a public lecturer determined to drive home his point upon the listner, is resourceful, clear and earnest, sometimes almost prolix. He has a sense also of what it is useful for the teacher to emphasize -a sense somewhat obscured by the additions to the later editions. In these certain preliminary chapters and certain philosophical questions have obtruded, and, standing at the beginning of the book, keep the student off from what he wishes, and perhaps discourage him. By omitting the first seven lessons the book will prove much more acceptable as a text.

There seems now no good reason why high school pupils may not be successfully introduced into the study of the mental life, and we hope soon to see the branch made much more effective in our schools than it has been.

S.

THE MONTH.

WISCONSIN NEWS AND NOTES.

-The secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education urgently recommends legislation requiring professional preparation of all new teachers who may be appointed after a fixed date.

-Prof. Charles H. Cooper, of Carleton College, Northfield, Minn., has been elected to the position formerly held by Edward Seering, president of the state normal school at Mankato.

-The faculty of the Milwaukee normal school has been increased by the appointment of Prin. M. A. Bussewitz, of Mayville, to the position of teacher of mathematics and English in the school.

-Dr. J. F. Millspaugh, a graduate of the Michigan University, and lately superintendent of schools in Salt Lake City, has been elected president of the Minnesota state normal school at Winona.

-A new periodical for teachers appears in Chicaigo under the editorial charge of S. R. Winchell. It is a sixty page monthly, and in addition to the usual matter of such publications, contains a school board department.

-The Dane County Teachers' Association met in Madison the last week in January, having a full program with section meetings in the afternoon. Indeed the program was overcrowded, which, with the good attendance, shows that there is need for more frequent gatherings of this body.

-The report of Secretary Hill, of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, shows that there are but 87 towns in the entire state without superintendents, and only five per cent. of the children of the state in such towns. Thus by the voluntary movement of the communities ninety-five per cent. of the school children of the state are now under the care of a superintendent.

-The new catalogue of Beloit College shows a total enrollment of 417, of whom 204 are in the college classes. Of the Freshman class of seventy-one, twenty-five are young women. The new Pearsons Hall of Science is completed and to a considerable extent equipped. It is of pressed brick, two stories high, 136 feet front, with north and south wings extending back 115 feet. The departments of physics, chemistry, geology, and biology, with the Logan museum occupy the building. The college now offers graduate instruction in several departments.

-Wisconsin is by no means alone in having rural schools with so small an enrollment as to make the maintenance of them a waste of public funds. In the last volume of the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education we find the following paragraph quoted from the report of the state superintendent of New York: "One of the officials of this department reports visiting a country school in company with the school commissioner of the district, and finding there a teacher at work on a piece of embroidery, but with no pupils in attendance. Inquiry elicited the information that the school had been in session three weeks without any pupils, and that there were only two children of school age in the entire district, both of whom were expected to attend the school later on." This remark accompanies the quotation: "The average of attendance in 3,500 of these districts is not over 10 pupils. The law provides for the consolidation of many of these schools, but is hindered by local sentiment, which is satisfied to cling to the past with all its clumsiness. This sentiment seems almost obdurate in such a case."

-A series of parent-teacher's meetings is being held throughout the wards of the Merrill city schools. Only two meetings have already been held, but appointments are out for four more. The first meeting brought out 115 parents. The second, about 150. Thus far it is a very popular movement. A half hour program is rendered by the ward pupils in which the meeting is held, followed by a fifteen minute recess for social purposes. After recess, representative citizens are invited to discuss school matters, and a question box, thus far freely patronized—is taken charge of by the city superintendent. The purposes of the meetings are: (a) To show how we have changed in school management. (b) To bring the parent and teacher into more friendly and sympathetic relation. (c) To discuss truancy, absences, tardiness, discipline, promotions, classification, seating, ventilation, cleanliness, age to begin school, and general school matters. If it is true that "the teacher must be inspired, the parent instructed, and the home and school co-ordinated," then here is a golden opportunity.

-We clip the following paragraph from the report of Supt. George H. Drewry, of Sheboygan county: "About ten per cent. of our teachers are graduates of some one of our normal schools. At least 60 per cent. receive their training in our high schools of which there are four, located at Sheboygan Falls, Plymouth, Glenbeulah, and Waldo. These are excellent schools and are accomplishing a

great amount of excellent work. The work of the schools is exemplified in rural schools taught by the graduates from the high schools. The rural schools in a great measure are dependent upon the high schools for the teachers, yet my experience warrants me in stating. that the high schools do not fulfill the requirements. If their mission is to pave the way to some higher school of learning I offer no criticism, but it is my belief that a large majority of our boys and girls enter the high schools with the intention of qualifying themselves as teachers of our rural schools. It is reasonable to expect that a graduate of a high school should be qualified to secure at least a second grade certificate. Some are, but a majority are not. During the past two years several have failed to secure a third grade certificate, yet showed proficiency in second and first grade branches."

-In his report to the School Board of Ashland, Supt. B. B. Jackson has the following regarding the position and authority of a city superintendent: "It seems best that the duties of the superintendent be more definitely defined. A superintendent from whom all responsibility is taken becomes a mere figurehead or, at best, a mere executive officer of the board. A competent superintendent should be much more. The relation of the Board of Education to its superintendent does not differ materially from that of a board of directors of a manufacturing concern to its superintendent. His task is under the most favorable conditions a delicate one; but to secure the best results he should be given freedom, limited only by such restrictions as the board, as the responsible financial managers, may find it necessary to impose. The selection, transfer and dismissal of teachers, the selection of text-books, the formulating of courses of study, the classification and organization of the schools, the expenditure of money appropriated for professional purposes, as library, etc., the reference of complaints by teachers and by parents as to the school work and discipline, and the details of operation of the schools, some with and some without the advice and consent of the board, seem to belong properly to the superintendent without fear of interference."

-The final report of Sup't Roeseler, of Sauk county, shows that during his service he has to a large extent succeeded in introducing into the schools of the county the study of home geography, the teaching and writing of history, the latter in the form of local district histories, nature study, drawing, and vertical penmanship. He has also greatly developed

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