most serious of all is a too wide indifference to it, begotten of the lack of appreciation of the greatness of our inheritance and the weight of our responsibiliity. Every teacher who loves his country, who admires its literature, who believes in its future, should be a scholar of its language, and should patriotically and religiously labor to make such scholars out of the pupils entrusted to his care. How to arrange and carry out a course of study that will help teachers from the primary department to the high school to do this, may well be a matter of study on the part of a special committee of this association until better plans vindicate themselves in better results.

Association Matters.

Let us by all means have more rather than less special investigating committees. We all know what valuable service they have done us in the past, and are doing in the present. We know what able contributions have been made to the solution of educational questions by such committees of our national association. Some of the money in our treasury should be available for such work.

This brings us to the fact that associations, like all other enterprises, need money to carry on business. When our affairs are economically managed we pay expenses, but there is little left with which to undertake the work of investigation so necessary before constructive can be safely deceidd upon. Our membership fee is our only source of revenue. With the desire to increase the amount at our disposal for the study of educational problems in general and educational practice in other states, letters were sent out to the superintendents of public instruction throughout the country asking the amount of membership fee in the different state associations. The tabulated result, beginning with the highest fee paid, is as follows; Two dollars for all members four states -Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, West Virginia; $2.00 for men, $1.50 for women, one state-North Carolina; $1.00 for all members, sixteen states, extending from Washington and Idaho in the northwest, to Georgia, Alabama, and Florida in the southeast, including Pennsylvania on the Atlantic, California on the Pacific and our sister states of Illinois and Iowa; $1.00 for men, 50 cents for women, eight states besides our own; $1.00 for men, 25 cents for women, one state-Vermont; 50 cents for all, four states-Utah, Texas, Kansas, Indiana; free to all, one state-Oregon; defunct, three states-Nevada, Virginia, Delaware; others not heard from. Out of the thirty-six states reporting a fee twenty-five,

or nearly 70 per cent., conform to the practice of the National Educational Association, and collect the same fee from all members. Shall we not in this, as in some other matters, emulate the example of states more in harmony with the public and progressive spirit that should mark our profession as it enters upon the twentieth century? We shall have just time to effect the necessary change in our constitution before the dawn of 1900 if we begin at this meeting. I recommend that the annual fee in this association be made $1.00 for each member.

Since our last meeting the peace that passeth understanding has fallen upon two of our most honored and useful members. Their work for the great cause we represent is ended here. We sometimes say that our profession is a noble one; but it can only be noble when made so by the nobility of those that engage in it. These were good men and true, able and public-spirited members of this body, who reflected dignity and honor upon it, because these qualities were elements in their character. In view of these circumstances, it is befitting that this association shall officially. express its sense of loss, and record its high appreciation of the valued service that is ours no more. I recommend that a committee be appointed for this purpose.

THE VALUE OF HISTORY.

OSHKOSH, Wis., January 30, 1899. Editor Journal of Education, Madison, Wis.: Dear Sir:-Those in attendance at the recent meeting of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association, will remember that Prof. F. R. Clow's discussion of Mrs. Madden's paper, "The Ethical Value of the Study of History," was omitted. This omission was very much regretted, and the main points of Prof. Clow's discussion are given below with the idea that those who heard the paper will be interested to read them. Very truly yours,

ROSE C. SWART.

Thus, men

"There is no doubt that history has great influence over the minds of the young by holding before them samples of conduct that are worthy of imitation, and so, by suggestion, causing those qualities to grow. like Andrew Jackson, the members of the French Directory, and George III, who use official position to make a private gain, gratify a private spite, or give favors to personal friends, are compared with men like Washington, Pitt, and J. Q. Adams, who administer public office solely for public welfare; the former are condemned and their conduct made

as repulsive as possible, so that pupils will avoid it in themselves; the latter are presented as heroes whose example most people would feel a desire to emulate.

"In this respect, however, history is prob ably surpassed by literature. Only that which touches the imagination and the emotions can thus mould the ideals; everything depends on the form of presentation. The books on history which the pupils use must be in literary form, that is they must really be literature themselves, or else the teacher must herself supply the imaginative quality. So history yields this ethical value by lending itself as a sort of skeleton to be overlaid with choice literature and discussions in the class that are ethical at bottom, if not always on the surface.

"The study of history induces a habit of looking for the general welfare. This is quite distinct from the cultivation of ideals just described, and is largely independent of the mode of presentation. Whether the pupils or the teacher, or the writer of the books think of ethics or not, they usually have the public welfare in mind and measure everything by it. Thus a purely intellectual habit or way of thinking is formed which has an ethical result. But here again history is surpassed by economics, civics, and the various other political and social sciences.

History does, however, have one ethical result which is all its own, but which, like the last, comes through a purely intellectual process. It is what might be called the conservative influence on the character. The student learns that Rome was not built in a day, that the English constitution is the growth of a thousand years, that the constitution of the United States was not "struck off at one time by the mind and purpose" of a convention, that the south was not alone responsible for slavery, that the north once talked state sovereignty and secession, and that every political party that ever existed has helped make the great nation that we are to-day. He learns that governments and other social institutions grow and are not made, that no individual or party, or institution, is wholly bad or wholly good, and that the wisest statesmanship is founded on compromise. The ethical result is that he is saved from partisanship and makes moderate judgments of men and things."

OFFICIAL DEPARTMENT.

REPORT OF FORTY-SIXTH ANNUAL SESSION, WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

It was just three minutes after 2:00 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, December 27th, at the Grand Avenue Congregational Church, Milwaukee, that President Rose C. Swart brought

down her gavel and declared the forty-sixth annual gathering of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association in session. The program as published was carried out, excepting that there was no music, and the discussion on "The Study of History," by F. R. Clow, of the Oshkosh Normal School, was omitted.

Child-Study.

Prof. S. F. MacLennan, of Oberlin, was the first speaker presenting a paper on "Child Study," in which he traced the development of that phase of education from the earliest times to the present, and then went on to consider it in its various aspects. Prof. MacLennan went back to the days of the Greeks, saying that Greek thought permeated all social living even to-day, while the principles of the reformation and the renaissance were but just beginning to be felt. Pedagogy had been the last of the sciences to receive the influence of the scientific method which Interest deduced principles from an array of facts.

in the child itself was of comparatively recent origin, for the ancients regarded the child from the standpoint of the adult, and it is only of late years that the idea had been advanced that to be rightly understood he must be approached from his own standpoint. He spoke of the men who, from Pestalozzi down to G. Stanley Hall, had contributed so much to the cause of child-study, and declared that child-study had come to be an integral part of education just as the child was an integral part of society, the very prop on which society rested so far as its continuance was concerned.

"To prepare the child for his future place in society, to bring him to a full realization of his place in the social order, that is the chief end of education," said Prof. MacLennan. "It is this that lifts the child-study from the odium of being a mere fad." He advised, however, that those who undertook to experiment in it should know something of ethics and psychology, and said that one thing to be avoided was making the child "goody-goody" instead of "good." To be good, he argued, was the normal condition, the good man being the man with all his faculties of mind and body and soul developed as nature intended they should be. Education should likewise develop character by the development of the whole child, and by making him realize his relations to others and to society. He did not believe in any rules of thumb in child-study, saying that the teacher should immerse himself in the knowledge already gained of the child and then with such knowledge as a basis begin a scientific, systematic study of special children. Attention should be made to the physical as well as the pyschological side, and he advocated the appointment of specialists to look after the child's bodily health and his sanitary surroundings.

FE. Bolton, of the Milwaukee Normal school, followed Prof. MacLennan with a straighhtforward setting forth of his reasons for believing that child-study had advanced beyond the fad stage. "It is," he said, "as broad as education itself. Certainly phases of education may be called fads; so, too, may certain phases of child-study, but to condemn the whole of either is to make a grave mistake. Childstudy has come into disrepute because of the puerile efforts of the dilletante, who publish to the world the results of socalled investigations which are of no scientific value whatever. The real scientists say little, promise less, but their work is none the less valuable because of that, since science must collect and collect before it is ready to advance principles for the future. Still, the very 'fad' element of childstudy shows how close it is to the people, and it was in the practical results for the parent rather than for the teacher that the most good would come of it, since the schoolroom is not the place for experiments. First of all, child study is for the benefit of the child itself, secondarily for the teacher, incidentally for science, or much must not be expected of it now, but already its results are to be seen in a general awakening all along the line of educational paths, in the greater interest that is being taken in education and in the increase and growth of institutions devoted to it." The Ethical Value of the Study of History.

From child-study, the teachers turned their attention to a consideration of history-teaching, Mrs. Grace D. Madden, of the Milwaukee normal school, reading a thoughtful paper on "The Ethical Value of the Study of History." Mrs. Madden said in part:

In consideration of the ethical value of history study, it is best to determine the ideal ethical results in public school work. For the purpose of discussion they are stated as follows:

First. Storing the mind with knowledge that will tend to make the individual a more intelligent citizen, and that will lead to his formation of correct ethical judgment.

Second. Such training of the mental powers as will lead the individual to utilize this knowledge, and such quickening of the conscience as will give rise to a desire on the part of the individual to apply these ethical judgments to his conduct of the affairs of life.

Third. Such training as will lead the individual to extend his knowledge to meet the demand and privileges of citizenship and environment.

Briefly stated, the ideal mental and ethical results are the acquisition of knowledge, the formation of right ethical judgment, development of moral purpose, and of mental tendencies and powers.

Certain fundamental requirements are necessary to attain the above ideal results:

First. We must determine what historical knowledge is of value to warrant its being taught, selection to be made with the following purposes in view: For the acquisition of further knowledge, for use in the affairs of life, for the inspiration of correct ethical judgments, for the inspiration of moral purposes and aims.

Second. What mental and moral tendencies, what mental powers may be developed and are desirable to be developed through the study of history?

Third. The method or mode of teaching.

In the average school the first and only presentation of the subject-matter of history to the child is through the medium of the text-book. Although the text-book has certain advantages attendant upon its use, yet it is scarcely the first historical material to be presented to the child. It presents, in most condensed form, the narrative of human action. It is but a skeleton summary of a nation's life. History is making with startling rapidity.

Some of the subject-matter of remote and recent history must be eliminated. It may well be questioned what shall guide us, if we plan to abridge the number of events detailed in the average text-book. The question of the child's interests is an important one, but his interests are not alone to be considered. We have alluded as well to the thought of resultant training. If a decision is to be made between what is of interest alone, and what is equally valuable for both interest and training, the latter should be the choice. We are not pleading for the fuller statement of dynastics and countless wars, but that the child may learn how commerce was developed by one city or nation after another, how new industries arose, social conditions were bettered. The student then discovers through what managing, contriving, planning, working-through what patience, perseverance, energy, self-sacrifice, whether of the individual or of masses of men, steps in human progress have been made.

The hero story, so called, is beginning to be considered with great favor because it is founded upon valuable psychological and pedagogical principles. The hero story of history should present different types of men and illustrate different traits of character. For instance, in our own history, the explorer, the trapper and fur trader, the pioneer and emigrant, the backwoodsman and farmer, the inventor and discoverer, the mechanic and sailor, have as truly and heroically served the needs attendant upon the opening of a new continent as the soldier, the statesman, or the financier. The time comes when the child realizes that groups of men work together for some end, then we may present to him the narrative of national as well as individual achievement. Whenever an historical topic reveals strife between parties, groups of men, nations, or individuals, it must present ethical questions and problems of varying value.

What mental and moral tendencies are desirable which may be developed through the study of history? The ordinary teaching of history cultivates little in the pupil besides memory. The average teacher of history does not aid the pupil to form the habit of observing, inferring, comparing. We have all learned the cut and dried statements of the causes of the Revolutionary war. What the student should learn is a full story of England's relations with us when we were colonies.

In connection with this it may be said that the text-book of the past and of to-day presents history in a prejudiced light. The influence of false history and of crude one-sided history is enormous. The child's judgments may be ethical in their nature. He may be led to judge of character from action, and of a man's motives from his deeds. Great care must be taken that ill-founded conclusions are not stated as final.

Moral life has to do with relations, with human interests and human ends. Morality consists in practice rather than theory. Can the teaching of history lead to right action? What forms of mental powers are desirable, which may be developed through the study of history? In my judgment the historical material for presentation in the classroom should be selected not only from the standpoint of the student's interests, and with the thought of what knowledge will be of use to him as a future citizen, but also with the thought of resultant mental training.

L. E. Amidon, of Iron Mountain, Mich., was the only one who took part in the discussion that followed, F. R. Clow, of Oshkosh, not speaking on account of the length of the program. Mr. Amidon among other things said: Whether history gives ethical training or not depends much on one's conception of the latter term. If we mean by it the ability to judge of right and wrong and the tendency to do that which our judgment tells is right, history aids some, but comparatively little in securing it. History is most excellent for training the judgment as to the expediency of acts, for with a knowledge of the results, we can tell whether an act is expedient or not. But it is not so easy to judge as to the morality of an act. To teach history so that it will enable pupils to judge of the motives of statesmen, for it is the motive which determines whether the act is moral or not, is for the most part impossible. To judge hastily is in most cases to judge wrongly. To make up thoroughly many cases of individual action is precluded by the universal demand that history gives a general idea of the progress of the world. Either the time given to history must be quadrupled, or the ground to be covered reduced fourfold. But few schools have library facilities sufficient to thoroughly investigate many cases if there were time. Often there is no evidence which will enable one to decide whether the act is moral or not. Above all, the lack of training and maturity on the part of the pupils make such work valueless. It is better to confine the judgment to the expediency of acts and leave the decision as to the motives of the actors to the expert in history who has judgment, time, and facilities to aid him.

History should be taught for history's sake, to satisfy the intellectual craving to know what has been the course of events in this world of ours, to free one from the narrow influences of early education and environment, to place one on the hill where he can be above the fog of superstition and bias, and to give him that serenity of mind that comes only with a wide view of things. That this training and culture gives one higher ideals of right and wrong can not be denied. But this is an indirect result, and should not be the main purpose for which history is taught.

Some Practical Suggestions on School Decoration. John E. Baggett's account of the way in which the famous "model" schoolroom at Waukegan, Ill., was decorated was listened to with interest. He told of the conditions that confronted him, of the hopeless looking, oblong room with its noisy inside shutters, its frightful blue walls, its ugly blackboards and atrocious pictures, and then went on to show how all this was changed by degrees, how the walls were tinted an olive green, how the shutters were removed and green shades were fitted to the windows, which were further decorated with grille work and white muslin curtains, so that, while subserving their original purpose of giving light to the appartment, they were likewise of decorative value. Different classes were then interested in obtaining pictures, the rule being followed that they should be of well-known people or well-known places, or else reproductions of masterpieces. These, some 100 in number now, had been arranged more with reference to decorative effect than by classification of subjects.

"We got these pictures from everywhere," said Mr. Baggett. "Once say you want pictures and you will get them. We used even magazine illustrations-why, indeed, even advertisements, for one of the best historical panels, I have

in the room is an advertisement of a certain Milwaukee brewery that used the faces of the presidents to call attention to its beer."

Portions of the ugly blackboard were divided into panels and given to the children for the exhibition of their most artistic work, and other panels were used for displaying plaster casts which were admirably set off against the black background. Around the entire room was placed a row of pictures of famous places, and below these a line of portraits of famous people cut in oval form. These were framed in with stripes of molding, and not only added to the artistic effect of the room, but had proved of greatest value in the illustration of lessons in history, geography, literature, and so on. A current-events bulletin board" had likewise proved of value.

In closing Mr. Baggett summed up the results of artistic schoolroom decorations as these: The cultivation of the asthetic sense in children, stimulating the decorative faculty so that it was extended to the homes, interesting parents in the school, refining the behavior of the pupils, illuminating dry courses of study and bringing up the average attendance-the latter being proved by statistics of the Waukegan school in question.

Indian Schools In Wisconsin.

The last speaker of the afternoon was C. F. Peirce, superintendent of the Oneida Indian Industrial school, who gave an interesting account of the work that is being done in all the Indian schools of the state and who called attention to the exhibit from them now on display in the church parlors. Mr. Peirce said:

Probably no branch of the federal service has been extended so rapidly in recent years, as the Indian school service. In 1819 congress first made an appropriation, of $10,000, for Indian education which was at that time confined to the mission schools. The amount appropriated in 1898 was $9,631,771, and of this amount $116,000 was paid to contract schools, that is, schools owned and operated by the religious societies, under contract with the government at a stated amount per capita. There are at present 100 boarding and 142 day, or as you would term them, district schools, with an enrollment of 20,000 pupils, under the direct management of the government. The work of the Indian boarding-school is both literary and industrial. Pupils, after completing the primary grades, are required to devote one-half of their time to each branch. As the Indian is naturally inclined to be indolent, one of the chief objects in his education is to inculcate in him a desire to work, hence great importance is placed on the industrial branch of his education.

The course of study is formulated by the general superintendent of Indian schools, and consists of eight grades, covering about the same ground as the six grades of public schools of Wisconsin. Industrial training given the boys includes farm and garden work, care of stock, care and use of ordinary implements used in repairs to buildings, grounds, etc. Many of the schools also have carpenter and other shops. The girls are systematically instructed in all lines of domestic work.

In the state of Wisconsin, secular education of Indians began as early as 1823, when Eleazar Williams, known as the "Lost Dauphin of France," opened schools for the Oneida Indians recently migrated from New York. At present, the state of Wisconsin, with an Indian population of 10, 120, has five boarding and thirteen day schools, with an enrollment of 1,170 pupils, owned and operated by the general government. The boarding-schools are located on the Menominee, Oneida, and Lac du Flambeau reservations and at Tomah and Wittenberg. The day schools are scattered on the different reservations, from Oneida north to the shores of Lake Superior. All employees of the Indian school service are under the rules of the classified civil service, being appointed by the civil service commission after a competitive examination. Indian employees are exempt from the examination. Salaries of superintendents vary from $840 to $2,000 per annum, according to grade of position. Teachers and matrons from $540 to $720, kindergartners $600. Other salaries range as low as $240, the salary usually paid the Indian assistants in kitchen or laundry,

The Indian is often considered as unruly, obstinate, and

vicious, but I believe that in a large majority of such cases the fault lies with the teacher or other person, who is deficient in knowledge of Indian character. That education is doing a great deal for the Wisconsin Indians is evident by their prosperous condition. M. M. Davis, agent for the Green Bay agency in 1867, says: "Three-fourths of the Oneidas are given to agriculture, and do fairly well. About one-half of them are given to intemperance, which is the cause of nearly all the crime on the reservation, and more than one-fourth of the women are unchaste." Since that time the conditions have changed, until to-day the Oneidas compare favorably with almost any community of the same number of people. It has been stated, even in the halls of congress, that the returned student or educated Indian goes from the school and again takes on the blanket and other habits of the uncivilized Indian. This statement is far from the truth, and the Indian office is to be congratulated that it has succeeded in obtaining statistical evidence which refutes the same.

Tuesday Evening.

Previous to the lecture of the evening, Miss Bessie Lou Daggett, of Oshkosh, rendered two vocal solos, which were highly appreciated by the audience.

At 8 o'clock President Swart introduced Richard G. Moulton of the University of Chicago, who spoke eloquently on

"The History of Story."

Prof. Moulton reviewed the history of literature or story from the time of Homer to the present day. Homer, he said, did not represent to him the name of a man, but a kind of poetry that flowed from the lips of the minstrel before the introduction of writing and before individual authorship was known. This, he held, was the first division of catholic literature, literature accessible to the rich and poor alike—the first chapter in the history of story. Then followed the narrative story dramatized, the dark ages, the so-called renaissance, and the treasuring of literature by the Christian church, and the evolution of the romance.

The catholic literature of to-day, said the speaker, while it had been born a long time, had not yet been baptised. It showed the creative influence at work again. Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot, Kingsley, Victor Hugo represented to the mind of the speaker a wonderful type of literature, usually called by the name of the modern English novel. The foundation for this literature was laid by Daniel Defoe in Robinson Crusoe, a romance with a dramatic situation read in it. The novel, he said, was the final evolution from the many phases through which literature had passed.

"And yet," said the speaker, "people apologize for reading novels. There are people who find it necessary to apologize when they confess they have been reading novels. They tell you a man can't always be working, he must sometimes relax. With this great array of all the ages, with this supreme point up to which literature has been evolved through all these ages-this is a garble to be relaxed with! History and science and biography may have a place in the school, but fiction is something to be left to the playground-this, the supreme form of literature, which has been developing these centuries, and which includes all the greatest names you can think of!

"There is a vicious antipathy to fiction as against truth. You hear people talking of them as though they were opposed to one another. Fact never can be true in the raw material out of which truth is to be constructed, and what is built out of facts may prove to be other than truth. Fiction is truer than fact, speaking generally."

By way of illustrating this remarkable statement, the speaker referred to Daniel Deronda, a fiction in comparison with the life of an imaginary John Smith. The biography of John Smith recounted what "happened to happen" to John Smith, while the fiction was a perfect biography of its kind. Science, said the speaker, was the conclusions reached from experiments. Thus, a scientist, to demon. strate what two gases might do under certain circumstances, placed the two gases in some retort, a place they probably had never been in, and probably would not be in again, and the result was what the scientists called a scientific fact. Fiction was the experimental side of human science, throwing light upon the particular investigation that was desired.

Wednesday, December 28th.

Meeting was called to order by President Swart at 9:00 o'clock A. M.

The President announced the following committees: Finance-L. W. Briggs, Oshkosh; John N. Foster, Shell Lake; E. C. Wiswall, Kenosha.

Resolutions-John T. Flavin, Watertown; John C. Bridgman, Hurley; Ellen C. Lloyd-Jones, Spring Green. Honorary Members-Walter Allen, Milwaukee; Walter H. Hunt, Kingston; W. G. Clough, Portage.

Nominations-M. H. Jackson, Columbus; J. T. Edwards, Marinette; E. W. Walker, Superior.

Vice-President H. L. Terry was called to the chair. The first number on the morning's program was the president's annual address, which was the most thoughtful and practical of the general session and commanded the closest attention of the large audience.

The President's Address.
(Printed elsewhere in this issue.)

The Rural School Problem.
Report of the Committee of Six.
(Report printed in January JoURNAL.)

On motion the report of the committee was accepted and adopted and the president authorized to appoint a committee to devise means for carrying out the recommendations contained in the report. The new committee will take up the work where it was left off by the other and will report at the next meeting of the association.

What I Saw in English Schools.

This paper was presented by Miss Alice E. Shultes, of the River Falls normal school, who said in part:

"The English people have never tolerated an educational system exclusively secular, and the struggle between the established church and the dissenting churches has done much to shape the present educational system and retard its progress. The importance that is attached to the teaching of religion, and the difficulties involved in giving religious instruction without offending denominational feelings have been almost unsurmountable, and have imposed upon the different denominational schools the necessity of establishing their own training schools, inasmuch as the law requires that all teachers shall have professional training. The result is a confusion of school organizations in England: Church schools, private schools, endowed schools, board schools, each revolving around a school board, attended by its own training school satellite and accompanied by a galaxy of pupil teachers. I found in every school I visited, whether graded school or training college, that the first lessons of the day were on religion." The furniture and appliances of the English schools, said the speaker, were absurdly meagre. The galleries were steeply inclined sections of benches, like the raised seats at our ball grounds or fair grounds. Sometimes they were without backs or desks. In no school was there the patent iron framed desk seen in the American schools. One of the unpleasant features of the English schools was the number of recitations going on at the same time in the same room. In the model grade of the Dublin Training College there were six recitations in the same room at the same time. Another feature was the bag and wardrobe burden laid upon the younger children. The absence of desks made it necessary for them to carry their books about with them all day, and for this purpose they wear book bags slung at their sides. It was a singular sight to see them pile their wraps and books at their feet as they arose to recite their lessons. In some of the schools cooking and sewing were taught.

"Now," said the speaker in closing, "while I know full well the injustice of generalizing on hastily gathered data, still I think I saw enough to warrant me in believing that however noble may be the ideals of the English leaders on education, and however profound and true their philosophy, some of the common schools of England are pitifully bound

down by a system of formalism, mechanism, and examinationism that crushes out the life and sweetness and sympathy from not only the noble art of teaching, but also from the sacred life of childhood. There is no denying the precision and accuracy of the work, but the aim of the schools seemed to be to perpetuate the thoughts and beliefs of their ancestors. I saw nothing in the methods that would 'wake up and shake up' a boy, but much that would suppress and arrest his growth in originality and intellectual power."

The paper illustrated more markedly than any other presented in the convention, the progress that has been made by the American school.

Parents' Meetings.

A paper by F. G. Kraege, of Green Bay, printed in February JOURNAL.

Report of Committee on Literature and Supplementary Reading. This report was presented by T. B. Pray, chairman of the committee on literature and supplementary reading. Mr. Pray said:

"Your committee on literature and supplementary reading respectfully report that the evidence is strong, both in quantity and character, that the study of literature and cultivation of acquaintance with the best work of our best authors is already reaping successful results in our best high schools; that an effort is made in all the schools to meet the requirements of the course in letter and in spirit, and that the tendency to make it a knowledge subject rather than a culture subject is giving way to a just appreciation of the fact that the chief end of study is to awaken and gratify and strengthen a taste for good reading. Former high school literature is now placed in the curriculum of the grammar schools and even earlier."

The condition of the country schools, Prof. Pray said, is not so encouraging. Reading there seems to be taught as a matter of mechanical execution and not with reference to culture. The report suggested: "It might be well if some of the time now legally allotted to teaching physiology and hygiene with reference to the effect of stimulus and narcotics upon the human body be appropriated to developing the influence of the finest poetry upon the human soul."

The formal recommendations of the committee to the association were:

I. That the work in literature and reading be gradually pushed into the grades; that supplementary reading for culture and pleasure take part of the time now given to reading in the course of the eight years of the elementary course. 2. That in consequence the literary reading of the high school be gradually changed to wider readings from the library in accordance with the developed tastes of the students rather than definite study of prescribed masterpieces by the whole class.

3. That there be suggested to the county superintendent the possibility and desirability of working out a definite scheme for the more effective use in country schools of the books now furnished through the district libraries.

4. That the experience in reading upon which teachers' certificates are issued may profitably be made to include tests upon a knowledge of literary materials suitable to the grades with the books of the class upon the approved test issued from the office of the state superintendent. Also that tests of literary culture take the place of what remains of tests upon specific systems of diacratical marks.

5. That the standing committee upon this subject be asked for the ensuing year to prepare-in time for publication contemporaneous with the publication of the next library list from the office of the state superintendent-a brief report, with a scheme, or schemes, for carrying into effect in the grades in country schools the suggestions of this report and others pertinent to the subject.

On motion the report of the committee was accepted and adopted. The morning session then adjourned.

Wednesday Evening.

Reception at the Plankinton House.