into their faces for the reason why, and found that the teacher was the one interesting person in their world, just then. She was overseeing their seat work as if it were the most interesting thing in the world to do. When I saw the fine quality of the work done, I exclaimed to myself. "Can it be possible that all this was worked out by the rule of simple interest, found first and lat in the teacher!"

IN THE RIGHT PLACE.

In one room I visited I noted the full latitude given the children in their placing of the sketched or of the clipped pictures which illustrated their written papers. Most of the work was in good taste, but some papers looked odd; as when a small picture shied the corners, and took its stand in the middle of the page, a lone island, surrounded by words; or when an amusing picture would be so away from its description, and so near to words that suggested a sober opposite picture, that it seemed like a laugh in the wrong place. You enter some houses where you long to make every article of furniture change place, until each piece is where it belongs. What better time than school days to begin to learn home arrangement, thus applying the trite, "A place for everything, and everything in its place"?

MANAGEMENT.

Pupil (in very indignant. tone)-"Do you think it is fair, Miss Ray, for A- and E-not to help us on the soprano?"

Teacher (with kind severity) "There are circumstances in this case that you do not understand; it is not your place to criticise."

Boy (in correcting a misstatement) "Mary Brady said-" "But you should not call the name." "She said—” "But isn't there a pleasanter way than that?" "Some one said, 'I seen it.'" "That is much better, Johnnv. Never point out to others the person whom you criticise."

A teacher told me that her. most troublesome boy could always be quelled by reading or listening to a tender story. "The Little Match Girl" always brought the tears, and more than once the appeal had come, "Please don't choose that piece." Because something had happened at recess, curiosity got the better of "My fifty little orderlies," as the teacher justly called them, and there was a very disorderly

coming in at recess; before visitors, too! But ther was never a word of blame; instead, came the quiet, "Children, I was very glad to see that all through this recess you remembered something I said to you last week." The ashamed little people looked comforted.

Memory Gems.

If you have occasion "to keep in" to have lost or idled time made good, ask the boy to commit to memory one or more of the following:

E. P. Roe: The boy who resolves to do one thing. honorably and thoroughly, and who sets about it at once, will attain usefulness and eminence.

Charles Dickens: Do all the good you can and make as little fuss about it as possible.

Macaulay: The world generally gives its admiration. not to the man who does what nobody else ever attempts to do, but to the man who does best what multitudes do well.

GRADES.

First.

Second.

Third

FEBRUARY.

MARCH.

BUDS AND TWIGS OF TREES NEAR SCHOOL.

1. Review October bud work. 2. Habits of buds.

3. Position. Covering. User 4. Later find many trees with same kind of buds. Review September plant les

son.

Study a house plant.

4.

་

BUDS AND TWIGS.

Cow Family. 1. Review work done in Oct.

2. Position of buds.

3. Covering-its use.

4. Changes in the buds.

5. Marks on the twig. Causes.

6. Preparations for spring.

1. By nature.

2. By man.

2. By food.

1. Flesh-eaters.

2. Grass-eaters.

3. By manner of moving about.

1. Walking.

2. Swimming.

3. Flying.

4. Crawling.

cience.'

History.

A VICE-PRESIDENT WHO NEVER SERVED.

William Rufus King, born April 6, 1786, died April 18, 1853, was a Vice-President of the United States who never served in that capacity, and one who took the oath of office on foreign soil-some thing which can be said of no other executive officer who has ever been elected by the people of the United States.

King was an invalid, but his friends urged him to take second place on the ticket with Pierce in 1852. Both were elected, but King's health failed so rapidly that he was forced to go to Cuba early in 1853, some two and a half months before inauguration day.

Not having returned to the United States by March 4, Cougress passed a special act authorizing the United States Consul at Matanzas. Cuba, to swear him in as Vice-President at about the hour when Pierce was taking the oath of office at Washington.

This arrangement was carried out to a dot; and on the day appointed, at a plantation on one of the highest hills in the vicinity of Matanzas, Mr. King was made Vice-President of the United States amid the solemn "Vaya vol con Dios" (God will be with you) of the Creoles who had assembled to witness the unique spectacle.

Vice-President King returned to his home at Cahawka, Alabama, arriving at that place April 17, 1853, and died the following day. His remains were laid to rest on his plantation, known as Pine Hills.-Home and School.

Ten Maxims for the Reading Class. Sense is more important than sound.

A piece that is worth reading at all is worth reading well.

Don't try to "read like you talk" unless you talk right.

We read silently ten times where we read aloud

once.

Read no book by an author who is without literary standing.

Read nothing without a definite purpose. Rapid reading is as bad for the mind as rapid eating is for the stomach.

Labored articulation is distracting both to reader and listener.

No part of the physical organism responds more quickly to right training than do the organs of speech and voice.

A good imitator is not necessarily a good reader.-Learnign by Doing.

For the History Lesson.

Who was called:

1. Old Put.

2. Old Hickory.

3. Old Rough and Ready.

4. Black Dan.

5. The Sage of Monticello.

6. The Father of the Constitution. 7. The Nation's Elder Brother.

8. Old Tippecanoe.

9. The Poet of the Hearth and Fire. 10. The Nation's Guest.

-Southwestern School Journal.

NUMBER LESSON.

BY LIZZIE B. MORGAN,

Senior Pupil Teacher of Adela de V. Finch, Lewiston (Me.) Training School.

GRADE I

IRST a short and enthusiastic drill on abstract and concrete work, as: Four beans and three beans are how many beans? Six robins and how many

robins make nine robins? If you had

seven cents and your brother gave you enough to make a dime, how many would he give you? If you spent two, how many would you have left? 9+?=10, 8+2=?, 7+?=10, 2+?=10, 7+3=? 1+?=10.

To-day we will see what other numbers put together will make ten.

Teacher. How many blocks have I here?
Children.--Seven.

Teacher.-How many here?

Children.-Three.

Teacher.-How many in all?

Children.-Ten.

After I do something, some one will tell me what I did.

Child. You took a block from the seven blocks and put it with the three blocks.

Teacher. Now how many are here?
Child.-Six.

Teacher. How many here?
Child.-Four.

Teacher. Altogether how many?
Child.-Ten.

Now all the children are given objects.
Now each has his own arranged.

Teacher. Four sticks and six sticks are how many sticks? Four beans and six beans how many beans? Four horsechestnuts and how many make ten? Six flowers and how many make ten? $4 and $6 are how many?

If four sticks and six sticks are ten sticks, four beans and six beans are ten beans, $4 and $6 are $10, how many are four and six?

Child.-Four and six are ten. The same for six and four.

Children tell stories about six and four. Four and six. At board. Draw four and six pencils. How many? Find six and four stars. How many? Six and four circles?

THE MORNING TALK.

BY SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD.

NE of the difficulties which all teachers must encounter in the present day school is the multiplication of subjects in the curriculum. Every programme is overcrowded, and most teachers are bewildered by the demands which are made upon their time. These demands arise from a fuller perception of the needs of the children and the possibilities of helpful teaching which has come with increasing interest in questions of education. But just because the teacher knows so many ways in which she can interest and instruct the children with profit, there is a tendency to crowd the programme, and a corresponding lack in definiteness and thoroughness as a result.

The only way in which this difficulty can be remedied is through a definite plan which considers all the subjects of the programme, determining the relative importance of each and distributing time and attention in proportion to the needs of the children. and the value of the subject. All teachers need to free themselves from the schoolroom bias, and to look at their work from the outside in order that they may judge without prejudice, as far as possible, what will best contribute to the welfare of the children.

Such a survey of the programme from the outside will lead us to separate the subjects in which a definite ground may be covered in instruction and a certain. amount of skill obtained through practice, from those where our chief object is to develop an interest in the subject or to establish a tendency to study in the line of such interest. For example: The power to read the printed page at sight must be developed through careful and painstaking instruction and a constant practice. Facility in the use of numbers and knowledge of the fundamental processes must be secured in the same way. But the love for nature or for literature. and the tendency to turn to out-of-door pleasures o" to good books for enjoyment and culture, are not acquired in proportion to the number of hours spent in either instruction or drill. Neither is the teaching which results in such interest and such tendency confined to the ordinary instruction in nature study and literature. Much of the instruction in these branches may be given in connection with the studies of the curriculum which are ordinarily considered "regular."

as

It would seem, then, that it is wise for the teacher to so adjust her programme as to admit of constant and regular instruction in the subjects, which demand much time for drill and practice and at the same time to allow a flexible arrangement of the subjects whose purpose is to create interest and develop taste.

The best plan for a programme which the writer knows admits such an arrangement. Its chief variation from the ordinary programme is simply this: It sets aside a period in the morning, varying, according to the age of the children, from fifteen minutes to half an hour, and devotes this period to an exercise. which is sometimes called the "General Exercise," and sometimes "The Morning Talk." The object of this morning talk is twofold. ct serves as an evercise in oral language, giving the children something

in which they are interested to talk about, affording new material for thought, and occasioning helpfui practice in speaking easily and correctly. Its second, and really greater value, lies in the selection of subjects for the conversations. Perhaps one-half of the morning talks are given to nature study, the subjects being chosen according to the season. The order of such teaching has now become familiar to nearly all common school teachers and need not be cited here. Of course such lessons, though nominally termed "conversations" or "talks," include observation of material, sketching, description, collateral reading,in short, all that has entered into the ordinary lessons in nature study.

The other half of the exercises are given to lessons which tend to develop interest in books and to give the children some little knowledge of good literature. The study of poems, which are afterward copied or memorized, the reading and telling of myths and fables, stories from history, the studies of life in other lands, these find a legitimate place and a fair proportion of attention in this morning exercise.

The order of selection is determined by the season, nature study having precedence, since in this subject the lessons must be given when material can be secured. Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays of the poets, and the national holidays also determine the time and choice for the stories from literature and history.

It will readily be seen that such an arrangement of the programme simplifies the daily work, the "morning talk" having presented a new subject of interest. The spelling and language and reading may sometimes be guided in the direction of this interest. Thus a natural correlation may be secured, resulting in a greater degree of unity in the work. It is needless to say that this correlation ceases to be helpful as soon as it becomes forced and mechanical; but drawing, composition, spelling, writing, are naturally demanded in connection with such teaching and easily find an excuse for being. It counts for much that the children recognize the naturalness of the programme, writing when they have something to say: spelling the words which they need to spell; and reading something in which they have become interested through their own investigations. Such natural choice of work is one of the great advantages of such a course of lessons.

If the "morning talk" were to take the place of the various subjects which have been added to the curriculum without corresponding subtraction, or rather if these subjects could be naturally grouped in the manner which has been suggested by this article, we should find immediate relief in the simplification of our programme, and the bugbears of the crowded. curriculum would soon disappear.

Love your pupils and they will love you. Loving you, they will strive to please you; and your rules, which would seem to them intolerably irksome did they dislike you, will become to them a source of pleasure in the fulfillment.

Subscribe to the Virginia School Journal at the be ginning of the year. $1 a year (10 numbers) in ad

vance.

Educational World.

Is This Your Opinion?

"Examination" is a word that should be blotted out of the language of the schools. Teachers who are working with pupils the whole year know whether the work has been done or not.Dr. A. F. Nightingale, Superintendent Chicago High Schools.

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do, without a thought of fame. --Longfellow,

What the Editors Say.

Whither Are We Tending?-Some of the resolutions passed by a committee of the national association cause one to pause and consider whither we are tending. These resolutions are the product of careful thought on the part of some of the most eminent educators of the land, and, whether right or not, will have much weight in moulding opinion. The committee recommends higher scholarship along all lines. The resolutions would make the requirements for entrance to technical schools as thorough as for admission to college. This would shut out a great many applicants. Another resolution is to the effect that all teachers of secondary schools should be college graduates. This standard is rapidly being set by the leading schools of the middle west, and will be followed by another advanced movement, viz., that all teachers of lower grades, either country or town, shall have at least a high school education or its equivalent. Some of the other resolutions favor changes so radical that they are likely to meet with strong opposition. Take the following: "We favor a unified sixsix-year high school course of study, beginning with the seventh grade." At the present age and size of seventh grade pupils this would involve many difficulties. Again, an increase in the school day in secondary schools is recommended, in order to permit a larger amount of study in school under supervision. This may be needed according to the prevailing course of study, but it is an open question if there is not too much strain brought upon pupils now. There seems to be a growing opinion that children are being educated at the expense of health and happiness, and that oversupervision and over-stimulating to mental exertion are causing a multitude of nervous wrecks.— Nebraska Teacher.

Wanted!-Wanted, men and women with a genius for work. It is well that they should have talent, it is well that they should have training, it is well that they should have good character, but if they do not know how to work, and have not an abiding zeal for work, their talent, training, character, will count for little towards that subduing of the earth which God had in view when he gave the world to man as the scene of his present activities.-Chicago Adrance.

A study of the face, the voice, the eye, the language and the surroundings of the individual pupil is the kind of child study most needed. Not until the teacher's heart comes into close contact with the heart of each individual child can the best results be obtained. You may group and grade and classify children by every conceivable method, but if the teacher has not made a study of the individual pupil, every method will prove disappointing.-Educational Forum.

Let us all stand as a bulwark against salary reductions anywhere, and let us all lend a hand to carry salaries up everywhere. Teachers are the poorest paid workers in the country in proportion to their responsibility, ability and preparation.-Southern Educational Journal.

It is much regretted that the editor who wrote the following sentence is not known to us. It is well said:

"It will be a glad day when the teacher who has not thumbed well his Page will be in as uncomfortable a situation as the lawyer who is not familiar with his Blackstone."-Modern Methods.

dullards when we get the correct idea of educaSchool will not be a dull place nor a place for tion, and apply that idea. Educated men will

not be an inferior race when "education" has its correct meaning. Culture will not mean retrogression when we know and obey the laws of our being. There is no reason why the educated man should not live to be one hundred years old, if he would fall in love with knowledge instead of books, with humanity instead of learning. A

"normal" education includes a normal life.

Southwestern School Journal.

Courtesy. Some one has said that courtesy costs but little. In one sense this may be true, but in a larger sense courtesy costs the subjection of self; that is not a little thing by any means. The very essence of courtesy is giving to others instinctively the first place in one's thoughts, words and actions. The attainment of this costs a great deal, and it is worth more than it costs.— Indiana School Journal.