An Answer

THE editor of this journal has been to Criticism. fortunate in receiving advice without expense in reference to the publication of a school journal. A recent critic says: "The teachers demand a journal that will prepare work for them in the schoolroom-a publication of primary aids, with margins so they can cut up the pages and use them." Well, we will not supply that demand. If any teacher wants devices, picture-cards, busy-work, or stuff-we mean materials of any kind,-they can be procured for a few cents. Elsewhere in the pages of this journal we have published a list of the things teachers need in the way of aids. We do not want to obtain subscribers under false pretenses. It is our purpose to make this journal purely Western in color, with bits of philosophy on education, when we can find a philosopher; to make it a representative of the teachers' interest; to fight for educational progress; and to give the news, with occasional side remarks on current events.

Miss Fowler.

THE San Francisco Normal School question has been settled by the election of James G. Kennedy as principal. Miss Fowler's friends were many, but not enough on the board for her to win. It should be said to Miss Fowler's credit that during her administration of the school many graduates were sent out who have become successful teachers, strong in principle and moral force, and in those womanly qualities that are worth more than all the fine-spun theories of metaphysicians. It is true that, as time is measured, she is near seventy years of age; but there are hundreds of teachers older than she is

before they are thirty. She is mentally and physically active, and has the knowledge of practical experience. There are hundreds of graduates who owe much of their success in life to the tuition and strong personality of Miss Fowler.

ONE of the Denver papers closed its account of a debate in the National Council of Education as follows:

"The conclusion of the discussion was that much

ON OPENING A DISTRICT SCHOOL.

Advice to Young Teachers Beginning School -With Asides for Teachers of Experience.

T

BY HARR WAGNER.

HE first day is important. If the pupils receive an unfavorable impression of the new teacher. it is carried to the home of the parents, and it requires weeks of good, earnest work to win the favor lost. The teacher should be careful in securing a boarding-place. The advice of the trustees should be sought and followed, whenever possible. They are familiar with the conditions of the neighborhood. The teacher is indeed fortunate who is able to secure an agreeable, homelike place, without objection being raised by some one in the district. Having secured a boarding-place, the next step is to learn about the condition of the school. It is true that the teacher is not employed to take charge of the school property. It is, however, best to go to the schoolhouse before the day of opening and to make note of the things required. See that the desks are in place, the schoolhouse clean, that the water-bucket is in order, and that everything about the school is in first-class condition. Make a demand on the trustees to have everything put decently in order. Do not wait for the trustees to ask you to make out a list of the things absolutely necessary. You make out the list, and urge the trustees to have the articles by the time the school opens. It frequently happens that the teacher goes to the school on Monday morning, and finds dust an eighth of an inch thick on the desks, window-panes broken, no water-bucket, no chalk, no paper, no pencils; and a week, or even two weeks, will elapse before the material is secured. Even experienced teachers put off getting things until a month of school passes. The teacher should go to the clerk for the register, blank reports, etc., and not wait for the clerk to bring them to her. School trustees are not paid in this country; and the less expected of them the better. After having the schoolhouse and supplies arranged, next comes the opening day.

The Opening.

The teacher should be in good physical condition. The

Over one hundred teachers, agents, and superintendents attended the Western Institute, at Tacoma, of teachers of Indian children. Professor Hailman, the famous kindergartner, and now the Superintendent of Indian Schools, was present. Also, Professors Rakestraw and Moss, of Washington, D. C., and Professor Bakeless, of the Carlisle (Pa.) School, were present. The session was interesting and instructive.

New York in making professional training a necessary requisite in securing a license to teach has made a decided step forward. This means better schools, fewer changes, less politics, and more child-study.

and pleasant welcome for the children. By physical condition, we do not mean that the teacher should be free from neuralgia, toothache, small-pox, or measles. It follows, of course, that she would not open school if sick. There is, however, the physical condition of despondency, indolence, tiredness, hopelessness, crossness, etc., that the teacher must fight against; and when she enters school it must be with a hopeful and an enthusiastic mental and physical condition. The pupils should be called to order promptly at nine, and be seated quietly. The teacher should show as much deference as possible to the wishes of the pupils in the selection of seats. The opening exercises should be the salutation of the American flag, followed by the singing of some simple song that the pupils know.

There is nothing that can bring children and teacher together as quickly as a song. There is nothing that will so take away the stiffness and formality of the opening hour as a few pleasant, cheerful songs.

Here is an example of opening song:

Come, come, come, from your homes free from care-
In our school true pleasure share:

Faces bright, hearts so light, willing learners we;
Wisdom tells of nature's store, teaches daily more and more.
Joy indeed here we find, with our schoolmates kind.
Come, come, come! Tarry not-come with speed!
Tardy ones cannot succeed;

Treasures here are for you-freely take your share;
Close attention give, and so all that's dark will glow.
Persevere !-have no fear-truth will bear you through.

Come, come, come! Do your best while 't is day,
For the night will not delay.

When it comes dark and long, you will need be strong;
Battle strongly for the right-you shall conquer in God's might.
Persevere, persevere! be our motto here.

The Arrangement of Classes.

The primary pupils should be attended to first. In the classification of pupils, it is not good policy to complain of the work done by your predecessor. Before you are in the school very long, you will notice that there were difficulties that you had not thought of. Do not turn pupils back. Review the studies again and again, if necessary. But to turn them back to go over the work again discourages the pupils needlessly. Teach them by topics, not by pages. To put a pupil from the third reader to the second means much to the child.

The primary pupils should be given twice as many recitations as the older ones. The recitations, should of course, be much shorter. The following studies. should be correlated: In language-reading, writing, spelling, English; in mathematics-number work, arithmetic, algebra, bookkeeping, drawing, geometry; in science-botany, zoology, the human body, geography; in history-morals and manners, civil government, United States history.

Number Work, Arithmetic, Algebra, Drawing, Geometry, Bookkeeping.

10:20-10:40. Recess.

10:40-12:00.

LANGUAGE:

Reading, writing, spelling, English.

12:00-1:00. Noon.

1:00-2:20.

SCIENCE:

original idea was essentially selfish, in a narrow sense. Gradually the idea has broadened, but it has been and still is essentially selfish. The extended notion of patriotism has gradually become more altruistic, and its future development will still further develop the altruistic idea.

Already there is a community of educated, enlightened, broad-minded men, whose patriotism embraces the whole world of man, while holding a warmer place in their hearts for the country where they live. It is the duty of schools to cultivate this broad, allcomprehending patriotism.

T

THE N. E. A. AT DENVER.

HE editor of this journal requested from several people who attended the Denver meeting a reply to the question, "What impressed you most at the meeting of the National Educational Association?"

PROFESSOR JOSEPH LE CONTE: "It is not easy to answer your question. My attendance on the different departments was not so continuous as that of some others. I suppose also that different tendencies would strike different persons. For my own part, I was most struck and most interested in the tendency to unification of the educational system as an organic whole, and especially to the closer union of the universities and the lower schools. I am satisfied that the effect of this will be to greatly increase the interest in education and elevate the profession of teacher in the schools. In this closer union of the higher and lower edcuation, the University of California has taken a leading part."

EARL BARNES: "The thing which most impressed me in the National Educational meetings just closed at Denver was, in the first place, the amount of interest given to the various efforts looking toward a stronger unification and higher organization of our school systems. Correlation, co-ordination, unification, abridgment, educational values, these were the catchwords of the meetings. With each of our different States working out its own system of education, and a hundred centers within each State working out some special idea or ideas, there is coming to be everywhere a great desire for some unification of effort, some organization of system, some standard of values, which will enable us to size ourselves up and find where we are, and then to relate ourselves to the general movement of the time.

"The second thing that impressed me was the extremely noble and disinterested attitude of our educational leaders in all matters of personal aggrandizement. I was a member of four or five committees, and nowhere did I see any attempt to put forward personal pretensions, or to make capital out of the opportunities offered by such an organization. In the selection of officers the only question was: Who can give the most efficient service to the association? In the selection of a place for the meeting, the only question was: Where can the meeting be held so that it will be of the greatest use to the teachers of this country? The general spirit of the meetings was worthy of a body of men belonging to a truly professional class.

"The most practical measure set on foot by the meetings of this year was the appointment of a committee to prepare a report on the rural schools of America, the proper unit of organization, the best source of support, and the best lines of organization and administration for them. Henry Sabin, of Iowa, presented a report on this subject before the National

Council. It was a paper based on careful investigation, and was worthy of the man and the place. The Council appointed a committee of twelve, with Mr. Sabin as its chairman, to continue this investigation for two years, and to publish its report. The National Association set aside $2500 to cover the expenses of the committee. Superintendent Samuel T. Black, of California, is a member of this committee, and he will be able to bring to its deliberations valuable suggestions from California's experience, and bring back to our California schools valuable results from the deliberations of the committee.

"Any intelligent observer must have been impressed with the strength which the Hebartian movement is commanding in our country. With such leaders as De Garmo and the McMurry brothers, the Hebartian movement in its American form must exercise a great influence during the coming years."

PROFESSOR W. F. HALL (of Vacaville): "You ask what thought impressed me most at the Denver meeting, and what was the most practical suggestion made for the benefit of the public schools?

"To your first query I would answer: The thought that here were from twelve to fifteen thousand earnest men and women, most of whom had spent at least one month's salary in the effort to add something to their professional equipment by attending this meeting, and yet it is said teaching is not a profession.

"Your second question is not so easy to answer, because there were so many 'practical suggestions.' Upon the whole, I think the most practical of them all was a suggestion made by Professor Jones, of our own State University. He proposed that a committee be appointed to see if something can be done to harmonize the differences in the entrance requirements of the ten or twelve leading colleges of the United States, so that matriculation in one will be recognized by the others in case of removal of the student. This committee was appointed, and if successful will do much. toward strengthening the schools preparing for these colleges. Yes, it may even be the first step to a national school system!"

Mental Fatigue in the School Room.

The higher feelings, religious and social, tire first; emotions need rest before intellect; worry and anger consume brain tissues rapidly; the selfish propensities hold out longest. Teachers should not stand during entire recitations, as they need all their energy on the mental work they are doing. Violent games should not be allowed during recesses. One fatigues quicker in a low barometer. Twelve hours a day are not enough to rest the brain-cells; a Sabbath is a physiological necessity. Sabbath-breaking weakens the brain cells and induces crime. Most crimes are committed in the night, when the moral powers are at a low ebb. -Dr. H. S. Baker, before Am. Inst. of Instruction.

CA

THE PROUD PARENT.

BY A SUPERINTENDENT.

AN you realize the pride that fills a father's heart, when one, a single one, of his numerous progeny succeeds in accomplishing or completing any given task or undertaking.

I had a visit from the father of a normal graduate recently. Old? Yes; old enough that the snow is perpetual on the summit, and the long beard is grizzled where once 't was black, glossy, and silken to a toying hand.

Slightly stooped, but leaning on a cane because a recently lanced stone-bruise-which has compelled the use of a knife on the heavy leather boot-is very painful, and caused the perspiration to bead on his forehead as he ascended the long stairs to my office.

His brand-new blue check shirt, not many minutes from under the needle and the deft fingers of his wife, filled the entire room with its characteristic aroma. This, with a pair of very much worn trousers that were not suspended, completed his plain toilet.

He'd come to talk of his daughters recent graduation, and of the probability of her getting a school.

"I'low she's mighty well qualified, for she'd ha' spent nigh onto five year in a fust-class normal, the length of her term bein' due to some added contrivance of the Legislater. When she was goin' to gradyate they jis' up and put in a lot o' stuff, and she could n't come through athout 'em; so she had to stay and git 'em.

"The gals is mighty equinomical though. After boardin' her for two year, we jis' thought it 'ud be as cheap, so sent her sisters over to keep house fur her and help her through.

"Of course, the gals did n't go as fine as they'd ha' liked; that is, they-well, they never needed clothin'; but if they'd a had more means, they 'd a well, they got along very well. And now she 's through, and I reckon 't won't be any trouble fer her to git a school, though she applied over in t'other county, and there wus about sixteen applicants at fust, but finally all drew off but three my Dell was one of them three,and each trustee had his choice, nor would n't give in. "One of the trustees, 'ca'se he could n't have his'n, resigned, and when another was appointed one of them other gals jis' went and camped with him, till she got the school. Ha, ha, ha! I reckon my Dell would a got it if she'd a dun that. But she cum home thinkin' she'd git it, but she did n't.

"It's took a mighty sight to edycate her; but her diplomy is home and framed, and she says she 's been a workin' mighty hard and long for jis' that little bit o' paper. But I tol' her she oughter be mighty proud, 'ca'se the Governor's name were on it. I'low it makes her mighty capable. "Yes, I 'low it cost us nigh onto thirteen hundred for her to git through on. But she's through, an' gone

out ter her sisters. Her brother-in-law 's workin' like blazes for to git her their school, and I s'pose he 'll succeed 'ca'se she 's chock-full o' learnin' now.

"Is that a good school?" (His first question.)

I might continue this narration indefinitely; for the old man was virtually wound up, and was an eight-dayer at least. Anyway, that 's the way it seemed to me, as I turned from my desk, groaning under work for which time was pressing, to give him audience. Besides, it was a hot afternoon, and the internal mercurial temper was running up mighty fast.

Admonished of the fact that I might some time be a father, with just as much pride, just as few clothes, and just as much gab, I quietly settled myself to listen, as I studied the character before me, and the heart that expanded the bosom of the blue shirt.

What cared he for his poverty, his severely plain dress, his stooped shoulders, or his callous palm? He even forgot for a time the pain of the stone-bruise. This crowning effort of the daughter was recompense sufficient for the many years of toil, deprivation, patience, and even hardship.

When I tried to rejoice with him, and said I was glad, he replied with impetuosity that I could n't be half as glad as he was. I readily conceded this, supposing that the joy of the father in his children's success would exceed that of the stranger or

The teachers in any school department have very different degrees of ability and training and different ranges of interest, thus making it difficult to adjust the work to the needs of the class. Teachers' classes, if properly conducted, may lead to the following advantages: They enable the superintendent to detect genius, draw it out, and use it to advantage; they introduce the student spirit into the teachers' work; this spirit alone can give strength and value to such meetings; they give opportunity to free discussions, and for the development of the spirit of give and take, so necessary in a school department; they give unity and purpose to the work of the school department.-Earl Barnes.