NEW SERIES.-VOLUME I.

OLD SERIES. GOLDEN ERA, VOL. XLIII.

of

The Teacher PROFESSOR GAYLEY, of the State University, in his impetuous manner, hurled at English. the heads of high-school and grammargrade teachers the crescent-shaped sentence: "The students are sent to the University from the public schools unprepared to do the work required in English." Inasmuch as a large number of the teachers of English in our high schools were trained by Professor Gayley and the University, the charge is a crescent, or a boomerang, that returns with considerable force and strikes unexpectedly. There are forty little graduates, in forty little towns, with forty little essays every year. They know the rules of punctuation and capitalization; they know the rules of grammar; they have a perilous facility for colorless expression-words, words, words. They do not have the color or the atmosphere of literature; they are unconscious of the vitality of words. Result: Colorless expression. We agree with Professor Gayley; but we go further, and say that the improvement of English in the high schools must come through the graduates

NUMBER 8. ESTABLISHED 1852.

of the universities. These graduates must not only be trained in Chaucer, but in how to teach English, and the greatest professional training a student can have is the living example of great teachers.

The New E. W. SCRIPTURE, of Yale, in his book, Psychology. "Thinking, Feeling, Doing," utters a strong protest against arm-chair philosophers. He is aggressive against the men, the eternal yesterdays of pedagogy, who say a thing is true because they think so-who imitate the philosopher, when his student said to him: "I saw a spot on the sun." "Nonsense!" said the wise man. "Aristotle does not mention the spot; it is either in the telescope or in your eye." The day is past when the genius, with a new light in education, can be knocked out by having Herbart hurled at his head. Professor G. H. Howison, who took such an active part in the Oakland meeting, after years of introspection, has wisely come out actively for the scientific investigation of mental phenomena. F. B. Dresslar, of the Los Angeles Normal, is young and somewhat inexperienced, but an earnest advocate of the new psychology. It has taken a greater hold here in California than anywhere in the United States. Nowhere will you find two such men as Brown and Barnes, who have taken a strong hold on the formative power of our public-school education. Then hail the new psychology of mental phenomena, and reverently respect the good in the

old!

Not Desire,

THE strongest sentence, the most impresbut Duty. sive, the most eloquently spoken, the most effective, the one that ought to be written on the consciousness of the teachers from the kindergarten to the university, is the one uttered by Professor Gayley in the heat of debate, in the Oakland meeting: "Not desire, but duty, is what should be taught in the republic." The scheme of education which is based on the kindergarten idea of games will not prove faultless. Men and women must be trained to toil; to toil as Christ, the carpenter, toiled-to toil incessantly. And as a certain educator sagely said: "There should

be some time in the school-day when a child would have an opportunity to study." There should be study of attention, and less of Herbartian platitudes in interest.

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Some Practical THIS season of the year is rich in maNature Study. terial for nature study. In the sections of the State where the season is appropriate, the most practical, the most useful, from a material and educational standpoint, is to ornament your schoolground by planting trees and shrubbery. It gives the pupil an interest, because the results are such that appeal to him, and a conscious effort is always better than an unconscious one. It embraces Herbart's law of interest and Gayley's urgent appeal of duty. So, teacher, as a practical lesson in nature study, plant.

spiring gatherings of the brain and beauty of the country do not flourish well amid the temptations of the tormenting metropolis. But out and away from that exciting, and, I fear, none too happy center, all the way from San Diego to Shasta, where I have been called as an old teacher to talk to young teachers, I have found more heart, soul, sense, and real refinement than I ever found in New York city or San Francisco. Is San Diego there are more than 300 teachers, largely girls, in Ione less than 100, but every one alive! Even from the adjoining counties the superintendents come, and whatever may be the fate and the future of the children of the cities, those in the interior towns are safe, and you keep saying as you see these earnest and sincere teachers at their work, "God's in His heaven; all's right with the world!"

And you smile and think of this army of educators as little, apple-faced, demure maidens of the foothills who must work for bread. Gladstone's beautiful daughter did not give her brave life to the trade of school-teaching from compulsion; neither did many of the thousand of girl teachers of California, but like Gladstone's daughter, they are teachers purely for the love of doing good:

"For the right that needs assistance,
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the glory in the distance

And the good that they can do."

Numbers of these teachers I have met at Stanford's as students when I lectured there; some from institutes of the East, but all, as a rule, are cultured, traveled, and terribly in earnest. They are better dressed than the young women of Oakland and San Francisco, and mainly because not dressed so much.

G. Stanley Hall says that in Europe education is now looked upon as larger than politics or religion, because it contains the basis of all enduring work.

OUTLINE FOR GRAMMAR-GRADE PUPILS.

ALIFORNIA has no regular Arbor Day; but now is

a good time to talk about trees, especially the trees around the schoolhouse. It is also a good time to plant trees in and about the school-ground. "Who helps to make the world more beautiful, helps God to make it good."

San Diego county school children have planted more than 10,000 trees and shrubs during the past four years. In many counties of the State, similar work could be done with excellent results.

Austin C. Apgar, of New York, has arranged a program for the study of trees within a mile of the schoolhouse. The best region is always the immediate locality; in cities, the parks and shade-trees. The leaves should be taken and placed upon a card, and at the top of the card the following statements:

(1) Broad, simple, alternate leaves with feather, but not straight veins, and entire margins.

(2) Broad, simple, alternate leaves with feather, but not straight veins, and notched, but not lobed margins. (3) Broad, simple, alternate leaves with feather, but not straight veins, and lobed margins.

(4) Broad, simple, alternate, straight-veined leaves. (5) Broad, simple, alternate, radiately veined leaves. (6) Broad, simple, opposite leaves. (7) Compound, alternate leaves. (8) Compound, opposite leaves. (9) Narrow, generally evergreen leaves.

Fixing the Specimens on the Cards. Rather thick Bristol-board should be procured. The thickest commonly sold is what is called three-ply; this does very well, but four-ply would be better. The size common

ly sold is 22×28 inches, and works very well for the purpose. The paper-box factories use a board which is cheaper, larger, and better, if you can procure it. It is called Caledonian pulp-board. What is called No. 40 (because forty make a bundle) is especially good for the display of anything a teacher wishes to show on cards. These boards are made as large as 29×42 inches, and would be large enough for the display of sixteen specimens on a card, instead of the nine shown on the drawings. If the usual Bristol-boards have been procured, holes, twelve inches apart, should be carefully punched about an inch from the top, the boards numbered, and the proper heading written upon them. If the full-sized pulp-board is used, the holes ought to be sixteen inches apart. First cut the paper on which the leaves are mounted to the proper form and size, and then, pasting merely the corners, fasten on the boards. The proper information as before given, should now be written in the corner of the paper.

Teachers should not attempt to make a complete collection in too short a time. It would be well if a year or two could be taken for the work, because, if

Narrow, Generally Evergreen Leaves.

properly managed, all the students in the school can be interested in the work and induced to help in its formation. The less a teacher does personally and the more he induces the pupil to do, the better.

Hanging and Display of the Boards. At the proper distance apart, twelve or sixteen inches, as the case may be, in some convenient position for study, drive twenty wire nails. All except two, which are to hold the collection when closed, should be quite small and driven in till only about a quarter of an inch projects. This will enable the teacher to display the whole or any portion of the collection he may wish, or to close. up the whole upon the two large nails when not in use. Use of the Index. The preparation of the "index" is of itself a use of the "index." Those who help in its formation will learn many things about trees, and have their eyes opened to many of the beauties and wonders of God's works. After its completion, many plans of lessons will occur to any teacher. (1) Have

leafy twigs brought to the school. Require each student to examine a specimen and compare it with the tabulated statement on the cover board, and decide on which of the cards it belongs. Open to the card decided upon, and see if it is there. This will force a close observation of the specimen in hand, insure an understanding of the terms used to describe leaves, and start the student in the use of those most important adjuncts to all nature works, "keys." (2) The pressed and mounted specimens contain a statement as to where the particular tree from which the leaf was taken is growing. This will enable all the pupils to examine the growing tree. Take some kind as a lesson for a week, and have each student report the number and location of all of that species he or she may have been able to find. (3) Have the pupils, when studying, as in the last, a particular kind of tree, tell about the tree as a whole- its general form, its height, the kind of trunk it has, the character of its bark, the way the branches extend from the trunk, the kind of twigs, and the kind of blossoms or fruit. (4) After the pupils have become familiar with all the trees of the neighborhood, and can call them by their names, require each to make out a complete index. The school index tells where one of each kind of tree is to be found; let the pupil's index tell just where all the rarer species are to be found, and the general distribution of all the common ones. (5) Give to each pupil the work of watching and keeping a diary concerning a particular kind of tree. He should be expected to note the time of the first bursting of the buds in spring, when the leaves are all out, the bloom, the ripening of the fruit, the first changes in the autumn, the dropping of the first leaves, when the leaves have all fallen, etc.

THE REVIEW OF THE YEAR.

ADDRESS OF EARL BARNES, PRESIDENT OF THE STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

NE year ago this State Teachers' Association of California was entertained in the city of Santa Cruz. Our deliberations were presided over by one of the truest teachers and most genial gentlemen that our California teaching force could boast.

To-day we are met for another three days of deliberation, and I trust the same spirit of earnest desire to learn which has characterized our former meetings may prevail here.

As an introduction to our discussions, I should like to call your attention to what seems to me to be the most important educational movements of the past year, and the most pressing problems of to-day.

Within this year we have had a general election, affecting nearly all the educational offices in the State. As a body of teachers we have cause to be glad of the results of these elections.

They have given us as official head of the State Department of Education a gentleman thoroughly acquainted with the needs of our California schools, and devoted to the problem of meeting these needs. They They have added to our State Board of Education the honored President of our State University, and the head of the Department of Pedagogy in the same institution, giving to this important board increased scholarship and strength. They have given us a slight increase in the women Superintendents of our counties; and while we have lost some men and women we could ill afford to lose, we have retained Linscott, Wood, Kirk, and many of our best men. All in all, the elections have brought us increased strength and hope for the future of democracy.

The continued hard times of the past few years has, of course, been felt in our educational work; but we have suffered as little as any class in the community. Our State University has had a most prosperous year; able students have crowded her halls, and a fine class has gone out to play a strong part in the higher work of the State and the country at large. The Legislature has appropriated a large sum of money, land has been selected, and the Affiliated College buildings will soon furnish worthy accommodations for the professional schools of California. So at Stanford, increasing numbers of strong students are demonstrating the possibilities of the State as an educational center for young men and women. As has recently been said, the number of college students in the large universities of California has increased in the past five years from a comparatively small number to 2400, and that with a steadily rising standard of scholarship.

So with our high schools. New ones have been founded, and the old ones pretty generally strength ened; the standard has been steadily raised, and in the near future the high schools must become a part of the State system of education.

Our common schools have been steadily strengthened and the general efficiency increased.

In specialized lines of education we have been likewise fortunate. The Cogswell has been re-opened, the Lick School has been opened, and dedicated to the service of training boys and girls into self-supporting manhood and womanhood along industrial lines. The new Wilmerding School is about to become a reality. Stockton has built a manual-training school; a noble woman has given one to Santa Barbara; and similar schools are projected in San Jose and Los Angeles. In spite of financial pressure, the philanthropic kindergarten associations have pushed their work into even larger fields.

If we turn from the schools themselves to their setting, we have still more cause to congratulate ourselves at this holiday time. In spite of the hard times new buildings have sprung up all over the State. Oakland, our hostess to-day, has just expended $400,000 in new buildings, and this one in which we meet illustrates the high grade of excellence that characterizes the work. The new high-school buildings at Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz, and the new Normal building at Los Angeles, all express the same persistent interest. Between here and my own home, a long line of handsome buildings delights the eye and cheers the heart of the man who believes that the school alone can insure the stability and integrity of a democracy.

Schools and buildings are, after all, secondary to the teachers themselves. A teacher makes the school; buildings and books are but the clothes of education. Since our last meeting we have suffered some loss, as is inevitable every year. Our President of a year ago has gone to a new field, and large success attends him-California's loss is Minnesota's gain. Death has visited us, and James G. Kennedy, one of the brightest and most genial members of this association, has gone to his long home. Moulder has also been called away from his work, and during these next few days we shall be conscious of other vacant places in our assembly-one intimately associated with the building where we met this morning.

To fill these vacant places some new men have come to join us from other States. to join us from other States. Two of these gentlemen are in the State Normal School in San Jose. But it is mainly among our own young men and women that new leadership has sprung up during the past year. One of our California teachers has been studying in Naas, the home of Sloyd work. Another has been studying at Jena, the home of the Herbartians. Two or three have been at Cornell, and one at Michigan, and each of these will bring home new ideas, new inspirations, new life. In the two leading universities of the State we have now 500 students taking special courses in pedagogy, where five years ago we had none. Our normal schools, especially the ones at Los Angeles and San Jose, are rapidly becoming professional schools,

in the best sense of the word, and San Francisco has determined that she must have either a modern normal school or none. The opportunity for professional, trained teachers in California is second to no other State in our Union.

This is the record of our achievements for a yearnot as teachers, but as a great commonwealth devoted to the interests of education.

But the problems that confront us are great, and will require not only devotion, but wisdom, for their solution. First among these is the problem of supplies -money. Many parts of our State are heavily burdened with taxes, the expenses of education are very heavy, and they often seem a legitimate object of attack. Retrenchment is the cry of the hour, and yet I am sure I am right when I say that we have only begun to spend money as we shall spend it in education. The strength and wealth of a country must be sought in its people-the value of people lies in their intelligence. That country where wise people live is rich, though the people wear homespun and dine on homely fare. We are demanding that the untrained girl for the grammar grades shall give way to the welltrained woman of the normal school. We are demanding that instead of the teacher's compelling the boy to memorize words and tables, she shall train him into manhood with as much skill as we demand in the trainer of a trotting colt. This demand can be met only by reducing the number in classes, and securing brains and training in teachers. This means money. The fact pointed out by a recent Grand Jury, that in one city teachers have increased while enrollment has stood still, may mean simply that the city is keeping pace with the advanced intelligence of the day. It costs more to run our schools than to run those of any other State. Thank Heaven, that this is so; for, in consequence, we have the best common schools in the Union.

The next problem in importance is the training of teachers--our whole system of certificating teachers must inevitably be changed. It is nothing less than wicked to put an untrained and inexperiened boy or girl in charge of a room full of growing minds, and bodies, and souls, when a well-trained teacher is available. Our normal schools must rapidly abandon their academic work and become truly professional schools, like schools of medicine or law, and then the State must favor well-trained teachers.

Of course, the problem of politics is always with us. Our system of school administration seems to me admirable, but I believe we must put more power in the hands of responsible men-especially in the hands of our State Superintendent and city superintendents of schools in matters pertaining to the professional aspects of school work. A school system worthy to survive must always be in immediate touch with the people; but it is a shame when interested parties use the public interest in education as a means for furthering their

own personal ends--be they sectarian, A. P. A., Populist, or what-not. A public-school man, holding his office through the pleasure of a clique or a party, is himself a menace to the safety of the republic.

The increasing number of women in teaching positions, and in high schools and universities as students, raises a delicate but most pressing problem. The same causes, social and industrial, which have brought about a state of affairs where boys and girls in urban populations receive nine-tenths of the education from women teachers are still operating, and with increasing power. I see no reason why in the next few years the proportion may not rise in cities to ninety-nine onehundredths. We live by our admirations. Our admirations are largely formed in schools. We ought not to have a generation of men who have never learned to admire the masculine qualities in the Anglo-Saxon race. This is certainly the greatest school problem of to-day, next to money. Can we ask women, under the existing social organization, to give their youth to a laborious and expensive preparation, and then to devote years of their young and mature womanhood to school work? Shall we re-arrange our schools and our ideas so as to let a teacher live her social life as wife and mother, or shall we depend on the floating current of girls, who will devote a year or two of inexperience and unrest to a work requiring the most profound wisdom and strength of mature years and large experience of life?

Some of these problems will be discussed here in this meeting. The curriculum, the certificating of teachers, the problems of a teacher's training, manual training and school hygiene-these will all receive attention from the gentlemen who have consented to speak to us.

A Lesson Not in the Books.

Teachers at a big meeting like the one at Oakland should not presume on the recognition of people they met incidentally at other places. This is the proper form: "How are you Mr., or Professor -? I met

you at the Santa Cruz meeting. My name is Miss." It is very easy for a man to forget your name. Do not give him a chance; tell him the name at once. I saw my friend Coffey, of institute fame, so embarrassed that he blushed when a lady said, "I met you at Sacramento. I am the lady who wore green." said, "I remember your name, but I have forgotten your face," and retired in confusion. Therefore, in speaking to prominent people, as you extend your hand give your name.-Round Table.

He

The aim of an object lesson should be to arouse an interest, cultivate the perceptive faculties, and to enlarge and improve language. The old idea that the child's mind is like an empty vessel, ready to be filled by a pouring-in process, has exploded.