SCHOOL LIBRARY. The schools in the country district have often fine juvenile libraries. The methods of providing a library for the school are Sometimes children and their many. teacher become so interested in having a library that they work together to raise funds by selling tickets for socials and various entertainments. More often the state lends a helping hand. The State of North Carolina has a law on its statutebooks, which provides that whenever the patrons of a country school raise thirty rupees for books, the State will duplicate it by a similar amount. In Wisconsin, the law authorizes the levy for a school library, of five annas per capita for each person of school age in every district.

TEACHERS' EXAMINATION.

It is comparatively easy to provide money and equipment for schools in a country where almost everybody seems. to have money to spare. However, if the Americans are lavish in spending money for education, they are none the less careful in selecting the best of men and women to teach their children. No one in this country, not even a college professor, has a legal right to be a common school teacher unless he can pass a special examination of the State Board of Examination. To the successful candidate the Board gives a license or teacher's certificate granting him the previlege to teach.

Briefly speaking, there are four classes of certificates. The third grade certificate is granted to those who average at the examination 65 per cent. with no subject below 60 per cent. The holder of this certificate is entitled to teach only one year before his certificate must be renewed. The second grade certificate is for those who get an average of 75 per cent. with no subject below 70. The first class certificate is hard to get and therefore sharply contested by all. It is given to those lucky few who can secure an average of 85 per cent. with no subject below 80. The holder of the first class certificate can teach schools for three years without any examination. The final goal of every ambitious teacher, however, is to obtain a Life certificate; when one has this certificate he can teach school all his life without any further examination. To get the Life certificate, a teacher must have a record of five years of continuous successful teaching, the quality of success to be judged by the school or county superintendent under whom he may be engaged.

In a country where the auctioneer, the undertaker and even the barber are required to pass examinations and receive Government license before they are allowed to practise at their callings, there is no conceivable reason why the teacher should not be required to do the same. Obviously the teacher has a greater responsibility than either barber or 'funeral director'. The

teachers' examination serves as a stimulus for thorough preparation. It weeds out the incompetent and inefficient. It advances It advances the standard of teaching as a whole.

The teachers' examination is not all "nuts and nectar." At every examination a surprisingly large number of candidates fail to get through. This, of course, is partly due to general incompetency; but principally to insufficient preparation. At a certain county examination early last summer, I found the applicants for teachers' license return, among others, the following curious answers. "Congress at large" is when Congress is in session. "Humidity" is the human race; also the average length of human life. Benjamin Franklin was the first inventor of lightning. "The Suez Canal" is between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. "Slavery was introduced in America by William Lloyd Garrison." "Comparison of Fore" is Forer, Forest. "Hygiene" is the principle article of food without which the body would die; every kind of food contains hygiene. “Absorption" is breathing pure air into our lungs and blowing it back through the nostrils. "Saliva is a kind of a soup made in the salivary gland." "Anatomy is pure air and correct use of ventilation."

These answers contain a moral lesson which needs to be rubbed in on us. They cannot but make one think that had there been no system of examination to expose these embryonic teachers, they would, in all probablity, have got into some school and done more harm than good. They also serve to emphasize that a teacher, whether in America or India, needs to be well trained before entering upon the responsible duties of his vocation.

MAN versus WOMAN TEACHERS. Almost all the teachers in the rural schools are women. Occasionally one hears a spasmodic cry against the "feminization" of elementary education; but that is only a false alarm of the professional muck-rakers. There are at least two reasons why the teaching force of the elementary schools is made up almost entirely of women. First, there is not money enough to attract men. The salary of a country school teacher is from one hundred to two hundred rupees a month-a poor salary in America for worthy

man.

And as an average American can seldom rise above the "bread and butter" attitude towards his profession, he does not fancy the rural schools much. Secondly, men do not fully understand the little children and do not care to teach very long, not even long enough to make a successful failure. A man makes teaching a quick stepping stone to some business. Whatever may be the reasons for the scarcity of men in rural schools, it goes without dispute that women are after all more capable to teach the little folks than men. For unselfish devotion to duty the women come as near the ideal type of teacher as can be ; they are like the "candle which lights others in consuming itself." They have more stick-to-itiveness; they are more conscientious. Then, too, they are unusually gifted with patience and human sympathyqualities which go a long way to stimulate a child to do his very utmost.

NOTABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION.

It is not possible within the limits of a brief article to touch upon all phases of rural education. Mention may be made, however, of a few of the leading features that are peculiarly characteristic of the American system of education. Almost the first thing that strikes an observer is the democratic spirit which permeates the whole school life. It is, indeed, something more than a mere vague, elusive spirit. You can almost feel it, touch it--it is so vital, so real. This wholesome American.

democracy finds living expression in the absolute equality which exists among students. It is a very common thing to see the boy whose father owns a thousand acres of land and has a big red automobile, treated by school-mates and teacher just like the ragged urchin by his side, whose father is the "hired hand" of the rich man.

"Who are some of the richest students in your school?" I queried a teacher. "I don't know," was her short reply. "Why, you don't say!"

"Yes; I treat every child just the same. I never care to find out who his father is, or his mother. All I want to know is what he can do. He has got a chance to prove it to me." This is no put-up talk of an Utopian; it is ideal democracy in action.

will stroke his chin and exclaim, "I don't know that. You had better ask my wife. She can tell you a heap better than I can." Once I met a farmer's wife, nearly fifty years old. On discussing the education of her children, the woman with silvering hair casually remarked, "I never had the chance of a college education. I wish I could go to a college now! My soul craves for knowledge! I am right up to the neck in my farm work; but I always devote some time to study each day. I also require my children to do the same-even during the holidays." Her eyes sparkled and I knew she was sincere and earnest. Then with a broad, illumiwoman in blue

nating smile, the gray

apron rose from the black leather chair and took me over to the kitchen.

"I don't allow myself to waste time," she continued with an accent of enthusiasm. "See that little sofa yonder by the north window?"

A MATTER OF VITAL CONCERN TO INDIA. But why are we interested in the American school? Of all things which come home to us with greatest force in India there is none more highly important than providing ways and means for practical means for practical education. This is a practical age. Indian education, copied after the standardized English model, has descended to us from another day. It should be now so organised as to square with the modern spirit, with the condition of modern life. It should fill the needs, the requirements of the time and the country. In Indian village schools-such as they are attempts should be made to open up, at least, elementary vocational education. Right now is the time to provide for the for the training of our coming mechanics, farmers, and skilled workmen, if as a nation we are to go up and not sink down. The boys of to-day will be the future citizens of New India. Think of it. Why not train them to be workers and producers? Too often

the students of the Indian schools imagine that education has no other ulterior end than to live by their wits on easy street. Surely there is something radically wrong with the schools which make such a distorted conception of education possible. The remedy should be sought by giving instruction in vocational training, by teaching occupations which ensure self-support.

I think I hear a chorus of disapproval already. Let it be distinctly undertood that this is not meant in opposition to higher education per se; we simply insist that our zeal for book-education has carried us to an extreme, and that it is high time to cry an emphatic halt. We must learn to respect manual labor combined with head work. We cannot live for ever on fine spun theories of literature and philosophy. Some must learn the industries, the manual arts : some must know how to use their hands as well as their heads.

We are triumphantly told that there can be no sound education, no real mental cultivation, without classical or literary courses. The arguments on the side of those who hold this ancient theory do not seem to have enough weight. A man can as well be educated through a course in medicine or law as through a course in agriculture. Indeed, there is no differerence of quality in the intellectual discipline that comes from a study of law or a study of agriculture. The alert American educators have long since realized the truth of this fact. A short time ago the Superintenden! of Boston City Schools permitted a student in the High School to substitute for Algebra a higher course in violin music. That may seem like educational heresy to old-time Indian teachers; but there is no doubt that the Superintendent of Boston Schools was fully justified in believing that as far as the development of intellect is concerned, a student would be as fully benefited by a course in difficult music as by a course in Algebra, Sanskrit or Persian.

To conclude, the Americans have learned how to make education cultural as well as serviceable. The Indians should also "go and do likewise" It may not be advisable to imitate the American educational system blindly; but we should keep our minds open and accept the best wherever it may be found. SUDHINDRA BOSE.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Extracts from the Circular of Information issued by the University of California.

History. Soon after the migration of the 'goldhunter's of California from the Eastern States in 1849, (who are also called "The Forty-niners"), Rev. Henry Durant, a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Yale College landed in San Francisco in 1853, with the purpose of founding a university. In the same year he opened the "Contra Costa Academy" in Oakland, which name was shortly afterwards changed to "College School" and was ultimately incorporated under the name of "College of California" in 1855. Rev. Samuel H. Wiley (who is still living in Berkeley at the age of 92) was appointed vice-president, no pesident being selected. In 1856 a tract of one hundred and sixty acres, five miles north of Oakland, was selected as the permanent home of the college. In 1860 this plot was formally dedicated to the purposes of education, and in 1866 the name of Berkeley was given to the town site.

From 1849 to 1868 the matter of establishing the University of California in one form or another was constantly agitated. In 1853 Congress gave to the State forty-six thousand and eighty acres of land for a "seminary of learning." In 1862 according to the Morrill Act, California was granted one hundred and fifty thousand acres of public land for the purpose of founding at least one college in the State. In 1866 an act was passed by the California Legistature to establish an agricultural, mining and mechanical arts College. Through the efforts of Professor Durant, Governor Low and three other prominent men, the College of California generously offered its property in Oakland and its grounds in Berkeley on condition that the State should "forthwith organise and put into operation upon the site at Berkeley a University of California which shall include a College of Mines, a College of Civil Engineering, a College of Mechanics, a College of Agriculture, an academical college, all of the same grade and with courses of instruction at least equal to those of eastern colleges and universities." The Legislature accordingly passed an act organising the University of California, which was signed by Governor H. H. Haight on March 23, 1868.

In 1869 the College of California discontinued its work of instruction and gave place to the new university which opened its doors on September 23. During the construction of buildings at Berkeley the University occupied the College halls in Oakland. On July 16, 1873, the commencement exercises (known as 'convocation' in the Indian universities) were held at Berkeley and the university took formal possession of its new home.

The first appointees to the faculty included Professors Martin Kellog, John Leconte, and Joseph Leconte. The first President was Prof. Durant. The present President is Benjamin Ide Wheeler, PH. D., LL. D., one of the greatest educationists of this country, who was elected the Roosevelt Lecturer at the University of Berlin in 1909.

The faculty now consists of about 530 Professors, Emeritus Professors, Honorary Professors, Associate Professors, Instructors, etc., and 72 administrative officers, among whom are many eminent scientists and educationists of the world. The number of students in attendance during the year is about 5,500, of whom 4,000 are men and 1,500 are women. About 600 men and women graduate each year from the various colleges of the university; and the number of Freshmen entering the university this fall about 1,400 which is ever increasing. The graduate school consists of some 500 men and women candidates for the degrees of PH. D., M.D.. M.A., M.L., M.S., A.B., B.L., B.S., and J.D. (Juris. Doctor).

was

Such an institution, the glory of the west coast of the United States, has grown from a little school which consisted of less than a dozen students and one instructor who had hardly anything to eat in those early days. This has been achieved through the help of the public, the State, and the United States during a short period of fifty-one years, the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the College of California having been celebrated in May, 1910.

In 1869 the legislature directed that no admission or tuition fees be charged for the residents of California and in 1870 that the University should be opened to women on terms of equality with men. In 1887 the state legislature rendered the income of the University more secure and permanent by providing for the annual levy of an 'ad valorem' tax of one cent on each one hundred dollars of the taxable property of the state. In 1897 this tax was increased to two cents, and in 1909 to three cents on each one hundred dollars.

Among other features of public good rendered by the university is the holding of the Farmers' Institutes throughout the state since 1891. Later in 1897, a new department was erected, called the Department of University Extension in Agriculture. Through these institutes, through bulletins, and through professional visits to farm, garden, orchard and vineyard the university constantly stands ready to render aid and instruction in relieving agricultural emergencies and in solving agricultural problems.

The demonstration train, sent out through the generous offer of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co., goes out in service for some seventy days, covering 3,436 miles of road and making 250 stops. A total of 80,000 people visit the train and see the extensive