e room, but woe, woe unto the one who comes as inoctial bluster. Like the poor of the New Teswe always have some of the latter kind with us. of the weak points of the special teacher as I see is. He expects everything to give way to him. a thru train of so much importance that everynust be sidetracked in order that he may reach tination. Perhaps there are many freights on ck loaded down with fruits and vegetables that oil if delayed by the way. Due consideration always be given to those unfortunate ones who special" teachers.

66

prudent, conscientious principal always arranges grams with care, and due regard for the special and the best interest of his school. Many of eachers come to our schools with the false idea they need to know is the subject to be taught at professional or pedagogical knowledge need e known by the common herd"-the grade . Nothing can be farther from the true idea

is. rincipal or superintendent who is making any efkeep up with the educational procession would end for appointment a teacher who does not ucational journals, the best books on teaching, o does not attend educational meetings. gs have changed very materially in the last years and we must be up and doing, or out and Should less be expected of the special teacher? he have less knowledge of the laws and processes h child life is governed? He comes to the school cally and expects to accomplish so much! And o do it? Not unless the regular teacher is in hy with his plans. I have thought sometimes he know himself what he expected when he entered om, nor does he have any notion as to what is to mplished within the year. In such cases the hould be like those of angels-"few and far be

of them think that each child in school has the pacity and adaptability to work that every other 8-consequently each child must excel in each ar teacher's subject. Why should any one exsame degree of knowledge in music from chilo range anywhere from nothing to perfectionof us ever reach it-in arithmetic, geography, mmar? The whole thing is absurd and should out of court. I know scores of children, and so ery other principal and teacher, who can not pecially by themselves, and any amount of scoldlecturing will not mend the matter. But why e children to be punished, teased, and tormented ? It is barbarous and should not be tolerated. pecial teacher should not only have his subject and, but he should know childhood as no other does. He comes but once or twice at most each ad maybe not so often; he is only with the class y minutes, with oh, so much to do! His entire uld be spent with the subject in hand. It is his inspire the children with a love for the work, e such an impress on the child as will last till 8 again. The grade teacher is not an expert in ect, she must work out between his visits, and t get her cues from the special. If he comes in g and scolding, criticising and never finding anybod, she will do well to take no cues. egular teacher should be the disciplinarian at all There are many traits of the children in her at she knows and can handle better than any rson. Besides, the business of the special is to

plishment of the child. Drawing, that give an opportunity to express his own ideas is h language, perhaps. But drawing in which told just how and where, and how long to line is a waste of time, and that special te do the school a kindness to miss most of the Many times, tho, the teacher may not be norant school board. blame as the system that is forced upon hi

German as it is taught in many of ou worse than a waste of time, and the amoun and nagging that is done to get children lotted ground is enough to ruin the sweetest child in school. Most teachers of this su public schools know nothing of modern teaching, but cling to the old gradgrind me long agone. Why not stop it and teach rationally or not at all.

All special teachers are not possessed w idea that theirs is the only subject and that poorly done by the grade teacher. It is n tune to know many specials who always bri and gladness whenever they come into t from the children: "I came early this morn What a joy it is to hear such remarks as t D-will be here for writing." 'Oh, I am Monday, for the teacher in physical culture When the superintendent of a special depar on his tour of inspection, to see the childr ing out to meet him disperses the gloom of annoyances. As he lays his hand on a lit caresses the little deformed one, we concl good in the world and that all specials Beards. Well that it is so, or many of us gray long before the time allotted. To teachers come to the principal's office and of the grade teacher, to tell in a right spiri ures as well as her successes, and to sugges ean improve, to speak well of the efforts of the grades; their efforts and successes; t things that lead us to retract most we hav said of the specials. The first class should and the last retained for the sunshine they Cincinnati, Ohio. M. F.

(When Mr.Andrew addressed this letter to THE NAL he was principal of the Linwood school; since become an assistant superintendent in Cincinnati of which he is eminently deserving.-ED.)

Real Value of a Liberal Educati

It is not so much tools and methods adapt success that a university man draws from t armory; it is rather a broad conception c deavor and achievement, a lofty and far-ra of view. It is not even intellectual stimula as intellectual elevation and social orient Owes to a college atmosphere. That mediu has its own reflections and refractions; t such, however, as either to cramp or delude the right adjustments are easily supplied.

The value of concentration, considered of accomplishment, is appreciated in a colle a counting-house or factory; but the meri tration is graduated by more standards tha not measured exclusively by the size of a b In the horizon of universities there is roc philosophies than the economic system whi its scrutiny to the agencies which assure welfare of individuals; or, at widest, the w

A Curious Thing.

Curious things happen in the educational world; here is one of them. A school principal after a long and valuable service in a somewhat conspicuous position retired, and THE JOURNAL naturally and rightly asked for materials to make a suitable notice of the event. It was as important an event in the principal's world as the marriage of Chauncey Depew in the social world. But mark how this man looked at it: "It is an affair of little consequence and not worthy of occupying any space in your paper."

It is this indifference to the world in which the teacher toils that prevents teaching from being a profession, which dooms nine-tenths of those laboring in it to receive a mere pittance for their services.

We do not know whether this man ever subscribed to an educational paper; the probabilities are that he did not; lacking faith in himself he doubtless lacked faith in what an educational paper stands for. This man probably had merely reached the mechanical stage of teaching; he had not yet chipped the shell; he had absorbed a certain amount of information; he had learned how "to run a school" and there he stuck like a wagon in the mud. Such men ache in every bone to get out of teaching into something that has more money

in it.

It is more than a half century since the religious question was settled as pertains to public schools in this country. Before that time the sect that was in power allowed or required its special religion to be taught; but soon all the sects were sending to the public school and the demand came that no special kind of religion be taught, for all sects were taxed to support the schools. It was hard for many not to see the Bible opened when the school was begun, but it was gradually conceded that religion must not be taught in the public school.

The question has been settled and the common ground found. A Catholic and a Protestant clergyman some years ago were traveling in a stage over Western prairies. The Protestant soon attacked the Catholic who re

plied mildly and courteously; but the Protestant went on. When he paused the Catholic said, "You have shown that we disagree in some things; why not show those in which we agree; I think there is much common ground." This ended the discussion. So it was found fifty years ago there was a common ground for the children of all sects in the public schools and that was the common branches of learning. This throws the responsibility of teaching religion on the parent and clergyman.

In a certain town a Protestant clergyman was wont to preach annually against the removal of the Bible from the schools, claiming it was caused by Catholics. In that town were two private schools; in one the Bible was not employed at all, in the other it was read from and prayer offered; the teacher of the latter was an active worker in this clergyman's church. Wishing to have his son prepared for college the clergyman sent him to -which of these? To the one where the Bible was not used. and defended his action by saying that "Mr. B. is the better teacher." In other words this man declared that he sent his son to school to be taught secular

photog

ing an account
modern results,

The author tra
tronomy during
astronomers had
nomical work ha
settled down into

"a gentle drowsi scope and photog we are, as it were as far as our know Could Sir Willi do now, about cha labor would he ha and the old-fashi plotting the resul work is accomplis which is vastly b different observato graphic chart of a tude, and the work With a good inst faintness of the sta ordinary plates am minutes, it is now F that the eye cannot As the author state. most valuable outco stration of the rapi can be determined an instance in point, a few years ago, g stars in a certain na sents twenty years' It falls to our lot to photography. We s tat to give a simpler three. With a staff e years, obtain photog times as many stars six times as quickly, New instruments astronomers and the have naturally led to being referred to by book. He gives as th of the movements of the "variation of lat discovery was largely the almucantar, an ins the book.

"The question, Does in other words, Does to seek, remain accur surface? has been beftime. It was soon rec remain quite stationar never wanders down i have a different climat far on the way towa night would be sensibly Apparently after se Whether the North Po mers came to the c answered in the negativ on this point that wher strated the real facts sc of the Pole by observat himself thought he must follow up the matter." solving the problem lat accepted. As Professor T

and when

nd illustrated by a number of valuable diagrams and hs. The book is divided into four sections, comprisccount of modern instruments, modern methods, sults, and modern mathematical astronomy.

hor traces in an interesting way, the growth of asuring the last quarter of a century, from 1875 when ers had a vague feeling that the methods of astrovork had reached something like finality and had wn into what ill-natured critics might have termed drowsiness," to the present time when the spectrophotographic dry plate have revealed the fact that it were, merely on the borderland of this science, Our knowledge of its truths are concerned.

ir William Herschel have known what astronomers out charting the star-depths how many hours of Id he have saved, for in his day the work was visual id-fashioned way of making star-charts was by he results of zone observations. At present, this ccomplished by means of photography, a method vastly better and more rapid. In 1889, eighteen bservatories made arrangements to secure a photoart of all the stars down to the fourteenth magnihe work is now fully three-fourths done.

good instrument there appears to be no limit to the of the stars that can be photographed, and with the lates and exposure times not exceeding twenty is now possible to get distinct impressions of stars we cannot possibly see with the telescope employed. hor states, in the second section of his book: "A ble outcome of the enterprise has been the demonthe rapidity and ease with which stellar positions termined by measures on photographic plates. As è in point, the Cambridge catalog of stars, published rs ago, gives the positions of fourteen thousand certain narrow belt of the heavens. This reprety years' work of two people with the transit circle. our lot to explore the same belt of the heavens by y. We shall, perhaps, have six people at Oxford, a simpler comparison, I will divide their work by a staff equal to Cambridge we shall, in five or six in photographically the places of two or three any stars; in other words, the work is done five or s quickly, and the results are even more accurate." truments which have been placed in the hands of sand the new methods which they have suggested, ally led to new discoveries; the most important red to by the author in the third section of his gives as the first instance, Dr. Chandler's discovery ments of the poles on the surface of the earth, or tion of latitude" as it is technically called. The as largely due to Dr. Chandler's observations with tar, an instrument described in the first section of

stion, Does the latitude of a given place vary? or, ords, Does the North Pole, which our explorers go main accurately in the same place on the earth's s been before the minds of astronomers for a long as soon recognized that if the North Pole does not e stationary, its excursions are very small. It ers down into Europe, for instance, or we should rent climate; its excursions cannot carry it very way towards Europe, or the length of day and be sensibly affected."

y after several attempts made to determine e North Pole had even a slight "wabble," astronto the conclusion that the question must be the negative. "So confident did astronomers feel t that when Dr. Chandler, who ultimately demoneal facts so clearly, found an apparent movement by observations with the almucantar in 1885, he ght he must have made some mistake, and did not Le matter." However, Dr. Chandler succeeded in problem later, and his theory is now generally

sor Turner remarks: "The earth is not rigid;

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reached, that it has removed for the season to an ity; but at the same time its movements affect as observations quite sensibly, and must be taken ac the future."

The last section of the book deals in an entertaini with an account of the planetary theory, forms of t the history of the earth and moon, and a lucid exp the famous tidal theory advanced by Professor G. in his book on "The Tides."

From the first page to the last, the author has s making an abstruse subject entertaining for all even the most most moderate knowledge of astro he remarks in the preface: "I would represent my ducting a party of visitors over an establishment additions and improvements have recently been stopping to examine everything and perhaps dwel over things with which I am personally most fami book owes its origin to three lectures given at the Ro tion, London, in February, 1900; but what was th been amplified, and brought up to date. MARY

Lyman Abbott's Lowell Lectures. The Rights of Man. A Study in Twentieth Cez lems, by Lyman Abbott.

Dr. Abbott gave a series of twelve lectures Lowell institute, Boston, in the winter of 1890 were not written, but were taken down stenograp carefully revised to make the present volume.

The lecturer first showed that the conflict betwee ism, or the rule of the will of one, and republicar rule of the will of the many, has been continuous ages until now. In the time of Jesus of Nazareth, nation represented one, and the Hebrew people Rome temporarily triumphed; but now, the idea of the many is in the ascendant. In subsequent le distinctions between rights and privileges, betw and license, are clearly shown. Then natural rig ing to the individual necessarily follow, of which life, to freedom of action, to the free family life quire property, are the most important. Polit differ from these natural rights in that they impl ence of the state. Hence government exists for the individual, not the individual for the governme makes the republican idea.

Later, some of the peculiar domestic problems o try are treated. Fundamentally, the primary pur national life is the development of personal chara these problems must be solved with this at the for these are the Indian problem. a problem of the o barbarism by civilization: the negro problem, a the assimilation of distinct races; the problem o cal status of woman, to be determined upon expe problem of the political boss, to be determined by evolution of the government. and the problem of can find its solution only in the acceptance of the universal brotherhood.

After pointing out some of the perils to which is specially exposed as the most important repre democracy, the lecturer concludes that the hope fo is to be found in a steady growth in religious a fellowship among the people. That is, the futur evolution along the best lines, for which the stru the evil is a necessary element. The book is ( help all students of present conditions to right their relations and to encourage hopefulness years. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and Price $1.50 net.)

A teacher having had college training or its eq who is a ready writer and would like to work in the field of education, may be interested in a position the editor of THE SCHOOL JOURNAL. Living salary i The right person can develop into an excellent p dress, giving full particulars, also stating minimt