the simplest elements of knowledge-getting, to open his mind to a liking for good literature, and to give him a vocabulary that creates ideas.

The National League of Teacher-Mothers hopes to revolutionize teaching. Supposing every mother who does not have to work to support her children resolves to keep her babies at home until they can spell a few hundred words, know by heart a few hundred lines of Mother Goose and simple epic poetry, are familiar with stories in which animals play a part, and are able to read a little, and so avoid the lower grades, what have we not accomplished? We have relieved the congestion in the lower grades, just where where massteaching gets in its most destructive work. We have prepared the children so that they can advance rapidly in school. They know how to study -how to work-how to concentrate-for the three words are synonymous.

Because they know how to work, these children can accomplish, in half an hour, as much of the essentials as are mastered now in a whole day. We shall shorten the elementary course by the equivalent of several years. We shall train the children so that by the age of eleven or twelve they can read, spell, write and speak correctly; they are well-grounded in the four fundamental operations in arithmetic and also fractions and decimals. They have learned to do exactly as they are told to do.

This effort to revive home teaching is sometimes met by ill-informed people with the statement that "no mother can teach her children nowadays so that they can get on in school." This would be true in certain cities if the mother contemplated thrusting the child into the first grade about the middle of the year. By keeping him at home until he can enter second or third grade, he shows the immense advantages derived from old-fashioned teaching over modern hothouse methods.

The very best teaching the little child can have, is the teaching given by the busy mother while she is doing her housework. The very best lessons for the child are those dealing with its home surroundings, which seem commonplace to us, but in the eyes of the little child are new and wonderful as if newly created for his joy and use.

The mother who has had only primary schooling herself may well be a good teacher for her

own children. At work in her home school she becomes clever as she never was clever before; wiser than she could ever be for her sole self; looking so clearly into the future that you almost credit her with the gift of prophecy. She learns by teaching. Her instinct, her patient and understanding love as she watches his growth and development, guides her to find the right way to take her all-important part in the education of her child. She needs no rigid system. She is not dealing with a theoretical child, but with the child as he really is.

No mother who can read is justified in saying that she "does not know how to teach her children." The mother has the main requisite of successful teaching, a knowledge of child nature and a heartfelt interest in the child's welfare. Few mothers would confess their inability to care for and train the babe, yet the first two years of the child's existence are said to dominate its future and require the highest instinctive wisdom.

The main thing we need insist upon for the child of two is that it be a healthy little animal trained to obey and to be docile. Then comes the home kindergarten period two to three years in duration, during which the child is learning in every waking moment, becoming conscious of realities and dealing with concrete experiences. There is not one desirable feature of the kindergarten as planned by Froebel that is not at hand and ready in every simple, well-ordered home.

The little child "is all eyes and ears." This is a revelation of Nature's way of taking the first steps in its education, since it is through this inquisitiveness that the child gets acquainted with the outside world. All the separate gates of the mind-the senses-should receive proper and adequate attention.

Along with the training of the senses must be training in obedience, self-control and industry. The very best means of instilling these lessons is through the little tasks about the house, carefully chosen to fit the child's age and strength, regularly and punctually fulfilled. "Helping mother" is the most profitable kind of primary training.

Before the age of seven must be instilled reverence, respect for authority, a liking for good books. These things are done, if at all, with great difficulty in the school. At home they may be done simply and naturally.

Let the mother, then, establish these essentials. of education at home at an early age. All the work of the following years is thus made comparatively easy. Mere reading and writing is something the child, with slight assistance, will teach itself.

By the simple expedient of teaching the little child good poems, interesting it in the fables, myths and folk tales so easily procured, and when it wants to read, giving it such good and interesting literature, the mother has done more than any school can do for her child in the way of language teaching.

To sum up: By training the senses, by answering the child's questions, by creating a desire for learning, along with the habits of obedience, truthfulness, helpfulness and self-control, a sure and safe foundation for education will be established. Yet these things can be done by any mother who will give the subject careful thought.

Follow the lead of the child, teaching him what his questions show he is ready to be taught. In these questions, you will find the one best guide to child-psychology.

sentiment in the Legislature as expressed in improved legislation, and for the wonderful change in public sentiment towards the public schools.

The net expenditure of the year was $5,700,000, an increase of half a million. The state appropriation was a million, the appropriations from the police jury a million and a half, and special taxes authorized by the people a million and a half.

All this does not include two and a quarter million dollars to be collected as special taxes later, nor does it include four and a half million dollars of school bonds and other indebtedness for moneys. used in school buildings.

We refer only to the white schools and their condition, because any figures regarding colored schools would be wholly misunderstood by many of our readers. Suffice it to say that educational conditions of the negroes have improved as greatly in every regard as have those of the whites.

The number of teachers in the state increased about 300 per cent. in the year. The salaries of

perintendents) receive $1,724 salary, an increase of $28.

Of the eighth grade pupils, 70 per cent. were promoted; of the ninth grade, 77 per cent.; of the tenth grade, 80 per cent.; of the eleventh grade, 90 per cent. This is a most unusual showing.

Only 46 per cent. of the schools in Louisiana are one-teacher schools. The one-teacher schools decreased fifty-three.

Approximately 10,000 children are transferred to consolidated schools, or their equivalent, of which there are in the state 420, an increase of sixty-eight.

Three thousand fifty-eight children are conveyed to high schools at public expense.

School-home projects or their equivalent greatly increased. There are 1,745 corn clubs, 1,565 pig clubs, 1,400 tomato clubs, 443 poultry clubs, 3,481 agricultural classes, and 7,545 domestic science classes.

We are using three cuts which show the distribution in the state of one and two or more teacher schools; of enrollment in secondary and elementary schools, and boys' club activities.

lation secured, of the plans proposed, of the achievement that is already assured in both white and colored schools leads to but one conclusion: State Superintendent T. H. Harris is an educa

The Chicago public schools are doing a great work in keeping the girls and boys in school and encouraging them through the bureau of vocational guidance to prepare themselves to become efficient workers.

The bureau is in charge of Miss Anne Davis and three assistants with offices at the Jones School. It is supplemented by the work of three prevocational schools-the Lane, the Lucy Flower and the Tilden-and four technical high schools.

"Each year in Chicago from 12,000 to 15,000 children under sixteen years of age leave school to become wage earners," says Miss Davis. "Children of this age enter, for the most part, 'blindalley' occupations which offer no training and a wage which, though it at first is tempting, will never grow.

"Most of these would-be workers are tired of school or cannot afford to finish the grammar schools and continue their work into the high schools.

"There are not enough positions for all these applicants. Those who do find jobs start at $2.50 or $3 a week and at the end of five years earn about $5 a week with little chance of a raise.

"When a child comes to us asking for a permit to leave school we stimulate his interest and show him it is better to continue his work at school, without pay, than to earn a few dollars now and have no future. By this means we keep twentyfive per cent. of the children in school when they are eager to leave.

"If they are interested in technical work they are sent to one of the three pre-vocational schools, and often to one of the technical high schools. Here the boys work in the shops at mental training, with machinery or with electrical things. The girls learn sewing, cooking, millinery and design.

"By this means we try to keep needy children and those who are impatient to get to work until they are sixteen years of age, and, better still, until they acquire some special training, so they may become efficient workers and thus avoid the 'blind-alley job.""

The vocational bureau had not been organized

very long when it discovered that it was folly to advise the children of poor parents to remain in school unless they were given some assistance. A scholarship committee was organized for the purpose of getting scholarships ranging from $5 to $12 a month. These are given to children whose families cannot afford to give them further training and are dependent upon assistance of the small weekly wages earned by these children.

The vocational guidance work is now a part of the public school system and has grown beyond the experimental stage. It was started some five years ago by members of the Chicago Woman's Club. These women felt that as long as the community gave the children only a meagre training, as long as it allowed them to run the streets at fourteen, and refused them any employment with a future until they were sixteen, it should at least give them the benefit of all the guidance which the parents, the teachers and those who are about to employ them could give.

With the needs of the individual child in mind and a broader outlook in view, this group of women established the vocational bureau. Soon the Chicago Woman's Aid joined the movement.

During the last five years the vocational bureau has advised and assisted 10,225 children. They came from schools all over the city, including high schools. Only twenty-five schools, which were in the outskirts of the city or in exceptionally wellto-do districts, where children are not in the habit of going to work at fourteen, were not represented. These children represented forty-four nationalities, but less than ten per cent. were foreign born.

They were not all backward children who dropped out of school before completing the elementary grade. Eighty-four per cent. left school before the sixteenth birthday. The attitude of the parent when seen in the homes makes it appear only too clear that practically all welcome such guidance and avail themselves of it.

The follow-up work is a part of the vocational bureau program. It is done by letter, by visits. to the homes, to the shops and by interviews with the child himself.-Chicago Herald.

Boston's Mayor, His Honor James M. Curley, has rendered all citizens of Boston now and hereafter, and all friends of correct recital of historic facts, a distinct service. It is due our New England readers that we relate a few interesting sentences of the "Story of Boston" caught from the reel here and there.

In 1614, before the days of the Pilgrims, John Smith named New England "that part of America in the Ocean Sea opposite to Nova Albyon in the South Sea, discovered by the most memorable Sir Francis Drake." Being in the same latitude as San Francisco was its first distinction.

-James Russell Lowell.

ernor should live in Boston or within four or five miles of Boston.

North End and South End, terms still in use, were divided by Mill Creek, along the present line of Blackstone street.

The first "shop" in Boston was located on what is now the northeast corner of State and Washington streets, opposite the Old State House. The business and financial centre of Boston has been within 500 yards of this spot for 280 years.

The first meeting house was within 100 yards of the first shop, and when in 1640 it was to be superseded by a better building the "progressive"

In 1602 "Cape Cod" was the first place in Massachusetts to receive an English name. The first cargo shipped from New England commercially was sassafras. Sir Walter Raleigh protested against selling all they had at once for fear of depressing the market. It was a popular article of commerce for several years.

The first exalted praise of Boston as a place of residence was its "freedom from wolves, rattlesnakes and musketoes."

Roxbury was originally Rocksbury, so named from the famous pudding stone which was found in large quantities there. Medford was Meadford, from its meadows. Brookline was Muddy River.

Boston Common was purchased in 1634 for £30. It now has a market value of $46,000,000. The first appropriation of public moneys was for a "little house and a sufficiently poled yard to lodge the cattle in of nights."

A description of Boston in 1719 said there were twenty-two alleys, thirty-six lanes, and forty-two

streets.

Governor Winthrop was defeated as Governor in 1634 largely because he chose to reside in Boston instead of Newe Towne (Cambridge) or Charlestown. Three years later, though the election was held in Cambridge, Winthrop was elected by a large majority. One eminent colonist of the time-Sewall-walked forty miles to vote for Winthrop.

In 1655 the General Court voted that the Gov

*Boston and Its Story. 1620 to 1915." A Relation Prepared by Edward M. Hartwell and Others Appointed by His Honor, James M. urley, Mayor of Boston. Printed by the City of Boston.

Meeting House is, at the corner of Milk and Washington streets, but the business men vetoed it for fear that it would divert business from the neighborhood of the "first shop."

The first bridge was built across the Charles river-from Cambridge to Little Cambridge, now Brighton-at a cost of $1,000. There are now 154 bridges in Boston.

In 1723 an enterprising bookseller described Boston as "Mistress of America." He said: "The air is Exceedingly Clear and pleasant, Perfectly well Agreeing with the English Constitution, for which Reason the Gentlemen of the West India Islands often go thither to Recover their Healths." Boston has long fought the High Cost of Living. As late as 1798 it was customary for the selectmen of Boston to prescribe periodically the weight of a loaf of marketable bread, varying it with the price of grain.

On March 14, 1715, the selectmen were authorized to borrow money for the purchase of 3,000 bushels of Indian corn, 500 bushels of rye and 500 bushels of wheat to be sold to the people. In June of that year $7,500 was set apart for the purchase of corn and other provisions.

A granary was built in 1728 for the stowing of 12,000 bushels of grain and the price of the grain was established by the town officials. The Granary Burying Ground next to Park Street Church is named from the Granary.

In 1741 the town chose a committee to purchase for public sale $3,500 worth of cord wood.

Never before reading this book have we SO fully appreciated the spirit that has been apparent in Boston and her activities for three centuries.