'THERE is still an unfortunate belief prevalent in some parts of the country," says the Journal of Pedagogy, that experience in teaching can take the place of professional training. This is a delusion that has done incalculable mischief. and it is one of the things that hinder the more rapid advance towards the elevation of teaching to the rank it deserves among the learned professions. To us it seems a self-evident proposition that experience can never be a substitute for adequate professional training in normal school or college, and the one qualification in a teacher most to be feared is experience, unless this same experience has been obtained under more favorable conditions than are found in a good many schools. Unless the teacher begins his work with the right point of view, and with a correct knowledge of the principles which underlie all correct processes of teaching, his experience is too likely to confirm him in his false views, and make him little better than an empiricist."

GEORGE P. PHENIX, in Child Study Monthly, says: "In a well-organized practice school the following conditions will exist:

"I. The pupil-teacher will be carefully prepared for her work before being given charge of a school.

"2. The school assigned to a pupil-teacher will be small.

3. The teacher will remain with a class for a considerable period. (Pupils suffer a change of teachers twice a year in all cities where promotions are semi-annual and where departmental teaching is in vogue, and in high schools the change of teachers is still more frequent.)

4. Supervision will be so close that mistakes will be sooner discovered than in an ordinary public school.

"5. The school, in addition to competent supervision, has the benefit of all the fresh enthusiasm of the earnest beginner. This goes far to offset the disadvantages resulting from inexperience.

"6. Inefficiency in a pupil-teacher is not long tolerated."

THE work of the modern school is so new that the change seems like revolution rather than evolution. The little children are studying form and color, modeling in clay, constructing in paper and wood; all are drawing. They are learning sewing, cooking, joinery, wood-turning and carving. They are studying music, not merely to sing by rote, but to read in various keys and in all the parts. They are collecting,

observing, drawing, describing, preserving plants, animals, minerals. They are studying the natural forces and their effects, in physics and chemistry and meteorology.

Looking toward citizenship are history, civics and various special exercises to develop patriotism; the flag over the school-house is most significant of the new purpose working itself out beneath. Besides all this, there are the humanizing influences of literature, not the set pieces of elocutionary fireworks of the school readers, but choicest classics in their entirety.

This broader work matches the broader purpose, and grows out of it. These studies are not ends, but means. By them powers and capacities are revealed, and increased, and satisfied. Right feelings are wakened, tastes are cultivated, the will is trained. Methods, too, are in harmony with the purpose to use the studies to train the child to observe, to imagine, to reason, to express, to feel, to will. - G. H. Martin in Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System."

School tells this incident of a fire in a New York City school: "The bell for the fire drill sounded about twenty minutes before noon, when the noon recess is called. In one of the class-rooms, that of Miss Claire M. Dolan, in a lower primary grade, that was near the stairway, the smoke had begun to penetrate the room. There were about fifty boys and girls in the class, and when all were ready the teachers told them to march out in order, but to let the girls pass out first, at the next sound of the bell, at which all stood in expectation. As the bell sounded one boy sprang from the line and made a rush to the door, but another little fellow, Master Tony Ruffino, stepped before him with the commanding manner of a major-general: 'Didn't you hear the teacher say the girls go first in a fire?' he exclaimed. Go back to your place!'

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The first boy returned to the line meekly. The girls were already leaving the room, and the boys followed the next instant. This was the only instance of a panic. Supt. Jasper, whose office is not far away, hearing of the fire, went to the school a few moments later. The fire had all been extinguished, and in the afternoon the children returned to their class-rooms as usual, but the next morning at assembly Mrs. Mary A. Rodgers, the primary principal, in commending the children for their obedience, related the instance of Tony Ruffino's presence of mind, and he was as big a hero of the day as Col. Roosevelt or any of the Rough Riders at San Juan

Hill. Tony has not been one of the best boys of the class. He is only eleven years old, and he has sometimes played truant, but now he thinks he has a new character to sustain as a good boy."

Learning By Doing announces that the principal of a Pennsylvania high school has written a commendation of a short article which appeared in its January issue, directed against the latterday or so-called Roman pronunciation of Latin, and says: "The editor of Learning By Doing does not claim to be an expert in this matter of Latin pronunciation. He is not even prepared to prove that Cicero did not begin his name with a K, or Virgil his with a W. His life-long tussle with the English has given him little opportunity to retain more of his college Latin than an ability to ring the first few changes of the verb "to love," and to render a somewhat free translation of those portions of the tongue of Cæsar that are found in the back part of an unabridged dictionary. We should be less ready to make this frank confession did we not know that it would require a boat as large as the Great Eastern to hold all of the classical graduates of our colleges and universities who have shed their sophomoric Latin lore as thoroughly as we have. Notwithstanding our inability to speak as an expert, we have our opinion about this new-fangled attempt to have our school-boys pronounce the Latin in such a way as to lead the listener to imagine that they are wrestling with Choctaw or Cingalese. We are glad that this opinion has found approval by at least one qualified judge of the matter. Furthermore, we have noticed that several of our brethren of the educational press have taken similar ground. But if there be any earnest advocate of this new era in Latin pronunciation who cares to devote one or two columns of Learning By Doing to showing us and the other Philistines the error of our ways in this matter, he is welcome to use our space for the purpose."

MAYOR VAN WYCK, of New York City, has lately expressed some more of his invaluable opinions concerning schools and their government. He described himself as searching for men who, as members of the Board of Education, could give their entire time to the schools. We can hardly imagine a worse ideal. Teachers, principals, superintendents, are supposed to be trained and competent members of a profession, and to devote their entire time to the schools; but the proper function of a board of education is far different. It studies the needs of the schools, of

course, but as a lay body it must in last resort depend upon the advice and information given by professional men and women. A far more important duty, however, is to represent the best public opinion and the highest public interest in passing upon proposals made by the professional directors of school work. This is the legitimate function of a lay body in dealing with professional concerns; but to probe and pry about in an amateurish way, to criticise what is only partially understood, and to attempt to influence and control what should be unbiased professional opinions and recommendations, are ways of impeding, not forwarding, school work. No, Mr. Van Wyck, do not turn loose upon the schools men with nothing else to do; find busy men, representative men of affairs, accustomed to dealing promptly and decisively with important and far-reaching purposes, men of clear views and high intelligence, and in a few hours each month they will be able to perform all the legitimate legislative duties of a board of education. If the superintendents are believed to be incompetent, turn them out; but do not interfere with the independence of their work so long as they are responsible officers. - Nicholas Murray Butler, in the Educational Review.

'FIRST thing you know they will have a new alphabet in the public schools, and I shall lose another old friend," moaned the Old Graduate of the Wooster Street school. "My youngest child came home from school after her music lesson the other day, and as I thought that I knew something about music I tried to put her through her paces. I was sure my old singing school training would stand me in good stead, and that I was on firm ground. Hanged if I wasn't knocked out in the first round. This was the way she sang the scale: 'Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, te, do.' That 'te' in there gave me a fit, and I was so sure of my superiority that I promptly corrected her, and said that it should be si.' Well, that little chit of a girl dared to laugh at me and say I was all wrong; at me, who had sung in the choir for years and thought I knew music from the ground up. I did display a bit of temper, I reckon, for it was only the day before that my elder daughter had floored me completely with her new Roman pronunciation of Latin, and I rather had it in for the puble schools and their kindergartens and all that sort of thing that I never had a chance to know much about.

Came up town, and the first man I met in the hotel was a singer who knows all about

Wagner and all the up-to-date music. Told him about how my youngster had called me down about the syllables used in singing, and had insisted on 'te' instead of 'si' as the seventh note. He laughed heartily and said: 'Well, old fellow. you have a grievance for fair, but you will have to go and fight it out with Frank Damrosch. You see that when it comes to pronouncing the syllables in the chromatic scale in the old way there are a couple of "si's," for it runs this way: Do, di, re, ri, mi, fa, fi, sol, si, la, li, si, do. The youngster that is studying sight singing according to the new method might get tangled up by finding a couple of "si's" in her scale, and ask a lot of awkward questions that it would take much time to explain. So Damrosch cut the Gordian knot for the teachers and himself changing the major seventh from "si" to te," and all chance for trouble was knocked in the head. That's the way it is taught in all the public schools now. It's a good thing, and the only wonder is that no one ever happened to think of the substitution before.' I paid for the cigars and bought some candy for the child, but I asked no more questions about the schools, for fear that I'll run up against a new alphabet some of these days, and I don't want to meet with that." - New York Times.

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WRITING of the first high school in Boston, the Wisconsin Journal of Education says: "It will be remembered that the school was first called The English Classical School,' and that it was created to meet the needs of pupils from the public elementary schools who did not expect to go to college, and accordingly did not wish to enter the Boston Latin School, which was the public fitting school. Three years later the school is called, in a measure adopted by the school committee, The English High School.' Candidates for admission were required to be at least twelve years of age and well acquainted with reading, writing, English grammar in all its branches, and arithmetic as far as simple proportion.' The course of study extends over three years, and is as follows:

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STUDIES OF THE FIRST CLASS.

Composition.

Reading from the most approved authors. Exercises in criticism, comprising critical analyses of language, grammar and style of the best English authors, their errors and beauties. Declamation.

Geography.

Arithmetic continued.

The

THE Atlantic Monthly has been publishing the confessions of school superintendents. Yankee school man thinks that the worst thing about the appointment of teachers is the (praiseworthy in most relations in life) impulse to look after one's friends. In this matter he finds the boodle politician only less mischievous than the church pastors, who are always seeking fodder for the hungry lambs of the flock, and who will seldom hesitate to work "tooth and nail" for the appointment of some needy spinster or other object of charity to a place on the teaching force, and entirely oblivious of the welfare of the schools.

Among other conclusions reached in the "confessions" of this school man are:

1. That the best members of a school board are lawyers and business men who handle large enterprises.

2. That partisan politics, that is, the rival interests of Republicans and Democrats as such, - rarely or never enters into school matters.

3. That the appointment of teachers is as well maraged as are other city appointments.

are anxious to do well, but who lack vigor and teaching aptitude.

6. That courses of study should be made for the slower and weaker pupils, and that the bright ones should be permitted to go faster or required to take additional work.

7. That in all the larger towns of New England a superintendent is less secure in his position than is the humblest teacher, and that while deserving superintendents often lose their places because they have the courage to stand up for the best good of the school, the teacher rarely loses a place that he deserves to retain.

pointment of teachers." Regarding the former, he thinks most school boards act conscientiously for the best interest of the school, especially in the case of books, the sale of which is not large. As to the other books, the "hot fights," which are always engendered by the book agents as a matter of policy, are more often caused by a spirit of partisanism than by a quest for boodle. When the average man has committed himself in favor of anything, he likes to win, and he will grow very warm for his side, even if the issue involves nothing more important than the matter of what arithmetic or grammar shall be used in the schools. This superintendent sapiently keeps out of all book fights. "Why," he asks, "should a superintendent ruin his chances in things more vital to the schools than the use of this or that arithmetic?" He avers that book men respect his neutrality, perhaps because, as he says, "I am on good terms with book agents. I find them always genial and well informed. It is a pleasure to chat with them, but it will not do to make them any promises."

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THE CLOSING EXERCISES.

T is never too early to begin to prepare for the exercises that will take place at the close of the school year. In fact, it is well to have an eye for these when the school year begins. Some teachers draw from all the Friday afternoon exercises of the entire school year, selecting the best for the closing day. Now as to these exercises I suggest:

1. Do not bring forward the school studies, for the occasion is one that will draw the parents with the expectation of pleasure and you must meet that expectation.

2. There must be a certain dignity in the exercises. Do not have blacking up of faces, nor performances that will make friends of education ashamed. Aim to have the good opinion of the better class who attend.

3. There must be appropriateness; the material you have must be considered carefully; the younger pupils must have things suitable to say, the big boys may give Webster's speeches.

4. Music, dialogues, recitations, compositions and fancy drills (as with flags, etc.) will constitute the staple of the exercises.

5. Select bright and beautiful songs, and, if you can, get a piano or a cabinet organ; practice until they sing well, which depends on the music. Have an appropriate opening piece sung by all.

6. Dialogues are always popular; three or four short ones can be managed; drill on them until they go off well. A wire can be stretched from side to side of the school-house and a curtain hung on that; a screen answers if there is no door behind the stage.

7. Recitations must be short; thus you can bring up a good many pupils, one piece with eight stanzas can be given to four girls; they all come on the stage at once; one speaks two stanzas; another two more, and so on.

8. Compositions can be used if they are short and interesting; let them be about things at home, in the village or city; Mr. Smith's Drug Store," "The Saw Mill," etc., are titles that will attract the audience.

8. Drills are always pleasing; fan drills with girls in their white dresses are irresistible.

(1) General Suggestions. Begin beforehand and have everything planned out; settle now who is to have a composition, who a recitation, et. Drill before school and after school; determine there shall be no prompting needed.

(2) Appoint an executive committee to attend

to certain details to the programs, to invitations, to seat the people, the getting of chairs, the decoration of the rooms, the construction of a platform, etc.

(3) Invitations can be written by the older pupils; so can programs. Have the invitations sent out signed by the committee of pupils; send them to the school board, the clergymen, the town officials.

(4) Instruct the committee where the school board are to be seated.

(5) Beautify the school-room all you can. (6) Do not let the exercises take up too much time; one and one-half hours will be enough. Be prompt in beginning and let one exercise follow another with rapidity. It is not necessary to "call off" the performers; as all have programs they will know who is speaking and his theme. Let, therefore, a speaker be ready, at the edge of the platform, to ascend as the other descends; that is, "rush things."

(7) Impress on the pupils that they are to have a good time; fill them with courage. Don't tell them they are going to fail, but that they are going to succeed. And don't get nervous and excited; keep cool. If a boy fails say, "You are excused, next;" or call for a piece of music. Don't let such an incident upset affairs.

(8) Try to see as many of the parents as possible and give them a warm greeting.

(9) Remember this is a democratic country and give the children of the poor and humble as good a chance as those better off pecuniarily. Don't insist on any special kind of garments. encourage the wearing of such as they have and not the purchase of new ones; this is often a very serious matter.

(10) Determine to make the occasion not only a pleasant one, but one that shall cause the school to stand higher in public esteem. A jumble of things won't accomplish this.

(11) If you have an apt man on the school board let him say a few words; be sure he speaks briefly. If there is no such man select some one beforehand and notify him, and let a member of the school board call him up; it will be better than for you to do it. He is to voice the satisfaction of the public.

(11) The closing piece should be one in which all can join; "Be Thou O God exalted high" is not inappropriate. But one that alludes to education is usually chosen. - New York School Journal.