“rise,” “turn," "pass" or, instead of these words, signals made with the hands and forearm. Raising the hand, palm upward, to have class rise; lowering the hand and forearm, palm downward, to seat the class. Wrist drop of the extended hand and a small circle described with the hand signifies "turn." The use of hand signs compells all pupils to keep their eyes on the teacher, does away with the use and sound of the voice, and has a tendency to produce quiet in the classroom. Other signals can be devised. These are only suggestive.

If the school has been in operation before, the records should show the proper classification of pupils enrolled in previous years. This should be taken into account in making the temporary organization of the school. If there are no records available, the teacher may find it advisable to make a hurried classification, based upon the pupils' statements of their previous standing, immediately after getting their names and before proceeding with the organization indicated above. Those who cannot give their former classification should be grouped and seated so that the teacher may reach them most speedily after the temporary organization has been completed. This organization should be made as soon as possible. Chaos and confusion has had its beginning in many a schoolroom where this has been postponed, or neglected, until the fourth or fifth day after the opening. The larger the school the more imperative immediate organization becomes.

The wise teacher will provide an abundance of carefully selected material to carry out her first day's work. Pupils may come without books, paper, pens, pencils, or other necessary supplies, with the expectation of making a holiday of it. But the skillful teacher will have placed on the blackboard such work as will enable her to make some estimate of what each pupil knows. Well-planned oral drills and oral recitations also assist the teacher in discovering each child's apperceptive mass. Crayon, pencils, pens, paper, and as many books as may be available on the different subjects will be ready for use. Songs and physical exercises, or a story well told, may add to the effectiveness of the first day's work. The special program for the first day will require much thought and ingenuity and will need to be planned in its details, yet it must be sufficiently elastic to meet the special claims of individual pupils and the unforseen exigencies of the hour. This program can not be successfully made until the teacher knows the general outline and some of the details of the work done by the pupils during the previous year. If there is no printed course of study at hand, a consultation with the County Superintendent of Schools and sometimes with the local school officers will assist the teacher in securing the necessary information. An informal meeting with some of the pupils during the week preceding the opening of school will

bring the teacher ample reward in the ease with which she does the first day's work, and in the added efficiency of her later labors. System and organization at the beginning will prevent disorder and confusion.

Before the opening of each session, every day, from first to last, the teacher should be able to answer affirmatively the following questions:

1. Are the school room and its surroundings tidy and in order? 2. Is the school room ventilated so that pupils will not be exposed to draughts, and so that each pupil will receive from 2,000 to 2,400 cu. ft. of pure air per hour?

3. Is the light so adjusted that it will be uniformly diffused throughout the room? Or, does the strongest light come from the left and above the level of the eye?

4. Is the room at a temperature of 68 to 70 degrees F.? Is the source of heat so adjusted that the room will remain at this temperature during the first recitation period?

5. Are blackboard exercises ready for pupils to begin work?

6. Has the teacher prepared a detailed program for the day? Has she made provision for the section, or sections, engaged in seat work while another section recites, so that all pupils will have sufficient work to occupy all of their time profitably?

The detailed daily program determines the answer which should be made to the following questions:

7. Are the blackboards clean and ready for use?

8. Are the crayons distributed to the proper places in numbers sufficient to supply each pupil at the blackboard?

9. Are blackboard erasers clean and distributed in sufficient numbers, and convenient for pupils' use?

10. Are the ink-wells filled and free from dust, or waste material?

11. Are the penholders fitted with good pens and arranged in racks*, or trays, so that each child will receive the same pen every day?

12. Are the pencils sharpened and arranged in racks* convenient for distribution, so that children do not exchange pencils? 13. Has paper of proper size been arranged in bunches conveniently placed for distribution?

14. Are blotters in pupils' desks, or arranged in bunches, convenient for distribution?

15. Are rubber erasers, books, maps, charts, color-boxes, brushes, material for busy work, and other appliances near at hand and ready for use?

In upper grades, well-trained in the care of the school equipment, there seems to be no serious objection to leaving the pens and pencils in the care of the pupils. Each pupil then becomes re

sponsible for the care and condition of his own pen and pencil. With younger children, it is better to take up pens and pencils and see that they are kept in order. In all classes, the accidents that occur in the cramped quarters of a pupil's desk, are avoided and the work facilitated by taking up the pens and pencils. The teacher can then see, before the opening of the session, that they are all ready for use.

It is not intended that the teacher shall attend in person to all of these details. To attain the ultimate purpose, the teacher should direct and oversee her pupils in arranging these and other details of the school-room. In the lower grades, more of the detail will fall directly upon the teacher. But even first-year pupils become helpful in tidying up the room, in cleaning the erasers, in pulling out old pens and putting in new ones, in gathering up the crayons, pencils and books, and in laying them away in the proper place. In numerous other ways the little one enjoys assuming responsibility and takes great delight in co-operating with the teacher to make the room neat and cheerful, and the school pleasant and profitable. As pupils grow older more of these responsibilities should be given to them, not as tasks to be required of them, but as privileges and opportunities to be embraced. Sometimes teachers make the mistake of selecting only the reliable pupils to take these positions of honor and trust. While it is wise to use these positions as rewards for fidelity, they afford the best possible opportunity for the development of those who are persistently mischievous, or lacking in self-control. Many a troublesome boy, and scores of furtive girls, have been won over to the support of law and order in the school-room by placing them in a position of trust, or distinction. One such case is submitted.

In a city school there was a boy who poked and pinched his neighbors, threw scraps of paper on the floor, or puffed them into the air; occasionally spattered his own desk with ink and sometimes dropped ink on the paper or dress of some girl sitting near him; was noisy in opening and closing his books, and seemed to take a keen delight in telling his teacher that he did not know his lesson. Various devices had been tried by the teacher, but none had brought the boy into harmony with the purpose of the school. At the suggestion of her principal, she made the boy her confidential assistant in the school-room. He carried all of her special messages, acted as monitor to distribute supplies, and to see that the entire row in which he acted as monitor was kept neat and tidy, cleaned the blackboards, sharpened and cared for the pencils, and was made captain or leader of the boys' line as they passed to and from the room. In three weeks the teacher reported to her principal that the boy was completely changed, and incidentally admitted that her attitude toward the boy had also changed. The situa

tion appealed to the boy's pride and sense of honor, and impelled (almost compelled) him to set a good example to the other children. He was trusted and honored with responsible positions before his classmates, and felt that he could not betray the confidence reposed in him. By doing that which contributed to the neatness and cleanliness of the room, he acquired the habit of keeping his own desk and its surroundings in a tidy condition. By being made responsible for the order of his row, or line, he acquired the habit of self-control in the school-room. In seeing that others respected the rights and privileges of each other, he developed a habit of respecting the rights and privileges of his classmates.

A school of forty or more pupils, when organized as previously suggested, will afford 25 or 30 positions to be filled by the pupils. The duties implied in the 15 questions to be answered before the opening of each session may be assigned to 15 different pupils, or to two or three. A monitor for each row supplies specific responsibility for three, four, or even eight more. Some one may see that the clock is properly set every morning. Another may keep a record of the temperature in the room and attend to the ventilation. Some girl will take pride in ornamenting the teacher's desk every morning. These duties may be multiplied by the teacher who has skill in securing the assistance of her pupils, and in overseeing them. Rural teachers may add many other duties not found in a city graded school.

During the first week a reasonably satisfactory classification of the pupils should be made. The personal habits and moral tendencies of each pupil will also be apparent. A permanent organization should now take the place of the temporary one made on the first day. The permanent organization should be subject to change only when further knowledge of the pupils' habits and moral tendencies makes a change advisable, or makes it helpful to one or more of the pupils. Each pupil is assigned a particular seat and is held responsible for the condition of the seat and its immediate surroundings. The place which each pupil is to take in passing to and from the room, to and from the blackboards, to and from the recitation, is definitely fixed. Pupils should be drilled in these movements until each one knows his place and takes it promptly. A monitor is selected for each row of pupils, and, with the other monitors, is drilled to perform in unison the duties of the position until all are able to distribute books, papers, pencils, pens, etc., with a minimum of noise, and a maximum of speed. This drill should enable the monitors to rise, pass forward and back in unison to insure quiet, and to bring slow pupils to promptness and precision in the class-room. Those teachers who believe in a maximum' of noise, and do not believe in stirring the laggard from his drowsy pace, will of course use the desultory method of allowing each monitor to

rise at will and perform his duties at the rate which the development of his natural tendencies suggests, and sit whenever his own inclination prompts him to do so. If there are five monitors, the necessary noise in rising, walking, and sitting will be repeated five times, and some pupils will be delayed just a little longer in getting to work than they would be if all should move with celerity and promptness as they are compelled to do when moving in concert. All movements of the class as a whole will be made more promptly and more quietly when all move as one. Concerted action will aid in building up a class-room habit of promptness and precision in those naturally inclined to physical inertia.

Much stress should be laid upon drills in necessary movements and attitudes in the class-room for the purpose of cultivating a habit of prompt and ready obedience. When the teacher says, "Class, attention," every pupil should immediately take the position of attention, previously defined by the teacher. At the word, or signal, "rise," all should rise as one. At the word, or signal, "pass," all should move at once in the order previously arranged and drilled upon. Time is too valuable to keep forty pupils waiting for instruction which the teacher cannot give until one or two laggards are ready to hear, or obey, the next directions. Let the teacher who doubts the value of these drills take a class where noise and confusion reign, where each pupil obeys when convenient, where it is impossible to secure the attention of the whole class at once, and let her give series of drills in concerted movements for five minutes. Then let her note with what ease and promptness the class gives attention or obeys her directions when the regular work of instruction is resumed. The order in the room will have been completely transformed and the effectiveness of her instruction greatly increased. The habit of taking the external attitude of attention is formed by repeatedly taking the position of attention in the class-room. The habit of prompt obedience, by repeated acts of obeying promptly. Concerted movement is the physical attitude which prepares the way for concerted thinking, and predisposes all to join in the spiritual, or mental, unity essential to make class instruction effective. All minds in the class must be focused on the subject in hand, otherwise some members of the class will fail to receive the instruction that comes from teacher and other pupils. By obeying promptly, the pupil constantly shows the courtesy which is justly due to others in that he does not keep them waiting for him. With a well-defined system in the class-room, there is constant and ever-recurring insistence on respect for the rights and privileges of other pupils. The atmosphere of order constantly reminds him that he must pass without jostling, or crowding. His