President Wilson of Princeton University, in his address before the Michigan teachers at Ann Arbor, said: "A liberal education results in what I may call a political mind. It is the mind which will give and take, which will compromise, which is willing to listen to another man's plan, which secures concerted action and makes progress." The City of Los Angeles, Cal., will issue $780,000 of school bonds on a vote of more than ten to one. There are $260,000 in high school bonds, which were voted 2,467 to 297, and $480,000 for new grammar school buildings, voted 2,576 to 192. It would not be easy to duplicate this experience of Los Angeles. The school sentiment is dominant, which speaks well for the people, for the teacher, for the school board, for the superintendent and his associates. Of course there was no organized opposition, upon which the city is to be congratulated-The Educator-Journal. Supt. W. H. Langdou and Percival Dolman, who performed great service for the City and County of San Francisco in securing the next meeting of the N. E. A., have returned to the city, and are now engaged in the work of preparing for the opening of the schools on August 14th. Miss Jennie L. Thorpe, the author of "California, Queen of Old Columbia," the famous school song, is receiving many testimonials on her song. State Supt. Kirk and others have highly endorsed it. Send 10 cents for sample copy to Jennie L. Thorpe, Dos Palos, Merced County, Cal. Mr. Gregg, author of the Gregg System of Shorthand, which has been so successfully taught by the San Francisco Business College, has been visiting the coast. A W. C. Doub has written a history of the United States that is new. special review will appear in the September issue of the Journal. This history has been adopted in a majority of the counties of Washington, and it has in it the elements that will make it the most popular and teachable school history published. Supt. T. O. Crawford has filed his annual account of the Teachers' Annuity and Retirement Fund. There has been $13,740.25 paid in and $8,235.14 paid out, leaving a balance of $5,405.11. San Diego City has voted $135,000 for a new high school building. Citizens of Berkeley have started a private school where the children whose parents are opposed to vaccination may be educated. Lands in Tropical Mexico Lands for sale that pay 5 per cent. now and large profits in the future when the rubber trees mature. Corn, cattle and rubber are the staple income producing products of our plantation. Will sell land by the acre, $5.00 per month for 80 months, or $400 cash. For literature address Playa Vicente Plantation Co., 711 Mission St., San Francisco, Cal. SPECIAL-To teachers, I allow all teachers a special discount of 10 per cent on Trunks, Bags and Suit Cases. I am sole agent for the "Stallman' Dresser Trunk,-they hold "a thousand เ and one" things so you can find what you want quickly. Write for prices to any of my 3 stores. Oppenheimer the Trunk Man, No. 1 Ellis St., No. 227 Montgomery St., and 638 Market St. Special Announcement An invitation is extended to any white merchant outside of New York City, or their representative, whose name appears in Bradstreet's or Dunn's Commercial Agency Book, to accept the hospitality of our Hotel for three days without charge. Usual rates, apartment with private bath, $3.00 per day and up, without meals. Parlor, Bedroom and private bath, $35.00 per week and up, with meals for two. New York Merchants and Editors are requested to call the attention of their Out of Town Buyers and subscribers to this advertisement. GALLATIN HOTEL, 70 W. 46th St., New York City. The Western Journal of Education SEPTEMBER, 1905 Too Many EDITORIAL It is sometimes said that from thirty to fifty per cent. of the children in our schools suffer from visual defects; from eighteen. to thirty per cent. suffer from defective hearing, perhaps as many as eighteen per cent. are mouth breathers, while seventy-five per cent. or more have defective teeth; and it is generally recognized that the age of greatest susceptibility to consumption is the period from 20 to 25-the period immediately following emancipation from the schools. These figures are, of course, more or less conjectural, but they have aroused the public mind, and any evidence which bears directly upon this very important subject is, therefore, of more than usual interest. "I have just been reading a large volume," wrote Robert Hunter in his book, Poverty, "—an English report of several hundred pages-on Underfed School Children.' It is doubly sad reading to an American who knows that we have not even made inquiries in this country concerning this aspect of poverty. There must be thousands-very likely sixty or seventy thousand children-in New York City alone who often arrive at school hungry and unfitted to do well the work required." The health authorities of New York caused an examination to be made into this matter. It led them at once to a general physical examination of a certain number of children, including all kinds of diseases, bad nutrition, nervousness, larged glands, condition of the breathing organs, vision and hearing, and all deformities of the spine or chest. No such examination had ever been there before. The work was done by 100 in en spectors. Four schools of the primary grade were taken, all of them in the poorer quarters, but the worst quarters for disease were avoided in order that the results might typify conditions generally. The exact number of children examined as announced by Dr. Bigg, was 13,941. The result of the examination was as follows: The discovery that every other child out of those examined re quired medical attention has led the health authorities of New York to ask the city to make an appropriation for school inspectors sufficient to make regular monthly examinations of all the children in the schools, whose further duty it shall be to follow up the parents of every child whose physical well being has been disregarded by them. What is true of the children of New York is perhaps not quite true of the children of our country at large, yet since these were typical schools one shudders to think of the heritage of woe which our generation through its indifference is handing down to the next. Can there be a teacher anywhere who will not at once begin to do all in his power to prevent this awful wasting of the inno cents? Celibacy in We are inclined to smile when we read that the resident Fellows in an English university are forbidden to marry, and memory instantly reverts to the long monastic tradition which is even yet in control of education there. But what think ye, my masters, of the fact that that same monastic tradition obtains in practically all the public schools of the entire United States, or rather did obtain there until the Court of Appeals of New York handed down a decision a few days ago denying the right of the Brooklyn School Board to enforce its by-law to the effect that "should a female principal, head of department, or teacher, marry, her place shall thereupon become vacant." The court held that there was no authority in the School Board to make or enforce any law at all on the subject, and so put an end to enforced celibacy in education in one small section of our country, but it still obtains almost everywhere else. Celibacy in education is an awful thing; it takes the woman out of life to make her a school teacher. It forbids her to have children of her own in order that she may go on teaching other people's children. If she marries, she is driven out of the school room, though the mother and child relation is the very one that should best fit her for the work of teaching. What an unlovely calling this is which forbids the bulk of those who follow it to lead a normal human life! Is it any wonder that most people hesitate to enter upon it, knowing that it involves the taking of all three of the monastic vows, poverty, obedience, and celibacy? What an awful thing it is to follow a profession that one must desert just as soon as she begins to live normally. Yet the work of education is better done by matrons than by vestal virgins, and the time is coming and is not far off either when the married woman will not longer be driven out of the school-room, but will be at a premium there. Dr. Harris seems to think that there are none but celibates teaching now. He says that "no teacher has a right to complain on a socialistic basis if he is receiving a salary, for his annual service, of $600," since the income of the nation is only $551.56 per inhabitant. He forgets that the earners number only 47 per cent. of the entire population, and each earner must draw |