ary sense. The teacher is a teller of stories and a singer of songs. Thru these means she can introduce the child into the world of myth and poetry. The markets are flooded today with trashy story and song books. Can she protect and guide these impressionable minds if she does not know herself the difference between the fine and classic and the cheap and meretricious?

Here are some of our opportunities. Can our students meet the requirements? They are coming to us more and more from well-bred, well-educated families, and our preparatory standards are constantly being raised. Even so we still meet with insufficient preparation, and conspicuous lack along the lines of correctness and ease in speech and writing, power of analysis and selective insight. Part of the difficulty may lie with the home. Correct habits of speech can best be learned there, and it is only thru constantly hearing the mother-tongue correctly used that such habits become second nature? But a large share of the training in English is given over to the school. When we consider the proportion of time which it uses in instruction in reading, writing, grammar, and literature, how can we account for such mistakes as these examples show?

"If a child be of a designing nature, this should be encouraged thru drawing and paper work."

"The mind is developed from definite to indefinite, from indefinite to definite. Froebel also took his gifts in the same way, according to the law of progression."

The child under six uses language in its primary function as a medium of communication. It is a social thing by which he exchanges with his fellows his thoughts, feelings, and experiences. He has something to say, and says it in the most forcible manner at his command. He chatters constantly and is only hampered by his ignorance of idiom and his lack of vocabulary. These hindrances do not daunt him. He constructs his idiom as he goes along, and coins his words with ease. There is constant contact with realities, and so his speech is vital, picturesque, and often poetic. He "hatchets" his wood, and "needles" his sewing. His nouns and verbs are descriptive of activities and qualities, and most expressive. They show the trend of his greatest interests.

Follow him on thru his school life. It becomes increasingly difficult to get him to express himself orally or in writing. He has sunk to the level of having to say something. As he goes

on all sorts of devices are used to take the place of the free, spontaneous expression that ought never to have been lost. Somewhere a great wrong has been done him. Conscientious work is done in English, and plenty of it, but it must lack that vitalizing spark which inspires elegance, spontaneity and originality, or this discussion would not be necessary.

The fault must lie largely with the primary and secondary schools. It may be that technical grammar is put into the grades too soon. It is conceded by the authorities that "the science of grammar is of no use in bringing pupils to correct habits of speech. All it can do is to help to train in thought." The only way in which the idiom of any language can be freely used is thru the cultivation of the ear. There must be auditory images which tell us how a sentence will sound before it is uttered. With this there' must go motor images to help in the utterance. Here is one of the fatal weaknesses of the English work. There is plenty of grammar and syntax; the classics are dissected and mutilated to find the construction, and perchance from the fragments some beauty of thought and expression. There is work in the critical. estimate of the masters of style, but little to bring out spontaneous expression, orally or in writing, and more to check it. Our students may speak and write grammatically, but they have little vital comprehension or originality. They say they understand, but, alas! they cannot express. For my part, I believe that understanding without expression is a "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." If we really comprehend we can give it back again.

Whatever theory may be advanced as to the cause of the trouble there is no doubt of its existence. The next point is, what is the remedy? Let us ask ourselves a searching question? Are we as training teachers above reproach in our use of English? Above all, are we simple in our exposition of Froebel's philosophy?

Do we gauge our power by the number of high sounding. phrases to which we can give utterance, or by ability to say great things in a simple fashion? One of the chief evidences of greatness next to his modesty of one of the greatest philosophers of today, Dr. John Dewey, is his power to say profound things in so simple a way that the adult mind can understand them, even if there has been no special preparation in psychology and peda

gogy. Yet they contain food for thought for the wisest and most learned. Is there not here a suggestion for us and for our students?

I am reminded of a conversation overheard in a street-car in one of the centers of kindergarten work.

Dramatis person: Two kindergarten students on their way to their morning's work.

First student: "Have you your notes on Miss Blank's class? I was absent yesterday."

The notes being produced, she copied industriously, finally coming to a bit of philosophy clothed in big, high-sounding words. "What does this mean?" she asked.

"I'm sure I don't know," said the other, "but I put it in because it sounds so fine."

"Yes, doesn't it? Well, I'll copy it somewhere; it is just grand!" and she rolled it as a delicious morsel under her tongue.

Let me add here three of Froebel's educational principles as described by a student:

"First, Glied Ganzes: Member whole. Illustration: The circle. If one child is missing the unity is broken. Organic unity. "Second, unity with God, nature, and man. Illustration: Love of our companions and all living things. Creative activity.

"Third, to seek God in everything. Laws. Illustration: Love of stories and beauty in them."

Here were students being fed on a philosophy which they might have understood if it had been given simply. As it was, the ear was tickled but the mind was not developed. One test of greatness is simplicity, and where language is so employed as to befog the mind there is weakness. These illustrations show this very point. Grandiloquent phrases, the meaning of which the teacher herself has small conception, were given, and they covered her lack of knowledge so effectually that she probably did not realize herself the extent of her ignorance.

It is evident that we must supplement the work done in English in the grades below the normal school. Our first and greatest need is for more training in oral expression. Written language is not the chief end of man; the use of oral language exceeds that of written fifty to one, and it often happens that the student who can write fairly well cannot speak with correctness and ease.

Could not the class work sometimes be so subdivided topically,

that while each student studies the whole she will also be responsible for a clear, logical statement of her own topic? The basis on which work should be judged should be simplicity, a grasp of the subject-matter, and a growing power of expression.

There should be frequent opportunities for telling stories, both to the children and in class. There should be training in the power to judge of the literary quality, dramatic force and ethical value of the story, as well as the choice of material and power to adapt. Enough practice in telling should be given, until grace, unconsciousness, sparkle and elegance combine to make the whole.

There can also be practice in writing stories, but I confess to a hesitancy in the use of the immature story. It may be good practice in English, but it usually lacks the virility that makes for life, as shown in myth and folklore.

Frequently a great amount of written work is required as a review or summary. Cannot a part of this be done orally? I recognize the difficulty when we are dealing with large classes. On the other hand, when our students leave us they are frequently asked to state their position as kindergartners, and to give a reason for the faith that is in them. How many can in clear, forceful statements convince a doubting school board that the kindergarten is the beginning of the "Place of Salvation"; or the mothers, that it is not a day nursery, but a place for soul culture, mental development, and physical growth. Should we not, therefore, definitely prepare for this work, and require brief, pointed, correct oral statements that will epitomize the class work?

Any work can be much strengthened by the use of illustration, and we should train in a greater wealth of comparison, drawn from life, from the physical and human side and from nature. This would not only illuminate the statements, but would give a deeper insight into life and an understanding of its laws, and make clear and vivid the ideas.

There should be more giving of plays in class by students, and less by students' teachers. Conditions should be given for the students to work out, and the forms, introductions, and conducting of the play be their own from start to finish. This should be followed by a critical estimate of the play on whatever basis of criticism the teacher deems most vital, but the aim should be to select and judge of essentials and non-essentials. It should be a cutting down into the core of the matter to discover the weak

ness or strength of the work, and to give the reasons for either. One means of training is in the mother's meeting. To explain to untrained mothers the philosophy of Froebel, to help them to an understanding of their children's natures, on the basis of pedagogy and common sense, all in words of one syllable, is a most excellent way of discovering if the teachers themselves know what they are talking about.

Another suggestion is for the students to make character studies of different children, to be given orally before the class, using their pedagogy as a touchstone to reveal the springs of character and action.

To summarize briefly: The greatest lacks seem to be, a low power of expression, especially in oral work; poor spelling and construction, an inability to grasp the vital points, lack of appreciation of values, and rambling, scattering statements.

The greatest needs, then, are: A marked extension of oral combined with written work; deliberately planned training in clear, definite, brief, and correct power of statement; simplicity of expression on the parts of both trainer and trained; greater power of illustration, and more use of simile and metaphor.

WIND IN THE CORN.

LOVE to lie in the prairie-grass

As the sun's noon heat is born,
And list to the lisp of the lashing leaves,
As the wind blows thru the corn.

For the sound of the wind is soft and sweet
As the sigh of a child in sleep;

As soothing and calm as the drifting dark
That falls from the bluey deep.

It does not moan as it does in the pines,
Nor wail as it does on the sea,

But sings a song, faint, far, and low

A marvelous melody.

-Will Reed Dunroy.