THE SCHOOL JOURNAL.

LANCASTER, MARCH, 1898.

More people drown in the glass than in the sea.

The bird is the balance in nature, keeping under the insect life, that fruit and grain may ripen and animals and men may live. Do not kill it or disturb its nest.

Ye may be ave sticken' in a tree, Jock; it will be growin' when ye're sleepin'.-Scotch Farmer.

The best of men that ever wore earth about him was a sufferer, a soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; the first true gentleman that ever breathed.-Decker.

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to a fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. -Edward Courtney: Engraved also upon his tomb.

N. C. SCHAEFFER.

THE

HE President of the Business Section, N. E. A., Mr. D. W. Springer, Ann Arbor, Michigan, desires to secure a copy of the course of study of all schools, public or private, which are giving any course in Business Education. It is desired to make a comparison of existing courses with a model which will be presented to the section at the meeting of the National Association, to be held July next in Washington. He will be glad to have such information from all parts of the country.

fidence. It is a good place for students who desire to learn, and those of a different class are not wanted. Of late years there has been great improvement in its buildings and grounds. The next new building, for which a fine location insuring ample grounds has already been bought, will be the large model school and school of practice, with complete equipment in all its departments. Dr. E. O. Lyte as principal and Hon. John B. Warfel as president of the board of trustees, are not content with the past record of the school, but are constantly looking on to better things.

On the evening of February 16th, a party of eighteen gentlemen met at Payne's, in Lancaster, to celebrate the sixty-first birth-day anniversary of Mr. William Riddle, the author of "Nicholas Comenius." Dr. N. C. Schaeffer had written the introduction to his book, and Mr. Riddle, wishing to show him special honor as the guest of the evening, gave him no hint of the matter, but sent a cab for him at the time named. On arriving at the café he found a hearty welcome from all of us, friends invited from home and abroad, who enjoyed his surprise. The last man was "Harry" Houck, who came all the way from Pittsburg to attend the banquet-but he "got there" and "wouldn't have missed it for anything." Among the guests were Dr. Stahr, president of Franklin and Marshall College, an old room-mate, college-mate, and lifelong friend of Dr. Schaeffer; AttorneyGeneral Hensel, who had Dr. Schaeffer appointed State Superintendent of Public Instruction by Governor Pattison; Mr. F. R. Diffenderfer, who wrote the first ringing editorial, which was caught up and reprinted all over the State, urging his reappointment by Governor Hastings; Dr. Bowman, of the German Reformed Theological Seminary; Dr. E. O. Lyte, of the Millersville Normal School; and other men representing the bench, the bar, the teacher's profession, business, and the publishing interest. It was a goodly company for a five hours' banquet. Everybody was called on for an afterdinner speech, and some admirable speeches were made. We do not think there has ever been a company of gentle

men assembled in the same rooms who enjoyed a more pleasant or more profitable evening. And for it all we are indebted to "Nicholas Comenius," a chapter from whose story of the old-time teacher and the old-time school will be found elsewhere in this number of The School Journal.

CHATTANOOGA MEETING.

THE Chattanooga meeting of the De

partment of Superintendence of the National Educational Association was well attended, many claiming that it was the largest meeting in the history of the Department. The state of Georgia sent upwards of forty delegates. The county in which the meeting was held gave its teachers the time to attend and compensation as if they were teaching. Those who were booked to read papers did their duty, and only a few of those who were to engage in the discussions failed to appear. After Dr. Brumbaugh, Dr. Gordy, and Prof. Halleck had read their papers, a Southern superintendent inquired of the writer : Where did you find such brilliant young men? I never heard the like before." Prof. Gantvoort read a very able paper on music. The discourse of Dr. Scovel on Realizing the Final Aim of Education, was somewhat lengthy, but a very valuable contribution to the literature of pedagogy. It was needed to classify the ideas of some, to stiffen the backbone of others, and to stimulate the thinking of many who have never reflected seriously upon the efficacy of ordinary school exercises in the development of character. The authorities promise to have the proceedings in print, ready for distribution, within six weeks after adjournment.

fit the treasury of the N. E. A., and save valuable time for the department.

The citizens of Chattanooga redeemed all their promises in railway and hotel rates in giving the visitors a royal welcome. The scenery from Lookout Mountain and the proximity of historic battlefields drew many away from the meetings; but the impressions which they carried home are deeper and in many respects more helpful than the information derived from lengthy papers, which are best studied amid circumstances favorable for reflection.

The absence of Gov. Robt. L. Taylor was a source of disappointment. Hon. Henry Houck, who delivered the response to the addresses of welcome, won golden opinions. The News says of him that as an orator he has few superiors, and quotes the exclamation of a gentleman to the effect: "Wouldn't Houck and Bob Taylor have made a pair?"

The meeting illustrated a law known. to very few persons who are not in the habit of addressing audiences. A paper which can be read aloud in twenty minutes in one's study, will occupy ten or fifteen minutes longer when read to a thousand persons. The utterance becomes slower as the size of the audience increases; hence most superintendents were surprised at the time it took them to read their very brief papers. Thus the time for discussion was cut short and the free interchange of views prevented. The management for this year recommends to future executive committees to bring this peculiar law of public discourse to the attention of all who assume the duty of preparing papers for the meetings of the Department of Superintendence.

CONVENTION OF DIRECTORS.

HE increased attendance at the Third

committees to investigate different topics; the author is made chairman or a member of the committee; the time is occupied in reading lengthy reports of such committees by persons who cannot be heard by one-third of the audience. Finally a motion is made asking for an appropriation to conduct further investigation, when but few members are aware of the nature and purpose of the proposed investigation. State School Commissioner Corson has well said that the absence of such reports for several years would bene

ors, and the growing interest in its proceedings, show that this organization has come to stay. Gen. J. P. Elkin proved himself to be a very superior presiding officer. His inaugural address drew attention to the comparative amounts appropriated for school purposes by the different states of the Union. The comparison puts Pennsylvania far ahead of her sister States. Lest this fact should be used as a reason for reducing the amount heretofore set apart for school purposes

Counting the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania ranks thirteenth in the amount per capita of population expended for school purposes, and sixteenth in the amount expended per pupil.

The different methods of taxation account to some extent for the variations in the above figures. In New York and Ohio the railways are taxed by the local authorities. In Pennsylvania the taxes are paid into the general treasury, and thence distributed among the school districts and among the other institutions by legislative appropriations. Thus some of the benefits of this taxation accrue to the districts which have no railroads. Moreover, the newer states have large school funds derived from the sale of public lands. The topic which excited most general interest was the delay in the pay

ment of the school appropriation. On this question the school directors will always be on one side, and the bank directors on the other.

THE

SUPERINTENDENTS.

THE eighth annual convention of City and Borough Superintendents of Pennsylvania will be held in the North School Building, corner of Duquesne Way and Eighth St., Pittsburg, on Wednesday and Thursday, March 16th and 17th. The proceedings of the meeting will be given in The Journal. The officers of the Association are: Supt. D. A. Harman, Hazleton, President; C. A. Babcock, Oil City, Vice-President; D. S. Keith, Altoona, Secretary; Chas. F. Foster, Chester, Treasurer; and Executive Committee: Supts. George J. Luckey, Pittsburg, Atreus Wanner, York, and George Howell, Scranton. The following is the

PROGRAMME OF EXERCISES.

Wednesday: 10 A. M.-Opening Exercises. Paper-Irreparable Loss, by Supt. T. S. Lowden, Greenville, Pa.

Discussion The Advisability of Establishing Special Truant Schools, by Supt. John Morrow, Allegheny, Pa.

Paper--The Grammar School Course of Study, by Supt. J. M. Berkey, Johnstown, Pa.

2 P. M.-Paper: Heart Culture versus TextBook Instruction, by Supt. George Howell. Discussion-How to Economize Time and Effort in a Course of Study below the High School in Arithmetic, Geography, History, etc., by Supt. H. V. Hotchkiss, Meadville, Pa.

Paper-Some New Lines of Co-operation among Superintendents, by Supt. William W. Rupert, Pottstown, Pa.

8 P. M.-Address: Neglected Phases of Civil Government, by Dr. Nathan C. Schaeffer.

Address-The Superintendent's Relation to the Teacher, by Hon. O. T. Corson, State School Commissioner, Ohio.

Thursday: 10 A. M.-Paper: The Errors of Pupils, by Supt. John A. Gibson, Butler, Pa.

Discussion-How to Promote the Selection of High School Graduates best Qualified to Teach, from the List of Local Applicants, by Supt. R. K. Buehrle. Lancaster, Pa.

Paper-Advisability of Establishing Kindergarten Schools in Accordance with Recent Legislation, by Supt. Geo. J. Luckey, Pittsburg. Business Session

2 P. M.-Paper: Literature in the Public Schools, by Supt. C. A. Babcock, Oil City, Pa.

Address-The Common Schools of our Cities in their Relation to the Colleges and Universities, by Dr. W. J. Holland, Chancellor Western University.

Address-If I were a Superintendent, by Dr. J. D. Moffat, President Washington and Jefferson College.

HE converts to are

Tamong vere leading thinkers, and the the

quarrel to-day, if quarrel there be, must be with his exponents. The disciple in every school is far below the master. Many an earnest seeker after truth, even when turning the searchlight of psychology on the child's mind, is still in "wandering mazes dark" and cannot find the Ariadne thread to guide her out of the labyrinth. There are others, too, "cast about by every wind of doctrine," and in their haste to secure visible results are lost in externals; hence the work is "all method-bad method, and shows no insight into educational values." Within the courts, as well as without the gates, there are misconceptions that are fatal to the real progress of a scientific system of education. The young kindergartner embarks with her little crew and they sail out on the sea of sentimentality, skies blue, waters calm, and

No. 10.

imagines that children will accept every

thing from the poet's aspect. She is like

the teacher who told the story of the "Sleeping Beauty" to her children. The princess was fast asleep-nobody but the prince could wake her-then came radiant bursts of light over the hilltops; joyous songs of birds; music of the wind, rustling of the leaves; and "who do you think, my dears, is coming?" "McKinley," answered the real boy. She is rudely awaked; but is not yet prepared to meet the prosaic, and her case another time resembles that of the teacher who showed a picture of the persecution of the early Christians. The child remarks, "Tis not fair." "No," said she, sweetly, "but people were very cruel at that time. Nero was a very wicked man." 'No, I don't mean that. That poor lion hasn't any Christian to eat." To strike such a rock as this decides her to put ashore and travel along the firmer ground of common sense.

One enters a kindergarten at 9 a. m. Sees around the room, by way of suggestive material for the morning talk, three pictures, eight vegetables, twenty-four different varieties of flowers, thirty-two carpenter's tools, sixty-four kinds of nuts, and a squirrel in a cage. His interest must be kept at high water mark. Hence his Herbartian follower displays all these fantastic measures and leads the

children on an intellectual dance equal to the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

No

The misuse of the principle, "Build up the positive, and the negative will stamp itself out," is a frequent occurrence. evil must approach. All milk and water stories of bloodless and unhomeric strife" must be his literary feast, although his intellect may be able to digest the strong meat of David and Goliath. To some followers of the old school of pedagogy who insist on learning being a laborious task, the sight of children playing happily together proves the kindergarten a day nursery where the little ones are engaged in harmless diversion. The visitor who sees children sewing, weaving, modelling, seizes the idea that it is an Elementary Manual Training School. If he is a philanthropist he discovers its value to the poorer classes as a school of industry, and so argues in favor of it as a preventive of criminal idleness. Long since you and I were children a father in a laudable spirit of social economics inquired why the kindergarten did not arrange for the sale of the infant manufactures.

The combination of these two misconceptions that the kindergarten is a day nursery or a school of work results in the double-edged argument of the enlightened members of the village school board, that it is an extravagant expenditure of public funds, as 'tis only a three hours' entertainment, and it is highly improper to spend public money where children learn to work at an age when they should do nothing but play.

The materials of kindergarten lend themselves readily to exercises in form, language and number, and she of the Pestalozzian school who is a teacher rather than a kindergartner diverts them from the higher use of developing creative power and mental alertness, and instructs the children after the manner of the famous Swiss reformer. Consequently the material which should be the source of delightful natural exercise of perceptive powers, and a stimulation to the spirit of investigation and discovery, becomes a bestowing of the tediousness of the teacher on the pupil, and is dwarfed to an object lesson on the " paper, wool and wood.'

One among the fraternity has been traditionally known to have responded to the child's answer, "God sent the rain," when asked where it came from. "Yes, that is what you might call a primary

cause, little Abraham, but what is the immediate cause?" We have never heard that her kind increased and multiplied; but as 'tis the tendency of the human mind to generalize, a hasty critic with this data concludes that kindergarten exists for the purpose of teaching scientific facts in a scientific manner.

The time is not so remote since a certain faction of educators has been heard to say that the kindergartner "is a blind enthusiast with a limited vision, or one who sits on the mountain top among the clouds serenely contemplating life and the world as an unbroken plain, breathing an atmosphere of universality, spinning fine theories until she gets herself tangled out of sense." This criticism must in honesty be conceded as true when applied to a certain class of followers.

In a practical experience it is not uncommon to hear the fresh candidate for public examination remark, "I know I shall succeed, I so love children." She recognizes no qualifying circumstanceslove is a synonym for ability. One ventures to recall Horace Mann's idea that knowledge to prevent idealization of characteristics of childhood is as necessary as tender affection. That a little psychological insight might be a valuable supplement to instinct; but our ardent young tyro is full of visions, "which in part are prophecies and part are longings wild and vain"-and she becomes an apostle of sweetness without light. A fair chance to grow is given her, and six months after her natal day of appointment she is visited. One hears on entering in the sweetest tone of persistency, Walter, sit down. Walter, Walter, Walter, sit down; sit down, Walter. Phoebe, we're waiting for you. Little Mikie, come here, sit beside me. Don't you love to help me? Won't you listen to the story?" She turns hopelessly around and appeals beseechingly, "How would you obtain order?" One suggests an action song for the entire class as a possible means of utilizing octopus legs and arms. If the kindergartner is caught young enough, and is not a maiden who has had an affair, and turns her attention to little children "to soothe her sorrows, heal her wounds, and wipe away her tears"-or if she is not a person that would be of no value in any other place in this mundane sphere, she may gain by adding a little thought element to this blind feeling stage; but if she does not, then "let the portcullis fall."