present elements of any plan. From the hours that a child spends in his mother's arms, he should be brought into contact with the material and the form of genuine literature-literature that means something. This does not mean Homer or Dante or Shakespeare, of course, but the fairy tales, the myths, and the nursery rhymes that are a part of the inheritance of the race. A boy ought to know a good deal of literature, to love it, and to have caught a bit of the literary spirit, if only by imitation, long before he knows by sight more than half the letters of the alphabet. From his first stumbling steps about the nursery he should be kept similarly in contact with nature in some form. Animals and growing plants should be his earliest teachers in nature-study, and when he first takes his seat in an organized school, a considerable number of the facts of nature should be familiar to him and he should be truly appreciative of them. To the query as to how this is possible, it may be bluntly answered that it is possible because it has been done and is being done all the time by intelligent and observant mothers."

After the child is once in school the chief elements of wasted time are found first in the matter of promotions. Professor Butler holds that the system for promotions should be very flexible indeed, and that a child should move forward whenever he is ready to move without any reference to the time of year or the conditions of the other members of the class.

In the second place, he holds that the fetish thoroughness is another form of the "pedagogue's paganism." To repeat a thing over and over again does not necessarily mean to make it more clearly understood or of more value to the student. Reviews and examinations should always be reflective in character, and should not present questions which the pupils have seen before. plan would develop the power to think and not merely the ability to remember.

Such

In the third place, the author feels that bad teaching is one of the most important elements in causing waste. No argument is needed to enforce the truth of this last point. While the whole article is a strong arraignment of the evils found in the educational world at present, and while the facts brought out appeal strongly to every thinking person, it yet remains true that we must expect for a long time to come to have imperfect work. The ideal teacher is still a thing of the future, and while we should not be blind to the weakness of his work at present, we must keep in mind that pointing out his mistakes should be a method of bettering his work and not a means of showing it to be worthless.

Dr. Butler is unable to close his argument

without enjoying a strong "hit" at the mass of "stuff" bearing the name of educational literature.

"Some of the books and periodicals, purporting to deal with education, that reach my desk are enough to make one regret the invention of printing. To paraphrase one of Speaker Reed's happy characterizations, they cannot be read without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge. Some of them bear otherwise reputable names. But they are simply dreadful. Yet they are often read, sometimes quoted, and occasionally followed. Untold waste may be attributed to this source. A pressing need in education to-day is an Index that will pillory the bad books and the hopelessly befogged and ignorant educational journals."

* **

The Institute.

The institute season is a time for gathering in a new supply of breath for the race of the coming year. While various states differ in method somewhat, it is usual to hold the county institutes for teachers during the later summer months. In Indiana, for instance, sixty meetings were held within the three weeks beginning August 15. It is apparent, at once, that an unusual number of instructors must have been available to supply all these institutes. Indiana is fortunate in having within her borders a large body of competent workers who contribute to the success of these brief training schools, while many workers from other states are also drawn upon for their services.

In most of the counties the teachers are in general attendance, and yet, it is no uncommon thing to hear the ablest teachers, and the best institute instructors, expressing regret that so little of worth seems to be accomplished. The custom of having the institute last for five days only is so fixed that there seems little possibility that any departure will be made from this plan, while the thought of having the institute come some time within the school year does not meet with much favor. Three or four counties arrange to have their meetings during the period that schools are in session, but the proportion that do this is very small.

Since the general plan of the institute is not likely to be changed in any way, it is quite pertinent to consider what conditions are demanded for a successful meeting.

In the first place, very much of the success of an institute depends upon the attitude of the teachers who are in attendance. If they come because they are obliged to in order to maintain their standing in the county, and are made to feel in any way

that they are not free, it interferes with success. If, during the progress of the institute teachers absent themselves except during roll-call periods, fail to be prompt in attendance at every session, or in any way show themselves listless and unconcerned about the business in hand, it must have a disastrous result. On the other hand, if the teachers of a county are present, determined to make the most of what opportunity is afforded, if they keep out of the grumbling stage and try to make the week a pleasure for others as well as for themselves, it will have much to do with the institute's success. Nothing is so likely to inspire the instructor with an effort to do his very best as an audience of bright, sympathetic teachers.

In the second place, the attainments and general attitude of the instructor have very much to do with the institute's success. If he is a person of large knowledge and open mind, free from narrowness and the benumbing effects of "fadism"-if he addresses the teachers before him with the air of one who has a real message, and who believes in the importance of that message, he will command attention and secure good results. If, however, he deals in platitudes, and rehashes matters of common information without, in any way, imbuing them with new thought-if he assumes an air of lordly importance and uses big words in the attempt to be philosopical and impress his magnitude upon the teachers, the institute will be a failure. The greatest truths can be expressed in the simplest language, and the great thinker is never obliged to resort to difficult forms of expression to convey what is in his mind. We believe one of the greatest forces making for the failure of institute work is this inability on the part of instructors to adapt their material to the mental attainments of their listeners. And this failure is not necessarily the evidence of lack of scholarship. The great scholar is not necessarily the great teacher.

sympathies of his teachers, presides over his institute with an executive ability that makes itself felt, provides something valuable in the way of singing, general talks, relaxations for his teaching force, the result upon the institute will be manifest. If the superintendent is careless and indifferent, leaves the control of affairs to a subordinate, and uses his time before the institute in scolding, and creates the impression that he feels the necessity of ruling his teachers with an iron hand, the whole work of the institute week will be pervaded by a chilliness that an outsider stepping in would at once detect.

All of the forces mentioned above contribute to what may be called the general atmosphere of the institute; and this general atmosphere is what determines its success or failure. If teachers go away at the close of the week with the feeling that they have been lifted out of their narrow selves and given a new insight into the work which they are to do; if they feel in some way an inclination to reach out after something higher and nobler, then the institute has been a success; and this even if no attention has been given to those minor points of school work which used to take up so much of the time of teachers' discussions. No instructor may have indicated which system of diagramming is best in grammar. He may not have touched upon the question of the special topics with which the geography work in the first grade should deal. He may not, in fact, have dealt with any of the concrete details of school work itself. These are all important matters, but they are not necessarily the matters of importance to be dealt with in the county institute. In such a meeting the teachers of the county should get a clear understanding of the common aims which they all have in view, and should go out into the work of the coming year with the feeling that each is a necessary and important part of the great scheme of education.

* *

Town Schools.

The Indiana department of education has just issued an extended pamphlet of 114 pages, containing the report of the committee appointed by the association of city and town superintendents of the state to prepare a course of study for the eight years of the grades. This committee was made up of

forty members, and was divided into five sub-committees of eight each, each sub-committee dealing with a certain subject. The chairman of the sub-committees formed a committee of revision to unify the work and put it together in a convenient shape. This report is a revision of a course outlined in 1895 by a smaller committee appointed by the same association, and the object of these reports and revisions is to gradually approach a practical course of study which may serve as the basis for uniform work throughout the state.

The first thing that strikes the reader in taking up this report is the absence of radical views. It is at all times conservative and sensible. It does not take up with newfangled schemes which have not in any way been tested, but deals all the while with suggestions that have received the approval of good teachers under ordinary conditions in the school-room.

Another striking feature of the report is the amount of detailed information given in regard to the subjects and methods of teaching to be employed in the various grades. These details, of course, are not intended to be exhaustive, but they are so full that the teacher will have no trouble in following them. Some of the subjects lend themselves to this process of topical outline better than others, and hence it follows that in such subjects as grammar and history, for instance, a great amount of space is occupied in outlining the work.

In the reading work the two purposes of power of interpretation and oral expression are kept clearly in view. It is important to note that the swing of the pendulum from too much emphasis upon oral reading to no emphasis at all is now readjusting itself by a swing back toward the median line. Oral expression is not everything, but it is much, and any view of reading which leaves it out is faulty. The comments upon reading also indicate that the advanced work in the subject is to deal with literary selections, and that advanced reading is, in fact, no other than elementary literary study. At this point the text-book in reading is to be displaced by selections from the best English and American authors.

The report on spelling emphasizes the fact that this subject has been neglected during the expansion of the common school curriculum, but it is now to receive its proportionate share of attention. The report recom

mends that two periods per day in the first and second years be devoted to spelling, and one period daily during the other six years of the course, while all the written work of the pupil should receive special attention as to spelling. These positions are certainly sound, and the detailed suggestions for the work throughout the eight years leave nothing to be desired.

In the grammar work it is held that training in English should have one lesson period daily during the first eight years of school work. It is pointed out that this work during the first six years should consist of (a) composition work for training in language expression, and, (b) constructive work for the object of securing correct usage in language form. During the seventh and eighth years composition is to have two lessons per week, and grammar, which is the science of language, to have three lessons. The importance of good training in English is emphasized, but not to any extent overestimated, and the twenty-four pages of outline and suggestion will be very welcome to a great body of teachers who have more trouble with their English work than with any other.

The report on history recommends that in the lower grades the work "shall consist of the oral presentation of some of the facts of the history of the race, with a view to leading the child to realize, in accordance with his ability, the development of institutions from the standpoint of child-life in its relation to these institutions." Jane Andrews' Ten Boys is suggested as representing the ideal plan to be followed. The committee further suggests that the reading of history in story form be encouraged, that the anniversaries of important events, or "historical days," as they are called in the outline, be observed, and that the history work be unified with the geography work especially in as complete a way as possible. In this subject, again, the outline through the various grades is very complete and full of help.

The report on nature-study is very comprehensive in its scope, and the committee outlines five lines of work, not with the thought that these various lines are to alternate, but merely as suggestions of the directions along which nature-study should move, and as hints of the more important points that ought to be brought out. These five heads are plant life, animal life, physiology, geography and weather study, and the out

line carries these subjects through six years. It will thus be seen that the primary work in geography and in physiology are taken care of under these general lessons.

In the advanced physiology work special emphasis is laid upon the laboratory method of study, and the same is true of the work in geography. It is specially pointed out that the geography work, beginning with the third year, should deal with the home surroundings of the child, and should gradually move out in the form of concentric circles until it takes in the world.

The report of the committee on arithmetic recognizes amongst other things that set forms for the solution of problems should be avoided, and that any correct form should be received, that the "fixed unit method" is not the proper method in primary arithmetic, that speed and accuracy should be constant aims, that a greater variety of problems be given than the ordinary text-book supplies, that unimportant topics should be omitted, and that formal teaching of arithmetic should not begin until the second year of school life. The ratio thought enters into the detailed outline to a considerable extent.

In the report on penmanship the committee holds that rapidity and legibility are the two aims to be kept in mind, and that neither the old form of slant writing nor the present fad of vertical writing completely solves the question. They are therefore in favor of an intermedial slant," which is fifteen to twenty degrees to the right of a

vertical line. This position of the committee on penmanship illustrates our earlier statement, that conservative views are taken at all points and that the work of the committee is therefore likely to prove of great value to the schools of the state. Penmanship and spelling have been relegated to the rear in recent times, and it is quite important that they should be reinstated in their proper places in the course of study.

The report of the committee closes with two extended lists of books: first, books in nature-study and geography, and second, a list in history.

It is quite apparent that the plan adopted for securing the most perfect course of study is the correct one. It is possible to sit down at one's desk away from the confusion and difficulties of the school-room, and with certain general principles to guide, map out a beautiful course of study that seems to fit every condition and supply every conceivable want of the child. When this brilliant piece of work is, however, put into the schoolroom for practical test it is likely to fail completely. The test of a course of study is whether or not it fits into the conditions which actually prevail in the school-room. We believe, therefore, that constant revision in the light of experience will finally give the city and town superintendents a course of study which may be made the basis for the work in every school throughout the state.

[In succeeding issues we shall hope to quote certain portions of the report in full.]

TH

"man of iron and blood" was derived from his own phrase, "Iron and blood are necessary." It is not as compact a statement of his life-purpose as that other saying of his, "We must put Germany in the saddle." Both phrases, however, have the ring of his most salient trait-force. Whether right or

And

wrong, he was always a great power working for a definite end and trampling down obstacles remorselessly and finally. there is truth, also, in the comment of an English journal: "He lived to see his career reach an anticlimax. He gave the German people unity, but denied them liberty."

Bismarck's death took place, in a way,

suddenly, although he had long been ill. His family had been gathered about his bed, but the physicians so positively denied immediate danger, and rumors of a fatal illness had so often before proved unfounded, that the public on Sunday last learned with surprise that he had died on Saturday noon. He had sustained with unfailing fortitude an unusually painful illness, and even on the day of his death was grimly jocular. A sudden change for the worse in the evening threw him into unconsciousness, and he roused only to utter the words, "Thanks, my child," to his daughter, the Countess von Rantzau, who was trying to ease his suffering, and then the great soldier and statesman passed peacefully away.

For twenty-eight years (1862-1890) the history of Bismarck's life was almost the history of Germany. Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck was born in 1815 of a refined but not illustrious family. His youth, and particularly his career at the University of Göttingen, was turbulent rather than vicious, if considered with reference to the standards and habits of his day and class; twenty-one duels are attributed to him, most or all without serious result. Travel, government employment in a small way, and military service followed the University, and were marked by occasional wild pranks which gave him the name "Mad Bismarck." His marriage to Fräulein von Putkammer in 1845 changed all this. Bismarck never wearied of ascribing to his wife his change to serious ambitions and a right view of life. "I can't think how I endured it formerly," he wrote one day to his wife. "If I had to live now as then without God, without you, without children, I don't know why I should not throw off this life like a dirty shirt; and yet most of my acquaintances are so and live their life." As with Gladstone, Bismarck's later years were beautifully lightened and graced by the tender affection of his wife, but nearly four years ago he lost this companionship by the death of the Princess.

Bismarck's real political career began with

a violent attack in the Prussian Diet on liberalism and democracy, and he soon became known as the champion of political conservatism and extreme monarchical rights. It is said that in his first speech, when his voice was drowned by hisses, he calmly turned his back on his audience and read a newspaper until they became quiet. In 1862 he was made Minister to Paris, having previously filled the same post in Russia, and later in the same year became Prussian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister. It is not our purpose here to trace the intricacies of the policy by which in the years that followed he worked out the problem of German independence and unity. His early scorn of the reactionaries and revolutionists of 1848, his gradual expansion of Prussian territory, his handling of the SchleswigHolstein question, his development of the army under Moltke, his quickness in forcing the hand of Austria and winning the victory at Königgratz, and his final settlement of the Austrian war while adroitly holding Russia and France from interference-all these things were but the early steps, carefully thought out, which were to lead to the grand object finally won when France offered the opportunity and the King of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor of Germany at Versailles. Whether the French war was deliberately brought about by Bismarck or whether it was due to the folly of the French Emperor, the result was the same, and it was a result which Bismarck was ready to obtain by whatever road first offered. The North German Confederation which followed the war with Austria was a forerunner of the unity which followed the war with France. Iron determination made the one and led from it to the other in a path not to be crossed.

The final verdict of German history will ignore many moral and political defects in the statesman, because these things will be lost sight of in the strong light that will always shine upon him as the creator of the German Empire. This is the one central