process, and hence the importance of supervisory school officers who have a clear grasp of the principles of education and a familiar acquaintance with the best methods. The American people are slowly learning that improved methods of school instruction involve the training of the teachers, and, in the present condition of education, this devolves largely upon school superintendents, aided in the larger cities by training schools, and elsewhere by normal schools and teachers' institutes. A live man at the head of the schools in a small city, with power to carry out his plans, can work wonders in a few years, provided he knows what superior teachers have done and are doing in the most advanced schools.

Those who suppose that any method of primary instruction has been evolved and perfected within the past fifteen years, are commended to the pages of the educational journals. Here they will find evidence that what they supposed to be a very recent discovery is much older than the supposed discoverer-older not merely as a theory, but as a method successfully used in many schools. An acquaintance with the literature of education would open the eyes of many of the ardent advocates of the "New Education" (whatever this may mean). I have often been amused to hear methods advocated as "new" or sharply criticised as "new-fangled," which, to my personal knowledge, have been successfully used in American schools for a quarter of a century. In a recent heated discussion of the spellingbook question in a teachers' institute in the East, the proposed nonuse of such a book in elementary grades was both advocated and opposed as a "Quincy idea." I think, Mr. Editor, that it would not be difficult for you to name a score of cities in whose schools no spellingbook has been used, especially in the lower grades, for over twenty years, to say nothing of the practice in German schools.

As many of your readers are aware, the past eight years of my life have been devoted to the practical solution of the difficult problem of higher industrial education, and so arduous have been my duties that I have been able to give very little attention to the progress of elementary education. 1 now turn to the educational journals and to school reports to learn what improvements have been made since my last visits to some of the most advanced public schools in the country. The first thing that strikes me is the frequency with which the term "The New Education" meets me, and I am trying to find out what is meant by it. I have been familiar with the term as first used by Dr. Eliot, now President of Harvard, to designate a higher education in which the physical sciences have a large place and the modern languages take the place of Latin and Greek. I have also heard the term ap

plied to industrial education, both elementary and advanced, but this use of the term to designate a method of primary instruction is novel and to me confusing. Is it true that Dr. Eliot's higher education, based on the sciences and modern languages, and technical or industrial education, and the natural methods of primary education are all correlated parts of one system of education? If there be such a system, it seems proper to designate it "The New Education," but the application of this term to a method or system of primary education strikes me as akin to the applying of the title "Professor" to an elementary teacher with a year's certificate or license. The term is too big for the thing it covers. What is the explanation of this tendency to apply big names to small things, and new names to old things? What is meant by "new" as applied to this primary method? Thirty years ago drawing and music were systematically taught in all the grades of the Cleveland schools, and the "word method" as an initial process in teaching reading had superseded the a-b-c or lettermethod, and twenty-five years ago the word-method, the phonicmethod, and the letter-method were united in scores of schools as a practical method of teaching the child the art of reading. More than twenty-five years ago technical grammar was put up at least three years in the Cleveland course of study and more practical instruction in language was begun. Over twenty years ago the writer gave a systematic course of language lessons in teachers' institutes. Are these and other like improved methods of primary instruction, used in the best schools for twenty years or more, included in "The New Education ?" Can not the educational journals help perplexed teachers to determine what is new in "The New Education ?"

By the way, have you read Miss Partridge's "Notes" of Col. Parker's "Talks on Teaching ?" I recently read the little book with some care, though not in a critical mood, my special purpose being to learn what is characteristic of the so-called "Quincy Method." I was specially pleased with the eight talks on the teaching of reading and spelling, though they contain little that is new or that can be characteristic of the Quincy schools. The methods sketched are rational and natural, and, what is important, have been successfully used by hundreds of wise and skillful teachers. It seems to me important to keep in mind when reading these talks that the principles and methods advocated by Col. Parker relate to elementary instruction and not to secondary or advanced. He clearly has in mind the primary pupil, and not the pupil in the grammar school, or in the high school. The talks on "School Government," "Moral Training," and several other topics are less satisfactory. The book contains some statements that

need qualification, but those who have tried it know how difficult it is to condense an hour's talk into a few terse paragraphs and not omit explanatory and qualifying sentences. Moreover, the making of too broad generalizations may be a weakness of the Colonel. Positive men are quite apt to be sweeping in their statements. But I feel more disposed to applaud than to condemn any one who uses a free lance in his efforts to drive stupid routine and dull rote work from the primary schools of the country. The reformer often feels that he has a new light which he dare not hide under a bushel. Let us be thankful for every ray of light that falls on the pathway of the teachers of little children. If it be true that the Quincy lamp shines only with borrowed light, it is a good thing that it shines. What is needed is not simply light, but its widest dissemination. The Quincy light seems to have the power of diffusing itself, and for this all who have been preparing the oil should rejoice. Let Quincy shine-the brighter the better.

SOMETHING FOR COUNTRY TEACHERS.

BY E. M. N.

In the majority of our cities and larger towns, the school-rooms are clean and cheerful, with pictures on the walls, growing plants in the windows, etc. But there are still a large number of country schoolhouses whose walls are dirty, defaced by rude drawings or paper wads, and whose general air of neglect is certainly not very inviting to the children. It is for the benefit of those who teach in such school-rooms that these suggestions are offered.

As soon as you have engaged your school, visit the school premises and carefully note the necessities and possibilities. Then find out exactly how much the trustees will do for you and how much will depend upon yourself. If you are acquainted in the neighborhood your task will be much easier. If the school-house is in a village your plans will be much more easily carried out. But let us suppose the most unfavorable conditions. We will suppose that you are a woman, that the school-house stands in the country, and that you are not acquainted with the people in the district.

If it is at all possible, go to your boarding place a week before school opens. Set before yourself two objects, viz: a clean, neat room and a good black-board. Get a peck of lime and whitewash the walls and ceiling. Wash the desks and windows and scrub the floor. From

the store in the nearest village get a common wooden packing box-a rather long and narrow one is best. Get the store-keeper to send it to the school-house in some passing wagon. Knock off the lid and from these boards make two shelves, which may rest upon strips nailed inside. Across the open front put a curtain of bright calico. Set this in one corner of the room so that one side and the back will stand against the walls. Ten cents worth of brown paint will paint the top and the other side, or, if you can not get paint, cover with calico to match the curtain. One shelf will hold the copy-books, the other, your own books, and the bottom will hold dust-pan, dust-cloth, and whatever unsightly things you wish to put away.

If the teacher's desk is simply a table, have a cover for it. This cover may be of calico, like the curtain on the box. In summer, keep a vase of flowers on your table. In winter, one or two five-cent easels holding pretty cards will make things brighter. Encourage the children to lend their cards, and you will have enough for frequent changes. If you cannot afford to get pictures for your walls at first, console yourself with the thought that they are at least white and clean.

The black-board will be the most costly thing, but it is so essential that you must have it. One dollar and seventy-five cents will buy slating enough to give ninety square feet two coats. I never made a black-board, but I suppose that even one coat would very greatly improve a poor board. Try it and see.

Now your room is ready for school. As you have had a week for this work, you are not exhausted by it, and the place in which you are to work is not unpleasing, even though it be not highly ornamented. If you can not afford to pay for these things yourself, you can work a little more and get back your money. As soon as you have become acquainted with your pupils give an evening entertainment, consisting of music, recitations, etc. Select your pieces with great care, avoiding silly things and pieces which would excite vanity in the children. Remember that the tiniest child will be most pleasing to the audience. Crowns, banners, costumes, and such things are also much liked by an audience, and by the children as well. But there is an extreme in this as in everything else. Do all the work of drilling and rehearsing yourself. You can do this at noon-time and after school. Be sure to make the children feel that they must not sing their songs nor recite their pieces to any one but you, as you do not want your entertainment spoiled by having every one familiar with the whole program. Two weeks is enough time for the preparation, if you work diligently. Announce the entertainment and charge a small admission fee. You

can surely take in ten dollars. This will meet all the expense you have incurred in fitting up your school-room, with some surplus for pictures.

Of course you can get things for your school-room which are much more expensive than anything I have named. Pretty lambrequins for the windows, pictures, brackets, vases, and books, all these I would have if I could. But I have tried to show that a school-room may be made clean and neat with a very little expense, and that the school may bear that expense itself if the teacher will give some time and effort. If you succeed beyond your hopes you may get enough money to buy an unabridged dictionary for the school.

STATE EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.
(Used in December, 1883.)

I.

2.

READING AND ORTHOEPY.

[Candidates for the Life Certificate may omit 1, 2,

What is Reading? Orthoepy?

3.]

Define Accent, Emphasis. What words are emphasized?

What words are seldom emphatic? Mark the accent and the emphatic words: "I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him."

3. Describe the Alphabetic, the Phonic, and the Word Method of teaching to read. Which do you adopt?

4. Explain the common faults in vocal reading, and your methods of correcting them.

5. What is a "natural style" of reading? Is it spontaneous, or the result of culture? How do you teach it? What is "elocutionary reading?" Is it the highest style of the art? Why? · 6. Is good reading merely mechanical? Why? What other elements enter into it? Can an illiterate person teach reading? Why? What relation does good reading bear to literary culture? How

do you cultivate in your pupils a love of literature?

I.

GRAMMAR.

[Candidates for the Life Certificate may omit 5, 6, 7, 8.]

What is the domain of Grammar? How does it differ from the Dictionary? From what science did Grammar derive its nomenclature?

Illustrate.

2. Show whether Language Lessons can take the place of Gram

mar.