1045 Timely Warning. The great success of the chocolate preparations of the house of Walter Baker & Co. (established in 1780) has led to the placing on the market many misleading and unscrupulous imitations of their name, labels, and wrappers. Walter Baker & Co. are the oldest and largest manufacturers of pure and high-grade Cocoas and Chocolates on this continent. No chemicals are used in their manufactures. Consumers should ask for, and be sure that they get, the genuine Walter Baker & Co.'s goods. WALTER BAKER & CO., Limited, DORCHESTER, MASS. Exhaustion Horsford's Acid Phosphate Overworked men and women, the nervous, weak and debilitated, will find in the Acid Phosphate a most agreeable, grateful and harmless stimulant, giving renewed strength and vigor to the entire system. Dr. Edwin F. Vose, Portland, Me., says: "I have used it in my own case when suffering from nervous exhaustion, with gratifying results. I have prescribed it for many of the various forms of nervous de VERTIGRAPH bility, and it has never failed to do good." Oxford University, England, Prof. A. H. Sayce, the eminent philologist, says: Yale University, Prof E. J. Phelps, Ex-minister to Great Britain, says: "For general and practical purposes it is the best American dictionary now available." Cambridge University, England, Prof. J. E. Sandys, says: It is admirable, and deserves to become famous on both sides of the Atlantic." Harvard University, Prof. A. Preston Peabody, says: "Will prove invaluable, and will last while the English language remains essentially unchanged." The New York Heraid, says: "The Standard Dictionary is a triumph in the art of publication. It is admirable from every point of view. It is the most satisfactory and most complete dictionary yet printed." The Saturday Review, London, Eng., says: "In substantial merit we think the Standard Dictionary decidedly preferable to the much-advertised Century." The Daily Post, Liverpool, Eng., says: It is a monument to American industry no less than the Great White City by Lake Michigan." The Journal of Education, Boston, says: "In thoroughness, completeness, accuracy, typography, style, and illustration, it challenges criticism and commands admiration. It will make the world its debtor, and all who write must praise it evermore." Packer's Tar The antiseptic quality of a rival; it removes dandruff, 25 Cents. All Druggists. THE PACKER MFG. CO., New York. Vol. LI. A Weekly Journal of Education. For the Week Ending November 9. Copyright 1895, by E. L. Kellogg & Co No. 17 The business department of THE JOURNAL is on another page. All letters relating to contributions should be addressed plainly, “Editors of SCHOOL JOURNAL." All letters about subscriptions should be addressed to E. L. KELLOGG & Co. Do not put editorial and business items on the same sheet. Advancement of Superintendents. It is just about fifty years ago that the city of New York decided it would have a man to superintend its educational interests. It is not ten years since Philadelphia came to a similar conclusion. In fact, the official now so well known as a superintendent of the schools of a city or village is a modern creation; he has been evolved as the public school system has been developed. year and that the teachers were earnest and efficient. He has been obliged to look at education as something that has a scientific basis. But it took fifty years for the public to find out that of all places in its bounds the superintendent's office was the one where the utmost intellectual activity should prevail; that if a live coal was to be taken from the altar the superintendent of schools should be the man to whom it was to be intrusted. The annual re-. port is found to be a matter of little importance. If he could write, "I have set all the teachers on fire to teach, and they have set all their pupils on fire to learn," it would be a prototype of the reports that are to be written in the coming years. A visit to a superintendent of the schools of a city of 20,000 inhabitants forty years ago, found him on a Sat The earlier products of this evolution were quite dif- urday morning in a small, cold room surrounded by ferent from those appearing later. The first superintendents were often mere figureheads; they appeared on great occasions; they must especially be humanitarians and able to urge the importance of education; it was expected of them that arguments on the justice of giving educational opportunities to all classes should be presented cogently; the salaries were small; the school visitation quite meager and his influence as a superintendent very feeble; if he had been influential before as a citizen, or if he brought talents of a high order, and an earnest devotion of them to the good of the schools, he received the attention and respect of the public. There was no normal school for the instruction of superintendents in those days, but it would have been a good thing if there had been. There is none to-day, but the pedagogical schools are doing something to produce men competent to grapple with the subject of education which is at last seen to be a mighty matter. The superintendent in those early days was either a business man with humanitarian instincts or a school principal recognized as a Saul among his fellows. The compensation was small, for the duties were considered unimportant, and frequently the superintendent was to be found only on Saturday in his office; the rest of the time he was a lawyer or a physician, clergyman, or engineer; or if a principal of a school he was busy teaching, for in those days the principal was expected to give his time to class instruction quite as much as his assistants. The process of evolution began; and the superintendent has been greatly influenced by it. More has been demanded of him besides writing a report in which the number of pupils was given, the number of teachers, their salaries and various platitudes relating to the importance of education, and remarking that the schools of that particular town had had a prosperous teachers, to whom he gave slate pencils, inkstands, crayons, steel pens, tin cups, record books in small quantities accompanying each with suggestions as to economy and watchfulness. This over, a new appointee by the school board was told where to go on the following Monday, and then the work of the superintend ent was over. A visit to his successor was made this year; the population of the city had not only increased, but the estimation in which public education was held had changed with it. Books were now furnished free, the desks were of the most approved pattern, the buildings were planned for light and ventilation, the blackboards were numerous and of real slate, wardrobes were ample and convenient, the walls were adorned with pictures of Washington, Lincoln, and many eminent poets. The superintendent's office had undergone a change. On a table lay several educational papers, each in a binder; a bookcase had over a hundred pedagogical books, each with a white label and number, showing they were actually drawn out; the entire reports of the city were on another shelf; another shelf held the reports of the leading cities. The superintendent had changed too. The teachers were in an adjoining room and he was put down to address them on the subject of "Apperception in Arithmetic." Of course, not all cities have changed like the one referred to above. In very many, the superintendent is the only thing that has not changed. Why some men are superintendents is a mystery as great as the Man in the Iron Mask. A member of a school board was lately asked why they still elected the same man and his reply was, "Well, you see if he should go out we should have to put in one of the principals and he is better than any of them." The reasons why a principal would be selected he stated to be two; one, that two or three had the wires all fixed; the other, that they didn't know of any man of real ability as an educator whose appointment would command the assent of the community. In other words, as THE JOURNAL has often pointed out, the timber for superintendents is very scarce in this country. And it may be added that the field for those who will conscientiously and largely prepare themselves as superintendents is immense; and further, that rightly to superintend the schools of a city is a very large business indeed. superintending officer; in general he must have a capacity for leadership, and be enormously sympathetic with children and hunger to see them at their best. And it may be added that the Oldest Schoolmaster's Certificate in About fifteen years ago a teacher in a very active city of 15,000 inhabitants sent a letter to THE JOURNAL entitled, "One Superintendent." It portrayed a young lawyer not having business enough to support him and having friends on the school board who gave him the office of superintendent of schools. It told further his manner of visiting the schools; invariable comments of "very well indeed" after listening to the reading, arithmetic, etc.; his speech to the children in which they were incited to go on "until they reached the utmost round of knowledge attainable"; his long tarrying and delightful ways where the pretty school-mistress presided and his shorter visits where those less favored were hearing lessons. All this was evidently a portraiture from life, but no name was given to the place or the official, and it had a ficticious signature. THE JOURNAL lay on the desk of the teacher; the superintendent (evidently ordered by fate) that morning visited the school. picked up the paper, turned over its pages, and, as fate ordered, was attracted by nothing else than this portraiture of himself. He had evidently recognized who was meant, for he laid it down and went out, and exhibited afterward a good deal of ill feeling. The ways and means of some superintendents will not bear very close examination. "How did――get into office?" Knowing there was to be an election, he did not let it be known he wanted the place, but got three others to stand; none having a majority, his friends now brought him forward. The political superintendent is yet numerous in the land. But the calcium light is being turned on the schools, and from this time on a man must know education quite extensively to hold an important place; knowledge of politicians will not suffice. In some cities it has been the practice to permit the superintendent to be both the examining power and the appointing power; from this shameful abuses have arisen. An ex-superintendent of this kind was asked. how he held office so long. He replied, "I made my self solid with the politicians by appointing the persons they named !" Is it not a pity such a thing can be stated as a fact? Some boards of education make the superintendent merely a tool by which they pull political wires-but this is too large a subject. The superintendent in most cities of the first class has now become an officer of high rank. The power of appointment is not lodged with him. He is required by boards of education, whose conduct is scrutinized. by the public press, to carry forward the work in a manner worthy of the times, to give practical information to the teachers of the best methods of teaching, to possess a somewhat complete understanding of the capacity of youth to know and grow, and the proper subjects of study for those of any particular age, and the amount of knowledge that may be required by them as well as the best means of testing their progress. But this only partially defines the requirements in a New York. By WILLIAM S. PELLETREAU. There is nothing that shows the difference between the Dutch and the English settlers in New York so much as their action in relation to school and public education. In the English settlements the school and the schoolmaster held a prominent position and were liberally paid for; while among the Dutch the school was badly supported and managed, and the teacher held an inferior position. Although the plans and regulations, established in "Fatherland" for the guidance and directions of the colonies in New Netherland, enjoined that schools with suitable teachers should be maintained, yet many things go to prove that these directions were not complied with. In the "Remonstrance of New Netherland" in 1649, we find among the various causes of complaint, that "the new school-house exists only upon paper," and money collected for it had been used for other purposes. That what schools there were had their location in private houses, and "each one taught as long or as short as he liked," and it is curious to observe that the schoolmaster was invariably employed in some other capacity, to which his reputed calling was simply an adjunct. In one place we find that it was recommended to " employ a person as preceptor who might also act as a schoolmaster," showing plainly that his position in the latter capacity was decidedly subordinate. In one town on Long Island, the schoolmaster was expected to act as sexton and in case of funerals it was his duty "to dig the grave and ring the bell." We may imagine the feelings of some modern "Professors" if called upon to perform these duties. One of the results of the English conquest was to introduce a higher order of instruction. Schools were better provided for, and the schoolmaster held in higher esteem. Many of the Old Dutch burghers in their wills made arrangements that their minor children should be "brought up to an English education." The truth is that when the Dutch came in contact with the English, they came in contact with a superior race, and they knew it. Among the first of the English schoolmasters in New York was William Huddlestone, and his certificate and license to teach has been preserved and is an interesting relic of early school history: BENJAMIN FLETCHER. Captain Generale,and Governorin-Chiefe of their Majesties, Province of New York, Province of Pennsylvania, County of New Castle, and Territoryes and tracts of land thereon depending in America, etc., and Vice-Admirale of the same, I do hereby Authorize and appoint you, William Huddlestone, to teach an English School, and to Instruct all Children where with you shall be intrusted for that purpose, in the Acts of Writing and Arithmetic, etc., in the City of New York. You are therefore diligently and carefully to discharge the said duty of School Master, and to receive and enjoy all such privileges and advantages as to the Office and place of a School Master doth and may belong, and appertain. For which this shall be your sufficient Warrant. Given under my hand and seale at Fort William Henry this nine and twentieth day of August, in the fifth year of the Reigne of their Majesties, King William and Queen Mary (1692). BENJAMIN FLETCHER. By His Excellencie's Command DAN. HONAN. William Huddlestone was not only a schoolmaster but a very active man of business, and invested largely in real estate, when lots on Broadway and Wall street could be bought for a few hundred dollars. His name very frequently appears in the records in the Register's office, and buildings now worth millions stand upon lots whose titles are derived from "William Huddlestone, schoolmaster." Composition: Its Relation to the Other School Studies. The purpose of teaching composition in the elementary school is to enable the pupil to express his thoughts clearly, in logical order, and in correct language, and to give him a certain command of the words and expressions of the higher literary and technical vocabulary. Composition thus is essentially a form study and, like other form-studies is very largely dependent for its content upon the material supplied by the thoughtstudies. This material will be mainly taken from literature and history (including ethics and civics); occasionally it will be drawn from the natural sciences, art, and manual work, and even from mathematics. The daily experiences of the pupils, their excursions, etc., will also furnish subjects for compositions; but these, though requiring less work in their preparation, are merely of a secondary importance compared with those of the first mentioned kind. It is true that they afford an opportunity for an easy flow of language and for an exercise of the imagination. But, on the other hand, they make little demand of the logical faculty of the pupil, usually requiring only the employment of commonplace ideas, and confine expression to the colloquial vocabulary. Says Dr. Harris in his report to the Committee of Fifteen: "It is clear that the pupil should have a dignified and worthy subject for composition, and what is so good for his purpose as the themes he has tried to master in his daily lessons?" Thus the relation between composition and the other school studies becomes one of mutual helpfulness. On the one hand, the pupil, in order to write his composition is compelled to bring before his mind the thoughts of a particular lesson in a peculiarly clear and forcible manner, and, on the other hand, he will more easily acquire the art of writing, by seeking the best expression for definite and well-mastered groups of ideas. This relation will be most easily and naturally established where all the studies are combined in the hand of one teacher. In a school where the department-teacher system prevails a close co-operation between the teacher of composition and those of the other departments becomes absolutely necessary. With regard to this co-operation the following plan would seem feasible: The teacher from whose departments the composition is taken will first work out with the class a clear, 1. gical outline, and the work of the pupils, when handed to him, will be criticised by him chiefly with regard to the correctness of the ideas expressed and their logical order, though, for convenience, he might mark also orthographical mistakes and the like. The composition will then be given to the teacher of English who will judge it from the rhetorical point of view and make suggestions as to the best choice of words, the proper use of connectives, the harmonious balancing of phrases, and similar matters of style. In the light of this double criticism the pupil will then be required to re-write the whole composition, thus producing what is virtually an entirely new piece of work, as correct in ideas and language and as pleasing in style as may be expected at his stage of general culture and experience. This plan does not exclude, but rather emphasizes the value of such exercises as reproductions of stories, both oral and written, and paraphrases of narrative poetry. The latter especially, though liable to great abuse, is yet one of the most valuable devices for securing the use of concise and forceful expressions and for the discrimination of poetic and prose diction. These exercises bring out the relation between literature and composition, which, of course, is of a most intimate character. Workingman's School, New York City. One Way to Teach Music. By HARRIETTE WILSON. It is often a problem how to present music in the most direct way to children in the primary grades. Many ways are tried-and often successfully-by teachers of attractive personality and of individual force; and, after all, if one be quite sure of herself as to attainments and intelligently-planned work, individual methods are a gain, and incite more interest and spontaneity in pupils, as a general thing. Many teachers, however, are not prepared to lay out an original plan of work, and to these a few suggestions may help to rid them of some of their perplexities. One young woman achieved artistic results in a small school of first grade children by singing to them while at their work, the songs she intended teaching them. She had a highly cultivated voice, she managed the phrasing with great care, and did not let the children sing with her until she had sung the song to them for some length of time. Finally she had the class sing with her, and by this time the song was essentially learned, and if the imitation were pretty accurate (as, by this method, it would doubtless become) very little polishing would be needed to produce a charming re But this might be dangerous practice for a teacher who was not a skilled musician; and there are disadvantages in doing work which involves no thought on the part of the pupils. There is the usual, and perhaps for the teacher the easiest, practice of beginning with scale drill, by numbers and syllables, until to children much of music, in their comprehensions, resolves itself into "do, re, mi, do," etc. How much of an advantage this may be in primary schools is uncertain, and there is no question about its being to a degree drudge-work and unmusical, as it is frequently practiced. Tone, and two equivalents (if the use of the staff be not also included) are thrust upon the child when his little mind is usually being fed in other ways quite to its limit of capacity. Is it not simpler to get at the result in a less confusing manner? We all are agreed that children must have songssongs which are suitable to childhood, musical, and within the range of their limited voices. These are not easy to collect, it is true,--not that there is any lack of so-called "songs for children," but how many of them are really choice, and worth preserving, and of course the music which is taught to large classes of children, which is with great care drilled into their remembrance, by which their taste is formed, and which may possibly survive several generations, should be as carefully selected as is the literature with which youthful minds are stamped. Suppose we take Schubert's "Cradle Song" as a lesson, or that eminently childlike song of Stevenson's, so prettily set by Nevin : "In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle light, I have to go to bed by day," etc. The words are first taught to the class, verse by verse; when the children are quite familiar with one stanza so that they can follow in their minds the fitting together of words and music, the teacher plays or sings for them the song once or twice. Then she writes it out on the staff on the black board; the children are interested in the "pictures of the tones," and the up and down movement of the intervals will aid them in placing their voices. Let them follow the notes while they sing, and if possible keep the song on the blackboard until it is learned, so that the class shall have opportunity of associating the sound with the universal image. The children are not in this way confused by detail, while at the same time they are unconsciously learning to read a little, and are at least becoming as familiar with the true representation of tone as they are with words which picture to them the objects they represent. Besides, what could be more expressive than some of It ought to be quite unnecessary (tho' it is to be feared a caution is sometimes not misplaced) to say that the teacher must herself be accurate, so that her pupils shall never see anything written incorrectly, and she should have her work in such command that it can be quickly performed. Care in regard to pitch is also essential, in order that the tone-association may not be wrong. There is an unconscious preparation in this work which greatly simplifies the difficulty of reading music, when a higher grade is reached and the children have books to read from. Especially is this a gain when words and music are to be read together, which is the ultimate aim in all the practice. State Normal School, Willimantic, Conn. one hundred and twentieth United States. Thanksgiving Proclamation. President Cleveland has designated Thursday, November 28, ás Thanksgiving day. His proclamation which was issued Nov. 4, should be read in every school-room in the land. It is as follows: The constant goodness and forbearance of Almighty God which have been vouchsafed to the American people during the year which is just past call for their sincere acknowledgement and devout gratitude To the end, therefore, that we may with thankful hearts unite in extolling the loving care of our Heavenly Father, I, Grover Cleveland, president of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart Thursday, the twenty-eighth day of the present month of November as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, to be kept and observed by all our people. On that day let us forego our usual occupations, and in our accustomed places of worship join in rendering thanks to the Giver of every good and perfect gift for the bounteous returns that have rewarded our labors in the fields and in the busy marts of trade, for the peace and order that have prevailed throughout the land, for our protection from pestilence and dire calamity, and for the other blessings that have been showered upon us from an open hand. "And, with our thanksgiving, let us humbly beseech the Lord to so incline the hearts of our people unto Him that He will not leave us nor forsake us as a nation, but will continue to use His mercy and protecting care, guiding us in the path of national prosperity and happiness, enduing us with rectitude and virtue, and keeping alive within us a patriotic love for the free institutions which have been given to us as our national heritage. And let us also on the day of our thanksgiving, especially, remember the poor and needy, and by deeds of charity let us show the sincerity of our gratitude. "In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington this fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety five. and in the year of the independence of the "GROVER CLEVELAND. "By the President : "RICHARD OLNEY, secretary of state." Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote to his daughter when she was away from home at school, "It does not matter so much what you study as it matters with whom you study." This is very important. If you can spend this winter with a man older than you are, wiser than you are, whom you cannot talk with nor look upon but you feel that here is a real living man-an almighty child of an Almighty God-do you take that chance. Very likely you will never have such another. And this is the greatest gift that God himself can give you.--Edward E. Hale. |