to the task, it would be better to retain the text-book. But if we believe that we are able to do what our German colleagues have done, nothing is gained by waiting.

In spite of their bar to scientific teaching, there has been strong opposition to the removal of the text-books, and particularly for two reasons: It is claimed that, if the text-book should be abolished, the child would not acquire the ability to use books; and that the removal of the text-book would cause the teacher to do the work for the pupil, so that the child's mind would be no longer properly disciplined. Both objections are, in my opinion, entirely unfounded. First, the fundamental purpose of education does not lie in teaching the child how to use books; this is simply an importaut incident, which it is well for the teacher to bear in mind. Again, to study a lesson from the text-book does not teach the child how to use books; it simply leads him to perform a task, either to please his teacher or to avoid punishment. To

know how to use books is to understand how to look up sources of information, and this ability cannot be acquired by committing to memory the words of the text-book. By directing the pupils to write compositions, and by freequently calling for debates, in each instance suggesting lists of works to be used for reference, more can be done in a few exercises than can be accompished by years of lesson study. Second, when the teacher takes the place of the text-book, the child is by no means relieved of a task; on the contrary, in a recitation conducted on scientific principles, the child is obliged to perform intellectual labor more severe in character, though less dull and and mechanical, than when he commits the contents of the text-book to memory. When he studies the text-book, he acquires his information simply by exercising his memory; in a scientific recitation, on the other hand, he is obliged to bring many of his faculties into play in order to accomplish his task.-The Forum.

'HERE has been wide-spread interest in the work of the Chicago Woman's Educational Union in relation to the preparation of a selection of readings from the Bible for public schools. Foliowing the suggestions of the late Professor Swing, they have been working for the past two years with the counsel of the Committee which he suggested, composed of representative men of various religious bodies. Their work will soon be issued by Scott, Foresman & Co., Chicago.

THE annual convention of City and Borough Superintendents will be held at Altocna, March 5th and 6th. Card orders for the purchase of tickets over any of the leading railroads may be had from Supt. D. S. Keith, Altoona, Pa.

The programme was given in our last issue, and the proceedings of the sessions will be found in our next. This is one of the most important educational meetings of the year in Pennsylvania.

IN the list of delegates of the State Directors' Convention the names of James H. McCain, esq., and Rev. R. A. Jamison were omitted in the February number and we take pleasure in crediting these delegates to Armstrong county. Their work was highly appreciated.

SUPT. WM. W. COTTINGHAM, of Easton, the officer longest in commission of all Pennsylvania Superintendents, writes under date of February 8th: Your esteemed favor of a portrait of the late Dr. Thomas H. Burrowes was duly received. I have delayed an acknowledgment of the picture in order to offer, as an accompaniment thereto, a contribution from the Easton teachers in support of the noble effort inaugurated to honor and perpetuate the memory of so noble a champion of popular education. Therefore please accept the within check for $12.50, and apply the proceeds thereof to the purpose named. I knew Dr. Burrowes per

sonally, and rejoice in being the possessor of so artistic and life-like a portrait, that brings to mind the form and expression of him whom I always revered as a leader in educational thought and progress."

IN the last issue of The Journal the excellent work that has been done in the schools of New Castle, in the way of organizing a pedagogical and school library and in the holding of the first City Institute, should have been credited to Supt. T. F. Kane, a very efficient officer, who holds his scholastic degree from Cornell.

On Friday evening, January 24, Supt. Hoffman held an educational rally in Columbia. The day had been spent by the directors and others in visiting schools. In the evening the opera house was filled by the best citizens, the stage being occupied by the Mayor, the editors and other professional men Addresses were delivered upon live questions, and the enthusiasm of all present was raised to a high pitch. The method by which Columbia trains her teachers is deserving of consideration in all cities which invariably elect graduates of the High schools to fill vacancies. The brightest of those who intend to teach are employed as substitutes at a modest salary. It is their duty to spend days and even weeks in visiting the rooms of the regular teachers for the purpose of studying the methods of instruction and government, and of familiarizing themselves with the advancement of the different grades. In case the regular teacher is absent, the substitute takes her place and draws half her pay in case of sickness, and all the pay in other cases. The dis-cipline of the rooms in charge of the substitutes was quite as good as that of the Tooms in charge of the regular teachers. The writer has never visited any district in which the order was so uniformly good in so large a number of schools.

LET the teacher cultivate in the pupil the taste for good reading. In German schools they read an hour per day, and it is the best work they do.

"I CANNOT fully express my admiration of the way you have gone into the Dr. Burrowes Memorial," writes ExState Supt. D. J. Waller, Jr., principal of the Indiana (Pa.) State Normal School. We are pleased to know that a man so

practical and of such excellent judgment so heartily endorses this memorial, and the methods of the Memorial Committee in presenting it to the State.

IT is interesting to know that Judge Dieffenbach and Dr. Thomas H. Burrowes were mutual friends and co-laborers, with respect for each other's ability and with mutual recognition each of the great service which the other had rendered to the State. Miss Gerda Diffenbach has, within a few days, written us of the "particular admiration" which her father had "for his friend Dr. Burrowes."

IN ordering renewal of subscription for members of his Board, within a few days, Mr. J. R. Elfreth, Secretary of the Darby Borough school district, writes: "The School Journal during the past year has contained much that is both instructive and interesting, and, judging from the expressions of the members of our Board in favor of renewal of subscription, it has been fully appreciated by our members."

OUR SUMMER SCHOOLS.

[EVER before in the history of Penn

sylvania have so many opportunities been offered to those who desire to fit themselves for teaching. The Normal Schools are improving the quality of their professional instruction. The colleges

are beginning to offer courses in Pedagogy. President Reed, of Dickinson College, recently declared that he intended to give his undergraduates facilites for practice in teaching. Improved traveling facilities have made it possible for teachers living within an hour's ride of Philadelphia to attend lectures in the evening and to do laboratory work on Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania.

The opportunities for self-improvement during the summer vacation are also being multiplied, Last summer, at Joanna Heights, the teachers organized a permanent summer school that is intended to move from place to place during successive years and to reach teachers in all parts of the State. This year's meeting ing is to be held at Huntingdon under the auspices of Juniata College. It is likely that the successful experiment at Lake Conneaut, which was made under the leadership of the Superintendent of

Crawford county, will be repeated this summer. The Pennsylvania Chatauqua, at Mt. Gretna, has always made it a point to hold out special inducements to teachers. Nor should we in this connection fail to mention again the summer school at Philadelphia, which has for several years been held under the auspices of the University Extension movement. It is proposed next July to offer courses in Literature and History, in Psychology and Music, in Science, including Botany, Geology and Chemistry, and in Mathematics and Economics. The regular ticket to all these lectures is fifteen dollars, but by special arrangement the fee to teachers in Pennsylvania has been reduced to five dollars, The laboratories in Botany, Zoology, Chemistry and Psychology will give special facilities to those who desire to fit themselves for high school work.

The Farmers' Institutes now in progress throughout the State are creating a demand for instruction in the public schools that will tend to fit the sons and daughters of the farmers for their future vocation. Agriculture and horticulture have hitherto received very little attention from those in charge of our common schools. The whole trend of teaching was calculated to drive the boy away from the farm and to cause him to seek the city. Whilst the boroughs and cities were receiving the best brains from the country, the rural population was diminishing in numbers and perhaps in quality. Signs of a change appear in many places. Silver, Burdett & Co. have just published a little volume entitled "The First Principles of Agriculture." A small library consisting of fifteen volumes and costing $17.12, can now be purchased under the direction of the State College, and those who undertake to pursue a Reading Course can get direction and instruction by correspondence with the professors of that institution. At no distant day it will no longer be true that a farmer's son can pass through the common school, the high school, the normal school, the college and the university without hearing one word about the soil and its productions, about the growth of crops and domestic animals, and about the profits of the dairy and the garden. In the new era that is surely dawning, the teachers in rural schools will draw attention to the marvels of the farm instead of expending their chief strength upon knotty sentences

in grammar and useless conundrums in arithmetic. The agencies set at work by our summer schools for the improvement of the teachers will help the Farmers' Institutes to inaugurate this change for the better in the rural schools.

JACKSONVILLE MEETING.

THE

THE meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association, which was held at Jacksonville, Florida, February 18-20, drew to that city many school men from the North, with their wives and daughters, as well as teachers from all parts of Florida. The cold wave was felt during the opening of the sessions. One Superintendent was facetiously trying to borrow a pair of skates from his colleagues, and another claimed that he had seen a street-car conductor wearing ear-warmers in semi-tropical Florida.

The first paper was read by Supt. C. A. Babcock, of Oil City, Pa., on the "True Function and Essence of Supervision." He pointed out that the two functions of supervision consist in the formation of a right ideal of education, and in the use of the best means to realize that ideal.

The problem of bringing the best schools to people in the Rural Districts was discussed with great zeal and animation. Supt. L. B. Evans, of Georgia, advocated the county as the unit for organization and taxation for school purposes. This plan was highly lauded by the representatives from Maryland.

But

if a county system is better than a township system, why should not a State system be better than a county system, and a National system better than a State system? If the cities are to be taxed to support good schools in the rural districts, why may the farmers not be taxed to build school-houses for the growing population of the cities?

It is argued that in some States the district system enables favored localities to tax the railroads, whilst more remote districts do not get the benefit of this taxation. This argument against the independent school district applies with equal force against taxation of railroads by townships and counties; for if the townships and counties having no railroads. are to receive the benefit of revenue from this kind of taxable property, it must be paid into the State Treasury, and thence

distributed among all the school districts of the Commonwealth.

It is important to keep the schools near the people. As soon as the patrons lose their interest in the school, the "abomination of desolation" in educational matters is sure to come. Rural schools should be improved by an appeal to public sentiment to convince the farmer that his children deserve as good an education as those in the city, and then by placing at the disposal of the Directors the funds needed to maintain schools of the desired excellence.

The address by President Schurman, of Cornell University, on the "Vocation of the Teacher," should be read by every teacher in America. We hope to give this address in full at no distant day in the columns of The School Journal.

The fight inaugurated at Cleveland between Commissioner Harris and the disciples of Herbart was continued at Jacksonville. Whilst the latter maintain that all school work should be grouped around one centre-say the story of Robinson Crusoe the former contends that there are five independent groups of studies. represented in the common elementary school by arithmetic, geography, grammar, history, and literature; that no one of these branches could be substituted for any of the others, nor could any one of these groups be spared from the school education of the child without depriving the child of needful insight into the world in which he lives. Dr. Hinsdale poured oil on the troubled waters by showing that whilst the contending parties occupy different points of view, in reality they use the same materials for instruction and culture, and that the courses of study mapped out by them would not differ very much in the end. If the teachers were to wait until agreement is reached, we get a condition similar to that recommended by a school official who advised that schools be closed until school-houses of the proper sort have been erected.

A very fine address was delivered on Wednesday evening by Hon. J. L. M. Curry, the agent of the Peabody Fund. He said that much misapprehension exists as to the prevalence of education in the South prior to the war.

At that time the North had 205 colleges, with 1,407 professors and 29,000 students, while the South had 262 colleges, with 1,488 professors and 20,000 students. The University of Virginia, founded by the most learned and scholarly

of all our Presidents-Thomas Jefferson -held so high a standard that diplomas were given only in those studies actually pursued, as Latin, Greek, mathematics and the like, while the degree of master of arts was conferred only on him who had graduated in all the courses or schools of the University. "Before the war Virginia, on the basis of the white population, was the most highly educated country in the world, and on the basis of both white and colored population was surpassed only by Scotland."

"As far back as 1853 or 1855." said the orator, "when the President of our Association was not yet born, I voted for free education in the State Assembly of Alabama.

"Prior to 1867 no general or efficient public school system existed. Now, all the Southern States have embodied in their organic laws systems for the free education of all children. The schools are as much a part of the political system as the jury trial or the ballot-box.

The most potential factor in bringing about the free school system has been the Peabody fund, established by a Massachusetts man; the Yales, the Harvards, the Johns Hopkins, the Vanderbilts, have so linked their names with institutions of learning that they will forever be inscribed on the enduring tablets of the human mind.

"These institutions are for the benefit of those can afford to educate their children, but Mr. Peabody and Mr. Slater have given their millions that the poor may not have an education, as in many lands, of dynamite and dagger, but be blessed with the gospel of universal education.

The main difference between the North and the South is the presence of the negroes, and the difference is not so much in language, in literature and in religion as in their late servitude contrasted with their present conditions.

"At the close of the war the slaves became citizens, and the South, with sublime heroism, entered upon the terrible struggle of reorganizing society. Instead of reproof and censure, it deserves unstinted praise for what it attempted and achieved. For schools were established as essential to material prosperity and the preservation of free institutions, and they were based upon property for support. The presence of two races and the necessity for double schools made most serious the educational problem. When Congress emancipated, citizenized and enfranchised the negroes, then it was the resulting obligation-not to be honestly avoided-of preparing them for their new prerogatives, but national aid in their behalf was contemptuously refused.

"I do not wish to be understood as antagonizing the education of the negro. I stand here to assert that every human being made in the image of God, with conscience,

will, reflective power and responsibility to his Creator-every human being, black or white or red, is entitled to the highest development of his intellect, and it is blasphemy to deny him this right.

"I wish I could condense my feelings into words when I say that ballot-box stuffing. fake returns and the like cannot be too severely condemned and punished, but I suggest whether the sword of justice can be rightly wielded by those who committed the crime of turning over the franchise, the highest prerogative of citizenship, to dumb driven cattle. The people could not neglect their intellectual and moral development. It would be suicidal. The South has little property and sparse population compared with what the North possess. Among the greatest needs are a sustained public opinion; more intelligent and experienced school officers; better supervision; better teaching; longer terms of school; increased State and local revenues. In all the schools above primary manual training should be taught. There is increasing need for skilled laborers. The curse of the South is and has been unskilled labor."

It sounds strange to hear of the white boy plowing while the colored boy attends school, the white race paving 90 per cent. of the school taxes. Before the war the reverse was true. The slave labored that his white master's sons and daughters might enjoy all the advantages which wealth and education can furnish.

Toward the close of the meeting the weather grew warmer; the air became balmy, and the members of the Association began to enjoy the delights of the Florida climate. The arrangements of the Windsor hotel and the management of Mr. Leland are superb. We took a trip south to St. Augustine and to Tampa, by the Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railroad and the Plant System of Railways. The courtesy of the officials, the excellence of their service, the peculiarities of scenery, and other advantages enjoyed by those who travel by this route, warrant us in recommending it to all who come South to enjoy the sunny skies, the glorious air, and the splendid scenery of a sub-tropical country.

he received on his visit a few years ago to his former home. The man who stands up for childhood can always face the world, and his name is spoken in terms of praise even by those who may have been against him in the struggle.

Mr. Ackerly is now a prominent railroad official, but his interest in the kindergarten and in popular education generally has not been lessened by arduous duties in new lines of work. The best wishes of The School Journal will always follow him and his work.

THE NORMAL SCHOOLS AND

AT

TEACHERS.

T the convention of Principals of the several State Normal Schools held at Harrisburg, February 5th and 6th, a constitution was adopted, which provides for annual meetings to be held immediately. after the November election. Each school is to be represented by its Principal and one or two Trustees, and to have one vote upon all questions pertaining to the courses of study, and to the management and policy of the Normal Schools.

It is designed that a part of the sessions shall be spent in the discussion of educational questions of general interest. At the last meeting much time was spent in discussing the Model School. The combination of observation and practice, the Worcester plan of sending the members of the Senior class to visit and assist in the city schools, the imperative need of new buildings at several of the schools for the accommodation of the pupil teachers from the Senior class, the advantage to the children and the disadvantage to the pupil teacher when the Model School classes are relatively small, and other points of vital importance, received attention during the deliberations.

On the way to the meeting, a director from a rural district took his seat beside the writer and described how a recent graduate of a Normal School had utterly failed in discipline. The School Board were on the point of asking her to resign. An experienced teacher from a school near by asked permission to take charge of the teacher and her school. After the

the school and were delighted with the change. There are critical periods in the lives of young teachers when those of long experience owe them counsel and