THE FIRST MORNING.

First. Before the “first day” arrives, see to it that your school house is in good condition, if you cannot always rely upon the trustees or director.

Second. Learn from former pupils (in most cases this will be your only source of information) the classification of the previous school, noting the point in the book to which each class had advanced. These are essential preliminaries.

Third. Be at the school house early to see that everything is in order, that there may be no delay or disturbance in the opening of school.

Fourth. Make your opening exercises appropriate and short.

Fifth. Let your "remarks" to the school consist of a few words of welcome, and, perhaps, a suggestion as to how each can help make the school a pleasant and profitable one. No sermonizing, no moralizing.

Sixth. Proceed to the organization of your school, not by taking the names of the pupils (you have no immediate use for these), but by, in the most rapid way possible, assigning work to each pupil. Take your list of classes, before secured, and assign to each class in arithmetic; assign it not quite so far along in the book as the point to which the class had advanced; let it consist in solving problems, and require that the work be left upon the slates and brought to the class. This will insure work. Lessons assigned to all the arithmetic classes will dispose of a very large majority of most ungraded schools. Next, call the large pupils, not yet provided for, and assign work, if possible, with one of the arithmetic classes already formed. Next, give attention to the little ones and give them employment. In this way a skillful teacher may assign work to any ordinary school in from fifteen to twenty minutes, and when all are provided with work, the chief trouble in the organization is overcome.

Seventh. Begin with the classification of the previous teacher, and change afterwards, if found necessary.

Eighth. Have clearly in mind just what you intend to do, and how you intend to do it. Ask no questions of the pupils.

Ninth. Make no rules, except, perhaps, the general one, "mind your own business." Let the rules make themselves.

"Do right;" or,

Tenth. Allow nothing in the way of disorder on the first morning that you do not expect to permit when the school is fully organized. Begin as you expect to continue.

A teacher's success in a school depends very largely upon his first morning's work.-Indiana School Journal.

VIGOROUS STUDY.-There is nothing so wearisome as languid study; when you sit looking at the clock, wishing the time was over, or that somebody would call for you and put you out of your misery. The only way to study with any efficiency, is to do it so heartily that dinner-time comes two hours before you expected it; to sit with your Livy before you, and. hear the geese cackling that saved the capital; and to see with your own eyes the Carthagenian suttlers gathering up the rings of the Roman knights after the battle of Cannae, and heaping them into bushels.

IN

TEACHING BOTANY TO CHILDREN.

N the October number the types made us say, vindicate for indicate, investigatingly for interestingly, mallord for mallow.

Our class comes to the recitation seats for the second lesson, each bringing with him a plant. This was all the preparation required.

Teacher: Yesterday we had our first lesson about plants. We will have a great many more during the term, and when we get through I shall want to know how much you remember. Who can tell me what we learned yesterday?

(Hands all up.) Tell me, Mary.

Mary-Roots, stems and leaves. (Some hands up.)

Teacher: What else, John?

John-Branch and flower. (One or two hands still up.)
Teacher: What else, Frank?

Frank-Petiole.

Teacher: Good! Now we have all the words we wrote on the board Plant, yesterday. I will write them again; you tell me the words. (While Root, the class give the names the teacher writes them in the order indicated.) What Stem, are these words the names of, class?

Class-Parts of plants.

Branch,
Leaf,
Flower.

Teacher: Right. Look at your plants clearly to see if you can find any thing the name of which is not on the board. (They all look and say they can find nothing else.) I see your plants all have flowers. Mary, you may give each one of us a flower from your "jimson" weed. (Each one gets a flower.) You see there are different parts of this flower. Who can find the most parts without breaking it? (Hands soon come up.) How many, Frank? Frank-Six. (Some hands still up.) Teacher: How many, Mary? Mary-Eight.

Teacher: John, take your flowers to pieces and lay them on the table so we can all count them. (John lays down the calyx, corolla, five stamens and the pistil.) How many parts, class?

Class-Eight. (The teacher here shows them that the five stamens are just alike.)

Teacher: We have names for all these parts of the flower; shall we learn them or shall we go on to something else? (Of course all will want to learn the names.) Let us look at the flowers then. This outside part we call the calyx. I will spell it for you, c-a-l-y-x. (Here each one spells it in turn, then writes it on the board under the word flower.) What color is the calyx? Answers--Green, greenish, almost green, etc.

Teacher: Frank has a morning glory. You see the calyx on it is the same color. The calyx is almost always green. The next part, you see, is of another color. This is the part we usually call the flower. After this we shall call it corolla. (Spell and proceed as with calyx.) Dispose of the stamens and pistil in like manner. Have the class spell, name and re-name until each one has mastered

the words and can point out all the parts readily. Then have a review of the whole subject, the class giving you the names as they hold up the parts, while you write the names on the board. The following form we think the best:

This will be our last article on this subject unless some question should be raised for us to answer. In concluding we would say, if any teacher tries to ask the exact question, and use the exact words, he finds in any “method,” he will fail. He deserves to fail. Use printed methods of teaching, as text-books should be used. They are hints or stimulators. Again, we caution you, do not spoil a class beginning in Botany, by placing books in their hands with directions to memorize a certain number of pages. C.

THERE

IMPORTANT STUDIES.

E. E. WHITE.

HERE has been much outcry on the part of many, both inside and outside of the profession, against the number of subjects with which the children of our public schools are burdened; and much ingenious dividing and sub-dividing has been done to make the list look as formidable as possible. We are told to cut off superfluties,and get back to the branches which are most important. This introduces the old question: Which branches are most important? Who shall decide? "What knowledge is of most worth?" is an ever recurring problem. I may think to know a noble poem or a grand essay, whose deep thought shall be a life companion, is more important than to know how to parse a difficult sentence or solve the most intricate problem in percentage that the exigencies of trade and the ingenuity of man have ever called into existence. And yet it will not be difficult to find another who thinks all learning a vain thing which does not give a man a trade. The outcry has, however, been most directed against drawing and music.

Say the utilitarians, children have, in general, but a few short years at best for their school life, and this time should not be taken up in acquiring accomplishments. They need it all for arithmetic, spelling, reading, writing, and grammar. And here is just where they make their mistake. Leaving out of view their incorrect notion as to the relative value of the studies just named, we believe it is a fact which can be readily established, that a pupil will learn just as much of spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, and grammar, who takes on drawing and music, as he would have done, without these additional branches. If they are properly taught, they are all an agreeable relief from the severer studies, and serve to make school attractive. If this statement is corcect, how short-sighted must those school authorities be who neglect to incorporate in their curriculum two branches having such power to wake up the dormant energies of the mind and cultivate and refine the tastes.

RECITATIONS.

HERE should be, whenever it is possible, three stages in every recitation:

THER

First, a brief review of the preceding lesson, tracing its connections and relations; second, the lesson of the day, recited and illustrated, and the scholar's thought elicited, until it is thoroughly comprehended; third, arranging the next lesson, the teacher taking care to remove unnecessary obstacles, by explaining difficult terms, suggesting the right method of working and preparing the mind to work with interest. Thus each lesson will be gone over, to some extent, three times in as many successive days. To hear recitations by calling up a class seriatim and propounding a question to each, after he has been called up, is apt to be a dronish, monotonous, paralytic affair. There is no emulation, no inspiration about it. The moment a scholar has been thus called up, all the rest say to themselves, “There, the recitation does not concern me;" and they subside into mental inactivity. A recitation should be so conducted as to inspire and animate the whole class, putting every mind to the top stretch of exertion.— New York School Journal.

LOUD TEACHING.

S to loud teaching, not a few teachers have two voices-the natural voice

teaching voice is always in a high

Many teachers, when, in the school-room, always talk in a loud tone of voice. They not only talk loud themselves, but many of them insist upon their pupils doing the same thing. Not long ago the writer approached a high school, in which an examination was being conducted on the third floor of the building; and so loud did the teachers and pupils talk that they could be easily heard from the hall of the first floor and from the street, fifty yards distant. The writer also visited a ward-school lately, in which the children in some of the rooms were required to scream so loud in their recitation that they were heard distinctly at the distance of half a square. If the teacher talks loud, the children are inclined to do the same thing, and it is true that a loud-talking teacher has a noisy school. "As the teacher, so the school;" loud teacher, loud school. The teacher that governs a school best is one that talks in a subdued tone of voice, and makes but little fuss about it. The teacher's voice should be just loud enough to be easily heard when everything is quiet and in order, and no louder. Pupils should be required to recite in a tone of voice sufficiently loud to be distinctly heard by the teacher and the class, but no louder. It is too often the case that loudness is mistaken for clearness of enunciation and distinctness of pronunciation. Children should be required to speak distinctly, and to make all hear who are expected to listen; but they should not be allowed to bawl.California Teacher.

SUGGESTIVE.-A good Quaker, eighty-five years of age, whom no one ever heard speak a cross word, was asked by a young man how he had been able, through the trials and perplexities of a long life, always to keep a pleasant manner. He replied, "Dayton, if thee never allows thy voice to rise, thee will not be likely ever to get very angry."

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT,

NICHOLAS, we presume, is the only county in the state that keeps up a Teachers' Association. If there are other counties that hold regular monthly meetings we should be glad to hear from them.

The County Institute does not fill the place of the Association. They are quite different. The Teachers' Institute is not unlike a graded school, having a superintendent or principal instructor, whose business it is to conduct the exercises; the Teachers' Association is a deliberative body in which all stand on equal right and privileges. It is truly a good indication of progress to see teachers come together monthly for the discussion of questions pertaining to their daily work. The annual county institute will not suffice. Teachers should have regular and frequent meetings, that they may know more of each other and of each others methods of work.

Monthly meetings will bring out at least two much needed qualifications. A teacher who wraps himself up in his own importance is void of those qualifications that should make his work of any lasting value. No county should be without an association of teachers. If there are three persons disposed to come out of the ruts, let them meet at some suitable point and organize. They could fill at least four offices, president, secretary, treasurer and executive committee. Having made out a programme, publish it in your county paper. In order to create interest and sympathy, place some of your physicians, lawyers and preachers on the list, (by permission,) giving them such subjects as, "ventilation," "state school law," "importance of early training," etc.

Follow the above suggestions and success will crown your efforts. Who will be first to move in this direction and report result to THE ECLECTIC TEACHER?

ARCHBISHOP PURCELL has recently delivered himself of an elaborate, and, to some minds, a convincing, categorical statement, for the purpose of showing that the Catholic church is not the enemy of our public schools. Notwithstanding all that he says, and as much as we would like to think his representation a true one, we are obliged to judge from actual facts as they occur and have occurred.

In his pronunciamento Mr. Purcell says, "The Catholic bishop and clergy have no intention whatever to interfere with your public school system. Build as many schools as you wish; we will never say a word against it." *