of the hare and the tortoise, well controlled at home; and capable of great self-restraint; when mixed with the kindred English, our steadiest. and most hopeful material. an Whether due to heredity or environment, the fact yet remains that we may as well make up our minds that certain traditions will have to go when we deal with children of foreign descent. The time-honored rule to close a sentence with the downward inflection receives a death-blow in the clearly pronounced sentences of a child of French extraction; to the end of the chapter there is always a more or less pronounced rising inflection. Most Italian children seem to read with a sing-songindication of the rhythm that is their birthright; it is said that the American has little or no rhythm in his soul. Thru dē, dě, zē, zě, zà, tē, tě, der the nationality of the struggling reader is betrayed thru the grades till the exists in the reader and is a factor in schoolroom utterances, tho play and out-of-school distractions weaken its force. Principals may admonish, supervisors may report, teachers may worry, but from kindergarten to college the scars remain. At home these children hear a foreign tongue. Untaught therein, they know it only colloquially, soon come to despise it as a useless lingo, and, unless the parental wrath is heavy-handed, at ten or twelve refuse to speak anything but English-that "goes" everywhere. In dealing with these children we find that the parent who can speak American, but is unable to write in any but the native tongue, is, in the estimation of the children, many degrees above the parent who speaks only the native tongue, but considerably below one who is master of both Some time ago a little Italian whose mother spoke no English referred to her as a Dago. Had a schoolmate used the same term to him, war would have been instantly declared. This knowledge on the part of these children of foreign extraction has brought about a feeling that the foreign parent is not as capable of dealing with American conditions as his children, so parental authority has become seriously weakened, and a generation of young foreign "toughs" is growing up. arts. The children of foreign extraction come from three classes of parents : First, those who were fairly well placed in their own land, but have emigrated only to remain long enough to accumulate a competence. While here they conform to our laws and customs in so far as they consider advisable, but always with a reservation in favor of the fatherland; the mother-tongue is the speech in the home, the children grow up with a divided allegiance and a more or less defective English. A second class have left a land where their fortunes, social or political, were at lowest ebb. They must perforce make America their home; their children have brighter prospects in the new land, for which the parents intend they shall be prepared to the best of the child's ability. A third class are the flotsam and jetsam of society which a paternal government has unloaded on an unsuspecting friend. The product of generations of poor living, of hopeless penury, they have been assisted to relieve a teeming land of their burdensome presence. Mostly unskilled laborers, possessing little energy physical or mental, usually hovering just above or falling back into the tramp or petty criminal class, their children frequently defective physically and morally, they and their children are the greatest problems we have. The descendants of each class have not infrequently married with another nationality, and the mixed descent complicates the problem. The second generation is American-born, but, from the influence of the home, not yet thoroly United States in sentiment. Time alone can tell what the third generation will be. If it takes three generations to make a gentleman, it certainly will take three generations to make an American citizen-I have not said voter; that usually takes three years and an accommodating magistrate. I propound no new proposition; the facts herein stated are well known to this audience; my purpose is to call attention to a phase of child study which my own experience has led me to believe is the masterkey to the labyrinth of many a little soul. Growing up in probably the most cosmopolitan city in this country, educated in public schools where almost every European nationality had at some time its representatives, the first years of my teaching in a district thoroly foreign in speech and custom, the study of those varied nationalities and their mixtures became a necessity and an interesting. investigation; later in the high school the same elements, and consequently similar problems, presented themselves. Now these young people have come into the training school, and again the problem crops up what to do to make them capable in their turn of handling this ever. growing puzzle. As a people we have solved so many problems that we consider ourselves perfectly capable of settling anything under the sun; and, not satisfied with the economic and political questions thrust upon us by the strangers within our gates, we have taken unto ourselves several millions of new riddles. Today the Normal Department is discussing the training of teachers for the schools of Cuba and Porto Rico; that means, added to the usual child study, the study of a curiously mixed people-the pure Spanish type, the Spanish mixed with Indian, with pure negro, and with every tinge and grade between; the Caucasian enervated by centuries of tropical climate and social dominance, having as its national proverb: "God first, diversion next, and work for donkeys." With the opening of this twentieth century the American eagle extends its wings over as great an extent of territory as its Roman prototype. The Roman empire was a collection of national units held together by a strong centralized power; while claiming the privileges of "Romanus sum," the individual retained his language and national life untouched by the political rule of the seven-hilled city. With us the aggregation of nationalities is in the community, in the individual, making temperament, that combination of spiritual and mental qualities-character. In youth, and often thruout life, the individual is a ferment of conflicting tendencies, the possibilities for good or evil intensified or counteracted by the ancestral heritage. As Rome brought order, peace, and personal freedom to the various nationalities in her borders, so today must the teacher endeavor for each of the ethical microcosms that we call American children; bring them to the Anglo-Saxon standard, train them to selfcontrol that means freedom, the love of country that foreshadows the brotherhood of man, the developing personality that can take only justice and right as it standard, a consummation possible only thru knowledge of the mazes of inherited tendencies, by sympathy with the soul struggling in shackles of ancestral bondage. And, if the teacher be the inheritor of the nations of the earth-what then? A STUDY IN MUSICAL INTERPRETATION H. E. KRATZ, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, SIOUX CITY, IA. The chief purpose of this paper is to present a simple investigation, made in one of our high-school classes in English, in regard to the sensations or emotions aroused by music, and to point out its advantages as an exercise in English. It was hoped that such an investigation would tend to lead the students into a deeper appreciation of that which is best in music, to cultivate in them a love for the beautiful, to enrich their emotional life, to develop the habit of introspection, and thus reveal to themselves their inner life, and in consequence help to mold and shape right character. The students were instructed to listen to the playing of three selections on the piano, the titles of which were not given them, make notes of each selection as to what they would regard an appropriate title, its general character, what it suggested, and what feelings or emotions it aroused. Later they were to write out, as an English exercise, their impressions. The selections played were "The Alpine Storm," by Kunkel; "Cradle Song," by Heller; and "The Harlequin," by Chaminade. These, as the titles indicate, are widely different in character and present striking contrasts. The mad pranks of "The Harlequin" were most clearly set forth, as sixty out of seventy-one correctly interpreted it. The "Cradle Song was most difficult to interpret, because the ideas the author intended to convey were not so well marked. To meditate, to muse, to be soothed, to hear a lullaby, is to open the heart to many varying emotions. The papers disclosed generally that the girls possessed natural views on musical matters, understood their inner selves better, discriminated more closely in their attempts to portray their feelings, than the boys. They were also asked to describe their sensations when listening to music. Their replies indicate that a very wide range of feelings, sensations, and emotions were aroused. Some wanted to dance, while others felt nervous. Some felt their muscles twitching, while others were in a happy mood. Some were thrilled by patriotic music and were eager to do some great deed, while others wanted to run a race, etc. Forty-one stated that they found it difficult to express their impressions aroused by the music. While the emotions are expressed with difficulty, and we often say they are too deep for words, yet, if we more frequently came face to face with our inner self, if we cultivated a closer acquaintance with these emotions, vague longings, unconscious yearnings of our souls, we should be better able to clothe our emotions with words, and also accomplish that which is of much greater value — shape our own characters more intelligently. DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE INSTRUCTION SECRETARY'S MINUTES FIRST SESSION.-THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1900 The department was called to order at 3:30 P. M. in the College of Charleston by Acting President C. B. Wilson. On motion, N. A. Harvey was elected secretary pro tempore. On motion, a Committee on Nominations was appointed as follows: Eugene W. Lyttle, of New York. L. Dwight Arms, of New York. The following program was rendered: President's address, "How can Advanced Science in the College and University and Nature Study in the Graded Schools be Rendered More Mutually Helpful ?" by President C. B. Wilson, of Westfield, Mass. "Nature Study for the Graded Schools," by Miss Katherine Dolbear, high school, Holyoke, Mass. After discussion the department adjourned. SECOND SESSION.-FRIDAY, JULY 13 Meeting called to order by Mr. Charles Newell Cobb, of Albany, N. Y. The Committee on Nominations presented the following report: For President-N. A. Harvey, West Superior, Wis. For Vice-President - Charles B. Wilson, Westfield, Mass. For Secretary- Charles Newell Cobb, Albany, N. Y. The report was adopted and the secretary instructed to cast the ballot of the section for the persons nominated. Resolutions were adopted extending the thanks of the department to the College of Charleston for the use of its building; to the local committee for its very efficient arrangements for the meeting; and to the local press for its very full reports of the proceedings of the section. The section adjourned. N. A. HARVEY, PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS HOW CAN ADVANCED SCIENCE IN THE COLLEGE AND |