It has been said that of every hundred confirmed drunkards, ninety-nine are sure to die drunkards. The proportion probably is not much smaller for hardened criminals. Reformatory institutions for the young, guilty of the lower grades of crime and misdemeanors only, are doubtless reclaiming a very considerable number of their inmates, and may, by the increase of wisdom that will be brought to their management through such discussions as have taken place in this Prison Congress, save a yet larger portion.

But the discussions of the Congress are not of special value only; they are full of significance to those engaged in the general field of education. They bring to the attention of educators with powerful emphasis a question that will not down: How shall our public school system be rendered more effective in preventing our youth from becoming criminals? How shall the great schools of vice in our towns and cities be broken up, and their pupils be transferred to schools wherein the influence shall be on the side of virtue ?

We unhesitatingly avow our belief that there is but one means of doing this-that of compulsory education. Let us no longer dally with half-way measures, but like true and earnest men strike at the root of the difficulty at once. Educators in this country have been too weak and timid. They have not dared. fearlessly to deal with great principles. The question under discussion is not so much how we shall make our penitentiaries and reformatory institutions better, but what we shall do to make them unnecessary, or, at least, to reduce their number to the lowest possible minimum. We shall always, under the most favorable circumstances, find it more difficult to reclaim one criminal than to preserve a thousand from becoming such. must open schools everywhere; must plant them in the most desolate regions of vice in our great cities, and then reach out the strong arm of the law to compel parents to give their children. an opportunity of learning. If they prefer a private to a public school, let them enjoy their preference, but let it be understood that henceforth and forever, in America at least, there shall be no uneducated class. Parents have no such exclusive and overshadowing property in their offspring as to entitle them to murder their souls and bodies either through ignorance or caprice.

A bill for compulsory education, wise in most of its provisions, was presented to the Ohio legislature last winter. Had its author's efforts for its passage been promptly seconded by the educators

of the State, those efforts might have been crowned with success ; or, failing in that, a strong foundation for future operation would have been laid. In the most favorable view of the case, our leaders of educational thought can not be held blameless for their indifference in the matter. It is earnestly to be hoped, however, that they and all other classes of men interested in the welfare of society, may soon be brought to realize that the next great aggressive educational movement to be made is the one for compulsory education, and that they may join hands for its inaugu. ration by appropriate legislative enactment.

PROGRESS.

ON THE TEACHING OF READING.

Reading is only a means to further ends, and, hence, it is not to be taught solely for reading's sake. The question arises how may these other objects of reading be met by the use of our ordinary school readers.

1. In teaching reading itself, it is necessary that the teacher read the piece first. The pupil can only learn to read from a good model, and no child can present such a model. The more a pupil is left to himself, being simply requested to read correctly, and the more the teacher neglects to read to him well, the less will a pupil learn to read. Of course an explanation of what is read and a stimulation of the feelings must aid in this; for æsthetic reading not only depends on a correct conception, but also on a consciousness and strength with which the matter read and pronounced is digested.

2. The pupil should now try to read the lesson by his own efforts, and this should be repeated until he acquires a certain proficiency in correct delivery. It is not important that the pupil be permitted to read a large amount of matter, but it is essential to dwell upon one piece perseveringly until it is correctly read. Superficial reading may be resorted to after fluent, correct reading has been acquired.

These two drills apply mainly to reading as reading, but they also extend into another sphere, and secure higher ends. Mind and feeling are brought into action, and a conception of the matter is secured, resulting in intellectual growth.

3. This will be better attained, if the reading matter be not only spoken through with the scholar, now developing, then de

fining, etc., but if little excursions be made into the realms of nature, history, ethics, etc. Such excursions are indispensable, if the teacher intends to bring out the full sense of the piece. Secondary objects are to be separated from the main ones, in order that they may not be confounded, at the expense of clear conception. If the reading lesson be a dialogue, it ought to be read by two pupils, because the different characters can thus be better represented and a better elocution secured. The reading will be more lively, approaching nearer to reality, and hence it will be more intelligible. The different characters ought to be compared to see the author's intention.

4. The memorizing of meritorious pieces is to be recommended, because it secures some further intellectual results, as the culture of the memory, acquirement of certain forms of speech and expression, etc. It will be advisable, though, to limit this exercise to a smaller number of pieces.

5. The reading piece also affords a basis for grammatical instruction, presenting the necessary grammatical materials. This belongs to grammar, and is not here discussed. We may remark that, in order to success, the teacher should follow a fixed plan.

6. The reading pieces can be used for the advancement of the pupil in the written expression of thought. To this end it is recommended (1) that the pupil copy the reading pieces from the book, and afterward produce such pieces from memory. (2) That he narrate other pieces which he has read, or which have been read to him, in a free-hand manner, either orally or in writing. Here the translation of metric pieces into prose and then the transformation of single sentences, should be resorted to. (3) That he be required to analyze the piece into its parts, and to analyze sentences which have not yet been defined. (4) That he imitate a reading piece, i. e., that he invent a similar one. For example, he may use a description of a dog as a model for a description of a cat. (5) That he shorten or abbreviate a reading piece, giving the same only in its main features. Here the single parts may be differently headed. (6) That he reproduce the piece in a changed form; as, for example, by representing the production of an author as the pupil's own experience. Here the pupil can make use of the letter-form, or he may transform a narrative into a description when admissible. (7) That he transforms a reading piece in such a manner as to change a certain less obvious thought of the piece, and make it the main thought.

It is evident, however, that all the exercises under No. 5 are not fully applicable to every reading piece. Some will be of use in one piece; others in another, according to the contents and the style of the piece. Moreover, it will not be possible to carry through all these exercises in every school. Much, also, depends on the teacher. R. WEYHER.

A

1. Analysis is a good thing; but much that is called analysis is simply "rote." By repetition it is made simply a formula, and presents all the evils of the old method "by rule." scholar may go through a process so often, that, though it be the strictest logic, for him its logic is lost, and only a form is retained. It were better to give him the rule at once, and have done with it.

The evils of this plan may be briefly indicated by that common phrase," Drilling it in." This plan is a relic of that old system which modern methods are trying to supplant. This drilling process transforms what little reason may have been developed by the form of analysis, into a mere act of memory; and, it seems to me, is admissible only in the acquisiton of such knowledge as spelling, the multiplication-table, local geography, and the like, subjects which we are obliged to use and possess as matters of simple memory on account of their nature, importance, or convenience. But in the other and higher part of school workdiscipline and culture-when iteration is made an important aid, our method is defective. We get the results of repetition, not of thought; and repetition is not a means of genuine education. We truly educate, only when the mind, fully awake and conscious of its own processes, is led to apply principles. So, instead of "drilling a subject in ", it ought to be put in as a matter of common sense, of judgment, of reason, and it should so remain and be used, until we seek for objects other than discipline. I do not wish to be understood as undervaluing thoroughness. It is for that I plead; for I do not think instruction has been really thorough, when readiness and correctness are the results of "class drills" only.

2. Problems and examples should not be used, as they most always are, to clinch in the mind, as it were, by repeated blows, arbitrary principles, or even the form of analysis. They should rather be used as a test and indicator of mental power and growth. When once a principle has been thoroughly comprehended, which does not by any means depend solely upon the amount of illustration, the guarantee that it will remain available should not rest in the number of times it has been repeated and applied, but in the mental strength and habit of the child. The fact that a pupil "has been over and over" a subject, is quite insufficient evidence that he has mastered it, or that it will abide with him. The apology so often rendered for the deficiencies of a class, that they have been over the subject but once, rarely deserves the credit it receives. Not only has a bad method been pursued, but the evil has been increased by confirming that vicious idea, so prevalent, that it should not be presumed that children know what they have not often repeated. The effects of this kind of discipline in the lower grades is well illustrated when geometry is entered. Witness the amount of time and labor required to be able to reproduce a demonstration. If children were accustomed from the beginning to proceed upon rigid, though simple logic, the ability to understand and retain a line of thought from a single perusal or hearing would not be looked upon as a special gift, but as the result of their training. I would. not dispense with memory or oppose its development; but I regard him as the best workman, who produces a given result with the minimum of gross, mechanical effort, and the maximum of genuine thought-power,-who substitutes for repetition, and a lower order of intellect, acuteness and concentration,-who depends upon the effective single stroke of a sharp edge, rather than the repeated hackings of a dull one.

2. As tending thus to dilute pure mental effort, I am compelled to question the utility of the plan, so common in arithmetic, of dividing a subject into cases, and classifying the examples. It seems necessary to the complete and systematic presentation of a subject; but its inevitable tendency is to diminish the self-reliance of the pupil. He should certainly be able to classify the subject; but he should possess its analysis as an original creation of his own, and not as an import from another's brain. How often is it found that the ability of a class to solve an example, depends upon whether they know under what case it belongs. They have lost sight of general principles in the application of