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a journal as shall stimulate effort and advance-
ment and help them to keep abreast of
the times. One who is to succeed in school
work needs such help now more than ever
before, because competition is sharper and
ideals are advancing rapidly. We appreciate
the cordial support which is given us by many
friends, and shall try to merit it in the future.
We wish to extend our influence, and ask the
further help of our friends in doing this. We
will send sample copies to any whose address
may be furnished us and try to be helpful to
them in securing any publications which they
may desire, as well as in other ways.

AN article on "Curfew for City Children,”

in the North American Review for December,

states that of the 13,000 boys and girls in re-

form schools in 1890, 98 per cent. went from

cities, towns and villages; that is, from one-

third of the population, as two-thirds resided

on farms. The chief cause of this result in

town life is parental neglect; the children are

on the streets in the evening instead of at

home. The writer says: "In June, 1896, I

received a statement announcing that two

hundred cities had adopted the Curfew law,

and that city officials, parents, school teach-

ers, employers of youthful labor, and especially

chiefs of police were emphatic in their praise

of its efficacy." Among the statements cited

is that of the chief of police of Lincoln, Neb.:

"After the Curfew was in force a few weeks

arrests for disorderly conduct and truancy fell

off fully seventy-five per cent." He adds: "I

cannot see why any city government in the

country should hesitate to enact the ordi-

nance." Instead of being irritated by the op-

eration of the law it is found that most of the

parents welcome it as an aid to family disci-

pline.

FROM the "no-recess" plan, which a few years

ago was the ruling "fad" in school matters,
to the more-recess plan, is just such a change
as must be expected in a period of rapid edu-
cational development like that thru which we
are now passing. We noticed in November
the experiments of Prof. Friedrich, of Wurz-
burg, showing that the errors of children are
diminished almost one-half when a recess of
ten minutes is allowed each hour. A writer
in the December number of the Educational

Review, treating of "Some Characteristics of Prussian Schools," says: "At the end of the first recitation there was a recess of several minutes, during which the windows were opened and the boys were given an opportunity of stretching their muscles on the playground. These recesses, which varied in length from five to fifteen minutes, occurred between all recitations, and all the boys were required to spend the longer intervals out of doors, except a few invalids who were excused by the order of a physician. This custom of relieving, as often as once an hour, the nervous tension generated in growing children by the physical and mental restraints of the class-room, was an established rule in every school that I visited, and seemed to me a practice worthy of general adoption."

SELECTING text-books is really a matter requiring large experience in school work, maturity of judgment and thorough scholarship. This is especially true in our American schools, where the text-book determines almost absolutely what shall be taught, in what order it shall be taught, and even the method of teaching it. If there be in the whole field of education a matter which ought to be determined by the judgment of experts it would seem to be this. Yet in our practice this is left to the school board, a body very properly constituted of business men, whose chief function ought to be to look after the material and business side of school management, and whose members presumably in the great majority of cases are very far from educational experts. What results? Why, the decision is determined by all sorts of secondary considerations, the price of the books, the trades that can be made, above all the tactical skill and manipulations of the interested book agents. As our larger cities come to employ thoroughly trained expert superintendents, and our principals in smaller places devote time and effort to forming sound judgments in this matter, and securing such respect for their judgments as they will then be entitled to, we may hope for an escape out of the present anomalous and unsatisfactory situation. Thus we shall reach the only rational solution of the vexed "text-book problem."

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RARELY has a monthly magazine crowded so much that is stimulating to thought as is found in the December number of the Forum. Our purpose at present is to call attention to a single paragraph in Mr. Goldwin Smith's "The Brewing of the Storm," a review of the conditions giving rise to the Chicago platform and party. Among other conditions he contrasts the old-fashioned school teaching, that

happiness lies in doing your duty in the sphere in which you find yourself, with the teaching of the new school that it lies in rising above that station. He notes the profit to the nation coming of this universal ambition, and also the danger resulting from the more more complete closing of opportunities to rise as the country fills up. In our opinion it is not the school but the society, which has been preaching this "discontent.' It is stimulated by the possibilities, the spectacles of success on every hand, the talk of the marts and the shops. It is the courage and hopefulness of national youth. Doubtless the spirit brings dangers, especially with the diminution of opportunity to advance. The remedy will not be to return to the old teaching, which means stagnation, but in rationalizing the new, so that joy may be found in effort and success in the development of strength and character, a success which all may achieve. This comes to the same thing as saying that with maturity must come an escape from the purely materialistic ideals of youth, to the rational and attainable ideals of maturity. The schools must help this development.

ers.

THE NORMAL SCHOOLS AND THE UNIVERSITY.

A friend, who had been looking over the statistics published in our last issue as to the qualifications of high school teachers in Wisconsin, suggested that a considerable number who are reported as university graduates are also normal graduates. We are glad to call attention to the fact that there are such teachWe have been examining the list again with a view to ascertaining as nearly as possible how many such are now in the schools, and are surprised at the relatively small number. Out of a total of one hundred and fiftysix university graduates now teaching in the high schools we have been able to find but twelve who are also normal school graduates. We may have overlooked one or two cases, but not enough materially to modify the proportion. The reasons for this are probably many. We are able to think of four such graduates who are teaching in the normal schools; three are teaching in the university; several are pursuing graduate courses; some have college or normal school positions out of the state; and some of course have entered other callings. callings. It is very much to be desired that the number of such in the schools should be increased, and the development of a special course for normal graduates at the university, which will be inaugurated next year, will, it is hoped, tend rapidly to add to their number

But the remark carries with it a suggestion that there exists such a rivalry in this matter between the normal schools and the university as makes the correct exhibition of the number of teachers contributed by each to the high schools a matter of justice and importance. Such is not our view of the case. In this matter the interests of these institutions are the same and not opposed. The influence of some of the normal schools we know to be in favor of the largest culture on the part of those seeking to become teachers, and they make open and easy the passage of their students to higher institutions. The list of normal graduates now in the junior and senior classes at the university, which we publish elsewhere, is evidence of this fact. The normal schools and the university are working together for the upbuilding of the schools of the state: the field is large, larger than all of them can adequately supply; so that any other relation than that of co-operation and mutual helpfulness would be wholly inexcusable. Moreover, the crying need of the schools at the present time is greater culture, more breadth, on the part of those who teach. By this alone can the schools be rescued from formalism, so that the work in them shall develop intellectual life in the pupils in place of the conventional routine still too common. This breadth of view which gives meaning and inspiration to studies is needed in the grades below the high school. Our conception of grade work is undergoing a rapid expansion. We are not merely introducing new subjects and curtailing some which had grown out of proportion, but we are coming to recognize that the awakening of real interests the forming of the human spirit to right ways of action and to far reaching ideals is the proper aim. This can be done only by those who have the insight and knowledge that result from thorough culture. We must have better trained grammar school teachers. It is impossible longer to limit our demand for higher attainments to the high school teachThus the field expands before us. We cannot take the measure of it, or of the usefulness of the agencies for training teachers, by simply reckoning with the high schools. Therefore while it has seemed to us occasion for rejoicing that the number of broadly trained teachers in our high schools-still far too limited is on the increase, it does not seem useful to try to measure the relative value of our institutions for training teachers by so narrow a standard as the number of high school teachers they may furnish. Such a standard would be especially unjust in its application to our normal schools.

S.

ANOTHER REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION.

us.

Dr. Harris is effecting a most desirable advance in the work of his office by bringing about a more prompt issuance of the annual reports. These had so far fallen behind that the volume for 1893-94 appeared at the close of 1896 and was noticed in our last issue. Close upon it follows the report for 189495, the first volume of which now lies before This indicates increased efficiency and thoroughness of organization in the work of the office, which is also shown by many features of this very interesting volume. We may be permitted to specify particularly the reports for secondary schools in this country, which are remarkably complete and very satisfactorily systematized. The large volume of 1,152 pages presents so many matters of interest that we must content ourselves at present with a brief allusion to a few of them.

In addition to the general account of Edu cation in Great Britain, which sets forth with considerable detail the important controversy over religious instruction and public support for denominational schools, we find here an admirable summary of the important report of the royal commission on secondary schools, which incidentally gives a detailed view of the present system of secondary instruction in England. The papers appended to this report are of even greater interest. American readers will be especially profited and pleased by Mr. Findlay's able report on certain features of secondary education in the United States and Canada, in which he reviews American interest in education, the kinds of schools, the educational authorities and their powers, the training of teachers, and instruction in religion and in citizenship. Add the memoranda on Canadian education, Mr. Fitch's memorandum on the training of teachers in England, Mr. Herbart Ward's on the training of teachers for secondary schools in France, and Mr. Findlay's on their training in Germany and the range and value of these studies will be seen

at once.

Of at least equal interest is the chapter entitled Education in Central Europe. It opens with a paper on the new (Herbartian) education in Germany, by Prof. Rein, of Jena, the leader of this school, followed by one representing the views of the opposing school in pedagogy, entitled "Is German Pedagogy in a State of Decomposition," by Dr. F. Dittes. The account of supplementary and industrial schools in Germany, of ungraded schools, of German views on monitorial instruction, of

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