He then added, "Two buttons are one-fifth of ten, and one lazy teachers that little children are unable to dip the pen button is one-tenth of ten." When, where or how he learned into the ink without inking their fingers and hands and this last fact no one knew. Judging him by the course of clothes and faces and writing-books and desks, is on a par study, he was a prodigy. But he was not. He was just with the statement that little boys and little girls can not an ordinary live boy of flesh, blood and brains. This teacher be taught to keep their hands and faces clean, or how to had learned a lesson in pedagogy as well as a lesson in use a knife, fork, or a spoon when eating at the table. number. If a child can count two and five he can soon More than fifteen years ago in the schools of Kansas City, grasp ten. Try him. Give him ten buttons, blocks or the first attempt was made, so far as I know, in the United anything he can handle, ask him to see how many twos he States to use pen and ink in the lower grades. In a month can find. He will readily tell you that he has five twos. after the children enter the lowest primay grades, they beHow many fives? Two fives. Now put them all together gin with pen and ink. Children who write with lead penand tell him that in the group we have ten. Now divide cils and slate pencils have, at some time in their lives, to it into two equal parts. He knows, often, what each part begin the use of pen and ink. The longer this is deferred, is called. If he does not, tell him. It is just as easy for the more they have become accustomed to the use of the him to learn it now as it will be a year hence. slate and lead pencils, and habit is thus fixed into form, and Give him twelve things. The farmer boy at six years the child finds it exceedingly difficult to take up a new incan count a dozen eggs. The city boy, a dozen bananas. strument, which requires a different pressure and a differHave them separate the dozen objects into two equal parts, ent management altogether from those with which he has into three, into four, into six. Pointing to one of the two worked. It is the breaking up, if successfully accomplished, equal parts, ask what part it is of the dozen, the pupil will of that fixed state of the muscles which has been acquired say one-half. Point to one of the three equal parts and by constant practice, during years of pencil work, that say one-third of a dozen. Now point to one of the four makes ink writing so difficult.

equal parts and the pupil will say one-fourth of a dozen, if As to the practical working with the pen and ink, the you will give him a chance. He will be able by this time little children, as well as the older ones, must be taught at to point to one-sixth of a dozen himself. Now he knows once how to dip the pen into the ink, how to give the pen that one-half dozen is six. Ask what one-half of six is. a little shake so as to prevent the ink's dropping off the He will tell, nine times out of ten. In fact he will be de- pen point, how to hold the pen, how to sit with teet lighted to find the half of every even number from two to squarely on the floor, with the back straight, the hips and twelve inclusive. He will wish to tell that four is the half shoulders in proper position, the head held in such a manof eight and that there are two fours in eight. Don't be surprised if he asks how much two eights are. Be encouraged and tell him. But the course of study! Sure enough, we had almost forgotten about it. Well, what of it? It says we must not go beyond ten during the first year. No, it says to teach from one to ten inclusive, which means about the same thing. But if your pupils can do more, all will be glad to have them do so. The course of study is for the pupil, not the pupil for the course of study. -GEO. P. BASS, in Indiana School Journal.

WRITING IN THE FIRST GRADE.

BY SUPT. J. M. GREENWOOD.

ner as to see the paper, pen point, and the pen-holder; in other words, to keep the pen point and top of the penholder and the nose in the same straight line. This is the mechanical part of the writing-getting ready to do it.

Prior to this, however, the form of the letter itself, which the child is to make, must be thoroughly fixed in the mind from the chart or the writing book, or as perfect a model as the teacher can make. The child gets the idea of the form of the letter; he studies this form and thus thinks about it when he is going to make it; he works in an intelligent manner. It is through the forms that he learns the principles of penmanship. He analyzes at every step. The steps now enumerated are:

1. Accurate position of the whole body. 2. Pen position. 3. The ideal conception or form in the child's mind. 4.

Should little children when they start to school be taught The concentration of his mind upon what he is going to do to write with pen and ink the first year? I answer in the-the thought element. 5. The execution of the work itaffirmative with a big "YES." self. 6. Analysis and synthesis.

Any other method is illogical, nonsensical and a waste With care and proper instruction the little child will go of time. The plea made by ignorant superintendents and about his work a little more slowly, it is true, but with no

more difficulty than a class in the third or fourth grade that has not been taught how to use pen and ink. This work, as well as all other school work, is accomplished step by step. Any faithful teacher who will work at it intelligently, systematically, and with a good plan, can do it; but sloven, "I can't," grumbling, complaining teachers never accomplish it. The I can's" succeed.

183

ment that can be paid. It saves one the mortification of being told of the fine points that were missed. It was this faculty which made the Dutch painters great artists. They painted all the little details of a room, even to the string of onions over the fireplace, and these last became first.

The plans and specifications of the new Yale Law Our teachers do this beginning work admirably, and School Building have just been completed. The buildevery one in the city accomplishes it with ease and a good ing is to be located on Elm Street, near the Divinity degree of satisfaction. This is the chief reason why the School, and will cost $150,000. It is to have a facade of children of Kansas City do better writing than any other Tuckahoe marble, of elaborate design. It will be 90 feet city in the country; another factor is, that we have no spe-wide and 50 feet deep. The building will consist of two cial teacher of writing. Intelligent teachers will always do sections: the rear section will be 80 feet front by 90 deep. better work than cranky specialists.-Primary Education. It is expected that the building will be completed in about

PAY ATTENTION.

A man once gave that apparently ambiguous maxim to his children:

"If you cannot be great pay attention."

The first boy went away for a day, and when he returned home he had procured a place in a mercantile establish

ment.

"How did you get it?" asked his father.

"Well, I remembered to pay attention, and saw the man look at my hat, which was on my head, so I took it off and put it under my arm."

"What then, son?"

"The man said: 'Right, my boy,' and hired me."

"So you were paid for being polite," said the father with much satisfaction.

"Attention," said Lowell, 'is the stuff out of which memory is made." The large things of this life will take care of themselves-it is the little things that count. We grow and improve by paying attention to the affairs of life, the habits of good society, the manners of the educated and refined.

There is a story called "A Window in Thrums," the work of a popular author. There is in it a character named "Leeby" of whom her friends said: "It's a pity she cannot make use of her eyes, if not of her tongue," and they rated her for having her eyes cast down, and not see. ing or hearing what was going on. Yet she was the only one who saw there was "nae carpet below the wax cloth" in the manse; "just a poker in the fireplace-nae tangs." And of the minister's new wife: "She wears her hair low on the left side to hide a scar, and there's two warts on her right hand." She had paid attention to her surroundings, and was full of mental notes.

To pay attention to the speaker is the highest compli

a year, and will be the finest law school building in the country.

Elocutionary.

WHO'S AFRAID IN THE DARK?

"Not I!" said the owl,
And he gave a great scowl,
And he wiped his eye,
And fluffed his jowl.

"Tu whoo!"
Said the dog, "I bark
Out loud in the dark,
Boo-oo!"

Said the cat, "mi-iew!
I'll scratch any who
Dare say that I do

Feel afraid, mi-iew!"
"Afraid," said the mouse,

"Of the dark in a house?
Here me scatter
Whatever's the matter.
Squeek!"

Then the toad in his hole,

And the bug in the ground,
They both shook their heads

And passed the word round.
And the bird in the tree,
The fish and the bee,
They declared all three,
That you never did see
One of them afraid

In the dark!

But the little boy who had gone to bed,
Just raised the bed-clothes and covered his head.
-J. T. in St. Nicholas.

184

EDITORIAL NOTES.

EDUCATIONAL NEWS.

In order to show the general sentiment of the press

A WEEKLY EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL, with regard to the matter of hazing we give the fol

lowing comments, clipped at random. These all refer to the late hazing at Cornell University.

The Penal Code of New York State makes ample Editer provision for dealing with such homicidal crimes; and there never was a better case for demonstrating in exemplary fashion that its terrors apply alike to all $1 50 offenders-to the gilded youth within the college halls no less than to the outcast of the slums.-The Record, Philadelphia.

75

We give below the names of twenty-six extra good standard books, any one of which will be sent free as a premium

to each subscriber to the WEEKLY EDUCATIONAL NEWS who will send $1.50 in advance for the paper for one year and 10 cents to pay postage on the book.

1. Robinson Crusoe.

2. Arabian Nights Entertainments.

3.

Swiss Family Robinson.

4:

Don Quixote.

5. Vicar of Wakefield.

6. Dickens' Child's History of England.

7. Last Days of Pompeii.

8. Ivanhoe.

9. Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby.
Grimm's Popular Tales.

10.

11. Grimm's Household Stories.

12. Pickwick Papers.

13. Speeches of Webster.

14. Life of Daniel Webster

15.

Lifeof Washington.

16. Life of Patrick Henry.
17. Jane Eyre.

18.

Lucile.

19, Anderson's Fairy Tales.

20. Tom Brown at Oxford.

1: John Halifax, Gentleman.

22. Tennyson's Poems.

23. Plan Thoughts on the Art of Living.

24. Esop's Fables.

25. Swineford's Literature for Beginners. 26. Hints and Helps on English Grammar. These books are all bound in cloth and well printed. They will grace any one's library.

Box 1258.

EDUCATIONAL NEWS CO., Philadelphia. For $4.00, we will send the Forum and the weekly EDUCATIONAL NEWS one year, the cash must accompany the order.

For three dollars, we will send the EDUCATIONAL NEWS weekly for one year, and Macaulay's History of England vols cloth, worth alone $3.75.

The general hope is that the perpetrators will be promptly discovered and visited with the utmost severity of state as well as college law. The lesson should be severe enough to awaken students everywhere to the criminality as well as the foolishness of college hazing and rowdyism in all its phases.-The Times, Troy.

That any body of young American men could perpetrate such a deed as that of Wednesday evening of this week seems impossible. It was a crime akin to that of the Anarchist Vaillant, who threw the bomb in the French Chamber. Its perpetrator and his accomplices were malefactors of the skulking kind, sneaks and poltroons. They have brought disgrace upon the university; the place for them is the penitentiary or even worse.-The Sun, New York.

The serious consequence of an attempt at wholesale hazing at Cornell should form an example of sufficient power to break the practice at all our colleges for good and all. For the outcome was murder, not of any of the freshmen, but of a poor colored woman. A severe punishment of the offenders is needed for the protection of life hereafter.-The Herald, Boston.

It is high time for these barbarous customs of college boys to be cut out to the roots. The public will not endure them. They are not "pranks," but insane breaches of social order which colleges, as institutions dedicated to the education of youth and their moral uplifting, can in no degree afford to be associated with. The Republican, Springfield, Mass.

It is a good sign when thinking men begin to re

volt against the mistaken methods which have carried training. The cry from the reformers goes up conteachers off their feet for the past few years, especi- stantly that the study of grammar does not make ally in the teaching of numbers. Dr. McClellan in correct writers. Possibly not under a teacher who the March number of Popular Educator has been doing doesn't know how to teach, but the diluted language heroic work in upsetting the popular idol, the Grube training which our children are getting to-day in method. He says, "Our methods in arithmetic have many schools does still less. It not only does not been too long the result of a religious superstition teach the children the proper use of language but concerning things foreign, particularly of German ori- wholly loses sight of the important fact that it does gin. This servile adherence to methods strenuously ad- not lay the foundation for higher culture in language, vocated as alone philosophical, has been fruitful of so that when the college professor comes to complete mischievous fallacies in number teaching. The pres- the house of English he either finds no foundation at ent times are not better than the former so far as the all or at best a mere jumbled, conglomerate heap of study of arithmetic is concerned. The car of prog- materials on which he is expected to construct a finress, started fairly on its way by Colburn's Intellectual ished edifice. The work cannot be completed satis

Arithmetic has been retarded, turned completely factorily, and it is not the fault of the college profesround in obedience, I suppose, to Pestalozzi's prepos- sor. The only thing he can do is to turn out a poor terous dictum. At all events we are getting from the

study of arithmetic neither the practical knowledge grammarian or do the work of the primary and gram

nor the mental discipline which our fathers got. We have adopted the atomic theory in administering mental pabulum. Our children must be spoon-fed with driblets hashed to the minutest form-comminuted till they are almost below the 'threshold value' of any intellectual stimulus. 'Tis high time to

mar school teacher over again, in an institution where such work ought not to be expected.

We beg to join in congratulations to State Superintendent Schaeffer. We hear that it is a boy; is that the true report, Doctor.

The subscription list to the NEWS grows steadily

At the low

'Grub up this growing mischief by the roots.'" Really those who believe that the strong, growing child should be constantly fed on the mental pabulum but there is room for more, many more. of the babe have been doing the cause of education a rates we offer we trust that our readers will consider our lists. serious injury not only in the teaching of numbers it a pleasure to add their friends to shall be glad to send samples everywhere free.

but in the teaching of language as well.
This may
not be apparent in the primary school but the vicious
work of this system manifests itself more and more
clearly from the high school on up.

There was a time when the College graduate was expected to be a first-class grammarian, but his grammar was learned chiefly before he entered college, for the College course of study is so crowded with proper collegiate work that it is hardly possible to give time to the teaching of studies neglected in the lower grade schools, and yet we are rapidly approaching the condition where this kind of work must be done. That

students come to College with lamentably weak preparation in English is known everywhere. A disposition to parse the infinitive "to die" by calling "to" a preposition and "die" a noun, doesn't speak well for

We

A trial subscription, one year for one dollar; six months for fifty cents. Four weeks free, if you desire

it.

Personal Items.

E. T. Critchett, formerly principal of the High Schools at Mankato and Duluth, is not at New Ulm, Minn.

Supt. G. B. Cook, of Hot Springs, was chosen president of the Western Arkansas Teachers' Asso ciation, at its recent session held in Fayetteville,

Christmas week.

Curtis P. Coe and wife, both former members of a boy's preparation in grammar, but it speaks volumes the Illinois State Normal University, are now missionin comment on the reformed methods in language aries to the Moqui Indians in Arizona.

Ex-Supt. J. O. Knauss, of Lehigh County, is serv-mal School, Missouri, is away on a month's visit to ing out the unexpired term of H. S. Moyer, teacher in the normal schools in the east.

the Allentown High School. Mr. Moyer is attending the New York City Normal College.

Prof. H. S. Housekeeper, of Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, has been elected burgess of that town.

Miss Permelia Lee, with Miss Lorie McKinnon as assistant, is teaching the Silver City School, one of the largest schools in Jasper County, Texas.

Ex-Senator George Z. Erwin, a member of the Potsdam Normal School, N. Y., died in January at his home in Potsdam.

Supt. B. E. Cook of the Stephenville, Texas, School, has passed his examination and has been admitted to the practice of law.

Prof. P. L. Pool is Principal of Wootan Wells School. He taught ten years in Michigan. This is his first in Texas.

F. M. Chancellor is Principal of Canton, Van Zandt County, High School, Texas.

Prof. E. E. Baker is Principal and Prof. H. Stone and Miss Annie Seale are assistants in S. E. Texas M. and F. College at Jasper.

Mr. Frank M. Johnson, formerly Superintendent at Cleburne and later Principal of the Dallas High School, has returned from his study in Europe. After five years spent in the University of Berlin he received the degree of Ph.D.

T. J. Loar, formerly of Phillipsburg, Kan, is now superintendent of the schools of Lewistown, Mont.

Dr. William E. Walker has resigned as assistant in chemistry at Pennsylvania State College to accept a similar position in the Massachusetts Institute of Techology. Franklin E. Tuttle, Ph.D., Gottingen, has been made assistant professor of chemistry.

Miss Sarah C. Knowles, a Kansas teacher, and a graduate of the Kansas State Normal School, class of '90, is teaching in one of the grammar grades in the public schools of Troy, Ohio.

Augusta, Georgia, has re-elected Lawton B. Evans as superintendent.

President Osborne of the Warrensburg State Nor

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