LESSONS IN PENMANSHIP For Teachers and Pupils.

AM again organizing classes in Penmanship Brain

by mail. I have arranged Two COURSES: ONE FOR TEACHERS, which they can present to their schools and ONE FOR INDIVIDUAL PUPILS.

These courses both include the Rapid System and Fore arm movement, the only system under

which you can become a rapid business writer Horsford's Acid Phosphate

VOL. X., No. 1.

AWEEKLY JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

PHILADELPHIA PA., JANUARY 6, 1894

$1.50 A YEAR

of to-day?-whether right or wrong is not for me to say -The complaint comes forward, every now and then, that the public schools do not prepare for college or if they do, the pupils are too old. This is easily explained. The people of to-day demand the sciences, drawing, music and in some cases etymology and some modern language. Is there any wonder that by the time the pupil gets all that, and the dead languages, he is considerably advanced in years? But this is not the most provoking part of it. The pupil goes to college and gets scarcely any credit for what he has done in the public school. His knowledge of U. S. history, political and physical geography, drawing and 5 orthography, are almost utterly ignored. If he gave a ..6 year to book-keeping it is just so much time thrown 7 away that should have been devoted to the irregular Greek verb. He may have devoted several terms to the elements ..7 of the different sciences and these will fare about the same as some of the other branches mentioned.

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It is true that it is difficult to find preparatory schools, since the public schools have driven the old academy out of existence, but you will never succeed in placing the high schools in the attitude of feeders to the college unless you .14 change the prescribed course of the college.

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No matter how much we may contend for the old, the tendency of the public school is away from the idea of preparing for college entrance.

This fact is to be regretted in one way because it gives

PUBLIC SCHOOLS SHOULD NOT PREPARE FOR the pupils an idea that when they pass from the grammar

COLLEGE.

school-so-called-or the high school, they have completed their education; i. e. they have a complete educa. Judging from the extracts that appeared in the press tion. This leads me to remark incidentally that the gradwithin the last few weeks, from the report of the present uation of pupils from every high school and from many State Superintendent, one would infer that the schools of grammar schools, has very frequently just the opposite the state are far behind because they do not, as a rule, effect to that which was originally intended. The graduprepare for college. They do not teach the dead lan- uation with its public display was intended to keep the guages. The question seems to be this: Shall the public pupils longer at school, but not to give them the idea that schools so change their course as to meet the college with its they are "graduated" and therefore have no use for furclassical course of a hundred years ago, or shall the college ther training. change its course so as to conform to the public school, which is modern and represents the ideas of the people

It is my candid opinion that taken all in all, the public schools, though often taken to task by college men, do

better work than the colleges and very often under de-ics and priests also came with De Soto. He also brought cided disadvantages. Give the public schools the same two hundred horses-the first brought to America-and a number of pupils per teacher and the same appliances and herd of swine. Sailing from Havara, De Soto landed the result will far surpass the results obtained in most of two weeks later on the coast of Florida. He was deterthe colleges. Let this fact also be taken into consideration mined not to return until he had accomplished his mission that as a rule only the brighter pupils advance to college and to make it impossible to go back, he sent all his ships while the public school takes the whole mass, "good, bad, to Cuba. and indifferent" and lifts it up.

To gain the best result in this state the colleges and pub lic schools must come closer together and this can only be done by the colleges conforming to the demands of the modern idea of education.

Then began the march through the wilderness and swamps of Florida. The natives were their guides, save one--John Ortiz-a survivor of Narvaez's party, whom De Soto had found. This man had been among the Indians for twelve years and like Smith had been saved from death by an Indian chief's daughter. De Soto's line of march was northwest and with armed men carrying banners they

bama and Mississippi in search of gold. The "wily natives" led them on telling them of rich treasures beyond. Thus the Indian guides led the Spaniards into dangers in order to reduce their ranks by disease and death. De Soto made a demand upon the natives for two hundred men to carry the burdens of the warriors. This brought on a war in which De Soto lost many men. On and still on they

If the public schools are to meet the colleges, the first step must be the reorganization of the normal schools and raising them to the grade of purely professional schools, wandered through the unbroken forests of Georgia, Alaand their admitting only those who are classical scholars. Let it not be forgotten in this discussion that if the public schools of to-day do not prepare the pupils so well for college as did the academies of a generation or two ago, those who are prepared and go through college are more practical and, in every day life, can help themselves better than the college graduates of former days. There was a time when the college man stood for everything that was im- marched until April (1541) of the second year of their wanpractical and theoretical, but that day has long ago passed derings when they came in sight of the Mississippi-the away because of better teaching in common schools. The first Europeans to see this great river. pupil has mastered the elements, and that is what he uses in practical life, before he goes to college.

For the EDUCATIONAL NEWS.

FOR THE HISTORY CLASS.

DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

H. H. S.

Spending a month in making boats they crossed and marched on two hundred miles in search of the gold which the Indians told them was farther West. Not finding any El Dorado, De Soto returned to the river he had discovered and started along its banks to the sea, but this proved to be a difficult task because of the marshes, bayous, dense forests and the savages. He had already lost two hundred Among the early adventurers in America was Ferdinand and fifty of his men and one hundred and fifty horses. The De Soto. He began life as a soldier in the West Indies, whole company were worn out because of hardships. In having as his only possession a sword and a shield. At the May, 1542, De Soto stricken with fever, died. His body head of a body of cavalry he accompanied Pizarro in an was hidden three days and then buried in the camp, but exposition to Peru. During this expedition De Soto won fearing the Indians would get it, his companions took up the confidence of his commander. He engaged in many the body and dropped it, at midnight, from a boat, into the perilous exploits and gained for himself the distinction of Mississippi river. Then after many miles of wandering and being a skillful and mighty warrior. Returning to Spain hardships he slept in peace at the bottom of the river he he lived in great magnificence. He married the daughter had discovered. of the noble under whom he had fought as a soldier. Being a man of wealth and social standing he was a favorite at the Sanish court. Charles V, the emperor, granted him permission to conquer, at his own cost, the territory of Florida. He fitted out a fleet of nine vessels, and selected six hundred men to sail with him to the New World. Arriv ing at Cuba, they remained there for some time befor sail'ng for Florida. Beside the six hundred warriors, mechan

The remaining warriors, three hundred in all, made seven rude boats and sailed to the gulf, a distance of five hundred miles, in seventeen days. They reached a Spanish settlement in Mexico and from there returned to Spain.

RECREATIONS.

Tell something of Pizarro; Charles V.
Tell the story of De Soto's coming to America.
What did he bring to America?

Whom did he find in America ?
Through what States did De Soto march?
What river did he discover? When?
When did De Soto die?

Why did his companions hide his body?
Where was he finally buried?

Tell about his remaining warriors.
Slippery Rock Normal.

D. C. M.

TEACHING NUMBERS TO PRIMARY PUPILS.

ber to be divided and ask them to separate the objects into equal parts, or take out a certain number as often as they can. Take ten divided by two for example: I try to have them understand that we are to find how often two is contained in ten, when placing their objects by two's they can readily see that five places with two in a place is the result.

Similarly I teach them to make the different combinations of numbers, rarely confining them to ten, for while I find some who do not advance beyond that in the first year, I find many to whom it would be a waste of time to daily

I do not claim to give the best methods in teaching num-repeat what they have thoroughly learned. bers, but merely to give methods that I have employed, hoping to elicit further information for my own benefit.

I believe that every step should be taken that pupils do not repeat anything parrot-like. ·

I believe that it is almost universally conceded that obI have also used objects in teaching notation of numbers jects should be freely used in teaching numbers to primary where I have found a difficulty in understanding how to pupils. When a pupil first enters school I endeavor to write numbers containing vacant places and orders. To ascertain his knowledge of numbers by presenting objects write the number 8093 for example, I have the pupils draw and asking him to hand me an equal number, asking him on their slates, five parallel, vertical, lines marking the to name the number of objects presented, and asking him right hand space units, the next tens, then hundreds and to hand me certain number of objects. I have rarely thousands in their proper order; then, reading them the found a pupil who was unable to count ten when first en-number, I have them place the objects in the spaces, as tering school, and have often found them able to add, sub-eight in the space for thousands, nine in the space for tens, tract, and multiply numbers to ten, but having no concep- three in the space for units, when seeing no objects in the space of hundreds they can quickly understand that in In teaching addition, I show objects, different numbers writing it out the vacant place is to be filled by a cipher. I have derived much benefit from different educational in each hand, and placing them together have the children tell me the full number; request them to make a certain publications, but this idea of teaching notation I believe to number of marks on their slates, and, adding others, tell be wholly my own as I have never me the whole number. I have the children handle the scribed by any one. objects themselves, passing them from one to another, and telling the number held by each one in passing.

tion of division.

-Texas School Journal.

seen or heard it deMRS. E. C. PROTHRO. Hillsboro, Texas.

In teaching subtraction, instead of telling the number LANGUAGE AND METHODS FOR TEACHING it.

held by one to whom other objects are given, I have them

BY MARY A. SPEAR.

tell the number still held by one who has given some to another. I make marks on the blackboard asking the pu- (Abstract of a paper read before the Connecticut State Teachers' Assopils to tell me the number, and then erasing some, have them tell the remainder.

In teaching multiplication I have them arrange the objects in different places on their desks, with the required number of objects in each place. For example: I will ask "How many are three times three?" when, arranging their toothpicks, pebbles, etc., in three places, with three in a place they can see that nine is the number required. I also frequently use the blackboard, making straight marks with spaces between. As for twice four, I will make four marks, a space, and four more marks, and they will readily see that twice four are eight.

ciation.)

Language lessons prepare one for the study of grammar by giving practice in the correct expression of thought. When children enter school the first thing attempted is to increase their vocabulary and to teach the proper use of words when learned. This may be done by conversation; on things about which they already have some thoughts, and about which they have a desire to learn more.

They are to be trained to use correct forms of speech when describing familiar things. The sky, the weather, the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms are always In teaching division, I take objects to represent the num- available, and can be studied by even the youngest pupils.

THE TRAINING OF BOYS.

Every language lesson must have some reference to what has preceded it, and to what may follow. It should have some immediate connections with that which is already President Gilman, of Johns Hopkins University, in one known, and these connections should be noticed whenever of his published addresses, entitled "Boys and Boys' and wherever they occur, till a clear knowledge of the Schools," admits that while it is possible to approximately subject is obtained. predict the speed a thoroughbred colt may achieve in Descriptions of actions as well as of objects is required. time, or to anticipate the eventual quality of an Ayrshire or When movements are made by a teacher or by pupils un- a Durham calf, yet no one can discover in the nursery the der her direction, she can arrange them so as to make oc-coming statesman or scholar, nor foretell the governing casion for the use of many irregular verbs which are in qualities that may be developed by any one of a group of common use, and which are often used incorrectly. These schoolboys. A great many persons in accounting for what will be suggested by listening to ordinary conversations. a boy will or will not do, fall back on the convenient 'word. Action lessons afford opportunities for using verbs in dif- "heredity," but, as President Gilman points out, while ferent forms, also for the use of adverbs and prepositions. every boy is undoubtedly influenced in some degree by The value of pictures as means for ethical teaching is to both his inherited qualities and his environment, yet the be considered. The imagination of a child leads him to in-laws of heredity in the human species are not well enough vest people in a picture with varied qualities and charac-known to indicate with any degree of certainty the future teristics, according to his own experiences, he attributes to of any child, while the conditions under which he may them feelings and desires, and if he is led to make these live may be as complex as the elements that nourish the represented people pure in motive and speech he will be body, the water he drinks, or the air he breathes. better because of his contact with the picture. If, then, every boy differs from every other boy in charReproduction of something heard or read is an impor-acter as he does in appearance, it follows that plans of tant feature, inasmuch as it affords an excellent means for education should be adapted as far as practical to individtraining a pupil to form the habit of attention. The mat-ual requirements. Still, as a boy comes into the world ter is to be reproduced not in the author's lauguage as a not only as an individual, but as one of a family, or commemory exercise, but in the language of the child. He is to clothe the thoughts gained in his own words. From time to time he will use words or phrases of the author because they seem to him better or more expressive; in this way he improves his own language.

In primary grades, oral lessons should precede written work, because many pupils have not yet enough ideas to make strong, independent thinkers, but hearing the thoughts of others gives them more ideas to put into their compositions. The first written exercise is the combined work of teacher and pupils; thus, beginners in written productions can be trained to give some attention to selection and arrangement of sentences, and also have practical work in punctuation and the use of capital letters.

munity, or race, to deprive him of comrades, to isolate him and confine him to an exclusive course of instruction would not only be unnatural, but undesirable. President Gilman asserts that—

"Neither precocity nor dullness is a certain index of the future of a boy. Only a wise man can tell the difference between the priggishness of conceit and the display of unusual talent, and it takes a superlatively wise man to devise right methods of exciting temperaments that are dull, or, on the other hand, to guide a genius. Abnormal brilliancy and abnormal slowness are usually the result of abnormal physical conditions, and physiologists are only just beginning to show to ordinary parents how these unusual conditions may be discovered and treated. When we

man

Text-books are to be used as guides in selecting such see a man we cannot tell what sort of a boy he came from essentials of language as are needed to prepare for study and when we see a boy we cannot tell what sort of a of grammar, but these essentials must never go beyond he will make." what pupils are able to receive. The value of the lessons depends upon the thought-power which a child gains, as well as upon the number of words and his power to use them.-School Journal.

On the subject of education, President Gilman's address is both interesting and suggestive. He sees a danger to the young in morbid self-consciousness and extreme sensitiveness, and utters a warning against parents' encouraging too intense and too prolonged introspection. Instead

Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan has given half a million dollars of journal writing, self-examination and exclusive devotion for the endowment of New York's trade schools.

to books, he would give boys plenty of open air, and