PATENTS A Tonic FOR INVENTIONS. Equal with the interest of those having claims against the government is that of INVENTORS, who often lose the benefit of valuable inventions because of the incompetency or inattention of the attorneys employed to obtain their patents. Too much care cannot be exercised in employing competent and reliable solicitors to procure patents, for the value of a patent depends greatly, if not entirely, upon the care and skill of the attorney. With the view of protecting inventors from worthless or careless attorneys, and of seeing that inventions are well protected by valid patents, we have retained counsel expert in patent practice, and therefore are prepared to Obtain Patents in the United States and all Foreign Countries, Conduct Interferences, Make Special Examinations, Prosecute Rejected Cases, Register Trade-Marks and Copyrights, Render Opinions as to Scope and Validity of Patents, Prosecute and Defend Infringement Suits, Etc., Etc. If you have an invention on hand send a sketch or photograph thereof, together with a brief description of the important features, and you will be at once advised as to the best course to pursue. Models are seldom necessary. If others are infringing on your rights, or if you are charged with infringement by others, submit the matter to us for a reliable OPINION before acting on the matter. THE PRESS CLAIMS COMPANY, 618 F STREET, NORTHWEST, P. O. Box 385. WASHINGTON, D. C. JOHN WEDDERBURN, Managing Attorney. This Company is managed by a combination of the largest and most influential newspapers in the United States, for the express purpose of protecting their subscribers against unscrupulous and incompetent Patent Agents, and each paper printing this adver tisement vouches for the responsibility and high standing of the Press Claims Company Cut this out and send it with your inquiry. The Educational News Company, BOX 1258, PHILADELPHIA, PA., is authorized to send single copies of any of RAUB & CO.'S publications at two-thirds retail price by mail. It is also authorized to give special rates for introduction. The list is as follows: 1. Studies in English and American Literature, Raub, $1.50 3. Methods of Teaching, Raub, 4. School Management, Raub, .75 (415 pp.) 1.50 (285 pp.) 1.25 5. Tests in Spelling and Pronunciation, (Raub),(116pp) .40 6. Grammatical Analysis by Diagrams, Paper, Cloth, 7. Practical Rhetoric, Raub, (320 pp.) 1.20 8. Punctuation and Letter Writing, Raub, (92 pp.) .40 9. Hints and Helps on English Grammar, (302 pp.) 1.00 FOR BRAIN-WORKERS, the WEAK an SOLDIERS, WIDOWS, CHILDREN, PARENTS. Also, for Soldiers and Sailors disabled in the line of duty in the regular Army or Navy since the war. Survivors of the Indian wars of 1832 to 1842, and their widows, now entitled. Old and rejected claims a specialty. Thousands entitled to higher rates. Send for new laws. No charge for advice. No fee until successful. This Company is managed by a combination of the largest and most influential newspapers in the United States, for the express purpose of protect. ing their subscribers against unscrupulous and incompetent Claim Agents, and each paper printing this advertisement vouches for the responsibility and high standing of the Press Claims Company. VOL. X., No. 36., AWEEKLY JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. PHILADELPHIA, PA., OCTOBER 6, 1894 EDUCATIONAL NEWS, PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE EDUCATIONAL NEWS COMPANY, Philadelphia, Pa. CONTENTS. COMMUNICATIONS: MAKE THE BIBLE LESSON INTERESTING... OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS.. THE OBJECT OF AN EDUCATION.. A TEACHER'S DIFFICULTIES.. TRUTHFULNESS BY EXAMPLE.. BOOK MAKING. EDITORIAL: EDITORIAL NOTES................... PERSONAL ITEMS......... HINTS......... EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE QUERY COLUMN....... LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC,... Original and Selected For the EDUCATIONAL NEWS. MAKE THE BIBLE LESSON INTERESTING. BY CYNTHIA DOERING. $1.50 A YEAR. ject to the beautiful stories contained in the Bible account of the life of Joseph, of David, of Moses, of Sampson, of Saul, or of Solomon. Moreover the Bible is the best of ancient history, and the teacher who first succeeded in impressing this upon me and in interesting me in the thread of Bible stories was, himself, an infidel. His plan was to select one of those great Bible heroes whose life and history would make an acceptable and interesting month's reading, and, impressing each morning's lesson on the memory by two or three well chosen questions, would require at the end of the .565 month a short composition on the subject. Monday-Gen. xxxvii: 1-18. Tuesday-Gen. xxxvii : ..570 18-36. Wednesday-Gen. xxxix: 1-7; also, 19-23. Thurs571 day-Gen. xl: 1-23. Friday-Gen. xli: 1-36. ..573 Monday-Gen. xli: 37 57. Tuesday-Gen. xlii: 1-21. ..574 Wednesday-Gen. xlii: 21-38 Thur-day-Gen. xliii; 1-15. Friday Gen. xliii: 15 34. Monday-Gen. xliv 1 18. Tuesday-Gen. xliv: 1834. Wednesday-Gen. xlv: 1-16. Thursday-Gen. xlv : 16-28. Friday- Gen. xlvi: 1-8; also, 28-34. Monday-Gen. xlvii: 1-5. Tuesday-Gen. xlvii: 15-34. Wednesday-Gen. xlviii. Thursday-Gen. xlix: 1-3: also, 28-33. Friday-Gen. 1. The life of Moses, selected in the same manner, starts the Israelites on their journeys back toward Canaan, and the life of Joshua, from the book of Joshua, returns them Enforced stillness relieved by surreptious kicks, vicious or good-natured according to the disposition of the pupil, under the desks at his nearest neighbor; voice of the teacher drawling through the Psalms or hurrying through to the Promised Land, and the three lives give the early the Gospels; teacher and pupils feeling that here is an unpleasant duty that will have to be got through with some way before the regular morning's work is begun. Such is the usual routine of Bible reading in our schools. Now, a good teacher enjoys teaching anything and how so large and valuable a field of labor can be so generally overlooked I cannot understand. It is not because of religious scruples, for the Jew, the Gentile, the Catholic or the Protestant none of them ob history of a race far more important to mankind and more interesting even to students than that of the ancient Phoenicians or Chaldeans. For the EDUCATIONAL NEWS. OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS. Oct. 1, 1799.-Rufus Choate. A noted lawyer and stateman of former days. From what state? 564 Oct. 2, 1775.-Lyman Beecher. Name four members of the celebrated Beecher family. Oct. 3, 1800.-George Bancroft. A great historian. Is he living yet? Oct. 4, 1822.-Rutherford B. Hayes. THE OBJECT OF AN EDUCATION. "Yes, I'm going to send Jimmie to school; he shall have an education. I don't intend that he shall have to work so hard as I have all my life. If he has a mind to improve When was he president? From what state? Party? his chance, he'll have as good an education as the next Oct. 5, 1830.-Chester A. Arthur. When did he become president? Under what pecu liar circumstances? Oct. 6, 1821.-Jenny Lind. A great Swedish singer. Oct. 8, 1833.-E. C. Stedman. A gifted and influential American author. Oct. 9, 1782.-Lewis Cass. Once a candidate for the presidency. When? Oct. 10, 1738.-Benjamin West. What other Americans have become distinguished as artists? Oct. 12, 1803.-A. T. Stewart. one". Thus spoke a farmer to me a number of years ago, about his only son, whom he was sending away to school. He had gone as far as he could in the village school, but his father's ambition for him was not yet satisfied. The idea that struck me was the reason he gave for him to have a first-class education. His idea was that an education would fit him for some other occupation than farming, and thus preclude the necessity of such hard work as had been his lot all his life. The farmer himself was perhaps a trifle past middle age, yet still in what we call the prime of life, but his joints were A wealthy N. Y. merchant, noted for his philanthropy. stiffened and his shoulders rounded by the incessant and Oct. 14, 1644.-William Penn. How was he noted? Oct. 16, 1758.-Noah Webster. Was he a brother to Daniel Webster? Where did Noah Webster live and what great work did he complete? Oct. 18, 1839.-T. B. Reed. A noted politician and a good debater. Oct. 20, 1632.-Sir Christopher Wren. severe labor, and the exposure to which he had been subjected. He and his equally hard-working wife, had started life together with little more than their bare hands. Their life had seen little of recreation; but toil, early and late, strict economy, and the determination to succeed, had brought them into the possession of as good a farm as there was in town. The out-buildings were good and fairly well suited to their purpose. They had built a large house, twice as large as they needed. It was nicely painted and A great English architect. Designed more than fifty furnished with blinds, and presented an imposing appear churches in London, including St. Paul's. Oct. 20, 1772.-Samuel Taylor Coleridge. "He prayeth best, who loveth best Oct. 23, 1835.-Adlai Stevenson. From what state? What office does he hold? Oct. 25, 1800.-Thomas B. Macaulay. ance from the outside. But on the inside, only the back rooms were finished off, and in these the family lived, while all the imposing front part was fit only for storage. But was this man's idea of the object of an education the right one, and is this the true incentive for the young? Thir man did not want his son to be a farmer, therefore he would give him an education that he might earn his living easies in some other calling. Is not the truer idea that one which teaches that education should be sought because it An author of rare genius and diversified talents-poet, enables one to be a better farmer, and to live a truer, no historian, and essayist. Oct. 29, 1740.-James Boswell. Sometimes called the "Prince of biographers." Oct. 30, 1829.-Roscoe Conkling. "Death is the supreme abhorrence of nature. The dark, weird shadows, though illumined by the rays of Christianity, are still the dread abode which man shudders to approach." bler, more useful life? And should not the education broadden one's outlook, and enable him to get more out of life? The son was graduated with honors. His father was nearly beside himself with pride over his boy's success, and considered that his hard-earned dollars had been well expended. He became a teacher and, though doing credit to the profession, the unwonted confinement sapped his logy of Oliver P. Morton, he made use of the words constitution, and in less than two years his career Conkling was one of our greatest orators. In his eu J. D. M. was terminated by consumption. A schoolmate, the son of a neighbor, a strong, robust young fellow, adopted the same profession, and in a few years went the same way as his opportunity for studying their habits, their modes of life, friend. The probability is that both these young men the manner of reproduction, and this knowledge, besides would have lived long and useful lives and been pro- being valuable, makes them much more interesting than gressive farmers, had they sought education with a view to they would otherwise be. This knowledge will enable doing more efficiently the farm work with which they were him to distinguish between those which are his foes and already familiar. those which are his friends. This field of study is one The old notion that any one who doesn't know enough which will never be exhausted. One of the finest private to do anything else will make a farmer is exploded. The entomological collections I ever saw, was owned by a man successful, progressive farmer of to-day must be an edu- whose entire life had been passed as a working farmer, and cated, observant man. Not educated in the sense that his he has not yet reached middle age. Hardly an insect head must be crammed with book knowledge, or that he known to his locality but has been captured and mounted must have a knowledge of all the 'isms and 'ologies, but by him in its various stages. Numerous specimens from that his mind must be trained to observe, must be recep- various quarters of the globe have been received in extive of new ideas, and ready to adapt itself to new condi- change. His zeal in the study led him to take up Latin, tions and unlooked for contingencies. unaided and alone, that he might thus more intelligently An agricultural college education is very desirable; but if name and classify his prizes. This special work has dethis be unattainable, there are now short courses offered in veloped his faculties and broadened his outlook, until he is some of these colleges that will give the key to much that recognized as one of the most progressive and well-informay afterward be worked out on the farm. Then there med farmers in town. Don't you suppose that he enjoys are the farmers' institutes and at some of the fairs much val- life better than the igr.orant clod-hoppers to whom an inuable instruction is given. Then there are the agricultural sect is simply a bug or a worin ? papers, which are ever on the alert to secure and publish In astronomy, too, what a field is opened to the obserall that is new and useful in the fields of agriculture. The vant country dweller! One of our most celebrated astronoagricultural experiment stations, too, are doing much in mers carried on his researches in an orchard near a little the way of educating the agricnltural masses. All these farm-house, with apparatus largely of his own manufacture, sources of special agricultural and scientific information are and discovered more comets probably than any other man available and should be used, especially by every young living. For other lines of work, too, is the farmer most farmer. A course at a good business college is also of favorable placed. His chances of observation are unsurinestimable value to every young man in teaching him bus- passed. He is surrounded by an ever-changing panorama iness methods and forms, and inculcating methodical habits. But the farmer needs the benefits of educational advantages not only to teach him how to grow larger and better crops, but to help him to get more out of life on the farm. that is most intensely interesting if his mine is but trained to see its beauties, and appreciate its wonderful and infinite harmony. The man whose life is hedged in by walls of brick and stone has no such opportunities, and he is likely to grow narrow and contracted like his environment. In no other place is there such an opportunity for the exer No other occupation affords such opportunities for study¡ng nature in every department. The farmer may become a skilled botanist, for is he not constantly amid the plants cise of the best powers and the most extended education and trees necessary to the perfect knowledge of this sci- as on the farm..- The Country Gentleman. A TEACHER'S DIFFICULTIES. ence? A young woman whose entire life has been pessed upon the farm, with only a limited opportunity at the village school, has a practical knowledge of plants and trees that might put to shame many a book-worm whose head The teaching profession is exposed to more disagreeable, is crammed with the scientific part of the subject. Her humiliating and exasperating experiences than any other. herbarium is so complete that it might well be the envy of Official supervision would be tolerable even if severely exthe college man. This, too, has been gathered almost en-ercised by inspector, plus chairman, plus half-a dozen zealous members of committee. But when there is added to tirely through personal effort. What other field affords such opportunities for entomo- this hydra-headed form of control the tault-finding of say logical studies as the farm? Is not the farmer continually half a hundred parents, guardians, and relatives, it may be surrounded by bugs and worms, and all manner of creep- easily understood that a teacher's life is capable of becoming, crawling, running and flying things? He has every ing a most unenviable one. But we do not propose to dis room. cuss these things as if they were difficulties. As a matter of and create receptive and retentive, and reproductive menfact it is usually found that a few years' experience enables tal powers." To whichever side the teacher may choose a teacher to acquire the happy tact of brushing past the to direct his chief force, he is expected to produce equally annoyances he encounters, or he becomes quite callous excellent results from most unequal materials. Many a against their power to pain. There are, however, real diffi "sow's ear" is given, but a "silk purse" is required. culties in the work of teaching that experience only ren- Every valley must be exalted and every high place brought ders more trying. The manifold and manifest failures in down to the dead level of uniformity. Wood, hay, stubthe profession prove this. Many who do not absolutely ble, must all alike be prepared to stand the same trial by fail, or to whom no way of escape from their position pre-fire with the gold, silver and precious stones. Children of sents itself, drag along a miserable existence, resulting from the most diverse characters and temperaments, whose their inability to cope with these difficulties. homes, haunts and habits are widely different, must, by Nowhere may a man be more tormented than in a school the teacher's manipulation, be made to fit into the educa. A teacher's life is really a paradoxical one, being tional mould with perfect exactness. Together with all largely spent in combining opposites and harmonizing con- this every teacher has his "peculiar" pupils, the offspring traries. To begin with, he must learn to teach and rule at of more peculiar parents, the treatment of whom breaks the same time. His mood must be one of cheerful kind-down all rules. Often wilful, stubborn and defiant, these ness without degenerating into good-natured pithlessness. darlings must not be punished. He must condescend to the lowest powers of childlife, and As to the amount of knowledge required in a teacher, also be to every pupil the embodiment of infallible judg- there is a popular notion that very little will suffice. The ment and unbounded intellectuality. Constant intercourse standard's syllabus certainly appears simple enough in its with his scholars creates familiarity, but there must be no requirements. But every practical teacher knows that to encroachment on their submission and respect towards him, carry out the syllabus faithfully really requires thorough or relaxation of rule on his part. In his work he must knowledge of many text-books on each subject, and that a keep exactly to the defined track, yet guard against me- teacher must keep abreast of the latest works. Moreover, chanical drudgery or mill horse routine. Each day's a teacher must excel in every branch of learning. To use teaching must be cut into slices like a loaf of bread, but a Hibernianism, he must be a specialist in nearly a dozen every lesson must be a finished whole. The teacher must subjects. The lawyer, doctor, and preacher may narrow make his instruction so simple that every child may take down their studies to legal, medical, and theological works it in, but he must also develop the faculties by exercise on respectively, but not so with the teacher. He is not free more difficult material. He must excite emulation, but re- to determine even the relative value of the various subjects press jealousy. His praise must never foster conceit, for but must be willing and capable to teach each and all of the boy-bantam is a most objectionable little person to them like an expert. He must be prepared to supply a deal with. His blame must not rouse resentment, or drive voracious appetite for quantity, and an imperious demand to sullenness or despair. He must refine and restrain the for superlative quality. In view of these difficulties it is coltish temperaments of his pupils without checking the not a matter for wonder that so many fail in the profession. free flow of natural spirit. He is required to make indel- One is rather inclined to ask: "Who is sufficient for these ible impressions on susceptibilities as soft as wet plaster. things?" Luckily there is a contrast. There are teachers In finding motive power the teacher has constantly to be who are so happy in their calling that the "rod of empire" choosing between coaxing and force. His class-room is would not tempt them to resign their work. With a probably overcrowded, but he has to discriminate individ-healthy body, a buoyant spirit, and an indomitable will all ual peculiarities, and work at once on a class as a whole things become possible. The teacher who holds a high and on its component units. Perhaps the greatest diffi- ideal of his profession, and who is filled with a true symculty of all is to determine whether morality or intellec-pathy with youthful life, finds even more than the average tuality is the more important aim of his work. tunately the latter often far outruns the former. science says to the honest teacher :-" Cure in your scholars meanness, selfishness, indolence, cowardice, and create their virtuous opposite, and never mind percentages or reports." The Educational Powers appealing to the teacher's self-interest, say :-"Cure dullness, ignorance, bad memory, Unfor- of happiness in his daily duties. The man who can retain Con- a happy youthful spirit, and who can "bound up the stairs three steps at a time" will have very few cloudy days to depress him. Of course every teacher is ready to think that he has the "hardest cases." Be it so; skilful doctors like to tackle bad cases. Let us likewise concentrate our thought, patience and effort on our difficulties and we shall surely overcome.-The New Zealand Schoolmaster. |
