U.S. LIBRARY BUREAU OF EDUCATION Vacancies for September. $1.50 A YEAR $75.00 to $250.00 PER MONTH Every day we are requested by authorities to recommend teachers for both present and future can be made working for us. Spare hours turned to openings. During the spring and summer months we are asked by School Boards, Superintend-good account. This is of especial interest and value teachers Never mind about sending stamp. Adents, College Presidents and Principals to recommend-often having as high as 25 or 30 in a dress B. F. JOHNSON & CO., Richmond, Va. single day. We have already a large number of excellent openings for the school year beginning in September. Superintendencies, High School and Town Principalships, Grammar, Intermediate, Primary and Kindergarten positions, College Professorships, Academy Principals and Instructors. Specialists in Art, Music, Drawing, Book-keeping, Penmanship, French, German, Elocution, Manual Training, etc. Also several most excellent schools for sale. Now is the time to register if you wish to be in line of promotion and desire a better salary for the coming school year. Send for circulars to THE TEACHERS' CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION, 6034 Woodlawn Ave., (Just South of Chicago University). ORVILLE BREWER, Manager. CHICAGO. FIRST CLASS POSITIONS have been filled by us during our experience of 14 YEARS. We are constantly needing competent teachers for vacancies either with or without fee Send for circulars. 29th Year Thomas May Peirce, M.A., Ph.D. Principal and Founder. 917-919 Chestnut St. An all-around equipment for business life. Day and Evening Sessions. PEIRCE SHORTHAND TWO PLANS, Still under the Annual... Cloth binding, 8vo., 524 pp., price, $1.75, postage prepaid. FOR SALE AT Wanamaker's, Leary's, and Office of the School. The Educational News is published weekly AT $1.50 A YEAR. It costs no more than a monthly journal. Why not add it to your list? Read our special offers on last page. You can get the paper at two cents a week. If you subscribe now, we will send the paper 13 months for a year's subscription. We will also allow three months' time to make payment. The paper will be sent at once, and the premium when payment is made. Send your subscription to us now and save to yourself the agent's commission. Box 1258. Ad dress, Educational News Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 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., Eto. 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 news papers in the United States, for the express purpose of protecting their subscribers against unscrupulous and incompetent Patent Agents, and each paper printing this advertisement 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, .25 7. Practical Rhetoric, Raub, 8. Punctuation and Letter Writing, Raub, 9. Hints and Helps on English Grammar, (320 pp.) 1.20 (92 pp.) .40 (302 pp.) 1.00 FOR BRAIN-WORKERS, the WEAK an 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 foo 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 protecting 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. 37. AWEEKLY JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. PHILADELPHIA, PA., OCTOBER 13, 1894 EDUCATIONAL NEWS, PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE EDUCATIONAL NEWS COMPANY, Philadelphia, Pa. CONTENTS. COMMUNICATIONS: SECONDARY EDUCATION IN SWITZERLAND. ELOCUTIONARY THE EARLY OWL......... EDITORIAL: EDITORIAL NOTES........ PERSONAL ITEMS..................... EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE..... QUERY COLUMN... LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC,.. Original and Selected. $1.50 A YEAR. law was passed for their establishment. The instruction in these schools follows on the sixth year of the primary schools, and has a three years' course. The pupils are 12 years of age when they enter, and 15 years of age when they leave to join the technical schools. The three years' course at the secondary schools finishes the education of the poorer children, whose parents are unable to send them to a higher school. There are no barriers to prevent a .....579 child's passing from the primary to the secondary school, 580 and when it leaves the ordinary day school it can, on pass.580 ing the examination, enter the secondary school. The ..581 fees, originally amounting to about $3 per three years' course (33 lessons a week), have now been remitted and instruction is quite free. As regards the curriculum I see from a dispatch recently sent to the English Foreign Office, by the British Representative in Zurich, that it includes religion, German and French languages, arithmetic and ..569 history and the Swiss constitution, geography and natu..570 ral science, especial regard being paid to agriculture and .571 manufacture; singing, drawing and caligraphy, practice in .573 reading. ..582 .583 .583 .568 .574 Since the law was passed in 1833 there has been no lack of students, indeed there was difficulty in finding suitable premises and properly qualified teachers. Sometimes a single room in a private house, is in an inn, had to serve SECONDARY EDUCATION IN SWITZERLAND, the purpose, and one instance is reported where a secondary school was successfully conducted for six months in the For the EDUCATIONAL NEWS. Comparatively little is known about the educational life watchman's little cabin in a vineyard. The mimimum salof Switzerland, and perhaps not one tourist out of a thousary for the teachers for the 33 compulsory lessons was and who visit that country every year ever ask a single fixed at $190 per annum and apartments. At the present question on the matter. Although Switzerland is a comparatively small European country, it is yet one of the fore most in educational affairs, and it owes a great deal of its industrial importance to its excellent system of technical education. time two-thirds of the legal mimimum salaries are paid by the state and one third by the Commune. Thus, the state pays each secondary teacher $240 per annum; the Commune $120. If the teacher lives in the country he (or she) has dwelling, fuel, and vegetable garden free, or an equivaIt is not, however, of technical education that I wish to lent in money. In Zurich the commencing salary of a speak, but rather on the method of instruction adopted in secondary teacher is $680 per annum, with an increasethe secondary schools of the Canton of Zurich. These ment every five years of $50, until after 20 years' service schools were founded as far back as the year 1833, when a as a teacher, the maximum of $880 is reached. Some of F. C. CHAPPEL, Temple Chambers, London. AUTUMN NATURE STUDY. the Communes give their teachers more than the legal number of pupils which each teacher had to instruct was minimum, and the amount of this ranges from $60 to $200 74, and the average number of absences was 9.7 per pupil per annum. After thirty years' service a teacher can per annum. retire, with the consent of the Board of Education, and receive a pension equal to at least half of the pay they received before retiring, and the exact amount is fixed by the Board of Education, regard being paid to the length of service, pecuniary position of the teacher, efficiency, &c. The teachers pay $8 per annum, and the state contributes $7 per annum, for a pension fund for teachers' widows and orphans. The widows receive a pension of $80 a year. BY S. ELLEN BROWN. To study nature truly one must come in contact with her, and autumn offers fine advantages therefor. Teachers have to study for four years at a teachers' colUndoubtedly the best way to study nature is to take the lege near Zurich and afterwards pass six months in French children into the fields or woods, where they can see the society inland to perfect themselves in French. If a student plant, tree, or rock with its own surroundings. But this leading the secondary school wishes to become a teacher is a way with obstacles for the city teacher. therein, he has to study four years at the college and then What is practicable for one school is not for another, and pass an examination required for teachers of primary the teacher who thinks she cannot take her children out to schools. After this he must study for two years at a uni-meef nature may do much by bringing nature in to them. versity, then pass another examination before he can obtain his certificate as secondary teacher. As regard school books, these are supplied free of charge in all the secondary schools in Zurich, and in about half the others in the Canton, the Commune paying expenses and receiving, for the purpose, a substantial subsidy from the state. Indeed, if she does not bring nature in to the children, they will bring it in to her. Not many weeks will have passed before the boy's pockets will be bulging with horse chestnuts and the girl's handkerchiefs made into receptacles for walnut meats and quince cores. Then comes the teacher's opportunity. Have plenty of dishes or some other receptacle for the nuts. Ask the children to see how many Mention has been made of religion being taught in these different kinds they can collect. Of course a great many. schools. This instruction includes (1) the history of the will have to be thrown away (or put in some convenient Old Testament "as a preparation for the appearance of place for the squirrels to get), but enough can be saved for our Lord, with stress laid upon the most important parts use when the time comes. On the day when the teacher is of the Old Testament from a historical and religious point. ready for the language and nature lesson combined, let the (2) Lite and teaching of our Lord on the basis of one of children bring in leaves and branches of the tree correspondthe three first gospels, and introducing parts of others. (3) ing to the nut they have chosen, and if possible a branch The work of the Apostles, especially those of Paul, on the with the nuts growing. It would be well after taking the basis of extracts from Acts of the Apostles and the Epis-nuts separately to have a lesson comparing them. tles. Besides this the chief traits of the Christian Church The autumn fruits are used in nearly all schools in combining language and drawing. The girls are learning that if the cores stay inside the fruit, a branch of the quince makes a pretty drawing; it also makes an attractive ornaIment for the room. in vigorous pictures, emphasizing the Reformation. In all three sections a moderate number of texts are explained and learned by heart, together with some hymns from the Church hymn book." The sexes are separated in the schools of Zurich and Winterthur and in one parish on the lake of Zurich, in all other cases in the Canton instruction is given in common, the tendency is to abolish the distinction. Then take the autumn flowers-the asters, the goldenrod,and the rare gentians. There are so many beautiful stories and poems about these, that it is easy to interest the children. A nature lesson that should not be overlooked is the wise provision of the animals in laying up in autumn their winter store of food. Needlework is taught in the girls' school for four hours per week, but it is optional. Instruction in most subjects is generally given in classes; religion and modern subjects Lastly comes the great lesson of this season, the changare permissible exceptions, when two or three pupils forming color of the leaves. A hard thing for many of us to a class. In the year 1892 there were 55,840 pupils in the explain, but we should be able to give the children a clear secondary schools in the Canton of Zurich. The average understanding of it, that they may read for themselves the lesson, that the changing color and falling leat do not mean death to the real life within the tree.―Journal of Education. THE EVILS IN EXAMINATIONS. This we know to be the mental attitude of the average teacher, in both country and city, where a strict adherence to a prescribed course of study is required, and enforced by monthly examinations. The teacher takes his stand by the course of study, the published outlines, and examination questions, and labors, according to his zeal, to get enough When the wisdom of the monthly examination, con- of it to stick in the child's memory to meet the requireducted as it has been for years, is questioned, and the ments of the examination. And we repeat that what the substitution of some other mode of testing pupils' progress child thus learns of the different subjects is of very little is urged, the invariable reply from those who practice it is, worth. Aside from the mastery of the mechanical pro"Well, there are different opinions about the value of ex-cesses of making out words and of constructing them, and aminations. For my part, I think that if a pupil knows a of learning processes of manipulating figures, the child's thing he can tell it. And I do not see any reason why he knowledge is useless lumber for the most part. cannot tell it on examination day as well as at any other This is so for the reason: time; nor why he cannot write it out on paper as well as recite it orally." This is a stock answer which is deemed conclusive by the stock-superintendent who offers it. And the statement is true enough, taken by itself. I. That what we learn is isolated, the one idea from the the other. Ideas stand out independently of each other as so many unrelated facts. This is true, even when the teaching is good enough to teach the actual facts, and does not rest content with mere verbal memorizing. The evil of examinations is not so much in the fact that 2. It is worthless for the reason that the knowledge is pupils tell what they know, on paper, at stated times, as in not assimilated into the child's life. His school consciousthe worthlessness of what they tell. The "stated examina-ness is separated from his life consciousness by a gulf which tion" has come to be the culmination of a long series of he seldom bridges. The idea that the life outside is but teaching efforts that have in view the memorizing by the the concrete application of the common school branches of pupil of certain stock questions. We will make plain our learning, for the most part, has never entered the mind of meaning by an example: A man of nature age, and for either teacher or pupil. The school boy or girl comes, years a country-school teacher, was commending to the very soon, to live two distinct lives. The school life deals writer the course of study, the monthly "outlines," and with things that seem to be divorced from his other life, monthly examinations. He said in substance, that by these and have no place anywhere but in school. When he gets helps the teacher knew very definitely what was required. through the course he turns his back upon it and goes on He drilled his pupils on the "outlines" and on the examina-building up the life he has been living outside of the school tion questions of previous months, knowing that the next with very scant reference to his school experiences. To questions would be very much like them, and he could use a phrase of Rosenkranz, in his school life he his comteach the classes what they would be expected to know. pletely "estranged" from what he conceived to be his real He thought it an excellent plan, which the county superin- life; so completely that he never afterwards removes the tendents had adopted, of having the questions made, each estrangement, but has to "learn over again," in the world month, by the same man who made the outlines, for he was what he was supposed to learn in school. then certain to have no questions that he had not drilled his pupils upon! The sole purpose of the above is to show forth the most This was a country teacher's conception of teaching, serious evils of the stated monthly examinations, as a test of and of the great improvement of the modern methods over the teacher's success in teaching a prescribed course of study the old. They gave him a definite idea of what was ex- as they have existed in the schools for a quarter of a cenpected, and he knew just what to select and what to omit. tury. The present generation of teachers has grown up It had never occurred to him to inquire what were the under this regime and so have the superintendents. What special needs of the children whose education was entrusted wonder that they regard with suspicion and disfavor any to him for the time being. Those needs had been discovered movement so radical as that which demands that the teachand provided for in the course of study, he probably assumed er shift his attention from the course of study to the and the outline told him just what ideas in the course of child? A large number of both superintendents and teachers study might be called for in the examination. do not know how to do it. They have grown up with the |