divide our examination into two parts and mark equally, according to what the pupil does in each of these two parts of the examination. When a pupil appears for the examination, we first present to him an article taken from some current magazine. We allow him to read this article carefully once, and then he is required to give a reproduction of what he has read. Half the credits are allowed on this test. Then we present another selection to the pupil and have him stand up before the examiners and read aloud. We mark on this according to four different things: the position which the pupil takes, his interpretation of the matter, his pronunciation and his enunciation. We allow the other half of the credits on these four divisions. We examine candidates in reading before two, at least, and if possible three examiners, and the average of these examiners is taken in estimating the final mark of the pupil. It may seem a little strange, but it is true that several times we have had to refuse to pass candidates. If they fail, they have to take the reading examination at some subsequent examination in order to receive the counts. We have found this method very satisfactory. We believe that it helps to increase the interest of the pupils in the subject and causes them to take more care in preparing for the examination. Question - Is the first part of the examination oral or written?

Principal Hodge - Oral.

Question What do you do with the German boy or the Polish Jew?

Frincipal Hodge - We make an allowance for them. We are right on the Canadian border and have a large French population, and in a case of that kind we think it wise and just to make certain allowances.

Question Who are the examiners?

Principal Hodge - The examiners are teachers in the high school.

Question Would you require them to read poetry as well as prose?

Principal Hodge - We have always confined ourselves to prose.

President B. W. Hutchinson

-I was very much interested in

I

possibly I am

the address of President Stryker. He said a great many valu able things and very little that I should want to criticize. have been working now in the State of New York for nearly five years; and I think it might interest some of the principals and teachers present to learn something from the experience that I have had with English and spelling. I have taught in three other states, and this is the sum of my experience: I have found the English weaker in New York State than any other department. The students that come to our seminary, many of whom are high school graduates, are weaker in English than in any other subject. There has been an improvement in the last three or four years, however, in this respect. They are very weak also in spelling. Now I account for this mistaken in this theory, for I have great respect for the Regents system and for the Regents standards and ideals- but I account for it in part by the fact that pupils get 75% in the Regents examination and then drop the study. In English, they pass a not very rigid examination in elementary English and are allowed to go on with the high school course. I was impressed with this particularly as I came to this State from a state that is far behind New York in almost all the important elements of education, a state whose public school system is by no means developed to the degree of perfection that New York can justly boast of, yet I find that the students who come to our school in New York State are not as well up in English as those that come from the inferior schools of other states. It seems to me that we ought to do more thorough work and insist on a higher standard for admission to the high school in these studies, specially in spelling and elementary English.

As for old-fashioned reading, I am heartily in sympathy with President Stryker's remarks regarding this. I was brought up under the old method he speaks of and I believe in it.

Inspector C. F. Wheelock-Perhaps this is the proper time to mention the fact that there have been repeated requests made by principals for an examination in advanced spelling, and that one academic count be given for passing it. We should be glad to have an expression of opinion regarding the matter. If I may be allowed to make a suggestion, it would be that no count be

allowed for such an examination, but, if anything be done, that it be made a condition of obtaining the academic diploma. If the principals generally desire such an arrangement, I believe it could be brought about.

Principal F. D. Boynton - I move that we request the Regents to give an examination in advanced spelling during the fourth year, without counts, and that the passing of this examination be made a necessary condition to securing the academic diploma.

Principal D. C. Farr - I only want to say one word. It seems to me but just that a protest be put in at this point, not because we want to lower the standard of scholarship in this State, but because all of us who have been teachers for some years know that there are some pupils who never can graduate from an academy in this State if this is insisted on. It means more for some students to get 75% than it does for others to get 250%. [Moved as an amendment that the time of the examination be not confined to the fourth year.]

Principal John Holley Clark-I am a great believer in the importance of correct spelling, but I question the wisdom of this measure. It seems to me that we ought not to adopt this resolution without very careful consideration. There are some students who are deficient in spelling, try as they will; they will only be indifferent spellers, and yet they turn out well in many other directions.

I was very sorry many years ago when the Regents reduced the number of words required for passing in spelling from 85 to 75. It struck me as a step backward, and I think that a great many of the evils that are complained of are due to that action of the Regents. Eighty-five was formerly the minimum and 85 was low enough; and yet I knew a young man, who subsequently became a very successful teacher, who passed all his other preliminary subjects two years before he could pass in spelling because he was required to get 85% in this subject. And yet I believe that those two years that he spent in getting 85% in spelling were perhaps the most profitable years that he ever spent.

It strikes me that the way to right this matter is to right it at the root. Pupils do not study spelling very much in the high school except incidentally. They ought perhaps to study it more than they do, but it strikes me that, rather than to introduce a new examination in advanced spelling which should be a condition of getting a Regents diploma, it would be far better to go back to the old plan and require 85 words to be spelled correctly in order to get a preliminary certificate.

Superintendent Emmet Belknap -- When this suggestion was made by Inspector Wheelock, it seemed to me an exceedingly good one; but the point immediately rose in my mind as to whether such examination should be deferred to the fourth year in the high school course and be made an essential on which the matter of graduation should depend. I can sympathize with the point raised by Principal Farr and the fundamental fact on which his suggestion lies; but it seems to me that one of the very things to be desired and in fact accomplished by such a course, if the resolution be adopted, is to secure attention to this important subject in those years subsequent to the grammar grades - where the subject of spelling is a subject of permanent or systematic instruction after which it disappears from view, because the pupil is supposed to have passed an examination. It does seem to me that some plan may be devised whereby spelling may be considered as an important matter for regular and systematic instruction even in the high school without at the same time bringing to issue the point raised by Principal Farr; if, for instance, it could come in connection with the standard for first or second year English. I have no idea that the Regents would be disposed in an advanced spelling examination to make a condition which it would be impossible for any student in Principal Farr's or any other school to meet who could pass in algebra or Caesar or the English of the course.

Principal Howard Conant

It seems to me that this resolution

is too radical a change to be passed on thoughtlessly here. When we get back to our schools and consider the conditions that prevail there, we shall find that there will be some students who will never be able to meet this condition. Spelling can be carried

on every day in our high schools if the English teachers will do their proper work. There is no question that spelling correlates with all other subjects, and there is no need, it seems to me, for a special examination of this kind. Some scholars are deaf to certain sounds, and this physical defect prevents them from distinguishing the nearly coincident sounds of some of the letters of the English language, and they can not properly spell words as they are pronounced. I believe that this resolution should not be passed, and I move that this matter be laid on the table for one year.

[Motion to lay on table carried.]

Tuesday afternoon, December 30

MANUAL TRAINING IN VILLAGES AND CITIES.

SMALL

(1) TO WHAT EXTENT IS IT PRACTICABLE? (2) TO WHAT EXTENT SHOULD IT BE CARRIED?

BY PRINCIPAL VINTON S. PAESSLER, BARLOW SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL ARTS, BINGHAMTON

The measure of a life is its influence on the world for good, or for evil. Man is not taller than his highest ideals, and not broader than his humanity. "Life's greatest accomplishment is to appreciate life." A hand to hand conflict for mere existence is not living. The serious purposes of life are not subserved by the low and vulgar appreciation of ignorance. The don't-know-how-to-work, don't-want-to-work, always-out-of-ajob loafer is a social and moral leper, a menace to mankind, and a curse to himself. Character, the fountainhead of action, is destiny, individual, or national. The only salvation known, to the individual, or nation, is along the line of thoughtful action. Our national progress indicates this. Uncounted thousands of miles of railroads, with all of their wealth and advantage, have come to us in the last 70 years. Within our own memory, the telegraph, telephone and ocean cable have robbed time and space of much of their terror. Without the service of electric power, light, and heat we would be crippled. Rapid growth and development are everywhere in evidence. Thirty years ago the laboratory method in education was practically unknown. Now the laboratory buildings, in higher education,