The educational record of the province of Quebec, 1 mai 1891, Mai

[" THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC.MAY, 1891.VoL.XL.Articles: Original and Selected.WHAT THE COLLEGE ENABLES THE STUDENT TO DO FOR HIMSELF AND HUMANITY * The proceedings of to-day bring to a close another scholastic year of this university, and also mark the termination of your college course ; and, on behalf of the university, I congratulate you on having obtained the academic distinctions and honors which have to-day been conferred on you as the due consummation of your earnest studies during the years of the courses which you followed.You came here for your education, that is to receive the instruction necessary to acquire information and to develop your faculties.Such instruction you have received to a degree sufficient to entitle you to the diplomas which have been given to you and to fit you to enter the path which you have chosen for your course through life; but you must not imagine that you have now attained the goal, that your education is complete, and that henceforth you have only to apply that education to the pursuits you may engage in.Education, in the broad sense of the acquisition of knowledge, of the development of one\u2019s faculties, is co-extensive with one\u2019s life ; the older we get the more we learn ; and, at the same time, the more we realize the truth of Montaigne\u2019s saying : \u201c That we shall not die so certain of anything as of our own ignorance.\u201d * The substance of an address delivered by the Hon.Justice Wurtele, at the late McGill College convocation.8 106 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.However much we may know, there is more than we know to be learned.At your time of life you may not realize this; but.at mine, and in the exercise of my duties, hardly a day passes that I do not see and feel that I have to search for more knowledge.In one sense, however, your education is complete, and your instructors have consequently done their task ; the knowledge which they have imparted to you is sufficient to guide you in your search for further information, and the rest, therefore, lies with yourself.The lamp has been placed in your hands and if you choose to use your faculties, its light will enable you to find what you seek for.When this convocation rises, your connection with McGill as students will have ceased, but you will have been entered on the roll of her graduates, and henceforth her lustre will be your pride and your aim should be so to conduct yourself through life, that she, your Alma Mater, may always feel that you are her worthy children.And well may you be proud of old McGill! Founded in 1811, eighty years ago, by the enlightened liberality of James McGill, a merchant of Montreal, after having struggled for a long period of years through legal and financial difficulties, she 1s to-day, thanks to the \u201cgenerosity of a high-souled citizen, and to the science of her Principal and the ability and faithfulness of her professors, one of the foremost institutions of learning in this Dominion, comprising faculties of arts, of applied science, of medicine, of comparative medicine and veterinary science and of law, whose doors are opened to all races and creeds, and whose teaching and diplomas are valued everywhere.And those who have raised up this intellectual power in our land will not be forgotten.Their names will be respected and their memories will be green as long as this grand institution will continue to teach to coming generations.Framed around with the gratitude of those who have profited by her teaching, the names of her founder and of her benefactors will be transmitted to posterity as those of men who served their country well in applying a part of the riches with which they were endowed to the advancement of higher education, of science and of the liberal professions, and the world-wide and lasting reputation of her worthy and respected Principal, Sir Wm.Dawson, will now and hereafter throw a halo on her portals.I said a moment ago that the doors of McGill were open to all races and creeds, and I should add that owing to the broad views and to the exertions of her respected and distinguished Chancellor and Principal, and also to the beneficence of the former, a special course for women in arts has been established, by means of which the faculty of arts ry Set AT per oem ee : 2 P3ICFY Ap TE ER rr ore tan \u2014 FE ADDRESS BY THE HON.JUSTICE WURTELE.107 is now open to both sexes.Opinions are divided on the subject of the education of women, and many question the expediency of this step; but whatever may be one\u2019s opinion as to the propriety or fitness of opening the liberal professions to the fair sex and of allowing women to practice as advocates, notaries, physicians, engineers or surveyors, however much one may be impressed with the idea that woman's true sphere is in her home, from whence her influence, obtained by loving words and kindly acts in the family circle, can sway, by the \u2018actions and votes of those subject to it, even the course of public affairs, all must in truth agree, that the fair sex is equal in intellect to the other, and that women should therefore enjoy the same educational advantages as men.And seeing the influence exercised by the fair sex, which is felt directly within the family circle and indirectly everywhere without it, would it not be for the greater good of the community to give to women the widest educational facilities?The current of public opinion seems to be setting that way, and McGill has already opened one of her faculties to women, and, if it gathers strength, the current may yet break down the barriers which close the other faculties to them, as it has done in other universities in this and in other countries.I donot know that this will occur, but one thing I can predict, and that is, that should at anytime the barriers fall, the well-known liberality of the citizens of Montreal will at the same time supply the means to extend their facilities.The reproach has frequently been thrown at our fair city of Montreal that her citizens think only of her commercial advantages and of the accumulation of wealth, and that they altogether neglect literary culture.This slander is refuted by our institutes, our art associations, our schools and our colleges, and by the liberal endowments made by so many of her citizens to MeGill and to Institutions of a literary character.These men felt that the spread of education was for the common weal, and far from thinking only of themselves, they were willing to place a part of what they had earned by their own toil on joint account with their fellow-citizens in the interest of public instruction.And they were wise in their generation, for they knew that knowledge is power and that all advance in knowledge is for the general good.Graduates in arts\u2014your knowledge will give you power to unravel the mysteries of nature, to study the skies, to discover the secrets of the land and the sea, and in every day of life to perform understandingly the work set out for you.Graduates in applied science\u2014your knowledge will give you power to provide the requirements of modern society to carry us rapidly 108 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.over land and seas, to scale mountains, to bridge the widest rivers\u2014to give us light from electricity, to transmit our voices over space, to do things unknown and undreamt of only a few years ago.Graduates in law\u2014your knowledge will give you power when at the bar to uphold the rights of the oppressed, and when on the bench to interpret the laws of the land, and to administer justice.To all of you let me say that to acquire the knowledge which gives power, it was necessary in the first place to get the instruction which your college course has given to you, and that now you must look forward to further hard toil and to slow acquirement.Now and again a man may achieve success without seeming effort or application, but such a man is an exception, and it would not be wise nor safe for you to hope for such a chance, and you should, therefore, calculate to travel the old dusty road we have travelled before you.Work onwards and upwards all the time, and be thorough in all you do.In a few moments we will part, but in leaving these halls you will carry with you the sincere wishes for your future success, health and happiness, of your Alma Mater.And now, farewell ! Faitorial Notes and Comments, The little manual prepared by Mr.Hughes, of Toronto, gives many a corrective hint to the teacher who is apt to adopt some new school device, because she has heard some speak well of it and not from careful personal investigation of its merits and demerits.As no one individual can be a whole or complete man standing alone, so no school device or instructional method can be estimated by itself outside its relationship to the whole organization of the school or system.And if Mr.Hughes has been able in small compass to point out the mistakes unexperienced teachers are apt to make in school-work, he would certainly have to expand his volume to more than double the size were he to discuss in full the idiosyncrasies of our educational theorists, and the manner in which their theories so often run to seed.The usefulness of the Kindergarten was a few years ago in every one\u2019s mouth, and there was hardly a city in our Dominion where some young lady, who, notwithstanding her claims to be of the gentility of the land, had her own living to make, did not attempt someventure in the form of a Kindergarten.Itishardlynecessary to say that most of these schools have now been abandoned, to be followed by what may be called systematized Kindergarten work under specially trained Kindergarten teachers.To get at EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.109 the root of the matter, we may be excused if we take a sly peep at one of the Kindergarten Training Schools, where it might be supposed Kindergarten work would be seen at its best.\u201cIn one ; of these establishments,\u201d says W.N.Hailmann in the Teacher i of last month, \u201cfor the support of which the lady patroness pays 5 many hundred dollars annually, I found nearly a hundred children in groups of about a dozen seated around tables at the i outskirts of the large and otherwise beautiful room.Here it EL was beads, there balls, here blocks, there sand, and everywhere he Bedlam or stupefaction.Several of the apprentices made frantic efforts to be lively and happy, but the children were at best noisy and mostly listless.The games in which all the children and apprentices joined were made-up caricatures of joyous play : every thing formal, without spontaneity ; every movement and word imitated from the outside of it; no entering into the spirit of anything, for nothing seemed to have spirit.Even happiness seemed to be a formality, since now and then the \u201c paid EE directress \u201d would ask the children to \u201clook happy now,\u201d to E \u201csee now how happy all can look.\u201d In the movements Delsarte seemed to hold a sort of sickly sway; even the birds flew around Eg the room with \u201cdecomposed \u201d wings, as if their flying were a gesture expressive of tender emotion.\u201d \u2014 When the writer continues the same subject in a succeeding paragraph to explain what a true Kindergarten teacher ought to be and how she ought to be trained, perhaps he may have = intended his remarks to apply to student-teachers in attendance i at any of our Normal Schools.In his remarks he certainly Z bears out what we have said at the beginning, namely, that the Kindergarten, like other school influences or educational gi appliances, must be examined in its relationship to the whole .school life of our children and the system under which child- experiences are acquired.Our own Normal School is at a turning-point in its career at the present moment, and perhaps we may read Mr.Hailmann\u2019s remarks in the light of an expectation for further progressin the training of our elementary school teachers.This is what he says: \u201cThe training of Kindergartners is serious business.Nothing about the work can be acquired incidentally.To every phase of it the learner must bring her full self.It implies deliberate, careful observation of child-culture ; the deliberate formulation of valid principles, of a serviceable theory; deliberate training of the learner in the various arts and skills of her chosen calling.Only when these things have been attended to is she prepared for full responsible practice. 110 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.If this practice can be had under the supervision of the school, so much the better; yet under all conditions it should follow, not precede the course of observation, study and personal training just indicated.Even in connection with the ordinary Normal School which trains chiefly for instruction, the practice-schools are of doubtful value.In the practice lesson the pupil-teacher seeks primarily his own gain, and the children are used by him for this purpose.The gain of the pupil is incidental, and even this incidental gain is reduced by the pupil-teacher\u2019s lack of knowledge and skill.In the training-school for Kindergartners the evil effects of this abnormal condition are greatly intensified, because of the more intensely educational character of the Kindergarten.The primary need of the Kindergarten training-school, therefore, 1s not a practice-school, but a school for observation.Here the pupils should have opportunities to observe the work of skilled teachers, to note the effects of environment on the children\u2019s development ; to discover motives, tendencies, incentives; to follow the teacher reverently in her efforts to lead the child aright for the child\u2019s sake.Subsequently they should give clear accounts of their observations, learn to analyze them, to find the principles involved, to discuss varied devices based upon these.Nor should their observations be confined to the Kindergarten, but extended to the work of an elementary school based on the same educational principles.Thus will they g cain a practical insight into, at least, the proximate outcome of Kindergarten training, and will be saved from the narrowness of those who see In the Kindergarten the only educational institution worthy of respect and fitted for the successful application of the broad principles of Fræbel.In order to secure systematic and methodical modes of procedure in this work of observation, a fair knowledge of the facts and laws of physiology and mental science is indispensable.Indeed, this knowledge should have been gained by the student before she enters upon the work of observation.In the training- schools of the future, it will constitute one of the requirements for admission.To-day a thorough review of these facts and laws, with constant reference to their manifestations in growing childhood, should be among the first things done in a training.school.In order, too, that their observations may be organically assimilated with the purpose of their work, the pupils should be familiar with the history of education and with the history of {on EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.111 human thought and progress.These they should hold in clear and distinct outline, so that their observations may become readily co-ordinated in their view of the work, and that they may be enabled to plan their work consciously and even in its remoter bearings in a line with human progress.It were well if much of this, too, could be made a requirement for admission.Yet, even where conditions render this feasible, the unity of work in the school would call for a thorough review of the history of education and human progress, as an important part of the preliminary work of the training-school for Kindergartners.\u201d \u2014The Cadet Corps business is also beginning to show dubious effects, not that the principles for the physical training of the child are wrong, but because the Cadet Corps\u2019 idea has been inaugurated somewhat independently of the closely allied educational necessities of the proper development of our children \u2014their bodies, minds and consciences.The drilling of our boys has been run to excess, some of the inaugurators of the movement are already saying; and probably the issue of the re-action will be eventual neglect of what ought to be encouraged.A teacher of one of our schools resigned the other day, and when asked his reason he said, \u201cI cannot get my boys to rise to or near to some point of enthusiasm with their work.This drilling business has ruined my classes for the time being, and I had better take a rest, seeing I can afford it until the Juror about rifles and swords, and brigade tactics has blown over.\u201d Is there not a lesson here for the surface theoriser, for the educationist who claims that whatever is popular, should not be frowned upon.\u2014In connection with the Manual Training movement, there is to be held up the same warning.A correspondent has indirectly placed at our disposal his ideas on Manual Training, which if a little outré in one direction when he traces the origin of tramps, has something in them worth considering when he speaks of the proper relationship between all studies for the development of the child in its threefold being.This is what our correspondent says :\u2014 \u201c The question of the introduction of Manual Training into the programme of our Primary and High Schools, is intimately connected with all the reforms which for some years have been agitating educational circles.Thinking men acknowledge that it 1s necessary to prepare the rising generation to become intelligent men and women, with fully developed organisms, and trained to use all the faculties with which nature has provided them.The so-called literary branches have been abnormally Kl 4 112 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.extended, and the speculative character of instruction in the mathematical branches has for a long time engaged the powers of the child, to the detriment of the development of all his other faculties.\u201c By this wrong system of education, the physical constitution of the child has become enfeebled, the free action of his organs have become impeded, and this aggravated expansion of the intellectual activity of the child in one direction, has exercised a fatal action on the well-being of society, by extolling the intellectual occupations at the expense of the manual arts.It 1s no uncommon thing to see to-day several hundred applicants \u2014some of them it may be LL.D.s\u2014present themselves for a vacant position, which would give to its incumbent hardly enough to keep the wolf from the door.Only one is accepted.And the others\u2014what has become of them ?Will they become mechanics?Never.They go to reinforce the army of tramps, and to swell the ranks of those who are a drag upon society, they are consumers but not producers.\u201cThe necessity of a system of instruction more in touch with the present needs of society has been recognised in most of the countries of Europe and America.\u201cIf there is a want of expansion it can generally be traced to one or all of three factors: the teachers, the school authorities, or because the methods advocated are too advanced.\u201cThe teacher as a general rule is conservative and looks with suspicion on innovations and often justly so.He works for a brilliant result at the annual examinations.Besides the introduction of a new study necessitates his taking up a new line of thought which is often arduous, and it is necessary to those who have the courage to undertake it that they devote themselves enthusiastically to it if they wish for success.The willing teacher who has faith in the success of his efforts will not however flinch before new sacrifices of time and work.\u201cThe true teacher will always incorporate the interests of a sound and integral education with the necessities of the \u201c Course of Study,\u201d he will transform his system of introduction by replacing the speculative and memory methods by some methods of observation and manual activity.\u201d Current Toents, \u2014 We draw the attention of Teachers and the Boards of School Commissioners this year, as on other occasions, to the arrangement which the Editor of the EDUCATIONAL RECORD has made to CURRENT EVENTS.115 assist the former to secure situations and the latter to secure teachers.Any teacher applying to the editor shall have his or her name inscribed on a list for reference, and recommendations to any Board applying for information about teachers shall be willingly given.In other places, particularly in the United States, such an arrangement is generally made through bureaus organised for the purpose, for the support of which the teacher has generally to give a percentage of his or her earnings for some years after an appointment has been secured.But in the case of the Teachers Bureau under the supervision of the RECORD, all information will be willingly given gratis to any one who may apply.\u2014 There are some meannesses common to all countries.Not long ago we read an article on the process of competition among teachers in Ontario, while hiring themselves out to the authorities who hold for the time being the destiny of the village school in their hands.But we had little thought such a spirit of competition would find itself in England.Yet here is what is reported about the state of affairs there \u2014* The manufacture of elementary school teachers,\u201d the Cambrian News says in a recent issue, is altogether in excess of the requirements, notwithstanding the fact that teachers leave the profession for almost any other calling, owing to the smallness of the remuneration, the insecurity of the tenure, and the general uncomfortableness of the occupation.The valuable and arduous duties of teachers in many rural districts are discharged for a mere pittance, ranging from about fifteen shillings a week.Elementary teachers are ready to take each other\u2019s places when shabby Boards and managers reduce salaries.It is high time that teachers, who are educated men, should be taught to abstain from taking places which have been vacated because of attempts to reduce salaries.Teachers\u2019 salaries in the rural districts are too low, and something like a strike would be justified if the teachers were not too jealous of each other and far too timid to work together.\u201d \u2014The Superintendent of Schools of New York city has an excellent bit of advice to the advanced educational theorist, 1£ it be not just as applicable to many of those parents who judge of the district school without verifying the statements of others.\u201c My advice to you,\u201d Mr.Jaspar says, \u201cis, visit our schools and learn something about them.\u201d It is a pity that there is not more of the visitation of our schools by parents on their own account than there is.In one of our own villages, the Inspector on one occasion was met by a parent who could hardly find words strong enough to condemn everything connected with the school. 114 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.\u201c Have you been in the school lately ?\u201d asked the Inspector.\u201cNo,\u201d said he, \u201c not lately.\u201d \u201cThen neither have 1,\u201d said the Inspector, \u201cso we will go over and see how matters are in company.\u201d After the inspection was over, the inspector, turning to the villager, asked him what he thought of the school after having seen it for himself.\u201cWell\u201d said he, © perhaps I have been a little too severe,\u201d and the issue of the experiment was to be fully witnessed when the Inspector made his subsequent visit.Happening to meet his friend again, he was agreeably disappointed to find a different flavour in his criticisms.He was loud in his praises of the teacher and the manner in which the school was being conducted, except in one respect, and that was, that the commisioners ought to pay our teachers higher salaries.\u2014There is a higher civilization to be fostered in all our cities which has found an atmosphere to bud in even in far away Turkey.The project recommended some time ago by the British Embassy and recently approved by the Council of Ministers, of establishing homes for enfranchised negro slaves, has Just been sanctioned in principle by the Sultan.Although the traffic in black slaves is not yet entirely abolished, the Imperial Government is anxious for its suppresssion throughout the Empire, and the need for such institutions as those contemplated becomes apparent, when it is stated that the majority of enfranchised negroes become re-enslaved even after receiving their certificates of manumission, and contrary to the convention respecting the slave trade.It is proposed to establish the homes in the district of Benghazi, Tripoli, Jedda, and Hodeida, as well as in Constantinople, and in future the freed slaves will be sheltered in these asylums, and in conformity with special regulations already in force, will be cared for at the cost of the State.Provision will also be made for the children of negroes received at the homes.The boys will be admitted to the primary professional schools, or to the military bands, while the girls will be assisted to obtain situations as domestic servants.In sanctioning these measures, the Sultan, taking into consideration the fact that the offspring of negro parents cannot become acclimatised in temperate regions and seldom survive, has ordered that enfranchised slaves who are married shall be sent to homes which are to be built as required on the State lands at Smyrna.\u2014The organization of the staff of the Montreal High under the new principal has been all but completed.The arrangement by means of which the school shall in future be in the hands of a High School committee, of which the head-master and the Superintendent shall be ex-officio members, is an excellently IE ti be A a CURRENT EVENTS.115 devised safeguard against the abuses which lately caused so much trouble in the management of the institution.There will surely now be less chance for the exercise of that playful eccentricity which tries to know a man that knows the man.At the meeting at which the above decision was reached, it was resolved to offer vacancies on the staff to Mr.KE.L.Curry, B.A, as Senior Classical Master, in place of George Murray, Esq, B.A.No public announcement was made at the time of Mr.Murray\u2019s resignation, and we take this opportunity of referring to his long service in the Montreal High School.It was really a pleasure to hear Mr.Murray examining and drilling a class in the Girls\u2019 High School on his favorite Virgil.A man rich in stores of knowledge as the readers of the Star so well know, and yet a man liberally gifted in his manner of bestowing these stores upon others, his name will ever be remembered by the boys and girls who have been fortunate to receive instruction at his hands.His experiences will always be to them something to discuss with affection, for Mr.Murray is not soon to be forgotten as one of the most popular masters in the Montreal High School.\u2014 Of the other masters appointed is Mr.Allen W.Strong, B.A, Sc., who is expected to fill the position of drawing and conimer- cial teacher, and Mr.John P.Stephen, who will take charge of the elocution classes.The contractors have commenced operations on the new building, and ere long, Montreal will be in a position to boast of one of the finest High Schools on the continent in point of structure, and let us hope in point of organiza- \u2018tion and success.In the preliminary arrangements the -new head-master has certainly had everything bestowed upon him that a teacher\u2019s heart could desire.\u2014 Sir William Dawson is thus reported in the Star as having referred to the work being accomplished by McGill University and the prospect before an institution in whose progress every Canadian takes a patriotic interest.The work of the session, he said, might be measured by its graduating classes.The number of primary degrees in course conferred on students in this and the previous meeting of Convocation was 115, a smaller number than last year.It would seem that the entrance classes four years ago were in all the faculties somewhat lower than the average ; and there is reason to believe that next session will show a marked increase.The dominant feature of the year has been the great additions made to staff and buildings, especially in professional faculties, though the faculty of Arts has received an important aid in the professorship of experimental physics in the new building and appliances provided for that department. 116 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.Sir William Dawson called attention to the wants of the Faculty of Arts, which faculty had practically sustained all the other faculties and also the High School of Montreal.When McGill gave his endowment, men only were considered eligible for college life, but we have now a second McGill in the person of Sir Donald Smith, who has considered the case of the other sex ; and Sir William Dawson knew that Sir Donald Smith had before his mind not merely the establishment of a department for women, as at present, but of a college for women, which Sir William Dawson hoped would be called the Donald Smith college.This college would have not only its Faculty of Arts, but professional faculties as well, providing the training required for all the learned professions to which women might care to devote themselves.If this ideal of a college could be realized at the small cost of, say, half a million dollars, it would be a tower of strength and a friendly rival of McGill College.The address concluded by stating that if in our own corner of the world the English population is to hold its own and escape extinetion, this will depend not so much on professional training as on broad and liberal culture, fitting both men and women for every contingency which may arise.The Principal, however, had no fear for McGill College and its endowments.As in older countries educational institutions and endowments have survived all political and social revolutions, so it will be here.\u2014The interest which some of our agricultural theorists are taking in the matter of introducing lessons in agriculture in our schools has its counterpart elsewhere.HORTICULTURE is the latest career offered to intelligent women.The Alexandra College in Dublin has started a course of lectures on the subject, with a view to enabling ladies to become practical market gardeners.England does not lag far behind.Mrs.Richmond, of Clare House, Tiverton, Devon, is the apostle of horticulture as an employment for women, and it is on her suggestion that it is proposed to open near London, in the coming spring, a school specially devoted to this object.That there are some few kinds of garden work beyond an ordinary woman\u2019s strength is admitted.Trenching and digging are examples, but this may be easily got over by the occasional employment of unskilled labor.Mrs.Richmond looks forward to the time when ladies who need to earn their own living will be employed in this way to the great advantage of our gardens, both as regards utility and beauty.\u2014The city board of education of Chicago have unanimously voted down the proposition that extracts from the Bible be read daily in the public schools.The report on which the vote was CURRENT EVENTS.117 based said simply that the committee on school management, after hearing the arguments advanced in favor of Bible reading, had carefully considered the subject and decided that for the general welfare of the schools the prayer of the petitioners ought not to be granted.\u2014 The Bootle School Board possesses a member, in the person of a Mr.Lynch, who may be trusted to look after its finances.On a proposal to raise the wages paid to three of the Boards schoolmasters by the enormous amount of Is.per week, he felt bound to point out that already the teachers of Bootle were over-paid.Happy Bootleites! We were under the impression that in no place in the kingdom were there teachers who were overpaid.We would like to know the extent to which these fortunate men and women are receiving remuneration in excess of the value of their services to the community.\u2014 Dr.B.G.NORTHROP, who has given much time and attention to this subject, has just written a valuable article or tract, full of the best and most practical suggestions as to how to \u201corganize\u201d a society for village improvement.Dr.Northrop says: \u201cIn hundreds of cases, public spirit first awakened in village improvement has led to better schools and school-houses.In view of such manifest results, the American Institute of Instruction, at one of the largest gatherings of educators ever held in New England, lately passed a resolution, inviting the cooperation of teachers of America in organizing village improvement societies over the country.\u201d If the 400,000 teachers of America should impress this sentiment upon the 10,000,000 youths under their care, as they could without any diversion from other lessons, who can estimate their influence for the realization of the true ideal of the home and the school 2 This movement has been greatly aided by the press, daily, weekly, and monthly ; by pamphlets and books, lectures and sermons; for clergymen have been the foremost advocates of the cardinal idea, that the home is the moral level which is to lift up humanity.\u201d \u2014 We regret to have to announce the death of the Rev.Robert Herbert Quick at the age of 59.He was away from home on a visit to Professor Seeley, and while out on a walk was smitten down with a severe attack of paralysis, from the effects of which he never recovered.He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was during some years a master at Harrow, and subsequently vicar of Sedberg,in Yorkshire.On the establishment by the University of Cambridge of a special syndicate for the training of teachers he was selected as one of the first group of lecturers, and gave before the University a course on \u201c The His- CREER HR ta) Bs Si NR AT RR Ca RNS it EEE Ea OR 118 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.tory of Education,\u201d a work for which his accurate knowledge, critical insight, and deep interest in educational problems preeminently fitted him.He was a frequent contributor to reviews and the leading educational journals, but he is best known to students by his \u201c Essays on Educational Reformers,\u201d a work which was published in 1868, and for a time almost neglected, but which has since steadily increased in repute and influence.It was reprinted and largely used in America, where it has become a text-book in training colleges for teachers; and it is now the chief recognised authority as a history of educational ideas and methods.Since his resignation of the vicarage of Sedberg, Mr.Quick has been living in retirement at Redhill, and the last few months of his life were chiefly occupied in the task of revising and re-writing this work, of which a new and much enlarged edition has recently appeared._A singular experiment recently took place in Palestine to test the accuracy of Dr.Colenso\u2019s statement that the people of Israel assembled in the valley between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim could not hear the curses and blessings delivered from the heights above them.A party was travelling in the neighbourhood of these mountains, and two Scotchmen ascended Mount Ebal and two Welshmen Mount Gerizim, while the rest of the party remained in the valley.One of the Scotchmen read the curses, and from the opposite mountain a Welshman read the blessings.Both were easily heard below, where the party added the amens.Both readers were perched upon the natural platforms near the summits.Literature, Historical Notes, etc, \u2014The following historical reference in connection with the MeGill Normal School is worth preserving, and we trust it will induce some of those connected with the institution to make the account even more complete :\u2014 \u201cOpened in 1857, the history of McGill Normal School is virtually the history of Protestant common school education in Montreal, and for some hundreds of miles around it since that time, now precisely 34 years one and a half monthsago.Its usefulness has steadily increased with the years.Interest in its history has as steadily increased with lapse of time ; and, well as that history may have been from time to time written in words, it is safe to say that far more indelibly is it written in its benefits to the Province, in its splendid array of teacher graduates who, holding its diplomas, have gone forth to practically educate, train A = = 4.EE =.24 ES Ltt Ee LITERATURE, HISTORICAL NOTES, ETC.119 and build up for the battle of life the rising generation of a great and growing country ; it is written in the labors of those ardent educationists who first discerned the need of a Normal School, and, fichting valiantly for the rights of a Protestant minority, obtained it ; it is written in what, in a word\u2014it has done.\u2014The ten years from 1850 to 1860 were singularly promotive of the cause of common school advancement in both Upper and Lower Canada ; a veritable renaissance so to speak, in respect to middle class education generally.Space forbids, in an article such as this, any lengthy reference to that most interesting decade; suffice it to say, that it not only witnessed the first establishment of seminaries for the special preparation of teachers in their art, notably the Normal schools of Montreal, Toronto and elsewhere, but also the realization, only in more perfect degree of those schemes for free school education with John Groves Simcoe, first Govenor of Upper Canada at the beginning of the century, the Duke of Richmond, in 1818, and other Govenors, had proposed, but which political disturbances and the apathy following such, had for the time rendered abortive.The apostles of education who at the appointed time were to\u2014and did\u2014rise up and bring about these realizations were Egerton Ryerson, Pierre J.O.Chauveau, William (now Sir William) Dawson, and Sir Edmund Head, Governor-General of Canada.The first named as Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, obtained from the Government, in 1851, Normal Schools and a complete system of almost free schools for the masses in his Province, while the Hon.Mr.Chauveau, later on, in 1856-57, obtained the same for Lower Canada.It was found in this, however, that slender or no provision had been made for Protestants, and the latter at once resolved to have their own school separate and distinct.Sir William Dawson, with others, took up the subject in a spirit of determination, the former enlisting the powerful sympathy of his personal friend, Sir Edmund Head, himself an old and ardent educationist ; the results were decisive ; the Protestants of Lower Canada were guaranteed three Normal Schools, one being in Montreal, as we to-day have it.It should however be added that Mr.Chauveau throughout in this matter showed himself \u201cthe Apostle \u201d of Normal \u2018schools, only in so far as related to his Roman Catholic co-religionists.\u201cTI would have the word \u2018 Protestant\u2019 struck from the calendar,\u201d he is reported to have exclaimed in discussing the question, and it was only when compelled to do so that he conceded the Protestants claim to their separate institution.The absolute merit rests with the venerable head of McGill University.ton iH i M: M La BA: i x RE ht 120 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.\u201cThus much in the abstract; something in the concrete may now be of interest, as exhibiting what the Montreal institution really has done, is doing, and what the necessities are for the extensive building additions now in progress.The school register\u2019s figures are convincing.By this it is found that 2,174 diplomas for teachers have been granted since the close of the first session, July, 1857.The school opened on March 4 of that year with 52 pupils; 16 diplomas were granted.Sir William Dawson was principal.There were in all five teachers, viz, three male for the Normal and one female and one male for the Model departments.There are this year seven male and three female teachers on the staff of the Normal department, and one male and seven females on that of the Model ; in all 18 teachers, an increase of nearly fourfold.Last session, 1890, 73 persons.received diplomas, 13 being academy of the first class ; 23 model school and 37 elementary school diplomas, an aggregate in increase of over fourfold.The total admissions to the Normal department for the current year, 1891, have been 103, and the attendance in the Model department is between 300 and 400.The grant this year from Government is about $13,500.Some few of the pupils obtain more than one diploma, but for such, taking off the 174, the 2,000 left will actually represent the number of teachers that have gone forth from the school since it opened.Each one of these, at very lowest estimates, may be assumed to have educated 100 common school pupils which will give an aggregate of no less than 200,000 receiving their education by means of the institution since it began.Positive facts, if obtainable, would probably double the figures.\u201c Progress so substantial, it is needless to say, pointed long since to the absolute necessity for more ample building accommodation, but it was only towards the close of the past year that it was deemed practicable to carry such into effect.Once resolved upon no time was lost.The governing body associated by statute with the corporation of McGill University, known as the \u201c Normal School Committee,\u201d were the right men in the right place.It consisted, as it at present stands, of Sir William Dawson, chairman, and Messrs.Samuel Finley, George Hague the Rev.George Cornish and J.R.Dougall, with an acting secretary, Mr.J.W.Brakenridge, and under their immediate direction the work is now well under way.\u201d\u2014 Montreal Witness.\u2014 The scholar shames us by his bifold life.\u2018Whilst something higher than prudence is active, he is admirable ; when commonsense is wanted, he is an encumbrance.Yesterday, Cesar was not so great; to-day, Job is not so miserable.Yesterday, LITERATURE, HISTORICAL NOTES, ETC, 121 radiant with the light of an ideal world in which he lives, the first of men, and now oppressed by wants and by sickness, for which he must thank himself, none is so poor to do him reverence.He resembles the opium-eaters whom travellers describe as frequenting the bazaars of Constantinople, who skulk about all day, the most pitiful drivellers, yellow, emaciated, ragged, sneaking; then at evening, when the bazaars are open, they slink to the opium shop, swallow their morsel and become tranquil, glorious and great.And who has not seen the tragedy of imprudent genius struggling for years with paltry pecuniary difficulties, at last sinking, chilled, exhaustless and fruitless, like a giant slaughtered by pins.\u201d\u2014 Emerson.\u2014\u201c To spend too much in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation ; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar ; they perfect nature and are perfected by experience; for natural abilities are like natural plants, they need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them ; for they teach not their own use, but that is a wisdom without them and above them, won by observation.\u201d\u2014 Francis Bacon.\u2014 But, indeed, conviction is worthless till it convert itself into conduct.Nay, properly, conviction is not possible till then ; inasmuch as all speculation is by nature endless, formless, a vortex amid vortices: only by a felt indubitable certainty of experience, does it find any centre to revolve around, and so fashion itself into a system.Most true is it, as a wise man teaches us, \u2018that doubt of any sort cannot be removed except by action.\u201d On which ground, too, let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this other precept well to heart, which to me was of invaluable service: < Do the duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a duty\u201d Thy second duty will have already become clearer.\u201d\u2014Sartor Resartus.\u2014\u201c The associations of literature are a world of pleasure in themselves.The cultivated mind finds beauty and delight everywhere that its bright presence has lingered ; its sympathies will cling to the barren rock or the most desolate hearth, where the shadow of genius has fallen and its footsteps have trod.Greece is something more than Greece to him ; it is the land of Homer and of song, of Plato and of the academy, of Phidias and of sculpture.Italy is not so much the seat of the Cæsars as it is the synonym of the Ciceros and the Virgils; and, more recently, 9 122 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.of those great names in art which have been well said to be the admiration and despair of all modern successors.And so it is still; for the truth is, that from genius embodying itself in literature there emanates an all-hallowing influence extending even to the inanimate of nature.Whatever it touches 1t consecrates; whatever it breathes upon it rescues from oblivion.The hamlet, which but for this would never have looked out from its depth in the greenwood, has risen into the world\u2019s regard and becomes the Mecca and Medina of many a willing pilerim.\u201d\u2014O0ld Book.A Picture oF THE NEXT CENTURY.If nature, with her interminable fecundity, pours forth millions of human beings for whom there is no place on earth and no means of subsistence, what affair is that of ours, my brethren?We did not make them ; we did not ask nature to make them, and it is nature\u2019s business to feed them, not yours or mine.Are we better than nature?Are we wiser 2 Shall we rebuke the great mother by caring for those she has abandoned ?If she intended that all men should be happy, why did she not make them so?She is omnipotent.She permits evil to exist, when with a breath of her mouth she could sweep it away forever.But it is part of her scheme of life.She is indifferent to the cries of distress which rise up to her in one undying wail from the face of the universe.With stony eyes the thousand-handed goddess sits, serene and merciless, in the midst of her worshippers, like a Hindoo idol.Her skirts are wet with blood; her creation is based on destruction ; her lives live only by murder.The cruel images of the pagan are truer delineations of nature than the figures which typify the impotent charity of Christendom\u2014an exotic in the midst of an alien world.\u201d\u2014Cewsar\u2019s Column.A Picture oF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.\u2014\u201c My friends, if you would see men again the beasts of prey they seemed in the nineteenth century, all you have to do is to restore the old social industrial system, which taught them to view their natural prey in their fellow-men, and find their gain in the loss of others.No doubt it seems to you that no necessity, however dire, would have tempted you to subsist on what superior skill or strength enabled you to wrest from others equally needy.But suppose it were not merely your own life that you were responsible for.I know well that there must have been many a man among our ancestors who, if it had been merely a question of his own life, would sooner have given it up than nourished it by bread snatched from others.But this he was not permitted to do.* * * * * * * * ES PRACTICAL HINTS.123 Though a man sought it carefully with tears, it was hard to find a way in which to earn a living and provide for his family except by pressing in before some weaker rival and taking food from his mouth.Even the ministers of religion were not exempt from this cruel necessity.*¥ * #* Jtis hard to understand the desperation with which men and women, who under other conditions, would have, full of gentleness and truth, fought and tore each other in the scramble for gold, when we realize what it meant to miss it, what poverty was in that day.For the body it was hunger and thirst, torment by heat and frost, in sickness neglect, in health unremitting toil; for the moral nature it meant oppression, contempt and the patient endurance of indignity, brutish associations from infancy, the loss of all the innocence of childhood, the grace of womanhood, the dignity of manhood; for the mind it meant the death of ignorance, torpor of all those faculties which distinguish us from brutes, the reduction of life to a round of bodily functions.\u201d\u2014 Looking Backward.Practical Hints and Examination Papers.There is an evil under the sun: It is the vicious, rebellious boy who contaminates a school, but who is kept therein, because the generous-minded feel it a wrong to turn such a lad upon the streets to finish his education in sin.But would he not better finish it, or find his salvation in a reform school, than be allowed to pollute the fifty- four others to whom a teacher\u2019s time and help justly belong?When the boy has passed a balance in the equation of his position, does not the public school owe the higher obligation to the fifty-four than the one ?The State has provided for these cases education under a special discipline, and is the public in the wrong when it asks the guardians of such a boy to take advantage of this provision ?\u2014There is an evil under the sun : It is the teacher who has crystallized upon his own axis, and who is jealous of all means of advancement in his profession.He never gains anything new at associations or at institutes.He would have the Normal school abolished, because its State diploma does not, forsooth, cover such experience as his.Iis acrimony extends to all his fellows who have attained advancement in the educational ranks, and he views all high principles advocated, or noble projects advanced, as means used only to attain personal ends.\u2014Here is more evidence to show the fallacy of the limited vocabulary theory.The editor of the Michigan Moderator says that a superintendent of one of our Michigan schools has been making an inventory of his six-year-old\u2019s vocabulary.The test proceeded carefully for eight months, beginning at the time the child was six years old. 124 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.It was found that she knew the meaning of 1,243 nouns.This coincides with our own experience, says a contemporary, and we feel justified in saying that we think the extent of most children\u2019s vocabularies has been greatly underestimated by educational theorists.QUESTIONS\u2014 ARITHMETIC.1.Write in the Arabic notation (a) nine hundred and twelve ten- thousandths ; (b) a number containing seven units of the second decimal order and four of the fifth ; (c) write in words the decimal required in b.2.(a) Write an improper fraction whose denominator shall be 23, and reduce it to an integer ; (b) reduce 6 qts.to the fraction of a bushel.3.Find the prime factors of 350, 175, and 150, and from these prime factors find the least common multiple of the given numbers.4, 5 yd.8 in.is what fraction of 3 rods?5.A cabinet-maker paid $27.27 for 487 feet of walnut lumber.Required the price per M.6.A has 245 head of cattle, and B has 175 head.(a) What fractional part of the whole number has A?(b) What per cent.of the whole number has B * 7.In the proportion 31 : 42::7 : 29.4 days, find the missing term.8.Find the interest on $1 for 2 yrs.5 mo.14 da.at 5 percent.per annum.9.If a dealer buy a lot of text books billed at $85.40, 25 per cent.off, terms 5 per cent.discount for cash, how much ready money will pay the bill ?10.A wood rack is 8 feet long and 3 ft.4 in.wide.How high must it be to hold one cord ?ANSWERS\u2014ARITHMETIC.1.(a) .0912: (b) .07004; (c¢) seven thousand four hundred- thousandths.2.(a) (Ex.# ; 161 23 + = 7 (b) J; bu.3.350 = 2 x 5 x 5 x 7; 175 \u2014 5 x 5x7; 150=2x3x5x5: 2 x 3 x 5X5 x 7 \u2014 1050, LC.M.4%, 8.$.1922.5.$56 per M.9.$60.85.6.(a) à.(0) 415 per cent.10.4.8 ft., or 4 ft.9 in.7.21.7 days.Every school is apt at times to become languid and listless.At such times try this excercise to wake up mind and body.Have the pupils stand, open a window or two just far enough to admit an extra amount of fresh air.Call out rapidly such as: ¢ Right hand out, left hand up.Left hand out; right hand up.Right hand up, left hand out.Both hands up.\u201d Have the arms extended and palms open.Give the orders quickly and positively.Occasionally repeat the same PRACTICAL HINTS.125 order, changing the order of statement or varying the emphasis and inflection.When this gets too easy, have the children watch you while they obey orders as before, being careful not to imitate when you fail to obey your own.If you ever played \u201cSimon says thumbs up,\u201d you have an idea of the game.After two minutes of this waking-up process your little men and women will be in good trim for mental work.\u2014Selected.I send you, this month, twenty pieces of advice, which I made out for two girls just beginning their teaching in a country town.They may be of value to others in the same place.They are made by a practical teacher for young teachers, and if followed, would save many troublesome days and much weariness.I.Let nothing prevent you from thoroughly preparing every les- son\u2014no matter how simple\u2014that you are to give the next day.Never go into the school-room without knowing exactly, even to details, what you are to do.II.No matter what happens he sure you keep your temper.III.Don\u2019t omit to visit all the families who send children to your school.Make a friendly call.Don\u2019t wait for them\u2014and show yourself really interested in them and their children.IV.If any trouble occurs with any child, or there is danger of any \u2014Dbest go and see the parents and get their co-operation.V.Don\u2019t be in a hurry about punishing, if necessary.Waiting to think it over never does any harm.VI.Be sure everything about your dress, desk and school-room is always In perfect order.VIT.Try and make the room attractive, so that the children will find it pleasant.VII.Remember always that it is the best interest of the children and school\u2014not your own that you are to work for.IX.Be sure that you carry out exactly all the directions you give.Think well before giving them : but then carry them out.X.You must be entirely and wholly and always just.If not, you will not command respect\u2014and not to have that, means failure.XI.Be very careful in your dealings with other teachers in the town.Never give them occasion to think that you set yourself above them.Be always pleasant and friendly\u2014you can learn from them.If you are working for the schools, there can be no jealousy\u2014make them welcome in your rooms.Seek to know them.You can both give and get help, if you work in the right spirit.XII.Dress perfectly\u2014simply.Celluloid collars and cuffs will save washing, and can be always neat and clean.Dress should be plain, without much trimming.It it were not for washing, I would say, wear white aprons in school.XIII.For arithmetic classes.Do all the examples yourself at home before the time ; then you will know what you are about, and can tell where the error is.Keep ahead of your class.at 126 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.XIV.Talk over all your difficulties together.XV.Don\u2019t take any part in any village gossip.Don\u2019t allow yourself to talk about any one in the village, unless you have something good to say.XVI.Try and make the children polite to each other in school.XVII.Try the plan of having a school house-keeper for each day.Try and get the children to feel interested themselves in keeping everything neat and in order.XVIII.Don\u2019t be afraid to say, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d if you don't.XIX.If you have made a false statement about anything in a lesson, don\u2019t be afraid to acknowledge it.XX.Correct all errors in English speaking that you notice.\u2014Jou- nal of Education.B ARITHMETIC.I.Reduce 1.2 mi.5rd.3 ft.to in.1 mi.= 320 rds.2 mi.= 2 x 320 rds.or 640 rds.640 rds.+5 rds.= 645 rds.1rd.= 16! ft.645 rds.\u2014 645 x 16} or 10642} ft.10642; ft.+3 ft.= 10645.ft.1 ft.= 12 in.10645} ft.= 10645; x 12 or 127746 in.2.127604 in.to higher denominations.12 in.= 11ft.1in.= Loft.127604 in.\u2014 127604 x j, or 10633 ft.Sin.16! ft.= 1 rd.1 ft.= 15, rd.10633 ft.= 10633 x 15, Or 644 rd.7 ft.320 rd.\u2014 1 mi.1 rd.= ,, of 1 mi.644 rd.\u2014 644 x 1, or 2 mi.4 rd.197604 \u2014 2 mi.4 rd.2 yds.1 ft.8 in.3.! mile to lower denominations.1 mi.= 320 rd.} mi.320 or 160 rd.4.ft.to a fraction of a rod.16;ft.=11rd.1ft.= 4, ft.= 1 1 a 2 a 12 3 X 165 OT gg of a rod.2°.3 = g rd.\u2014The teacher furnishes the following simple method of explaining to young pupils why the divisor is inverted in division of fractions.Before attempting to teach division of one fraction by another, you will of course teach how to divide a fraction by an integer, and how to divide an integer by a fraction.The three classes of problems are illustrated below : +4 =1 2 = 18 i+ 2=45 : T5 The first class may be taught by actual illustrations, from which may be deduced the principle that a fraction is divided by dividing its numerator or multiplying its denominator.The second class may be solved at first by changing the dividend to the denomination of the divisor.36 thirds + 2 thirds = 18, needs no more explanation than 36 apples + 2 apples = 18.After a great number of problems have been solved in this way, analyze the numerical process, and show that in every case the number of units in the dividend is multiplied by the denominator, and the product divided by the numerator, CORRESPONDENCE.127 Correspondence, efc, To the Editor of the WITNESS : Sir,\u2014 Will you permit me to make a short statement, supplementary to the timely article of \u201c Lindenbank \u201d on agriculture in schools.As that article refers merely to what has been done on this behalf in Ontario, it may not be unimportant to state that at the time of the establishment of Normal schools here, in 1857, the curriculum of studies authorized by the Government for teachers-in-training provided for the study of Agricultural Science.For some years instruction in this subject was regularly given by Dr.(now Sir William) Dawson, whose eminence as a naturalist, no less than his zeal for the introduction of agricultural teaching into the schools of Nova Scotia while he was Superintendent of Schools for that province, gave assurance of the highest interest and value to his lectures.To aid him in his course of teaching in the Normal School, and to excite, if possible, an interest in the subject in the schools of Canada, Dr.Dawson published in 1864 a little manual which embodied the best agricultural science of the time in a condensed but readable form.Since that day chemistry has undergone revolutionary changes in symbols and nomenclature, so that this little work no longer accords in form with modern manuals of chemistry, but so well did the author distinguish between sound deductions from careful observation and merely ephemeral speculations, that its practical teachings are valuable to-day, and but slight alterations of form would make it again as useful as 1t was a quarter of a century ago.As illustrations, which might be made very numerous, of the skilful insight of the author, it may be sufficient to say that it would be difficult to find anywhere, in equally concise form, a better description of the life history, and more practical instructions for contending against the ravages of the wheat midge, commonly but erroneously called the weevil, than are contained in this work.It contains also in abridged form the substance of the author\u2019s shrewd paper on the potato rot, which was published in the report of the agricultural societies of Massachusetts in 1851, and which, being frequently reproduced and quoted, stirred up practical men to those efforts for the replacement of the old and worn-out varieties of potato by new forms originated from the seed, which have reduced to comparative insignificance the ravages of peronosphora infestans.It would be, in my judgment, well to issue a revised edition of Sir William Dawson\u2019s Agriculture, which has been for some time out of print.For, although the work on this subject that has been recently published in Ontario is an excellent book, admirably fullfilling its purpose, there is still room for a work which, like Sir William\u2019s manual, brings into gréat prominence principles which are of universal interest, disembarrassed of minor details that must in any case he learned by actual work on the farm.S.P.Rosixs.McGirL NORMAL ScHoor, ApriL 23rd, 1891.Ri Be-siied He 48 14 ol ff 8 Hi i Ya a 4 128 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.DEAR MR.Epiror,\u2014I hear that some of our teachers have been able this year to visit the schools of their neighbours, and it seems to me some of them might send their experience to us who have not been able to do so.Out of a paper I clip the following \u201c Way Notes,\u201d which may tell them what I mean.The visiting teacher says: «At the High School literature is now the subject for rhetoricals.The leading modern authors are taken up in order; biographical sketches, incidents, historical associations, reviews, abstracts, etc., serving for composition work, and selections forming the materials for recitations.One author may thus serve for several rhetoricals, and the year give a very good course, in which the whole school participates.Add responses in memory gems and every one will take part in each exercise.\u201d Speaking of the history class, the visitor says: ¢ We then witnessed an exercise in general history.The class wrote upon the black-board an analysis of the lesson, and thus each member formed the habit of organizing the matter for himself.The topics were then rapidly discussed, contributions made from outside sources, and search questions reported upon.The analyses showed individuality.\u201d Yours ete., T.O.S.DEAR SIr,\u2014I look back to the old \u201c Red School-house\u201d of my boyhood days, in a country district.It had no school-yard of its own.What need of any when the children had the run of a broad highway and a still broader turn-pike road, roads that extended and branched all over New England.It did not stand on the road, no, one side was in the line of neighbor Williams\u2019 fence, and the school-house stood or sat in his field, not occupying a square foot more than necessary, and carrying a perpetual apology for being just there at all, only because it had been put there, and could not get away, and did not mean to intrude, and did not know where else to go, poor thing ! The \u201cred school-house,\u201d one teacher came and left, then another and another, men and women, good, better, best.As to \u201csweetness and light,\u201d we had it always and abundance of it with dear Miss Lloyd, one of the best, all love and lore, all patience and sympathy, all hope and trust, all wisdom and prudence, all firmness and tenderness together, planning new methods and exercises, varying all by her originality and personal ways, helping our plays at noon- spell and play-time, advising us with all motherly goodness.How we all loved her.The school was full of the charms of a church and music hall and lecture room and circus.It was \u201call in all\u201d where we loved to go early and stay long, where we loved to learn because the teacher furnished the light and herself was the sweet attraction to study.Fellow-teacher, make yourself as much to your young, helpless, truthful, loving children, as Miss Lloyd was to us country children in the road-side school-house.L.W.HART. E ih pbs LT BOOK NOTICES.Books Received and Heviewend.[All Exchanges and Books for Review should be sent direct to Dr.J.M.Harper, Box 305, Quebec, P.Q.] Of our exchanges, the most welcome perhaps is Education, published by Frank W.Kasson, 50 Broomfield Street, Boston.There is an engraving of the Ontario Minister of Education in the Toronto Educational Journal this month.The Open Court comes regularly and is read regularly : no periodical reader, of a philosophic tendency should be without a copy of this well conducted paper.The Week continues to flourish, and no reader of the higher topics in our weekly political and literary experiences should be without a copy of it.Triibner's Record, with its reports on the literature of the East, is published at 57 Ludgate Hill.The Educational News of Philadelphia is evidently a favorite with the teachers of that city and elsewhere : we enjoy a perusal of it weekly.Among some of our most valued exchanges are the Educational Journal of Virginia and the North Carolina Teacher.We miss the old form of the Wisconsin Journal of Education, but still enjoy it in its new form : an excellent periodical.The current number of Our Homes has reached us and we note continued signs of improvement.Each village reading-room should send for this paper to Brockville, Ont.The same may be said of the Young Canadian, edited by Mrs.Murray and published in Montreal.The Quarterly Register of Current History is a new venture, and if it keeps away from making too much of what happens in the United States, should be encouraged by placing it in the school library.It is published in Detroit.We will watch its character and report to the teachers.The Presbyterian College Journal, the Collegium Forense, the School Moderator, Intelligence, Educational Review of New Brunswick, Western School Journal, the Catholic Educator, the Schoolmaster, the Journal of Education, and as many more which we cannot mention this month, have our heartiest wishes for their welfare.On account of want of space we have been forced to overlook for a time the books sent for review ; but we will be able to to keep our promise, that no book is ever sent to the Educational Record without being noticed.MacMILLAN\u2019s CLASSICAL LIBRARY of school texts is still in progress of being issued.We would ask every teacher to place the various volumes in the school library, as they are strongly bound for school use.Those we have received of late are Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, Shakespeare\u2019s Coriolanus, Scott\u2019s Lady of the Lake, Selections from Tennyson, Southey\u2019s Life of Nelson, Shakespeare\u2019s Merchant of Venice, with their predecessors, these volumes make up a very fine series.Send to MacMillan & Co., London, England, for a catalogue, 1s the advice we would give our teachers who have the present prospect of adding to their libraries. 130 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.Hzarn\u2019s MopERN LANGUAGE SERIES has been added to by the issue of Dr.Edgren\u2019s new French Grammar, which, though compiled on the stereotyped plan, has in it many newer elements which teachers of French will no doubt carefully examine.The book consists of two parts, the first being intended to enable the learner to begin reading with profit at the earliest practicable moment, while the second is intended for a more critical study of the language after reading has begun.MECHANISM AND PERSONALITY, by the Rev.Dr.Francis A.Shonp, Professor of Analytical Physics, University of the South, and published by the Messrs.Ginn & Company, Boston, U.S.A.Nearer and nearer do we come to the seeming goal in our contest with scepticism\u2014nearer to the period when the lamb and the lion shall lie down together\u2014when what has been reviled as a name shall be allowed to shed of its light upon the problem of all problems, the relationship between soul and body, the boundary line of thought.The author of this volume has been for years trying to find a book which satisfactorily outlined, within moderate compass, the present attitude of philosophy in the light of the latest scientific research ; and failing .to find such a work, he has set himself the task of preparing a text-book of the kind\u2014a book which he hopes will meet the growing enquiry as to what has become of metaphysic in the glare of the scientific thought.of the day.In our opinion, no one will say, after reading Dr.Shonp\u2019s work, that the erudite author has not placed the young mentalist, as our Old Schoolmaster calls the investigator of mind effects, under an obligation.If not the text-book of the future on metaphysics, it certainly shews, in very clear light, what the future text-book on metaphysics is to be.Tue Sour or Man, by Dr.Paul Carus and published by the Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago.The student who can enjoy Dr.Shonp\u2019s book will turn with pleasure to the fine volume prepared by Dr.Carus.A more enjoyable study we have not had for some time, than the examination of such an investigation of the facts of physiological and experimental psychology.The centre of the universe lies in our own mind, and the well written and beautifully illustrated volume which lies before us, gives the reader a text-book from which he may learn the intricacies of such a centre.The mentalist has his text-book at last.The problem is not solved, but the nature of man \u2014the physical foundation on which the mind rests\u2014is clearly enunciated as a problem that may have a solution around which men may rally, as they have around the shifting theories of the minor sciences.As a writer, Dr.Carus has been spoken of in these pages before.As a philosopher his industry is unabated, and every new work he issues from the press adds to a fame which is likely to last.A Prince oF PEepAGoGY, by Daniel Putman, teacher of pedagogy in the Michigan State Normal School and published by H.R. BOOK NOTICES.151 Pattengill, Lansing, Michigan.This work is issued with the expectation that it may be useful to the teachers who may have neither time nor opportunity to pursue an extended course of preparation for their work.Such a work in the hands of those of our teachers who attend our Teachers\u2019 Institutes would be of greater service than the one which is followed now, and we would suggest that it be examined with the view of introducing it in some such way.It is an excellent little work.Heate\u2019s MopeErN LANGUAGE SERIES have had several additions made to it of late.The publishers are Messrs.D.C.Heath & Co, Boston, U.S.A.The new volumettes ave Laurette or Le Cachet Rouge, by Alfred De Vigny, with notes and illustrations by Alcée Fortier of the University of Louisiana: Moliere\u2019s Le Tartufe, edited by F.E.A.Gase.LE MEpzciN MArLGRÉ Lui, edited with arguments and notes by the same writer, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.Mr.Gase\u2019s work is duly appreciated by all who have examined these neat little volumes.Tur ProGrEssivE Evouin, books I and II, with notes, exercises and deductions, edited by A.T.Richardson, M.A., Senior Mathematical Master in the Isle of Wight College, and published by MacMillan & Co., London, England.No one can even open this book without seeing that it has been prepared by a teacher of experience.Mr.Richardson\u2019s task has been not to make Euclid easy, but to make it more intelligible and useful in mind improvement.If any teacher will ask for the loan of the copy we have, we will send it to him only on the condition that he returns it; and if he does not agree with us that it is the best of our \u201c Euclids,\u201d we will be very much astonished.The following books are on our review table and will receive attention next month : The Reproduction of Geographical Forms in land or clay, by Jacques W.Redway.Notes on English Literature, by F.Parker Emery of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; Hygienic Physiology, by Dr.D.F.Lincoln ; Geography of Europe, by James Sime, M.A.; Sadler\u201ds Practical Arithmetic, by W.H.Sadler and W.R.Will of the Baltimore Business College.Business Bookkeeping, by George E.Gay.New Fourth Music Reader, by L.W.Mason and George A.Veazie of Chelsea, Mass.The Morning Hour, by Irving Emerson, O.B.Brown and George E.Gay.Synopsis of English and American Literature, by G.J.Smith, B.A., of the Washington High School.Open Sesame, vol.111, by Misses Bellamy and Goodwin.Storm\u2019s Immensee, edited by Dr.W.Bernhardt.The Physical Laboratory Manual, by Dr.Alfred P.Gage.Mérimée\u2019s Colomba, edited by Dr.J.A.Fontaine, of the University of Mississippi.Irving's Alhambra, edited for the use of schools by Alice H.White.Insecta, by Alphaeus Hyatt, of the Boston Society of Natural History, and many others which will be noticed in due time.N:.it THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.Oificial Mepartment, Orriciar REPORTS.COWANSVILLE, P.Q., July 30th, 1890.To the Superintendent of Public Instruction.Sir,\u2014Having completed my first year\u2019s work as Inspector for the Counties of Brome and Missisquoi, I beg leave herewith to submit my statistical report and the following statements :\u2014 I find on comparing the present state of affairs with the last report of my esteemed predecessor, the late Mr.McLaughlin, that I have five more municipalities than existed at the time of his last report.These are Eastman, Mansonville, Sweetsburgh, Stanbridge-East and Knowlton, which makes the present number 25.I have visited the schools of every municipality, and each individual school twice during the year, in all cases where the schools have regularly been in session during the year.I have succeeded in visiting each school which has been in operation during the year, with the exception of four, which were held only for a small portion of the year and were not in operation at the time of my visits.In some cases, I have made three tours of inspection through some extended municipalities, in order, if rossible, to see every school.I have reported the statistics of no school that I have not been able to report upon by actual inspection.There are, in my district of inspection, 181 school buildings, 28 of which have been vacant during the year.There have been, of elementary schools, 141 in session, model schools 7, and academies 5, making a total of 153.I am informed that several of the school buildings which have been closed during the past will be occupied in the coming year.For some of these, teachers are even now engaged.Hence, I expect next year to report a larger number of schools in session.In the elementary schools, I have found 2970 pupils, in the model schools, 491.In the academies, 555, making a total of 4016 pupils in the schools of the two counties.There are only seven teachers without diplomas, and several of these expect to present themselves next year for examination.There are 156 female teachers including those who are teaching in the higher schools, and three male teachers in the elementary and ten in the higher schools, making a total of 169 teachers.For the most part, these are doing very faithful work, and at my second visit, I was gratified with the evident progress made in the majority of the schools.The Teachers\u2019 Institute, which was held in Cowansville, in July, was largely attended by the teachers of the district of Bedford, notwithstanding the fact that a new departure was inaugurated this year, OFFICIAL DEPARTMENT.133 which seems to have given, in the result, very general satisfaction, namely, the introduction of the independent instead of the billeting sys stem hitherto in vogue.This was done by the hotels giving cheap rates to the members of the Institutes.The Lecturers were listened to with marked attention throughout the sessions and it is hoped much good will result from the stimulus the teachers received at this Normal Institute.In my association with the commissioners and secretary-treasurers, as well as the teachers, I have been much gratified with the evident desire to co-operate in any movement for the advancement of education.Tor particulars in relation to the municipalities and the individual schools, I would refer to the bulletins which have been regularly transmitted to the department and also to the statistical tables.Below, I give a classification of the municipalities, based upon the following points \u2014 The length and arrangement of the school year ; The condition of the school houses and grounds ; The supply of appliances, blackboards, maps, etc.; The use of the course of study ; .The use of a uniform series of authorized text books ; The salaries of teachers and method of payment.EXCELLENT.Knowlton, Cowansville, Sutton Village, and Town of Farnham.Goob.Manson ville, Sutton, Brome, Dunham Village, Fast Farnham, Dun- ham, Sweetsburg, Phillipsburg and Clarenceville.MipDLING.St.Damien, dissentient, St.Ignace, West Bolton, West Farnham, dissentient, Potton, St.Thomas, East Bolton, Notre-Dame des Anges, dissentient, and St.Sebastien de Missisquoi, dissentient.New academy buildings have been erected in Bedford and Manson- ville ; and one new elementary school house in each of the following : Stanbridge-Fast, Dunham and Phillipsburgh, and each is a vast im- prov ement on the preceding buildings in those localities.I have the honor to be Sir, &c., Erxest M.TAYLOR, School Inspector.Kix=Ear\u2019s Mrrrs, 30th July, 1890.Sir,\u20141I have the honour to submit my annual report for the year ending June 30th, 1890.My statistical table was mailed to your address last week.I i I! BY Ht i Ke w By.ue 134 THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.This report shows that there are in my district of inspection twenty- six municipalities, of which twenty are under the control of Protestant school commissioners, four under the control of Protestant trustees and two under the control of Roman-Catholic commissioners.Six of these are village municipalities, viz.: Coaticook, Waterville, Beebe-Plain, Stanstead-Plain, Dixville, and Lake Megantic.Sixteen municipalities are in the county of Compton, eight in the county of Stanstead and two in the county of Wolfe.Those having the largest number of schools are Stanstead, Barnston and Compton.The total number of schools in operation in my Inspectorate this year, was one hundred and ninety-four, an increase of three over the previous year.The number of pupils attending was four thousand six hundred and fifty-nine, an increase of two hundred and twenty-four over last year\u2019s figures.These one hundred and ninety-four schools are classified as follows: One academy, six model schools and one hundred and eighty-seven elementary.There are also the Stanstead Wesleyan College and Compton Ladies\u2019 College, neither of which I have included in my report, as both of these institutions send returns directly to your department.There was a slight improvement in the average attendance this year, being about seventy-nine per cent.The Coaticook Academy which is, as usual, graded in five departments, was attended this year by two hundred and fifty pupils, with an average attendance of one hundred and sixty-eight.There were fifty-four pupils in the academy courses, fifty-one in the model school department, and one hundred and fifty five in the elementary.The model schools are those of Waterville, East-Hatley, Robinson, Marbleton, Cookshire and Gould.The largest elementary schools were kept at Beebe-Plain, Sawyer- ville, Barnston-Corner, Dixville and Scotstown.Two teachers were employed in each of those schools and much improvement shown in all of them.There is not much change in the general management of the schools Since last year.In many of them, there has been marked progress during the year, while a number remain about the same.The commiissioners, as a rule, take a lively interest in the schools under their charges, and endeavor according to the best of their ability to carry out your instructions and those of the Protestant Committee of the Council of Public Instruction.There has been some improvement in the manner of engaging teachers, as most of them are now engaged by the year or at least for the number of months that their schools are to be in session during the year.Six new school houses have been completed : two in the municipality of Eaton, one in Dudswell, one in East Clifton, one in Stan- stead and one in Whitton, while a number of others have been extensively repaired. \"cos LES ce = +.OFFICIAL DEPARTMENT.135 In some localities, much difficulty was experienced in obtaining qualified teachers; and consequently, quite a number of schools were taught by teachers having no diplomas.The total number of teachers engaged during the year was two hundred and six, of whom twenty-seven held no diplomas, sixteen had diplomas from Roman Catholic Boards of Examiners, twelve had diplomas from the McGill Normal School, (six model and six elementary.) The average salary for elementary female teachers was one hundred and twenty-eight dollars, and for model school female teachers, two hundred and sixteen dollars.As full particulars regarding each school were contained in the bulletins of inspection which have been forwarded, it seems unnecessary to give any further details.According to instructions, I will classify the municipalities in order of merit, with reference to the following points :\u2014 1.The length and arrangement of the school year.2.The condition of school houses and grounds.3.The supply of apparatus, blackboards,authorized school journals,etc.4.The use of the Course of study.5.The use of a uniform series of text books.6.The salaries of teachers and method of payment.EXCELLENT.Coaticook Waterville Beebe-Plain Dixville East Clifton Clifton (dissentient) Newport Lingwick Stanstead Compton Westbury South Winslow Burdford (dissentient) Barnston THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.MIDDLING.South Ham Whitton Marston Hereford (dissenticnt) Auckland I may mention that the above classification is only slightly different from last year.The municipalities of Dixville, Newport and Ling- wick having been advanced one step.Trusting that the foregoing, along with previous reports, will be sufficient to give you a fair idea of the state of education in this inspectorate.I have the honour, ete., Wu.THOMPSON, School Inspector.NOTICES FROM THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE.His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor has been pleased, under date 7th April, 1891, to appoint a school commissioner for the parish of Rimouski, same county.13th April.\u2014To appoint a school commissioner for the municipality of Farnham West, Co.Missisquoi, also a school trustee for the municipality of Huntingdon.14th April.\u2014To appoint Messrs.David Johnston and George Pringle school commissioners for the municipality of Hinchinbrooke, Co.Huntington, to replace Messrs.James Johnston and Archibald Muir, also to appoint a school commissioner for the municipality of N.D.du Sacré Cœur, Co.Rimouski.21st April \u2014To appoint two school commissioners for the municipality of Hereford, Co.Compton.23rd April \u2014To appoint a school commissioner for the municipality of Cote St.Louis, Co.Hochelaga.1st May.\u2014To divide the Parish of St.Anne of Yamachiche, Co.St.Maurice, into two distinct school municipalities, under the names of Village and Parish of Yamachiche."]