The educational record of the province of Quebec, 1 octobre 1913, Octobre - Décembre

[" > Educational 1 Record of the Province of Quebec + ++ + + Vol.XXXII Ne.10-11-12 October-Nevember-December 1913 EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.SCHOOL GRANTS.It would be well for every school board to remember the change to be made this year in the manner of distributing the government grants to the elementary schools of our province.For a long period of years the government grants have been given on the basis of the Dominion census and thus it was possible to draw a share of the government support for which little work had been done, that is, there might be a large adult population and a very small school population, yet the government grant would be large For the present year, however, the grants are to be determined by the school rolls and pupils, who do not attend the School will draw no share of the government money for their municipality.NOTE TO TEACHERS \u2014 To interest the senior pupils and provide them with profitable reading a few pages of interesting selections and original items will appear in each issue of the RECORD.Please call the pupils\u2019 attention to these pages and ask them to read such parts as they prefer.\u2014 EDITORS.SRE IIE EE SEA YS EE Ey © ER ESS EPS ARTE ERA RE RE OR SIR] Bin The Educational Record It is well therefore that every parent be made aware of the fact and induced to send their children to school.Of course such rolls may only contain pupils, who are of the school age from 5 years to 16 years.If there are pupils on the roll under school age they could not properly be reported as a part of the school population.By this change in the method of distribution the government will pay for work done and not send grants to help educate children, who have not been enrolled during the school year.This is one more little item of inducement or compulsion as it makes the ratepayers pay in taxes, what has been forfeited in grants by the absence of certain pupils from the school.Only public sentiment can work out the salvation of any community and under the new plan it will go harder with the parent among his neighbours, when he retains his children at home to work or loaf while the neighbours have to make up in taxes what has been lost in government support.The indifferent parent has deprived his children of an education and his neighbours of their money, while he has pocketed all.Such a picture of selfishness cannot long be endured and when the truth is realized throughout our province there will likely be an improvement in the attendance at our schools.RURAL ARITHMETIC.Whether or not it should be adopted as the sole arithmetic in the rural schools is one question, but there can be no doubt whatever as to the fact that Calfee\u2019s \u201cRural Arithmetic,\u201d just published by Ginn & Co., (Boston and New York) should be in every rural school library, and should be made use of in the arithmetic classes.Pupils often find arithmetic a dull subject, or a difficult one, because the problems, outside of those which deal with marbles or apples, are frequently based upon things of which they have only the most meagre perceptions.Professor Calfee\u2019s Rural Arithmetic deals wholly with the things of the farm, and should Rural Arithmetic, 283 appeal to the intelligence of the country boy and the country girl at once.The idea of a rural arithmetic has been in the air some time, but we do not know of any work which has carried out the idea with anything like the success manifested in the present one.Of course it has still to undergo the test of suitableness for class work.As every teacher knows, a text book on any subject may seem to be ideal and perfect, and yet fail in the class.But we see no reason why Calfee\u2019s Rural Arithmetic should not stand the test.There are no radical changes in arithmetic method in the work.Its great distinctive feature simply is that the clear and workable problems are based upon rural facts and deal with rural economy, from the profits of poultry keeping to the cost of bad roads.The titles of some of the chapters give an idea of the range of the problems, such as Education and Thrift; Practical Measurements; Conservation of the Soil; Growing Crops; Estimation of Crops in the Bulk; Stock and Feed Problems; Transportation; Building Problems; Machine Shop; and Draft Problems; Business Problems.Then among the sub-titles we have such ones as spraying, lumber measure, land measure, soil erosion, tax upon the soil by different crops, the comparative value of manures, drainage, sewing, food, selecting seed corn, the dairy, silos, shingling, &c.Within the compass of 120 pages an immense amount of practical knowledge 1s condensed in a way which cannot fail to arouse the interest of the pupil who solves the different problems presented under the various headings.The problems are not \u201cpuzzlers\u201d but \u201cinstructors.\u201d Lastly, the pupil who has mastered this little work on Rural Arithmetic has not only grasped a good working knowledge of arithmetic, but has acquired at the same time a most helpful and thorough insight into the elementary principles of scientific agriculture.That in itself is a great gain if we are convinced that the central problem of rural educa- SCORNED IRIAN PARAL FAAS LOMA SEM SAL I IY The Educational Record 284 tion \u2018is the provision of such schools everywhere as will ensure the knowledge, the mental training, and the general outlook needed for the transition into modern scientific, organized agriculture.\u201d This new work is, we think, one which should help in the great task of giving rural education an agricultural trend.CLASS INFLUENCE.The study of English is one of the most important subjects of our course of study, but in many cases it receives very scant attention.Children are allowed to bring into the class recitations a lot of the careless expressions they learn at home and on the street.Moreover, in many schools the teacher does most of the oral composing herself and the pupils merely reply in brief statements.Then with the rush of the school work many of the careless expressions are permitted to pass uncorrected by the teacher.Often the impression prevails among teachers, that matters of expression or language are not of as much consequence as matters of knowledge of the subject, and so it happens, that a class may be well informed in history or the subject matter of its reading lessons and yet fail to converse about such subjects in good language.Nor are the pupils alone the only ones, who use careless expressions.There are careless teachers also, who have passed the influences of the academy and the normal school without heeding the call to guard their expressions and set a good example to their pupils.If such can be said of some certificated teachers,,much more can be said of those, who teach without diplomas and the reader can see to what extent there is need of careful instruction in the use of English in our schools, that it may be more accurate and elegant.One of the best means to induce the use of correct speech, after a good example, is the reading to the pupils of some good author, whose words will continue in their conscious- RAF ORNE HEIRS HEN Practical Arithmetic.285 ness and find a place in their expressions.It is well worth an honest effort on the part of every teacher to improve her school in this respect for its knowledge of the language is not only the key to all other subjects, but it is the passport to success and a useful life as well.A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world: he that has the two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be but little the better for anything else.(To attair this happy condition is the true object of education).\u2014 Locke.PRACTICAL ARITHMETIC.The following is from a recent issue of the New York Sun.John C.Stone, head of the department of mathematics in the State Normal School at Montclair, N.]J., since 1909, told the New York Educational Council in an address on \u201cHumanizing Elementary Arithmetic\u201d that the time had arrived for some radical changes in the elementary school instruction in arithmetic.He proposed the elimination of much that has been the bane of existence of the average small boy and small girl, and if his views are ever adopted in textbooks and in class rooms the professor will undoubtedly be the most popular man in the land in the eyes of young America.He said that changes are needed in order to bring arithmetic \u2018into harmony with the nature of childhood and into conformity with the demanas of society, and commercial and industrial efficiency and social insight should be substituted for formal discipline.\u201d The wasteful, the obsolete and the untrue matter in elementary mathematics should be weeded out, he declared, and teachers should seek to develop greater skill in computation PE ST ER EE ER EE AE 286 The Educational Record and greater power in solving the problems of everyday life.The great need in elementary schools, he said, is to emphasize the practical side, but to keep the material within the child\u2019s comprehension.\u201cProf.Stone predicted that ten years from now we will look back in astonishment on things that we are now doing, even in our most progressive schools, notwithstanding the many changes in the course of instruction in elementary mathematics in the past decade.Here are some of the subjects which the professor claims could be cut out in order to \u201cgive sufficient time to develop greater skill in doing that which is useful,\u201d and it is a formidable list that has been responsible for untold spongings heart breakings and mental gyrations on the part of untold millions in days bygone ;almost all work with fractions whose denominators are larger than sixteen; most of the work with such uncommon fractions as sevenths, elevenths, thirteenths and fourteenths; the greatest common divisor; the least common multiple, excepting in determining by inspection the common unit of two or more fractions; all indirect problems in fractions such as those in which a part of a thing is given and all or some other part is to be found; all tables of denominate numbers not in common use; all indirect problems in percentage in which a certain per cent.is known and all or some other part is required; all applications of percentage not consistent with modern business principles; all problems in interest in which time and rate are not those actually allowed when borrowing or loaning money; all partial payments; true discount; the direct or inverse problems in interest in which the principal interest and time are given, to find the rate, etc.; all problems in taxes, duties and customs, insurance, stock investments and bonds, except those real problems actually encountered in life and which will thus give information that will contribute to the social insight of the pupil; partnership, compound proportion; cube root; the measurement of the frustrum of a pyramid or cone; the measurement of the sphere; foreign exchange; the metric system ; longtitude and time except so far as the subject deals with principles necessary to an understanding of standard BR UR RRR NOOO EP CICR EE LIIE FR RTE TO RIRE RACE RE Practical Arithmetic, 287 time; all vocational arithmetic when by that term is meant technical problems relating to a particular vocation and to practices best learned in a period of apprenticeship in the vocation; all problems of plastering, paperhanging, carpet laying, brick laying, floor laying, painting, etc., that are subject to particular trade practices; and all methods of solution and of computation not found in common practice out of school except when more economical methods than those now in common use may be found.\u201cPupils,\u201d Prof.Stone said, \u201cshould be taught to look at combinations of figures and call results just as they learn automatically to look at letters and words and call words and sentences.Oral work ought to be developed to the extent that pupils before leaving school can give without a pencil the results of numbers met in making ordinary purchases at the grocery store, the market or the department store.\u201clI am in thorough sympathy with the movement in some quarters to reduce the time given to arithmetic if that reduction is made at the proper time in the program, in the first years of the course, not.in the last.\u201d He said he believed that nothing is gained by beginning formal number work in the first grade, declaring that all home work and all seat work should be eliminated from the first three grades at least.| \u201cSuch work,\u201d he insisted, \u2018is not only a loss of time, but a real detriment to progress.\u201d During these years, he said, the pupil should be trained to call results automatically by sight and to do purely mental work.At first the time spent in working with charts and blackboards should not exceed ten minutes a day, he contended and as the child develops there should be a marked decrease in the direct supervision of the work by the teacher.\u201cBut in all grades,\u201d he said, \u201chome work should be given sparingly.\u201cThe examinations,\u201d he added, \u2018should test the accuracy and the judgement of the pupil, not his memory.Hence in passing an examination the pupil should be allowed the use of his textbook or any other helps to which he would have access in preparing his daily work.\u201d 288 The Educational Record The Philadelphia Record has the following editorial comment on the above: The wretch compilers of arithmetics for school use have proceeded on the idea that it was important for children to acquire such familiarity with arithmetical processes that e they could apply the general principles to any problem that presented itself, and to this end children were confronted with many problems that they would not be likely to encounter in a store or in calculating a ball player's batting average.If they could solve these it proved that they understood the principles involved, and could solve any arithmetical problems they might encounter.Professor Stone, head of the mathematical department of the State Normal School in Montclair, is a reformer.He would not waste the energies of school children on any problems other than those they are likely to encounter in making out a bill, or checking up a deposit slip at the bank.He says: \u201cGreat changes are needed in order to bring arithmetic into harmony with the nature of childhood and into conformity with the demands of society and industrial and commercial efficiency, and social insight should be substituted for formal discipline.\u201d This is a great idea, and it will reduce arithmetic to the juvenile taste.Unusual fractions, such as sevenths, elevenths and thirteenths, would be omitted.It is not often that a man has to divide by thirteen, and it seems hardly worth while to teach the process.Prices on the Stock Exchange are expressed in sixteenths, sometimes, but all work with fractions of a larger denominator would be omitted.The greatest common divisor and the least common multiple would be banished.As the duodecimal system does not prevail, we presume that all multiplication of numbers above ten could be dispensed with.Of course, exercise in English or French or German money would be expunged from the curriculum of boys and girls who only need to know about dollars and cents.All problems which puzzle the schoolboy and set him to thinking and applying the elements he has already acquired RAR RN HIT I SH HRT SR TL I I FIR OO CTR PLL TR International Forestry Congress.289 would be excluded, such as a cube root, indirect problems in fractions, all tables of denominate numbers not in common use, and all problems in interest in which the time and rate are not those in common use in brokers\u2019 offices.The measurement of the frustum of a pyramid or cone is, ot course, useless, because no one in the ordinary pursuit of a living has to measure cones and pyramids; foreign exchange and the metric system can be left to persons who need to know them, and longitude would not be studied beyond the point of comprehending standard time.All this is excessively modern.Nothing can be more thoroughly up to date.Nothing can be more practical.It meets perfectly the ideas of the parent who would not have his daughter learn arithmetic at all because she would never have to keep store, or his boy study geography, for he was not going to make a sailor of him.INTERNATIONAL FORESTRY CONGRESS.GREAT GATHERING IN PARIS LAST JUNE.This Congress, to which representatives came from every Continent on the globe and which was probably the largest Forestry Congress ever held, met for the expressed purpose of studying economic and technical forestry problems, and of promoting legislative and administrative reforms in order to secure the conservation of the forests, the prevention of soil erosion and the reforesting of waste lands.Such subjects as the right of the state to regulate private forest property, or to expropriate misused and denuded forest lands to insure public safety from floods were discussed from an international view-point.This state right has long been recognized in Europe where lands on watersheds can be expropriated unless managed by the owner according to strict Government regulations and an adequate forest cover maintained.The Federal Government of the United States has also recently given expression to this right by the Weeks Bill, passed in 1911, for the acquisition of lands 290 The Educational Record necessary to protect the watersheds and navigability of navigable rivers.By exerting promptness and foresight, the Dominion Government has been able to forestall private occupation of the forest areas now reserved on the east slope of the Rockies and on other important watersheds, but should the necessity arise, its legal right to expropriate private land for the public benefit, seems to be borne out by the policy followed by other countries.A feature of striking significance in this Forestry Congress at Paris, international in representation and international in its scope, was that this Congress was conceived, organized and brought to a successful fruition by the Touring Club of France, a body having no direct interest in the promotion of Forestry.This club, composed of some of the most influential men in France, realized the esthetic value of the forest to the nation\u2014a point which is almost entirely overlooked in Canada at present.If in Canada, as in Europe, our railways and national highways were bordered by beautiful tracts of forest-land, instead of the bare, barren, fire-swept wastes so prevalent at present, the money value of such an influence on the mind of the tourists would not be the least advantage to be derived from such forests.WOLVES AND BUFFALO.EXTERMINATION OF Woop-BUurraLo THREATENED BY TIMBER WOLVES.Investigations carried on by the Forestry Branch of the Dominion Government have proven conclusively that several large herds of wild Buffalo are still to be found in the hilly country on the northern boundary of Alberta, in the neighborhood of the Slave River.A party working under the direction of Mr.A.J.Bell, the Government Agent at Fort Smith, made a study of the habits and obtained photographs of these Buffalo, which are identical in appearance with the former Buffalo of the plains, the remnants of which were forced to seek shelter in the timbered fastnesses of the north.eee a PRE CC EH HHH HHH COR ET MA M ei Arithmetic Lessons.291 These wood-buffalo when fully grown are able to defend themselves against their natural enemies, but in the winter before the young yearlings have attained strength, they fre- \" quently fall victims to the timber-wolves.Bands of these wolves hover around the flanks of the buffalo herds as they pass in single file from one feeding ground to another, waiting for the opportunity to cut off a young animal and drive it from the beaten trail into the deep snow, where it is unable either to escape or to defend itself.Partly eaten carcasses were found by the investigating party which clearly indicated that the wolves were the cause.These grey timber-wolves are of large size and are very numerous in this region where they menace the existence, not only of the wood-butfalo, but of other game as well.The Dominion Government already offers a bounty of twenty dollars apiece for their destruction, but so scarcely inhabited is the region and so clever are the wolves in avoiding traps, that the present bounty has had little effect in reducing their numbers.It is possible that the Dominion Government will raise the bounty here to forty dollars in the hope of ridding the regions of those pests, and of preventing the extinction of the last wild bison in existence.ARITHMETIC LESSONS.DENOMINATE NUMBER Denominate number requires at least a full year\u2019s work in the middle elementary grades.This is a strong argument for the Metric System, which could be mastered in only a small fractional part of the time required to master the cumberstone and unscientific English relic which we now use in our daily fractions.Financial and other reasons prevent American and English adoption generally at the present time.Perhaps future generations may be blessed by the adoption of the system.The decimal uniform scale is much simpler and the equivalents allow much more mental work than the system now in vogue. 292 The Educational Record During the past ten years the teaching of denominate numbers has changed materially and the last five years has seen a decided pruning in the school-rooms of the problems and data not usually required in ordinary business transactions.The long and senseless reduction of 6 mi.117rd.3 y.2 ft.9 in.to inches has disappeared.It furnished a great amount of written work for the pupil, but it was of little or no value.In its place to-day, we substitute several oral problems in simple reduction.Reduce: 3 m.80 rd.to rods.4 yd.2 ft.to feet.6 rd.2 ft.to feet.10 ft.3 in.to inches, etc.Where one problem was formerly given, we are now giving twenty.The oral work, if begun and practiced in class, can be carried on successfully at the seat by requiring only answers to problems and collecting the same at the close of the study period.The same kind of application is possible in all other forms of reduction.In place of a reduction of 965,473 sq.in.to higher denominations or 5-9 acre to lower denominations or § ft.8in.to the fraction of a mile, the simple reduction to the next higher or lower denomination, and many of the reductions, is much to be preferred to the one long reduction.It is difficult for many of us to change from \u201cmother\u2019s way,\u201d but the times demand it and we must do it if we would keep abreast of the gray bearded figure with the scythe.There is little reason in teaching Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division of Denominate Numbers from a business point of view, but it introduces variety to the drill in reductions.It is needful to say that these problems should be made simple and as far as possible the work should be done mentally.Two or three column Addition and Subtraction is sufficient. Arithmetic Lessons.18 gal.qt.1 pt.6 I 56 43 125 gal.2 qt.1 pt.Many teachers prefer giving total results, 123 gal.9 qt.3 pt., before making final reductions, claiming that it simplifies the problem, and shows more clearly in just what step the error occurs.Such an argument may be a good one, but the work is all a review of simple reduction and if an error occurs the problem is incorrect and should be so treated.We are training for the future and the future business man, like the business man of to-day, will recognize no partially correct manipulation of figures.The denominate number data should be as thoroughly mastered in the middle elementary grades as are the combinations in the primary grades.Is it asking too much of the pupil of a sixth grade to require or invite them to repeat the eight or ten tables in common use in one or one and one- fourth minutes, or to write them in three minutes?Perhaps, but it is done in many schools.It is of the utmost importance that the facts be known thoroughly and that the pupil be able to apply quickly his knowledge.Many commodities are now bought and sold by weight that were formerly sold by measure or by the piece.This method is gaining in popularity.Dealers usually buy by weight when buying large quantities and many times sell in the same maner when the customer thinks he is buying by measure.To-day beans, potatoes, squash, cranberries, etc., are sold by weight where as they were formerly sold by measure.Some dealers sell fruit, oranges, bananas, etc., by weight.Undoubtedly it is more fair to both seller and customer.Probably eggs will some day be sold by weight.Through problems of the nature given below the pupil will recognize the connection between weight and measure.A dealer bought 3650 pounds of potatoes, how many bushels did he buy? MARINS RUE MOSS bE SAO 24 21 The Educational Record 294 A jobber bought of a farmer 250 bushels of potatoes, * What was the freight at 15 cts.per hundred pounds?À bin was filled with a car load of oats billed at 19,500 pounds.How many bushels did the bin hold?A dealer ordered 2400 bushels of corn.He was shipped 134,000 pounds.Was it too much or too little and how .much ?An elevator contains 4500 bushels of barley.How many cars of 20,000 pounds capacity will be required to move it?A gardener sold a grocer 400 squash at 8 cts.apiece.The squash weighed 2100 pounds.The grocer charged 3 cts.per pound.What was his gain?If a bushel of wheat makes 19 pounds of flour, how many barrels of flour will 6400 bushels of wheat make?\u201cApplications of Denominate Numbers\u201d should be the practical application of the principals to the everyday commercial needs.They should not be difficult.Only in technical and engineering work is an elaborate array of figures required.It is not the province of the elementary school to provide such courses but to ground its pupils well in the fundamentals.; to give the pupil such drill in the fundamentals as shall make him proficient in the work which such school was organized to teach.Such application may cover a wide range of subject-matter and yet be simple applications.A liveryman buys oats at 60 cts.per bushel and sells them to the trade 4 quarts for 10 cts.What will be his profit on 120 bushels of oatsé A nursery firm placed 48 bushels 3 pecks of peas in half pint packages.How many packages were made upé By purchasing 360 acres of land at $100 per acre, a real estate dealer sold all for $43,200.What was his gain per acreé A grocer buys 60 gal.of cider at 13 cts.per gallon.After keeping it a year he sells it as vinegar at § cts.per quart.What is his gain?A train vender bought 12 dozen oranges for $2.50 and sold them 2 for 5 cts.What was his gain?OT ARR HR RRR RRO TROT Arithmetic Lessons.295 How many feet of fence will be required to surround a garden 4 rods square ?A Realty Company bought a tract of land 100 rd.x 200 rd.at $200 per acre.They cut this up into building lots averaging 10 lots to the acre, which they sold at $100 per lot.What was the gain to the Realty Company?How many rails, each 30 feet long, will be required to lay two miles of railroad?How many feet of sidewalk will be necessary for a street 44 rds.long?What will be the cost of painting the ceiling of a room 18 ft.x 25 ft., two coats, at 12 cts.per sq.yd.?Each side of a pitched roof is 30 ft.x 60 ft.How many shingles will be required allowing 110 square feet for 1000 shingles?What will be the cost of cementing a floor 40 ft.x 22 1-2 ft.at go cts.a square yardé A purchaser secures a lot 80 ft.deep and go ft.front at $35 a frontage foot.What was the price paid?Allowing for 2 doors 3 feet wide, and 2 doors 6 feet wide, how much floor moulding will be required for a room 25 ft.x 18 ft Find the cost of fencing a field 30 rds.x 20 rds.with woven wire at 30 cts.per yard.The posts are set 10 feet apart and cost $12 per C.At $1.25 per cubic yard, what will be the cost of excavating for the basement of a house 60 ft.x 35 ft., cellar to be 8 ft.deepé Place curbing on a corner lot having 60 ft.front tand 75 ft.depth.The curbing costs $1.50 per lineal foot.| For rapid oral drill the following is suggested.State rapidly an equivalent of: 3-8 bu.8 weeks 3 ft.I 1-4 1-2 circle 36 sq.in.1 bu.3-4 yd.12 degrees 18 cu.ft.1 gal.1-2 1b.10 0Z 27 in.5 1-2 yd.1-3 quire 14 da.10 cwt.14 OZ.18 in.8 hr.16.qt I mile The Educational Record 296 All of the foregoing problems are taken from the author\u2019s \u201cA Grammar School Arithmetic.\u201d The question of honest weights and measures is receiving much attention in many states.During the last session of the New York State Legislature, \u201cThe Brooks Weight and Measure Bill\u201d was passed.It will protect the consumer against numerous frauds and at the same time save the honest business man from having to compete with those who sell their wares in indefinite terms.The measure requires goods sold in packages, including prepared goods and bottled stuffs of all kinds, to have the net weight or amount of fluid contents plainly marked on the outside.All ice, meat meat products and butter must be sold by weight only.All other commodities not in containers shall be sold by standard weight, standard measure or numerical count, provided, however, that vegetables may be sold by the head or bunch.A provision of the bill is that no person shall manufacture, sell, offer or expose for sale containers for vegetables, produce or fruit that are not of the capacity of one barrel, half barrel, one bushel or multiples of the barrel or sub- multiples of the bushel divisible by two.A legal barrel is defined by law for the first time and must contain 7,056 cubic inches, \u2014Popular Educator.RT RR NE A RR HR RE Make Greater use of the School House 297 MAKE GREATER USE OF THE SCHOOL HOUSE It has been observed that when a great movement is on foot, or when an important improvement is about to take place in the social, political, or scientific world, the same ideas take possession of several persons about the same time.This fact simply goes to show that the time is ripe for the changes to be affected.The small amount of leaven introduced perhaps many years before by some independent thinker is beginning to leaven the whole lump.It is interesting in this connection to observe the great amount of attention given in these days to the rural school by our best newspapers, by our progressive public men, and by oureducators.The \u201cJournal of Agriculture\u201d too has frequently discussed the problem of the rural school on account of its influence for good or ill on the agriculture of the community.One fact is being emphasized in many quarters and that is the limited use to which the school house is put in most sections.As a rule it is not used to any extent for social purposes.It is an ideal place for holding gatherings of a public nature where a community may be fostered.For some reason or other the young people do not meet together as often as they did some years ago.Many of the men who now occupy positions of influence can look back to the meer- ings in the old School House as the occasions when they received their early training in speaking, and practice in dealing with public gatherings.The school as a social centre should be revived.It is a public building and should serve as an educational meeting place in the broadest sense.Our education is not obtained during the few years we are attending the day classes at the school.Every experience gained by taking part in neighborhood conferences helps to make us stronger men and women, and gives that culture which characterizes an educated person. 298 The Educational Record By all means let the school house be used to serve the best interest of the community.Le: it be the place where the people meet for legitimate conference, and where public opinion is made.In the words of a presidential candidate in the United States: \u201cIf you once gather public opinion into nuclei, into heads, into centres, then something is going to happen with regard to the action of politics itself\u201d.\u2014Journal of Agriculture.GETTING THE BOY INTERESTED.Here is a bit of newspaper humor which is worth reprinting for its point as well as for its facetiousness : \u201cMy boy,\u201d said the head of the firm, \u201cI've noticed that you have a great head for figures, although you don\u2019t seem to be able to spell or write at all.How does it happen?\u201d \u201cI studied \u2019rithmetic,\u201d replied the office boy, \u2018\u201c\u2019cause I wanted to know how to figure de battin\u2019 averages.\u201d \u2014Chicago Record-Herald.This dialogue, it wil be seen, is in amplification of a Shakespeare text: No profit grows wherin no pleasure\u2019s ta\u2019en; In brief, sir, study what you most affect.That, of course, is the problem of all primary education\u2014 to make studies interesting to the young by relating them to pursuits and absorptions which appeal to the young.When you can do so, you put motive power behind the intellect so that it goes ahead, not merely from a general desire to be useful and achieve culture, but in response to a special passion of the possessor.Hidden somewhere in every task, in every path human minds have traversed before, there is a delight.The thing to do is to discover it.Unhappily, it is not enough for many a boy to have it urged upon him, as an incentive to diligent study, that only thus may be hope to be a useful man and a leader among men.That is a man\u2019s reason, and he is a boy; and he is perfectly aware that in boyish life enjoyment and leadership are not necessarily denied to the drone.To beguile him into putting forth his powers along the line of his inclina- RRR ANON IR PE EC PRE RERO One Hundred Words for First Year 299 tions is the most fascinating game in the world\u2014superior, indeed, to the games of love and war.Like them, it is a species of manhunting.\u2014Editorial in the New York Evening Mail.ONE HUNDRED WORDS FOR FIRST YEAR.The following list of one hundred words is used in all first year classes in the Second District.The words are to be recognized at sight, to be spelled orally, and to be written from dictation.If it is desirable to set apart certain words in the list for \u201cA\u201d section, the column of twenty- -five words so marked is recommended :\u2014 all flag look sit | baby am fly make spin | ball and fun may star | big apple get me sun | boy are girl moon tell | can at give my that | cat baby glad nest the | dog ball go no them | doll big good not they | fat bird hat now this | get book has of to | has boy have old top | ave can he on tree | hen cat hen one two | I catch her play three | is COW here pretty up | it did his rain we | like do I read who | little dog in red will | me doll is run wind | nest egg it say wish | no eat j see with | red fat i she yes | see feed i sky you | this for i sing your | you The Educational Record MUSCULAR MOVEMENT WRITING MADE INTERESTING Writing lessons more than others become dull and unprofitable unless there is some new incentive for better work.Four hundred ovals, capital A\u2019s, seventy-five to the minute, small o\u2019s, small m\u2019s, etc, after a time become monotonous both to the teacher and pupils unless there is an additional spur.The following scheme was tried with great success and enthusiasm on the part of the pupils.One day, seeing a bored look stealing over the faces of the children when the writing period came, the teacher told the pupils after the first hundred ovals had been written, to pass the papers to the one in front.The one in the front seat passed his to the one in the rear seat of the next row.Each began on the second hundred on the new paper just received.Papers were passed on for the third hundred and again after the fourth hundred.In the same way the succeeding exercises were taken, each pupil putting his initials beside the line written by him.At the close of the lesson the papers were returned to the original owners.Disgust was pictured on the faces of the better writers and those poor in penmanship were delighted with the result The next lesson was most satisfactory to all concerned, as the teacher herself took part, passing her paper with the children\u2019s.If the teacher's paper was to be written upon by others, the pupils who wrote well would not mind passing their papers to their companions in order to help them to become better writers.Being helpers, they felt the responsibility of doing thir very best and thus their own writing was improved.After a few lessons the advancement in all the papers was remarkable.In later lessons, to add still more to the interest, the pupils taking the papers for the last time did not write, but marked the exercises 1 for the best line, 2 for the next in merit, and so on until all had been marked. Should Ethics be Taught in our Schools .301 Every one was eager to see his mark.Many good writers failed to obtain first place as an excellent writer had written on his paper.This fired their ambition not to be second again.In later lessons, papers were passed after half the lesson was finished, thus giving more time for cach pupil to write on his own paper.Occasionally, the writing period is spent at the blackboard, a few going to the board together.The class criticises the writing, as much attention being given to the good points as to the bad ones.A match between the boys and girls is always enjoyed.Three boys and three girls take places at the blackboard, all writing the same word or sentence.The best writing is selected and, if it is a boy, the boys get a point and if a girl, the girls gain one.Going through a class in this way fine results in blackboard writing are attained .\u2014Popular Educator.SHOULD ETHICS BE TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS This is a day of progress,\u2014material, mental and moral.Upon the younger generation is focused the thought and effort of the thinking world.Manual training, domestic science teaching and the like have been cvolved to educate the physical powers of our boys and girls.But what about the moral development?Inasmuch as it takes a greater amount of moral force to meet the temptations of our advanced civilization and the majority of our American homes are giving much less moral training than was given a generation ago, it developes upon the schools, by some means, to fit the boys and girls to meet these larger requirements.When one thinks of the moral delinquency of many men in high places, the responsibility of laying strong character foundations in the coming generation committed to our care must rest heavily upon us.It is a responsibility we cannot evade if we would. 302 The Educational Record It was once the writer\u2019s privilege to hear Jane Brownlee, of Toledo, Ohio, speak of her work in the La Grange school of that city.Perhaps the way this school solved the problem of moral training may help in solving it in our own schoolrooms, After years of experience with boys and girls, Miss Brownlee came to believing that they were neither positively good nor positively bad, but were good if goodness were made profitable enough, and bad if there were enough interest in badness to make it worth while.The more one thinks of this proposition the more reasonable it seems.Believing that their minds were equally susceptible to good and bad influences, she set herself th task of turning this susceptibility toward positive goodness.Occasionally she talked with the children about thought-power.Finally they devoted five minutes each day to these talks.These boys and girls, like other boys and girls, knew goodness was a state commended by grown people, but they had been given no reason for it, and felt no personal responsibility in the matter.Miss Brownlee revealed to them a new power,\u2014a power to think, which they might use in any way they choose, and which could not be controlled or \u2018\u201cbossed\u201d by any outside power.This gave them a sense of responsibility, which they liked and took seriously and thoughtfully when they were told that the character of these thoughts made them the boys and girls they were.After these talks had been going on for some time one little boy said to Miss Brownlee: \u201cI like these talks.I have promised myself never to let a day pass without sitting down alone and thinking a good thought.\u201d Miss Brownlee saw so much improvement in the boys and girls of her grade that the next year, when she became supervising principal, she laid this plan of work in morals before her teachers.Some took it up at once and later all fell into line. Should Ethics be Taught in our Schools 303 For seven years this noble woman and her teachers met weekly to discuss plans for this work.As a result, the system as used in the La Grange school was perfected.In the kindergarten, for example, the children are taught that the body is just a little house in which each of them lives, and that these houses are sacred, and must be kept clean and pure.They learn that they eat food and that the sleep to make these bodies grow and be strong and well.They learn also what the mind is and how it differs from the body, that it is fed by the lessons they learn and the thoughts they have.One little kindergarten fellow when asked, \u201cWhat is the mind?\u201d answered, \u201cIt\u2019s the stuff we think.\u201d One statement of Miss Brownlee\u2019s impressed the writer greatly.It was this:\u2014\"\u201cAt La Grange we never give prizes.The children would as soon expect to receive pay for eating their dinners as to receive pay for feeding their minds.\u201d Following these basic talks there are talks on some one subject for each month.They are usually presented in this order.September\u2014Kindness.October\u2014Cleanliness.November\u2014Obedience.December\u2014Self Control.January\u2014Courtesy and Cheerfulness.February\u2014Work March\u2014Honor.April\u2014Honesty, Truthfulness and Clean Language.May and June\u2014Manners.Review of the Year.These monthly subjects are again subdivided for each week.Thus, Kindness, the September topic has for the first week Kindness to Parents; second week, Kindness to Teachers; third week, Kindness to playmates; fourth week, Kindness to Animals.The topics for the other months were similarly divided.Every room in the building has these five-minute talks on the stated subject at the same time every day.In the main i a i ee LL PPT FE TE ITC a ., H ; ; LEE T STEP + ASE § EEF] tit DEC ANT TH Ida, HE 1 ADM ENSHRNIIN 304 .The Educational Record hall hangs a large banner bearing the topic for the month.Miss Brownlee contends that the habit of devoting a few minutes at the same time every day to the thinkirg of good thoughts must be of incalculable benefit to every boy and girl.Out of all this has grown a School City of La Grange, but as Miss Brownlee believes that several years of the pre- limiary training that has just been described is necessary to make this further idea a success, it will not enter into this discussion.After using Miss Brownlee\u2019s plan for several years, the principal of the Glenwood School, Toledo, says: \u2018The children were formerly rank little individuals, but now they have a community spirit,\u2014a thing they need not only in school but all through life.\u201d When we taken ot of the fact that of all the boys Judge Lindsay of the Denver Juvenile Court has sent unguarded to Golden, the home of the State Reformatory, only two failed to show up according to promise, we are forced to believe that when a child realizes his own responsibility in achieving better things, something will be accomplished.\u2018The reflex influence of this work on the teachers themselves should be emphasized.Jane Brownlee says she is too \u201chomely\u201d to have her picture taken.Her worst enemy (if she has an enemy) certainly would not say as much.The simple honest goodness shining out from her face makes it a face beautiful to see.The query arises, \u201cCould any one teach goodness in such a way and for so many years without developing a beautiful face and a beautiful life and character?\u201d One difficulty confronts us in the outset if we adopt Miss Brownlee\u2019s plan: How may we avoid making the daily morning talks like preachments?A child hates being preached at as much as a grown person.The following questions will arise among many others and will repay earnest consideration: Just how shall these talks be introduced?Where can we get the material needed?How can we avoid preaching? Should Ethics be Taught in our Schools 305 By believing that children are non-moral rather than immoral, by believing that the soul of the child must be fed as well as the mind and the body, and that the greatest factor in the right development of character is a snese of personal responsibility, we, as earnest, conscientious teachers, must endeavor to do something along the line of morals for the boys and girls under our care.As some one has said: «f am but one, but I am one; I cannot do everything, but I can do something; What I can do, I ought to do; And what I ought to do, God helping me, I will do.\u201d \u2014 Normal Instructor. The Educational Record EVERYDAY PROBLEMS IN TEACHING REWARDS AND PRIZES Ât one time or another in his teaching experience, every teacher must debate with himself the question of stimulating pupils to make their best efforts in the work of the school, by tempting them with rewards and prizes for excellence.I have been frequently asked to give my opinion regarding the effect upon the character and intellectual development of pupils of offering prizes to those who excel in behavior or in their studies.Many of the teachers who express themselves on this topic, say that a pupil should learn to do right for its own sake, and that he should get in the habit of exerting himself to the limit of his ability without expecting any reward therefor, except the gain in intelligence he makes there by.All of us feel more or less deeply that he alone is educated in a true sense who does what is right on any occasion, without expecting immediate material reward for what he does, and we would like to base all of our teaching upon this principle.But in deciding a question of this sort, we must reckon with human nature as it is, rather than with human nature as it ought to be.And we cannot fail to see that all children, and also many adults, are stimulated to do their best by the prospect of receiving direct compensation of some kind therefor.Only those who have reached the highest point in ethical development can do what is right, always from a sense of duty, or from the consciousness of receiving spiritual benefit as a result of good conduct.If any reader who has not thought of the matter will review his own experiences in the effort to find out to what extent he is himself influenced in his actions by rewards and prizes, he will probably discover that a considerable part of his work and conduct is determined in view of very direct returns.Nature has apparently so constituted every normal individ- * ual that he must see something attractive ahead of him in order to restrain himself from wrong conduct, or exert himself to achieve desirable ends. Everyday Problems in Teaching 307 Teachers often say that we ought to get along without marks or grades in school work.While some persons may find this possible, still it is probable that the majority of us could not encourage pupils to do their best without making use of a marking system.Of course the thing may be overdone, so that the pupil may exert himself solely with a view to getting a good mark.In doing this, he may miss the most valuable features of school training.He may also fail to appreciate the value of knowledge and good conduct for their own sake.If this should be the result of the use of a marking system, it would certainly be disastrous in its effect on the intellectual and the moral developement of the pupil.But in the hands of a capable teacher, the marking system need not lead to any such unhappy consequences.Marks can be given for upright conduct and thorough intellectual comprehension of what is being taught, and in this way a premium will be put upon genuineness in behavior and in intellectual work.It is perhaps easier to have marks represent mere formal fulfilment of requirements; and in such event, the marks may emphasize the wrong sort of thing in school work.Doubtless those teachers who object to the marking system feel that ordinarily there is a likelihood of its representing only formal and superficial achievement, and in such a case, the system may very well be condemned.There is a further point in respect to the use of the marking system which is overlooked by many teachers.Children need the stimulus of competition in order to do their level best in the right direction.The human mind has been worked out in competitive struggle, and unless an individual has an opportunity to compete with his fellows in school work, as in other ways, he will not be apt to have his talents fully developed.The greatest spur to effort arises from the realization that one is not doing as well as or better than his fellows, and any plan which will prevent a pupil from learning how his work compares with that of his schoolmates will operate to his disadvantage.Of course, there are ways in which the pupil can be made to feel how he stands in relation to his classmates, without the use of the The Educational Record marking system.But nevertheless the marking system may be made of distinct advantage in respect to this matter.Childreu regard it wholly as an indication of their ranking in respect to their comrades and competitors.If there were nu definite evidence of this sort which would be a constant guide to the individual pupil in revealing how he stands in his group, he would often be without a sufficient stimulus to effort necessary for his effective development.This matter, too, can be overdone.Competition may be made so prominent a factor that it will detract from the vital work of the school.If a pupil is made conscious of a desperate struggle for superiority among the members of the group, he will be likely to exert himself, but his attention will be too much centered upon the notion of gaining ascendancy rather than upon practising good conduct and acquiring knowledge because of their inherent value.It is a delicate matter to know just how far competition can be utilized as a stimulus without leading to strain and stress and distraction.But if it serves primarily to keep a pupil work- - ing to the full of his ability without the rewards for success seeming to be the chief thing of value in his work, then it will certainly be of value to him.Even in adult lifé, men are stimulated to greater effort through the promise of direct rewards.In the college and the university it is realized that in order to stimulate students, it is necessary to give money prizes, medals, honors, or some sort of reward for superior achievement.| There is a special aspect of the matter which.troubles many teachers.They say that if prizes are offered for good conduct or superior work, only the strong pupils can secure them, and this will be discouraging to the weaker ones.Undoubtedly this presents a serious problem in the schoolroom.But would it not be possible to establish some such a system as is done in all games wherein the stronger individuals are handicapped so as to give the weaker ones a chance?The theory in all games is that those who are strong and those who are weak are put on the same level through a handicap which will encourage the latter to exert Everyday Problems in Teaching 309 themselves to the utmost.This would serve, also as a proper stimulus to the strong person for he will realize that in order to win against the handicap he must do his best.The strong pupil needs to be stimulated as well as the weak one in order that he may bring his powers under full control.It may be difficult to work out 2 proper handicap system in the school-room, but where it can be done, it will prove of value to every pupil.THE MorAL VALUE OF SCHOOL STUDIES So much is being said now about the need of moral training in the schools, that teachers are looking in every direction for opportunities to give moral instruction.A principal of a grammar school is of the opinion that moral training can be secured best through the regular subjects of study, and his views may be of interest to all teachers.He says: It seems to me that we can make use of such a subject as arithmetic to give the best sort of moral notions.Any pupil who does his arithmetic thoroughly, learns the lesson of exactness, and this notion is necessary for moral conduct.He has the same notion carried still further in algebra and in geometry.I do not see how the pupil can solve problems every day in any of these subjects without being morally benefited thereby.I would say the same thing about the study of grammar, and indeed about the study of any subject which requires the pupil to think clearly and accurately.To my mind a subject like physics gives very good moral training, because it requires a pupil to be precise in his thinking.If he is inaccurate or slovenly he will come to grief, and this sort of experience will be of moral benefit to him.The test of views of this sort is found in the effect of mathematics and other kinds of study upon the behavior of men.Are those who are better in arithmetic than others, better also in ethical conduct.Can it be shown that those who have studied algebra and geometry give way less readily to temptations to cheat, to prevaricate, to be unfair and the like than those who have not pursued mathematical 310 The Educational Record studies beyond arithmetic?It seems to me one may be very good in algebra, but very bad in the relations toward people.The same might be said of arithmetic and of grammar, and indeed of any study which does not deal directly, concretely, and effectively with the everyday ethical and moral situations of the pupil.I cannot see that experience in solving cube root, though it may demand accurate thinking, will help a pupil to be any the more honest in his dealings with the people around him.I doubt whether the mere solving of problems will lead a pupil to tell the truth with greater certainty than he would otherwise do.The kind of accuracy required in solving a problem is so different from the requirements to tell the truth, when personal interest is involved, that the one may exert no influence, or at least very little influence on the other.Of course, if the pupil tells the truth about his experience in solving a problem, this ought to be of advantage to him, because it gives him experience in resisting the temptation to distort fact when he thinks it will be to his advantage to do so.The only sort of experience that will help a child to tell the truth, will be that which impresses upon him that he must do so when he is in a situation which tempts him to do otherwise.There are undobtedly some subjects of study which are of greater moral value than others, because they deal more specifically with the typical moral situations in which the pupil is likely to be placed in everyday life.History can be so taught that it will constantly impress the necessity for moral conduct in the ordinary situations of life.The reading lessons and literature lessons are particularly well-adapt- ed for this purpose.Civil Governments may be made very largely a study of honesty, fair play, and co-operation among people.So other subjects can be presented in such a way as to give experience in making moral judgments, and in carrying them out.But such subjects as arithmetic, algebra, grammar, and the like do not present opportunities for moral judgments to any extent, though in their pursuit the pupil may have experience in being honest, industrious, and Everyday Problems in Teaching 311 persevering.From this latter standpoint, all the work of the school may be made to have an ethical and moral value.One ought not to over-emphasize the moral or ethical value of any sort of ideas in themselves.Making an ethical judgment is ore thing, and putting the judgment into practice when the test come is another thing.If the pupil could get moral ideas in a subject like civil government, say, and then put them into effect in his life on the playground or in the schogl-room, he would be gaining valuable ethical experience; but otherwise, it is doubtful if he will gain a great deal that will be of service to him when he is placed in a situation where his personal interest is in conflict with that of \u2018his fellows.The aim of the teacher ought to be to get the pupil to act in an ethical way, rather than simply to get ideas about moral action, which ideas will not be carried out into conduct.THE CURE OF BASHFULNESS Is there anything that can be done for a pupil who is so diffident that he is afraid even to recite when he is called upon?I think he often says he doesn\u2019t know a point just because he is too self-conscious to express himself regarding it.He has always been retiring and bashful, often painfully so.Some persons appear to think that bashfulness is inherited and cannot be overcome, though it may be outgrown In time.The chief difficulty with the bashful child is that he does not get his thoughts away from himself.He has probably been embarrassed in the past in his relations with people, and his experience has impressed itself so deeply upon him, that he cannot shake it off.As long as this continues, he cannot avoid being diffident and embarrassed.His only chance of overcoming this will be to get the thing he is trying to do so completely in his attention.It probably true that most people, if they thought much about self, in relation to others, would be more or less embarrassed and perhaps bashful. 312 The Educational Record There is undoubtedly a physiological basis for diffidence, timidy, and bashfulness.One who has an abundance ot energy is much less likely to be embarrassed than one who is low in vitality.Bashfulness, diffidence, and the like are due in every way to a lack of confidence in one\u2019s self, and whoever fears the outcome of any action is bound to be restrained and inhibited in regard to it; which means that if he is afraid he is not going to make good in his relations with people, he will be diffident and embarrassed in their presence.In order to cure bashfulness, then, the physical condition of the pupil ought to be improved, so far as this may be possible.But particularly one ought to treat the pupil so that he will feel he is capable of handling himself in the situations in which he is ordinarily embarrassed.In a recitation, for instance, a teacher ought not to accept the statement of a diffident pupil that he does not know a point; he should be sympathetically kept in hand until he actually succeeds in expressing himself.If this be done a few times, it gives the pupil a basis for greater confidence in the future.Every time a pupil declines to recite because of diffidence, he makes it all the more difficult for him to overcome his embarrassment.A pupil\u2019s present acticn will depend on what he has done in the past.If he has been too embarrassed to recite on a hundred previous occasions, it is very unlikely that he will have the courage to recite on the present occasion unless specially aided by the teacher.On the other hand, if he has made successful attempts a few times to recite, he will then have behind him experience which will be likely to help him through a present difficulty.Remember that every time he succeeds, the likelihood of success in the future is increased; and the same principle holds for failure, of course.\u2014Popular Educator. Superior School Examinations SUPERIOR SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS BRITISH HISTORY (GRADE II.MODEL SCHOOL) All the questions are to be answered.1.Compare the treatment which the Britons received at the hands of the Romans, with that which they received from the Anglo-Saxons.10 2.Give the account of the origin of the English Navy.10 3.(a) Name the first Danish King of England.(b) What was his Policy towards the Saxons?10 4.(a) Which of the Norman Kings was called the \u201cLion of Justice.\u201d (b) What were the main features of his rule?10 5.(a) Who was Becket?(b) Tell how he met his death.10 6.Explain how the title \u201cPrince of Wales\u201d has been given the eldest son of the Kings of England.10 7.(a) In whose reign was the battle of Crecy fought?(b) Give a brief account of the battle.10 8.(a) Name three victories won by Henry V.(b) What were the leading terms of the Treaty of Troyes, which Henry wrested from the French as a result of his victories?10 9.Relate the story of the siege of Orleans.1429.10 10.(a) Name in order the kings of the House of York.\u201d (b) Which of them was responsible for the murder of the princes?(c) In what battle was he slain ?10 SCRIPTURE, GRADE I.AND II.MODEL.1.Where did each of the following events in the life of Jesus take place: birth, presentation to the Lord, home training, baptism, temptation, transfiguration, betrayal, crucifixion, ascension?2.On what occasions in Jesus\u2019 lifetime were words heard 314 The Educational Record from heaven?Quote the words heard on each occasion.9 3.What was John the Baptist\u2019s last message to Jesus?\u2018Where was John when he sent this message?What was Jesus\u2019 reply to him?What did Jesus say about John after the messengers left?12 4.Tell something that Jesus said about each of the following: (1) Those who hear his words and do not do them, (2) The man who was casting out demons in Jesus\u2019 name, but did not follow him, (3) The teaching of the Pharisees, (4) Rich men and the Kingdom of Heaven, (5) The widow who cast two mites into the treasury.IS 5.Tell about the feeding of the Five Thousand.10 6.Tell about the raising of Jairus\u2019 daughter.10 7.Relate the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican.10 8.Tell something about each of the following: Zachariah, King Herod of Judea, Zacchaeus, Peter, Simon of Cyrene, Joseph of Arimathaea, Mary Magdalene, Martha, Caiaphas, Cleopas.10 9.How did Jesus try to convince his hearers (1) that he had power on earth to forgive sins, (2) that it was not wrong for his disciples to pluck the ears of corn on the sabbath, (3) that getting enough to eat was not the most important thing, (4) that the dead rise again, (5) that the Rich Young Ruler was not keeping the commandments as fully as he thought?15 ARITHMETIC (GRADE II.MODEL SCHOOL.) All the questions are to be answered.Write in Roman Numerals 27: 43: 86: 275.Write in words 17,051,060; 485,607,500; 1,001,001.Write in figures five hundred and four, and fifty-seven ten-thousandths; also in words 17.00512.10 2.Solve\u2014 3% of 245 ; \u2014 \u2014\u2014\u2014 = 15 \u2014 75 )\u20141 EL HEHE Superior School Examinations 315 Find the value at 15c per hour of a man\u2019s time, when he had worked 3-5 of a week, 3-4 of a day, 2-3 of an hour.(Week=6 days and day=10 hrs.10 4.(a) If 12 doz.pen-knives are bought for $108 and are sold for 85c.each, what is the gain on each pen-knife ?(b) From one thousandth take one millionth.10 s.(a) Divide 2925, byy the product of .23 x .05.(b) Explain how to multiply and divide decimals.Find value of 7 bush.3 pks.3 gts.I pint of berries at 12 I-2C.per quart.10 6.Reduce 11 ro.11 sq.rds.11 sq.yds.to sq.feet and express the answer as a fraction of an acre., 10 7.Divide $448.71 among A.B.C.so as to give B.$46.70.less than A.and $34.59 more than C.10 8.If 5-7 of the cargo of a ship be worth $16,000, what will be the value of 2-3 of 7-8 of the remainder of the cargo?10 DICTATION AND SPELLING (GRADE II.MODEL) NOTE FOR THE PRESIDING ExamMINER.\u2014The Teacher will read the extract three times, the candidates writing it out during the second reading.The first and third readings are respectively intended to give the candidates a general idea of the character of the passage, and to guide them in punctuating.As it is a great importance that candidates should not be left in a state of uncertainty, the Teacher will repeat, on request, any word or phrase.Full stops and semi-colons, are to be indicated by the Teacher, but not commas, nor interrogation, exclamation and quotation marks.The candidates should be informed of this before commencing to write.Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read histories 316 The Educational Record of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read the Scriptures, and other works both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves.The shrewd lawyer sought a clew.Give that obstinate invalid a tonic before vaccinating him.À fugitive from the regiment asked a citizen for liniment.The colonel cut an artery.There is phlegm in my throat.I prophesy a failure in geography.The indolent volunteer will probably do penance for insolence.Gigantic, lustrous, occasion, suspicious, spinach, wondrous.granary, immerse, isthmus, pyramid, dialogue, placard, brethren, mischievous, career, dragoon, pioneer, audience, sympathy, census. Of Interest to the Seniors.OF INTEREST TO THE SENIORS.MINES IN THE AIR Air mines sound like a fairy tale, but it is actually true that modern science is able to extract dividends from the air.Nitric \u2018acid is now manufactured from air by means ot electric furnaces and also nitrogenous fertilizers.The largest manufactories of this kind are in Norway, where the almost unlimited water-power makes it a paying enterprise.In Germany the electric chemists have just succeeded in getting ammonia in commercial quantities out of the air by forcing the nitrogen in the air to unite with hydrogen through the tremendous heat of an electric furnace.Another commercial proposition is to cool the fruit cars which cross the continent from California, with electricity, instead of ice.One of the great wastes in steel manufacturing has been in the blast furnaces which light the sky for miles around with their fiery glare.It has now been possible to fit up blast furnaces, that, instead of blazing to the sky, the gas generated is captured and made to supply electric and steam horsepower.No wonder the Techinal World Magazine, from which these facts are taken, uses the title, Dividends from Mines in the Air, for its article.DROPPING INTO AN AIRHOLE.What appears to be holes in the air are simply descending currents which occur by the side of rising currents.When passing, as rapidly as an aeroplane does, from an ascending current into a very clearly defined current of air blowing downward, the wings of the aeroplane, caught by the quick change of the direction of the air, respond at once and the whole machine drops out from under you as if it were a veritable hole and there were no support at all.Naturally you are bounced up out of your seat, or rather the seat leaves you, and unless strapped in you find yourself sitting on air with nothing to purchase against to enable you to operate the controls.Almost all aviators strap 318 The Educational Record themselves in either with a belt, which can be released instantly, or with two straps which go over the shoulders and can be readily shaken off in case of necessity.| \u2014Outing for October.PHOTOGRAPHING STARS AND COMETS.Modern photography can take the picture of a comec madly rolling through space many miles a second, at distances unthinkably great.It can take the likeness of a \u2018star\u2019 that, under the power of the telescope, becomes hundreds of suns\u201435,482 separate suns were counted in the constellation Hercules.On a bit of sensitized paper it can condense millions of miles of the heavens.In interpreting such a picture\u2014for instance, a patch of the Milky Way\u2014the human mind simply staggers.That each light point is an independent light-and-heat-giving sun; that the majority of these are systems more or less similar to our own; that not two are probably within millions of miles of each other; that practically all of these systems and suns are in motion; the Whence and Whither\u2014these are conceptions that transcend human grasp.Yet no more fascinating field is open to the imagination.\u2014Everybody's Magazine for October.A VALUABLE BUG AT LARGE.Not long ago a Washington scientist, an enthusiastic student of natural history, captured a fine specimen of beetle.On reaching home he, in a moment of haste, pinned the beetle to a library table with his diamond scarf-pin.When he returned to the library from his dinner, he hound his captive had got loose, and was flying about with the diamond pin glistening from its back. todd dite Of Interest to the Seniors.319 Man and bug made a rush for the window at the same instant.The beetle got there first, and triumphantly sailed away, barely eluding the scientist's outstretched hand.Neither bug nor pin has since been seen.\u2014Harpers\u2019 Weekly.THE COST OF DISCOVERING AMERICA.At Palos, in Spain, some old account books have just been discovered among the town archives, from which it is possible to compute the expenditure of Christopher Columbus on the expeditions which resulted in the discovery ot America.The fleet of three ships cost approximately £628.For the officers stores £80 suffice.The men were paid six shillings a day, but had to find their own food and drink.This works out to a total of about £1,000.to which there has to be added about £600 for guns and munitions of war.Altogether, therefore, the cost of discovering America was £1,600, which as discoveries of the kind go, certainly seems cheap enough.\u2014Westminster Gazette.THE MARVELOUS DIAMOND DRILL It may not be generally known that the diamond drill is actually what its name implies\u2014real black diamonds constitute the cutting surface.It is, too, one of the most marvelous of labor-saving machines, for where it was formerly necessary, in mining operations, to sink shafts at great expense to ascertain what of ore or other substances lay beneath the surface, the diamond drill now supplies the information as clearly as the gauge denotes the condition of a steam-boiler.The drill is so constructed that instead of merely punching a hole it cuts a perfect circle into the earth or rock, and a core about the size of a broom-handle is taken out for the inspection of the prospector.These cores are usually lifted in sections of four or five in length, although they sometimes attain, in a hard formation, a length of twelve or fifteen 320 The Educational Record feet without breaking.As the drill can penetrate into the earth for a depth of one hundred or more feet, it will be seen that every inch of the formation is brought before the eyes of the miner for study and assay as to its mineral value.As all diamonds are expensive, the gems used for drilling, no less than those set in rich ornaments, the equipment ot such a machine requires a considerable outlay.Where its use 15 not continuous, the diomonds are frequently rented from a dealer, the user paying for whatever pennyweights are worn away, as determined by careful weighing.As the drills are driven by powerful electric or compressed-air engines, it is almost unbelievable that those little particles can withstand the mighty contact with rock often as hara as steel.Yet months of use show so little diminution in their size that the eye cannot detect it.\u2014Youth\u2019s World.British Columbia is to furnish the telephone and telegraph poles for the Panama Canal.They are to com from Graham Island, the largest island jof the Queen Charlotte group.The California contractor expects to take-out 5,000 poles from the forests of tall cedar trees said to be growing on Graham Island, where trees without a branch from 60 to 100 feet up from the ground are found in numbers.The statement was made the other day by speaker Clars of the United States Congress that in one week not long since, 1,845 farmers with $385,500 in cash, and $145,000 in personal property, crossed from the United States into Western Canada to become settlers.And this was said to be a week below the average.The United States is becoming seriously concerned over the number of her best citizens who are coming into Canada on account of better homestead and other conditions. A Parable on the Educational Problem in England 321 A PARABLE ON THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM IN ENGLAND The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.W.Pett Ridge, in \u201cPublic Opinion,\u201d London She was such a well-meaning old lady, and she so often insisted upon this fact, that it was only the very daring or the extremely impertinent, who ventured to criticize the manner in which she brought up her family.The circumstance that the critics often disagreed amongst themselves enabled her to smile casually at them, and remarl: upon the easiness of the task of finding fault.\u201cBut you're bringing them up all wrongly, y, they cried.\u201cLook at the results.See what has happened to some of those who are grown up.Why, a lad of yours the other day\u2014\" \u201cHe has been punished for it,\u201d interrupted the old lady; \u201cand, much as I regret the incident, thre\u2019s no doubt that prison is the best place for him.\u201d She left them to slap a child whose eyesight was defective.Owing to the large numbers , the youngsters had to be brought up in various quarters of the town; some in Bethnal Green, some in Brondesbury, some in Deptford, some in Kensington.As these were for the most part to stay on in their own district, it occasionally appeared to the looker-on that the principle of different treatment should be adopted; the old lady scoffed at the suggestion.The boys at Bethnal Green, for instance, went at the age of fourteen into some trade, or, more often, joined some casual occupation, and the old lady knew this would happen, but she declined to train them in any way other than that adopted for children in more prosperous neighborhoods.Her notion apeared to be that all of her boys were going to be clerks in a city office, or teachers, and that all of her girls were going to be teachers or clerks in a city office.She did agree that some efforts should be made to teach manual training and cookery and a few other useful accomplishments, 322 The Educational Record but this was done at first with reluctance, for she feared that the time thus occupied would prevent them from learning the precise height of Mountains in South America, and the list of principal exports from Tristan d\u2019Acunha.The children of hers living in hard-up quarters were much sharper than those surrounded by cotton wool, and if one of the youngsters so far forgot good manners as to protest, the remedy was conveniently near.\u201cHold out your right hand! And keep it steady!\u201d Public opinion and the development of civilization checked slightly the exercise of this form of palmistry.The old lady, giving in, declared that henceforth it would be impossible to keep order, contended that something like a juvenile French Revolution might be expected, with all her assistants suspended from the nearest lamp-posts.Similarly, the old woman sat for years on an easy chair, murmured to herself, over and over again, \u2018Parental responsibility,\u201d finding great comfort in the repetition of these two words.At that time, the only food she gave to the children was a rather stale chunk of education.\u201cUpon my word!\u201d she cried irritably, when it was suggested that the little people who had no meals at home could scarcely be expected to apply themselves industriously to study, \u201cWhat on earth will they expect me to do for them next?\u201d For many years she was able to postpone a decision in regard to many matters, because her advisers could not agree on details of religion.This was a great time for the old lady.If you said then that when the days were fine and the open parks attractive some of the youngsters might well spend there an hour or two of school time, she threw up her hands and said.\u201cIt can\u2019t be done!\u201d When you recommended that they should be taken to the baths, and taught to swim, she gave a short, sharp cry, and ejaculated, \u2018You're not talking seriously!\u201d When you suggested that those whose little brains were not so active as others should be dealt with apart, she wailed.I believe you're making fun!\u201d and word of protest.The old lady is even now no believer in merri- A Parable on the Educational Problem in England 323 ment.It pains her extremely to hear a child laugh, regarding it as a serious portent of evil.Useless to point out her that if some of her hard-up children do not smile now, they will never enjoy the experience throughout their lives.She quotes Longfellow, and talks with solemnity about the grave, when the only goal they are interested in is connected with an outdoor game.The old lady, considering herself a wily bird, has adopted some of the methods of sparrows who eject their young from the nest so soon as the small ones are able to find food for themselves.Often a bright younggster on whom she has for ten years spent money is allowed to sit at the end of a van for two or three years, occupying himself with the task of forgetting all he has learnt.Frequently a clever girl is permittted to go around cleaning doorsteps.The old woman is a gardener who gives care and attention to plants until they are just beginning to flower, and then pulls them up and throws them on the dust-heap.She is a nurse who guards her charges up to a certain dangerous point, and then gives the mailcart a jerk and throws them out.She is a guardian of the blind, who leads them to the edge of the pavement, and leaves them to cross the busy roadway alone.She is an engine driver who, half-way to the destination, detaches his locomotive and leaves the carriages standing on the line.\u201cBut I'm doing my best!\u201d she declares.The answer, given with the courtesy due to age and sex, is that the old lady\u2019s best is not nearly good enough.The future of her children is too important to be left to well-intentioned clumsiness.Her methods are improving, but the view that she has reached perfection must not be encouraged.She thinks she is entitled to disengage herself from duty when her children reach the age of fourteen, but there is no better reason for this than that she has always done so; seeing that many of the family have grown up, in these circumstances, a reproach to her and a considerable expense to everybody, it seems likely that a change of method would be useful. 324 The Educational Record The old lady must continue her services in cases where the services are needed.She must make the early years a time of real apprenticeship for the business her children will be called upon to undertake.She must take some trouble when the moment comes to start them wisely on the task of earning wages.One might not dare to advise the old woman who lives in a shoe, only that one is called upon, by Rate collectors, to provide some of the leather.There is also the circumstances that it is impossible to know her hard-up youngsters without liking and admiring them. Superior School Examinations, SUPERIOR SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.FRENCH.REPORT OF THE EXAMINER.GENERAL REMARKS, APPLICABLE TO ALL GRADES.In every grade many mistakes were again made through not reading the questions carefully enough, such as :\u2014 (a).Writing a whole tense of a verb when only one person was required.(b).Writing 3rd person, when 1st person was called for, or singular when it should have been plural, etc., etc.(c).Giving, for illustrations, detached words when sentences were required.(d).Writing translation from memory not from knowledge, as shown by inserting words or clauses found in the text but omitted in the examination paper.ALSO Neglect of punctuation and improper use of capitals were quite common defects in all grades, though not in all Schools.These must be considered mistakes in French quite as much as in English.Poetry written from memory should be punctuated.TRANSLATION METHOD.GRADE II ACADEMY.Much very good work was shown in the papers of a large number of schools, including some Model Schools, the chief weakness being in the purely grammatical part of the paper, particularly Quest 4, and verbs. The Educational Record GRADE I ACADEMY.The results in this grade were, on the whole, not as satisfactory as in Grade II.The Grammar was very weak.A comparatively small number of schools showed proficiency in Quest.3, 4 and 5.GRADE III MODEL.Translations and dictation were, for the most part, well done.Both questions on the verbs showed a fairly satisfactory knowledge, as did also No.7.On the other hand, Nos.5 and 6 were almost complete failures.The cases were very rare indeed where these two questions were satisfactorily done.This part of the work should therefore receive more attention.DIRECT METHOD.GRADE II ACADEMY.A very small number of schools of this grade took the examination set on the Direct Method, but those schools showed, on the whole, very satisfactory results.Here also, grammar is a weakness.No.4 proved a difficulty for nearly all pupils.GRADE I ACADEMY.The \u201cindicatif parfait\u201d was an unknown tense in very many cases, and it is remarkable what a small number of pupils could make the distinction between \u201cTurc\u201d and \u201cGrec\u201d in forming the feminine, or could give correctly the plural of \u201cLe bel oiseau.\u201d These things show the necessity for cultivating habits of close attention and observation in order to ensure accuracy, which is quite as important in languages as in mathematics. Superior School Examinations, 327 The selections to be memorized had been neglected in quite a number of schools, though the \u201cMemorandum of Instructions, etc\u201d, still calls for memory work.Excellent work is being done in some of the Model Schools that are attempting work of the Academy Grades.GRADE III MODELA very large number of schools are following the Direct Method, and in most of them very good work is being done.The questions which showed the greatest number af failures were perhaps Nos.5 and 8.All questions, however, proved the necessity of guarding against a tendency to inaccuracy.Many schools, also, do not seem to realize that \u201cOui M., etc.\u201d is an essential part of the answer to questions such as:\u2014\u201cAllez-vous à l\u2019école?\u201d French politeness requires it.GRADE II ACADEMY.PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.The questions on this paper were most explicit.There were few failures and those only in cases where there was little or no knowledge of the subject.In many schools, the method left much to be desired, and this was shown, first, in the use of mere remembered words from the text-book, e.g.\u201cAir at great heights is almost perceptible.\u201d \u201cIf mountains were they would be impossible.\u201d \u201cTrade winds belong to the planets.\u201d Secondly, in the style of answer.e.g.\u201cThe difference between a plain and a plateau is that a plateau is higher than a plain.While this answer might be expected from pupils of I or IT Model Grades, it was hardly an intelligent answer from pupils of IT Academy Grade. 328 The Educational Record Generally speaking those pupils taking the Ontaio textbook gave better answers than those taking Davis.In question 3 (a) (Davis) doldrums were described as the calm belt between the trades.\u201cOver the sea\u201d was omitted.In quest 4 (a) (Davis.Dew point was stated as the time, or place or point, where dew is formed, instead of \u201cpoint in temperature.\u201d In quest.6 (b) O.H.S.text, A stream works on its bed by \u201cfilling\u201d with sand, etc.(This statement made by a number of pupils.Quest.8 (b) games and eskers.Difference given as to appearance, but in a number of cases, \u2018formation due to glacial action\u2019 omitted.Spelling continues to improve, but a number of errors were made especially in the words floe (flow) dissected, planetary, porous, desert (dessert), writing was neat as a rule, but cannot be designated as good, and in some schools was notably bad.It is only fair to say that there were a number of schools, Model Schools, as well as Academies which did remarkably good work, and showed careful intelligence, and systematic training. MERE sada ith HEN essais NBN RCE DIM HANNAH HR NRC HN NE Reports of Examiners.REPORTS OF EXAMINERS.I ACADEMY.ENGLISH GRAMMAR.There were a large number of failures in this subject, due, in many cases, to the character of several of the questions, notably question 6 and 7.As a rule, quest.6 was omitted altogether, some few pupils defining syntax only.There were some rather amusing answers to accidence, the most facetious being the following distinction: \u2018\u2018Accidence is screaming out a clause.Syntax is the saying the sentence without interjections.\u201d In my opinion the selection set for analysis was not an analysis test.Children could hardly be expected to understand the meaning of the selection.As a rule, pupils failed to grasp the meaning, and consequently were unable to analyse it.The greatest difficulty was in the absolute construction in the second line, pupil after pupil taking \u2018voyages\u2019 as the object of \u2018saw.\u2019 A great many made \u2018chart\u2019 the subject of the last clause, and called \u201cby\u201d an adverb.Taken on the whole the analysis was a failure, and the parsing not much better.The question answered best was the third.In question 5, reasons were very imperfectly given.Most pupils called (c) (i) correct, while only a very few recognized that the present tense was required instead of the future.The method in many schools left much to be desired, for instance so many pupils in answering quest.1 said, \u201cby adding s and es\u201d and nothing more.In quest.3, an auxiliary verb was a \u2018helping verb\u2019 with no explanation, \u2018a compound tense consisted of two words,\u2019 a notional verb was an \u2018auxiliary with a meaning,\u2019 \u2018be\u2019 was an auxiliary of tense, forming passive voice, etc., etc.Spelling was fairly good, though the same cannot be said of the writing, in many cases the latter being difficult to decipher. The Educational Record FR i hl GRADE II.ACADEMY.DICTATION.The punctuation was as a rule correct with the exception of the dashes.Some schools had them perfect.This made the examiner feel that they had been indicated by the teacher or that there was some pre-arranged plan in regard to the reading of the dictation.The common mistakes were hum- orus and pretension; imposture believes, peculiarities, people\u2019s, yesterday's, came next; while mistakes in the spelling of the following words were found on some of the papers from every school, character, acquaintance, studying, ap- pressed, esteem, professes, guesses, week-day, business.Some schools were very marked by the neatness and writing of every paper while others were just as marked by the carelessness of form and writing of the majority of the papers.COMPOSITSON.No.1.Well done.| \u201c 2.Poorly done.While they were asked to re-write the sentences in 2 ways, yet many put down the forms given as one of the ways.\u201c3.Well done by a few schools, but the majority showed a very poor knowledge of the proper use of the comma, interrogation mark and quotation marks.4.Subject matter well given, but very few gave quotations.At least five were expected.GRADE I.ACADEMY.ARITHMETIC.cc No.1.a.As a rule correct.b.Many showed no knowledge of the mixed recurring decimal.2.The majority took this question to mean $18 a thousand cubic feet.oo 3.Well done by a few schools, but the majority show- decimal point would be out 1 or 3 places.cc cc Reports of Examiners, 331 A great number found the value of the 4 gts., and 2 qts.at 25 cts., subtracted the result from the total cost and then found the 36 p.c.gain on this | result.\u201c 5.Many pupils added the outlay to the income from the potatoes.The word amount appeared to mislead many and resulted in an incorrect answer.\u201c 6.The interest and commission were as a rule correct, but the per cent was very frequently wrong.7.One-third found, the tax for the additional cost one-third found the tax for $720 and then for $900 and subtracted the two results thus obtained while the other third got into meshes from which they could not extricate themselves and gave up in disgust.\u201c\u201c 8.This mental problem could not be solved correctly by many.\u201c 9.While many could not solve No.9.Yet many - showed a thorough grasp of the subject.The part not thoroughly understood was the brokerage.10.More than two-thirds had the comp.int.wrong.Tt was taken as 2 p.c.or 8 p.c.or considered as simple interest,