It may be useful to state briefly what are the most essential things in the preparation of teachers. First we place genuine refinement of speech, bearing and manners. When heredity and early environment have been unfavorable it is difficult to acquire this, and thorough training in the branches of the school curriculum often fails to give it. When the teachers themselves lack it how can they promote its development in their pupils? To this should be added a genuine interest in the things of the understanding. This is the spirit of life in a school room, and no one who is himself devoid of it can impart it to others. One who has ceased to grow, who has lost or never had the desire for deeper insight and fuller knowledge strong enough to drive him on constantly to new acquisitions, has no call to be a teacher. Further, the scholarly habits of accuracy, clearness and completeness of thought and expression are of prime importance. Through these he forms the minds of others to right ways of action, and lacking these his influence is likely to be mischievous rather than helpful. To these qualifications sufficient knowledge should be added. It is not enough to know that which he is to teach; for he cannot know this so as to discern the relations of it, to give right emphasis to its several parts and to make them lead up to what is beyond unless he knows what is beyond. No one can teach grammar school arithmetic properly who does not know something of algebra; and the good teaching of geography implies a wide range of knowledge in science, history and literature. Teaching, says a German maxim, should awaken many-sided interests. These give as a pro duct in the student what we call breadth of view. They make his mind mobile, quick to see relations, resourceful. Such results the imperfectly educated teacher is incompetent to secure by reason of his own limitations. Quick discernment of the character and needs. of the minds of others is requisite further. Psychology is pursued to promote this, but unfortunately often in ways which fail of the result. It ought to furnish a nomenclature and a basis of distinctions exceedingly valuable, but is made too largely formal and verbal, needing to be supplemented by direct observations of children, and, if possible, by school room "clinics," in which actual class experiences are subjected to analysis to determine their significance. Beyond this a knowledge of the organization of education, its ideals, nature and limitations is very desirable. We are inclined to attribute only a moderate value to what are called "methods." Their tendency is to over-much formalism, and to the repression rather than the cultivation in the teacher of originality and of that constant effort to adjust himself to the actual need of the pupil in which is the spirit and essence of good teaching. THE MONTH. WISCONSIN NEWS AND NOTES. S. Be J. Strasburger and Prin. O. Gaffron will be held -A summer school, conducted by Supt. A. at Plymouth, July 31st to August 25th. sides third grade branches we note in the program the studies of physical geography, algebra, geometry and physics. -The Whitewater normal school will celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of the school on June 22d, the day after Commencement Day. A large number of graduates and former students are expected to be present. A program has been arranged to occupy the day and evening of the 22d which will be afterwards printed in the form of a history of the school. -The pupils of the Wausaukee graded schools, of which J. W. Purvis is principal, gave an entertainment in the evening of Arbor Day to an audience of over five hundred, by which they made $25 at an admission fee of only five and ten cents. The money will be used to purchase pictures for the school rooms. pupils and hopes soon to be placed on the The school enrolls over two hundred and fifty Free High School list. -The institute committee provide for the use of more than a dozen different numbers of the Riverside Literature Series as reading matter in the coming institutes. The numbers chosen are admirable, as is the arrangement for the sale of copies to teachers who desire to purchase. One of the best services of the institutes is in bringing such high grade literature to the teachers, who get a taste of it in the exercises, feel its power, recognize what it may be worth in the schools of which they are to have charge, and buy copies for their own use and as matter to present to their pupils. A new number with each session, introducing a new author, will make the institutes a most valuable agency for the dissemination of good literature. -Supt. Dora M. Kiser, of Barron county, writes: "The summer school for Barron county teachers will be held at Chetek beginning July It will be conducted by 3d, for six weeks. R. H. Mueller and myself. I have planned my institute to take place three weeks after the summer school at Cumberland. During the interval between summer school and institute there will be an excursion to the World's Fair, which about thirty-five teachers will attend." -During the past winter a "Southern Wisconsin High School Athletic Association," has been formed, at present including the high schools at Whitewater, Elkhorn, and Lake Geneva. This Association will hold its first annual Field Day at Elkhorn, Wis., June 3rd, 1893. Athletic teams from the Whitewater, Elkhorn and Lake Geneva High Schools will enter into the contests. The championship events are as follows: 1. 50-Yard Run. 2. Pole Vault. 3. 100-Yard Run. 4. Putting 12-pound Shot. 5. 880-Yard Run. 6. Running High Jump. 7. 120-Yard Hurdle Race. 8. Throwing 12-pound Hammer. 9. 220 Yard Run. 10. Running Broad Jump. 440-Yard Run. 12. Mile Walk. Much enthusiasm has been aroused in the High Schools and the Field Day is looked forward to with no little interest. II. -Teachers' examinations for State certificates begin at Madison, at 9 A. M. of Tuesday, August 1st. The circular shows no changes from that of last year, which was published in full in the JOURNAL for November. We therefore insert only the program, which will be found in another column. We note the following sentence, with a question how far the requirement is made actually effective: "The candidate will be required to draw correctly and creditably any apparatus or structure described in the papers on physics, physiology, botany and zoology." If insisted upon properly this ought to secure fair skill in drawing on the part of all taking certificates, a very desirable thing. -The children of the Greenwood public schools are writing essays in competition for the prize offered by the W. C. T. U. -Of the public schools in Whitewater The Orbit, the high school monthly, says: "The room occupied by the Seventh Grade has had to hold forty-six pupils when forty should be the maximum number. The Eighth Grade has had sixty-three where fifty could be fairly well placed, and the High School has been crowed to a capacity of one hundred eight when it can ill afford space and ventilation for eighty, not to mention six seated in corners of the recitation room. In spite of this crowding, eighteen young people, who were anxious to attend, have been turned away. About half of these would have entered the Eighth Grade. In other words there is comfortable working room for one hundred seventy We had two hunpupils on the upper floor. dred thirty-four working there and eighteen have been turned away,-a capacity deficient by eighty-two. Now, as to next year. Eight students will graduate from the high school in June and from fifty-five to sixty of the present AllowEighth Grade will enter at that time. ing for some that may drop out we shall be short forty seats in the high school room, even by retaining the present crowded condition of seats. By giving anything like proper seating space we shall be seventy seats short. Based on present indications, seventy-five is a low estimate for the eighth-twenty-five seats short. These estimates do not include any foreign students, some of whom have already applied for room next fall." -We notice that the "Manual" will not be furnished to the institutes the coming season. Is it not time that a new policy was inaugurated in this matter of the Manual? The gratuitous distribution of it results in great waste, as little care is taken of a booklet which costs nothing. Further, the Manual has been at length brought into shape so that radical changes are not likely soon to be made in it, and its general adoption at the institutes and in the schools secures a steady demand for it. Now is the time to put it upon a business basis. Let a copyright be secured so that the State Superintendent's office can control the publication, and then get the book published by some firm as a business enterprise. Control of the copyright will enable the State to prevent the charging of a price much above the actual cost of manufacture, and as no extra expenses will be incurred to effect sales such charges will be wholly unnecessary. The Manual can then be sold to those who need it, and they will prize it more if it costs a little. The waste connected with the present plan of management will thus be cut off. Is it not time to effect this change? -At Oregon in Dane County a Summer School for teachers will be conducted by Prin. A. H. Sholtz, beginning July 17th and closing August 18th. -The Board of Regents of Normal Schools have been visiting the various localities of the state which have made offers to secure the new Normal Schools authorized by the legislature, with a view to determining upon a location. The result of their investigations is not known at this writing, but we may assume that the question will not be settled wholly on the basis of the money offered. -Pres. G. S. Albee, of the Oshkosh Normal School, has been invited to accept the presidency of a College in Oregon. President Albee has not determined what action to take in the matter, and at this writing is absent looking over the field thus opened to him. Those who are acquainted with his long and valuable service at Oshkosh will hope that he may yet be retained at the post which he has so long and successfully filled. -By the votes of the children it appears that the maple is the favorite tree in Wisconsin. This is considerably ahead of any other tree in the returns already in, although it has not a majority of the votes. The oak comes next, and the elm and pine rank high as favorites. Arbor day was never so generally observed as this year, and the reports in show that the interest has been very great in the festival, which is now firmly established in the schools. It ought to accomplish much for the beautifying of our towns and cities, and the care of our forests. -A summer school for teachers will be held in Darlington, La Fayette Co., beginning July 10th, and continuing four weeks. It will be conducted by principals J. T. Hooper, of Darlington, and M. M. Warner, of Shullsburg. -We append the Arbor Day program of the Whitewater Normal School. TRIBUTE TO NATURE. Of nature broad and free, God hath pronounced it good, Our heartfelt lay. To all that meets the eye, May we Thy hand behold, See but Thy thought, All Thou hast wrought. -Arrangements are nearly complete for a public meeting at Menomonie to celebrate the completion of the Stout Manual Training School, on the 15th of June. Through the kindness of Principal Hoyt we have received blue print plans of the new building, three stories high, and 59 by 135 feet on the first floor. This floor, with basement and two rooms on the second floor, is devoted to mechanic arts, including joinery room, wood-working machinery room, machine shop, storage rooms, moulding and forging rooms, etc. On the second floor are mechanical drawing, blue printing and domestic arts. The entire space of the third room is devoted to the art department and science work of the high school. The rooms are fitted up with the best modern appliances, and together constitute much the most complete plan for work of this sort to be found in the Manual Training School together constitute state. In operation, the High School and the one institution, the distribution of work and working periods in the latter being determined largely by the exigencies of the former. The course usually given in manual training schools or institutes is distributed for both boys and girls over the four years of the school courses, and the program so arranged that each pupil may take one period an hour long, each day in the manual training or industrial exercises. All pupils stand related alike to these exercises, there being no separate course in the high school for those pursuing them. As might be inferred from provisions made in the building, the manual training courses contemplated include, for boys, free-hand and mechanical drawing, joinery, wood-turning, pattern making and moulding, forging, and machine shop practice; for girls, plain sewing, dress making, cooking, with special courses has made it necessary for us to secure enlarged accommodations-first for our New York office in 1891, then for our Chicago office in 1892, and now for our headquarters in Boston." -At the conference between the faculty of Chicago University and the representatives of secondary schools the report of the committee appointed last fall to inquire into the teaching of English was the occasion of considerable talk. Their report was printed, including a summary of the 105 answers received to question-letters addressed to about 300 principals of academies and high schools in the Northwest. One table given showed that on an average 705 hours are devoted in the public high schools to the study of English, includ work has been done in mechanical drawing and joinery. As machinery has been available only since the opening of the new building in March last, upper classes have been kept longer than was desirable upon joinery, hence three classes are at present occupied in wood turning. Pattern-making, moulding and forging under that head grammar, rhetoric, coming will be taken up within the next school year. Thus far the work of the school has been done by three teachers, one in each department, but additional help is now needed and to be provided for in the mechanical art department. After -One part of the program on Arbor Day at the Whitewater Normal School consisted of a general exercise of the school, in which extemporaneous speeches were made by selected students in favor of the selection of certain nominated trees, for the "state tree." this due presentation of the merits of different trees, the formal election according to the Australian system was held in the gymnasium, resulting in a decided majority for the maple. The usual Arbor Day collection to purchase trees for the Normal grounds resulted in procuring, through President Salisbury's energetic and devoted services, the planting of 38 trees, of 28 different varieties, most of which were not previously represented on the grounds. Among them were 4 varieties of pine, 4 of juniper, 5 of birch, 2 each of oak and maple, with ash, wild crabapple and butternut among others. Thus each year the Normal becomes more attractive to tree-lovers. FROM OTHER STATES. -Educational exhibits will be made at the world's fair by Germany, England, Canada, New South Wales, France, Russia, Austria, Italy, Mexico, Brazil and Japan. The space occupied by the educational exhibit in the galleries of the immense Manufactures building is the equivalent of a building one thousand by two hundred twenty-five feet. -Silver, Burdette & Co. have moved into new offices at 110-112 Boylston street, Boston. They say: "The rapid growth of our publishing business during the last three years position and literature. This indication that nearly one-fourth of all the time of these schools was devoted to the study of English was a surprise to all including the committee. Nobody believed these figures to represent the actual fact of the case, although in their surprise the committee had verified and reverified their figures, and no one could suggest an adequate explanation of the evident untruthfulness of the average as given. -The following item is going the rounds of the press: "The eighty-five teachers in the public schools of Lockport had a spelling contest the other day, to the great delight of their pupils, because some of the teachers did Of the eighty-five, only five spelled "Rensnot altogether cover themselves with glory. selaer" correctly, and 74 per cent. of the whole number misspelled "acknowledgment.' All of the following words were wrongly spelled by more than half of the teachers, and several of them by more than fifty: "Supersede," "resuscitative," "excellence," "benefited," "business," "medal," "maintenance," "milliner," "pretentious," "gaseous" and "concede." The name "Genesee" is said to have caught a good many victims." What of it? Qnly a fool will claim to be able to spell English without error. Wise men know enough to look up the spelling of unusual words when they need to write them, and do not expect to memorize them. -Germany has arranged an educational exhibit at Chicago that will not only attract the attention of university professors and scholars, but which will be just as interesting to the public at large. President Stephen Waetzoldt, professor at the university at Berlin, and Dr. Dittmar Finklar, professor at the university of Bonn, have charge of the exhibit, assisted by Dr. Lichtenfeld of Berlin; Dr. Kallen, royal school inspector, and Government Architect Jaffe. The entire display covers an area of 22,000 square feet in the west gallery of the building. The exhibit comprises three divisions, viz.: 1. Public schools, education of teachers, normal schools, high schools for girls, and asylums for the blind, deaf mutes and idiots. 2. High schools and colleges, of which there are several grades in Germany. 3. Universities, libraries, etc. All of these branches of education are also illustrated by pamphlets giving exact data and statistics. In twenty-five volumes of parchment, details as to plans, etc., are given. Original portraits of scientists and pedagogues belonging to the royal library and the national gallery in Berlin, adorn the walls of this section. Precious samples of historic relics, manuscripts and apparatus of famous authors and scientists have been sent from the great German libraries. A special feature of the entire exhibit, and very carefully arranged, is the presentation of medical science as taught at German universities. He re -A school principal of Brooklyn is making some interesting investigations regarding the eyesight of the children who come under his care, and he is adopting a very simple test, which may be new to a great many people. Taking a sheet of paper he draws four perpendicular marks with a lead pencil, then four slanting ones, and lastly four horizontal ones. Holding the sheet of paper before the pupil he directs him to walk away from the paper and tell him when he first loses sight of any of the lines, which ones they are, and which ones can be seen at the greatest distance. lates the result of his investigations, thus far, as follows: "In every instance but one have I found that the perpendicular lines can be seen at the greatest distance. It does not indicate any peculiarity of eyesight to see them further than the horizontal lines, but simply that they are more legible to ninety-nine pairs of eyes out of a hundred. The one exception that I met with was that of a person whose eyes were crooked. The writing of the future, the ideal writing, will be formed entirely of perpendicular lines. The English civilservice system now requires its candidates to write in that manner. In the first place it is the most rapid form of chirography, and the length of the stems between parallel lines of a given length apart, must of necessity be shorter than the length of slanting stems between such parallel lines. Then, too, perpendicular, or what is called back-hand writ ing, is much more legible, and to me is more business-like, if not more artistic." THE EDUCATIONAL CONGRESSES. A note from Pres. Shepard, of Winona Normal School, the new secretary of the National Educational Association, contains the following, which is deserving of serious attention from Wisconsin teachers: nue. "The management of the N. E. A. find it very important to hold its membership, through renewals for 1893, for various reasons, and especially because the expense that will attend the publication of the proceedings of the Educational Congress demands a generous reveWe have as the inducements for payment of annual dues, professional pride, the volume of proceedings, and the gratuitous services of the South Chicago principals in locating members in good homes for a World's Fair visit, at any time from June 1st to August Ist. I have looked carefully into this plan and believe it an admirable one and that the very best places in private families, near the Exposition, at the lowest rates, will be secured for members of the N. E. A. who apply. Many private families will open their homes to our members through this committee of Chicago school principals, who would not do it to the general public." The committee of arrangement for these congresses issue a circular, the important portions of which are as follows: The preparation for these Congresses is under the special direction of an Executive Committee, of whom the Hon. W. T. Harris, Commissioner of Education, is Chairman. The Congresses will discuss the following topics: Higher Education, Secondary Education, Elementary Education and Kindergarten Instruction, School Supervision, Professional Training of Teachers, Art Instruction, Instruction in Vocal Music, Technological Instruction, Industrial and Manual Training, Business Education, Physical Education, Educational Publications, Rational Psychology, Experimental Psychology. These meetings will be held at the Art Institute, Michigan Avenue and Adams Street, in the mornings and afternoons of Wednesday, July 26th, Thursday, July 27th and Friday, July 28th. Two general sessions of the entire Congress will be held; the first on the evening of Tuesday, July 25th, and the second on Friday evening, July 28th. A fee of $2.00 will entitle a person to a ticket of admission to each of these Congresses and to a copy of the proceedings when published. A certificate of membership in the |