countries, but selected with respect to their beauty and the underlying truth that adds value to the story. These books are inexpensive and the teacher who is seeking to cultivate a taste for good reading will not only find them valuable, but will not find them any great tax. Stories of Norse Heroes, 25 cents; Nature Myths and Stories, 15 cents. PHYSICAL EXERCISE ON THE PLAYGROUND by Carl Betz, supervisor of physical culture, Kansas City. Published by A. Flanagan, Chicago. Most of the exercises described in this book can be taken in-doors as well as on the play-ground. It is not at all like the ordinary book on gymnastics, but contains games and exercises for use on the school play ground that will bring into play the various muscles of the body. There are walking, running, balancing, jumping, hopping, skipping, leaping games that must prove attractive as well as beneficial to all children. It is expected that these games will be conducted under the eye of the teacher, that all rough and boisterous conduct may be restrained. It seems to the writer that no teacher can afford to be without it. Price, 60 cents. No. 62, Riverside Literature Series, contains the first five chapters of a history of the United States for the use of schools, by John Fiske, with topics and questions by Frank A. Hill. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, Mass. BUSINESS NOTICES. BAKER & THORNTON, of Indianapolis, are dealers in kindergarten goods and primary supplies. Send for catalogue. 12-tf HALF-FARE EXCURSIONS TO MICHIGAN VIA THE VANDALIA LINE.— On August 14 and September 18, 1894, the Vandalia Line will sell excursion tickets to nearly all points in Michigan at one fare for the round trip. Tickets good to return twenty (20) days from date of sale. The Vandalia Line now runs a through sleeping-car between St. Louis and Bay View, Mich., passing through Terre Haute, St. Joseph, Grand Rapids, Petoskey, Charlevoix, etc. This gives you an opportunity to spend your vacation in some of Michigan's pleasant resorts at a very low rate. For full particulars call on or address any agent of the Vandalia Line, or J. M. CHESBROUGH, assistant general passenger agent, St. Louis, Mo. SCHOOL MUSIC The Bast and Most Popular By S. C. HANSON. MERRY MELODIES -48 pp, manilla covers, 15c per copy or $1.50 per doz., introductory prepaid; 105,000 copies sold. SILVERY NOTES-48 pp, manilla covers, 15c per copy or $1.50 per doz.. introductory prepaid; 20,000 copies sold. (A later book than Merry Melodies.) MERRY SONGS-18 pp. of elements, 86 pp. of new and sparkling music and 14 pp. of national songs; bound in boards, illustrated title. 35c per copy or $3.60 per doz. net: 30,000 sold. PRIMARY AND CALISTHENIC SONGS. WITH MUSICAL DRILLS-75 pp. of songs and 25 pp. new marches, etc., with drill exercises; a splendid book, 50c per copy. Also SOMETHING TO SPEAK-32 pp. of beautiful selections for Friday afternoons, 8c per copy, and COLUMBIAN SCHOOL REPORT CARD (two pages), $1 per 100. A single card serves a pupil for a term of nine months. We ask a trial of these books by every Indiana teacher. Address Mention The Indiana School Journal when writing. S. C. HANSON, Publisher, 8-2t Williamsport, Ind. Every Teacher and School WEBSTER'S INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY THE AUTHENTIC UNABRIDGED REVISE BAND ENLARGED G&CMERRI WEBSTERS Dictionary "For ease with A College President writes: which the eye finds the word sought, for accuracy of definition, for effective methods in indicating pronunciation, for terse yet comprehensive statements of facts, and for practical use as a working dictionary, Webster's International' excels any other single volume." The diacritical marks for indicating the sounds of letters are so plain and intelligible as to be easily understood by old and young. Nearly all schoolbooks use them. "It is The One Great Standard Authority the perfection of dictionaries;" so writes Justice Brewer of the Do not buy cheap photographic reprints of old Webster dictionaries. WEBSTER'S INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY "AN UNEXPECTED VACANCY occurred in our school, and it must be filled at once." Scores of such letters come to us through the months of August and September. Do not miss these opportunities of securing a satisfactory position. Handbook free. THE ALBERT TEACHERS' AGENCY, 8-2t 211 WABASH AVE., CHICAGO. Teachers' vacation to Europe, the seashore or mountJAMES D. BALL, 36 Bromfield St., Boston, Mass. FREE TRIP to EUROPE ains, with all expenses paid. Address 6-12t OPEN ALL SUMMER. ENTER NOW. Indianapolis Business UniversitY When Block, N. Pennsylvania St, op. Postoffice. Elevator. Business practice from the start; two professional Penmen; a practical English course; twenty-seven Type-writers; the best course in Shorthand. Individual instruction. Expenses Jow. Write at once for Elegant Descriptive Catalogue and Commercial Current, free. Mention this journal. E. J, HEEB, PRESIDENT. (5-tf) INDIANA SCHOOL JOURNAL VOL. XXXIX. OCTOBER, 1894. NUMBER 10 TEACHING BY TRAVEL: A SCHOOL EXCURSION FROM INDIANA TO VIRGINIA. DR. J. M. RICE. The general tendency on the part of our people to oppose the introduction of all methods of instruction that do not savor of the old-fashioned mechanical routine, is, in my opinion, one of the greatest barriers to educational progress in our country to-day. This opposition is based, as a rule, upon the erroneous notion that natural methods of instruction are new and untried, and consequently experimental, and that we are not justified in converting our schools into experimental institutions. If those who are of this opinion would obtain a knowledge of the history of education, however superficial, they would soon become convinced that the "new education," so called, is by no means new; that scarcely a method can be mentioned which has not been in vogue in one or another of the European countries for half a century or more; and that many methods still denounced in America as innovations have long been classed among the essentials by the most conservative educators of Germany. Among these is the school excursion-the method to be discussed in the present article. Indeed, while to the uninitiated this measure may be regarded as no less than revolutionary, it is nevertheless true that excursions from two to three weeks in duration were undertaken by Salzman with the pupils of his school at Schnepfenthal in Thuringia, when Washington was President of the United States. Since the close of the last century, the school excursion, in one form or another, has been growing in popularity in Germany, and tcday it forms a regular feature of perhaps the majority of the elementary schools of that country. The school excursion offers the most favorable opportunity for introducing children into many branches of knowledge, as they may thereby be brought into direct contact with nature and the works of man. Indeed, the locality is exceptionally unfavorable where an abundance of material may not be found for instructing the child in geography, history, and the natural sciences. In Germany, this broad study of the environment is recognized as a distant branch of knowledge, known as die Heimathskunde (home-ology), and as such is included in the curriculum of the first three years of the elementary schools. During these years the excursions are usually of a nature calculated to familarize the child with his home surroundings in general. When this period is over, they become specialized into botanical, geological, historical, industrial expeditions, and so on. The ideas acquired during the general excursions of the earlier years are, in the higher grades, made to serve as a basis of comparison, and thus form material for the exercise of the imagination, while the pupil is engaged in acquiring ideas concerning things beyond his immediate reach. In some instances, however, when the study of the immediate home-surroundings has been completed, the general excursions do not cease, but are continued throughout the entire school course, becoming ever wider in their scope. Under such circumstances, beginning with the fourth school year, a study of the home, in a broader sense, is undertaken on annual outings from one to two weeks in duration. While, in our own country, the instructive excursion is not entirely unknown, it has nevertheless as yet played only an insignificant part in American school life. In some localities a few teachers are in the habit of taking their pupils on short excursions from time to time; but thus far, I believe, nothing systematic in this direction has been attempted. In regard to the extended excursion, undertaken by public-school teachers with their pupils, the one here described is, as far as I can learn, the first made in the United States. The idea of the excursion from Anderson (Indiana) was conceived last March, when during a visit to that city, I called the attention of Superintendent Carr to the details of a seven-days excursion through the Thuringian Forest, undertaken in August 1893, by the School of Practice connected with the University of Jena, in Saxony. This expedition impressed Mr. Carr so favorably, that he became imbued with the desire to arrange such a trip for the pupils of the Anderson schools, to be undertaken at the close of the school year. The superintendent's plans were heartily approved by the members of the Anderson board of education. By the teachers and pupils the project was received with enthusiasm; and many of the parents expressed their willingness to provide their children with the necessary funds. As the tour was to be a pioneer attempt in our country, it was thought advisable to extend its privileges only to the pupils of the highest grammar grade and of the high school. Nevertheless, the number attending the outing was seventyeight, as follows: The superintendent, the principal of the high-school, the president and the treasurer of the board of education, fourteen teachers, nineteen grammar-school pupils, thirty-six high-school pupils, and the county superintendent. In addition to these, there were a physician to care for the party, a stenographer to aid in keeping a record, and a few guests, including myself. Males and females were about equal in number. It was the principal aim of the Anderson excursion to undertake a pilgrimage to important points of historial interest, and to give to the pupils an object lesson on as many geographical elements as possible. With these purposes in view, no route more favorable than the one finally selected could have been found, including as it did one of the most interesting districts of our country, historically, as well as by reason of almost every imaginable geographical element. Not one of the pupils, and only one or two of the teachers, had seen the ocean or a mountain, and but few of them had ever experienced the sensation of riding on a steamboat. One of the pupils had never been on a train. Consequently to the teachers as well as the pupils the entire ground was new. The route was as follows: from Anderson, via Indianapolis, to Cincinnati; across the Ohio to Kentucky; through Kentucky and |