At present our journal counts about one thousand subscribers, most of whom are teachers. This paper reaches not only the provinces of Luzon but also the far away Visiyan provinces and Zamboanga. It is one of our aims and hope that, by means of this journal, every Filipino teacher, at least, may come in closer contact whith each other, feel our brotherhood, and keep the throbbing blood of our veins in unison.

At present many say that the Filipi no people as a whole have no solidarity. This is probably true, but, we judge that there is not a mote better way of bringing union among our people, or at least our future citizens, than the Teacher. He comes in contact with every child daily. He instructs him, educates him, schools him, and imbues in him, doubt lessly, his ideas, his notions, his conceptions and his thoughts. Thus the child,

when he grows to be a man, has in his mind all the things his teacher has taught him. It is then clear to see that as is the teacher so are his pupils. Therefore, in order that our children may grow to be good men and women, the teacher must teach them things that are pure, things that are good, things that are ble, and above all, he must germinate into their souls the love of country.

Yes, the love of country, and in order to teach them this the teacher must impress upon their minds to love uniɔn, for union is at the bottom of every something in this universe, in fact without union there can be nothing but chaos. It is then very important that we, as educators and as citizens, should teach union, and by so doing we shall accomplish one of our most sacred duties towards our country.

But, before we can fulfil such a holy

task, we must first feel the magnanimity of union; we must first be conscious of its magical power; we, ourselves, must first be united; then, and then only, that we can stamp upon the hearts of the children in indelible letters of gold this truth: "In union there's strength, in strength there's power."

Filipino teachers, let us, therefore, be united so that in teaching union to our pupils, we can show ourselves as an exam. ple. Every body knows that his teacher is the child's example. His teacher does this and that, so he does it also; his teacher does not do this or that so he does not do it. In a word, the child assimilates the teacher's habits, ways, desires, ideas, and perhaps his purpose.

When all of the teachers are united, they will be a very important factor in annihilating that subtle source of discord which poisons our atmosphere; they will be the chief agent of sowing the seeds of union among the Feople; they will be one of the powers which will help the United States of America to clear the Philippine soil of noxious weeds of discontentment, leaving it clean and ready for peace, progress, and pros perity to grow; they will be one of the means of promoting the present social scale of the Filipinos to a still higher level; they will be the source of much good, not only to themselves but also to their country and to their countrymen as well.

We close this article with an unbending belief that the musical ringing of our ap. peals will reach every teacher's door, and, that, he, hearing the repeated knocks, will not turn a deaf ear nor feign to be asleep.

Filipíno teachers, for the sake of our own country and our own selves, let us join the ranks of the "Philippine Teachers Association."

J. J.

"The Teacher in the School-Room." (FOR "THE FILIPINO TEACHER".)

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In this work of ours, whatever be the theories we may involve or the methods we devise, the result is to be brought out in the school-room. In the school room is to be found the test of their worth, the truth or untruth of our philosophies. In the quiet study, indeed, must the facts and suggestions of life be deeply con ned and considered, old systems changed and new ones formed; but in the school room are best studied those nerve centers

of educational life whence our richest experiences are to be drawn and whence our best laid plan are to meet the`r cond emnation or reward.

It is not the recluse with his obtrusive thought and pure reason, nor the philoso pher with his broad generalizations and logical deductions, nor yet the statistician with his cold columns of recorded data, who is to work out the true problem of school-life, but by the keenly observant, thought ful teacher in the school room, in closest relations and deep sympathy with the living child in his eagerness, and restlessness, his waywardness and trustfulness, are to be studied the changeful phenomena whose true apprehension shall give him assurance of success.

Noble as our work is accounted, and asuredly should be, yet it consists largely of little things. No great events or glaring deeds are to herald the good tea cher's success and urge him on to renewed efforts, nor has he the ready means by which to judge of the results. The farmer may measure his products, the merchant sums up his profits or his losses, and the broker counts his gains, but how little can we see, at the close of the day or the week, of our work! We have compassed so many lines, so many pages, it may be, but what has been done for the pupil's growth, the development of his powers, for his integrity or his real intelligence, what toward giving him a true direction in life? A large faith, a great hope, a faith in childhood, a hope and trust in earnest, faithful, well-directed effort, an enduring love of the service, must be the essentials of the deserving teacher, the first elements of fitness for the school-room.

With what joy and pride and sometimes awe does the little six year old child make preparations for his first day in school! It is the goal on which for weary days his swelling heart has been fixed. Morning after morning has he anxiously stood to see his older compa nions pass in noisy groups and turn tearfully away with the feeling that the sluggish hour will never come; and now he, too, with his new shoes, perhaps, and mended coat, is to enter that mysterious portal. And there at the thres hold, like a fairy princess, should stand the sympathetic teacher, with smiling welcome to receive him, to crown his hopes with her sweet confidence and kindly care, and assign his seat, the throne

of his childish ambition, and his desk, the banqueting table of his curious and wondering heart.

Fortunate, indeed, is the pupil on whom this new life shall never pall, and favored with the choicest gifts the teacher who shall give to this new relationship an ever stronger and more enduring bond, that when the strangeness, the novelty shall pass away, it shall give place to an attractive charm, that for the welcoming fairy, by a sweet transformation, shall now stand the kind friend, the wise counselor, the trusted guide, the respected teacher. The needful restraint of the school must be relieved by its cheerful enforcement, the tiresome monotony enlivened by a pleasing variety, the eager curiosity preserved by presenting ever something fresh and new, something to d scover and learn.

For his activities new channels must be opened, something given him to do, to represent, to make, that in place of those weary hours of enforced silence and dull quietude we may find the pleasing signs of orderly life, of di rected energies, and well regulated growth. Tho the school-house is not a play house, nor school-life play, it may be none the less enjoyable. Excellence in government is no longer measured by the test of folded hands and slumbruous stillness. The change from home-life to schoollife is great enough at best, and the first requisite of the teacher is the power so to control and guide the pupils along the paths of learning, so to place before them objects of interest and usefulness that the unthinking joy of their entrance upon school-life shall change, with their expan.