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If the discipline of youth is the preparation for a useful and happy life in after years, I know of nothing at all comparable, to that end, with the study of truth-scientific truth. In active middle life no knowledge is so desirable or so helpful either in broadening the general culture or enlarging the benevolent aims of the individual.

Science an agent in mental training.-David Starr Jordan, president Indiana University, in Popular Science Monthly: The purpose of science-teaching as a part of general education is this-to train the judgment through its exercise on first-hand knowledge. The student of science is taught to know what he knows and to distinguish it from what he merely remembers or imagines. Our contact with the universe is expressed in what we call science. Throughout the ages the growth of the human mind has been in direct proportion to the breadth of this contact. To the man without knowledge of science, the universe seems small. Science is our perception of realities; and as the realities come year by year to occupy a larger and larger place in our life, so the demand for more and better training in science will long be an urgent and growing one. But science should hold its place in the schools by virtue of its power as an agent in mental training, not because of the special usefulness of scientific facts, nor because knowledge of things has a higher market value than the knowledge of words.

The time will come when the study of the objects and forces of nature will be as much a matter of course in all our schools as the study of numbers, but the science work of the next century will not be the work we are doing now. The science in our schools is too often a make-believe, and the schools will lose nothing when every makebelieve slips out of the curriculum. Deeply as I am interested in the progress of science, both in school and out, with Professor Huxley "I would not turn my hand over" to have biology taught in every school in the land if the subject is taught through books only. To pretend to do, without doing, is worse than not to pretend. The conventional "fourteen weeks" in science gives no contact with nature, no training of any sort, no information worth having; only a distaste for that class of scattering information which is supposed to be science.

There is a charm in real knowledge which every student feels. The magnet attracts iron, to be sure, to the student who has learned the fact from a book, but the fact is real only to the student who has himself felt it pull. It is more than this, it is enchanting to the student who has discovered the fact for himself. To read a statement of the fact gives knowledge, more or less complete as the book is accurate or the memory retentive. To verify the fact gives training; to discover it gives inspiration. Training and inspiration, not the facts themselves, are the justification of science-teaching. Facts enough we can gather later in life when we are too old to be trained or inspired. * * *

The essential of method is that we allow nothing to come between the student and the object which he studies. The book or chart or lecture which can be used in place of the real thing is the thing you should never use. Your students should see for themselves, and draw their own conclusions from what they see. When they have a groundwork of their own observations, other facts can be made known to them as a basis for advanced generalization, for the right use of books is as important as their misuse is pernicious; but work of this sort belongs to the university rather than to the high school. You do not wish to have your students tell you from memory the characters of the sauropsida as distinguished from the ichthyopsida. What you want is the answer to their own questionings of the frog and the turtle. *

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I once visited a large high school, one of the best in the country, with a science teacher whose studies have won him the respect of his fellow-workers. But for some reason, on that day at least, he failed to bring his own knowledge into the class room. I heard him quizzing a class of boys and girls on animals-not on the animals of the woods and fields, not on the animals before them, for there were none, but on the edentates of South America. An especial point was to find out whether it is the ninebanded armadillo (novemcinctus) or the three-banded armadillo (tricinctus) which does not dig a hole in the ground for its nest. The book, written by a man who did not know an armadillo from a mud-turtle, gives this piece of information. It was in the lesson, and the students must get it. And on this and like subjects these boys and girls were wasting their precious time-precious because if they do not learn to observe in their youth they will never learn, and the horizon of their lives will be always narrower and darker than it should have been. Already the work of that day is a blank. They have forgotten the nine-banded armadillo and the three-banded, and so has their teacher, and so have I. All that remains with them is a mild hatred of the armadillo and of the edentates in general, and a feeling of relief at being no longer under their baleful influence. But with this usually goes the determination never to study zoology again. And when these students later come to the college they know no more of science and its methods than they did when at the age of one year they first cried for the moon. ** I once heard Professor Agassiz say to an assembly of teachers, and I quote

from him the more freely because he gave his life to the task of the introduction of right methods into American schools:

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"Select such subjects that your students can not walk out without seeing them. If you can find nothing better, take a house fly or a cricket, and let each one hold a specimen while you speak. ** There is no part of the country where, in the summer, you can not get a sufficient supply of the best of specimens. Teach your pupils to bring them in. Take your text from the brooks and not from the booksellers. *** It is better to have a few forms well studied than to teach a little about many hundred species. Better a dozen forms thoroughly known as the result of the first year's work, than to have two thousand dollars' worth of shells and corals bought from a curiosity store. The dozeu animals will be your own. * You will find the same elements of instruction all about you wherever you may be teaching. You can take your classes out and give them the same lessons, and lead them up to the same subjects in one place as another. And this method of teaching children is so natural, so suggestive, so true. That is the charm of teaching from nature. No one can warp her to suit his own views. She brings us back to absolute truth so often as we wander."

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XIV.-SEX IN EDUCATION.

Girls superior on the average.-Results of an examination of the school rank of male and female pupils of the Brookline (Mass.) schools, by R. Cyrene Macdonald, in "Education:" We find that the female pupils under identical school conditions begin at the earliest age to excel; we find that this superiority, not so strongly marked in the lower classes, becomes so noticeable in the higher as to be absolutely surprising; we find that not only are the girls superior on the average, but that the smartest girls are, in a marked degree, superior to the smartest boys, and that the dullest girls are less dull than the dullest boys.

Now, in consideration of these figures, and that they are accurate there can be no doubt, and of sufficient number to obviate the possibility of drawing wrong inferences, what are we to conclude as to the relative mental capacity of the sexes? Certainly no one who has even the rudiments of arithmetical reason can say otherwise than that, at least in school life, the female is very much superior to the male.

School rank as a test of superiority.-F. A. Fernald, in "Education," in reply to the above: If girls do get slightly higher marks than boys in school, what does it signify? It is assumed to signify that the girls have superior mental capacity, but really the teacher in marking recitations and examinations is not marking the pupils' ability to learn, but their ability to recite, that is, their capacity for putting what they have learned into words. Moreover, what boys do learn does not always indicate how much they can learn. Girls are more dutiful than boys, they are not so prone to neglect their lessons for play, they are more stimulated by rivalry for rank, and by mortification at a low place in the class. * School marks are affected by so many influences that their indications are exceedingly ambiguous, which makes them almost valueless as a psychological test.

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The school rank gives little indication of what success the individual will be capable of in mature life, for the former depends chiefly on memory, while the latter brings other faculties to the front. It is capacity for assimilating and using knowledge, not merely for acquiring it, which is demanded in doing the world's work. How often have the precocious youths who gained the highest marks in school failed to make a visible mark in the world?

Woman should cease measuring herself by man's standard.-F. A. Fernald: Comparing the mental capacity of one person as a whole with that of another can give only the roughest estimate of the relative worth of the two. The variety which we notice in the minds of those around us arises from variations in the strength of their several faculties. The science of mind has not yet advanced far enough to give us exact methods of measuring faculties, still it has shown beyond the possibility of doubt that while certain faculties are stronger in man than in woman, others are stronger in woman than in man. It follows that the mind of man is more adapted to some kinds of activity than that of women, and vice versa. Hence it is absurd to say that man has a better mind than woman without adding what it is better for. It would be like saying that water is better than air, which is true with regard to some purposes, and false with regard to others.

It is idle for women to claim that they can equal men in the lines to which men are specially adapted, and to plead that only artificial obstacles prevent them. Men show their fitness for a certain career by overcoming such obstacles. It would be a far morə dignified position for woman to take, to cease measuring herself by man's standard; to maintain that while there are some things which man can do better than she can, there

are others which she can do better than he, and that her mental qualities, while not the same, yet are as valuable to the world as his; and then to set about developing her mind in its own proper direction to the highest possible degree.

The distinct needs and characteristics of the sexes should be recognized.—William Chauncy Langdon, in the Century: The ideal education, therefore, whether secular or religious, and by whomsoever furnished, should adhere as closely as possible to the family idea. It should not only recognize the wholly distinct needs and characteristics of the sexes, but it should also, so far as possible, recognize the distinction of personality, and, with due regard to those distinctions, educate the whole man-the eye and hand and the conscience, as well as the intellect and the reasoning powers. Certainly a merely political philosophy of education must logically result in the social obliteration of sex, in the gravest wrongs to women, called in grimmest sarcasm her rights, and in the last analysis, were it possible, in the moral elimination of the family.

XV.-SUPERVISION.

The office of county school commissioner.-State Superintendent A. S. Draper, of New York: It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this office to the school interests of the rural districts. The powers of the commissioner are large. In the apportionment of public moneys, the alteration of districts, the selection of sites, the condemnation, erection, and furnishing of buildings, the care of the institutes, the certifying and employing of teachers, the course of instruction, the inspection and supervision of the schools, in all that goes to the improvement of the schools, he has great responsibility and great authority. The office requires a man of quick intelligence, fair scholarship, judicial fairness, and unhesitating courage. Yet there is no standard of qualifications for the position. All are eligible to it. The commissioner districts are ordinarily so large that the best man, giving his entire time to the work, finds it impossible to fully discharge the duties which the law imposes upon him. Yet there are cominissioners who follow other regular employment and attend to the duties of the office of commissioner only to an extent necessary to make it reasonably certain that the salary will be paid. If a proper man is chosen to the position, who will give his best efforts to the work, there will be a continually increasing interest and a substantial improvement in the schools of his district during his term. If an unsuitable man is chosen he will act as a brake upon the wheels of progress.

The office is not estimated at its proper consequence and value, and it is, unfortunately, filled at a general election. Nominations for the position are ordinarily made at party conventions called to nominate other county or district candidates, and the nomination for school commissioner not infrequently goes to settle the supposed claims of a candidate who has gained a little prominence by rendering some party service, but would hardly aspire to a place estimated to be of much consequence, and who therefore has no particular fitness for this one. Sometimes it is a matter of bargain between different towns in the same assembly district, one taking one nomination and one another without regard to the fitness of men. In some cases there is an unwritten law by which this nomination is passed around the district. In not a few cases it is given to a back town, no matter how weak its candidates may be, in order to mitigate the disappointment and avoid the future trouble, which are quite likely to follow a long-continued refusal of its demands for a higher place.

From this it is not to be supposed that all districts treat the position with this indifference, or that all commissioners are unfit for their work. Probably more than a majority are as well qualified as may be desired, and are unremitting and conscientious in their efforts to meet all the demands of their exacting positions. But there are not a few chosen at each election who have no qualifications for the position, who are unable to fill it, who never come into sympathy with it, who stand in the way of educational advancement, and are a continual menace to all engaged in the work. To find a practical remedy is difficult. If there could be some limit placed upon eligibility to the office; if it could be provided that only the graduates of colleges, academies, normal schools, or high schools, or the holders of teachers' certificates of specified grade, could be elected to the position, it might be well. If the office were filled at an election held for this particular purpose, it is likely that public attention would be concentrated upon it, and that there would be less possibility of bad results. Indeed, if political parties would nominate for the office at conventions held for this particular purpose, there would be greater certainty of the best results. It is quite possible, too, that filling the office through appointment by the county judges would work a salutary improvement. Better than all else, if there was more public interest in the matter, fuller appreciation of the influence which the position exerts upon the schools, and strength of feeling which would tolerate none but men of pure life, ample qualifications and experience, with a

real interest in the schools, in the responsible office of school commissioner, there would be an advance in the work of the rural schools which would surprise and gratify the people of the State.

Alabama county superintendents.-State Superintendent Solomon Palmer: For many years the State has had what might be termed county supervision, and yet it is more nominal than real. We have in name county superintendents, but in contemplation of law and in reality they are mere disbursing officers. The duties prescribed for them in the law look mainly to a faithful application of the school funds. Nowhere does the law intimate that it is their duty to visit the public schools of the county.

The salary of these county superintendents is only $75 and 2 per cent. commission on the school funds disbursed by them, when county treasurers, who are charged with far less responsibility and whose duties are much less onerous, receive 5 per cent. on all funds disbursed by them-more than twice the compensation of county superintendents and with less work and responsibility. With such small compensation it is not expected, or required by the law, that county superintendents should devote their time to the visitation of the public schools and the instruction of the teachers.

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No public-school system can be developed and properly administered without close and faithful visitation and supervision, and this can not be secured without better compensation for county and township superintendents. Our school fund is so small that I would recommend to the counties that they secure the necessary legislation to secure this school supervision, by paying county and township superintendents out of county funds. This would leave the school fund of the county intact as now, and secure an increased efficiency in the administration of the public schools of the county that would soon demonstrate the wisdom of such legislation and the additional outlay of county funds. Jefferson County, three years ago, passed an act allowing her county superintendent $65 per month in excess of that allowed by law, and I understand that the people see its beneficial effects and the law is growing in popularity in that county.

The worst use to which to put a county superintendent.-Superintendent Henry Sabin, of Iowa: In our more populous counties the county superintendent should be allowed the services of a deputy during a part of the year to aid him in looking over examination papers, in conducting his correspondence, and in the details of his office work.

His own time should be very largely given to visiting schools, inspecting the work of teachers, settling trifling misunderstandings which often arise in the district, holding township meetings and institutes, and in creating by his personal influence a healthy public opinion in favor of good schools. About the worst use to which we can put a county superintendent is to confine him within the walls of his office, doing the work which a clerk could do as well, while he himself ought to be out among his schools, directing, encouraging, stimulating, everywhere making his influence felt by his energy and enthusiasm.

Loaded down too much at the head.-State Superintendent John Hancock, of Ohio: It is just possible that in some of our large cities we have, as has been the case in some of the large cities of other States, gone beyond the golden mean, and have loaded our schools down too much at the head. It is not difficult to descend from the generous scheme of supervision, where every encouragement and aid is extended to the teacher's spontaneity and individuality, to a mechanical scheme of division and subdivision and authoritative prescription of every detail of work, which is the most dreadful condition into which any school system can fall.

The wisest economy.-State Superintendent John W. Dickinson, of Massachusetts: Where the superintendents prove themselves to be experts in their profession and suc ceed in making the other appropriations add vigor to the work of the schools, the increasing sum paid to these officials is the wisest economy.

Where the greatest hope for advancement lics.—A. W. Edson, agent of the Massachusetts State board of education: The more I study the present condition and future outlook of our schools, country, village, and city, the more I am convinced that for any decided and permanent advancement, their hope lies in efficient supervision. There may be from time to time in certain places a noticeable improvement in methods and results, owing to the selection of a specially competent teacher or committee; but the advance will be only temporary. Occasionally there are found committees who have the time, inclination, ability, and the previous training which fit them to direct the work of teachers; but these are few and far between. Nor should supervisory work be required of committees. They may perform all the legitimate duties connected with the school board faithfully and conscientiously, and still have very little time to give to a study of educational literature, to the philosophy of education, to new and advanced methods, to visiting other and better schools than are found in their own town, and attending educational gatherings. Of necessity the vision of the average committeeman is limited on ED 8941

school questions, as on law, medicine, or any business for which he has not had special training, and to which he does not give his undivided time and attention. And one fact is quite noticeable, which in itself speaks volumes: those committeemen who are best fitted to inspect schools and direct school work are always most favorably disposed toward supervision; they recognize its need and value.

XVII. TOWNSHIP SYSTEM.

A term one-third longer.-Report of Chesterfield (N. H.) school committee: In presenting to you the third report under the new school system we are able from a longer trial of the law to emphasize the statement made in the first report, that "all the scholars in town have had the opportunity of attending a term of school averaging one-third longer" than under the old régime "for nearly the same amount of money expended."

A saving of $500.-School committee of Oxford, N. H.: All the scholars in this district have had the benefit of thirty weeks' schooling at a saving of $500 from what it would have cost under the old district system for the same number of weeks. That speaks a good word for the new school law.

More days of schooling than ever before known.-School committee of Pembroke, N. H.: With over $500 less public money than of late years, the children of the town have been given as many days of schooling during the past year as they have in any of our cities, and more than ever known before in the history of the town. It has been necessary to support only eight schools-five less than under the district system.

Six weeks longer school term.-School committee of Sanbornton, N. H.: We get more schooling for our money than formerly, under the district system. The appropriation for schooling, $1,423, would have, on the average basis of appropriation under the old system for its last five years, a fraction over fifteen weeks. Under the new it has given twenty-one weeks, besides furnishing fuel in full and paying other incidental expenses. Working of the new system in New Hampshire.-School board of Stewartstown: Under the new [town] system, school boards are unavoidably subjected to unpleasant and often unjust criticisms. Refusal to hire those who, upon examination, appear least qualified to teach is among the disagreeable duties to be met; but the very nature of the cases, with the probabilities of incurring sacrifices of friendship without any equivalent in return, ought to convince every reasonable individual that the board thus act from a sense of official obligation, and for no other reason. Particular schools are often sought by teachers, or their parents for them. Most teachers are much better adapted to instruct and govern some schools than others; and when it is necessary to make an adjustment by comparing the compensation the several teachers ought to command with the wages established for the different school, it is often very difficult to favorably consider these requests.

Advantages apparent.-School board of Sutton, N. H.: In submitting this, our third annual report under the new system, we refer with satisfaction to the condition of our schools. No one can fail to see the advantages of the town system. The money is more evenly apportioned throughout the town, and the children in outlying sections receive better instruction and more schooling.

The most serious defect.---Report of Superintendent Frank M. Smith, of Tennessee: You will find the best schools in those States where the township" plan prevails. I therefore most earnestly urge your honorable bodies to make as few changes in the school district lines as possible, and at all times strive to make the school district and the civil district identical. The most serious defect in the management of our schools has grown out of this changing of school districts and establishing too many schools. We have more than twice as many schools as we should have.

The political theory on which the district organization is founded.—Superintendent B. A. Hinsdale, of Cleveland, Ohio: It is a significant fact that the political theory upon which the district school organization depends is a theory which has been almost universally abandoned for all other purposes whatsoever. We all know that there is no line of political or social development along which the English race has made more progress than along the line of local political organization. It is one of the glories of the English race, admitted to be such by all competent authorities. We know, in the second place, that the old Saxon theory of carrying on government was democratical. The people met in public assembly, and there they voted, in their way, some questions up and some questions down. But democratic government was found not to work well, and representative government was set up in its place. In New England the democratic system of local government prevails to a considerable extent, but in its extreme form it has been

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