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OFFICIAL DEPARTMENT.

OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION-FORTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING.

Primary Section.

Miss Alice H, Shultes, Chairman.

The meeting was called to order promptly at o,clock, P. M., by the chairman, who spoke as follows:

Melvil Dewey said truly that the evolution of school systems has been from the top downward. Universities were

established first, then schools of lower grades, and it has taken many gradations for educational interest to reach down to primary schools and kindergartens. Supt. Skinner paid you none too high honor in his address when he said: "The primary teacher is the saviour of our country." Correspondence with about three hundred primary teachers of Wisconsin revealed a desire on their part to have the subjects of number, busy work, and writing discussed at this meeting. For many years methods of teaching primary reading occupied the attention of primary teachers, with the result that at present a generally accepted belief in the sentence method prevails, with a somewhat less general practice of the same, owing to lack of skill on the part of the teachers. Interest in language lessons and nature lessons followed until few doubt their importance in school work. Recently there has developed a growing dissatisfaction among thoughtful primary teachers with the results of their number work and I hope that our discussion of that subject to-day will be productive of much good. Busy work, too, has been much misunderstood and misapplied, very often amounting to mere fancy work, instead of fulfilling its true purpose as a means of expressing thought. One has but to read the controversies over vertical versus slant writing to know that it is time for every primary teacher to be informed of the merits of vertical writing and understand methods of teaching it. That our meeting may be most valuable, let us lay aside our reserve, forget that we are strangers and talk together about the questions that so much concern us. Let us forget also that we are a section and think only that we are a company of co-workers, anxious to help and to be helped by the opinions and experience of one another. The program consisted of informal talks, rather than formal papers.

NUMBER WORK, HOW AND HOW MUCH?

Miss Rose C. Swart, inspector of practice work in the Oshkosh state normal, made an appeal for more of the oldfashioned number drill, where children learn the processes by faith. Do not teach all processes at once. Teach them as reverses of each other. Do not make the number work too concrete. The element of exactness should pervade all number work. Do not be particular as to form. Teach arithmetic to children as though they were intelligent beings.

Miss Harriet Smith, primary principal, Milwaukee, said: The aim is not the mere getting af knowledge, but the development of the reasoning powers. To this end let there be full play of the constructive powers; individual work rather than mass work; and remember that the mathematical mind is an imaginafive one.

Miss Swart thought the difficulty with number work was not in beginning too soon, but in the amount and kind given. She would not have the beginner grade make a continuous study of number; but would have them study it for a quarter, and then "take a vaction. Do not use the concrete after the child should know the abstract, as it retards mental development. Examine his mental condition when he enters school, to see where he needs to begin. There are three grades of children: 1. Those to whom mathematics is poison. 2. Those who do not enjoy mathematics. 3. Those who do enjoy mathematics. Deal diferently therefore with the different minds. The graded system must not make their lives miserable. Denominate numbers, possibly, are to be preferred to secure accuracy. Children should be taught the technical terms used, and to generalize, i. e., to classify examples under heads.

How Make Busy Work Education? was discussed by Miss Katherine C. Mavity, Instructor of Methods and Supervisor of Practice, Whitewater State Normal: By thoughtful selection to be governed by the purposes it may

serve:

I. To occupy the children in an educational way-not simply task work. 2. To develop the children. a. Physically: The eye trained; the hand trained to grasp hold, use and exercise in obedience to mind. The co-ordination of the two. b. Intellectually: to prepare for recitation and to apply the recitation. By the recitation he thinks and finds. In the seat work, he does. A certain advantage of the seat work over the class work, is in the tasks being done without aid. The seat work should, of course, reinforce as many lessons as possible. c. In character: Esthetic sense, purpose in activity, self-control.

2. By skillful management. a. Thorough preparation. b. Definite assignment, having the tasks well divided as to time. c. Careful supervision of work. d. Patient persistency. e. Care of materials, calling on children to assist as it promotes habits of carefulness, and respect for school property.

The speaker closed by an appeal for a permanent, satisfactory product of the child's effort to be obtained through the teacher. First. By giving him a goal worth striving for. Second. By having it far enough away to fully occupy his time. Third. By arousing his energy at the start. Discussion. The slow pupils may be assisted by the bright ones. Assign less work to the slow pupil that his work may be completed. The teacher should not always work with the children. The name "busy work" is an unfortunate term, because it implies work assigned merely to fill up the time.

Miss Jennie Faddis, primary teacher, Stevens Point state normal.

Only teachers of small children appreciate the necessity of busy work. It demands careful attention to be truly educative.

It must be proportionate to his needs and suited to his capacity of mind and body. The small child expresses himself easier through the body than through the mind, because of his lack of language. The child should feel the necessity of making in order to express himself.

IN LANGUAGE.

1. Not too much copying. 2. Their own stories copied. 3. Memory gems copied. 4. Written reproduction of stories told by the teacher to the children. Aid them by questions written on the blackboard. 5. Silent reading, writing down the difficult words. It is a good thing for a child to be conscious of the difficulties. 6. Write letters to children in foreign countries.

IN ARITHMETIC.

1. Seat work more engaging by use of blocks, straws, seeds, etc., etc. 2. Each lesson the outgrowth of the previous one. 4. 3. Emphasize number in all things made. Constant use of the foot-rule for accuracy. 5. Plenty of sewing and cutting magazines, catalogues, etc., can be obtained at the stores for the purpose of cutting. 6. Practical problems in abundance.

GAMES.

1. Mother Goose stories dramatized. 2. Rhyming games for analogy of sound. 3. Direction games for points of compass.

Festival Occasions.-All should have a part. The heedless child should be given responsibilities. Let all know the joy of making gifts appropriate to the season and month. Individual cases may sometimes be reached through special seat work. For instance, the tardy child may be requested to make a clock dial with the hands pointing to nine o'clock. The teacher must require neatness and accuracy in all work; and must respect the child's result. Voluntary obedience is the great end.

Miss Faddis recommended the most careful supervision of all seat work. She thought that children might sometimes be allowed to pass to the seats of those in other classes and look at the work accomplished.

Mrs. M. D. Bradford, Supervisor of Practice, Stevens Point Normal School. Owing to the lateness of the hour, Mrs. Bradford limited herself to answering what she sup

posed would be the questions uppermost in the minds of the teachers present.

1. When to begin to teach writing? When the child wishes to express something. 2. What size? Large. The teacher demands what the child cannot perform if she exLet children write without lines, on pects small work. paper, so as to be free. 3. What characteristics? Simplicity of form and rapidity of execution, rather than flourish. Each line cut out that does not conduce to fluency. 4. What position? The front for the sake of the body. The speaker gave her preference for the "Living hand" rather than for the copy book. It was suggested that in district schools where one was obliged to use the copy book that the teacher might use practice paper first for movement and exercises. Mrs. Bradford said that from her own experience she felt that the vertical system was capable of rapidity of execution as well as satisfying the eye for legibility.

The meeting adjourned.

MAUDE BALL, Secretary.

Report of Music Section.

J. Dixon Churchill, Chairman.

The meeting was called to order by the chairman, Prof. J. D. Churchill, of Platteville normal school.

The first paper was "Essentials in Teaching School Music' by Mrs. Harriet D. Torrens, of Lake Geneva.

The discussion was led by Miss Rose B. Mullay, supervisor of practice teaching in Platteville state normal school. A strong point made by Miss Mullay was the fact that music must first charm, second, strengthen ethically, mentally and morally, and third it must teach, i. e., lead into new fields of ideas and thus lead to perfect symmetry. Music leads to more perfect relations between teacher and pupils, thus proving itself of inestimable disciplinary value.

Second paper, "Reasons Why Children Should Become Good Readers of Music' was read by Miss Sophis Linton, Stevens Point. These are some of the reasons: Pupils should become good sight readers of music because of its disciplinary value in training the ear and the eye and in developing accuracy and good judgment. It prepares the individual for the enjoyment of the best life can give. It is a positive aid in training into life-giving force those energies which bring the successful solving of life's problems.

The paper was discussed by Miss Howard, of Oshkosh, and others.

The

The third paper was by Miss Nellie Farnsworth, "Influence of Music in Primary Grades." She showed the value of music in physical, mental and moral development. discussion was led by Miss Caroline Troatman, Waukesha, who urged the importance of letting out activity in music, since it is bound to come out some way. Rhythm is an instinct in the child. The importance of special songs was commented upon by Prof. Churchill.

Miss Pierce spoke of the ultimate value of education, that it should not be what one knows but what he loves. How much better a lover of music is prepared for life.

The fourth paper was by Miss Baker, of Whitewater, "In What Way can Good Quality of Tone be Obtained from Children?"

SYNOPSIS.

1. Good tone quality the foundation of music work. 2. Definition of.

3. How obtained.

a. Development from above down; b. Use of head voice; c. Soft singing; d. Aid of Emotions; e. By imitation; f. Minor ways.

4. Preparation of teachers.

5. Dangers of forcing voice.

6. Refining effect of good tone.

The discussion was led by Mrs. Eleanor Terry, of Waukesha. Let the children be natural; do not urge them to sing loud; use many devices to secure pure tones.

Mr. Metcalf, of Menomonie, took part in this discussion.

The fifth paper, "The Place for Music in the Scheme for Education," was written by Miss Marie Doyle, of Superior normal school, and read by Prof. G. L. Bowman, of Superior.

Culture is the primary aid of education. Whatever tends to cultivate higher feelings tends to educate; nothing can elevate and refine like music, hence the great value of this important branch of study. The ear is the important channel of feeling. It not only appeals to the aesthetic nature, but to the practical as well. It controls and appeals as nothing else can do, leading every one to a higher and better life.

Mrs. J. R. Williams, of Milwaukee, asked some very practical questions which led to interesting discussions in which Prof. McNeil, of Superior, C. R. Showalter, of Lancaster, Mrs. Terry, of Waukesha, and many others took part.

Round table talks were arranged for by Prof. D. J. Churchill, to be held in the parlors of the Plankinton House. Prof. Churchill was elected chairman for the next meeting of the association.

Association Badge.

To the Wisconsin State Teachers' Association:-Having been appointed at our last annual session to present a design for a State Teachers' Badge, I beg leave respectfully to submit the following, with the recommendation that it be adopted and recognized as the official badge for Wisconsin teachers (cut omitted).

The badger in the foreground is the central idea, and may represent our state or any one of us its citizens. The schoolhouse on the hill beyond him is the stronghold of liberty. The open schoolhouse is the guaranty of our future growth and safety. Keep it open and our state is secure; hence the legend around the margin, "With the school door ajar, the Badger is safe."' The monogram includes the letters B, S and T, "Badger State Teacher." The badge may be made in the form of a button or a pin. H. W. ROOD.

D. Appleton & Co.

BOOK TABLE.

-FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL LAWS FOR ALL TEACHERS, by James L. Hughes, (296 pp.; $1.50) develops the larger applications of Froebel's educational philosophy. The kindergarten was the creation of his old age, and was the carefully thot out application of his ideas to the training of the earliest years of life. This was so new, unique, and skillful that it attracted more attention than the general doctrine. It was indeed concrete in the kindergarten gifts and exercises, and hence appealed to those who were not ready for general philosophical principles. But these principles had been systematically set forth by Froebel in the "Education of Man," published fourteen years before the opening of the first kindergarten. Mr. H. Courthope Berven is quoted as saying of Froebel: "it is the work which he did for the education of infants between the ages of three and seven that chiefly demands our gratitude, so far as his aims have been realized up to the present, in the future unless I am seriously mistaken, his greatest service will be in the reforms which his principles and methods will have forced on our schools and colleges." Inspector Hughes sets forth simply and somewhat diffusely the most important of Froebel's teachings in their application to general school work. After a glance at the distinctive features of the system he treats of the law of inner connection, the process of selfactivity, play, control and spontaneity, correlation of studies, apperception and individuality and self-expression. His discussions are practical and stimulating, and the volume deserves to be widely studied.

-SCHOOL MANAagement and School Methods, by Joseph Baldwin, (395 pp.; $1.50) is volume forty of the International Education Series. Its author has had a long experience as a teacher and maker of books for teachers. This book, he says, "has cost me years of hard work." Its central idea is the school as an agency for the betterment of the pupils, and this is enforced by making the heading of ". cereach chapter begin with "Pupil improvement by etc..' tainly an infelicitous phrase. Perhaps with a view to being more easily understood the matter is presented for the

Journal of Education

Vol. XXVII.

MADISON, WIS., JUNE, 1897.

ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO

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EDUCATION,

208 East Main Street, Madison, Wis.

J. W. STEARNS, Į

A. O. WRIGHT,

SUBSCRIPTION

PRICE 81.00 A YEAR.

[Entered at the Madison postoffice at second-class mailing rates.]

EDITORIALS..

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Brief Comment The Fiction Habit-American
Homes.

THE MONTH..

PAGE.

121-124

124-131

No. 6

gram offers an extensive list of subjects to be discussed.

A TENDENCY to specialization in the work EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS. of preparation for teaching is shown in a recent action of the Board of Regents of Normal Schools. The presidents are authorized to offer an additional course of study specially adapted to preparing teachers for primary and intermediate grades. The course will be a modification of one of those now in force with a view to affording the special training needed by teachers in these grades. The presidents are also authorized to provide a course of one year in addition to and in advance of the courses now offered especially directed to the training of teachers for grammar and high school work. This indicates clearly the advance which is going on in teaching. The general preparation hitherto offered is no longer adequate to the changed conditions, and the Board wisely determines to keep these schools abreast of the demands of the times.

Wisconsin News and Notes-Wisconsin BadgesThe Traveling Libraries at Nekoosa-The Traveling Libraries in Pleasant Valley-The Wisconsin Free Library Commission-Recent Wisconsin Library Legislation-Traveling Pictures-Wisconsin Song-Courses at the University for Normal Graduates-Pedagogy at the University-Observations upon Children's Reading.

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THOSE who look over the summer school circular this year will note the more complete differentiation of the school of library science in the title and arrangement. While the summer school of science holds but four weeks that of library science holds six, with corresponding fees. This school last year drew to it librarians from various states of the northwest, and the work was so practical and vigorous as to absorb the energies of most of those who attended it. With the rapid increase of libraries a new profession is thus being built up, and those who are looking for positions in it recognize the necessity of special training. This library school, held in the summer months, affords special facilities for such training and is the only one in the northwest at present where they are offered. The pro

THE Wisconsin Free Library Commission. solicits contributions of wholesome and entertaining popular books, magazines, illustrated papers and children's periodicals for the use of the free traveling libraries in northern Wisconsin. A file of a child's paper, sewed and bound with a strong manila paper, can give pleasure to the children of fifteen or twenty families. through the agency of a country librarian. People who can make such gifts are requested to write to F. A. Hutchins, secretary of the commission, at Madison.

THE program of the Library Department of the N. E. A. has especial interest for this library issue of the JOURNAL. It is brief, embracing but two papers on Thursday afternoon, viz. Purposes of our Meeting, by F. M. Crunden, St. Louis, and Co-operation between Libraries and Teachers, by Miss May Schreiber, of the Milwaukee normal school, and two on Friday afternoon, viz.: Observations upon Children's Reading, by Prof. J. E. Russell, of Colorado, and a lecture, subject and speaker not announced. The general sessions of the Association will be addressed by between twenty and thirty speakers from

different parts of the country, among whom we note the Rev. Lyman Abbott, Alexander Graham Bell, Bishop J. H. Vincent, Miss Jane Addams, Pres. Harper, Pres. Canfield, etc. The most novel feature is a poem by Clinton Scollard, The March of the Ideal.

THE REPORT of State Superintendent Emery was greatly delayed at the printing office, so that copies of it could not be had until after the adjournment of the legislature. In our April issue we published a summary of its very encouraging exhibit regarding the working of the school library law. The progress of the high schools is a subject for special congratulations. The erection of fine new buildings, the tendency to establish the four years course of study in place of the three, the nonresident pupils-2,688—who are increasing very rapidly and proving the value of these schools to the surrounding country, the increase of libraries and equipment for science teaching, the growth of the accredited list, the improved preparation of the teachers are occasion of congratulatory comment. Manual training departments have been established at Menomonie, Eau Claire, Appleton, Janesville, and Florence. It is greatly to be hoped that this movement will extend among the schools during the coming year. The expense is not heavy, as the report shows, and the results, though limited, are full of promise. The report contains illustrations of the Janesville high school, of the normal school at Superior, of the new historical library building at Madison, of the new ladies' hall, and of the horticultural building, with the number of pictures showing deformities discovered in the study of physical development at the normal schools.

THE FICTION HABIT.

So we may designate one deleterious result which in some cases follows upon the establishment of free libraries. A certain per cent. of the patrons become fiction fiends. They live to read stories. They soon become rapid readers, and thus demand an enormous supply to feed their unnatural appetite. One novel a week grows to one a day, and sometimes two or more a day. The person so possessed becomes indifferent to everything else, real life is a dream and its duties and responsibilities disagreeable intrusions. Nothing but fiction, or next to nothing else, is read. This is rushed through for the excitement it yields, with no sense of literary art, no appreciation of delineation of character, no recognition of cause and effect or ethical signifi

cance. In short, emotional intoxication is all that is sought, and this becomes as much a necessity to the comfort of the novel fiend as the fatal drug to the victim of the opium habit.

A false method of reading leads to the formation of this habit. It may be called passive or merely receptive reading. One entirely surrenders himself to the book he has in hand. His mind, as it were, floats along on the current of plot interest furnished by it, without reflection, without comparison or criticism, without impulse to put together the material furnished so that it may yield insight and fresh combinations. It has been too commonly assumed that reading necessarily leads to mental growth. Librarians even have told us that we must furnish the kind of books

people will read whether they have literary merit or not, and that readers so gratified will soon rise to demand better things. Experience has shown the contrary. Since the opening of the Carnegie Free Library in Pittsburg the percentage of adult fiction drawn out, notwithstanding the steady cutting down of the supply, has steadily increased from fifty-six to sixty, sixty-three, sixty-seven and sixtyMoreeight per cent. in successive years. over, the grade of fiction read does not improve. By reading such books as they demand, people do not educate themselves to The reason is obvious; desire better ones.

The

they are mere passive, receptive readers; they are, or are becoming, fiction fiends. managers of the library have been so impressed with this that they have considered it best to retire from the collection the works of certain authors admitted on the theory of giving people what they want to read. Thus the works of Bertha M. Clay, Mary J. Holmes, E. P. Roe, Mrs. E. D. N. Southworth, Marion Harland and others have been withdrawn from the library, not because they are immoral, for they are not, but because they are not literature-they are not worth reading. The action has, of course, given rise to a good deal of criticism, but we are satisfied it will meet with the approval of thoughtful persons. Such books form passive readers. They furnish no thought material, they contain no penetrating interpretation of life, they lack artistic form. Thus they can be of no real service to any one.

This brings to view the higher service of the school with regard to reading. It must not only teach how to read, but what to read. What to read cannot be taught by any enumeration of books. There are no "hundred books" with exclusive right to be called the

greatest; new books are to be read as well as old ones, and "what to read" is not taught until it guides to these. In fact teaching In fact teaching what to read is developing taste and reflection, an active and original instead of a merely passive and receptive habit of reading. In regard to the literature of power, and more especially in regard to novels, this kind of training is peculiarly needed. Books of this sort which are worth reading have a two-fold function. First, they are interpretative. They deal with life in a large and true way, dispelling the cloud of commonplace which so frequently hides its deeper meaning from us in the slowly developing drama of actual experience, and revealing clearly the consequences that follow upon conduct, the unfolding of character under the play of circumstance, the action and reaction of persons upon each other for good or for evil. To see these things under the guidance of a master spirit is to grow intellectually and morally. But in the second place, this master spirit is an artist. He has the artist's eye for detecting the critical moments, and the artist's skill for displaying them effectively with proper settings, and due proportions, and in effective language. To catch and understand his interpretation, and to appreciate and enjoy his skill is highly educative; and the work of the school in teaching what to read is that it initiates into this appreciation.

It is obvious that this active reading seeks after the substance of literature; and the search for the substance both makes the reading more deliberate and the reader desirous of matter and of growth. Thus it comes about that he will not attempt to live by fiction alone. That spirit of life in him which leads him to seek after the realities in fiction will also make him eager for the realities of knowledge. He will not fall a prey to the fiction habit, but will find in it the free realm of art, capable of affording delight and instruction, but not dissipation such as enslaves the fiction fiend.

There is a period when children naturally read much. Usually from the age of ten or twelve to eighteen more is read than at any other time of life. It is in accord with the vigorous and active spirit of youth that a good deal of this reading should be of fiction. If it is of the better sort this is not to be regretted, provided the reading be active, intelligent and appreciative, and provided that it be not exclusively of fiction. S.

AMERICAN HOMES.

If

The best thing for a child is a good home. The natural life is the family life. The home is the protection for innocence, the teacher of

Her

manners and morals, the bulwark of the church, the primary school of citizenship, the fundamental factor in making manhood or womanhood. The glory and safety of America is in her homes, and the hope of her future is in the children sheltered by these homes. danger and disgrace is in the comparatively few homeless or worse than homeless children, who are growing up to immorality and crime, to want and disease; to be burdens and pests to society instead of pillars for its support.

While it is true that there are some homes that are such in name only and some that are even worse than none at all, the immense majority of all the homes in our land are far better for the children in them than no homes at ll, and a large part of all the homes are as perfect as any human institutions ever are. Never before have the average population of any great country been so prosperous, so contented, so intelligent, or so virtuous as in the United States to-day. Never before in the history of the world has a great and powerful people been so self-governed under such democratic forms, and relying so completely on the intelligence and virtue of the whole people. Never before has a great nation accorded such opportunities to every inhabitant for education, for justice and equal rights, for social advancement, for political power.

The

shackles of rank and class, of slavery and servitude, the prejudices founded on difference. of nationality, of color, of sex, of religious and political opinions, are melting away, and every boy or girl, white, black, yellow and copper colored, of American or of foreign patronage, of every religion and of no religion, is supposed to have a fair chance in life, and does have a fair chance so far as the law can give it. For the average child brought up in an average home with average ability and opportunies, the future offered him here in this land of freedom, political and social, is of priceless value.

The progress of democracy and the growth of freedom are giving our home life a new form and a higher spirit. Love instead of fear is more and more the governing force; the good of the child instead of the comfort of the parent, the end aimed at. Childhood is no longer repressed in its activities, thwarted of its pleasures, stunted in its ambitions. Parents no longer force reluctant children into hated avocations and loveless marriages, no longer apprentice them to hard and cruel masters, no longer treat them as slaves and sell their labor or use it for their own profit till the welcome majority releases the unwilling bondman. All these things were not only legal possibilities, they were the usual incidents of ordinary family life a century ago, even in

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