TEACHERS' EXCHANGE, Drawer 906, Richmond, Va. Supplies Colleges, Schools and Families with TEACHERS WITHOUT CHARGE. TEACHERS DESIRING SITUATIONS will find it to their advantage to communicate with the EXCHANGE. CHARGES MODERATE. Correspondence solicited. Address, WM. F. FOX, Manager. In Spelling Books is the Natural Speller and Word Book, recently published by the American Book Company. Its varied features will commend it at once to all teachers who believe in exciting in pupils an interest in their studies. The Design is to teach by simple and logical methods the correct spelling, pronunciation, and use of words in the English language. An effort is made to smooth the hard road of English orthography by selecting for examples the most difficult but common words, and by relating these in the pupils' minds as closely as possible with their origin and with kindred words. Printing the more difficult part of the word in red is a device here resorted to with a view to vividly impressing the correct spelling on the minds of students. Prominent Features are: (1) Abundant Dictation Exercises; (2) Lists of Words carefully graded in the order of their difficulty; (3) Printing in bold-faced type such parts of words as are difficult to spell on account of peculiar combinations of letters; (4) Lessons in Homonyms introducing pupils to the choice thoughts of the best authors; (5) Valuable lessons on synonyms; (6) Words taught from their Etymologies; (7) Script lessons teaching letter| writing; (8) Lessons in Diacritical Marking; (9) Many Attractive and Instructive Pictures. It is printed in handsome type on fine paper. 176 pp. Boards. Price, 20 cents. Sample copies will be sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price. Other Spellers on the Company's Catalogue are Swinton's Word Book Series in three numbers; Harvey's Graded School Spellers; McGuffey's Revised Spellers; Metcalf's Speller and Language Book; Watson's Spellers; Johonot's Sentence and Word Book, together with writing spellers of various plans, including Dinsmore's Spelling Blanks, five numbers; Harper's Spelling and Dictation Blanks in four numbers; Manson's Writing Spellers in six numbers; and Swinton's Model Blanks in eight numbers, combining both the text and exercise books. Correspondence in reference to the examination and introduction of these books is cordially invited. AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY, FOR Virginia Schools ARE SUCH SUPERIOR AND POPULAR BOOKS AS HOLMES' NEW READERS, VENABLE'S NEW ARITHMETICS, MAURY'S GEOGRAPHIES, ETC., ETC. OFFICIALLY ADOPTED BY THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. NEW BOOKS and new editions, embodying methods of teaching now most approved in good schools; helpful to teachers; stimulating to pupils. HOLMES' NEW READERS, among bright and attractive School Readers, are pre-eminent in their choice selection of material, careful grading, helpful subsiduary exercises and language lessons, and beauty of typography and illustrations. Get them. VENABLE'S NEW ARITHMETICS, a two book course, avoid. ing untried theories, embody the best methods of teaching numbers now prevalent in good schools, and provide an abundance of carefully graded work, attractive for variety and practical value. Get them. MAURY is the foremost contributor to the great progress of recent years in school geographies, and the editions of MAURY'S GEOGRA PHIES, with supplement of Virginia special geography, take the lead in interest of text, excellence of maps, and prompt recognition of geographical changes, new census figures, etc. Get them. PRICES. Holmes' New First Reader, $ 15 Venable's New Elem'y Arithmetic, $ 40 Holmes' New Fifth Reader, Smith's Lang Syne (Cloth), Smith's Lang Syne (Paper), Holmes' History United States, 25 40 Venable's New Pract'l Arithmetic, 68 18 50 Venable's Intermediate Arithmetic, 36 Venable's Practical Arithmetic,TM 72 64 For further information concerning these and other valuable text-books, address UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING CO., 66 and 68 Duane Street, NEW YORK. April, '91-1 yr. BY PROF. WILLIS A. JENKINS, PRINCIPAL HIGH SCHOOL, PORTSMOUTH VA. This paper is sent the JOURNAL, hoping to provoke discussion, and that by a general expression of opinion we may get more good out of the teaching of geometry and increase its interest for the student. Is not some introduction necessary before the student takes up any of the text-books on geometry now in vogue? We have examined Spencer's Inventional Geometry, and several other works of the same class, hoping to find the supposed need supplied, but while they are all helpful, we have failed to find a proper exercise on geometric principles. The first difficulty is found in inculcating the proper knowledge of the use of the axioms. It is not sufficient that the student commit them to memory, but he must fully appreciate these fundamental principles and recognize them instantly-that is, he must be able to state the general truth from any specific case. This requires an exercise on the axioms, which, it is believed, is not found in any text-book yet issued. It is the old difficulty of definitions instead of the use of words. It is the lack of proper work in the earlier stages of thought-development. The primary pupil knows the axioms-these are innate truths-and his culture and knowledge is built upon them; but when we begin the the logical analysis of geometric truths it is necessary that the scholar thoroughly understands what is universally accepted, and the general expression of these principles. To test the truth of this, let us question a class in geometry. A=B; B=C;..A=C. State in a general truth. A=B; C=D.'.A-C=B-D. What axiom is here stated? A+B+C=S...S>B+C. What fundamental principle is here expressed? If your class has not had a proper drill all along this line, select some proposition, which is demonstrated in your text-book by reference to some former demonstration, and require its proof deduced from the axioms. |