BY MADAM M. JEFF. TEUSLER, TEACHER OF GERMAN IN THE RICHMOND HIGH SCHOOL.

To-day, when our people think no more of a trip to Europe than of any other pleasant jaunt, and our country is rapidly filling with representatives from all nations, the question is constantly forcing itself on every intelligent mind, "what is the most practical, quickest, and easiest method to acquire foreign languages?"

We know by experience (the best of all teachers) that the old method of dictionary, grammar, and translations never enabled the most diligent pupil to do more than read the language he studied; for, if he attempted to write or speak it, it was so strained, so unconventional, a mere putting of his mother tongue with its idioms and constructions into the foreign tongue that, to an educated eye, it presented a picture so grotesque as to be ridiculous. Thus it behooves us to look around for some remedy, and to whom should we sooner turn than to nature herself, the ever pure and faithful teacher.

If the child speak incorrectly we only say, "That is not right; you must say so and so." This is sufficient for children. Older persons, however, should know "why," but be careful to always deduce the rule from the instruction given, and not first rules and then the attempt to use them.

Every teacher knows that scholars will repeat rule after rule and example after example learned from the text-book, yet never be able to give a single original example, never able to apply a rule!

The facility with which our little children learn to speak our own language correctly, the ease and rapidity with which travellers in all countries learn the native tongue, show us plainly what is our duty in the class-room. Use only the language the scholar studies, doing a great deal of object teaching, illustrating by gesture and expression to enable him to understand, choosing carefully at first only the words most similar to the mother.

tongue, and insisting that the pupil begin at once to express himself in the foreign language; and after repeating the sentences until thoroughly and correctly understood and pronounced, they must be written, the teacher carefully correcting after the pupil has done his best (or worst?) and explaining why; thus the scholar gets in one, pronunciation, orthography, syntax, etymology, and prosody, and learns the language in complete sentences, properly constructed, which is the only way a language should be taught.

As well give a person timber, bricks, mortar, and tools and tell him to go and build a house as to expect one taught the old method (that is, in detached columns of nouns and adjectives, with conjugations of certain verbs) to speak and write a language in a spirited, natural manner.

This is a question in which we are all interested, from the elegant child of fortune, who travels for pleasure, to the hard working business man, who sees constantly how much more he could earn if he only knew a little practical French or German.

Then, turning from this view of the case, how it develops and ennobles the mind to broaden the fields of knowledge to be able to read and enjoy, in the original, the works of the great masters!

Let us teach our children to speak the language they study; to speak and write it correctly, and thus we teach them grammar before they realize what they are doing. We must have competent teachers for this work, perfectly at home in both languages, familiar with the literature of each, able to lay aside text-books and amuse and instruct the class with judicious stories, anecdotes, etc. Thus, educating the ear and leading the pupil step by step to practical knowledge and use of the language he is acquiring.

Translating as a means to this end is altogether illogical.

Ist. The whole hour is taken up in explanations in the mother tongue.

2d. The pupil never accustoms himself to think in the foreign tongue.

3d. The knowledge thus acquired is always defective and incomplete, for all the words of a language have not their exact equivalent in any other; each language has its own peculiarities, idioms and constructions which are especially its own and admit of no intelligent translation in any other language. Very often the idea conveyed by a word in one language is very different from the idea conveyed by the same word in another language. For example: take the word "Braut" in German; look in your English-German dictionary, the definition is "Bride"; but this is a false idea given to the patient seeker after knowledge. I could multiply such cases indefinitely.

This incontestable point shows clearly that all methods by translation are defective, giving the pupil a dim and imperfect idea of what he

is doing, and never enabling him to do more than translate, and that in a mutilated manner. No, no; the pupil must hear; must from facial expressions and the gestures of the teacher learn the little words of emphasis and the modulation so necessary in intelligent conversation.

We must learn a language through the medium of the language, and not through the mother tongue. Ask the student who has spent weary years in seeking after rules and definitions, and yet can neither speak himself nor understand those who do speak the language. As soon as we can say a thing we will quickly read and write it, and when sufficiently mature, understand the grammar contained in it. I expect from my pupils what nature herself teaches me and what I see in the little ones about me:

1. Understand.

2. Speak.

3. Read and write.

Lastly, grammar, the philosophy of a language; the last thing to be placed in the hands of the student.

The Teacher as He Should Be.

BY C. W. BARDEEN, SYRACUSE, N. Y.

A careful compilation of the characteristics ascribed to the ideal teacher in previous addresses upon the subject shows that he must be affable, benignant, courteous, decorous, exact, fervent, genteel, humorous, immaculate, judicious, kind, lenient, modest, natty, orderly, prompt, quiet, robust, shrewd, tranquil, ubiquitous, vigilant, wary, exemplary, youthful, and zealous. My subject, therefore, divides itself into twentyseven heads-the twenty-six I have mentioned, and which I will omitand a twenty-seventh, which is that he should be a man. For, after all, that is about all there is of it. A person may have every one of these twenty-six characteristics and be a poor stick of a teacher. He may lack them all, and yet be the one great force for good in the lives of his pupils. During the war, when things looked dark and Artemus Ward was discouraged, he spoke a little piece on specialties. He said John Adams' specialty was so and so, and Thomas Jefferson's was this, and Alexander Hamilton's was that; but George Washington's specialty consisted in not having anybody at the present day resemble him to any remarkable degree. It is this quality of pre-eminence, of a personality that dominates and compels recognition, that makes the ideal teacher. When you come to such a teacher, all the small measures that you apply to ordinary men fail.

Take tact for instance. The youngest committeeman knows that tact is indispensable. The teacher must know how to get along smoothly. Boards of education like a teacher of whom they hear nothing. A principal, like a stomach, is perfect only when you are unconscious of him. He reports that the teachers are excellent, the text-books are giving satisfaction, and there is no need of any apparatus; and the commissioner told him that this was the best school in the county. So he is re-eleeted year after year, and if you ask any one in the village whether there is a school there, the reply will be, "Why, I suppose so; the bell rings. every morning." To some people it is with the school as with the Indian-the only good school is a dead school. You know this type of teacher; there are a great many of him. He is the man who is continually making his calling sure by making sure of his election—his

next one.

Now what is tact but yielding to the whims of others? The average teacher must have it, because without it he cannot get along at all. But the masterful teacher does not steer himself sinuously about the edges of other people's whims so as not to graze them; he teaches other people to keep their whims out of his way. The man of tact adapts himself to circumstances; the masterful man controls them. It is better to yield than to quarrel, but it is better yet to control.

It is a great blessing to come under the influence of a masterful man. This age loses something of the mental fibre that characterizes pioneers, because it is less accustomed to grapple with difficulties. It has been calculated to the fraction of a per cent. what the average boy can do. His life gets set in the groove, and he anticipates only disaster if he should jump the rails and strike out into the fields. But the masterful teacher shows him that the possibilities have not yet been surmised, and leads him to substitute for the confident "It can't be done," the helpful " Let's give it a try." Martin Anderson used to say, "Young men make things come to pass." The power of the human will has too little recognition in education. It does remove mountains; mountains vanish before it. Can you not sacrifice something in non-essentials to secure a man like this? The ideal is of course the iron hand in the velvet glove; but suppose you can't have both, which will you dispense with, the glove or the grip? The glove is smoother, but in this modern current of indolence, indifference and conscious helplessness, it takes a strong grip on the oar to turn your school up-stream and give your scholars a purpose to live for.

We want more of the Robert Browning estimate of men, not by what they refrain from, but by what they do. It is the Bible judgment. The man with one talent whimpered that he didn't drink, he didn't smoke, he didn't swear, he didn't play billiards; but the great Judge interrupted him: "Never mind the things you haven't done; what are the things

you have done to make the world better?" And the man who hadn't done anything was "done for."

A while ago a man was praising his preceptress to me interminably, and I summed it up for him. "In other words," I said, "she is a royal woman."

"Royal!" he exclaimed with honest enthusiasm, "royal! she's more than royal; she is empirical!"

He hadn't the Regent's syllabus in etymology, but there are boards of education that would rather have for principal a quack than a king. For what is a quack? Why, a quack is a man who makes up for ignorance of his subject by knowledge of his victim. He doesn't know how to cure a man, but he knows how to flatter him. The educational quack knows little about pedagogy, but he knows a good deal about making every member of the board in turn believe that it is that member of the board who is running the schools. And that member likes it. It is an unhappy fact that independence of thought and action is about the least thing a board of education looks for in a teacher. You know the cities of the State pretty well; tell me how many of them would employ a masterful man for a superintendent if they knew it. I doubt if the Republican caucus would have united in Judge Draper four years ago if they had foreseen where he was going to land them. Educational officials want a man to carry out their ideas, not to originate ideas of his own.

Suppose we tried that in other professions. I go to a physician and say: "I want you to doctor my family, but you must come to me first to find out what is the matter with them and how to cure it. You can mix and administer the doses, but I will prescribe them." He would be very likely to leave me to the tender mercies of Tutt's pills. Or suppose, again, I go to a lawyer and say: "I have a complicated case here that I want taken care of, but you must do it in my way. I will explain to you what the law is and how to apply it, but you can make out the papers and address the jury." He will be apt to remind me that the man who was his own lawyer had a fool for a client. Or again, suppose I say to a clergyman: "We have decided to hire you as pastor, but you will understand that you must follow our directions. We have here an elaborate printed course, giving you the subject of each sermon and prayer throughout the year, and the length of them, and should like to have the manuscripts submitted to us for revision on the Saturday before." He won't tell us he would see us in Sodom and Gomorrah first, but he will think our chances are good to get there.

Edward Thring wrote to a friend who asked advice: "My view is simple. The skilled workman ought to be allowed uncontrolled management of the work. Governors ought to sanction his plan of work