secure co-operation. Yet after all these means have been made use of the co-operation most needed will depend largely upon the teacher's personal influence.

Genuine interest in the welfare of the children seldom fails to attract attention and win the willing support of parents.

The benefit of this co-operative work has a direct bearing upon the effectiveness of the child's education. The parent can do much to see that the attendance is regular; to see that the children are taking some some interest in their books at home; that their evenings are not spent in rounding the streets, etc. The home side of the school ought to have some consideration. Parents ought to take enough interest in education to be willing to supplement the teacher's efforts in securing the best results to the children. There are many cases, however, where parents are only too willing to aid the teacher but, alas! they have no parental authority; their efforts to prevent truancy, to require obedience and careful attention to school regulations, are as futile as the winds. In such cases the teacher stands practically alone. I don't know any better test of a teacher's lone worth than her power to make her school so attractive, the work so interesting, as to take hold of such children and make out of them quiet, careful, obedient and respectful members of the home circle. The school is indeed a blessing to many homes. The feeling remark of the teacher as to how a little boy should treat father and mother, be kind to brothers and sisters, and help about the home work, has doubtless entered the heart of many a child and set in motion a current of reflections that has led to voluntary obedience.

The school-room ought to be a place of sunshine and happiness. It should be made as attractive as possible; and from the daily efforts of the true teacher many results will follow that may be carried by the pupils into their homes to lighten the burdens of the over-worked parents. Let the teacher work on. Work with the children. Work with the parents. Visit the homes when time permits.

Show herself deeply interested in all that pertains to the success of those whose characters are under her care. Her motives may not be understood at all times, but God, who is a discerner of the secrets of the heart, shall reward her efforts. -Central School Journal.

The Moral Value of Fairy Tales.

BY FRANK M. MCMURRY, INSTRUCTOR IN METHODS, ILLINOIS NORMAL UNIVERSITY.

Although the language value of the story about "The Discontented Pine Tree" is great, it is nevertheless not chiefly on that account that it

should be taught. There are other and weightier reasons for its introduction into the school.

It should be taught first of all on account of the effect it may have upon character by means of the important moral thought which it contains. Superficially viewed, this is nothing but a simple and pretty tale about a little tree, and it is quite possible that the six-year-old child may see nothing beyond that. But some reflection reveals a very important underlying truth, namely, that "We should not be dissatisfied with what God gives us." Undoubtedly this thought is what gives the story its highest value; is what has caused it to become "classical."

It isn't simply by accident that certain pieces of literature have been preserved and handed down from one generation to another for centuries, while others by thousands, yes millions, have been cast aside and forgotten. Only that portion of literature has been sifted out and kept before the people which possesses a genuine, universal, and permanent value. Having such worth it comes to be called "classical." Fairy tales have received this epithet because they convey great truths to us in a very simple and attractive manner. In this respect they do not differ at all from other classical literature. Great novelists and dramatists do not write simply to entertain their readers, but to teach and influence them by means of great basal thoughts. They might have expressed these thoughts through sermons or homilies, but their purpose would have been defeated in the main because few people would ever thus have been reached. Their greatness has consisted in their extraordinary ability to weave a very entertaining narrative about the great truth in mind, in this way popularizing it and causing vast multitudes to be materially influenced thereby. Just as our great novels and dramas affect the characters of adults by means of the underlying lessons they teach, so imaginative literature, or fairy tales, may greatly influence the character of children through the underlying moral thoughts they contain. It is first of all on account of this moral value that fairy tales should be taught. That being the case, the mission of the teacher is to present these stories in such a way that the underlying thoughts will become very clear and interesting to the children, for then they will often return to them in thought, ponder over them, and perhaps be inclined to apply them to themselves. The fact that fairy stories are so simple and imaginative is very favorable for the accomplishment of such a result. Nothing is presented difficult of comprehension, and the opportunity of employing the imagination so freely is a positive delight to children.

But, while the conditions are so favorable for teaching a good trnth through a fairy tale, it is possible to teach the tale and leave out this truth. Some study is necessary to perceive the underlying thought in one of Dicken's novels, Shakespeare's dramas, or in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress"; likewise some reflection on the part of the child is required for his comprehension and enjoyment of the basal thought in a fairy story.

The simple narrative about the pine tree is likely to engage the attention of the child almost solely at first. The garb in which the underlying truth is clothed is itself so beautiful that he enjoys beholding it alone for a while; and it is possible that he may see nothing but this garb, unless the teacher leads him to look closer and deeper. We see herein, however, not a defect but an excellence of the fairy tale; in this respect it distinguishes itself from the common moral stories which are so often taught as literature in our schools, or read as a part of the opening exercises. These latter make the moral too visible; they present it so plainly that they cease soon to be stories, and become mere moral lectures. They are then worthless. In fairy tales, while the moral does not lie immediately on the surface, it is not too difficult to be perceived by slight mental exertion. Here is another reason why the term "classical" has been applied to them. We reach the conclusion, therefore, that, in the case of each tale containing a moral, the attention of the children should be especially directed to the consideration of the moral; otherwise, it might be entirely overlooked. It remains to consider just when and how this step shall be taken. Shall the teacher attempt to bring out the moral truth during the teaching of the story? Or shall she postpone all consideration of it till the entire story is learned and can be fairly well related by the pupils? This is a very important and somewhat disputed question in method. Some persons prefer to direct the attention to the moral truth each time the little tree is made unhappy after having had its wish fulfilled. For instance, they would take time for moral reflection at the end of the fourth, fifth, and seventh stanzas. Others, however, probably the majority, oppose such a procedure decidedly for the following reasons:

As the narrative proceeds the children's minds are occupied chiefly with the events related. They enjoy the delight and suffer the disappointments of the tree. They are not looking for hidden truths now. Owing to their active imaginations the tree has become a person and they are interested in her fate; they are anxious to press on and learn the final result. It would be unpedagogical to insist at all on moral judgments at this point. But when the tale is finished the situated is altered. The child is no longer expectant; he has learned the outcome, and is satisfied.

All the incidents of the story are now clear to him, and he is inclined to think about them, to dwell upon them a while. He is now in a suitable attitude for reflection. This is the time, then, to press home the important moral truths, and it might be done by such questions as the following:

Why was the tree anxious to have other leaves? What kinds did she receive? Did the golden leaves make her happy? Did the glass leaves bring happiness? How about the beautiful green leaves? Was she satisfied at any time after receiving new leaves? Why did she at last wish for her needles again? Were they not the very leaves she had

been despising so much? How did she feel when she received her needles once more? Had she, then, gained anything by all her wishing? "No, she could better have been satisfied with what she had at first. Or, as a little boy said a short time ago, "God meant that she should have those needles for leaves, and she ought to have felt satisfied with them." Thus, during a large part or the whole of one recitation the attention of the children is directed entirely to the underlying moral thought. If the story has been fairly well taught it has aroused a lively interest, and now this interest causes also this moral truth to be interesting and therefore influential upon character.

One more step remains to be taken before such teaching can be effective in the highest degree. Namely, the teacher must look out for the application of this truth to the daily lives of her pupils. Unless she does this her method of instruction is defective, just as one's method of teaching arithmetic or grammar would be defective if he gave to his pupils a fair understanding of the rules contained in these studies but failed to apply them. The only difference is that, as the former kind of teaching is related more closely to character building than the latter, any mistake in method is more to be deplored in the first case than in the second.

Continuing, then, with the thought just reached, i. e., "We should be satisfied with what God gives us," the teacher might add: Are you boys and girls, any of you, ever like this little tree? How? Do you sometimes frown and complain of what you have to wear? Or of what you have to eat? Or of the work you must do? Do you think it is right to do so? Any primary teacher knows that children are watchful and envious of one another, and her intimate acquaintance with the individual characteristics of her pupils will tell her with considerable certainty what application should be made of this general truth. If she make the application somewhat in this way and is careful, from week to week, to refer to the Discontented Pine Tree when she finds a child, who, on account of his discontent, really reminds her of it, she will accustom the children to refer frequently of their own accord to the tree, and thus bring about a continual application of the truth involved in the story.

Any instruction in which moral truths are so prominent, must, of course, be imparted very delicately; nice judgment is required to make it effective; but, while it is difficult, it is the most important kind of teaching done, and should, therefore, be neither slighted nor omitted.

There is some danger, however, that those who become fully convinced of its importance may attempt too much of it; i. e., they may be inclined to draw too many lessons from a single story, or teach only stories containing such lessons, till moralizing becomes merely an intellectual exercise on the part of the children. In order to avoid this danger, it is well, perhaps, to call attention to only one (the leading one) moral truth in a fairy tale, and to teach some stories which do not seem

to contain any moral at all. In this way the pupil will never suffer from a surfeit of moral truths. It was on account of this danger that several of the stories included in the list of fairy tales suitable to be taught (Published in the June number of The Journal) contain no apparent moral. The important underlying truths that are taught will thus be all the more striking. It is well to keep in mind constantly that not so much is dependent upon the number of truths taught as upon the effectiveness with which a few are taught. A good year's work has been done if eight or ten such truths have been taught in an effective manner. - The Public School Journal.

How to Make School a Happy Place.

BY W. L. JAQITH.

A leaf of a child's history furnishes me with a vivid and painful memory. I remember once offering vain attempts at consolation to a boy who wept bitter tears as he started for school on the September morning which ended his first long vacation. His grief was very real. That he should be compelled to return to school was a dark tragedy for him. While making due allowance for a sensitive child's reluctance to leave a safe and happy home for the ordeals that await him in the school-room, it seemed to me then, and always has so seemed, that all was not right in the school-room that had awakened this state of feeling. For a child to reach such a point of view thus early in his progress through a journey of school-rooms, is, without question, unfortunate.

It is the permanence of early impressions that makes the work of the primary teacher especially responsible-sacred, I had almost said; and perhaps it is not too strong a word. The perception of this fact has so filled the thought of educators, that improvement in this grade during the last few years has been wonderful, simply justifying the remark sometimes heard, that the best teaching to-day is in the lower grades. The enthusiastic teacher, however, so far from finding this fact a release from further attempts at improvement, will feel it an additional incentive to be

"Without halting, without rest,
Lifting better up to best."

A great writer on ethics tells us that happiness distinctly elevates the mental and physical tone; that pain of any sort has a depressing effect, and lowers the vitality. Let us take this great scientific truth, and see what it means, read in the light that streams through school-room