book prepared for the purpose, and make daily entries. This is not the "selfreporting system," because the pupil's standing is not made up from this record. The pupil does not report to anybody; he simply keeps the record for himself. The principal frequently looks at these little books to see how they are kept, but never criticises the marking. The pupil is not required to show his books to his parents, and yet he is encouraged to keep a report that he will not be ashamed to show. The pupil is given to understand that the record is for his own benefit exclusively, and that it is for his own inspection exclusively, unless he chooses to to let others see it.

It seems that the above-named device is an excellent one, for two manifest

reasons:

1. It compels the student to constantly compare his own performances, in both conduct and work, with his own ideal standard of excellence, and this is worth a great deal to anyone, whether in school or out of school.

2. It places no inducement before the pupil to make a false report, and this gives it its immense advantage over the "self-reporting system.”

Let no teacher flatter himself that this device or any other, however good, will run itself.-Indiana School Journal.

Το

KEEP THE CHILDREN BUSY.-Herein is much of the secret of success. do this with small children, the greater the variety of little exercises for them to do, the better. They should have exercises of such a character as will interest and instruct. It is upon this principle that the kindergarten is built. The play of childhood is nature's method of teaching; let the teacher study nature's methods, and they will improve his. Do not foolishly attempt to abolish play, but study to know how to wisely utilize it.-Nickerson.

THE teacher who draws an artificial line in the child's life, dividing intellectual training from moral, to devote himself to the first and throw the entire burden of the second on the home, commits not only a blunder, but also an offense. The child is growing as a moral being in school hours as well as out of them. In them there are some special advantages for effective ethical teaching which the home does not possess. The teacher and the parent are even more natural allies in this direction than in the field of purely intellectual effort. Every public-school teacher is bound, then, I hold, to make the school hours a time for instruction in character, so far as this is compatible with the chief object of imparting the elements of knowledge.-Nicholas Paine Gilman.

DR. THOMAS HILL, for fifty years a student of our school systems, comes to the following conclusions: (1.) There is too much rigidity in the graded system; (2.) Teachers make a mistake in beginning the training of the reason too early, and (3.) The schools confound the true order of development, and attempt to make the human plant bear seed before it has borne flowers, and almost before it has budded.—Are his conclusions justified by existing facts?

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COMMENDATIOn vs. Censure.-Every teacher should be careful to use commendation whenever the opportunity occurs. Many teachers are always ready to censure whenever the work is poorly done, but they forget that when a pupil has done his best he has richly earned kind words of commendation. That teacher who withholds them wrongs the child and loses one of his most potent means of control. Inspire your children to do their best, and then in

turn, when they have done their best, show your appreciation of the same. Always and everywhere kind and loving words are potent for good, and that teacher who has learned how to use them will seldom want for means of controlling his school.-J. Nickerson.

O'ER wayward childhood wouldst thou hold firm rule
And sun thee in the light of happy faces,
Love, Hope, and Patience, these must be thy graces;
And in thine own heart let them first keep school.

For, as old Atlas on his broad neck places
Heaven's starry globe, and there sustains it, so
Do these upbear the little world below
Of education-Patience, Love and Hope.
Methinks I see them grouped in seemly show,
The straightened arms upraised, the palms aslope,
And robes that, touching as adown they flow,
Distincly blend like snow embossed in snow.
Oh, part them never! If hope prostrate lie,
Love, too, will sink and die;

But Love is subtle and doth proof derive
From her own life that Hope is yet alive;

And bending o'er, with soul-transfusing eyes,

And the soft murmurs of the mother dove,

Wooes back the fleeting spirit, and half supplies;

Thus Love repays to Hope what Hope first gave to Love.
Yet haply there will come a weary day,

When, overtasked at length,

Both Love and Hope beneath the load give way.
Then with a statue's smile, a statue's strength,
Stands the mute sister Patience, nothing loth,

And, both supporting, does the work of both.

-Coleridge.

DON'T FRET.-Easily said, but it cannot be said too often. The petty cares of the school life are annoying to every teacher; but their effect is but for the moment. The teacher should never suffer herself to be controlled by these annoyances. She should govern her school and herself, and do it by absolute and resolute self-mastery.- Common School Education and Teacher's World.

SKILL is power guided by knowledge and made ready and facile by practice. -Dr. E. E. White.

THE training processes in education have for their end the creation of right habits.-Prof. D. Putnam.

LET the examination questions be more on principles and less on technicalities.- Tracy.

EDITORIAL.

—The next meeting of the Department of Superintendence, National Educational Association, will be held in Brooklyn, N. Y., February 16, 17, 18, 1892.

This early announcement is made in order that those having charge of other educational meetings may avoid selecting the same dates.

-We have received the first number of the R. M. A. Journal, conducted by the students of Randolph-Macon Academy. It starts out well-is issued in excellent style and contains interesting matter. Superintendent E. C. Glass, of Lynchburg, and Major N. D. Hawkins, of Bedford, conduct a Query and Answer Department, relating this year to the subjects of Arithmetic, Physiology and English. In these subjects special examinations will be held monthly. Those taking part will write their answers to the questions proposed (ten each month in each subject), forward them to Professor Riddick, who will examine and criticise them and remail them to the writers. Their object is to recall and fix the instruction given in the Normal of last summer, and prepare the way for better work and greater success next summer. Success to the new enterprise. The Academy begins its session under exceedingly favorable auspices.

-The New York School Journal proposes to publish every month a Primary Edition, adapted to the wants of primary teachers and covering the subjects of special interest to them. It will be furnished at one dollar a year.

Book Notices.

THE LAWS OF DAILY CONDUCT. By Nicholas Paine Gilman. CHARACTER-BUILDING. By Edward Payson Jackson. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1891. Price, $1.50.

In the fall of 1889 The American Secular Union, of Philadelphia, offered a prize of $1,000 "for the best essay, treatise, or manual adapted to aid and assist teachers in our free public schools, and in the Girard College for Orphans, and in other public and charitable institutions professing to be unsectarian, to thoroughly instruct children and youth in the purest principles of morality without inculcating religious doctrine." The prize was divided between the two essays given in this volume-a book intended not for the discussion of theories of ethics, "but the orderly presentation of the common facts and the laws of the moral life which no one in his senses disputes"-a manual of practical morals. It contains much that is useful to the teacher, both of method and suggestion. For sale by West, Johnston & Co., 911 E. Main street.

A HIGHER ALGEBRA. By G. A. Wentworth, Professor of Mathematics in Phillips-Exeter Academy. Boston: Ginn & Co. 1891. Price, $1.55.

This work is intended to give in one book a thorough preparatory course for colleges and scientific schools, with a sufficiently full treatment of the subjects usually read by students in general in such institutions. Like the other works of this author's series, it is well adapted to the end in view.

GOETHE'S HERMANN UND DOROTHEA. Edited with an introduction and notes by Waterman T. Hewitt, Ph. D., Professor German Language and Literature in Cornell University. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. 1891. Price, $1.

A handy and desirable edition of this famous and favorite German classic. The editor has availed himself of the best helps and has given us a useful book, well adapted to create an interest in Goethe's works and stimulate to a critical study of his life and writings.

PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. By Charles Gide, Professor of Political Economy in the University of Montpellier, France. Translated by Ed. P. Jacobsen, formerly of University College, London; with an introduction and notes by James Bonar, M. A., LL. D. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. 1891. Price, $2.00.

The author has presented in a pleasing form the discussion of the principles of this important science. The student of economic problems cannot fail to be interested and profited. The style is clear and the principles are laid down in language that can be readily understood. The American reader will wish, however, to supplement this volume with others in which domestic problems are treated at greater length.

TARBELL'S LESSONS IN LANGUAGE. By Horace S. Tarbell, A. M., Superintendent of Public Schools, Providence, R. I. Second Book. Boston: Ginn & Co.

1891.

An excellent little manual, presenting the elements of Grammar and Composition concurrently in simple, carefully-prepared and progressive lessons. This, with the First Book, is designed to cover all necessary work for the schools below the High School. We commend the series highly to our teachers.

PRIMARY MANUAL TRAINING-METHODS IN FORM STUDY-CLAY, PAPER AND COLOR WORK. By Caroline F. Cutler, Lecretia Crocker School, Boston, Special Instructor in Manual Training to the Primary Teachers of Boston. Boston and Chicago: Educational Publishing Co. 1891. Price, 75 cents.

The exercises in this little book are clearly explained, and if carefully followed will give children great skill in the use of their hands. They are full of interest for children, and will train their powers of attention and observation as well as give them facility in doing.

ESSAYS ON EDUCATIONAL REFORMERS. By Robert Herbert Quick, M. A., Trinity College, Cambridge, formerly Assistant Master at Harrow and Lecturer on the History of Education at Cambridge; late Vicar of Ledbargh. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1890. Price, $1.50.

This book is Volume XVII of the International Education Series. It is one of the educational classics. Dr. W. T. Harris, editor of the series and United States Commissioner of Education, says of it: "I have called this book of Mr. Quick the most valuable history of education in our mother tongue, fit only to be compared with Karl von Raumer's Geschichte der Pädagogik for its presentation of essentials and for the sanity of its verdicts." It should be in the library of every teacher who, in seeking for correct methods of doing his work, would profit by the successes of the past and avoid its failures.

HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. By Helene Lange, Berlin. Translated and accompanied by comparative statistics by L. R. Klemm, Ph. D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1890. Price, $1.

Volume XVI of the International Education Series. In his preface Dr. Har

ris says: "In this polemical work, written for the most conservative people in Europe in this matter of female education, we may behold reflected as in a mirror the entire movement in all countries, and see all of its stages, from the initiation on to the most advanced line of progress, in one picture." The outline of the development of this subject presented in the editor's preface prepares us for a higher appreciation of the contents of the volume itself.

A GLANCE AT THE DIFFICULTIES OF GERMAN GRAMMAR—(1) MISCELLANEOUS, (2) VERBS, (3) CONJUGATION OF VERBS. Compiled by Charles F. Cutting. Boston: Thomas Groom & Co. Price, 50 cents.

This is not designed to do away with the German Grammar, but is a full synopsis of difficult usages in the language, whether in connection with the forms or the syntax of the language. It is arranged for ready reference, and will no doubt be a great convenience to the student.

For sale by J. W. Randolph & Co, 1302 E. Main street.

GLIMPSES AT THE PLANT WORLD. By Fanny D. Bergen. Fully illustrated. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1892. Price, 75 cents.

The author presents in a pleasing manner, well suited to the capacities of little children, the elementary facts and principles of botany. She uses for this purpose many of the common flowers, accessible to almost every child. The style is simple and clear, and the book will be very useful in the hands of an earnest teacher.

EASY DRAWINGS FOR THE GEOGRAPHY CLASS. By D. R. Augsburg, B. P., author of “Easy Things to Draw." New York: E. L. Kellogg & Co. 1891. Price, 30 cents.

The design of this little book is not to present a system of drawing, but to furnish a handbook containing such drawings as would be needed for the schoolroom for object lessons, drawing lessons, busy work. Its method is simple, and may be readily applied with a little practice.

STUDIES IN AMERICAN HISTORY. By Mary Sheldon Barnes, A. B., and Earl Barnes, M. S., formerly Professor of History in the University of Indiana. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. 1891. Price, $1.25.

This book is prepared on the same plan as "Sheldon's Studies in Ancient History," which has received high praise from many distinguished teachers of history. The style is simple and the actors in the drama of history are allowed, as far as possible, to speak for themselves. The effort is made, both in the presentation of matter and in the suggestive questions contained in the successive "Studies," to develop in the pupil thought-power, to cultivate candor of judgment, to create a love for history, and to incite to further reading.

Vassar Students' Aid Society.

A scholarship of $200 is offered by the Vassar Students' Aid Society to a student who passes without conditions all the requirements for admission to the Freshman Class of Vassar College at the examinations to be held in June, 1892.

This scholarship, like that awarded by the Society last June, is offered as a