school-house, conversing with the previous teacher, the directors, and others, and by inspecting the records of the pupils' progress and standing, if any have been kept. It ought to be required of every teacher that he should keep and leave in permanent form such records of his school as would give his successor fairly complete information concerning all pupils. In seeking knowledge concerning his future school the teacher should not allow himself to be biased by neighborhood quarrels and jealousies, nor should he impress his patrons with the notion that he is overanxious to obtain their views on schools and education. He ought not to lead them to think that he is as pliable as the good natured teacher who was willing to teach that the earth is round or flat, just as his patrons should choose.

DEFINITE PLANS.

It is of great importance that the teacher enter the school-house on the first morning with a complete and definite plan of the work he proposes to do that day and of the order in which the several steps are to be taken. Scarcely anything will so deeply impress his pupils with the idea that he is master of his business.

PROMPTNESS.

The teacher should be on time every day, but it is especially important that he should be very prompt the first day. If he intends to be at the house fifteen minutes before school on other days, let him be there half an hour before school time this morning. The pupils are usually present on the first day, and the mere presence of the teacher may prevent the organization of mischievous schemes; besides, the furniture will need to be put in order, &c. He should greet his pupils cordially, but not show himself too anxious to become familiar. He should have his eyes wide open without seeming to be specially observant. If he detects some pupil whose look or manner seems to forebode trouble, it may be well to ask such a pupil pleasantly to assist in some of the work of preparation.

If the

At the exact moment the signal for order should be given. house is furnished with a large bell a warning signal may be given about ten minutes before the time to begin, to be followed by another slight signal at the exact time to begin. It is not well to give signals by pounding on the house with a ruler or in other uncouth ways; this is not putting things to their appropriate use. Bells have been used as signals for ages; this is their chief purpose. Let it be re

membered also that the slightest signal is the best, provided it is sufficient. A single, sharp tap of the bell means more than a prolonged ringing; it says, "Come now," but the prolonged ringing says, "Come after a while." A visitor once passed an hour in one of those schools that seem to work like clockwork without any effort on the part of anybody; no school ever really moves in that way, however. The visitor was especially impressed with the prompt and exact manner in which the classes arose and passed to recitation: there seemed to be no signal. After the session she asked a little girl belonging to one of the classes how the pupils knew when to rise and pass. "Why," says she, "did you not see the master move his thumb?"

ASSIGNING WORK.

As soon as school is in order work should begin. Two minutes or less is time enough for a teacher's inaugural: a few words of greeting, a hope for diligence, good conduct, and success, heartily spoken; this is enough. If devotional exercises are to be had on other mornings during the term, they should begin now. As soon as they are over some work should be given immediately to each pupil, except perhaps the very youngest.

Examples may be put on the board for those who have been through the "ground rules" of arithmetic, another set for those more advanced, a spelling lesson for the younger ones, some exact task for the classes in geography, &c. Let each pupil feel that a responsibility is put upon him. It makes little difference what the work is, only it must be useful, reasonable, and definite. Fix an exact time when the result will be called for, and do not neglect it when the time comes.

TAKING NAMES.

As soon as all are at work the teacher should proceed to take the names; this should be done with the least demonstration possible. If any of the pupils are working at the board, let them write their names beside their work, give the older pupils slips of paper on which to write their names, pass to the others and take their names in a whisper or low tone of voice. Be sure to spell all the names correctly. It is very essential that the teacher learn to put the names and their owners together as soon as possible. A pupil is impressed very differently when his teacher calls him promptly by name from

what he will be if the teacher designates him as the boy on the back seat, the boy with a red necktie, &c. He feels that in the teacher's mind he has passed out of the limbo indicated by "boy" into the field of true personality. Besides, as the pupils are so familiar with their own names, they feel that it is an indication of weakness for a grown man, a teacher, to be ignorant of what is so easy to them.

To assist in learning the names it will be well for the teacher to be supplied with a plan or map of the school room; then, as soon as he ascertains a pupil's name, let him write it in the proper place on his plan. Of course the pupils will have been informed that they are to retain their present seats until they are changed by the teacher's order or permission. Having the plan before him, with all the names in their proper places, a careful glance from time to time at the name and face which belong together will soon associate them. He is a weak teacher in this respect who cannot learn to call each pupil in a school of forty promptly by name at the close of the third half day.

TEMPORARY CLASSIFICATION.

It is not wise to attempt to classify completely at first. Adopt the classes of the previous term; put new pupils where they seem to belong, taking care not to class them too high: let the pupils distinctly understand that this is all for the present, and any changes will be made as soon as you think best to make them. Having thus arranged the classes, assign each a regular lesson. In the afternoon of the first day put a temporary program on the board and by the second day the school should be in regular order -Professor E. C. Hewitt, Illinois State Normal University.

CULTURE OF THE OLD SCHOOL.-The men of widest acquisitions wore their learning, as Milton did, like a panoply in which to endue themselves when the controversial giant should appear on the other side. Now we go light-armed, and if any fray arises, take an index and write our rejoinder by its aid. Beside those great battles that used to be waged, our modern contests seem mere fencing-bouts. We do not carry what we know about with us any more, whether it be much or little, but put it into a dictionary for reference. In other words, knowledge has been becoming more and more impersonal, just as scholarship has gradually taken on a professional character. One smiles at the very suggestion of an Englishman of the old

school taking a disinterested' view in any matter; and disinterestedness, as we are told, is the essence of the modern scholarly ideal. A student now-a-days is much like a lawyer or doctor; he makes an investigation and writes a book as they examine and conduct a case, and when he is through with his task the volume is put on the shelves, and he goes on to a new work as they to a fresh client or patient. Nor does the frame of mind in which he goes through the routine of research differ much from that of his brethren in the bar; for his pursuit is to him a business, and is disconnected with his own individual affairs as is the case with the others. Scholarship is in fact already one of the professions, and its votaries, who were once nearer the literary, are now nearer the scientific class. As a consequence, learning, which was once truly, like poetry, a part of culture, is passing over to that division where it becomes, like the study of the law or of medicine, merely an item of civilization; it ceases to be a thing that can be incorporated into the body and substance of our lives, and now constitutes a part of those possessions of society in common with which the individual is concerned not continuously nor for his own sake alone, but incidentally and as a social being. An obscure perception of this change underlies the opposition to classical studies, which in becoming largely the apparatus of a profession have lost their character of being modes of culture. Even the undergraduate does not need a very thorough acquaintance with the books and conversations of the gentlemen of the old school in order to conclude quite certainly that if he knows more Latin they knew vastly more Horace. In our academies and colleges the language is taught as never before, but the old boys of Eton and Harvard learned what the language was used for, and that was their great gain. The whole literature of the eighteenth century proves how truly the classics were appropriated then by those who read them; and when an elegant writer of compliments now and then pleasantly mentions "our own Waller," the accent of the phrase discloses a state of education, of literary standards and modes of comparison, very different from any that now obtain either here or in England. It is not that the humanities have lost their humanizing power, but that they are inculcated as sciences. Culture must always be literary, but the classics, in consequence of the change in the ideal of scholarship, have become philology, antiquities, and cognate branches of research. This subject, however, is too broad and too old a one, and is in a fair way to be settled, willy-nilly, by the logic of social needs. January Atlantic.

Moral Training.

The need of more or more effective moral training in the public schools is becoming apparent to thinking people of all classes, especially in the United States. The old and favorite notion that crime is the twin-brother of ignorance, and that all that is necessary to make a people highly moral and virtuous is to make them intelligent is no longer accepted as an axiom. Too often boys graduate from the public schools only to enter upon an apprenticeship in some school of vice or crime. His improved brain, in such cases, makes him only the more successful adept in fraudulent or criminal practices. As a New York paper recently put it in true Yankee style, there is great need that to the three r's on which so much stress is now laid, two others should be added as of at least equal importance, viz: the teaching of "right and 'rong." Such teaching, to be more effective, should be largely practical and incidental in its character. Little incidents that are constantly occurring in the school-room, or in the play ground, can be seized upon and made the occasion of valuable lessons. The true method is always the appeal to the moral sense. Every boy and girl has a conscience, and a judicious teacher can usually get that conscience to utter its voice. Let the habit be but formed of testing all action by the great law of right and wrong, and a most valuable step has been gained. Connected with this the appeal to the manliness or the sense of honour of which not even the child is willing to confess himelf devoid, will often produce wonderful effects. There is no doubt, however, that a simple, practical manual, so written as to be within the comprehension of a child of ten or twelve, would be of great service to the teacher who is anxious to do his whole duty, and who regards character as the thing of highest importance. The study of such a book would afford abundant opportunities for awakening that moral thoughtfulness, which is a main element of good character in child or adult.-Canada School Journal.

Aids to Secure the Co-Operation of Parents.

CIRCULAR TO PARENTS.-No. I.

EVILS OF IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL.

1. An hour lost is lost forever. Present duties crowd the present, and the past cannot be recalled.