brown skirt and sandals covered with dust. You watch her until she turns the corner, and you have half a mind to follow for one more glance; but look in another direction, and behold! something equally fine is before you. Maybe it is a young señor, with a mane of black hair about his forehead and sticking out from under his hat-brim, his mustache twisted into saucy curls, a gay sash about his waist, a short sword at his side, and his game-cock under his arm. The soldiers, too, are picturesque. They are always expecting a revolution, when life is eventful; but in times of peace, the arresting of stray pigs, goats, etc., is about all they have to do. They are small men, but look like good material, and, I have no doubt, fight bravely. They wear hardly any uniform, and remind one of Falstaff's men; but in the larger towns they are on thair mettle, and are as spruce as can be.May Century. BLACKBOARD MOTTOES. Be prompt in everything. An honest man is the noblest work of God. A man is known by the company he keeps. Be friendly and you will never want friends. There is nothing that costs less than civility. Think the truth, speak the truth, act the truth. The art of memory is the art of paying attention. WRITTEN WORK FOR PRIMARY CLASSES. The pupils may give written answers to the following: How many inches long is the yard stick? Name three double flowers. Name five kinds of vegetables. Name three large flowers. CONTRIBUTIONS. STUDIES ON CHILDREN. The principal topics in these studies at Stanford University during the past year were the color sense, spontaneous drawings, plays, interpretation of pictures, lines of interest, religious ideas, superstitions, fears, the number sense, defective spellers, height and weight, development of the ideas of sex, and sex education. The class met with Prof. Barnes twice each week for conference. The interest in the work was hearty and continuous. We studied directly the children in the University kindergarten. Many thousand papers were made out by children of other localities, at the request of their superintendents. These we studied, charting our results. Five papers have been published by the professor embodying results of these investigations. In trying to find what it is in objects that most appeals to children we used the same list of questions used by Binet and reported by him in The Revue Philosophique for December, 1890. He chose thirty-three nouns such as were likely to be known to them in their environment and which almost every child indeed knows, e. g., knife, bread, doll, bird, mamma, etc. The form of each question was: "What is a ?" and no suggestion was given to aid in answering. Neither did the children know the use to be made of their answers. One thousand children, ranging in age from six to fifteen, wrote 37,136 statements in answer to the questions. Primary reading, number, language, and drawing and elementary science work deal principally with the color, form, size, material and arrangement of parts of objects, but these definitions show that it is their use that most of all appeals to children. Those six years old gave 3,140 statements, of which 2,484 told of use, 96 statements classed the objects under a larger term, 90 movement, 58 quality, 8 place, 20 color, 8 form, 36 structure, 58 substance, and 282 were indefinite. Those eleven years old gave 1,577 statements of use, 705 referred to a larger term, 160 to movement, 228 to quality, 191 to place, 17 to color, 69 to form, 142 to structure, 365 to substance, and 145 indefinite. At fifteen years there were 1,423 statements of use, 1,763 referring to a larger term, 98 to movement, 138 to quality, 168 to place, 22 to color, 142 to form, 298 to structure, 512 to substance, and 82 indefinite. It is interesting to note the changes with increased years. The totals for all ages show that the girls used the greater number of statements in every case excepting color and substance. The tendencies, the likes and dislikes of children, are surely of interest whether we believe in following them or not. In the studies of color choice, the age, sex, temperament, nationality, previous color training, color first chosen, color of second choice, and colors selected to look well together, were charted. Prang's cards were given the children to select from. The brighter colors, red, yellow and blue, and shades of these were favorites. Recent texts on teaching color almost ignore this fact by throwing so much emphasis on neutral tints. A translation from the German, "Der Struwwelpeter" - "Johnny-Look-In-The-Air" -was read to children twice after they were told that they might make some pictures about the story. Some thousands of children responded. Based on our first study, the professor collated some conclusions which I quote: "A child's thought is fragmentary and disintegrated. He holds but little in consciousness at one time. Parts belonging together are sometimes separated. There is often a lack of unity in serial pictures. Impossible perspectives are common. Heads are drawn full-face and in profile at the same time. One idea often repeats itself over and over. Nonrelated details are often introduced in serial pictures. Pictures are for a child a language. Importance is shown by size. Conventional forms are easily adopted. Events with young children overlap. Even young children generally select dramatic points well. They draw large, and their pictures are full of movement. They like strong, distinct lines, with a background from nature." In view of the common dissatisfaction with results in drawing, our further conclusions were of great interest to me. They were, that early drawing should mean something to the child. He should not be put to drawing lines. Few lines should be used in early pictures for him. He should use drawing in various subjects as a means of expression. The development of the ideas of sex was of course a delicate topic. No syllabus was sent In the primary and intermediate grades, the teacher is supposed to give her instructions, principally, without the use of the text-book, i. e., she is to read and narrate simple stories to the children; but when instruction is to be given to pupils in the grammar grades, a somewhat different routine of work is to be followed. The lessons should be assigned by topics and not by pages. Although some good textbook should be taken as authority, the pupils should be taught to consult other works; yet, to advise with too many different books, tends to confuse rather than to strengthen. Require pupils to keep a note-book for the purpose of recording facts gleaned from other standard works. Teach them a definite plan of arrangement of these books, also some good method of outlining, such as the Exponential or the Brace and Bracket system. Read extracts from books before the class, and note, particularly, such points as may be hinged to that which the lesson covers. In connection with this subject, geography with respect to location should be observed. Show how the history of a place or country depends much upon the geographical conditions. All places of note should be located, and a great amount of sketching and map work should be done. Lay great stress upon biography. Show that a great amount of success gained at a battle, or any exploit, depends largely upon the skill and tact of the men employed. Deal a great deal in written work, both on black-board and paper. Written reviews, as often as once a week, are excellent, and a written examination occasionally is beneficial. Assign topics for historical essays. Causes and results, and the reasons why, should be observed. Dates have but little use. Perhaps a hundred, learned and applied, is sufficient for the history of United States. Pay attention to noted days. Require pupils to state the facts in their own language, and never require a part of the script to be recited verbatim. In short, strive to show that history is not a bundle of dates, around which are wound the threads of text-books, and that it is not the pupil's business to unwind this bundle for the purpose of the dates alone. Develope a love for the work. Encourage them to read and you will have gained a clue to the profitable as well as scientific method of teaching history to pupils of this grade. C. E. SPICER. Cambria, Wis., Sept. 11, 1893. THE HISTORICAL SEMINARY METHOD IN WISCONSIN HIGH SCHOOLS. [Concluded from September Number.] If any attempt is made at teaching history in the Primary department—and it is taught in Germany from the first-the instruction must necessarily be very simple. The work The work it is possible to do falls naturally into two divisions. First, short stories, legends, poems, and biographical narratives given orally, for the purpose of interesting the pupils in certain men, or events or places-in other words, to help them realize the particular point of view. Second, objective teaching, by the use of maps, pictures, drawings, or the objects in a museum. It will be seen from this that the teacher must be a disciple of the Seminary, or at least have an intelligent appreciation of its principles and aims. For without knowing the entire plan of which this work stands at the beginning the teacher will miss the thorough attainment of that part of the task. Modern scientific methods have made it almost imperative that a teacher of science shall have laboratory training for even elementary teaching. A good primary teacher must be a reader of the best authors in order to be fitted to give her pupils the spirit of good literature. And so in history, the most elementary instruction in that branch,-story-telling and biographical narrative,—presupposes on the part of the teacher a substantial body of knowledge and an enthusiasm for the subject, which it is the special province of the Seminary to give. This kind of instruction in history is particularly well adapted to pupils of this grade. It appeals to their imagination and their perceptive powers, and develops them along profitable lines of work. The teacher creates an interest in history and then with the momentum thus gained makes permanent the concepts of men and times that have been gained from biographical narratives and stories of life and manners. Nothing of greater importance can be accomplished for any pupil. Not only has he acquired knowl edge of permanent value, but he has also gained the power of working for himself. In the Grammar department the study of history is taken up more formally. It is well to bear in mind the German mode of studying history,-by constantly extending centers of biographical narrative and stories of places until the widening circles touch and mingle in a general view of a nation. No better model could be found for American teaching, nor one better adapted for bringing out the salient features of our history. In this department the topical or coöperative method can first be applied. After a general view of a given period is obtained for the whole class, each is assigned a certain portion for special study and reading. A given number of references serve as a guide to this work, and the reports from each in his turn will give the whole class the benefit of each one's individual research. This it will be noticed is almost exactly the method of work in the Seminary, except that the teacher and not the pupil makes out the list of authorities. The pupils search in their half dozen books as eagerly and with as much profit to themselves as the mature students of the Seminar, who have whole libraries and museums at their disposal. The habit of mind, then, attained by this research, elementary as it is, and the training in the methods of coöperative work, are the additional elements of usefulness of the Seminary in the Grammar department. The other lines of work, previously begun, are to be still further extended. Instead of oral instruction, references to the library will be used, although the same purpose will prevail, namely, to give the pupil some idea of the life and manners of past times by appeal to the imagination and by use of narratives. The use of objects, pictures and maps has been referred to. This should be made permanent in this grade also. Often the significance of an event, a battle, of a territorial acquisition, will only become clear by use of illustrative maps. In the same way various statistics upon growth of population, increase of industries, westward extension, sectional politics, etc., may be made impressive by the use of graphic charts. I must not be understood that the pupils consciously pursue these methods because they are convinced of their importance. But the teacher, rather, presents the subject in this way from a conviction that it is the only right way to teach history. The High School department is in general separated from the grades below by a more conscious use of the seminary method on the part of the pupils. As in the Grammer grade the topical method is emphasized but the preliminary survey must be more thorough and more the work of the pupil. The character of the authorities also changes. Hitherto the pupils would have used various text-books and books of reference, like Young Folks' Encyclopedia of Persons and Places; Brooks' American Sailor; Story of the American Indian; Lossing's American Navy and others. Now he has to use secondary authorities, at least, such as Bancroft, Von Holst, Britannica, Statesman Series, McMaster, etc., and occasionally the original authorities themselves. It is taken for granted that U. S. history will be studied in the High School, at least as review, as is recommended in the circular of the University to High Schools, 1891. This survey of the entire subject will afford special opportunity for the use of the topical method, as the subject can then be considered in its broadest aspects and with reference to a few dominant ideas. From past work and references the pupils can be left largely to make their own bibliographies of special topics and to work up their subjects more independently. An additional element, also, comes in when the topics are presented to the class. Discussion and criticism of the pupils' work, chiefly by the teacher, will bring out and enforce such principles as these: (a) the point of view of the authority is important and first to be considered; (b) facts are first to be obtained, explanations are secondary and of less importance; (c) the original authorities are the ground-work of history.. These principles are best brought out by questions and suggestions by the teachers. The pupils quickly learn to recognize that their authorities have different points of view. The importance of facts can be shown by mentioning instances where authors differed because each had but a part of the truth. And the fundamental character of original sources is soon discovered by the pupil whose attention is called to the foot notes, and to the tests of authorities which each writer makes use of. This is elementary work, but none the less important and productive of the best results. In addition to this general work with secondary authorities, there are many sources of history that can be called original, which are within the reach of the average High School pupil. Of these might be mentioned the Old South Leaflets, Congressional Speeches, Government Reports, County or Town Records, and possibly letters of local interest and historical value. If progressive work has been done in all the lower grades, the pupils are certainly ready to make use of some of the many orig inal sources available to a good High School, and the above list is but a fair sample of what may be used. But if such preliminary work has not been done, then it is useless to use any but secondary sources until the pupil is familiar with the methods and has imbibed the spirit of the Seminary. Theoretically, then the Historical Seminary seems capable of being applied to advantage in all grades of school work. It remains now to inquire if it has been so applied and if the practice bears out the theory. With this end in view, I examined a large number of High School Courses at the office of the State Supt., and addressed some twenty-five of the principals of High Schools with reference especially to the use of objective and topical methods of study in their schools. The results of this investigation are very interesting and suggestive. As most of the material was obtained from replies to letters, I will quote from them chiefly and refer to the Courses when any feature of the work is taken from them. First a general statement as to how far rigid text book memory drill has given place to more modern methods. All of the replies indicated a greater or less abandonment of this old method; some of them were very suggestive of better methods. At Fond du Lac a special list of reference books for the Grammar department is placed in the study room. The list is a suggestive one; Eggleston's and Johnston's U. S. histories, Boys of '76, Boys of '61, Building of the Nation, Lossing's History of U.S. and Lossing's History of the U. S. Navy. At Appleton the pupils have formed a reading circle, and last year read such books as Ivanhoe, Tale of Two Cities and Siege of Granada. At Ft. Atkinson special attention. is given to state and local history. At Whitewater the whole effort of the history work is to give the pupil power to sift material and see the important facts and their relations in any reference book. Among other things, each section of the class is assigned a period upon which to prepare references for the class, and each pupil at the close of the study of an epoch presents an elaborate essay giving complete results and a list of authorities used. Local history is also studied with care. The replies showed that in this outside work there were all grades of effectiveness from the giving of a general outline and much miscellaneous matter to the sharp, accurate work on topics and even a turn toward original research in the interesting field of local history. Next to the work done outside the text, At Beaver Dam and in close connection with it comes the use of school and city libraries. From a report of the State Sup't, 1889-90, it is shown that for that year there were reported in High School libraries 38, 182 volumes, while the number of books in city libraries is many times larger. Out of seventeen High Schools, only two replies indicated that there was not a constant and intelligent use of the reference books in the school or city libraries. the High School library contains 200 volumes and the city library 5,000. Both are much used and pupils of the history classes are freely admitted in looking up references. To aid them in using the authorities and in taking notes the school reading room is supplied with small tables. At Ripon the history work covers three periods, Ancient, Mediæval and Modern, and English. Each pupil is required as part of his work to read five books upon each of these periods and to write a synopsis of each book read. At Fond du Lac the school library has 500 volumes and the city 12,000 accessible to all history pupils. In order to facilitate the use of the large city library by the pupils of the various grades, Supt. Mitchell has made out book lists that serve as guides to pupils' reading. Each pupil checks off on his list all books read during the year and returns the list signed with his own name, at the end of the spring term. The list sent to me showed that a pupil in the 8th grade had read six of the books listed there and four others. And Supt. Mitchell said it was an average list. The books marked as read were: The Boys of '76; The Building of the Nation; Pathfinder; Philip Nolan's Friends; Dred; Last of the Mohicans; Around the World in the Yacht Sunbeam; Sunshine and Storm in the East; Land of the Midnight Sun and Harry Esmond. This is its own comment. That a girl in the Grammar department should voluntarily read these ten books speaks eloquently for more such rational training in the appreciation of historical literature. Thirteen out of eighteen of the schools report current literature used in connection with history work or in general exercises. The Oshkosh, Sturgeon Bay and Sparta schools support a reading table or reading rooms, supplied with periodicals by contributions of both pupils and teachers. Ft. Atkinson has a regular course of four weeks in current history after U. S. History is completed. Most of the schools have some regular time for the presentation and discussion of current literature and history. The best system in Wisconsin is probably the one used in the Sparta High School brought there from Dodgeville by Prin. Livingston. He calls it "News of the week." Two pupils are appointed each week who present to the school Friday afternoon a summary of the events of the past week. The material is presented off-hand from notes only, in order to cultivate readiness of speech. The presentation is knit into geography by a use of maps as places are mentioned, and into history by the discussion that follows. Note taking is encouraged, also, while the summary is being presented. This quite general use of current literature and history is significant in more than one way. Perhaps the most important result attained by it, from the point of view of this discussion, is that it makes the pupil familiar with the process of making history. Its materials are too abundant and miscellaneous for regular work but it helps to keep history from getting off the earth, and is therefore worth attention. The use of maps in connection with historical study seems to be especially in favor in many of the schools. At Beaver Dam each member of the class is required to make a complete set ef maps in water colors, covering the period studied. Principal Hubbell has also introduced a feature, which I believe, no other school has in the state. There is a room especially fitted up containing a solar stereopticon, with sets of educational slides on Egypt, Rome, France, England, Scotland, America, etc. Different pupils are assigned these slides a few days in advance with instructions to prepare descriptions to accompany the showing of the various sets of slides. These descriptions are from three to ten minutes long and are to be given orally. And thus while securing an unrivaled language lesson, the training in research among a large number of authorities is exceedingly valuable, to say nothing of the general value to a history class of such an objective presentation of their subject. Before leaving the high schools, one more interesting feature of the work is worth mention. Four of the schools reported more than one text book of a kind used in class. For instance, at Oshkosh, in the grammar grade, each pupil buys Scudder's U. S. History but uses constantly Johnston, Montgomery, Barnes and Eggleston, fifteen copies each of which are furnished by the board. At Beaver Dam the half-dozen texts are used directly to bring out a comparison of results. Nothing in the entire result of this investigation is more significant than this deliberate attempt to secure multiplicity of texts. It indicates clearly that the movement is well under way to emancipate the schools from the dreary deadness of rote |