us, where the boy attaches himself to some master workman so as to get the best from the beginning. Our industrial schools embody something of the idea; but they are too much regarded as places to get facility enough to command a salary rather than to get mastery of ideas and principles for their own sake and value. "Art for arts' sake" may sound very ideal, but as an educational principle it is the true real. Opinion, method and ideals in art change with changing conditions, to adapt themselves to new vision-angles of life, as they do in science and literature. The old were believed as sincerely as the new are now, with the possibility lurking behind that neither will be satisfactory a century hence. But these variable factors do not discredit the essential truths and basic ideas necessary to the complete expression of selfhood. The desire for art training is generic, and has come to stay. How shall the demand be supplied? A thoroughgoing study of pictures and sculpture from the art standpoint, in distinction from the point of enthusiasm, offers the best, if not the only way of attaining the end desired, without either eliminating necessary studies or overcrowding the school curriculum. The work is closely related to drawing, and should begin with simple art forms and art effects in the first grade, and advance step by step through succeeding grades to the high school, where pupils will be prepared to appreciate and to study paintings and sculpture with as much profit, grasp and interest as they get out of and find in poetry and history. It increases and quickens the realizing power, and brings the more delicate tracery of thought, and the deeper, spiritual meanings of science and literature within reach. It would be difficult to find a more auspicious time for developing the latent art instinct and awakening art sentiment in American youth than just now. Love of color is the passion of the day, and it finds its easiest and fullest expression in that part of nature which is most vitally near, and connected with present day notions of comfort and happiness. The present is an era of landscape painting, in France, Germany, Holland, Norway, England, and especially in the United States. Na ture's face inspires feelings of loneliness, and sometimes even of solitude, and sets the mind to reflection-turns it inward. The unending wastes of winter snows, white and shimmering; the gray autumn days, their peaceful, restful blue skies, with here and there an orphaned cloud and the vistas of vari-colored foliage; the bright, sunny summer time, with its far-stretching meadows and thick forests, casting their deep shadows which end away in mystery; and even the opening, joyous springtime-all impress us with a feeling of aloneness; yet we love them all, and seek their ministry because they satisfy a real longing within. Art, also, "is power," not in the intellectual sense alone, but power to feel and to respond from withinself-expression-to the purest and best the world can give. How restful is the rain! To see the roses red, With odors rich or rare, That new-distilléd are,— As I securely sit, And soothing visions flit Through the kingdom of my own, In the stillness all alone,— How restful is the rain! I SUPERINTENDENT W. A. WIRT, BLUFFTON, IND. T has not been many years since the magnificent equipment of our great colleges and universities was unproductive for more than one third part of the year. Now this formerly unproductive season, the summer quarter, is at many of these same institutions the best term of the school. Much has been well said in recent years of the desirability of increasing the efficiency of our common school plants. But with the exception of the establishment of a few vacation schools, little has been done in this direction. It may be of interest, therefore, to note an experiment in the more economical use of the school plant in one of the small cities of the Central States. During the past three years the Bluffton, Ind., common schools have had a school year of four terms of approximately three school months each. Pupils are not permitted to attend school longer than nine months during the school year. All of the schools are closed for four weeks during the month of August, and every child must select one of the four school terms for an additional vacation of three months. The summer terms of 1905 and 1906 were a success. Nearly half of the total number of beginning children for the year entered the summer terms. The small classes and other favorable conditions of this term enabled the teachers and students to do a very superior grade of work, and for the first time in the history of these schools were the school gardens a success. Following is a calendar of the terms for the present school year: Fall term, September 3 to November 23, 1906; winter term, November 26 to February 22, 1907; spring term, February 25 to May 17, 1907; summer term, May 20 to August 2, 1907. The winter term includes a vacation of one week for the holidays. All pupils must take their vacation one of the four terms; provided, that when pupils are forced to be out of school for a great length of time on account of sickness, or other unavoidable causes, they may arrange to take their vacation of three months so as to include such unavoidable absence. It is also provided that when the work of pupils has not been satisfactory on account of irregularity in attendance, such pupils will be expected to make up the said absence during their vacation term, and will be placed in classes where they can review the work that they missed because of their irregular attendance. The principle on which the new organization is defended is not that of running the schools more economically, but rather that of directing the administration of the schools so that they may be of the greatest possible service to the children for whom they exist. Following are some reasons for a twelve months' school year: First, many children are unavoidably absent during the regular term, and have been receiving only three or six months school during the year. With the schools in session twelve months the absence of these children can be counted as vacation, and many of them receive the full nine months of school work. Second, many of the older pupils can secure profitable employment during the fall and spring terms, and they can take their vacation when they can secure such employment. Third, during the winter term many small children are very irregular in attendance because of the bad weather, contagious diseases, bad colds, poor clothing, etc. The average schoolroom, crowded with children, unevenly heated and poorly ventilated at this season of the year, does not provide the conditions necessary for good school work. The short, cloudy and dark days make the proper lighting of the schoolrooms a difficult problem, and the children are shut up in the schools almost the entire sunlight part of the day. In some districts the uncleanly bodies of certain children add greatly to the unsanitary condition of the schools at this season of the year. The summer term presents quite a contrast. With windows wide open, an abundance of outdoor play at school, and the long hours in the sunlight at home before and after school, the light clothing of the children, and the frequent changes of the same, certainly the sanitary conditions are much better. Fourth, many schools are crowded and new buildings are needed. If one fourth of the pupils should take a vacation each term, one third more pupils can be accommodated under present conditions. The efficiency of the school plant is increased one third by the simple plan of using it one third longer each year. This means that a twelve room building is the equivalent of one with sixteen rooms, which with janitor service, heating, interest on investment, repairs, depreciation of plant, equipment, etc., will be a saving of at least $3,000 per year for each twelve-room school building. Fifth, the cost of instruction is not changed. With the same number of pupils per teacher, and giving each nine months of school, the cost for teachers is the same whether the pupils are taught together for nine months, or only three fourths of them together for twelve months. But in connection with the cost of instruction there will be a most important improvement. The greatest handicap of our schools is our inability to secure and keep good teachers. The monthly salary is not so bad, but the yearly income is so low that teaching is only a steppingstone to other employment. The only real solution for the question of adequate compensation for teachers is, in our opinion, to be found in continuous employment as in other occupations and professions. Without any increased expenditure on the part of the school corporation the yearly salaries of teachers will be increased one third, the services of the less competent teachers can be dispensed with, and the influence of the best teachers in the corps extended by employing them for a longer time. When we take into consideration the capital invested in school property, and the maintenance of the same, the fuel, janitor service, and the fact that teachers can be secured on yearly salaries on a basis that makes the monthly salary during the summer term only about two thirds of the regular monthly salary; the per capita cost during the summer term with fifteen children per teacher is less than that of the customary school term with forty-five pupils per teacher. Thus it is, that the summer quarter in the Bluffton schools is considered an economy, notwithstanding the fact that the enrollment per teacher so far has been much less than that of the other quar |