meetings are held as a rule in Zurich, where the president of the board resides. This board is appointed for five years and consists of the pres ident and six members. The principal of the school attends the meetings and has a voice in the deliberations. The federal council has su perior authority in the direction and government of the school. The school possesses a library and a collection of art works and casts of figures and architectural ornaments for the different branches of art study; a collection of building materials and models of constructions; a collection of patterns for machinery; a collection of instruments for geometrical measurement; a collection of tools and materials for mechanical technical instruction; a collection of models and materials for chemical, technological, and pharmaceutical instruction; a collection of necessary apparatus, models, tools, machinery, implements, and seeds for the instruction in forestry and agriculture; a zoological, botanical, mineralogical, geological, and paleontological collection; an entomolog ical collection; an archæological collection and a collection of antique vases; a collection of copper plates; a workshop for modelling in clay and gypsum; a shop for wood work; a shop for metal work; a chemical laboratory for analytical work; a chemical laboratory for technical and pharmaceutical work; a chemical laboratory for agricultural and forestry work; a physical laboratory for plant studies; a physical cabinet with laboratory; an astronomical observatory; a botanical garden; a special botanical garden for the study of agriculture and forestry; forests, fields, collections, and libraries belonging to the city and canton of Zurich and placed by contract at the disposal of the polytechnic school CHAPTER XI. THE KINDERGARTEN IN RELATION TO MANUAL TRAINING. The changes in the plans of the Department, as noted in the letter of transmittal, have prevented the collection of material on any very extended scale relative to the progressive educational work starting with the kindergarten and closing with the higher grades of grammar schools. The importance of consecutive and persistent training in any particular direction, especially as contemplated under any manual training course, is recognized by all educators, but, unfortunately, theories on this subject are too often in the nature of abstractions, deriving but little support from practical experience; and it is to be regretted that the results of such experience could not have been obtained from a greater variety of sources in order that views and theories, now based chiefly on hypothesis and assumption, might be verified or corrected by a wider induction. Under existing circumstances, however, a few prominent illustrations must suffice. The first of these relates to the experiments in the pub. lic schools of Mont Clair, New Jersey. The following statement is from Dr. Randall Spaulding, superintendent of the public schools of Mont Clair: THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF MONT CLAIR, NEW JERSEY. The training furnished in these schools aims to produce an all-sided development; to furnish opportunities and stimuli suitable to all stages of child life from the nursery to the college. It is our aim to produce, not the mere mechanical power that comes from physical exercises, not the mere automatic power of an intellect that concerns itself with conventional knowledge alone, but rather that living power that uses the body and mind as instruments in the service of morally elevated sentiments and ideals. To effect this all the faculties must receive due attention, must be trained to act together harmoniously. We begin with the kindergarten. The kindergarten is the transition stage from the nursery to the more conventional work of the primary school. If now we are able to organize the work of the kindergarten on sound principles that recognize the peculiar nature of the child, why can we not successfully meet the wants of a later age? Principles that are applicable to one age should be applicable to all ages, only with changed appliances. In the schools above referred to it has been the aim, however imperfectly realized, to base the work of all grades upon the educational principles of the earliest stage. We must, therefore, first briefly answer the question: What does the kindergarten do? (1) The work is carefully graded to suit the growing capacity of the child. In the first gift the simplest objects are given to the child, the colored balls. He detects resemblances between these and other objects that come within the range of his experience, and so acquires clearness of ideas. The qualities that he discerns are few and simple. In the second gift he receives the hard polished sphere, the cube, and the intermediate form of the cylinder. Now he observes faces, curved and plane; differences in form and surfaces. He is now concerned more than formerly with qualities of things, and receives ideas that are not only clear but distinct. Into the third gift enter the ideas of number and use, while into the three succeeding gifts enter progressively new distinctions of form, color, and use. The faculties of invention and taste are exercised. In succeeding gifts surfaces, straight lines of equal and unequal length, curved and variable lines, together with a multitude of applications and illustrations in designing, weaving, plaiting, etc., are studied. The whole is, in short, progressive at every stage. (2) The child's impulse to bodily activity is gratified. If this impulse is repressed, as is too often the case in our schools, an activity that is abnormal and illegitimate will be forced upon the child. Moreover, bodily activity not only relieves nervous tension, strengthens the muscles, and so conserves the physical health, but it is itself expressive of thought and feeling, and is, therefore, carefully noted by the skilful kindergartner. (3) The kindergarten develops the child on his social or moral side. He learns that what is customary in the mutual relations of right thinking people is right. Through the games and through coöperative and associated work he learns that without kindness, justice, and truthfulness, social life is neither comfortable nor for any extended time even possible. This social development is one of the highest functions of kindergarten work, and generally distinguishes the genuine from the superficial kindergarten. (4) The nature lessons of the kindergarten teach reverence for life. The biologist is the most tender hearted of men. Contact and study breed respect for the beautiful and wonderful forms of organic life. (5) The kindergarten makes prominent use of that combined bodily and mental activity that we may call physio-psychological. Its aim is to coördinate the muscles with the will, expressing itself through the motor nerves. The mind habitually conceives more than its physical instruments can execute. The kindergarten seeks to coördinate the physical with the mental. To this end the hand and the eye are constantly trained together in the expression of thought. Much of the world's profoundest thought has been expressed through construction. With children construction leads most easily and naturally to expression through language. In explaining how kindergarten principles are recognized in the Mont Clair schools I shall merely allude to the first four points, and speak more at length of the fifth; because, first, recognition of the last named principle involves to a greater or less extent a recognition of the others; and second, the above mentioned schools, if indeed they are distinguished at all from the great majority of schools, are distinguished by the attempt to carry through all grades the element of manual training that is begun in the kindergarten. (1) In grading the schools the fact is recognized that the simplest principles of any subject may be as profitably taught to young children as advanced principles to the more mature. For instance, a child who has mastered a few simple numbers may well be taught the simplest |