the head.

This will induce headache and injure the eyes by sur

charging them with blood, blurring the vision.

Near-sighted children who cannot see the work clearly in the required position should be induced to wear concave glasses rather than injure themselves by stooping or by raising the work enough to thrust up the shoulder. Stooping is the worse of the two, because, in addition to the evils of such a posture which have been already indicated, the light is thereby partially cut off from the work.

Since far-sighted children are obliged to exert the power of the ciliary muscle to an abnormal extent in all near work, they become wearied sooner than others and headache is apt to follow much use of the eyes. Such children should, therefore, wear convex glasses for all near work, and on some accounts, would be benefited by wearing them habitually.

Pupils should not often be required to copy long passages from the blackboard. The frequent, rapid change necessary to adjust the eye for near and for distant vision is very wearisome, and much of such work weakens the eye. To look off occasionally, however, from near work to a moderate distance is restful and desirable.

Copies upon the board and all other writing intended for pupils should be in large, plain characters, little shaded, and with clearly marked spaces between the words. Writing which children cannot see clearly enough to read without effort should not be tolerated for school purposes.

It is very important that from the outset due regard should be paid to the proper holding of the pen or pencil in all writing done by the children. The younger the pupils, the greater the necessity for this care, as the growing fingers may be injured in shape by habitually assuming a cramped position. Since the bones are more easily altered in shape by improper habits of posture in small children than in older pupils, it follows that everything in regard to position gains steadily in importance as we go downward in the scale of years. There is yet another strong reason for insisting on proper position of the hand from the beginning. Writing with the fingers unnaturally bent, or with the wrist touching the desk, cannot be long continued without great fatigue. Therefore, an unconstrained position of the hand becomes essential for older. pupils if they are ever to do much writing. To allow children to acquire a fine style of penmanship with a cramped position of the

hand in pen or pencil holding, knowing that it must be broken up with much difficulty and heart-burning later in the course, is a species of cruelty to them and to their subsequent teachers of which no ambition for present results should make a teacher guilty. It would be quite worth while to consider whether it would not be best to have the pen stock held between the fore and middle fingers, since in that case there is no inclination to turn the hand to the side and cramp the ring and little fingers. The testimony of those who write habitually is very generally in favor of this being the easiest position for the hand.

For beginners, the lesson should always be introduced with the arm and finger movements necessary in the writing which is to follow. Familiarity with the movements will go far toward removing the nervous distraction felt by young pupils on encountering too many new things at once.

An exercise in writing upon the slate should be shorter than a corresponding one upon paper. The gray lines upon the black surface soon weary the eye. The length of the lesson may be gradually increased as the pupils grow older. For the youngest

children the lesson should not exceed ten minutes. The use of muscles in new, carefully graduated actions is very wearisome. If there is any doubt on this point, let the teacher make her own first attempt at writing with the left hand, remembering that she has only the muscular weariness to encounter, knowing thoroughly the forms she is trying to produce, which are new to the child.

The lesson should be short for a more important reason. In looking at near objects the accommodative power of the eye must be used; that is, the ciliary muscle must act to increase the convexity of the lens; and the eye will therefore be wearied sooner than when looking at a distant scene. But this is only part of the adjustment; in order to bring the image on the same relative part of each retina, the axes of the eyes must be turned towards each other; for this purpose the inner straight muscles of the eye contract, and consequently increase in diameter, pressing upon the eyeballs. This pressure tends to elongate the eyeball for the time being. Children's eyes have not the tissues perfected and where this pressure is exerted for considerable periods, the elongation becomes permanent and myopia results. This near sight is not the worst effect; the elongation of the eyeball distorts the imma

ture tissues, rupturing in spots the retinal network, producing disease which is progressive in character. We should remember, then, that any near work for children's eyes should be of short duration.

When the lesson is finished, exercises should be given with the class standing or marching. Movements of the head backward, and to either side, and movements of the body backward and sideways from the waist will be restful. Especially should there be exercises for straightening the fingers and arms.

STILL

NORMAL SCHOOLS IN WISCONSIN.

BY J. L. PICKARD, LL. D.

The

TILL "looking backward" my mind dwells for a moment upon an examination of teachers held in a village west of the Mississippi forty years ago. Our candidate is attempting to prove herself acquainted with the subject of geography. The examining officer opening the atlas at the map of New England, suddenly covers Massachusetts with his hand and then asks the question "What is the color of Massachusetts?" Had it been asked regarding Connecticut the Western impression of that state might have suggested blue, but the candidate was compelled to confess her ignorance and was granted a certificate on condition that she "post up in geography." What has this to do with normal schools? may be asked. Only this and nothing more. young lady had just completed academic study in Platteville, Wisconsin, and started the inquiry with her teacher as to how such gross ignorance could be overcome, and a better state of intelligence be secured among the people at large. It was finally decided that mission work should be undertaken by teachers as they engaged in the schools of the country. To preparation for this work the Platteville Academy organized a class for those expecting to teach. Not only were methods of instruction of pupils the subject of study, but methods of reaching the people were discussed. The state constitution adopted about this time provided for a chair of theory and practice of teaching in the

State University. An intelligent resident of Platteville elected to the Legislature about 1856 secured the passage of an act granting aid from the Swamp Land Fund, which had in large part been given to support of schools, for the support in colleges and academies of "normal classes." This measure not proving satisfactory, a Board of Normal Regents was organized to take charge of the Swamp Land Fund which had been transferred from the School Fund to a "Normal School Fund."

The first work of this board was to appoint normal agents to organize teachers' institutes throughout the state. The principal of the academy at Platteville became state superintendent of public instruction, and at once entered into the institute work with the normal agents who were working under the direction of Chancellor Henry Barnard of the State University. The county superintendency was then established and county superintendents labored very zealously for teachers' institutes in their own counties. Some undertook from four to twelve weeks county normal schools.

The Board of Normal Regents now were encouraged to enter upon the work of establishing permanent normal schools.

After long consultation and a very thorough canvass of the claims of different localities, the first state normal school for Wisconsin was located at Platteville, where the normal movement began fifteen years before. It was thought desirable that the first school should be located in an atmosphere favorable to its growth, and Platteville was chosen as the centre of communities already recognizing the beneficial effects of normal training.

The work moved right on until Wisconsin is now provided with five state normal schools, well equipped, and doing valiant service. To each of these schools is assigned a teacher of theory and practice who spends part of his time in the field as a conductor of institutes. The outside field is thus under thorough cultivation. The normal schools are felt in all the schools of the state, and Wisconsin is taking on the "color" which the work of Horace Mann gave to Massachusetts through Bridgewater, Salem and Westfield.

THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS.

IX.

CAN THEY BE SIMPLIFIED?

OUR DENOMINATE MEASURES

THE

RY PROF. SIMON N. PATTEN, PH. D.,

University of Pennsylvania.

HERE is probably today no teacher who is not fully convinced that the metric system of measures has great advantages over the complicated and in many respects absurd system which we use. One can hardly help envying the French teacher of arithmetic who is not required to drill his pupils for years upon those irregular and fractional scales used in all our denominate measures. How fortunate, too, is the lot of the French children who escape that dreary monotonous work to which every American child must submit before he can memorize all the tables and can change any unit of one denomination to that of any other in spite of the difficult fractions which stand in his way.

Yet, in many respects, we have good reason to congratulate ourselves, when we compare our lot with that of the children of our race who studied a century or even a half century ago. Most of the fractional units have fallen into disuse, and many of the old denominations no longer disfigure the pages of our modern arithmetics. We no longer measure by barley-corns, ells, or furlongs, while hands, spans and leagues are mentioned only in foot-notes. It is now thought by many that a child may be intelligent even if he is not drilled upon the intricacies of Apothecaries' weight and its corresponding fluid measure, Troy weight or beer measure, and there are some who are bold enough to presume that a child may prosper without knowing that twenty-eight pounds was formerly regarded a quarter of a hundred weight.

The arithmetics have slowly thrown aside the many duplicate and absurd measures which burdened the school books of our forefathers, yet they seem to have done this unwillingly and have formed part of the rear guard and not of the van of our progress.

1 Copyright, 1889, by Eastern Educational Bureau.