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human thought and progress. These they should hold in clear and distinct outline, so that their observations may become readily co-ordinated in their view of the work, and that they may be enabled to plan their work consciously and even in its remoter bearings in a line with human progress.

It were well if much of this, too, could be made a requirement for admission. Yet, even where conditions render this feasible, the unity of work in the school would call for a thorough review of the history of education and human progress, as an important part of the preliminary work of the training-school for Kindergartners."

-The Cadet Corps business is also beginning to show dubious effects, not that the principles for the physical training of the child are wrong, but because the Cadet Corps' idea has been inaugurated somewhat independently of the closely allied educational necessities of the proper development of our children -their bodies, minds and consciences. The drilling of our boys has been run to excess, some of the inaugurators of the movement are already saying; and probably the issue of the re-action will be eventual neglect of what ought to be encouraged. A teacher of one of our schools resigned the other day, and when asked his reason he said, "I cannot get my boys to rise to or near to some point of enthusiasm with their work. This drilling business has ruined my classes for the time being, and I had better take a rest, seeing I can afford it until the furor about rifles and swords, and brigade tactics has blown over." Is there not a lesson here for the surface theoriser, for the educationist who claims that whatever is popular, should not be frowned upon.

-In connection with the Manual Training movement, there is to be held up the same warning. A correspondent has indirectly placed at our disposal his ideas on Manual Training, which if a little outré in one direction when he traces the origin of tramps, has something in them worth considering when he speaks of the proper relationship between all studies for the development of the child in its threefold being. This is what our correspondent says:-

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The question of the introduction of Manual Training into the programme of our Primary and High Schools, is intimately connected with all the reforms which for some years have been agitating educational circles. Thinking men acknowledge that it is necessary to prepare the rising generation to become intelligent men and women, with fully developed organisms, and trained to use all the faculties with which nature has provided them. The so-called literary branches have been abnormally

extended, and the speculative character of instruction in the mathematical branches has for a long time engaged the powers of the child, to the detriment of the development of all his other faculties.

"By this wrong system of education, the physical constitution of the child has become enfeebled, the free action of his organs have become impeded, and this aggravated expansion of the intellectual activity of the child in one direction, has exercised a fatal action on the well-being of society, by extolling the intellectual occupations at the expense of the manual arts. It is no uncommon thing to see to-day several hundred applicants -some of them it may be LL.D.'s present themselves for a vacant position, which would give to its incumbent hardly enough to keep the wolf from the door. Only one is accepted. And the others-what has become of them? Will they become mechanics? Never. They go to reinforce the army of tramps, and to swell the ranks of those who are a drag upon society, they are consumers but not producers.

"The necessity of a system of instruction more in touch with the present needs of society has been recognised in most of the countries of Europe and America.

"If there is a want of expansion it can generally be traced to one or all of three factors: the teachers, the school authorities, or because the methods advocated are too advanced.

"The teacher as a general rule is conservative and looks with suspicion on innovations and often justly so. He works for a brilliant result at the annual examinations. Besides the intro

duction of a new study necessitates his taking up a new line of thought which is often arduous, and it is necessary to those who have the courage to undertake it that they devote themselves enthusiastically to it if they wish for success. The willing teacher who has faith in the success of his efforts will not however flinch before new sacrifices of time and work.

"The true teacher will always incorporate the interests of a sound and integral education with the necessities of the "Course of Study," he will transform his system of introduction by replacing the speculative and memory methods by some methods of observation and manual activity."

Current Events.

-We draw the attention of Teachers and the Boards of School Commissioners this year, as on other occasions, to the arrangement which the Editor of the EDUCATIONAL RECORD has made to

assist the former to secure situations and the latter to secure teachers. Any teacher applying to the editor shall have his or her name inscribed on a list for reference, and recommendations to any Board applying for information about teachers shall be willingly given. In other places, particularly in the United States, such an arrangement is generally made through bureaus organised for the purpose, for the support of which the teacher has generally to give a percentage of his or her earnings for some years after an appointment has been secured. But in the case of the Teachers' Bureau under the supervision of the RECORD, all information will be willingly given gratis to any one who may apply.

-There are some meannesses common to all countries. Not long ago we read an article on the process of competition among teachers in Ontario, while hiring themselves out to the authorities who hold for the time being the destiny of the village school in their hands. But we had little thought such a spirit of competition would find itself in England. Yet here is what is reported about the state of affairs there:-" The manufacture of elementary school teachers," the Cambrian News says in a recent issue, is altogether in excess of the requirements, notwithstanding the fact that teachers leave the profession for almost any other calling, owing to the smallness of the remuneration, the insecurity of the tenure, and the general uncomfortableness of the occupation. The valuable and arduous duties of teachers in many rural districts are discharged for a mere pittance, ranging from about fifteen shillings a week. Elementary teachers are ready to take each other's places when shabby Boards and managers reduce salaries. It is high time that teachers, who are educated men, should be taught to abstain from taking places which have been vacated because of attempts to reduce salaries. Teachers' salaries in the rural districts are too low, and something like a strike would be justified if the teachers were not too jealous of each other and far too timid to work together."

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-The Superintendent of Schools of New York city has an excellent bit of advice to the advanced educational theorist, if it be not just as applicable to many of those parents who judge of the district school without verifying the statements of others. My advice to you," Mr. Jaspar says, "is, visit our schools and learn something about them." It is a pity that there is not more of the visitation of our schools by parents on their own account than there is. In one of our own villages, the Inspector on one occasion was met by a parent who could hardly find words strong enough to condemn everything connected with the school.

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Have you been in the school lately?" asked the Inspector. "No," said he, "not lately. "Then neither have I," said the Inspector, "so we will go over and see how matters are in company." After the inspection was over, the inspector, turning to the villager, asked him what he thought of the school after having seen it for himself. "Well," said he, "perhaps I have been a little too severe," and the issue of the experiment was to be fully witnessed when the Inspector made his subsequent visit. Happening to meet his friend again, he was agreeably disappointed to find a different flavour in his criticisms. He was loud in his praises of the teacher and the manner in which the school was being conducted, except in one respect, and that was, that the commisioners ought to pay our teachers higher salaries.

-There is a higher civilization to be fostered in all our cities which has found an atmosphere to bud in even in far away Turkey. The project recommended some time ago by the British Embassy and recently approved by the Council of Ministers, of establishing homes for enfranchised negro slaves, has just been sanctioned in principle by the Sultan. Although the traffic in black slaves is not yet entirely abolished, the Imperial Government is anxious for its suppresssion throughout the Empire, and the need for such institutions as those contemplated becomes apparent, when it is stated that the majority of enfranchised negroes become re-enslaved even after receiving their certificates of manumission, and contrary to the convention respecting the slave trade. It is proposed to establish the homes in the district of Benghazi, Tripoli, Jedda, and Hodeida, as well as in Constantinople, and in future the freed slaves will be sheltered in these asylums, and in conformity with special regulations already in force, will be cared for at the cost of the State. Provision will also be made for the children of negroes received at the homes. The boys will be admitted to the primary professional schools, or to the military bands, while the girls will be assisted to obtain situations as domestic servants. In sanctioning these measures, the Sultan, taking into consideration the fact that the offspring of negro parents cannot become acclimatised in temperate regions and seldom survive, has ordered that enfranchised slaves who are married shall be sent to homes which are to be built as required on the State lands at Smyrna.

The organization of the staff of the Montreal High under the new principal has been all but completed. The arrangement by means of which the school shall in future be in the hands of a High School committee, of which the head-master and the Superintendent shall be ex-officio members, is an excellently

devised safeguard against the abuses which lately caused so much trouble in the management of the institution. There will surely now be less chance for the exercise of that playful eccentricity which tries to know a man that knows the man. At the meeting at which the above decision was reached, it was resolved to offer vacancies on the staff to Mr. E. L. Curry, B.A., as Senior Classical Master, in place of George Murray, Esq., B.A. No public announcement was made at the time of Mr. Murray's resignation, and we take this opportunity of referring to his long service in the Montreal High School. It was really a pleasure to hear Mr. Murray examining and drilling a class in the Girls' High School on his favorite Virgil. A man rich in stores of knowledge as the readers of the Star so well know, and yet a man liberally gifted in his manner of bestowing these stores upon others, his name will ever be remembered by the boys and girls who have been fortunate to receive instruction at his hands. His experiences will always be to them something to discuss with affection, for Mr. Murray is not soon to be forgotten as one of the most popular masters in the Montreal High School.

Of the other masters appointed is Mr. Allen W. Strong, B.A., Sc., who is expected to fill the position of drawing and commercial teacher, and Mr. John P. Stephen, who will take charge of the elocution classes. The contractors have commenced operations on the new building, and ere long, Montreal will be in a position to boast of one of the finest High Schools on the continent in point of structure, and let us hope in point of organization and success. In the preliminary arrangements the new head-master has certainly had everything bestowed upon him that a teacher's heart could desire.

- Sir William Dawson is thus reported in the Star as having referred to the work being accomplished by McGill University and the prospect before an institution in whose progress every Canadian takes a patriotic interest. The work of the session, he said, might be measured by its graduating classes. The number of primary degrees in course conferred on students in this and the previous meeting of Convocation was 115, a smaller number than last year. It would seem that the entrance classes four years ago were in all the faculties somewhat lower than the average; and there is reason to believe that next session will show a marked increase. The dominant feature of the year has been the great additions made to staff and buildings, especially in professional faculties, though the faculty of Arts has received an important aid in the professorship of experimental physics in the new building and appliances provided for that department.

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