Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

minutes, after which the election of Officers will take place. Dr. Robins will read a paper on the "Study of Form," and the Rev. T. Z. LeFebvre, will read a paper on "Hints in Teaching French."

On FRIDAY AFTERNOON, from 2 to 5 p.m., the following is the programme:"How to Teach Physiology and Hygiene in School," Dr. T. Wesley Mills, M.A.; " Physical Education," W. A. Kneeland, B.C.L.; "Elementary School Work."

ON FRIDAY EVENING, there will be a Conversazione, when an address of welcome will be read to the delegates from other Associations, from whom, in turn, addresses are expected. The meeting will be enlivened with music, readings, etc.

On SATURDAY MORNING, from 9 to 12 a.m., the following is the programme :-Paper on "Our Academies," by Dr. Harper; paper on "Teaching Staff of Superior Schools," G. W. Parmelee, M.A.; and a paper on "School Libraries," J. W. Alexander, B.A.

The following notices have been affixed to the Official Programme, which ought to be carefully considered by those proposing to attend the Convention:-(1) The railroads will allow the usual reduction of one-third fare for the return trip, to all attending this Convention. To secure this reduction, members, on purchasing railway tickets, must get a certificate, signed by the Railway Agent at the starting point. Purchase a first-class, full-fare, one way ticket, and obtain a certificate for purchase from the Agent. These certificates are supplied free by all Ticket Agents, but to secure them you should be at the station at least ten minutes before the train is due to leave. (2) Teachers on reaching the city, must report themselves at the Normal School, where, after registering, they will be received by the Hospitality Committee. (3) The Hospitality Committee offers no free entertainment this year, but has made arrangements, by means of which all registered lady members of the Association can obtain good board and lodging in the vicinity of the Normal School for fifty cents a day. Billets at the above rate for ladies, and at $1.00 for gentlemen, can be procured beforehand, by writing to the Secretary, or by applying at the McGill Normal School, on arrival in Montreal. (4) By order of the Executive Committee, none but registered members will be recognized as attending the Convention, or be allowed to occupy members' seats, or otherwise to take part in the proceedings. (5) Members can register their names with the Treasurer, at the Normal School, at any time during the days when the Convention is in session. For further particulars,

application may be made to Mr. E. W. Arthy, High School, Montreal, from whom a copy of the full Official Programme may also be obtained.

-Educational changes do not seem to come singly, for while our own province has seen the movement that has led to the appointment of a new Rector of the Montreal High School, and a new Secretary of the Department; New Brunswick has had a new Superintendent of Education, while Nova Scotia has lost its present incumbent of the Superintendency. In McGill University, the new staff of professors enter upon their duties under the most auspicious circumstances, and it is said that the re-arrangement of school and college affairs in Bishop's College is looked forward to as an advancement for all; Stanstead College has been able this year to enter upon its third session under Principal McHunnond, with full expectation of an improved record; St. Francis College, is not likely to suffer from the bit of breeze that has blown over its affairs, while Morrin College expects a larger Freshmen class than usual, with its other classes undiminished in numbers.

-We expected to issue the usual directory of the teachers of our Superior Schools this month but though the Principals were asked to furnish us with the details, by return of mail, on the 1st of September, the list is still incomplete. Of the changes so far, we can speak of Mr. Solandt's appointment to the Principalship of Aylmer Academy, Mr. Hopkins to Beebe Plain, Miss Mackenzie to Bryson, Mr. D. M. Gilmour to Hemmingford, Mr. Moore to Inverness Academy, Miss Melrose to Leeds, Mr. McCutcheon to Magog, Miss Goodfellow to Ormstown, Mr. Ryan to Portage du Fort, and Miss Coffing to Warden. Later, we have been informed of Miss Cole's appointment to Farnham, Miss Goodfellow's to Ormstown, Mr. Ryan's to Portage du Fort, and Mr. James Bennie's to Shawville.

-We have been favoured with a look at a very ingenious little machine for the use of students in logic, which will no doubt lead to the necessary certainty in testing the validity of syllogisms. The machine has been invented by the Rev. Professor Macadam, of Morrin College, Quebec. After the student has ascertained the symbolical letters, designating the quantity and quality of the three propositions in any syllogism, and has adjusted the instrument accordingly, it will exhibit the correctness or incorrectness of the syllogism in question, in all the possible moods and figures. The invention is a development and mechanical application of a method successfully adopted by Prof. Macadam, in his lectures to the students of Morrin College.

-The Montreal Star, at the beginning of the month, had an excellent article on what it is pleased to call the "New McGill." In this article it refers to the New Education as an education that is likely to be of service to the coming man in Canada :"Much might be said concerning the resources of Canada, in field, forest and mine, which are to be developed with new skill by men trained at McGill as Canadians have never hitherto been trained. While these special gifts of nature to our country will be steadily kept in view by the teachers of McGill, Canada's chief resources, on which all others depend for their value, consists in its youth, from among whom the best should find their way to the University. Upon their aptitude, invention, initiative and executive ability, joined to the sterling character of young Canada, rests the future of our country. Munificence, directed by the soundest judgment, has done its part. It now remains with the teachers of the Dominion, with Canada's educational system as a whole, to sift out from the schools such youths as can enter McGill's new departments with most promise. The highest forms of talent and faculty are very rare, but they attest themselves unmistakably. Method is fast taking the place of hap-hazard ways of doing things. On the quality of a comparatively few leaders in science and art, as in manufacture and trade, rests the future of Canada. Are not these men worth looking for, or must we wait in the old way for chance to cast a few of them to the surface, or for the indomitable energy of a few more to give them at last a place fairly high, perhaps, but far lower than would be theirs with timely, intelligent recognition? In the citizenship of the United States, less than one per cent. are graduates of universities, and yet, a handful as they are, they fill three-fifths of the foremost positions in the land! Well will it be with Canada when, in Huxley's phrase, the ladder of education rests with its foot in the gutter, every rung free for ascent to the university at the top."

Practical Hints and Examination Papers. -Intelligence, faith, co-operation, unity, sympathy-these are rungs in the Jacob's ladder of our life and work upon which the angels travel, bringing glad tidings and unspeakable gifts to man. These are more than mere per cents, of money value in business, they are an imperishable, everlasting possession. This is the reward of the teacher, of the editor, of the real worker in the world. Money is good, is necessary, with which to pay bills as a means to an end.

-The power to think for one's self has too little standing in the school, and we do not insist enough upon the appreciation of the

worth of school work. Too often we try to wheedle our children into knowledge. We disguise the name of work, mask thought and invent schemes for making education easy and pleasant. We give fanciful names to branches of study, make play with object lessons and illustrate all things. To make education amusing, an easy road without toil, is to train up a race of men and women who will shun what is displeasing to them. But there is no substitute for hard work in school if we are to have a properly trained people; we must teach the value of work and overcome the indifference of ignorance.-Century.

-A boy wrote the following essay on "Boots"-"First the boots would be made of leather, which would come from the backs, which have been roaming about America, Africa, England, or some other foreign country, and it is shot by the Americans or the Africans. The skin is carelessly taken off and put down a pit on a bark to be tanned. It is then sticked together with thread and soled to the cobbler who sells it in his window to byers. When the holes ware in them they are taken back to the cobblers, who soals them for us by paying half a crown for men's, and one and six for women's boots. It is a good thing to be a postman, as he gets his boots for nothing, as well as a pair of clothes if he stops at the job."

"We are not quite sure," says the Schoolmaster, to what Canon Kelly referred when he said that examination by sample induced an amount of uncertainty.' For a labor certificate it will be necessary to have individual examination, so long as the certificate is granted only to those able to pass a specified examination. In such cases examination by sample would induce an amount of uncertainty.' But Canon Kelly must know perfectly well that, in order to express an opinion on a school as a whole, and as to the efficiency with which the work of the school is being carried on, a sample examination is no more likely to lead to uncertainty than individual examination. An experienced inspecter would gather a juster idea of the school and its work by spending a day in the school when it is at its ordinary work than from an examination of any kind, by sample or otherwise." -A Scotch contemporary is responsible for the following:-A laborer at the Dundee harbor lately told his wife, on awakening, a curious dream he had during the night. He dreamed that he saw coming toward him, in order, four rats. The first was one very fat, and was followed by two lean rats, the rear rat being blind. The dreamer was greatly perplexed as to what evil might follow, as it has been understood that to dream of rats denotes coming calamity. He appealed to his wife concerning this, but she, poor woman, could not help him. His son, a sharp lad, hearing his father tell the story, volunteered to be the interpreter. "The fat rat," he said, "is the man who keeps the public house that ye gang till sae often, and the twa lean anes are me and my mither, and the blind ane is yourself, father." -There is an evil under the sun. It is the two-session primary It is the two teachers' work

school with the one-session children.

with the one teacher's salary.

It is the city which can afford waterworks, and electric lights, and fourth of July celebrations and highschool buildings, and-and-anything except airy, comfortable rooms for wee ones and women to preside over them who have the divine light of rest in their eyes and the inspiration of peace.

-The Supreme Council of Hygiene of Austria has been engaged in discussing the advantages of erect as compared with slanting writing, and the official report of Drs. von Reuss and Lorenz points strongly in favor of the former. They point out that the direction of the written characters has a marked influence on the position of the body. In "straight" writing the scholar faces his work and is spared the twist of the body and neck, which is always observable in those who write slantwise, and one common cause of spinal curvature is thus obviated. The erect method is, therefore, expressly recommended for use in schools in preference to the ordinary sloping lines.

Correspondence, etc.

Editor of EDUCATIONAL RECORD.

SIR, Though I notice the Pension Act has been omitted in the advertised programme of the approaching Teachers' Convention, I hope it will not again be "burked." As I am not clever enough to take the floor in the Convention, I beg leave to take this mode of expressing my opinion of what is to many of us the "burning" question, by saying that I felt deeply grateful to Mr. Gilman for so ably and generously taking up the cudgels for the great body of elementary female teachers at the last Convention. I think I voice the feeling of nearly all of them by endorsing every word that gentleman, and some others who followed him, said as to the uselessness of the present Act as a provision for the old age of elementary teachers with small salaries, who, like myself, have grown gray in the service of education. Allow me to say that I mean no disparagement of the highly-esteemed administrators of the pension fund, by finding fault with the provisions of the Act; I voted for it through respect for their opinion, but that feeling is not strong enough to make me still support a measure so little to the advantage of myself and elementary teachers in this Province. Permit me to instance my own case. have taught some sixteen years for salaries varying from ten to twenty dollars per month; it is seldom I reach the latter. I can only live with economy on my average salary, and could not, on less than twenty dollars per month, make any provision for the future. Having taught nearly four hundred young Canadians, and roamed professionally from Pontiac almost to Gaspé, I hope you will pardon my vanity if I say that I have done more for my country than some of our politicians. Considering the thousands of teachers who remain in the profession only a few years, and who, while contributing to the pension fund, draw nothing from it, it is surprising if no better

I

« ForrigeFortsæt »