magazines have taken notice of the disgraceful occurrences which have of late been reported in the newspapers, and most of them acknowledge that there must be a weak spot somewhere in the discipline and government of the institutions which have been the scene of such examples of lawlessness on the part of the students. Since the last appearance of the RECORD, the news comes that the students of the Ohio Wesleyan University went on a strike recently at chapel time. One thousand students gathered at the chapel entrance and then deliberately marched away. Some preparatory students who allowed their zeal to run beyond the bounds of reason, battered down the signs of merchants as they passed along the streets in the line of march. The cause of the strike is said to be that the faculty have disappointed the college glee club, which has arranged a long western tour under the approval of the faculty, and now just on the eve of making the tour such conditions are put upon them as to make it barely possible for the tour to be made." Comment scarcely seems to be necessary.

Current Events.

THE annual closing exercises of the McGill Normal School took place on the 29th of May. Dr. S. P. Robins, the principal of the Normal School, in reading his annual report, stated that at the beginning of the session there were received into the several classes 21 men and 163 women. Of this number 6 men and 6 women had passed the examination entitling them to academy diplomas, 5 men and 56 women had gained model school diplomas, and 3 men and 60 women had secured elementary diplomas, making a total of 137 diplomas granted. He also drew attention to the great need which existed for a house of residence for the female students, where they could all live under one roof, be supervised by a competent head, and instructed in household economy and domestic hygiene, and at the same time merely pay the net cost of living in a well conducted boarding-house. He sincerely hoped that the day would come when some of the merchant princes of Montreal would see their way to erecting such a building. He knew that it was difficult for men of means wisely to aid by their contributions any establishment over which the Government had control, but he thought that such a

building as he had reference to would be independent of the authority exersised by the Government over the school itself. Mr. G. W. Parmelee, Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction, presented the medals, diplomas and prizes to the successful students.

-ON the same occasion, addressing himself particularly to the students, Professor Kneeland spoke of the diplomas which they had just received as opening to them the doors of a profession second to none in the wide world. It was the crowning day for the student, but the commencement day for the teacher. The students had been running in the race for the prize, the teacher entered upon the race with high hopes, lofty ambitions and a determination to leave the world wiser and better than he or she found it. He impressed upon them the importance of the manner in which they would proceed to teach their pupils, and the first duty was to maintain order, for, without that, teaching was practically useless. It was not the clergy who were required to instruct the young, nor the Sunday-school, but the duty fell to the lot of the public school teachers. In conclusion, he hoped that the entering of the students upon their new sphere of life was to bless humanity, to banish distress, to alleviate the woes of mankind, and to light and lift up the hearts of the young people.

-ANOTHER of our municipalities has decided to provide ample accommodation for school-work by the erection of a new building. The Protestant School Commissioners of St. Lambert have completed arrangements for the construction of a school-house to accommodate 250 children. The building alone is to cost from $7,000 to $9,000. Besides the six class-rooms, there are to be wide corridors, rooms for the teachers, cloak-rooms and ample lavatories in the basement for both boys and girls. The basement will be concreted as a play-room for wet weather. Provision is also to be made for the separation of boys and girls. The new school-house will be of brick on a stone foundation and is to be so constructed that an additional wing can be erected without interfering with the original building.

-THE Globe, of St. John, N. B., says: Morrin College, Quebec, of which Rev. Dr. Macrae is the new principal, and Mr. Crocket, the late chief superintendent of education, one of the professors, is likely to have another New Bruns

wick professor. The chair of chemistry and experimental physics will, it is understood, be offered to E. A. Macintyre, the well-known chemist of this city. Mr. Macintyre, who took a thorough course of chemistry in Germany, is in every way well qualified for the position, and will prove a valuable member of the staff of the college.

-THROUGH the munificence of a prominent merchant of Boston, whose name is not made known, Harvard University is to have another department added to its medical school, that of comparative pathology. The benefactor advances the sum of a hundred thousand dollars for the endowment of the wing.

-FROM the last report of McMaster University, Toronto, we learn that the enrolment for last year showed thirty-four students in the theology department, arts one hundred; Woodstock, a hundred and thirty-seven; Moulton, a hundred and thirty-four, making a total of four hundred and five, an increase over last year of forty-one.

-THE Ontario normal schools, remarks the Journal of Education, London, England, seem to be prosperous institutions. The account of his procedure given by the principal of that at Toronto will serve to show that all is in order here. After the students have observed the teaching in all classes in the model school and the general work in the kindergarten, they are prepared to begin to teach under the directions of the teachers in charge of the different divisions. But observation does not cease. During the whole session, every time the students teach in the model school, they observe a lesson taught by the teacher in charge of the division. And, in addition to this, once during the session each teacher in the model school brings his or her class into the normal school and gives a model lesson before the whole of the students. While great stress is laid on the observation of the methods of competent teachers, every care is taken to prevent more imitation, for it is surprising how bad a teacher's work may be when imitating a good method. We commend the last sentence to the attention of our readers. To our regret we cannot find that there is any establishment especially devoted to the training of teachers for higher schools. In the department of pedagogy in the University of Toronto only four candidates were examined.

-A TIME of prosperity seems to have arrived in the history of Stanford University. After three years' litigation over the estate of the late Senator Stanford, Mrs. Stanford has at last been able to pay the bequest of $2,500,000 which the senator left to Leland Stanford, Jr., University. The bonds transferred to the university draw interest at the rate of $10,000 a month.

-IN his last annual report, Dr. W. T. Harris, the United States Commissioner of Education, shows that nearly a quarter of the entire population-an aggregate of fifteen million pupils-is enrolled in schools and colleges. There are 235,000 school-houses, valued at nearly $4,000,000,000; 260,000 female teachers were employed, as against 122,000 male teachers; school expenditures during the year amounted to $163,000,000.

-IT is stated that the total amount given to churches, schools, colleges, libraries, and other public charities in America, during 1894, was $19,967,116, and that in 1895, this was increased to $28,943,549.

-ONE of our exchanges gives us to understand that Columbia College is making a new departure. After this year a knowledge of Greek will not be required for entrance to the college nor for the degree of bachelor of arts. We cannot vouch for the truth of this report.

Literature, Historical Notes, &c.

A PEN SKETCH OF THE IDEAL WOMAN
TEACHER.

BY MARGARET W. SUTHERLAND.

A certain club sent me at one time a request for a description of the ideal teacher, to be given in about three hundred words. It occurs to me that some of my reader friends may care to know what I wrote in answer to the request. It was as follows:-Thinking that others may describe for you the ideal man teacher, I shall attempt the ideal woman teacher, although it is as difficult to describe her in words as it is in a photograph to do justice to a woman whose chief beauty is in her expression. In the first place, every characteristic of noble womanhood is hers, since we teach as much by what we are as by what we do. Good health, good common sense, tact, winning manner, a

good voice, and a strong, sweet character, are the first qualifications of a teacher. All else, all that does not belong to true womanhood, is the professional side of the ideal. Without the professional characteristics she may be an ideal woman; she cannot be an ideal teacher. She must have scholarship,-not necessarily the broad and deep knowledge of the savant, but that knowledge which comes from education in a good secondary school followed by careful study of every subject to be taught, in its connection with other subjects; a knowledge of what are the best books and a loving interest in them; a wide-awake interest in current events; a knowledge of psychology, derived from the study of boys and girls and supplemented by the observations of wiser thinkers than herself, found in standard works on the subject; a knowledge of what the best men and women of her profession in the past have thought and done, and what the leaders of present times are thinking and doing in the cause of education. If she has a truly professional spirit, she will wish to meet with fellowworkers in local, county, district and state associations, both to receive and give.

She must have a well-disciplined mind gaining all the time in power to acquire fresh knowledge, to assimilate it and wisely use it, thinking more keenly and feeling more warmly as the years go by. From wise observation of the effects of her work which she has based on her knowledge of the principles governing the development of soul, she must constantly increase in skill in teaching, becoming, indeed, an artist instead of remaining an artisan. She ought to have an eminent degree what Pestalozzi calls a "thinking love" for children.

To the stimulation which ever comes from an earnest soul, should be joined the stimulation of the "word fitly spoken."

"With halting, without rest,

Lifting Better up to Best:

Planting seeds of knowledge pure

Through earth to ripen, through heaven endure."

THE ISLE OF CUBA.

England and Australia are the only islands that exceed Cuba in natural resources, and the former would not be an exception if it were not for the riches of her prodigious de