years

for the model school diploma will be provided as usual, and will probably be followed by the usual number of students, while the shorter course will be taken by those who now go up for examination before the Central Board without any practice in the art of teaching, and with little knowledge of the principles of education and of the methods of applying them.

No one doubts that the best educational work can be done only when the teachers have been specially trained. In this province, so great is its extent and so scattered is the Protestant population, it has been a question whether some degree of training should be actually demanded from all, or whether the encouragement offered by the high character of the training and education to be had at the Normal School together with the prospect of larger salary, would be sufficient inducement to those who could afford the expense of a residence in the city. The result of optional attendance has been that our city, town and village schools, in which fair salaries are paid, are now taught by Normal School graduates, while in the remote districts there are few who have professional training.

A few weeks ago a prominent man in the western part of the province declared to the writer that the people in his part of the country are willing to pay larger salaries if they can get better qualified teachers, and that they are favorable to compulsory Normal School training. If this is true of the whole province, there will be no trouble in supplying trained teachers. It is expected that the short course will be of great value to the rural schools.

A strain will be imposed upon the staff and upon the finances of the Normal School by the dual nature of the work. It will be cheerfully borne, however, for the general good.

Of course, diplomas granted by the Central Board before attendance at the Normal School is insisted upon by a change of regulations, will remain valid.

-WE HEAR that Principal Dresser, of St. Francis College, Richmond, proposes to hold a summer school during the coming holiday season. His idea is to give instruction in Geology Botany and Drawing, with the addition, perhaps, of one or two other subjects. We hope that the encouragement which is needed to bring about the successful carrying out of Principal Dresser's plan will be extended to

him by all those who may be in a position to benefit by such a summer school.

-THERE is no complaint so common in the educational world, as that concerning the meagre salaries received by common school teachers, and the complaint is not without cause. Speaking of this very matter, the Canadian Magazine says: "Unless the public at once take up the matter of larger salaries for public school teachers, our educational system is going to be seriously deteriorated by the present practice. The idea of a male teacher possessing a second or third class certificate, and being over eighteen years of age, working for $200 or $250 a year! It is dangerous.

"No teacher with such a salary can afford to buy books, or even to wear good clothing. He will thus lose the dignity which is derived from both these sources. He will be reduced to the equal of the farm laborer, who seldom gets less than $200 per year and his board. In fact, comparing the two, the farm laborer is in better circumstances. The teaching profession will simply be a body of men or women always on the look-out for new positions, without ambition of success in their present profession, and without the dignity which should be transmitted to the children under their charge."

It is indeed dangerous, and the public will perhaps realize this before long. We have not cited the above with any intention of making the teacher discontented with his or her lot, except in a legitimate way.

What are the circumstances which have given rise to such a state of affairs? The most evident is that there are teachers ready to accept positions under such conditions. Of course, in the great majority of cases, the teachers who thus accept are in no way to blame. The hard facts of their life may be such that they have no option. But it is possible that there is a large percentage of the number who are doing a serious injury to the profession, which it lies in their power to prevent in great measure. Let the teachers co-operate, for they may rest assured that the municipalities ready to offer the real value of their services are few in number.

In connection with what has just been said about co-operation, we reproduce an appeal to teachers from the Northwest Journal of Education, though we believe its remarks are hardly applicable in this province. Speaking of the "Ethics of the Profession," the Journal says: "Has the

profession of teaching any ethics? This question can hardly be answered other than in the affirmative. And still, when a bright, intellectual teacher is heard to exclaim, I serve notice to those holding good positions that, if they do not find me in possession of their place some of these days, it will be because they manage to keep themselves in,' it is to be feared that the ethics of the profession have gone glimmering as far as some of its members are concerned. To no one more than to the teacher comes the 'new' commandment, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' No teacher can be true to himself or the profession who seeks to displace another. Time enough to work for a position when we know it is vacant or is surely going to become vacant. Close up the ranks. Practise and feel fraternal feeling. Actively manifest to each other sympathy, kindly feelings, good-will. It will hasten the needed solidarity of our profession."

-IT WOULD seem that, like other "fads," the so-called spelling-reform is still extending its influence. Indeed, the movement has now, and evidently has had, unknown to us, for some time, an organ of its own, devoted to the interests of those who cannot master the intricacies of English orthography,-a "Jurnal " published in the beautiful' mother-tongue of the spelling-reformer. We were recently made aware of the fact by the receipt of a copy of the "Jurnal or Orthoepi and Orthografi, publisht Sumwhar in Nu Jurzi." This transcription of the title-as faithful a one as can be accomplished by a Christian printer-gives but a faint idea of the appearance presented by the original text which looks like nothing so much as a mixture of German and the worst of ill-spelled English, set up as it is in characters to be found, we feel sure, in no printingoffice other than that of the "Jurnal ov Orthoepi." The scope of this" Munthli Magazen" devoted to the "Orthoepi and orthografi ov the Inglish langwej as spocen in America," is "Fonic speling, yuonic wurdz, fitnes ov wurdz," and its motto, "The envirunz ov a pepul mold thar langwej." If, indeed, they speak the English language in "America after the manner indicated by a phonetic pronunciation of the contents of the "Jurnal," how far must they have wandered from the speech of their fathers! But, seriously, let us be thankful that this "reform movement has so far confined itself to the "pepul" who

16

THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD.

have conceived the idea of rearing a two-hundred-story, three-thousand-feet-high building. History repeats itself, and it is only appropriate that the new Tower of Babel should have its confusion of tongues! Let us, at least, remain in the lower stories and speak and write English, and let us remember what Archbishop Trench has said, that there is no conceivable method "of so effectually defacing and barbarizing our English tongue, of practically emptying it of all the hoarded wit, wisdom, imagination, and history which it contains, of cutting the vital nerve which connects its present with its past, as the introduction of the scheme of phonetic spelling."

We have been in some measure led to speak of this matter by the report that a Teachers' Association in the Western States has adopted a resolution favouring this spelling reform. In conclusion, we would like to ask the editor of the "Jurnal" whether he has as yet evolved a system of phonetic penmanship, to enable him to write his editorials in his own "langwej"-but perhaps he writes them in English and then translates them.

-How much truth there is in what the Teachers' Institute says about "Lay Suggestions," every teacher whose professional conscience is in active working order and who is really desirous of finding out his own weak points, with a view to strengthening them, will decide for himself. "Clothed," remarks the Institute, "in a little brief authority, the teacher sometimes forgets that he is also subject to authority, that it is the parent who employs him, and the great public who pays him. Crude as the opinions of laymen naturally are as to practical class-room questions, there are very many laymen who are well acquainted with educational principles, who understand children and are qualified to criticise the schools in a general way. Teachers should be less impatient of this criticism. Much of it is highly suggestive, and many of its suggestions are vastly more prac tical than the rut teacher has any conception of-as the out-of-the-rut teacher is daily proving. Hearing that an old maid teacher' had written some advice to mothers, the mother of one child (and that one not very successfully brought up) was heard to say scornfully, What does she know about it?' Read and you will see,' was the quiet reply. Teachers, too, should consider carefully the lay criticisms offered upon their methods and results before

L.

pooh-poohing at them. Teachers are the most touchy people I know,' said a thoughtful teacher the other day. We are so used to criticising that we unconsciously come to think we never must be criticised, and bridle up the instant any one attempts to question our ways or hint at anything better.'"

-WHY do our teachers not take a greater interest in the EDUCATIONAL RECORD, in the way of contributing to its pages? All teachers who are professionally alive must at times have thoughts about their work worth imparting to their fellow-teachers. Why do they not give these thoughts definite shape and pass them on through the pages of the RECORD, which is always prepared to publish what is of general interest to its readers? It cannot be because they have not been asked. And another thing, our correspondence department is seldom overcrowded. Verbum sat sapienti.

Current Events.

-THE new Model School, built by the Lachine Dissentient School Trustees, was formally opened on the 24th January last. Several interesting addresses were delivered on the occasion. The building, which was begun last July and completed in time for the opening of this term, is a handsome brick structure of two stories and a basement. Its cost was nine thousand dollars, and it will accommodate some four hundred pupils within its eight class rooms. The building, which is divided into two parts, one for boys, the other for girls, is provided with separate stairs and separate play-rooms in the basement. Suitable committee rooms have been furnished. The whole structure, which is fifty-five by eighty-five feet, is heated by hot water. The site is well chosen, being on the north side of Sackville street, on a rising ground, a short distance from the river. The principal of Lachine Model School is Mr. E. N. Brown, B.A., who has for assistants, Miss Lancaster and Miss Ellicott.

-AMONG the other municipalities which have recently erected new school buildings, that of Leeds Village deserves mention. The new school-house, a well constructed frame building, with two departments and large, airy rooms, is pleasantly situated in the heart of the village. Mr. John Whyte, ex-M.P.P., the Chairman of the Board of School