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THE CHICAGO SCHOOL BOARD, in direct opposition to the recommendation of the Superintendent, has abolished from the schools all work in clay modeling, and is considering a resolution to diminish the funds for drawing, music and physical culture. It has declared its policy to be governed by popular opinion rather than by the mature judgment of those who ought to know the best interests of the schools.

THE inauguration of Dr. M. Woolsey Stryker as President of Hamilton College in February was a red letter day in the history of that institution. No one who knows President Stryker can fail to recognize his peculiar fitness for the position to which he has been called. He is an alumnus of the college, and is thoroughly imbued with its spirit and traditions.

After his graduation he entered the ministry, where his universally recognized ability opened up for him at once a brilliant career. When called to his present position, he was pastor of one of the largest Presbyterian Churches in Chicago. Those who know the circumstances can appreciate the spirit that led him to leave a field, where almost any charge he might desire was at his command, for a position of greater, labor and untried duties, and which pays a salary less than half that which he was receiving. No greater evidence is needed of his confidence in the future of Hamilton College and of the complete devotion of his life to its highest interests. The exercises of the occasion manifested the hearty sympathy and co-operation of those who have the interests of the college at heart. In his address President Stryker showed a keen appreciation of the characteristic work of a college, and set forth in strong and unmistakable terms the peculiar spirit and function of Hamilton. His policy as outlined is to promote the growth of the institution in keeping with its established character. It is not his purpose to make Hamilton a university, but to make it the best possible college.

No. 12.

MAY A CHILD MEMORIZE WHAT HE DOES NOT

UNDERSTAND?

By a natural reaction against the abusive memorizing as practiced in the schools of the Middle Ages, the faculty of memory has unfortunately fallen into very great discredit. The current phrase is about this: "Do not allow the child to commit to memory what he does not thoroughly understand." This is equivalent to saying, "Do not allow the child to memorize." The process of comprehending or elaborating is a lifelong process, and presupposes material entrusted to the memory.

Do you see that ox out there on the clover? He is performing the act of apprehension—that is, he is taking hold of the clover and storing it away in his first stomach, the office of which is to carry this undigested material. This process finished, the ox walks out under the shade of a tree, and there at his leisure, lashing the flies and enjoying the breeze, he reproduces this food-that is, calls it from this carrying stomach back into the mouth. Then begins the process of elaboration or digestion. The clover is now analyzed or disintegrated; it then passes into the circulation, and, passing over the various parts of the body, is assimilated. Through this process of elaboration, the clover has been transformed into bone and muscle and motion. This higher product is evidently the end to be reached; it is equally evident that this product is conditioned on the successive steps which lead to it. But our modern philosopher (?), through his enthusiasm for this higher end, would say, "Do not allow the ox to commit to his carrying stomach what he has not thoroughly digested."

The higher aim in teaching is the formation of mental power, opinion, character. But this product is the result of the elaboration or digestion of mental food. Mental digestion is a reflective process, the mind is turned back upon its own material. This material in its crude form is carried in the mind by what Mr. Bain calls the "portative memory." The child apprehends a bit of knowledge and stores it away in its crude form in this carrying memory. From time to time this knowledge may be recalled or re presented to the mind, as material for elaboration. Through a process of disintegration and assimilation this bit of mental food is transformed into

the higher product which we have called power, opinion, character, etc. But our modern educational philosopher, in his enthusiasm for the final product, loses sight of the necessary steps leading to it, and says, "Do not allow a child to commit to memory what he does not thoroughly understand.'

THE Complete novel in Lippincott's Magazine for April is Columbus in Love, by Geo. Alfred Townsend. Other papers are: What the Publicity Department Did for the Columbian Exposition, William Igleheart; Abraham's Mother, illustrated, Annie Flint; A Description of the Inexpressible, Julian Hawthorne; Sappho, Edgar Saltus; The Religion of 1492, Men of the Day, M. Crofton; With the Wits, illustrated by leading artists.

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS.

ARITHMETIC- QUESTIONS.

Illus

1. Define a multiplication; b numeration; c root. trate each definition by an example. 2. Classify the following fractions as proper or improper, and give reasons for your answers: a;6; c. 3. Find the least number exactly divisible by 20, 48, 80, and 96. 4. a Write in Arabic notation a number containing six units of the sixth order, four of the fourth, two of the second, and one of the first decimal order. Write the number in words. 5. Reduce .096 to a common fraction a whose denominator is 375; b whose numerator is 144. 6. The interest on a certain sum of money at 6 per cent. per annum, for 1 yr. 3 mo. 24 da. is $35.55. Find the sum at interest. 7. Required the ratio of 5 yd. to 7 ft. 6 in. 8. Find the agent's commission of 4 per cent. on a sale of 860 barrels of apples, at $2.75 per barrel, and also the sum remitted to his principal in settlement. 9. Three successive trade discounts of 20 per cent., 15 per cent. and 8 per cent. are equal to what single discount?

ARITHMETIC-ANSWERS.

1. a Multiplication is the process of taking one number as many times as there units in another. b Numeration is the reading of numbers expressed by characters. A root is a factor repeated to produce a power. Examples will differ. 2. a is an improper fraction. Its numerator is greater than than its denominator. bis an improper fraction. Its numerator equals its denominator. cis a proper fraction. Its numeration is less than its denominator. 3. 480. .4. a 604,020.5. b Six hundred four thousand, twenty, five tenths. 36 5. a 38. b 1446. 6. $450. 7. 30: 15-or 2. 8. $94.60, agent's commission. $2,270.40, sum remitted. 9. 37 per cent.

875

GEOGRAPHY-QUESTIONS.

1. Distinguish between a delta of a river and an estuary. 2. a What is the climate of Ireland? Why? 3. a Draw an outline map of New York. b Locate upon this three map cities, one railroad, one lake. 4. Give the route by water from Buffalo to Duluth. Name and locate the largest city of a New York; b Illinois; c Louisiana; d California; e Indiana. 6. a Locate the Aleutian Isles. b State what nation owns them. c What makes them valuable? 7. Name five of the countries of Europe which border on the Mediterranean Sea. 8. What islands between Florida and South America? Name

the largest four in order of size. 9. What noted promontory in the southern part of Spain, and to what government does it belong? 10. a Locate the Yellow Sea. b Name and lo, cate the capital city of Japan.

GEOGRAPHY-ANSWERS.

1. Where a river discharges its waters by several mouths the land embraced by them is called a delta. Where the mouth of a river is broad and very deep it is called an estuary. 2. a Comparatively mild. Owing to the proximity of the b Owing to the proximity of the Gulf Stream. 4. Lake Erie, Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, St. Clair River, Lake Huron, River St. Mary, Lake Superior. 5. a New York, southeastern part. Chicago, northeastern c New Orleans, southern part on part on Lake Michigan. the Mississippi River. d San Francisco, western part on San Francisco Bay. e Indianapolis in the central part. 6. a Southwest of Alaska in the Pacific Ocean. b The United

At this moment, in every part of the American Union, the children are taking up the wondrous tale of the discovery, and from Boston to Galveston, from the little log school-house in the wilderness to the towering academy in the city and the town, may be witnessed the unprecedented spectacle of a powerful nation captured by an army of Lilliputians, of embryo men and women, of toddling boys and girls and tiny elves, scarce big enough to lisp the numbers of the national anthem; scarce strong enough to lift the miniature flags that make of arid street and autumn wood an emblematic garden to gladden the sight and to glorify the red, white and blue.Henry Waterson.

The first seven questions refer to the above selection. Classify the following clauses: a, Children are taking; b, May be witnessed spectacle; c, That make. 2. Select a a verb in the passive voice; b a verb in progressive form. 3. Select two verbal adjectives. 4. Select two infinitives. 5. Give the three modifiers of nation. 6. Give four modifiers of army. 7. Give syntax of, a, spectacle; b, garden. 8. Decline the personal pronoun of the third person masculine gender. 9. Write a sentence containing a verb in the subjunctive mode, present tense. 10. By sentences illustrate the use of a transitive verb having for its object, a, a personal pronounc; b, a relative pronoun.

GRAMMAR-ANSWERS.

1. a, Principal. b, Principal. c, Adjective. 2. a, Are taking. b, May be witnessed. (The participle captured may be given.) 3. Towering, toddling. 4. To lisp, to lift, to gladden, to glorify. 5. Adjective a and powerful; the participle captured. 6. The adjective an, and the phrases of Lilliputians, of men and women, of boys and girls and elves. 7. a, Subject of may be witnessed, nominative case. b, Object of make, objective case. 8. Singular, Nom. he, Poss. his, Obj. him; Plural, Nom. they, Poss. their, Obj. them. 9. Ex. If he live he will return. 10. Ex. Ex. a, He called them. b, He called him whom he wished to see.

AMERICAN HISTORY-QUESTIONS.

1. What discoveries are associated with the following names and dates: a, John Cabot, 1497? b, Balboa, 1513? c, Co. lumbus, 1498? d, De Soto, 1541? 2. What great industry of America has been a source of contention between England and France, from the 16th century to the present time? 3. Tell something of the several mediums of exchange (substitutes of money) used in the colonies. 4. What right did the British Government seek to establish by the Stamp Act and other similar measures? 5. Give an account of the last important battle of the Revolution as to, a, location; b, forces participating; c, to whom the surrender was made; d, effect in England. 6. Name in order of time the Presidents of the United States that were citizens of New York. 7. a, What was the first State that passed an ordinance of secession? b, During the administration of what President? 8. Mention two incidents of the war with the Barbary States.

AMERICAN HISTORY-ANSWERS.

1. a, The mainland of North America. b, The Pacific

Ocean from the Isthmus of Panama. c, South America. d, The Mississippi River. 2. The fisheries off the coast of Newfoundland. 4. The right to tax her American colonies. 5. a, Yorktown in Virginia. b, British troops and fleet under Cornwallis on one side and American and French troops under command of Washington together with French fleet under command of De Grasse on the other side. c, The British troops to the Americans, and their fleet to the French. d, It made the war with America so unpopular in England that a new ministry favorable to peace was chosen. tin Van Buren, 1837; Millard Fillmore succeeding President Taylor, 1850; Chester A. Arthur, succeeding President Garfield, 1881; Grover Cleveland, 1885. 7. a, South Carolina; b, James Buchanan.

6. Mar

THE TEACHERS' INSTITUTE-SOME EXCELLENT HINTS.

The value of an institute depends more on the instructors than on the methods or peculiar form of the institute. A third instructor in a week's institute like a fifth wheel to a wagon unless the institute is divided into sections. Let work and recreation be properly interspersed. Let the members of the classes be drilled each half-day for at least three minutes in proper calisthenic exercise. Let lively, cheery, school and patriotic songs be frequently interspersed. Don't waste time with fuss and feathers and red tape; but let orderly, systematic work characterize the sessions. An institute conductor who is worthy the name will have his institute classified and in running order in the first fifteen minutes of the first day There is no reason why regular work should not begin Monday forenoon of institute week. Commissioners, local committeemen, notify your teachers that regular work will begin Monday forenoon of institute week. Those who don't attend that morning will lose the start. If work does not begin then, if the forenoon is frittered away by tardy opening, organizing, "marking time" please state the fact to the Superintendent of Public Instruction with the reasons why, if there be any. Let every night of institute week till Friday be devoted to something collateral to institute work, e. g., a social with singing, recitations, imbromptu speeches, and general warming up, ice breaking, and visiting. A "round table " discussion-free for all; patrons, teachers, institute workers, etc. Two lectures either on general educational topics or on a popular topics but stay, if instructors can't lecture it is hoped that they won't try; let something else be put in for that evening. Let each day's sessions be closed by a half-hour of review in which the roll should be called and each member asked to state some one point in the instruction given, or asked a question, or offer a suggestion, or state an objection, or recite a memory gem. Keep the institute up to a white heat. Make it popular, by making it helpful, lively, vigorous. There is no necessity of having a dull institute in order to have a successful institute. Live work, cheery work, is not at all incompatible with the very best duality of work-methodical, systematic, scholary. Of course, some will say this smacks of the band-wagon." Don't fear, if we must go to extremes we may as well have too much bandwagon as too much hearse. Each is equally deadly to the institute and the band-wagon death is easier.

There is no need of death, however. An institute like a school requires right principles, good methods, hard work, and enthusiasm. An institute with all the other good qualities and with no enthusiasm is like an engine without steam; an institute with nothing but enthusiasm is like steam without an engine. Put steam in the engine, keep it on the track, throw open the throttle, and let her go.-Moderator.

THIS LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE IT.

Let's oftener talk of noble deeds,

And rarer of the bad ones.
And sing about our happy days,
And not about the sad ones.
We were not made to fret and sigh,
And when grief sleeps to wake it.
Bright happiness is standing by-
This life is what we make it.

Let's find the sunny side of men,
Or be believers in it;

A light there is in every soul

That takes the pains to win it.
Oh! there's a slumbering good in all,
And we perchance may wake it;
Our hands contain the magic wand;
This life is what we make it.

Then here's to those whose loving hearts
Shed light and joy about them!
Thanks be to them for countless gems

We ne'er had known without them.
Oh! this should be a happy world
To all who may partake it;
The fault's our own if it is not-
This life is what we make it.

-Boston Transcript.

A BOY'S COMPOSITION.

In a public school in New England the teacher thought she would give out natural history subjects for compositions. In this way she teaches the pupils American orthography and natural history at the same time. The commonplace subject of Ants" was given to a bright boy who said he knew all about it. This is the result of his offorts:

ANTS.

There is many kinds of Ants My ant Mary Jane is one of these kind. She is genlly good natured and when she comes to see My Mother she brings me five cents worth of peanuts and tells me Why James how you've growed but when I go and see her and don't only just wawlk on the Carpit without Ants like to give you Cleening my boots she is orfly mad.

Advice and scold at you like everything but their Hart is in the Wright Plaice and once I found a Ants nest in the woods I poked it with a stick and a Million Ants run out after me and Crawled up Inside my Pants and Bit me like Sixty. Ants nests are good Thing not to Poke with a stick Ants are very Industryous in Steeling Shugar. I forgot to say that my Ant Martha lives in Main she has a boy of just about my Aige and He can stand on his Hed Five minits and how Do you suppose he can do it. I Do not think Annything more about ants at present.-North Carolina Teacher.

BOOK NOTICES.

Institutes of Education. By S. S. Laurie. Macmillan & Co. This work is not what we would expect from Prof. Laurie, though his best book is badly written. The Institutes of Education is little more than a bare outline of his course of lectures in the University of Edinburgh. To the man of science his definitions, aphorisms and rules are platitudes, while to the unscientific teacher they are too brief to be of any value. The book is designed to be an introduction to psychology and an application of its laws to education. The reader who opens the book for light on psychology will close it with disgust. If he should seek guidance in the application of its principles, he finds such help as this: "(a) Teach nothing that is useless. (b) Connect all that is taught with ordinary and every-day life of the pupil. (c) Call for the reproduction and application of what you teach." The market is now overstocked with such educational literature, which no teacher who values his time can afford to read.

Leading articles in the April number of Scribner's are: An Artist in Japan, by Robert Blum; Unpublished Letters of Carlyle; A New England Farm, by Frank French; The One I Knew the Best of All, a Memory of the Mind of a Child, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, continued; The Restoration House, by Stephen T. Aveling; The Cities that Were Forgotten, by Charles F. Lummis; Anne of Brittany's Chateaux in the Valley of the Loire, by Theodore Andrea Cook; The Arts Relating to Women, and their Exhibition in Paris, by Octave Uzanne; Historic Moments, the Crisis of the Schipka Pass, by Archibald Forbes.

Worthington's Magazine for April is a royal number. Evidently this vigorous young magazine is growing and thriving, since, though exceptionally bright from the start, each number steadily gains in interest, attractiveness and value, and its success in catering to the varied tastes and requirements of the American family at home proves its ability to give val uable points to many an older and more experienced periodical. A. D. Worthington & Co., Hartford, Conn.

A new edition of 5,oco copies of the February Century is now printing. The demand for the magazine this season has been very great. The publishers were for a time entirely out of the January number, and they are now printing this new edition of February which has been for some time out of print. The March edition, which had already been increased, proves still inadequate, and a yet larger supply is in preparation for April. Among the recent attractions in The Century have been Mrs. Burton Harrison's story, "Sweet Bells Out of Tune," Mark Twain's "Million Pound Bank Note," the reply of the Russian Secretary of Legation to George Kennan, Gen. Sherman's Correspondence with his brother, Senator Sherman, the remarkable Reminiscence of Napoleon at Elba, etc. The April number contains an important article on the Trial of the Chicago Anarchists by the Judge who presided.

The principle articles in the Atlantic Monthly for April are: Old Kaskaskia, Part IV., Mary Hartwell Catherwood; Unpublished Correspondence of William Hazlitt; The American

Out of Doors, Gamaliel Bradford, Jr.; My College Days, II., Edward E. Hale; Vittoria Colonna, Harriet Waters Preston and Louise Dodge; Some Pelham-Copley Letters, Paul Leicester Ford; Phillips Brooks, Alex. V. G. Allen; The Country Unexplored, Stuart Sterne; Architecture Among the Poets, Henry Van Brunt; Money as an International Question, E. Benj. Andrews.

Noticeable among the many readable papers in the North American Review for April are: Charges at the World's Fair, by Director General Davis; Brain Surgery, Dr. William A. Hammond; Shipbuilding Here and Abroad, Naval Constructor Hichborn, U. S. N.; How Shall the Pension List Be Revised? The Interior of the Earth, George F. Becker, of the United States Geological Survey; Two English women of America-I. by Lady Grey-Egerton-II. by Lady Sykes; Faults in Our Consular Service, Hon. Robert Adams, Jr., Ex-Minister to Brazil; The Negro as a Mechanic, Hon. Robert Lowry, Ex-Governor of Mississippi; The Financial Situation-I. The Currency and the Democratic Party, Hon. R. P. Bland-II. The Brussels Conference Reviewed, Hon. Charles Foster.

Camille Flammarion in his marvellous story, "Omega, the End of the World," which begins in the April number of The Cosmopolitan magazine, keeps the reader at the highest point of excitement by his vivid description of the alarm and despair excited by the approach of a comet whose collision with the earth had been declared by astronomers inevitable. For scientific statement and sensational effect this characteristic production of French genius, is unique, and the reader who reads this marvellous story-and if he begins it he will certainly finish it—will have assimilated without effort, a compact store of scientific knowledge. In this way, apart from its absorbing interest, this remarkable piece of fiction will have a distinct scientific value.

PUBLISHER'S NOTES.

Two New York publishing houses, Effingham Maynard & Co., recently of 771 Broadway, and Charles E. Merrill & Co., of 52 aud 54 Lafayette Place, have just consolidated, and will hereafter continue the publication of educational, miscellaneous and subscription books in the new building, 43, 45 and 47 East Tenth street, between Broadway and Fifth avenue, New York, under the name of Maynard, Merrill & Co. Messrs. Merrill & Co. contribute to the new firm their well-known System of Penmanship, Collard's Readers, Hailes' Drawingbooks, Merrill's Word and Sentence Book, The Church Hymnary, Lalor's Political Cyclopædia, Jackson's Concise The new firm will Dictionary of Religious Knowledge, etc. succeed Messrs. Merrill & Co. as the authorized American publishers of Mr. Ruskin's Works, including the Brantwood Edition, with Introductions by Prof. Charles Eliot Norton.

Attention is called to the advertisements on pages 2 and 32. Many teachers wish employment for the summer and it is often a question what can be found to do. Read these advertisements and write for fuller particulars.

The Teachers' and Students' Library is one of the most successful books ever issued for the craft judging by the lavish manner in which the publisher, T. S. Denison, of Chicago, advertises the book. The secret of its success lies in the fact that every page is practical and that each book sells others. Published at the low price of $2.50.

THE JOURNAL is issued on the 20th of each month.