Songs, Part II, by Eleanor Smith; "Pit-a-Pat," from Songs of the Child World, Part I, by Jessie Gaynor.

Watch the clouds to see if the wind is blowing them. Choose one child to show how fast or how slowly the clouds are moving. Ask if they are making any noise as they move, and insist upon very quiet movement. Suggest that the eyes be covered with the arms, so that everything will seem dark as the clouds make it seem. Choose one child at a time, giving all who ask a chance to show, and then "magically" change them all into "plump little baby clouds, dimpled and soft," and play and sing softly as they creep softly around the room. Try this a number of times, until the children get into the spirit of it. Next play "Pit-a-pat," and let them lower their arms and run in time to the music, pattering their feet to represent the pattering of the rain. Play slowly and softly, then more rapidly, and still more rapidly and louder, asking that they follow the lead of the piano. Suddenly the music will stop, indicating that the shower is over, beginning again and stopping at intervals. (An excellent opportunity is thus afforded for alert attention and instantaneous obedience.) If there is a thunderstorm, the arms may be thrown away from the eyes and back again to indicate lightning, and the feet make a noise to represent thunder.

Over and over again this may be played with the deepest interest on the part of the children-just so long as the teacher is herself interested and will insist upon absolute obedience to the piano's dictates.

GAME II

GAME OF THE FIRE FAIRIES

Dramatizing a story: Tell the story of "Ted and the Fire Fairies," Course of Study, January, 1901.

Ask the children to watch a fire burn, noticing how it dances and plays around a piece of paper that it devours. Call the flames "the fire-fairies," and ask who could show with his arms the way they dance. Gradually the children will develop a movement with their arms, darting them up and down slowly and rapidly, as the music will suggest. (The "Fire Music" from Siegfried is the best, but any staccato music may be used

by adapting the tempo to the darting movement of the flames. Beginning with a slight movement of the arms upward, with the hand held straight, and increasing in rapidity, the children may rise gradually to their feet, and with arms still darting upward may very realistically represent the "fire-fairies," as they softly dance up and down on their toes. As the "fuel" gives out, the children may gradually sink to the floor, and finally drop entirely down, pushing out a tiny flame occasionally, as one sees in a dying fire. Several children may group themselves on the floor to represent a heap of coals. One child may clap his hands to represent the striking of a match, and a fire will thus be started. Another child may play that he is a log of wood, and be started in the same way. The fairy-ring may also be started as told of in the story.

A fireplace may be made of several chairs, and someone may play grandmother sitting near the fireplace knitting. (A child in the fireplace represents the fire.) Ted comes in at the door shivering as he plays that he takes off his wraps and lies down in front of the fire to get warm. He asks his grandmother what becomes of the flames as they go up the chimney, and she replies that she thinks they go back to the palace of the fire-king. Ted goes off to sleep, the fairy jumps out of the fire, takes him by the hand, and leads him through the land of the fire-fairies, showing him the fairy-ring, red-hot stove, log of wood, etc. He then takes him to the palace of the fire-king; and the play thus progresses as the story winds along, until Ted is brought back by the fairy and is wakened by the dinner bell and his grandmother's voice.

Naturally this subject must be handled most carefully. The story and play emphasize constantly that little children must let fire alone. Ted was sent for because he played with the fire. It may be made a very helpful or a most harmful thing, and is given to show that a doubtful subject may be handled in such a way as to benefit rather than harm little children. Most children are brought in contact with fire every day, and learning how to let it alone seems to me to be a very important lesson.

THE MACDONALD CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL, AT

GUELPH, ONTARIO

J. W. HOTSON, M.A.
Principal

There is nothing, it seems to me, that is of more vital importance in molding the destiny of a nation than its method of education in its rural districts. This is markedly true in the case of Ontario, where the majority of the population depends directly upon the soil for their livelihood. If education means anything, it should mean a preparation for real life; it should prepare men and women better to live, better to live among the surroundings in which they find themselves, better to battle with the problems of life that meet them on every side, so that they may become more and more part of their environment, and thus become contented and useful citizens. In order to be contented with their lot, humble though that lot may be, they must be interested in it. As a rule, a person is most interested in the things that he knows the most about. It is one of the chief aims of the Macdonald Consolidated School at Guelphand it should be of all rural schools-to engender such an interest and love for country life that the boys and girls will not be lured away by the attractions of the city.

I have great faith in the rural school, in its power to mold and build up a national character; but new educational methods must be used in order to secure the best results. In order to compete with our rivals in the world's markets, in order to equalize the advantages of country and city life, in order to make our country life attractive enough to keep our bright boys and girls on the farm, and thus maintain an intelligent, prosperous, progressive, and contented rural people, we must give immediate and effective attention to the needs of the rural school. A consolidated school makes it possible so to modify

the curriculum that the development of the child is the ultimate aim, and not the cramming of the mind with mere facts.

In the Consolidated School at Guelph an attempt is being made "to adapt education to need." All the children who attend this school are country children; none from the city are accepted. The teachers are reminded, first, that they are dealing solely with rural children; second, that the majority of these children are going to spend their lives on the farm. Keeping these two facts in mind, an effort is made to adapt the teaching and what is taught to the special needs of the rural people.

The improvement of rural education is attempted along a line of what is taught. Besides the regular subjects, that are usually taught in the rural school, there are taught manual training, domestic science including sewing, nature-study, and school garden work. That phase of nature-study is emphasized that tends toward agriculture.

In Canada the greatest industry is essentially agriculture. Nearly 70 per cent. of its population live in rural districts and are dependent directly upon the farm for a livelihood, and their children are being educated in the rural school. There are about 10 per cent. of the population who are educated for the so-called "higher professions." Of these the greatest number come from the farm. When we reflect for a moment on the amount of money that is expended in the preparation of this 10 per cent. for their life-work, we cannot help but feel disappointed, not that so much money is spent in their education, but that so little is expended in the preparation of the 70 per cent. who live in rural districts, to carry on scientifically and well the greatest of all industries-the cultivation of the soil.

In Ontario, as in many states of the Union, the educational system does not tend to produce the best results in the lives of the boys and girls of the country. The whole system tends to lead toward professional life rather than toward the farm. City things are being taught rather than country things. The farm and the farm home have been neglected; the greatest industry, farming, and the noblest institution, the farm home, have been discredited; and consequently the rural districts are being

The present

drained of their best young men and women. system of education does not prepare the rural children sufficiently for the life they are to live.

It is a mistaken idea that some people have that anyone can be a successful farmer. To be a successful farmer-that is, to make a profession of it—requires as much systematic training and careful experience as any other profession. The cause of so many failures in farm life is largely due to lack of early training along a line that would prepare them for this kind of work. Who is responsible for this lack of early training? If the rural people are to be so strong a factor in molding the character and destiny of the nation, does it not behoove every truly loyal citizen, whether he lives in a palatial dwelling or in the humblest cot in the land, to guard well the education of the rising generation?

Many of our rural people live in very humble circumstances. In many cases it is impossible for them ever to get away from these conditions. Why not lead them into a more sympathetic relation to their daily life by getting them interested in the numberless things around them in nature, and thus tend to make them more contented and better citizens?

It is one of the objects of the Macdonald Consolidated Rural School to teach the common things with which the child comes in contact every day, and in this way to lead him into a more sympathetic relation to his environment.

The Macdonald Consolidated School at Guelph is an experiment for the purpose of trying to improve rural education. It was established in the autumn of 1904, and is financed by Sir William Macdonald, of Montreal.

As Sir William's time is largely taken up with his business, the preliminary arrangements and inauguration of the enterprise were intrusted to Professor J. W. Robertson, LL.D., C.M.G., president of the Macdonald College of Agriculture at Ste. Anne de Bellevue, near Montreal. This school is situated on the grounds of the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, Ont., and is capable of holding 300 pupils. It is well furnished and equipped. To this school are brought all the children of