definite plan for the reorganization of the school commissioner system. Our interest in this report lies chiefly in the method of election, term of office, qualifications and salary, and therefore we quote only the sections bearing on those topics: On the third Tuesday in August, 1908, and on the same day and month of every fifth year thereafter the Trustee or Trustees from every common school district and the members of the board of education from every union free school district of the supervisory district shall meet at a place in said district_designated by the county clerk and vote by ballot for a district superintendent of schools. In the election of said district superintendent each common school district employing three or more teachers, and each union free school district shall have three votes, and every other district one vote. The candidate receiving a majority of the votes cast at such meeting shall be declared elected. A certified copy of the minutes of the meeting shall be filed with the county clerk, who shall notify the successful candidate of his election. Every person elected to the office of district superintendent of schools must take the oath of office prescribed by the constitution. The term of office of district superintendent of schools shall begin the first day of January next after his election, and shall be for five years and until his successor shall be elected. City and village superintendents of schools, school commissioners and high school principals of the state, and such other persons whose qualifications may be approved by the state commissioner of education, shall be eligible to the office of district superintendent of schools. No person shall be ineligible on account of sex. The district superintendent of schools shall receive an annual salary of twelve hundred dollars, payable monthly by the commissioner of education, from the appropriation for that purpose, and not less than three hundred dollars additional from the county, the same to be paid in quarterly installments by the county treasurer, and levied and assessed by the board of supervisors upon the towns composing such supervisory district. But the supervisors of any supervisory district may by resolution increase the additional amount, and their action shall be made effective by the board of supervisors. The state commissioner of education shall annually audit and allow the actual sworn expense incurred by the district superintendents of the state in performance of their duties, but such annual expense shall not be allowed in excess of three hundred dollars. The work of the committee, in general, is to be commended. Their plan appears to be an elaboration of the ideas embodied in that of the Principals' Legislative Council, differing in only two particulars, but in those decidedly. We prefer the eligibility clause in the paper of Mr. Carris to the elastic proposition offered by the commissioners. The qualifications should be stated definitely, and those suggested by Mr. Carris may well be taken as the minimum. To grant the commissioner of education power to approve the qualifications of persons announcing themselves as candidates would be ridiculous. We take it that the thing greatly to be desired in any system that may be considered, is to get the office out of politics. Neither plan offers a solution, and the one reported by the commissioners is worse than the present method of election, because it is more complicated and creates an unnecessary expense. On business principles alone the plan is not feasible. How many trustees will care to take a day off to journey to some place designated by a county clerk solely for the purpose of voting for a county superintendent? The selection might better be given to the board of supervisors, the members of which would be just as competent as school trustees to vote on such a question. But that shift would not eliminate politics. We propose that the office be placed under the State Civil Service, and that examinations be held in every commissioner district to secure an eligible list; the appointment to be made by the county judge from the three candidates of highest standing. The tenure of office would then be secure; the rules of the civil service fully safeguarding the officer and office. The appointing power may well be vested in the county judge, as he is in many respects the county. executive, and because the judiciary is the farthest removed from politics. Under this system the present commissioners who possess the minimum qualifications and have served with credit would have some advantage over other candidates. In fact, discrimination might be made in favor of the present incumbents, provided they were among the three candidates of highest standing. Certainly the details of the appointment could be arranged to their entire satisfaction under the plan here outlined, so that all aspirants for the position would receive a square deal. * Schoolroom Ideals No SMALL part of a teacher's work is the inculcation of ideals of the right sort in the minds of his pupils. The pupils come to the teacher with all kinds of views of life and duty. Some are selfish, some are proud, some are hateful; others are generous, kind and loving; some are careless and lazy, others are thoughtful and ambitious. The teacher must take them all and make them a working community, must give them all the same treatment and the same ideas, and must displace their low views with higher and nobler ones. Without any attempt to moralize or dogmatize the strong teacher will find it easy to instil ideals that will be of the greatest service in building up the character of his pupils. The ideal of discipline will come first. All pupils have more respect for order than for disorder, but, left to themselves, are seldom in order. They lack selfhood, the mastery of themselves, and cannot restrain their lower propensities. The teacher will arouse a community feeling among them, will make the sentiment for good order a common one throughout the room. This class feeling, when once aroused, becomes a powerful inspiration on the one hand and a powerful restraint on the other. The child finds it easy to do what his companions expect of him and hard to do what they disapprove. Under skillful management the class will gradually attain selfhood and will recognize it as the ideal of discipline. Then the happy teacher will need to think no more of order, but will be free to lead and instruct. The ideal of work is closely related to that of discipline, but is more positive and far reaching. The best work springs from two motives-that of desiring to accomplish something for self and that of desiring to accomplish something for others. When the two motives are brought together, as they may be by pupils under proper guidance, the ideal of work-that of diligently working with others for the good of all-may be attained. The teacher, in order to reach this ideal with her class, must appeal to every legitimate interest and secure the full approval of the class at every step. When the ideal of work has become a living inspiration in a class, teaching becomes a joy, and the higher ideals of justice, faith and good will may be approached with confidence. Gently, almost unconsciously, the strong, noble personality of the teacher will raise the standards of the class until every member will scorn to do an act of injustice or of ill will. If the influence continues until the ideals become firmly fixed in the minds of the pupils the spirit of the school will reach the home, and a great moral uplift will be given the community. Studies in English Masterpieces ELMER JAMES BAILEY, ITHACA, N. Y. Browning's Poems I. CAVALIER TUNES. 1. Review briefly the condition of the English government from 1642 to 1646. 2. What is the meaning of the words Cavalier, cropheaded, loyalist, roundhead, as political terms? 3. Who, according to the supposed singer of these songs, are the honest folks; and who, the rogues? 4. Give brief historic and biographical notes on the following proper names: King Charles, Pym, Hampden, Hazelrig, Fiennes, Young Harry, Rupert, Noll. 5. Locate Kent and Nottingham and give their historic significance as here used. 6. Discover the meaning of the words, pressing, fifty-score, carles, parles, pasty, obsequies, rouse, quaff, gallants, lay, roebuck, array, fay. 669 7. What is the grammatical construction of em," and "parles (line 8) and what is the meaning of line 16? 8. In "Boots and Saddle" what is the subject of the verb "brightens" (3) and what is the subject and what the object of "flouts" (10) ? 9. Explain the use of the quotation marks in the last stanza of these three poems. 10. Assuming that one person sings all these songs, show why we may conclude that they all sung before a crowd, but that the first shows the singer as the leader of a troup, the second as a father, the third as a husband. II. Discuss the singer's loyalty to his king. IV. GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT. 26. What was the "Pacification of Ghent" of which this poem is supposed to Le an incident? 27. Locate the various towns mentioned as being upon the road from Ghent to Aix-la-Chapelle. 28. Define the following words, 'postern, girths, pique, holster, jack-boots, peer, burgesses." 29. Retell the story in accordance with the following outline: I. From midnight to dawn. 2. Roland and his rider. (7-12.) II. The early morning. I. Ronald's intelligence. (19-30.). III. The two companions. 1. Joris and his friend. (37-43.) 2. The roan's death. (43-44.) IV. The trustworthy Ronald. 1. His responsibility. (45-48.) 3. His reward. (55-60.) V. INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP. 30. Locate Ratisbone and describe the siege which took place there. 31. Who were Napoleon and Lannes; and what were some of the chief battles in which the latter was Marshal? 32. What is the meaning of the words, "prone, battery-smoke, flag-bird, vans, eaglet?" 33. Show how the idea of the eagle is constantly kept before the reader's mind. Show why in reading this poem aloud, the sense would be obscured, if a pause should be made after every line. 34. II. Pheidippides' story. 1. The journey to Sparta. (1.) The race. (9-16.) salutation. (25-39.) (2.) The message. (17-24.) (3.) The attitude of Sparta. 2. The return to Athens. (1.) The indignant runner. (40-51.) (2.) The experience in Parnes. a. The rugged mountains. (52-64.) b. The God Pan. (a.) The faithful duty. (65-75.) III. The expected reward. (89-104.) 1. The last race. (105-112.) 2. The reward interpreted. (113-120.) 38. What is the meaning of the Greek words at the head of this poem. 39. How much of the story is historical, and what additions have been made by Browning? 40. Give brief notes to the following mythological terms, "Zeus the defender, Her of the aegis and spear, Ye of the bow and buskin, Pan, Phoibus, Artemis, Olumpos, Erebos." 41. Give notes on the following geographical terms, "Athens, Persia, Sparta, Eretria, Hellas, Parnes, Marathon, Akropolis. 42. Give an historical survey of the struggle between Greece and Persia in 490 B.C. 43. Explain the following words: daemons, patron, aegis, buskin, peer, potent, patron, archons, tettrix, filleted victim, libation, fosse, greaved-thigh, guerdon, meed." 44. Give a biographical note on Miltiades. 45. Make a list of the plants mentioned in the poem, and point out the significance of their being mentioned. 47. Give the causes and events which led up to the battle of La Hogue, and show the important results of that struggle. 48. Locate St. Malo, La Hogue, the Rance, Plymouth Scund, the Grève, Solidor, Croisic Point. 49. Give biographical notes on Damfreville and Tourville. 50. Define the foliowing words as used in the poem: "porpoises, shoal (1. 4), squadron, starboard, port, pressed, shoal (1. 47), soundings, offing, disembogues, rake, rampired, wrack.' 51. What is the force of the words, Breton, Croisickese, Malouins, Malo Roads, Louvre. 52. Explain the expressions, "the blue, bore the bell." 53. Develop the story by expanding the following topics into paragraphs: a. The flight of Damfreville. c. The Breton sailor. d. The reward. 54. Compare Hervé Riel and Pheidippides as men and heroes. 62. Explain the words, "craftsman, stripling, hue, tiring-room, vestments, dight, plied, cell." 63. What is the meaning of the monk's comment, stanzas 6-9? How is his thought enforced by stanzas 12, 20-23, 34-38? 64. What is the meaning of stanzas II, 19, 20, 21, 22, 34? X. ONE WORD MORE. 65. To whom did Browning address this poem, and of what volume was it the dedication? 66. Reproduce the main thoughts of the poem in accordance with the following outline: I. Introduction: The dedication proper. (1-4.) II. The painter turned poet. 1. Raphael's Sonnets and their inspiration. (5-17.) GEOGRAPHY. Questions June 11-15, 1906 I. Tell what is meant by (1) the equator, (2) the relief of a country, (3) a metropolis, (4) a capital. 2. Name three countries in America that are in nearly the same latitude as the Philippine Islands. If Chicago is about 12° north of New Orleans, how far apart are they in miles? 3. Describe the trade winds, touching on the regions where they prevail, the directions in which they blow and their importance to navigation. 4. Give an account of the salt industry in New York State. Name two other states that produce salt extensively. 5. Name two railroads that connect New York city with Buffalo. Describe the route of one of these railroads and name two cities and three villages located on it. 6. Where in the United States is sugar cane extensively grown? Describe a sugar plantation. Mention two sources of sugar other than sugar cane. Mention two groups of islands where sugar is extensively produced. 7. Draw a map of Lake Michigan and indicate by name the position of each of two important cities on it. Name the states bordering on this lake and show on the map the positions of their boundary lines where these lines touch the lake. 8. Give the name and the location of a city or a section of country where each of the following is extensively produced: (1) shoes, (2) wood pulp, (3) watches, (4) linen goods, (5) canned salmon. 9. Give the name and the location of each of five important seaports of Europe. Mention an important export from each of the ports named. |