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and the Angel," and "Evelyn Hope," have not been difficult for the first year pupil to understand. In "The Lost Leader," there is allegory, allusion, none of the narrative and little of the descriptive quality. Before trying to interpret the poem, the pupil should understand the situation and the allusions thoroughly. A teacher who starts with the supposition that a first year pupil has a very slight knowledge of English literature has fewer shocks and more pleasant surprises. than she who takes an opposite standpoint. We may suppose the pupil to be somewhat familiar with Shakespere through modern dramatic interpretation, with Burns through his lyrics read in the grades, and with Shelley and Milton not at all. It is no slight task to show the pupil the connection of each one of these poets with the Radical cause. Some pupil, supplemented by the teacher, may add to the recitation an account of the French Revolution as portrayed in "A Tale of Two Cities." If this book was chosen for reading in the first semester instead of "Ivanhoe," the poem will at once interest the class.

"The Lost Leader" gives the best opportunity yet furnished the first year pupil for a wider glimpse into the methods of studying poetry. It is more abstract than what he has previously read; he must discover what every word means, and to what it refers, in order to understand the poem thoroughly. He must learn why the lost leader deserted the cause, why Shakespere, Milton, Burns and Shelley, though not all Wordsworth's contemporaries, yet served the same cause, and finally, why Browning does not wish to have the lost leader return. It is easy to tell the pupil the answers to these questions, and hard but very satisfactory, to cause him to think them out for himself.

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One Word More" should be studied last, for it is the longest and most difficult of the selections. One child brought to class, in connection with the study of this poem, a book which she had made for some exhibition in the eighth grade, containing a life of Raphael, and pictures of himself and his greatest paintings. Every pupil recognized the Sistine Madonna, though its name and Raphael's had been unfamiliar to most of them. In the same way Guido Reni's Aurora and one of the numerous likenesses of Dante help to show the pupil the connection of the poem with the outside world. For it is difficult to arouse interest in anything entirely foreign to the child's mind.

After the student understands that this is the crowning poem of fifty which are dedicated to Browning's wife, who was also a poet, and after he knows the meaning of the allusions, he may be asked to select the lines which embody the meaning of the entire poem. If he has learned to whom Raphael the painter wrote sonnets, and why the poet Dante painted a picture for Beatrice, he is apt to select the lines:

"God be thanked, the meanest of his creatures Boast two soul-sides, one to face the world with, One to show a woman when he loves her."

He should commit them to memory to serve as a key to the remainder of the poem.

It is not a matter for surprise that the lines which describe the moonlight slanting through the cypress trees should be chosen by the class as the most beautiful in the poem, but when several first year students select lines like the following as their favorite passages, and explain the reasons for their choice, a great satisfaction after a hard struggle is apt to come to the instructor:

"But the best is when I glide from out them, Cross a step or two of dubious twilight."

A Normal School Problem

WALTER J. KENYON, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, SAN FRANCISCO

F any high school principal will test

his outgoing senior class on the rudiments of geography he will be dumbfounded, dismayed and finally amused, at the outcome. He will find intelligent young men and women who say in perfect seriousness that "the Mississippi river flows into Lake Superior and thence into Hudson Bay;" that "New York City is about four hundred miles inland and its people are engaged in raising horses;" that "Wall street is a long street in Texas where the stocks are congregated, and where bulls and bears abound;" that "sand dunes travel about sixty miles an hour."* I will not prolong the list. In the Popular Educator of January, 1905, may be found a bouquet of typical cases, circumstantially set forth..

"From California?" No, not all of them. Some of these notes were made in New England, others in Chicago. All of them relate to graduates of a twelve years' attendance upon the American public school. Many of these graduates can conjugate French verbs, but they cannot show you Paris, within six hundred miles of its place, on a blank map.

It is apparent, in passing, that students visualizing the map as vaguely as is here indicated are in no condition to get the best good out of their history, literature and descriptive geography courses, nor out of the thought exchanges of daily living. The public school graduate who discourses freely on synclines and anticlines, without being able to show you New York or London on the map, has somewhere jumped a cog in his preparation for life.

*The statement of a university freshman in entrance examination.

Without attempting at present to locate the cause of this condition let us consider what there may be in the way of remedy. The normal schools of the country are compelled to receive this product and, to a great extent, make it over, so far as the elements of formal knowledge are concerned, before it is even the raw stuff out of which teachers can be made.

Apparently the most direct remedy is to gather up the substance of this formal knowledge, in its bare essentials, and require of the entering student that he shall be definitely possessed of it. The test must take the form of an examination, but it should differ from the ordinary examination in two respects: Since the knowledge-fund stipulated is entirely definite in its extent, there is no objection to acquainting the applicant beforehand. with the questions he is to answer. On the other hand his attainment in the test must be 100 per cent.

We are now putting this plan into execution with each entering class, and the results assure us that our student teachers approach their practice work tolerably sound in those fundamentals of formal knowledge which constitute an indispensable basis for elementary teaching. They may know more but they must not know less. The entering test in formal geography is here appended. The entering student is given free access to these questions for thirty days preceding the test, and she is required to attain virtually 100 per cent. Tests similar in character are given in the formal side of the other fundamental subjects.

In compiling this formal geography test

the question arises as to just what constitutes the essentials of the subject. The reasonable conclusion would seem to be that there is included all of the map knowledge (and no more) that passes as coin current among people of sound intelligence and average culture. Applying this simple test to each item (each map location), it is not a difficult matter to determine, with virtual certainty, the essential body of knowledge in this subject. The procedure is indeed principally a sifting of the material which the older textbooks deemed worth while. Capes, for example: There are only two people in the world (the sailor and the school teacher) who can name or locate the array of capes-Bon, Blanco and the restthat fringe the textbook continent. The banker, lawyer, physician, merchant or author knows of only three,* or possibly four, if Hatteras be added.

Thus the basis is established for compiling the test. The teacher should know and should be able to teach those elements of general information which are the common property of the reasonably cultured stratum of society. And we think that no test in the formal subjects. should either fall short of this limit or go beyond it.

Entrance Tests.-Formal Geography.

The questions are so phrased as to provide a test also in geographical spelling. The World.

1. Sketch two circles, not less than four inches in diameter. Fill these in with the continental outlines so as to represent the two hemispheres. Under each hemisphere print its name.

Add to the diagrams the following features, and beside each print its name: Equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Arctic Circle, Antarctic Circle, North Pole, South Pole.

Capes Cod, Horn and Good Hope.

2. Define or explain (a) latitude, (b) longitude, (c) the mercator map.

3. Explain why the Arctic lands, such as Greenland and Alaska, vary in proportions on different maps. North America.

4. On an outline map of North America (furnished herewith) print the names, in their appropriate places, of

The principal seven surrounding bodies of water.

The most important group of islands, and also three large islands exclusive of this group.

The main four islands, individually, of the West Indies group.

The five political divisions shown. The following cities (in addition to the name place a dot to show the exact location in each case):

Washington, Montreal, Mexico, Havana, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco.

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Six main rivers and two important. tributaries.

The Great Lakes, individually.

Pike's Peak, Mt. Shasta, Great Salt Lake, Hawaiian Islands. South America.

5. On an outline map of South America (furnished herewith) print the names, in their appropriate places, of

The four surrounding bodies of water. The most important isthmus, strait, cape, lake and island.

Three plateaus and the principal mountain system.

The chief three rivers.

The selvas, llanos and pampas. The political divisions, as shown. The cities of Buenos Ayres, Rio Janeiro, Santiago, Panama.

In each case place a dot beside the name, to mark location.

Europe.

6. On an outline map of Europe (furnished herewith) print the names, in their appropriate places, of

Two oceans, seven seas, three straits, one channel, two islands (exclusive of British Isles).

Eight rivers, seven mountain ranges, two peaks.

The political divisions, as shown, including the separate divisions of the British Isles.

Three marine areas and two political divisions bounding the U. S.

Two plateaus, two great lowlands and three great mountain systems.

Seven of the most important main rivers and two tributaries.

The five Great Lakes, individually. Capes Cod and Hatteras, Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay, Great Salt Lake, Niagara Falls, Pike's Peak.

10. On a second outline of the United States (furnished herewith) print the names, in their appropriate places, of

The states and territories, as shown. The cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Charleston, New Orleans, Galveston, St. Louis, Chicago,

The capital of each, including those of Ireland and Scotland, but omitting those of the Balkan States. In each case place a dot beside the name, marking location. Also these cities: Hamburg, Liverpool, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburg, MinneapoNaples, Venice, Moscow. lis, Kansas City, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle.

Asia.

7. On an outline map of Asia (furnished herewith) print the names, in their appropriate places, of

Three oceans, eight seas, one bay, one gulf, two straits, one isthmus, five single islands and two groups.

Ten rivers, one mountain range, one peak, two plateaus, one desert.

The political divisions, as shown. The following cities: Peking, Tokio, Manila, Calcutta, Bombay, Mecca, Jerusalem. Africa.

8. On an outline map of Africa (furnished herewith) print the names, in their appropriate places, of

Three oceans, two seas, one gulf, one strait, one isthmus, one cape, one island, one group of islands, one canal.

Five rivers, four lakes, one desert, one range, one peak, one plateau.

The political divisions as shown. The cities of Cairo, Alexandria, Cape Town, Pretoria.

United States.

9. On an outline map of the United States (furnished herewith) print the names, in their appropriate places, of

California. (A suggestion for questions on other states.)

II. On an outline map of California (furnished herewith) print the names, in their appropriate places, of

The land and water boundaries of the state; also one important strait and the chief three bays.

Six rivers, three lakes, two mountain. systems, three peaks.

Yosemite Valley, Mohave Mohave Desert, Santa Catalina Island, the Farallones.

Cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose, Fresno, Stockton, San Diego, Santa Barbara.

12. On a second outline of California (furnished herewith) print the name of each county, in its appropriate place. Australia.

13. On an outline map of Australasia (furnished herewith) print the names, in their appropriate places, of

Three oceans, nine single islands and groups, Barrier Reef.

One river, one tributary.

The cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Wellington.

Science in the Grammar School

EDWARD B. HORTON, BINGHAMTON, N. Y.

WE live in a scientific civilization. The deductive reasonings, to arrive at certain

productive power of the laborer has been marvelously increased during the past four decades through the invention and use of labor-saving machines. These changed conditions create a demand for a scientifically educated class of laborers. While it cannot be maintained that it is, the province of the schools to provide courses of instruction and training that shall equip the learner for a given trade or line of work, it may safely be argued that the instruction given in the schools should be in harmony with prevalent outside conditions and demands. Upon this subject, Dr. Harris, U. S. Commissioner of Education, says: "In view of the influence of science on our civilization, it would seem important to introduce the pupils of our elementary schools to the results and methods of science as early as possible." It therefore follows naturally that the pupil is entitled to such a training as will inculcate a habit of scientific observation. His range will not be that of an adult, and his deductions may at times be erroneous; but if his habits of thought and investigation are in accord with the demands that will be made upon him by life in later years, his way is made easier to join the workers whose services are in demand.

Science study differs from other educational discipline, and bears a close parallelism to the problems of common life. In these latter, the conditions are these: Certain matters of fact are presented for our consideration. These we must accurately observe and comprehend. Having done this, we proceed, by inductive and

conclusions, and so decide upon lines of action. These reasonings are similar in their nature to those constantly employed in science, whether applied in botany to the analysis of a flower, in geology to the classification of a rock, in chemistry to the determining of an element, or in physics to the discovery of some natural law. In one case, as in the other, whatever we assume as true is assumed at our own risk; and the conclusion reached is right or wrong, according to the scope and correctness of our observation and the accuracy of our reasoning.

While we can not give training in the public schools for a special trade or profession, many of the truths taught by means of lessons in elementary science remain with the pupil through life and have a direct and controlling influence on his opinions and management. The boy who has learned in school of the oxidizing of iron and the wear of the elements on paint and wood, if a roadmaster in after years, will not be apt to waste a four hundred dollar road machine by storing it in the open air by the side of the road from one spring to the next, throwing away the money of those who paid taxes for its purchase; while the girl who learned at school some very simple facts concerning the effects of heat and light in promoting chemical action, will see to it, after she becomes a housekeeper, that her canned fruit is kept where there is the least possible chance for fermentation. In a similar way, knowledge of the principles of heating, lighting and ventilation; of sanitary conditions, such as dampness, drain

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