John Arbuthnot has charge of the science work in the Janesville high school; Marietta B. Smith is assistant in the Wauwatosa high school; R. B. Dickie will teach in the Sauk City high school; Helen Pray is to teach Latin and German at Marshfield; Renette Jones is assistant at Lancaster; A. D. Tarnutzer has charge of the science work in the Sheboygan high school.

-Reports from county summer schools in various parts of the state indicate a considerable decline in attendance this year. Perhaps the coming of the N. E. A. to Milwaukee this year may have had something to do with this; perhaps the unusually large number of persons applying for positions as teachers, many of whom must of course have suffered disappointment, may have tended to the same result, perhaps zeal for short courses and summer work is declining. We must wait a year or two before we can say what is the meaning of the smaller attendance this summer.

-The Manitowoc Pilot says: "Other papers besides the Pilot, and in other localities, are making unfavorable comment upon the policy which has brought reduced wages to teachers in country schools. Teachers in rural districts were never as well paid as city teachers, though their work is more difficult because more varied and involving more responsibility. The cut in wages because of a surplus of teachers comes just where it is least deserved. The result can easily be predicted. It will be a sudden lowering of the standard of country schools, because the competent teacher cannot compete with the teacher of less ability. The law here is the same as with currency. The baser metal will drive out the better."

-At the state examination held in August at Madison certificates were granted follows:

Unlimited.

as

John N. Foster, Shell Lake, Wis.; Frank Hendry, Waterloo, Wis.; Ernest G. Herrell, New Lisbon, Wis.; C. E. Spicer, Pardeeville, Wis.; Jennie Steinman, Logan, O.

Limited.

Ellen M. Bosworth, Merrill, Wis.; John Dixon, 709 University avenue, Madison, Wis.; Robert Allen Edgar, University Hotel, Madison, Wis.; T. Oscar Edgar, University, Hotel, Madison, Wis.; A. F. Elmgreen, Meggers, Wis.; William James Farrell, Madison, Wis.; Joseph T. Sims, Colby, Wis.; M. C. Spicer, Pardeeville, Wis.; Alevia E. Stiles, Eau Claire, Wis.; William E. Tiffany, Plainfield, Wis.; Charles M. Washburne, Eureka, Wis.

County Superintendents Certificates. Constantine E. Balzer, Mequon, Wis. ; Walter Verity, Appleton, Wis.; George Benson Rhoads, Hartland, Wis.

-Pres. I. C. McNeil, of Superior, treasurer of the N. E. A., reports as follows of the enrolment of members in attendance from Wisconsin: Associate, 1,703; former active, 32; new active, 36; total 1771. The enrolment from Illinois was 723, and from Iowa 522.

-The state superintendent has issued Bulletin of Information No. I, papers read at the forty-fourth annual session of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association last December. It contains the president's address, What authority' should be reposed in a superintendent, by Joshua Stark; How I read The Lady of the Lake with my seventh grade, by Mary Edgar; How to awaken an interest in the reading of the best literature, by Mae E. Schreiber; Some needed changes in the laws governing the certifications of teachers, by Supt. C. H. Nye; What is the true relation of the high school to the university, by Supt. Buel T. Davis; The essentials of manual training, by Frank E. Kendall; Modern methods in physical culture, by J. C. Elsom; A synopsis of the objects and The County Superintendent, His field and his methods of the German art of gymnastics; limitations, by Supt. Kate L. Sabin; Science preparation in the secondary schools, by H. A. Whipple; The admission to colleges and universities on certificate, by Pres. Adams.

PROPOSED CHANGES IN REQUIREMENTS FOR STATE CERTIFICATES.

The board of examiners for teachers' state certificates have made to the state superintendent certain important recommendations for the forthcoming circular relating to examinations. They look to (1) the requirement of laboratory note books in physics, zoology and chemistry; (2) the development of the examination in reading along four distinct lines, grasp of the thought, expression, pronunciation, and kinds of poetry and meters; (3) in Theory and Art of Teaching they recommend Fitch's Lectures, the Report of the Committee of Fifteen on Correlation of Studies, Safford's Mathematical Teaching, and Redway's Teacher's Manual of Geography; (4) in English literature Shakespeare's Macbeth and As You Like It; Macaulay's Essay on Milton; Scott's Woodstock; Burke on Conciliation with America; Irving's Alhambra; Homer's Iliad, Books I, VI, XXII, and XXIV; Milton's L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus and Lycidas; George Eliot's Silas Marner; Hawthorne's House of

Seven Gables; Carlyle's Heroes and Hero Worship; Tennyson's Princess. The selections from Shakespeare, Burke and Tennyson are required, and the examination upon them will be in writing. The candidate may select any two of the other prose writings and one of the poems for the required oral examinations.

In the recommendations for the county superintendent's examination the following is inserted: The school code may be purchased of the state superintendent at cost-25 cents per copy. Candidates will be examined in the matter contained in I, III, IV, V, XVI and XVIII of the Table of Contents of the Code; in the Report of the Committee of Twelve on Rural Schools, article Supervision, and appendices I and M; also in the manual for the common schools of Wisconsin."

A FEW BOOKS ON PEDAGOGY FOR TEACHERS.

We give below the titles of a few books on pedagogy which we believe to be of special value for teachers and students of education. We have made the list short, and aimed to include in it no book which did not seem to us likely to be useful and stimulating to teachers in our city and village schools. Upon such we would urge further the careful study of the report of the Committee of Fifteen, the section on Correlation of Studies; and the report of the Committee of Ten. These are at present our best practical guides towards shaping our school work to wise ends.

General Pedagogy.

Tompkins' Philosophy of Teaching. Ginn & Co.

Rein's Outlines of Pedagogics. C. W. Bardeen.

Klemm's European Schools. Appletons. Halleck's Psychology and Psychic Culture. American Book Co.

In order to learn as accurately as possible the condition of the public schools throughout the state, a list of questions was prepared and sent out to the superintendents of schools in the various towns, covering "the occupations of the superintendents, their scholastic attainments, their professional training and experience, the methods used by them in the performance of their official duties, the size and condition of their school-yards, outhouses and school buildings, the appliances furnished for school work, and their opinions of the intellectual quality, scholastic and professional training of their teachers." They were further asked to say "what persons, organizations and influences are helpful or harmful to the schools." The questions were sent to 513 superintendents, representing about 4,600 teachers. The information elicited is of the most interesting and, at times, startling character. The average age of school superintendents in Maine is 39 years, 9 months; the youngest who reported was 22, the oldest 80. Thirtyfive per cent. of the superintendents are farmers, 7 per cent. physicians, 5 per cent. house

Alling-Aber's An Experiment in Education. Harpers.

lawyers, and 4 per cent. clergymen; only 21 per cent. are teachers. "There are 5 carpenters, 4 lumbermen, 4 laborers, 4 druggists, 3

engineers, 2 painters, 2 stone-cutters, 2 black

Safford's Mathematical Teaching (40 pp.). D. C. Heath.

Mace's Method in History. Ginn & Co. Laurie's Lectures on Linguistic Method. Macmillan.

dasher, railroad postal clerk, dairyman and "spinster." Of the whole number only about 4 per cent. devote their whole time to superintendence. As a rule, the superintendent belongs to the class most numerously represented in his community. Sixteen per cent.

have received only a common school education, while 4 per cent. never attended school; 58 per cent. have attended high school for various periods, and 50 per cent. have studied at academies or seminaries; students of normal schools comprise 13 per cent., and of colleges 20 per cent. On the other hand, only 4 per cent. are high school graduates, and but 10 per cent. are graduates of seminaries or academies. About 35 per cent. lack any practical experience as teachers.-Wm. McDonald, in N. Y. Independent.

ADMISSION TO THE NORMAL SCHOOLS.

At the July meeting of the board of regents of normal schools, the following conditions for admission to these institutions were adopted:

Persons of approved moral character and not less than fifteen years of age will be admitted to the several normal schools on the following conditions:

I. Students who have been regularly enrolled for a time in the state university, or in other state normal school, will be admitted without examination and credited with such work in the course entered as they may have successfully passed in the institution from which they come, as shown by records presented.

2. Graduates from a four years' course in any high school or academy of high school rank, will be admitted to the junior class without examination, on presentation of their diplomas accompanied by certified standings in the several studies of the high school course, under the following conditions, viz.:

(a) Any studies of the elementary course upon which standings are not presented must be taken in the normal school, either in class or by examination.

(b) The professional work of the elementary course, viz.: School Management, Theory of Teaching, Methods of Teaching, Professional Reviews and Practice Teaching, in the aggregate not less than 110 weeks of work, shall be regularly taken in the normal school. The same shall be true of drawing and vocal music unless due proficiency is shown by proper

tests.

(c) In partial offset to these requirements, credits will be given on the advanced course in general history and other subjects in which the pupil shall give satisfactory evidence of proficiency, more especially in the earlier work in Latin or German.

3. Persons not graduates of a four years' high school course may be admitted to the ad

vanced course who successfully pass an examination at the normal school, in all the branches of the elementary course except such as will be pursued regularly in the advanced course, attaining an average of not less than 75 per cent. in the same.

4. Persons holding state certificates obtained by examination and graduates from regular courses in colleges, will be admitted without examination to the one year professional course.

Holders of the limited state certificate on co npletion of this course, shall receive the elementary certificate.

Holders of the unlimited state certificate, and graduates from regular college courses, on completion of this course, shall receive the diploma of the advance course.

5. Graduates from a three years' course in any high school will be admitted to the elementary course without examination, and will be given credits on said course, not to exceed one year's work, in those subjects in which. they shall give satisfactory evidence of due proficiency.

6. Persons holding the first grade teacher's certificate, granted in Wisconsin, will be admitted to the elementary course without examination, and given tentative credits not to exceed one-half year on said course, in those subjects in which they shall give evidence of due proficiency.

7. Persons holding the second grade teacher's certificate, granted in Wisconsin, will be admitted to the elementary course without examination.

8. Persons holding a third grade teacher's certificate will (a) be admitted to the "A" preparatory class without examination, and (b) may be admitted in the discretion of the president of the school, to the one year course for teachers of common schools.

9. Persons holding the common school diploma will be admitted on probation to the "B" preparatory class, or to the ninth grade, without examination.

10. Persons not holding any of the sanctions or credentials above prescribed must pass examination in all subjects required by law for the third grade teacher's certificate, except physiology, constitutions, and theory and art of teaching.

In said examination an average standing of 70 per cent. will admit to the elementary

course.

An average of 60 per cent. will admit to the "A" preparatory class.

An average of 50 per cent. will admit to the "B" preparatory class.

PROF. O'SHEA'S COURSES IN THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AT THE UNIVERSITY.

We feel sure that the new courses in pedagogy which Prof. O'Shea is to give in the school of education at the university the coming year will be of interest to a large number of our readers and accordingly insert them in full as prepared by the circular of the school. I. Educational Psychology.

It will be the purpose of the courses in educational psychology to establish the laws upon which the training of the mind in all phases of educational work must depend, and to indicate in some detail their application to the choice of materials of instruction with methods of presentation in the elementary and high school. The work will be made concrete and practical at every stage by deriving the principles of mental development from a study of actual phenomena seen in daily life and in every schoolroom; and also by incorporating the results of modern physiological and experimental psychology so far as they relate to the determination of school studies and methods. The biological conception of the mental processes and mode of their development will be given a prominent place throughout, and it is believed that this will afford a somewhat new view of the materials and methods of education at various stages in the pupil's growth. The hygiene of mental development will receive especial consideration. The work will be offered in two courses:

COURSE I. The following topics among others will be considered in this course: Attention, perception, conception, apperception, memory, reason, imagination. An effort will be made through inductive study, with the aid of the neurological view, to answer the question,— Is there one essential process, or are there several dissimilar processes pursued by the learning mind? Also, will the mastery of special subject-matter develop general mental power? The present terminology in psychology as misleading and confusing to teachers. The simplicity of the view regarding the operations of the learning mind and the mode of training it, which modern educational psychology gives the teacher. Detailed applications to teaching.

Feeling as the fundamental psychical factor which all education should affect in certain directions. The biological and psychological views of feeling,-the conditions for development or for eradication. Relation of will to feeling. The elements in a strong character, and the value of different studies and modes of teaching for the development of character.

The discipline of the school as an important factor in determining character. First semester, three hours per week.

COURSE 2. The following topics will indicate the character and scope of the work in this course: The structure and function of the nervous system as related to the training of the mind. The modern neurological view of the "reflex arc," and its significance in all education. Mental habit; its physical basis, the laws of its formation, and its importance in determining the method of teaching most studies. Instinct as a phase of mental habit, its significance in education. The heredity of mental capacities and characteristics compared with the influences after birth. The significance for education of the long period of infancy in the human species. Some of the more important laws of mental hygiene.

Second semester, two hours per week. II. Child-Study.

It will be the purpose of the work in childstudy to consider the most important of the newer problems relating to the development of childhood from birth to maturity, and also to study the factors which make children essentially different from each other, so that each may be dealt with as his needs and capacities require. Facts will be gathered from the fields of child-study, anthropology, biology, etc., and their detailed bearings upon education in all its phases in home and school shown. The evolutionary view of the development of the child-mind will receive particular consideration. Actual studies upon children will be carried on by observation in the classroom, and by experiment with simple apparatus. Students will be encouraged to make original studies upon children for theses, and they will be aided in every way possible in doing this. The hygiene of mental growth will have a prominent place, and suggestions will be made for students' conduct of their own daily lives. The work will be offered in two

Courses:

COURSE 1. History of the child-study movement with a consideration of the reasons for its rapid spread over our own and other countries. The problems it has undertaken to solve, and the methods that have thus far been followed by such investigators as Hall, Preyer, Bowditch, Barnes, and numerous others. The evolutionary view of the development of the soul as set forth by modern studies in biology, neurology, and child-study. The child and the race. Periods of growth in childhood. The psychology of adolescence and the high school curriculum, and methods of teaching. The vast importance of

suggestion and imitation in all training of children. Children's expression through language, drawing and physical signs, with suggestions in regard to the teaching of language and drawing. The fatigue of school instruction, causes, effects, remedies. Results of important studies carried on at Clark university in regard to various aspects of childnature; also studies made by Barnes, Bryan and others, and their practical bearings shown. First semester, three hours per week.

COURSE 2.- The problems of individual psychology concerned in the training of children. Some of the important factors which make children different in intellect and temperament. Detailed study of types of children. seen in home and school; prominent characteristics of each with predisposing conditions, and modes of treatment. Study of individual children in home and schoolroom, and discussion in class. Scheme for the study of individual children. Original studies of children in groups and reports in class. Studies of autobiographies giving reminiscences of childhood; and reminiscent studies also by members of class.

per

Second semester two hours week. III. Principles of Teaching.

It will be the aim in this work to establish a systematic and somewhat comprehensive view of the appropriate materials and methods of teaching in all grades of the elementary and high school. In accomplishing this it will be the purpose to show how the traditional attitude of ethics and philosophy, so far as this has been indicated in detail, must be modified by the result of studies in psychology, biology and child-study relating to the normal development of childhood and adolescence. Courses of study in our own and other countries will be critically examined, and an effort made to construct a course of study for the elementary and high school, which, while realizing the aims of education in these schools, will at the same time be adapted to the needs and capacities of children at various stages in their development. Three courses will be offered.

COURSE I.—The aims of education in the elementary and high school. The relative values of different studies in attaining these aims. Interest as the object and basis of instruction. The correlation of school studies, how far practicable and desirable? Specialization, where should it begin. Special vs. general teaching. The construction of a curriculum for the elementary and high school. Construction also of daily programs in accordance with the laws of mental fatigue.

First semester, three hours per week.

COURSE 2.-For 1897-8 the group of language studies will be taken and the method of their treatment in the elementary and high school will be discussed in detail. The aim will be to gain a systematic view from the standpoint of psychology and child-study of the best methods of teaching the language studies, as reading, writing, the English language, English grammar, rhetoric, French, German, Latin, Greek. The method of dealing with this group of studies will be indicative of the method of dealing with other groups, as the scientific or mathematical groups.

Second semester, three hours per week. COURSE 3. The method of conducting a recitation in any subject. The formal steps of instruction will be discussed in detail, and applications will be made to the actual teaching of lessons in various studies. There will be considerable practice in the preparation of plans of lessons according to the formal steps as established in the discussion.

First semester, one hour per week. IV. Practice-Teaching.

This work will consist of actual observation and teaching under criticism in the school to be provided for this purpose. It is the plan to arrange for this practical work in all grades of the elementary and high school. Here theory will be tested and applied under skilled teachers, and it will be the aim to embody the latest educational thought in practice under conditions similar to those which exist in the average public school. The hours for observation and teaching will be arranged with individual pupils to suit their convenience.

This work will not be offered until arrangements can be perfected for the establishment of a model school, possibly not before 1898–99.

V. Seminar.

A model recitation will be held once a week, to be followed by a critical discussion of its merits and demerits. It will be the plan to consider in this concrete way all the elements which enter into successful teaching, and to do so in a thoroughly scientific manner. This work will run through the year, and may be taken for either one or two semesters. It will not be offered, however, until the model school is established.

THE SCHOOL ROOM.

JAMES FENNIMORE COOPER.

His Life, 1789-1851.

James Fennimore Cooper was born at Burlington, N. J. His father was a Quaker from Stratford-on-Avon, a leading Federalist; a