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rival industries, its business and political centers, its waterways and railways, and so on. No man can form such a picture; it will not hold together, but each part as it arises crowds out that which was before in the mind. The most that can be done is to imagine one detail after another-not a whole but rather a series of parts. Further, one who has traveled over a State and seen its cities with his own eyes will smile at the vagueness and inaccuracy of such pictures as he had been able to form before visiting the sites. Pictures are doubtless the most valuable helps to this kind of knowledge, but who has not been puzzled to interpret a photograph even of a well known scene? It must be acknowledged that our enthusiastic realistic critics of geography teaching have often set up ideals altogether impossible of realization. We must not give over the attempt to teach realities on account of these difficulties, but must rather limit the work to reasonable plans, and beyond general conceptions of countries and conditions must limit ourselves to the study of typical places, forms and industries. The great danger from the coming expansion of geography teaching is that of overloading the minds of the pupils with unorganized and unorganizable details.

The geography of situation, or the dot-onthe-map geography, must continue to be a large factor of elementary work. It must be made a study of realities by means of pictures and readings, and above all by conversation. But the great advance in methods must come thro the more perfect unification of our material. We must handle large topics, so as to see the details in them, descriptions of physical features, climate and productions must, we have learned, escape the trammels of political boundaries and deal at once with large natural units, within which the states and cities take their proper place. Commercial geography, or the geography of trade and manufactures, must develop in the same way. The United States, for example, is a whole in which the wheat trade, the corn, cotton, iron, coal trades, and so on, must be worked out, and in the process states, cities, railroads, etc., will be learned necessarily, not as isolated items, but as indispensable factors.

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put the case thus: The older geographies were gazetteers, the newer ones are more and more studies of human activities. Political geography thus becomes merely incidental in the geography class, but in the history class it becomes a dominant factor, and hence the wisdom of that arrangement which classes historygeography as one subject in the later years of the elementary course. We have then, after

the most general elementary view of the world, these four natural divisions of the subject: business geography (if that is the right designation), history-geography, mathematical and physical geography. And in our schools the first two fall to the elementary grades. S.

IMPROVING RURAL LIFE.

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The interesting experiment made by the United States postoffice of delivering letters free of charge in the country as well as in the city is full of encouragement for the improvement of rural life. It was tried in certain selected neighborhoods, and the results show an important modification of habits. For instance, the number of daily papers taken increased greatly, as did the number of letters written and received. In brief the dwellers on the farm found themselves swept more completely into the current of modern life. isolation and lack of stimulus is the chief drawback to country living, we see one remedy for it in this move, which has already been tried with most satisfactory results in some European countries. Others are at hand. The bicycle, now found in the farmhouse as well as in the village, greatly facilitates the getting together especially of young people. It is possible that the telephone will penetrate into some neighborhoods, and supply trips, perhaps managed by those who deliver the mail-for the government favors such combinations-will put what have been considered city conveniences at command of the farmers.

There are other and obvious means for helping on this transformation of rural life already in operation in some parts of the country. The plan of combining rural schools and affording free transportation to and from them is said to be working a revolution in rural education wherever it has been tried. Instead of feeble, ungraded schools, without stimulus and under poor teachers, the new plan gives larger aggregations of pupils, better teachers and better organizations. The families are bound. together in larger neighborhoods, and all feel the uplifting influence which comes into them from the broader and more inspiring school life of the children. Improved supervision and management come with such changes, and experience seems to show that the better plan. actually costs less money than the old and effete one.

The new library movements are powerful means for the improvement of which we are speaking. It is a great thing to bring a few good books within the reach of the children. of the families on the farms, especially for the

long winter evenings. They make family life smoother, they affect family conversation, they refine, broaden and uplift the readers. It is work of this sort which is being done by the traveling libraries and by the school libraries now so successfully established. The school and the library belong together and must help each other in promoting the betterment of country life. Good illustrated magazines, like McClure's and the Metropolitan, are to be had for the merely nominal price of one dollar a year, and they contain both reading matter and pictures of great value for the cultivation of young readers. Even this expense may be reduced by forming reading clubs, which pass the journals on from one member to another. The school is the natural center for starting such organizations, though they may spring from the influence of any intelligent person. There is really no good reason why American farm houses should lack such means of making life interesting and attractive, save that isolation has prevented acquaintance with their value.

If the rural schools can be brought to greater unity it may be posible to realize in them something of that adjustment to local conditions contemplated in the N. E. A. report on rural schools. Such elementary science instruction may be imparted as will make the farm and the garden the center of interest. School gardens are not an impossibility-are in fact natural and appropriate to rural schools, -and, if intelligently directed, might not only tend to more thoughtful and intelligent interest in farm matters, but to the beautifying of the home premises. When these things can be in some measure realized, the hard frontier conditions, which have told longest and most severely on our rural life, will give way to a more attractive and more truly American country living. S.

THE MONTH.

WISCONSIN NEWS AND NOTES.

-The high school at Brandon has not only adopted the four years' course of study, but moves into a new and commodious building completed this fall.

-The Stevens Point normal school shows an enrollment in the normal department of 309, a gain of seventy-eight over the enrollment at this time a year ago.

--During the past year there have been transferred from the list of three years, to that of four years' course the high schools at the

following places: Birmanwood, Brandon, Deforest, Florence, and West Salem.

-The report of the Madison high school for the past year shows a total enrollment of 479. The whole number in the city schools was 2,734, taught by fifty-two teachers.

-Miss Arabella Zweifel, who graduated at the university this summer, is to teach German this year in the Chilton high school; and Miss Ella M. Guile teaches mathematics in the Madison high school.

-The opening of the present year at the Platteville normal school is marked by two novelties: A beginning class in Greek is organized by Miss Gifford, and a graduate class of eleven members commences work.

—Dr. C. H. Gordon, who has had charge of the Beloit schools for the past two years study and travel. has gone to Europe for six or eight months of His home address will be, Valley Center, Mich. Mr. Franklin Converse, a graduate of Michigan University, has charge of the schools for the present year.

-The Platteville normal school building underwent many changes and improvements during the past summer. New heating and ventilating systems, with water works, have been put through the building, and other extensive alterations and repairs have been effected.

-The school board of Wausau, during the winter months last year, furnished the material for a school in sewing which met every Saturday under the direction of the principal of the Franklin school. The work was looked upon as an experiment, and not as a part of the regular school course.

-Ten high schools in the state have added an additional assistant this year in consequence of increased enrollment. The numbers after the name indicate how many assistants are employed in the school: Argyle 1; Baraboo 6; East Troy 2; Janesville 10; Lancaster 3; Madison 14; Medford 2; Mineral Point 3; Washburn 2; Waukesha 5.

-The report of Supt. Mathies, of Wausau, shows a total enrollment in the high school of 168, with five teachers. The total enrollment of the schools of the city is 2,532, while the census shows a school population of 4,093. The superintendent says, however, that over 98 per cent. of the children of the city between 7 and 13 years of age were in school at least twelve weeks.

-It seems that our note last month regarding Clinton Junction high school was wholly

in error.

We are indebted to Prin. Lathe for the following corrections: "F. B. Webster, of River Falls has taken charge of the schools at Pepin, of Mr. Reynolds and Clinton Junction I know nothing, but I have been in charge as principal here for the last four years, and have just entered on the fifth year's work. The school, high school, here now has the largest enrollment in its history."

up, became interested, and were bright and intelligent pupils.

A few simple tests would enable any teacher to detect these defects and lead to treatment which in many cases would wholly, or in part, remedy these defects. The teacher being conscious of these defects could at least make due allowance for the pupil, and see that the conditions as to light and distance were as favor

-The report of the high school inspector able as possible. of Minnesota shows that there are 99 of these schools on the state list, as against 77 four years ago. He reports that nearly all the schools are enlarging their general and special libraries, the expenditures for this purpose, exclusive of St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth, aggregating during the year $14.572. Nearly two thousand dollars worth of apparatus for science teaching was manufactured for the schools at a low price in the state prison.

SCHOOL REPORTS MADISON.

Some Results of Child Study.

The wise physician makes a careful diagnosis of the disease before he ventures to prescribe. Before the teacher attempts to develop the mental and bodily powers of the child he should know something of the needs, conditions, and laws of child-life. The demand of the hour is for patient, painstaking, unbiased observations, and a systematic gathing of data, in regard to the physiology and psychology of the child. A realization of this demand has led to the opening up of a comparatively new field for investigation and study. This new science of child-study involves the observation and measurement of children as to their constitutions, functions, and activities, and includes the study of both body and mind. Brief statements of some of the more recent conclusions which have been reached through scientific child-study will help to an appreciation of the practical value of this line of research.

Dr. Holmes of Chicago claims that from fifteen to twenty per cent. of the school children have defective hearing, while a larger per cent. have defects of vision. These defects necessarily handicap the unfortunate pupils and hinder the natural mental growth. An appearance of dullness and stupidity is sometimes due to difficulty in hearing, and immediately disappears when the obstruction to hearing is removed. In our own schools we have had pupils who were counted hopelessly dull and stupid, until it was discovered that their hearing was defective. When positions favorable for hearing were given them they waked

By a large number of careful measurements the height, weight, chest capacity, and a proper development of the typical child for each year of school life, have been accurately determined. Any considerable deviation from this type by an individual pupil ought to arouse suspicion of the oncoming of some disease, and the pupil should be placed immediately among a group of children whose physical condition and mental efforts need to be guarded.

Dr. Porter from tests made on over 33,000 school children reached the positive conclusion that there is a physical basis for percocity and dullness; that precocious children are stronger physically, and dull children weaker, than the average or typical child of the same age; and that mediocrity of mind is associated in the main with mediocrity of physique.

Measurements and tests have also revealed the fact that different portions of the body and the different mental abilities develop irregularly, sometimes more rapidly and sometimes more slowly. A clear understanding of these facts and the laws of development would assist the teacher greatly in adjusting the work to the varying strength of the pupil, increasing the work when he can best bear it, and diminishing it when he has less strength to spare. "Without this knowledge," says Dr. Krohn, the regulation of mental labor from a physical standpoint is a venturesome groping in the mist, rather than a scientific deduction."

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By a series of tests under the direction of Dr. Krohn it was found that the reaction time, that is the time occupied in perceiving a word, is shorter than the time occupied in perceiving a single letter. To illustrate: for the average child of seven to perceive the word "dog" requires .292 of a second, and for perceiving the letter "d" alone .356 of a second, the letter "o".349 of a second, and the letter "g" .364 of a second. That is, the time required to perceive the word "dog" was less than the time required to perceive any one of the letters alone of which the word is composed. This seems to give a rational basis for the su

periority of the word method over the letter method.

By another series of tests upon over 5,000 pupils under the direction of the same gentleman, it was found that the most favorable time of the day for school work is the period from 9:15 to 10:45 A. M.; the second best, contrary to the usual belief, from 3:00 to 4:00 P. M., the period from II to 12 being the most unfavorable of the whole day. The period from 1:45 to 2:30 is characterized by great strength, but also great slowness of mental processes, due largely to the fact that the average pupil eats his heavy meal in the middle of the day. The practical value of these facts to every teacher who has anything to do with the arranging of school courses or programs, is easily apparent and needs no R. B. DUDGEON.

comment.

Wausau-Eye and Ear Tests.

Early in the fall term the teachers, having been instructed by the commissioner of health beforehand, made tests of the hearing and vision of the pupils. The results of the tests were alarming. Allowing for the facts that the teachers were not professionally trained to make the tests, and that it is always difficult to lead the younger children to discriminate, it is still true that a large number of children have defective eye-sight and hearing.

The results of the tests are about the same as found in other cities where tests have been made, and so we have reason to believe that they are approximately correct.

Below is given a table showing the number of cases examined, the percentage having defective vision and the percentage having defective hearing:

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as professor of the science and art of teaching, is in attendance at the summer school. The University of Wisconsin has created a school of education co-ordinate with its schools of law and economics, and Mr. O'Shea has been called there to build it up. It is to be provided with means sufficient to make possible the study of the practical as well as the theoretical aspects of education in all its phases. This a new move, for none of the American universities as yet have well equipped schools of education, excepting possibly Columbia, which has a teachers' college as an adjunct. Cornell has been working for such a school, but none has yet been established. Professor O'Shea is a graduate of Cornell. He is an extremely brilliant young man, and is recognized as an authority in his department. He has engaged in much literary work, contributing to the Atlantic Monthly, the Popular Science Monthly, the North American Review, the Outlook, the Chautauquan, and educational journals east and west. One of his strongest fields is lecturing."

The foregoing comes to us as a clipping from the public press, and we cheerfully give it a

place in our columns. It might be misunder

stood to say that the University of Wisconsin has been without a department of education thus far. Professor Stearns has long filled with ability one of the best chairs of education in any university, and is a very strong man with. age and experience. Mr. O'Shea will prove a valuable addition to that faculty.

ELI WHITNEY AND THE COTTON GIN.

Near the town of Westboro, Mass., in a farm house which was built long before the American Revolution, there was born a boy, who, when grown to manhood, was destined to become famous. Eli Whitney was this boy's name, and even during his boyhood he showed great ingenuity in whittling out toys and perhaps some more useful articles. Once, during the absence of his father, Eli took possession of his workshop and tools, and made a fiddle, which he played upon to the delight of his playmates and neighbors. But his father shook his head, and said he was afraid Eli would not amount to much in the world.

When he was fifteen years old he began making nails by hand, pounding them out of a long, slim piece of red-hot iron with a hammer. They were rough, but very strong, and as the Revolutionary War was going on at that time he had no difficulty in finding a sale for all he could make. But after the war was over the demand for nails fell off, and Eli threw down

his hammer and declared he was going to college. He had no money with which to pay for his tuition, and no immediate prospect of obtaining any except through his own labors; but that did not discourage him in the least. Starting in Yale College he worked his way partly by teaching and partly by doing odd jobs in carpentering. An experienced mechanic, watching him one day as he was finishing a job, and seeing how skilfully and neatly he did it, said, "There was one good mechanic spoiled when you went to college."

After he was through his college course he went to Savannah, Ga., to teach. He was disappointed in his position, however, and found himself a stranger in a strange city. Meeting Mrs. Greene, the widow of Gen. Greene, she took a great interest in the young man, and much of his time was spent at her home.

One day he noticed what a rude frame Mrs. Greene was using in doing embroidery, and, believing he could make a better one, set to work and very soon made such a neat one that Mrs. Greene was more than ever convinced that young Whitney was a genius.

A short time after this there were several cotton planters at Mrs. Greene's and the subject of cleaning the seed from the cotton was discussed. This was such a tedious process by hand that one negro could clean but a single pound of cotton in a day. Mrs. Greene told the planters that if they wanted a machine to clean cotton they should apply to Mr. Whitney.

"But I have never seen a cotton plant or cotton seed in my life," said Mr. Whitney.

However, after the planters were gone, he kept thinking it over and finally determined to try and see what he could do. It was not the time of year to see cotton growing in the fields, so he went to Savannah and searched the stores and warehouses until he found some cotton and seed together, and with this to experiment upon he returned.

He thought by fastening some pieces of wire upright in a board, very closely together, like the teeth of a comb, and then pulling the cotton through these teeth, the seeds would be too large to come through, and that the cotton would come out clean. Then he devised a wheel and covered it with short steel teeth shaped like hooks. This wheel he turned with a crank and found that it pulled the cotton through perfectly, stripping off the seeds and leaving them on the other side. So the cotton gin (gin is engine shortened) was invented, and by its use a thousand pounds of cotton wool could be cleaned in a day. Before this

invention was made very little cotton was raised in the South, as the completed product, cotton cloth, cost as much as a dollar and a half a yard, and poor people could not afford to buy it; but after the cotton gin was brought into use it could be bought for ten or twelve cents a yard and thus was brought within the reach of all.—Selected.

THE ESSENTIALNESS OF DYNAMIC FORCE.

The great fault in the selection of teachers to-day is failure to recognize the essentialness of dynamic force. What we want in the schoolroom is more positive elements. If you buy a horse your first question is not how he is shod or groomed, but, Can he go? That is what you buy a horse for. And so when you hire a teacher, all these inquiries about whether he has a pug nose, or wears a red necktie, are subordinate to the great question, Can he teach? Can he give our boys the vigor, the force, the manliness, that will make them get somewhere?

Do you never realize that if you put into your schoolroom a woman who drags one foot after the other as though the day's task were an imposition too hard for her, you are lowering the vitality of every child in the room? What you want to consider before scholarship, before normal training, before experience, and even before good manners, is the spirit, the vigor, the sound character, the bright and cheerful views of life, that make a woman like a ray of sunshine in the schoolroom. First a woman, then a lady, then as much more as you can get; but while you are marking how short her finger nails are cut, and whether her gown is faded under the arm-pits, you lose sight of the one thing which determines whether she is fit to be put over your children. -C. W. Bardeen, in School Bulletin.

THE "VORTEX" OF FICTION.

Fashion grows with what it feeds on, and unquestionably the extreme vogue of this particular kind of book, the prose story, has drawn into its vortex many talents which had no original tendency in that direction. For example, Stevenson, manifestly born to be an essayist and perhaps a philosopher, was dragged, as a magnet draws a needle, to the irresistible rock of story telling, and "Treasure Island," begun as a joke for a boy's newspaper, was made the pioneer of a series of tales to which the author's exquisite style gave the persistence of literature. In Mrs. Humphrey Ward a most accomplished literary critic

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