hand, which really amount to the same thing as the key amounts to in algebra. In geography, clay and sand-modeling and the construction of relief maps furnish the doing when learning the features of surface. Other parts of the subject have their special modes of applying the idea. The primary schools use the principle wherever practicable. Shops which furnish certain kinds of mechanical work afford an opportunity for its use on the side of mechanical production.

Space and the want of acquaintance with names prevents notice of the classes and teachers seriatim. Suffice it to say that all are teachers of the highest skill. Col. Parker advocates and practices perfect freedom in the selection of teachers, with a view to securing the best. He also advocates, we believe, freedom on the part of the teacher in her work. She is given freedom and held for results. Although his teachers work under the limitations of practical freedom, they seem to be, as said before, working at white heat, a condition of effort that leads to an intense strain upon the energies..

The pupils of the normal school proper recite in their scholastic work in the forenoon and engage in practice teaching in the afternoon. Col. Parker seems to have come nearer the true solution of practice-teaching for the pupils of the normal school than any one else with whom we are acquainted. His plan allows a larger amount of teaching than other plans, and at the same time removes many of the serious objections to pupil-teaching. Each training school is in charge of its regular teacher for all practice work. She is responsible for all that is done. The pupil-teachers are divided into groups of three or four or more, according to the number of groups of pupils in the practiceschools. Each practice-school is, we believe, divided into four practice groups, This division would form groups of pupils of from seven to twelve children. A group of pupil teachers is assigned to each group of children. One of these pupil teachers is made the "head" for a day. She teaches the group of children. The other pupil-teachers of the group sit with the children and take part in the work as pupils, but they do not play children. They give aid to the "head" whenever it may be necessary.

Afterwards the work done comes up for discussion and criticism. All the groups take part in this under the direction of the methods-teacher.

We saw a class of pupil teachers in methods in primary number. The work was of the most practical character. Each member of the class brought a set of original, concrete problems designed for, say, third-grade pupils. These were examined and discussed one by one. The principles which should govern the construction of such problems were stated and applied. All problems not conforming to these principles were rejected. The problems were concrete. Each pupil was required to take objects and illustrate the special problem in hand. Thus, if the problem were, "Two boys start 12 miles apart to travel toward each other, one at the rate of a mile per hour, the other at the rate of two miles per hour; when will they meet?" the pupilteachers illustrated it. They made the 12 miles out of inch-long sticks. Then they moved sticks along to represent the two boys, describing their positions every hour, Finally, they meet and the point of meeting is fixed and represented. One can see great value in such concrete work. The mind of the pupil must do it to get over the illustrative process.

Our "copy" admonishes as to close. We are free to say that we came away with a higher appreciation of Col. Parker's work than that with which we went. Much has been unjustly charged to him by over-enthusiastic and ill-judging friends-and foes. His work is that of a reformer who has the courage of his convictions. He is charged with lacking a philosophy of education. The lack is in his critics. They have set up some fictitious standard. The work as seen showed itself to be close, methodical and full of thought. We shall do well to remember that the totality of truth is not comprised in the beaten paths, and that he likewise has a place who believes in possibilities as well as actualities. The real point of question is this: Col. Parker is a genius and is thus a law unto himself; can common minds safely attempt his methods?

This short and incomplete etching of the visit would be more incomplete without a notice of the pleasant mid-day lunch at

Col. Parker's house and the meeting with Mrs. Parker and her daughter. Mrs. Parker is an enthusiastic teacher and believes thoroughly in the views and aims of her husband, working with him in his plans and, no doubt, contributing greatly to his success. The peep into this home was one to be enjoyed and appreciated. The library especially arrested the attention. It is probably the finest private collection of pedagogical works (mainly) on this continent. It embraces the leading works in English, French and German.

"OPEN SESAME."

R. G. BOONE.

IN Brooks's Mental Science, page 80, occurs the expression, "The voice is the 'open sesame' of the soul." The thoughtful, kindly modulation of the voice is a sure and always available means of securing the attention of pupils.

"Sesame and Lilies" is the title of a book by John Ruskin, touching Reading and other agents of general culture. The only reference to "sesame," however, is at the end of Chapter I, where he speaks of "that old enchanted Arabian grain, the sesame, which opens doors."

Webster's Unabridged Dictionary defines "sesame" to be an "annual herbaceous plant of the genus sessamum, the seeds of which are sometimes used for food, and furnish, besides, a valuable oil."

More than this, he who has failed to read the Arabian Night's Entertainments, will not likely find in the average library. In the Reading Circle Outlines for November 1884, explanation was asked of the reference to "Open Sesame" by Brooks, which has been quoted above. So many queries have been received concerning the expression, it seemed that the interpretation might be given in a more general way to some profit.

From the Arabian Nights, in the "Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," it appears that sesame, the name, as has been said, of an Arabian grain, was a talismanic term used by a body of banditti as their place of rendezvous in the forest, and when

they were discovered by Ali Baba.

At the word of their Cap

tain, "Open, Sesame," a door in an adjoining rock swung aside and the gang passed in. At a like command, "Shut, Sesame," the door closed.

the cave.

Ali Baba thought to use their pass-word and explore their retreat. He was successful, and carried away as many bags of gold as his three asses could bear. Cassim, his brother, informed of the treasure and the means of access, also betook himself to His ready entrance was as that of all the others, by "Open, Sesame." Having closed the door and filled his bags, he turns to leave. But "when he wished to open the cavern, his thoughts were so full of the great riches he should possess, he could not recollect the necessary word." He tried, "Open, Barley," and "Open, Wheat," but the door continued shut. "Open, Sesame," alone, procured admittance. It gave access to the treasure, the secrets, the fraternity, within. It was the one sure means without which one's desires were beyond control or satisfaction.

It will be noticed that what was once a rule of command, "open," has now in the expression come to be used as an adjective. The thought however remains. "Open Sesame" is a magical, easy means of access to secret, hidden avenues; and hence for the teacher, to the soul of the child, his disposition, his interests.

For the Arabian Banditti there was but one such resource; for the teacher, there are many. The voice is one. Ruskin's "Open Sesame" to culture included Libraries, Art-galleries, and Museums, etc.

The meaning is alike in all. Sesame is more than plant. Its symbolism makes it golden.

PRIMARY READING.-Methods are of little value without a knowledge of principles underlying them. The powers of the mind are developed and trained by activity. Primary conceptions and ideas are best taught objectively, giving first the idea and then the words. Words must be taught as a whole-first as sounds, and then as forms; words should then be combined into groups and sentences. After pupils are able to read short sentences the analysis of words into sounds should follow, and then the nemes of the letters.-E. E. White.

GOOD WORDS FOR INDIANA.

JOHN W. HOLCOMBE.

[Introduction to a paper on The County Superintendency, read by the State Superintendent at the meeting of the National Educational Association, Saratoga, June, 1885.]

MR. PRESIDENT:-I was appointed to present to this Department a paper on The County Superintendency, with the remark that several States which do not possess that institution feel deeply the need of something of the kind, and wish to learn how it works in a State in which it is highly developed. I am therefore required to speak much of my own State and how we do things there. So I wish to make my apology at the outset, and to declare here and now that, in illustrating this subject with facts and conditions with which I am most familiar, I do so with no desire to hold Indiana up as a model to her sisters, and I beg that she may not incur, through me, any of the odium of the model child of the family.

I shall of necessity claim by inference some excellence for our schools, our educational system, and perhaps some other of our institutions; but believe me, sir, this is done in all modesty,though with considerable confidence, since I find among the members of this Association and generally among my acquaintances in the East and in the State of Ohio a readiness to believe that the wild Indian and the buffalo have retired from our borders, the vast marshes have been mostly converted into cornland and meadow, the primeval forest opened to the light of day, even pallid Ague put under the ban, and the inhabitants, adapting themselves to their improved conditions, are possessed of intelligence and civility,―to realize, in fact, that, no longer, if she ever was, the State of "The Hoosier Schoolmaster," Indiana now is two millions of enlightened and humane people, dwelling in cities, [towns and farm-houses, thick-set throughout a noble domain of field and forest and river, of hill and dale, unsurpassed in fertility, hardly equalled in variety of resources, with churchspires seldom out of sight, and a school-house (not on every hilltop, for that would mean few, but) to every three and a third square miles of territory, and a teacher to every fifty-four persons of school age,-so favorable a soil, indeed, for the growth of common schools that a system of public education has there been elaborated worthy of the pride with which it is regarded at home and the attention it has attracted abroad.