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the course of the last decade, geographical instruction the subject of their deliberations, and have preserved the results of these deliberations in a series of theses.

Now in the following, a synopsis of such material shall first be given. Yet in this it seems neither necessary nor possible to bring under consideration the geographical instruction of all civilized lands; it will be more profitable to lay stress upon only some states as representative and to treat these therefore so much the more amply. As such I choose for Germany, Prussia; for foreign lands, Belgium.

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE INSTITUTE.

MR. EDITOR-It is generally admitted, now, that all true methods of instruction are based upon psychological principles; and that a clear understanding of the mind processes in learning is indispensable to the teacher: but it is a debatable question whether much that is given in Institutes under the name of psychology has any practical bearing on the work of the ordinary common school teacher. Why is it that these psychologicaldidactic workers must define everything in a scientific manner before they can say anything practical about it? Often, they take up nearly the whole time in making definitions and elaborately discussing them. The more they define and discuss, the duller and more disgusted we become. Take for example the following definition of language:

"In general, language is the self-active statement of the peculiar interior become exterior, the representation of it by the exterior, as the breaking of a thing makes known its innermost."

Now, Mr. Editor, of what advantage is this to a teacher who has to teach grammar, and who has not spent years in the study of the interior and the exterior? If our psychological instructor explains such a definition the chances are, he'll use so many technical terms and queer expressions (to us) that "the plainer he gets, the more we don't understand."

Every teacher believes that cheerfulness should pervade the school work from first to last, but of what earthly use can a teacher make of the following definition of cheerfulness:

"Cheerfulness is the not-brokenness of emotional character with reference to a view of life."

This is too elevated, or too spiritooal, or too something for a great many of us. After we have heard such a definition discussed for forty minutes on a hot August afternoon, our view of life is not as cheerful as it was, and we have no emotional character left. It is broken. We are sleepy, and sometimes we sleep. "God bless the man who first invented sleep!"—"Nature's sweet restorer." This definition and the "discussion" that follows it does not help us to go into District School house No. 2, surrounded by a muddy country and many other unpleasant things, and make things cheerful.

This psychological worker of ours never looks at a thing. He views an object in space and in time. When these and other dif ferent views are taken he does not think about it, he ponders it, or considers it. When this is done he names it an object object or a subject-object, owing to how he views it. We have heard the word "differentiation" used somewhere in connection with institute work, but don't know just where.

Spirit, environment, individualize, generalize, induction, deduction, come in for their share of attention and get it from our terminological worker, but not from the majority of the teachers.

These terms and phrases used by our psychological-pedagogical-thought man we suppose are valuable to those who understand them. They probably express the most in the fewest words; but as the majority of us do not understand them our worker speaks to us in an unknown tongue. Is the Institute the place for this kind of work?

We would not have this class of workers stay away from our Institutes. They are valuable men. They are close thinkers. They know more than we do, Mr. Editor. What we wish them to do is to forget their psychology when they talk to us and give us some helpful instruction in plain United States language. Lead us to see how the mind of the child acts in learning arithmetic; in learning grammar; in learning to read, etc. Show us what we can do for the child that will enable him to do for himself. Have us see why we do thus and so, but don't ask us to speculate. The weather is too hot. We will buy a book and read it as carefully as we can during the long winter evenings.

We will join the Reading Circle, or do almost anything, if you will just give us something we can understand and carry away with us into our schools. We wish to grow of course, but our chief business is to make others grow, and we would like to know what to set before them and how to set it there.

We never hear one of these psychological-pedagogical-terminological-institute-instructors that we are not reminded of the following stanzas published in the New York School Journal some time ago:

Across the moorlands of the Not

We chase the gruesome When,
And hunt the Itness of the What
Through forests of the Then.

Into the inner consciousness

We track the crafty Where;
We spear the Ergo tough, and beard
The Ego in his lair.

With lassoes of the brain we catch

The Isness of the Was,

And in the copses of the Whence

We hear the Think bees buzz.

We climb the slippery Which bark tree
To watch the Thusness roll,

And pause betimes in gnostic rhymes

To woo the Over-Soul.

Now, Mr. Editor, if we must have this kind of psychological work or fun, let us have the fun. It makes us more cheerful.

FRANK LYNN.

A CHAPTER ON DON'TS.

GEO. W. HOSS.

WHEN hearing a recitation

I. Don't prance from one side of the desk to the other like a French dancing master.

2. Don't vibrate backward and forward, with a pendulumlike beat.

3. Don't declaim and scream at your pupils when you ought to use a pleasing conversational tone.

4. Don't sit or stand in a listless or awkward attitude.

5.

Don't constantly play with your watch chain, nor twirl a pencil or ruler.

6. Don't keep up a perpetual pulling or patting of your beard, as if it were a pet and needed to be poodled.

7. Don't run your hands into your pockets as if in search for lost cents (sense).

8. Don't run your hands through your hair, as if hunting for lost ideas or something else.

9.

IO.

II.

Don't spring and jump as if you were a gymnast.
Don't spit on the floor.

Don't ask for quiet and then stride over the floor with the tread of a cattle driver.

12.

Don't snap your pupils up or off.

13. Don't treat your pupils as blockheads, and never call them such.

14.

Don't,-save in extreme cases,-ridicule your pupils.

15. Don't fail to be kind, as well as firm.

16. Don't say "Look that up,"-when you ought to have looked it up yourself.

17. Don't say "What does the class think?"—when the class ought to know what you think.

18.

19.

20.

21.

Don't pretend to know what you don't.

Don't fail to acknowledge an error and that frankly.
Don't assume to know everything.

Don't be afraid to be genial and social.

22. Don't talk your pupils to death.

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24.

Don't wear a somber or scowling face.

25. Don't substitute the Police Gazette for the School Journal. 26. Don't keep up a perpetual complaining of the teacher's calling. [Better resign. May be education will survive the loss.]

27. Don't fail to prove to your pupils, not by words but by deeds, that you are their friend as well as their teacher. 28. Don't fail to realize and practice the truth that love is stronger than the rod.

29.

30.

Don't fail to be a true gentleman or lady.

Don't fail to stand yourself up before the teacher's mirror and see how many of these don'ts do or do not belong to you.

THE SCHOOL ROOM.

[This Department is conducted by GEO. F. BASS, Supervising Prin. Indianapolis schools.]

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Should there be a zh sound in this word, according to the dictionary?

TRUTHS.

Has th the sound in this word that it has in the word that? Has s the sound of z?

MAKING PROBLEMS.

A primary pupil being asked to make a problem, gave the following: "A man had 7 wives and gave half of them away; how many has he left?

WHEN pupils read, have them read to somebody. It is not very inspiring to read to the walls of a large room. Try it. A teacher should have the ability to be a good audience. should be a good listener.

BICYCLE.

He

What sound has y in the above word? Don't say the word is not in the dictionary. Look in the latest edition of Webster's High School Dictionary. Don't say that "everybody says" Bi-cy-cle. The dictionary in use is our authority on pronun

ciation.

"THE FRONT PART."

It will pay young teachers who have not studied the dictionary carefully, to read the article "How to Use the Dictionary." The "front part" of the dictionary is not understood by all teachers. Enough is said in this article to start one to thinking about it.

"OVER AND OVER AND OVER."

Sometimes teachers say they have taught a certain thing over and over and over, and yet the pupils do not seem to understand it. Do not weary in well doing. At each repetition see that the proper thought accompanies it. Success will eventually follow.

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