oak grove; the campus, decorated with flowers and with its thoughtful provision for the pleasure of the students in tennis courts and athletic field; all these are here and all deserve more than mention. All adapted to their purpose; all in use and daily contributing, directly and indirectly, to the cause of education.

The situation of the school is almost unique. In a town justly celebrated for its healthfulness, it is perched high above the whole community and has the very best of mountain air to keep its pupils in the best of health. In this particular, the record of the school is almost beyond comparison. This elevated position, too, enables it to command a view, which were the institution but a fashionable hotel, would bring many a traveller from far away. The educational influence of such surroundings as the grand, old, peaceful mountains, and the river "playing at hide and seek among them," must have been appreciated, even if unconsciously, by the founders of the school.

A quarter of a hundred teachers have the various, well organized departments in charge. By no means the least interesting of these departments is the Model School, where the seniors of the normal course act as teachers to classes of younger pupils from the town.

Schools are common in the East, and Pennsylvania has at least her share; but of few of them can pleasanter things be said than of old Normal," as its graduates affectionately term it. A quiet, peaceful air, as of the home, pervades it continually, and it is not strange that its graduates all over the world look back with pleasure to the days spent there.

J. H. D.

DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL STUDY. THE TEACHERS' INTERNATIONAL READING CIRCLE. SEVENTH MONTHLY SYLLABUS FOR THE THIRD YEAR.

PREPARED BY DR. CHAS. J. MAJORY, NEWTON, N. J., SECRETARY,
FOR THE USE OF CORRESPONDENCE MEMBERS.

Many elements combine in the teacher who proves competent to do really excellent class-room work. General learning and culture, natural aptitude of disposition and of character, and professional training acquired in preparatory study and in experience are alike essential. Cultivation along each of these three lines needs to be continued from year to year; and appropriate means for such cultivation can be found available for the teacher's use.

In the matter of professional training, an indispensable factor is found in the reading of the educational journals of the day and in the study of pedagogical books. This truth would seem to be selfevident, yet its practical acceptance has been far from universal. There are still too many teachers, in graded and ungraded schools, who do not avail themselves of this unfailing means of improvement in their work. It is not enough that superintendents and principals come to view the work of teaching in its broad extent and manifold relations. The class teacher and the teacher in the ungraded country school need to recognize the true value of their work, and to fit themselves for its right performance. The principles underlying successful teaching must be brought home to the teacher who is called upon to apply them in her daily teaching and training of the boys and girls in our schools. This can best be done through such definite and continued reading as is provided in the organized reading circle.

I. ROUSSEAU'S EMILE. PAGES 192-224.

52. How can the right self-love be kept distinct in the training of children from the evil self-love?

53. Can love of self be used as a basis of benevolence in the mind of a child?

54. How may the developing boy or girl be best guarded from the effects of evil imagination?

55. Is the thought that any given suffering may come to himself necessary to the awakening of pity for a sufferer?

56. Will all right feelings arise spontaneously in the heart of the child, or must there be direct effort to call them forth?

57. Can the author's distinction between man as individually good and man in society as evil, be maintained?

58. Is history a better field for the study of human nature than is current experience?

59. How may fables be most successfully made use of in the moral instruction of youth?

II. HERBART'S PSYCHOLOGY, PAGES 119–150.

51. With what negative descriptions is the simple and wholly unknown nature of soul defined?

52. What view is to be taken of concepts as acts of the soul?

53. What must be recognized as the source of all vital forces?

54. What part does the nervous system bear in the relation between soul and body?

55. How do concepts of space relation arise in the mind? 56. How do the time concepts arise?

III. ADLER'S MORAL INSTRUCTION, PAGES 146–165.

53. What are the especial ends sought in providing that children commit to memory suitable poems?

54. How may these ends be best secured in the use of poems that cannot be used as memory work?

55. What are the prime characteristics of the leading heroes in Homer's Odyssey and Iliad?

56. Why do these characteristics especially appeal to boyhood? 57. Of what high moral value is their cultivation, as affecting the relation of the boy to his parents and others?

58. In what respects do the stories from Homer especially supplement the stories from the Bible?

59. What are the most noteworthy ethical teachings of the Odyssey?

60. How may the poems of Homer be practically used in the public school for such purposes as suggested in this work?

IV. FROEBEL'S EDUCATION OF MAN. PAGES 230-250.

63. The union of school and family influences essential to right education.

64. By the co-operation of home and school the right development of inner life should accompany the acquirement of external knowledge.

65. The unity of thought and purpose between parent and child may be maintained and strengthened during the school period.

66. The inner experiences and forces of mind and heart should be specifically cared for and developed.

67. Religious instruction should appeal to the immediate inner life, rather than to hope of reward or fear of punishment hereafter. 68. Religious maxims should be memorized as expressing common experiences.

69. Direct training as to care of the body and use of the limbs is essential.

70. Physical training should involve, in due time, a knowledge of the bodily structure and a high regard for its true welfare.

V. PICKARD'S SCHOOL SUPERVISION. PAGES 111-136.

68. The superintendent is to direct the education of children in the interest of their parents.

69. In case of controversy or misunderstanding, he must arbitrate between parent and teacher.

70. He should make especial effort to awaken active interest of parents in behalf of the schools.

71. He should aim to arrange school sessions and intermissions so as to be most conducive to pupils' well being.

72. He needs to be watchful of the heating and ventilation of school-rooms as controlled by individual teachers.

73. He should note the conditions of light and of seating as affecting the eye-sight of pupils.

74. He should be watchful of the influences affecting the moral life of the children.

75. He should seek teachers of positive character whose influence, direct and indirect, will be strong and right.

76. He should note the effort of the teacher to induce self-control of pupils in preference to uniform compliance with arbitrary external authority.

VI. LAURIE'S RISE OF UNIVERSITIES. PAGES 214-235.

LECTURE XII.

61. Graduation by the early universities consisted in the conferring of the right to teach or to practice.

62. The constitution of the university, in respect to graduation analogous to that of the trade guilds.

63. The terms master and doctor not specifically distinguished in early usage.

64. The title Bachelor of Arts arising in Paris to mark the completion of a preparatory or trivial course of instruction in grammar, rhetoric and dialectic.

65. Definite graduation scheme established for medicine, theology and law by the end of the thirteenth century.

VII. PREYER'S DEVELOPMENT OF INTELLECT. PAGES 189–207.

51. The child's recognition of parts of the body as belonging to himself consequent upon a multitude of experiences.

52. Evidences that after a year and a half of life the content of the body is not yet fully realized.

53. Pain as the most important factor in acquiring a definite knowledge of self.

54. The results of his own action an important means of distiguishing self from its surroundings.

55. Early play of children is largely a process of experimenting. 56. Attentive looking at the various parts of the body observable during a prolonged period.

57. Child's gradual interpretation of his own image seen in a mirror.

58. The full concept of self not parallel with the acquirement of the words that express self-relations.

59. The final abstract concept of self belongs to the adult as a result of varied concrete concepts.

FOREIGN NOTES.

ITALY. Measures Affecting School Programmes.

Since the Cleveland meeting the air is astir with discussions of the basis and essence of school programmes. This gives special interest to corresponding discussion in foreign countries. For the moment the subject has been brought prominently forward in Italy by reason of modifications in the existing course of study proposed by M. Baccelli, the minister of public instruction.

The last revision took place in 1888, at which time the following subjectswere decided upon: The native language, including reading, writing, recitation of selections (learned by heart) and grammar, arithmetic, geography, history of Italy, general object lessons (prescribed series), physics and natural history, free hand geometrical drawing. The official instructions accompanying the programmes outlined a graded, progressive series of lessons in each branch, and called, also, for oral lessons relating to the rights and duties of men in family, social and civil relations. M. Baccelli proposes a reduction of an hour a day in