on such days as this, better have their recess in the rooms, and only those pass out to whom it is imperative that they should?"

"Why, Mr. Brown, who ever heard of such an idea! Think of the noise! They would litter the floor with apple skins, the teachers would have to look after them every minute. Besides, it wouldn't do to break over the rule!"

Brown turned down the street. As he buttoned his coat, he said, "I wish Miss Smith had a little common sense," but never a word about promotion this time.

Miss Smith said to herself: "What could make Mr. Brown so cross. Have a recess in the rooms, indeed, because it happens to rain! Next he would want such a recess when it is cloudy, when it is cold, when it is hot, and what time could the teachers get to eat an apple and to have a little chat? No! I'll let him know that I keep the rules."

Fellow-teachers, Brown was and is right. What Miss Smith needs, what we all need, is more common sense. In pleasant, mild weather to the average boy or girl a run in a school yard or well lighted play-room is beneficial. It were better for the moral and physical well-being of primary children if the teachers joined them. If, like our German friends, they directed their sports, suggested games, chose the sides, led the singing, tried to get back to their own childhood, t would be infinitely better for both parties. But we prefer to keep the rules. Children are turned out and left to their own devices, the teachers, meanwhile, indulging in pickles and gossip. The rule is made inflexible. Children recovering from sickness, children illy clad and suffering from colds, must go into the yard because it is the rule. Girls fourteen to sixteen, at critical periods of their life, must go and "stand on the line" for ten or fifteen minutes, with only thin shoes to protect them from the heat-extracting flagging. If notes are brought to be excused, to be sure pupils are excused; but often so ungraciously that a girl will, as one said, "die before she brought another note." All of this that a rule may be kept.

The exclusion of pupils from the school room in the morning, regardless of the weather, until the clock indicates the appointed minute, re-enacts again the story of Procrustes. Teachers sit in well-warmed rooms discussing last might's party, while little girls shiver in the bleak play-ground. "Serves them right for coming so early!" Not so! The children dread the biting wind less than the cutting words, and often the rod, which fall upon them if late. In their anxiety to avoid these, and knowing nothing of the inclemency of the weather, after a long, cold walk they arrive, half frozen, at the school-room, to find the door closed in conformity to a rule made in July. Give the children fair play. Let the rules be made for their good, and not for our personal convenience.

An old farmer's son returned from college. He talked finely about the dignity of labor and the chemical constituents of the soils. Spring wore into summer and summer into autumn, and no useful result came from his dissertations. One night at family prayers the old farmer exclaimed: "O Lord, Thou hast given John a power of book larnin', but, we pray Thee, give him a little gumption, too." The schools have a "power" of rules. Let us offer the old farmer's prayer for a little gumption."--The Sanitarian, New York.

T

GOVERNMENT.

O preserve the self-respect of her pupils should be the teacher's first care in administering reproof. If self-respect be lost, nothing is gained. The particular fault may be temporarily repressed, but a prolific root of new faults has been planted. The teacher whose tone and manner implies the expectation of obedience, and of obedience grounded on the honor and good sense of her pupils, is oftener obeyed with cheerful readiness than she whose voice and gesture expressed impatience, and who seems to assume that the children are, of course, bent on mischief. It is better to make the mistake of overrating right dispositions than, in the absence of evidence, to berate a child for willful misdemeanor. If the reminder of the teacher is, in point of severity, proportioned to the offense, and considerately conveyed, it will make the wrong-doer thoughtful, but not resentful. There is always enough pride in our natures to repel exaggerated blame, and especially are we disposed to excuse ourselves when the manner of the accuser seems to imply that our faults are "just what might have been expected." While it is foolish to adopt the worn-out formula, "I am surprised at you, John," there are still delicate and effective ways of intimating a belief in a pupil's desire of good behavior and fidelity in study.-Schemerhorn's Monthly.

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COMMON SENSE.

MARY ALLEN WEST.

OU seem to be examining us as to common sense," remarked an applicant for a teacher's certificate. "That is certainly what I am trying to do," was the reply, "for common sense is the very first requisite for a teacher." And it is. What Mrs. Stowe's " Faculty" is to the New England housekeeper, common sense is to the teacher.

Says one : "There is something dreadfully wanting in his make-up who finds all things of about the same quality;" all things are not equally good, all ways not equally direct. For doing everything there is a more excellent way, and common sense finds out that way.

Common sense, perfected, blossoms into tact, which is only doing the nicest things in the nicest way. This power of appreciating and doing the very thing required by circumstances, this never being surprised into a false move, is what distinguishes a good teacher from a poor one. Without it a man is continually running his head against a stone wall; with it he makes his way easily through what seems an inextricable tangle of difficulties. Nine-tenths of the fusses which arise in school, whether between teacher and pupil, or teacher and directors or parents, is due to want of this faculty. He is not the best manager who is best able, by sheer force of will power, to quell a disturbance after it has arisen; such a one might make an excellent police officer, but the teacher needs higher qualifications—the foresight and skill to prevent difficulties from arising.

It is a grand thing to have the faculty of doing just as you please, and then making every one feel that you have done just right. Of course the first requisite is that you shall do just right; and here comes into exercise all the judgment and conscience you possess. But, granting the thing done to be the very best thing, one teacher does it in such a way as to stir up no end of opposition; another does the same thing, but in such a way that everybody is ready to aver that it is the very thing he most desired to have done. One teacher comes down like a sledge-hammer with his "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not," and his school is in a state of chronic rebellion; the other never seems to command, and yet his slightest wish is obeyed. The reason is that one understands human nature, and acts accordingly, whereas the other does not; in short, one uses common sense, the other does not.

You visit a school-room, filled with quiet industry; in a distinct corner arises a slight disorder, so slight you scarcely notice it, and the teacher, absorbed in the arithmetic recitation, seems not to observe it. A few minutes later, when the class are busy at the board, a signal no one else perceives summons the disorderly boy to the teacher's side. A talk follows, so low-toned that you do not hear a word, though you sit within a yard of teacher and pupil; you only know that the boy returns to his seat subdued, and is a model boy during the remainder of your visit. No other pupil is disturbed, not one second is taken from the working time of any but the offender. That teacher has tact. You enter another school room, presided over by a pompous, loud-voiced A.M. A set of cast-iron rules are conspicuously posted up, and not an hour passes in which they are not referred to. A restless noisiness pervades the room, a metaphorical rattling of chains which gall. One urchin makes a little louder noise than his fellows, and the "Master" thunders out, "John, stop that noise!" Of course, every head is turned toward John; all work of study or recitation is suspended. It may be resumed the next minute, but that one minute, if there be sixty children, counts up to an hour wasted by the teacheran hour, pay for which ought to be deducted from his wages.

It seems the plainest dictate of common sense that a teacher should not make more noise in quelling a disturbance than the disturbance itself, nor waste the time of all for the offense of one, yet this is exactly what hundreds of teachers do, who would be mortally offended if we hinted that they were lacking in common sense. Verily, this common sense is the rarest commodity in market.

But governing is not the teacher's principal work, though in many schools it is the most conspicuous. Our main work is teaching, and here is opportunity for the rarest tact, the profoundest common sense. Its plainest dictate is that for every structure the foundation must first be laid deep, broad and strong; yet are sandy foundations entirely unknown in school work?

In the mental as well as in the physical world, there is a correlation of forces, and the interplay of these forces must be carefully observed. Memory, so quick and retentive in childhood, must be duly exercised; the reasoning powers, rolled up so tight in a child's mind as to be scarcely perceptible, must be developed; the will must be strengthened and guided; the moral sense judiciously educated. Each has its place and its natural order of sequence; to follow this order is sensible; to fight against it, nonsensical.

Skill is required in keeping a just balance between the two things sought to be attained by education-storing the mind with knowledge and developing and

disciplining its powers. Each is important in its place, and each, if allowed to exclude the other, becomes hurtful. To keep the required equipoise requires a cool head and a steady hand. Nor is a warm heart, whose instincts are quicker and often truer than the deductions of reason, out of place here.

Much of the work necessary to store the mind with facts will be best performed when presented to the child as play; the very stevedores work best to the rhythm of their own songs, and we ought to employ this play principle. But there is work which must be done as work; hard, continuous, persistent endeavor can only give that discipline of mind, that strength of character which real life will demand. We are fitting our pupils for real life, not for an ideal existence; common sense dictates that we strive to develop by work that strength which is needed in the battles of life, while we arouse that enthusiasm which lightens the heaviest tasks by tranfusing into them the element of play. In nothing does the teacher's common sense show more clearly than in his adaptation of methods to the peculiarities of the child. The lapidary does not decide first of all into what form he shall cut the diamond. He carefully examines the uncut stone and decides into what form it can best be cut. The stone which would glow resplendent as a "rose" diamond might lose half its brilliancy if cut as a "pear;" hence each stroke which is made, every process through which the gem passes, is adapted with the nicest accuracy to its natural conformation. In dealing with imperishable jewels, which might make resplendent our crown of rejoicing forever, how often do we work at hap-hazard, knowing little of the material in our hands, and caring little whether our processes are adapted to it or not. Mechanically we work and stupidly await the result, expecting our jewels to be rightly polished, because we persistently hold them to the wheel; the grind, grind, grind goes on, till suddenly we find our gems ground to powder, and worthless dust alone remains as the result of our labor. He who attempts to deal with bodies of children en masse will certainly fail; we must deal with them as individuals. One will work from pure love of study; another from love for his teacher; one needs the spur of ambition, another the discipline of wholesome fear; one is brought out by judicious praise, another by equally judicious censure. Each must be treated, not as so much "boy" cut off from the general supply, as a merchant cuts off a sample of goods; but must receive treatment suited to his individual needs, such treatment as will incite him to perform the greatest amount of well directed work. It must be confessed there are some, though very few, who will not work from any motive whatever, and the problem presented to common sense is how best to manage so as to prevent these from being a drawback to the rest of the school. A difficult problem it is, too, but one which will occasionally arise. The perfection of tact can not make something out of nothing. Even so simple a musical instrument as a whistle cannot be made out of improper material.

Looking at the uses of common sense in the school-room, of which we have indicated only a few (for these uses are legion), we are ready to say, concerning teachers, what an old Scotch elder said concerning ministers: "There are three things a mon needs to make him a successful minister, viz., gude health, religion and gude sense. If he con hae but one of these, let it be gude sense; for God can gie him health, and God can gie him grace, but nacbody can gie him common sense."-National Teachers' Monthly.

HOW TO TEACH.

VALUABLE paper on the above subject, by Prof. George A. Yates, of Cov

Paris, December 28. Through the kindness of the author we present that part which pertains directly to "methods of teaching:"

There are and have been employed five principal methods of teaching, besides which several minor methods, merely modifications of one or more of these five, to which I will briefly call your attention.

I. THE ROTE OR MEMORY METHOD

Is very familiar to many teachers, and is perhaps more generally practiced than any other.

In this system certain text-books are placed in the hands of the pupils, and a portion is daily given to them to commit to memory. The action of the teacher is confined to appointing the lessons, hearing them recited and deciding when the pupil may pass on to the next.

This method is very ancient, and, in view of a prevalent veneration for ancient habits and customs, is largely used in this country "even to this day;" yet one can scarcely conceive of anything more irksome, more insufferably disgusting to an educated and thoughtful teacher than to be compelled to spend months and years in such an employment. Nor is any method of instruction more fitted to cramp and dwarf the mind of the pupil and fill him with dislike, contempt and dread. I said the educated and thoughtful teacher. Pardon the expression. Such teachers employ no such method. It is only educational quacks who administer such doses to juvenile minds.

II. THE LECTURE METHOD

Can only be employed for advanced students and in special branches of study. Crowds of people flock to hear popular lectures on interesting topics. They sit passively and listen while the lecturer pours forth eloquent platitudes on the subject of the discourse, admire for a short time after the lecture is over, and then forget the most of it. It is doubtful whether any appreciable amount of lasting good is produced by exercises of this kind. One hour of earnest and patient private study will do more to train the mind, discipline the intellect and fit it for the acquisition, retention and utilization of knowledge than a whole course of these lectures, unless they be employed as a means of explaining some particular branch of study.

The next, and perhaps the most important method of instruction, is

III. THE INTERROGATIVE METHOD.

Even this is liable to abuse; in fact, it is greatly abused by many teachers who employ it exclusively. If judiciously and scientifically employed, however, it is the best method, if any one method is to be adhered to. The art of questioning requires for its acquisition a large amount of practice, skill and tact, as well as a natural liking for the work of teaching. The matter is a practical one, and must be learned by doing.

Questions may be divided into several kinds, such as: Introductory, calcu