to pursue the ordered course of instruction. When this is accomplished the school produces its most valued, though not always its most valuable product.

How often should the school take stock of its products and readjust its groups? All sorts of answers have been made to this inquiry. Schemes of promotion and gradation as numerous as the grades themselves have been tentatively set forth and in most instances put into limited practice. Most of these die before they are fairly alive. They possess only the merit of some unique some unique personality who, in the place of power, neglects all else in order to demonstrate the virtue of his great discovery. Under such conditions a successful system of promotion is likely to result, but the system of schools as a whole suffers by neglect. At most, any system of promotion is one and only one of many important problems that constantly abide with the school.

That our present system of promotion is not suited to the needs of the schools is shown in the fact that during the present school term to and including January 20, 1907, 2,759 pupils have been promoted under the provision for incidental promotion. It is also shown, in so far as it relates to the secondary schools, by the fact that the principals of the elementary schools report that had a semi-annual promotion been announced on December 1, 1906, for February 1, 1907, it would have been possible to send the secondary schools, at the mid-year, 635 pupils. The schools to which these eighth grade pupils now belong, as well as the names, are on the file in the office. Manifestly, any system of schools that keeps such a large number of pupils for a halfyear from the secondary school is open to severe censure. These pu

pils will "mark time" for six months. Their presence in the eighth grade gives color to the criticism that this grade is a barren one in nutrition to the pupil, and the further criticism that by keepig these from the kind of training they should and could receive, many drop out of the grammar grade and never reach the secondary school. The present plan prevents many pupils from reaching the higher schools. This is a condition greatly to be deplored, and one which, in the light of almost universal experience elsewhere, can have no adequate justification.

It will be difficult to shorten the promotion periods for the elementary schools without applying the same treatment to the secondary schools. In fact, it is almost impossible to determine the frequency of promotion in elementary schools while the secondary schools hold to annual promotions. If, however, the secondary school is to make easy the advance of the pupils from the grammar schools, by more frequent adjustment of its classes, the whole question becomes relatively a simple one.

It seems to me, therefore, that a few conclusions may properly be drawn.

1. The pupil in the elementary school should remain with one teacher long enough to establish between the two that spiritual harmony so essential to successful teaching.

2. The pupil in the elementary school should remain with one teacher long enough to enable the teacher to establish an adequate basis of judgment upon the pupil's conduct and mental complex. Thus will the teacher be able best to direct the mental development of the pupil-a matter of prime importance-and also to express a fair judgment upon the pupil's promotion.

3. The pupil in the elementary school should not remain in a grade beyond the time indicated save only for considerations of ill health or inability to pursue profitably more advaced work.

4. Whatever is possible, in the matter of the frqeuency of promotions in the grammar schools applies also to the secondary schools.

5. Whatever is possible, in the matter of more frequent promotions in the primary grades than in the grammar grades, may be cared for under a system of incidental promotions, such as now prevails in the schools of the city.

Annual promotions are too infrequent, both in the elementary schools and in the secondary schools.

I would therefore, recommend that the Rules of the Board of Public Education be so amended as

(a) To provide for incidental

promotions at such times as in the judgment of the teacher and the principal, with the approval of the superintendent, may seem wise.

(b) To provide for semi-annual promotions in all the elementary and secondary schools of the city.

(c) To permit the superintendent, in large schools of eighteen or more divisions, to exercise his discretion in authorizing any system of promotions at more frequent intervals.

(d) To provide for a physical as well as an intellectual standard for promotions.

(e) To differentiate between the elementary and secondary schools only upon the method of promotion and not upon the time of promotion.

(f) To announce that this change shall become operative at the beginning of the next school year, September, 1907.

We hear so much these days concerning the qualifications, natural and acquired, that must be the possession of a good, efficient teacher. Every educational magazine is replete with methods for bettering and rendering the teacher more efficient, and there is not a live, wide awake, progressive teacher but welcomes and profits by these suggestions. But why is it a one-sided affair? Why is it we rarely see an article setting forth the essentials necessary to efficiently supervise our schools. No public position demands more scholarship, more character, more business

and executive ability. Are our superintendents all that could be desired? Have they climbed the heights of perfection and left the teachers as a class, groveling in the mire of inefficiency? True there are many "experienced" teachers who, as George P. Brown says, are "choking the breath of life out of the schools," but we have a host of "advancing experienced teachers." Let me ask, have we not also "experienced" superintendents, who by virtue of "political pulls" are "hanging like the old man of the sea, at the necks of the schools, choking the life out of

a

them?" Is the oft repeated adage, "as is the teacher so is the school" any more of a truism than, "as is the superintendent so are the schools?" Does a college education alone make the superintendent efficient any more than it does the teacher? How often we see a man fresh from college but with no practical experience as teacher, placed at the head of the schools. Truly this is a dangerous experiment. In the village of D--, State of Ohio, this experiment was tried. During the winter term of school the superintendent, who was also High School principal, resigned, and instead of advancing a lady of college attainments and years of successful teaching to this position, as many of the patrons of the school desired, a man, who was a graduate of an academy, but with no experience whatever as a teacher, was taken from a flouring mill and given charge of the schools. Do you ask why? He was fortunate in having what politicians call a "pull" with the board, in that his father, his uncle and his wife's uncle constituted three of the five members. He never attends teachers' institutes or associations, and doubtless would find them very dry affairs if he should. I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to his understanding of the workings of the school system and the inspiration he is to his teachers. An extreme. case do you say? I beg you to look about you and you will doubtless be able to discover some such in your own neighborhood or county. To successfully engineer the schools the superintendent should be a teacher of experience, for does he not or at least should he not become a teacher of teachers? He should be conversant with the best methods of teaching from the first primary to the High School inclusive, and be able to hear

a recitation in such a manner as to give the teacher new ideas and inspiration along that line. He should possess broad and definite ideas and have a mind open for the reception of new truths and be able to interpret them by the great store of truths we already possess. He should not be a faddist but a progressive conversative able to sift the reforms advanced by radicals down to the real kernel of truth. He should not be fault-finding but given to helpful criticism. How many that might have made efficient teachers have been driven from our ranks by a superintendent who knew not how to criticize in a kind, helpful manner; on the other hand, many who possessed no great natural endowments have made successful teachers because of the

kindly, helpful criticisms and sympathy of their superintendents who knew how to criticize in such a man ner as to shake them out of set ways and open their eyes to the possibilities of self-improvement. He should be approachable, make the teachers members of his cabinet and frequently discuss the condition of the schools and consult with them as to plans for bettering the same. He should have the courage of his own convictions and not those of another. Many superintendents have not back-boneenough to recommend the removal of a teacher who they feel is a detriment to the school, if she happens to be of a prominent family or a friend of some member of the board, lest perchance they must seek a position elsewhere. Likewise many will not make a fight for the efficient teacher if it is liable in any way to endanger their own positions.

Is such a man a friend of the children and an agent for promoting the public welfare? He should be such a man as to be recognized as the head

of the school, and his ideas should prevail throughout the school. How necessary, then, that he possess not only scholarship but be an able school man, clear-headed, fair-minded, warm-hearted, public-spirited, capable of organizing and developing

public sentiment in matters of education,thus getting the patrons of the schools interested in them and demonstrating to the public the importance of our schools as the leading factor in our civilization.

The main theories as to the formation of cyclones, have been the vertical convection theories and the eddy or tangling theory. In the first, the source of energy is the latent heat of condensation. In the last, the cyclones are simply whirlpools, products by currents of air flowing past each other at different velocities, much as eddies are formed in a rapid stream of water. There are well founded objections to both these theories.

In several memoirs in 1888-91, Professor von Helmholtz showed that waves or billows may be formed in the atmosphere of great extent, at the dividing surface between upper and lower air currents moving in different directions.

Professor Frank H. Bigelow, of the weather bureau office, at Washington, has recently evolved the very satisfactory "counter-current" theory. This theory is, that cyclones are formed by currents of air of different temperatures flowing together from either side at low levels, that is a mile or two above the earth; where, by the intermixing and the change. in elevation, which is induced by their difference in temperature, they cause the gyrations usually observed.

at the surface in the high and low pressure areas. In his theory, the currents of air stream continuously through the cyclone and anticyclone. In brief, his theory is, that cyclones are formed by the interaction of counter currents of different temperatures. So, he says, are tornadoes, and so are hurricanes.

West Indian hurricanes, which are tropical cyclones of unusual severity, occur only in the fall. At this season of the year, the cool eastward drift of air at levels of four to six miles above the earth, spreads into the tropical zone. This meets the southeast trades, with the high level air them, a gyration is set up that exmoving north-westward. Between tends downward four to six miles, and so produces a vortex tube of large dimensions and great power.

Tornadoes are formed by counter currents one or two miles above the earth. Both the hurricane and tornado counter currents overflow a region of stagnant air, whence the vortex tube burrows down to the ground.

Hurricanes are indicated at the surface of the ground by an area of violent winds and rain from 50 to 250 miles in diameter. The tornado

affects an area of from a few yards to generally less than half a mile in diameter.

The tornado is a simple vortex and obeys the laws of the movement of fluids in gyratory circulation. If a mass of air 6,000 feet in diameter is rotating at the half mile level, and it runs into a vortex so that the tube is 100 feet in diameter, and supposing the outer edge of the upper part of the vortex makes seven miles an hour, then at the rim near the bottom of the vortex we would have a velocity of 200 miles an hour.

This causes an enormous centrifugal force in the lower tube, a partial vacuum of low temperature. There is no real mystery about the formation of tornadoes, or respecting their destructive power. It all goes back, says Professor Bigelow, to the same principle that discharges a gun, in which case there is a sudden forma

tion and expansion of gases. But in, the tornado, it is the reverse action. That is, the sudden production of a vacuum into which the outside air discharges itself, that is, into the hollow vortex tube.

The destructive effects at St. Louis, during that very severe tornado of a few years ago, indicate a pressure of 60 to 90 pounds per square foot.

Tornadoes are most frequent when there are very strong contrasts in temperature and moisture between the southerly air currents in the southeastern part of the country and the currents from the north that are in the northwest. This would imply a rotary velocity of about 175 miles an hour.

They are most frequent in the southern states in the early spring months, and they occur farther to the north as spring advances.

THUNDERSTORMS.

Thunderstorms are formed wherever there is a rapidly rising current of moist air and a consequent rapid condensation of moisture. The theory of the generation or formation of the lightning flash is a very interesting one.

The surface of each little particle of moisture is covered with 'electricity. It is thought that as condensation goes on in the air as many as 300 trillions of these droplets may unite to form a single drop of rain. The surface of this large drop is only about one eight-millionth of the area of all the droplets; therefore the density of the electricity on the large raindrop is eight million times what it was on the small drops, and by a simple electrical law, its potential or power of discharge is increased fifty billion times.

It is held by most scientists, that discharge, repeated frequently to the lightning flash is an oscillatory and fro between cloud and cloud, or between cloud and earth. The distance of the flash in miles is approximately equal to one-fifth of the number of people killed by lightning each year in the United States, average about 300. In Ohio, the average annual death rate, by lightning, per each unit of 100,000 agricultural laborers, for the three years, 1896-8, was 24.

Much stock is killed in the fields, by the conduction of electricity along a wire fence from a lightning stroke that has occured some distance away. The remedy for this, is to run ground. wires from the fence into the moist soil.

Small articles of metal do not have the power to attract lightning, but there is danger in standing near a wire fence or a long wire of any kind,