triotism and good citizenship, and inculcating "a love of truth, justice, purity, and beauty." The school is a little community where each may be taught to respect the rights and property of others, to be courteous at all times, to be sympathetic in trouble and helpful to one another in time of need. But above all and over all the most important factor in moral instruction is the example and personal influence of the teacher.

In closing let me quote the words of Henry Van Dyke as setting forth some of the most important things to be secured through the training of the school:

Four things a man must learn to do If he would make his record true: To think without confusion clearly, To love one's fellow men sicerely, To act with honest motive purely, To trust in God and Heaven securely,

Supt. J. W. Carr, Dayton.

In the brief space allotted to me I can emphasize but two points in the discussion of this great subject.

1. The first is that the most im

portant work of the public schools is to assist in the moral development of the child. As a people, we need increased morality even more than we need greater wealth or scholarship or culture. The dangers that threaten the republic are those that arise from lack of a better moral fiber among our people - unbridled appetite, uncontrolled passion, greed for money, inordinate ambition for power and position, disregard for law and so on to the end of the chapter. These are the tares that the public school must help to uproot if they render the greatest service to society.

It is important to teach the chil

dren the fundamental principles of arithmetic, but it is more important to teach the fundamental principles of truth and justice and honor and integrity. They should be taught to speak and to write the English languag correctly, but it is of even greater importance that they know how to control the temper, to bridle the tongue, and to deal kindly and justly with their fellows. It is important that children should study literature and art and music and other subjects that will make them cultured men and cultured women, but even more important than culture are virtue and sobriety and the recognition of what is mine and what is thine.

2. The second point I wish to emphasize is, that children in the public schools should be trained in the practice of certain elementary virtues. I am not urging the formal teaching by precept of these virtues, but I am contending that children should practice them again and again until they become habits. Of course, the number of virtues that can be taught children is greatly limited, but The same they are fundamental.

thing is true of the truths of mathematics or any other subjects taught in the public schools, only a few things can be taught.

Now, what are some of the things in which children may be trained in the public schools that will make for morality in after life? I shall name only a few, such as truth, honesty, justice, honor, obedience and respect for the rights of others. These things should be taught in the recitation, during the study period, by the routine and discipline of the school, on the play-ground, and in numerous other ways until they become fixed habits of conduct.

Dean W. IV. Boyd, Columbus. The issue regarding moral training in the schools is not raised so much, it appears, for the purpose of adding new opportunity for the school as for discovering what the school is already doing. It is very generally understood that the vital function of the school is moral training. Teachers agree that intellectual attainment which does not issue in right action stamps the school as a failure. As a consequence every school tries to inspire higher ideals and nobler actions in its pupils. An agitation and study of this question must result in a discovery of some of the principles which schools to succeed in their purposes while others fail.

cause some

Two conceptions obtain regarding the principles which underlie moral teaching. The first throws the emphasis upon a practice of right action, the second upon the development of the will. Both have their virtues and both their dangers. The virtue of the first lies in the establishment of habits of right action. But so anxious that his pupils shall do right does the teacher become under this rule of action that he supplies the entire stimulus for action. He "makes" his pupils act rightly. Under his forced direction, pupils do become habituated to the right. But, as soon as the stimulus of the teacher is removed, the pupil finds himself without a guiding force and therefore declines rapidly in moral action. Hence, we have the old adage regarding the preacher's son: "He is the worst boy in the world." The preacher, feeling that his son must be an example to the community, literally made him do right. When the boy had grown to young manhood

and had started out in the world for himself, he found that he was absolutely devoid of any controlling force. This new freedom led him to the only kind of action which stamped him as the worst boy in the world.

The virtue of the principle which depends upon a development of the will lies in the fact that the controlling power is within the child himself. There is no real moral action without choice. And only when choice is made in response to duty can it be said that there is the highest moral action. That there may be wise choice, it is necessary that there be clear perception. Very much of immoral action both in the child and in the adult arises because there is not a clear distinction between right and wrong. How often it happens that the lie is made to appear justifiable and that it is better to choose it than the truth. Here a great danger lies for the second principle. The teacher needs to present to his pupil very definite ideas so that nothing hazy or uncertain may be left in the mind of the child regarding the thing he ought to do.

In view of these brief statements, perhaps it is well to add that both principles are needed in the school room. The child should learn to do right both by choosing it and by practicing it. If he does not have strength of character enough to make a right choice, then the choice should be made for him, and he should be compelled to do the right thing. But gradually, through the various opportunities which the school affords, there must be developed character for right choice so that the control of the child may be eventually passed

over to him.

"Who is Lewis Marshall?" asked the new teacher of history. "How did he ever get into the high school?" "Outside of school hours he is a newsboy. In school he is a nuisance," said Miss Emerson. "He got into the high school by passing the grammar grade examinations successfully, though in my estimation he can neither read, write, nor speak English."

"No, but he certainly has a wonderful slang vocabulary," said Miss Barnes. "He was telling me to-day about William the Conqueror. It seems that Lewis disapproves of William, because William had such a high temper, and because he butted in and took away Harold's kingdom, and what the Witan said didn't go down him, unless -"

Miss Emerson interrupted with a laugh, "Consistency, thou art a jewel," she cried. "Lewis Marshall always reminds me of the 'eathen in 'is blindness, for most assuredly 'e don't obey no orders, unless they are "is own.' I ought to know, for I had him in Beginning Latin and English composition last year. You know the first two years of Latin are compulsory. But he informed me that he wouldn't learn Latin. I kept him in. I devised all sorts of punishments and rewards, but still he wouldn't. I reasoned and scolded, and finally he said: 'Now,, look here. the law says I got to go to school two more years, so I got to go. The school board says I got to learn Latin two years, too, but I guess not. Now I won't learn Latin, and you can't make me if I won't, so you might as

well quit. The thing for you to do is to put in your time on some kid that will learn, and that you can make do it, instead of fussing at me. That way you'll save a lot of trouble, and do some good for you, and me, and the other kids too. See?" "Why, Miss Emerson! Did you allow him to speak to you in that impert —"

"Miss Barnes, stop a moment. Don't look so shocked. Think about it, and see if there was not real common sense in his suggestion. The school board bestows two years of Latin alike on the just and the unjust - no discrimination. Here is a boy from the streets, bad, saucy, alert, utterly uncultivated, with a strong energetic will and some ability. He detests Latin, and resists it. Will I do well to train him to sullenness and obstinacy for the sake of a few Latin declensions? His case is exceptional, to be sure, but the sharpened wits that are the product of his life on the streets lead him to very practical conclusions. Have you not

found it so?"

"Oh, dear, he has the most amazing ideas. The other day, in a lesson on Feudalism, I propounded the case of a man who owed allegiance to different kings for different grants of land, and asked what would be the duty of the man if the kings went to war with each other. The whole class was blank for a while, and then Lewis exclaimed: 'Why! he'd just have to fight his self!''

"Oh, yes, Lewis is keen enough to appreciate a paradox. I wish you could have witnessed my struggles

with him in composition. You have probably found out that he can't-or wont-write legibly. And he utterly scorns all punctuation. His spelling is a perfect nightmare. So even if he were willing to write, the situation would be bad enough. But he wasn't willing. He objected most strenuously. I finally convinced him that he must hand in a certain amount of work, but he never would recite from the book, and he flatly refused to write on any subjects except of his own choosing."

"Well, why not let him choose?" "I did. He chose base-ball. Nothing else. In narrative, he told a baseball story. In description, he described base-ball games. Some of his themes were really good, too, except for the slang. In argument, he had a really clever discussion of some base-ball question, and exposition only gave him a chance to explain 'the game.' He said he wouldn't do any biography, but he did, at last, get up a fairly good paper - on Napoleon Lajoie! He refused to do the required reading in English, but carried a base-ball manual in his pocket to the class picnic. He never reads the newspapers except the sporting page. Once I did get him to write on winter sports, but he closed his theme with the remark that after all winter sports didn't amount to much, as skating and coasting were not half so good as base-ball."

"Is he like that in all his work? How about mathematics and science?"

"Oh, he was fairly good in algebra. He said that he could see some sense to that, although he did not like it. But he nearly knew his physiology by heart. Mr. Jones says that no experiment was too difficult, no reference too tedious, no required reading too long for Lewis. He simply

devoured every particle of information on the subject. And when he came to botany, he showed the same enthusiasm for a certain part of the work, but Mr. Jones couldn't make him do the part that he disliked."

"And you just allowed him to do as he pleased, and let him tell you what he would and wouldn't do, like that?"

"Miss Barnes, you know I told you that he is a newsboy. He has grown up on the streets. Every man that goes by has a word for him, and he has learned to have a reply for every one. As a result he is bold and sharp and full of resource. He has had to defend himself and act on his own responsibility for years. Nobody catches him unawares. He is known as a famous fighter. Don't you see how natural it is for him to talk back and say things that sound very impudent, when he doesn't mean anything of the kind. When he explained. his views about Latin he was trying to reason with me as a woman of sense. You don't reason with people when you mean to be impudent. He is really only being self-reliant and independent, from long years of practice, and as I said, he patterns after the 'eathen in 'is blindness. Now I have taken his case to the superintendent, and obtained permission to expel him. Then he would have to go to the Reform School."

"Oh, no; not that! He doesn't need to go there! It would be the ruin of his chances."

"Exactly. But here, if we let him develop in his own way, there is a fine chance of making him into a good citizen. Instead of forcing Latin and poetry on him, I tried to work along the line of least resistFor I encouraged his fads. instance, base-ball led up to the question of clean sport, and again to the

ance.

number and variety of occupations dependent upon the game, and the number of men employed in connection with them. It was easy enough to get him to see the principle of cause and effect, and the value of influence. Then his work in physiology was useful when he wrote about the athletic training of a professional ball-player, and there was a chance to make him tell me mind you, I never told him that a fellow was a fool to break over and drink, or do anything of that sort. Lewis assured me that a smart man would know that it takes a heap more sense for a man to keep straight than to go wrong. And mind you, he comes of a family of drunkards and gamblers. Then Lewis is a hero-worshipper. It was an easy step from Napoleon Lajoie to Napoleon Bonaparte."

"Is that how he came to know so much about Napoleon? Just now he is interested in William the Conqueror. He thinks that William had no business to swipe Harold's crown, but it was a good thing for England, for Harold was no good anyhow, and William made a better king. We had quite a talk about whether a bad man can be a good king, and what makes a really great man. You should have heard him talking about the Abbey of Battle."

"'Yes' he said, 'William thought he was smart, because he won a big fight, and got to be king. He just wanted to let people know it. He

Of

"Now, what am I to do? course, you are right about letting him follow his natural bent, and of course, I will try to be broad-minded about not mistaking his abrupt sort of common-sense for impudence, but what am I to do about the slang? Really, it is dreadful at times. What did you do?"

"Nothing successful. It is a hard problem. You see, he hears and speaks it all the time. You may do more than I did, for he has been telling me how well he likes his history, and Lewis does love to pattern after a hero. If you will be patient and try to understand him, you may have a great influence. Oh, are you going? Well, good-bye. Be sure to let me know how you get on with the poor little heathen."

The more I examine Page's Chief American Poets, the more I feel that it will be a source of joy and pleasure

to the reader. We can not lay claim to being educated, unless we know and love poetry, the highest form of