TRIBUTE TO HORACE MANN.

It is to his moral grandeur that he owes his splendid success. Horace Mann was good as well as great; indeed, it is more exact to say that he was great because he was good. His intellectual talents, had they been accompanied by want of principle or love of pleasure, would not have placed him much above mediocrity. But his whole being was so filled with love of God and love of man, was so illumined with a fiery zeal of doing good, was so urged on by hatred of evil and a heaven-descended energy to destroy it, that he became, in the hands of Providence, an engine of tremendous power, whose mighty works will long outlast the best endeavors of abler, but morally inferior, men. This admirable phase of his character appears in all his writings and in all that is said of him by his friends. One says, "He gravitated as straight and as surely to the right as a stone gravitates to the earth." Another, "Principles were more to him than even friends, which is no light praise of one who loved so tenderly." It was the moral side of his nature that led him to oppose emulation and corporal punishment in the common schools, and to maintain that no college should graduate a vicious young man. Moral training is a favorite theme in his lectures and reports. The moral nature has its place in his incomparable definition of education: "Its function is to call out from within all that was divinely planted there in the proportions required to make a noble being." For more than a quarter of a century all that was mortal of this restless leader of educational thought has been laid to sleep in the quiet grave. But his is no silent tomb. The antidote for the poison of death is not merely resurrection, but also remembrance. "The singer goes, but the song remains." The doer dies, but the deed endures. The icy hand of death may chill the living voice, but the spoken word goes "echoing down the corridors of time. And so his words and works live after him and the good he did is not “interred with his bones.

His monument is the Common School-a memorial structure more beautiful than Napoleon's Mausoleum or Victoria's costly offering to the shade of her royal spouse; more durable than Aztec mound, Egyptian pyramid, or marble sepulcher of Homeric king. For, as long as human liberty shall be upheld by universal suffrage, as long as political equality shall be the heritage of liberty, as long as free and equal citizens shall be linked together by the fraternal bonds of a common country, so long shall the Common School continue to bear the mark of his genius, and to transmit the grateful remembrance of his name! A. L. MANN.

[Extract from a lecture.]

An action of very great importance in the scholastic policy of the public schools of San Francisco was taken by the present Board of Education, soon after its accession to power.

James G. Kennedy was, upon the recommendation of the Classification Committee, elected Head Inspecting Teacher of the Department.

The place has not existed in past times, and, in creating it, the Democratic School Directors were severely censured and accused of extravagance, by a partisan metropolitan daily news journal.

But the criticism is not entitled to any serious consideration, since its conclusions are based upon false premises, and the need of a suitable system of school inspection is recognized by all educators. Mr. Kennedy, too, is evidently the man for the place, and, before describing his method of inspection, it will be pertinent to give of him a brief biography. He is, apparently, about fifty or fifty-five years of age, and in his temperament very active. The public schools of California laid the basis for his education, and, graduating from the Normal School in the class of '67, he subsequently attended a term at the Santa Clara College. He has been a Principal and Superintendent of Schools at San Jose, and Superintendent of the Schools of Santa Clara County, which is largely indebted to him for its present excellent system of education. The connection of Mr. Kennedy with the schools of San Francisco is comparatively recent, having begun about eighteen months ago. When elected to be Head Inspecting Teacher, he was serving as Principal in the South San Francisco Grammar School.

The teaching of English is a specialty with Mr. Kennedy. Following is his course of study for the Primary and Grammar Schools, and it will be read with interest by all teachers:

RECEIVING CLASS.

The instruction in the Receiving Class is purely oral, being conducted on a conversational basis and for the purpose of enabling the pupils not to write, but to talk compositions.

A familiar subject is selected (some object in the class-room, for instance, such as a book, a chair, a table, etc.), and the teacher, chalk in hand, takes a position at the blackboard.

Questions are then put to individual members of the class, with the view of inducing them to make some simple statement concerning the subject under consideration.

The answers are invariably required to be given in sentences, each of them being written upon the board, soon as received, by the

teacher.

A considerable number of short, but complete sentences will be the result.

Get pupils to construct short, original sentences from a given word or words taken from the Reader; also encourage them frequently to tell you of what they see, what they do, and what they hear, thus laying the foundation for the arts of description and narration. The sentence is taken as the basis of all teaching of language.

EIGHTH GRADE.

Continue upon a more advanced scale the course of study begun in the Receiving Class, and teach pupils to write, as well as to speak their thoughts in sentences.

Give frequent exercises in the building of sentences upon words selected from the Reader, taking for this purpose, if necessary, as many as ten words.

Teach from the context the proper use of words in the reading lesson, also the use of capitals, the period and question marks.

Pupils should also be drilled in the combination and arrangement of separate sentences into paragraphs, so as to secure a variety of expression, and form of the whole a connected composition.

SEVENTH GRADE.

The language exercises are based principally upon object lessons, studies in school, etc.

Pictures are now introduced and pupils are led to give of them oral and written descriptions.

From the lessons in their Readers, pupils should be taught to construct stories of their own.

The use of the exclamation point and the apostrophe is taught, in connection with that of the question marks, capital letters and the period.

Pupils, on leaving this grade, are expected to be able to express their thoughts, in clear and simple language, upon any subject with which they are conversant.

SIXTH GRADE.

Continue gradually to develop the principles governing instruction in the lower grades.

Letter writing is here introduced, particular attention being given to the style of beginning, closing and addressing letters.

The use of the quotation marks is added to the punctuation study. Paragraphs should be written from dictation; pupils taught how to spell the words of the reading lessons, their meaning and the way

to use them in sentences.

The lessons in the Reader should also be rewritten, by pupils, in different language.

Practice, too, should be given in the construction of original sentences, the combination of independent statements into sentences,

etc.

The pictures, for the descriptive exercises, should be of a higher order than those used in the Seventh Grade, and the class led to discover that every sentence contains two essential elements, viz., the thing talked about, and what is said of it.

Children in this grade ought to be capable of writing a plain, sensible composition upon any topic not above the level of their intelli

gence.

FIFTH GRADE.

The chief change in the instruction for this, the highest Primary grade, consists in the teaching of the complete subject and the complete predicate, into which all sentences are divided; the position of adjective and adverbial modifiers, the use of the connectives and the formation of plurals.

A thorough review of the work of all lower grades, and the analysis and synthesis of simple sentences, having word modifiers, are also included in the course of study.

Pupils are expected materially to enlarge their vocabulary; to acquire a comparatively fluent command of language, as well as a clear idea of the use and meaning of simple words and sentences; to be able to write a business or friendly letter and to compose a creditable paper upon any subject of which they possess the requisite information.

FOURTH GRADE.

The same scheme of composition, that was begun in the Primary, is continued in the Grammar School.

Pupils are trained to identify, in sentences, all the parts of speech. Drill is had on the formation of plurals and genders, the complete and the incomplete verb.

The phrase and the clause, as adjective and adverbial modifiers, are studied, also the different forms of the pronoun when used as the subject, attribute and object.

Literary style is now considered, and its essential properties are classified under the heads of clearness, strength and beauty.

Clearness is shown to be dependent upon the position of the modifiers.

Strength comes from variety of construction, the rejection of superfluous words, etc.

Beauty is secured in the use of harmonious words and expressions having a pleasing sound to the ear.

THIRD GRADE.

Presuming proper preparation in the lower grades, pupils are now qualified to enter upon the study of words, phrases and clauses, and, in a simple way, their uses in sentences.

Due attention should be given to the regular and irregular verbs; also to active, passive and neuter forms of expression.

Continue the composition exercises begun in the lower grades, and, by dwelling upon clearness, strength and beauty, develop ideas, previously suggested, of style.

Graduates from this grade should be able to illustrate, in sentences, the aforementioned forms of the verb, and to write a sentence containing an active, a passive or neuter verb in the predicate, having the subject, predicate or attribute modified by a word, a phrase or a clause, as may be desired. Pupils should also be able to change a word to a phrase, and vice versa.

SECOND GRADE.

A thorough review should be held in this grade of all the work which has preceded it.

Take care to see that pupils fully understand the structure of the sentence, and all of the common uses in it of words, phrases and clauses.

Fully develop the idea of style, and teach that the essential elements of clearness are:

1. Mastery of the subject, which is attained by personal investigation, reading and comparison.

2. Choice of words, comprising a knowledge and use of pure English, proper words, and precision or synonyms. Strength includes:

1. Specific statements.

2. The transposition of words and sentences.

3.

4.

5.

Different kinds of sentences.

Imagery.

Climax.

6. The period.

Beauty is secured in the use of harmonious words and sentences, and the adaptation of sound to sense.

FIRST GRADE.

Style, and its essential properties, clearness, strength and beauty, should here be thoroughly reviewed, special attention being given to the use of synonyms and to the outlining of subjects for original compositions.

Regular practice should be had in the condensation and expansion of sentences, paragraphs, tales and essays.

Great stress should be laid upon the power ad variety of expression, which is often secured by changing e position of modifiers, condensing, etc.

Scott's Lady of the Lake and a play of Shakespeare's may advantageously be studied with particular reference to the use and meaning of words and the essential properties of style-clearness, strength and beauty.