way. He hoped that when any of the members visited San Francisco they would call and see what little children had become capable of in that direction. Such exercises are among the most profitable which can be practiced.

Judge Archer also spoke of the importance of teaching reading, saying that he had known college graduates who could not read a newspaper article before a company of three or four people in a decent way.

The Faculty was instructed to rank reading as high as any other study in examination work.

It was announced that next Commencement Day will fall on Thursday, May 26th, and the Board adjourned to meet on the evening of May 25th.

After the meeting the Executive Committee was complimented by gentlemen present upon its excellent financial management, as after paying all the current expenses of the school a balance of $6,500 will remain. It is out of this balance that it is proposed to pay for apparatus and charts.

Mr. Hoitt said that the showing is in keeping with the previous record of the Board, for it will be remembered that when the San Jose school was built a balance out of the construction fund was returned into the State Treasury.

Text-books were not selected, it being thought best to leave this work to the triple Board, which will be in existence in a few months.

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY.

Superintendent Armstrong, of this county, is doing excellent work, waking up the "dry bones" in his section. There has been no such interest manifested or good accomplished since the days of Superintendent J. F. Beckett. From the columns of a local paper, in which Superintendent Armstrong conducts a very interesting educational department, we get the following:

At a special meeting of the County Board of Education, held on April 2d, the Johomot Series of Supplementary Readers were recommended for the use of teachers, and were also included among the authorized library books. Every district should have and use them. Copies may be seen at the office of the County Superintendent.

Miss Fitzwater has been compelled to close her school, the Laguna, for a week, on account of vaccination and sickness among the smaller pupils.

Miss Broadhurst, of Corral de Piedra School, is recovering somewhat from the effects of the injuries received by being thrown from her buggy lately.

Miss Minnie L. O'Connell writes us that she began school in Salinas District on Tuesday, March 29th.

Miss Katie Wilson opened school in Pecho District on Monday last.

Miss Laura Barnes opened school in Los Oso District on Monday last

Mrs. M. L. Anderson has just completed a three months term in the Sand Hill District. The Trustees and other patrons of the school assure us that Mrs. Anderson has taught the school to the satisfaction of all concerned, and has earned a host of warm friends, who regret her departure from their midst, and wish her well wherever her future lot may be cast. Mrs. Anderson will complete the school year in El Dorado District.

Miss Clara Ganoung writes from San Miguel, that her attendance there has increased to 52-the largest ever known.

A. J. Hudson writes from Oak Dale District that their school began for the Spring term on Monday last, with Miss L. Carter in charge.

The Santa Rosa District School has been entrusted to the hands of S. W. Austin. Mr. Austin, although without experience in his chosen profession, is a graduate of the University of California, in whose success we have the most abiding faith. He writes that his term of school opens under circumstances peculiarly encouraging.

Miss Clara B. Churchill has resumed charge of the Excelsior District School, near Morro. Miss C. is an efficient and capable member of our County Board of Education, and in view of the work of adjusting the course of study to the new State series of text-books, we know of no teacher whose services would be of more value. We hope that the Board of Supervisors will see to it that Miss Churchill is continued as a member of the Board of Education.

Miss Mabel B. Richards has resumed charge of the Olmstead School, near Cambria. The Trustees of Washington District have employed Miss Nettie M. Murray. The school opened on the 4th instant.

Miss Mamie Stocking will complete Mrs. Anderson's term in the Sand Hill School, the latter having taken the El Dorado School for the Spring term. Miss Stocking writes us that although the attendance there is small she finds the school in good working order.

School opened in Nipomo District on March 28th. Miss Leland writes us that she has an attendance of forty pupils. Nipomo District has a new and well equipped school building, and the rapid increase of population there is such as to indicate their having two teachers after the first of July.

Miss G. C. Avery writes from Fairview District that her attendance is twenty-seven, and that her pupils manifest a degree of enthusiasm that augurs well for a successful term's work.

Miss Peck writes of the Creston School that the attendance is at present thirty-five pupils, and that the interest manifested is very encouraging. We hear also of the neighboring school in Geneseo District that some twenty-seven pupils are enrolled, and that things are progressing to the satisfaction of all concerned.

Miss Lottie Laird has opened school in Central District.

The Harmony District School opened on the 4th instant, with Miss Kate J. Riley as teacher.

MENDOCINO COUNTY.

The Westport School is taught by E. Dihel, as Principal, and Miss Rovilla Moore, as Assistant. Good work is being done.

Mrs. Byron Clark has charge of the Mendocino School, and is working with great

success.

B. L. Hogshead, Principal of the Mendocino Public School, has been confined to his room the greater part of this week by an attack of the measles. The principal's department in the school has consequently been closed. Mr. Hogshead having recovered, however, this department will be open again on Monday.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY.

Professor Phelps, Principal of the Eureka Academy, and formerly Superintendent of this county, has let a contract for a new building on the same block as the present one and facing Fifth street. It will be two stories in hight, and cost $4,000. The lower story is to contain one large school-room, two reception-rooms, a dining-room, pantry, servants' bed-rooms, etc. The second story is to contain thirteen sleeping and studying-rooms for boys. All the apartments are to be heated by a hot-air furnace. The building will be 92 feet long by 36 wide, and stand about eight feet distant from the Academy.

Miss M. Scheurer, preceptress at the Academy, assisted by the lady teachers, gave a reception last evening to the High School and Normal pupils and the students in the business department. The spacious parlors of the Academy were filled with over eighty pupils, all of whom are enrolled as pupils in the school.

SOLANO COUNTY.

That the Trustees of Alamo take a great interest in school matters is proved by the fact that the scholars are obliged to carry water half a mile.

The wedding of Professor Firehammer and Miss Perry took place at the residence of the bride's parents in April. After the ceremony, which was performed by Rev. Mr. Hitchcock, the entire party sat down to a repast, from which they arose just in time to catch the afternoon train for the bay. After the bridal trip they will make their home in Alameda, where Mr. Firehammer is Principal of the High School.

Mr. F. A. Manasse, of Red Bluff, is the new teacher that has been engaged for the vacancy in the intermediate department of the Suisun School, for the present term, caused by the resignation of Miss Emma Hoyt on acconnt of sickness.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

Professor Fred. H. Clark, well known here as Principal of the High School, has as sociated himself with L. B. Lawson in the Commercial Night School.

GENERAL NOTES.

Commander Schley's book has one fine touch. Lientenant Greely was the first man in the desolate camp at Cape Sabine to hear the steam whistle of the Thetis. He told his companions that he had heard a steamer's whistle, but they thought it was only the roaring of the wind. Sergeant Long went out of the tent, but speedily returned with the remark that there was nothing in sight. Lieutenant Greely settled himself in his sleeping-bag, but was aroused not long afterward when Lieutenant Colwell cut down the tent. "Greely is this you?" the gallant rescuer asked. "Yes," said Greely, in a faint, broken voice, hesitating and shuffling with his words, "Yes-seven of us left-here we are-dying-like mən. Did what I came to do-beat the best record." Then he fell back exhausted. Lieutenant Greely, dying like a man, but proud of his exploit and conscious that he had beaten the best record, is a noble type of American grit.The New York Tribune.

66

The instruction in the great English schools was nearly all Latin until 1530, when Greek was introduced, and until 1785 the only further change was the addition of a little more Greek. It was not until 1829 that modern and ancient history, geometry, and arithmetic were introduced into the highest classes. In 1851 modern languages were introduced into the Harrow School curriculum. In 1822 it is said that in this school it was "absolute heresy for a master to attempt to teach anything but Latin and Greek." Dr. Arnold, at Rugby, was among the first to advocate the study of something besides the classics. On this mental food hundreds of Englishmen have become intellectual giants. Their minds had time to expand. They were not expected to know a little of everything, but a great deal of something. This is as unlike our system of universal cramming as it possibly can be, and indicates that, when the time of returning sense overtakes the educational world, the quantity to be learned will be reduced to a minimum. Mental culture does not depend upon the amount memorized, but upon the mental discipline gained and its relation to the work of life.-N. Y. School Journal.

When the people of Boston and vicinity were gathered together last Thursday to listen to the great authors who read to assist the Memorial Fund for Longfellow, the evening papers were printing notices of the death of another great poet, John Godfrey Saxe, a man who has, perhaps, no equal in his particular line of humorous and satirical verse.

Born of German parentage, in Highgate, Vt., June 2, 1816, and graduated from Middlebury College, Saxe began his career as a lawyer, and wavered for some time between literary work and a political career. But from 1858 to 1875 he devoted himself almost exclusively to writing, his work as an editor of the Burlington Sentinel and Albany Evening Journal, and to lecturing. He was as much sought after as "poet of occasions as is Oliver Wendell Holmes, and has written many fine things in this way. He contributed to all the well-known periodicals of the day, and the popularity of his poems is attested by the fact that they have passed through more than forty editions. Some of his shorter efforts, like the famous "Riding on the Rail," have been quoted and recited more, perhaps, more than any other poems of the sort extant.

MCCARTY'S ANNUAL STATISTICIAN.

McCarty's Annual Statistician is invaluable as a reference book, containing more compact information than can be found in any other publication. It should be placed on the list of library books adopted by County Boards and be furnished to every distinct school library throughout the State.

Its information about the Governments of the World and the Rulers (some of which cannot be found elsewhere), alone makes the book worth having, while there is scarcely any data upon any subject wanting.

Price, in cloth, $4.00; Turkey, $5.00. L. P. McCarty, editor and proprietor, 713 California street, S. F.

THE

PACIFIC EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL.

Official Organ of the Department of Public Instruction.

VOL. I.

JUNE, 1887.

No. 5.

PEDAGOGIC PERCOLATIONS.

Mrs. Kate Smith Wiggins' story of Patsy," shows the true soul of a real Kindergartener, revealing, also, the brightness belonging to her own individual character and presence. Would we had more of her kind. Had I autocratic power, it could be used in no better direction than in the abolishment of pedagogical and parental tyranny. As teachers and parents, we have a certain power, which being unquestioned, we are apt to abuse. True Kindergartening is to follow the lead of nature, stimulating natural growth in natural channels. But while so much attention is rightly given infant development, the latter growth should not be forgotten. There is an unnatural repression in some of our schools, especially in the yard. After the restraint of the class room, children need the refreshment of freedom, and not prison discipline. They need to use their lungs and limbs in a natural fashion. The man or woman who objects to the happy laugh, the merry shouts or running feet of children, is too soul-soured to be a safe guardian of helpless childhood. Law and order are indispensable in yard as in room, but are for a different purpose, and of a different character. Exercise, to secure the happiest results, must be measurably spontaneous. The cultivation of honor, mutual care, and a proper pride which makes the character of the school a matter of personal reputation for each individual member, can nowhere be better cultivated than in the carefully supervised freedom of happy play. This supervision should never degenerate into absurd restrictions or unjust impatience.

In my many visits during the past twenty-three years, I have seen no school where the sympathy between pupils and teachers was

The reading was The writing was true slant, space

more apparent than in the John Swett Grammar School. The prompt, cheerful obedience which instantly hushed the happy shouts, and checked the hurrying feet in the yard, showed that the good-will of the pupils, secured the best discipline, as well as the best work, in the school room. The principal, Mr. Albert Lyser, was evidently as much at home in teaching, as his best teacher, while the unity of work throughout the building proved his executive ability. an intelligent and intelligible rendering of its subject. not alone legible, but a marvel of mechanical skill in and proportion. As much attention seemed given to oral as to written expression, and, doubtless, will result in making men and women able to think upon their feet. Their impromptu oral compositions were delivered in fluent and correct English, showing the value of memorizing choice literary gems, by which a pure style in expression is cultivated. The delivery of these selections was also a study, and as such, criticised as closely as any study.

The arithmetic was practical, correct, and rapid in execution, even when illustrated by the ever ready drawing whenever measurements were required. Indeed every branch, even the compositions were illustrated in this way, leading to a better comprehension of the topic, and resulting in true artistic culture, not alone visible in drawing, but in the needlework. These drawings were in colors and India ink, as well as in pencil, illustrating the woods, flowers, and fruits of California, landscapes, maps, &c., &c. Selections from these will be taken by Mr. Lyser when he goes East, and exhibited as an evidence of what can be accomplished by San Francisco public school children. He will also take with him a muslin crazy-quilt-a wonder in needlework-worked by Miss Lipman's Second Grade girls during the hour assigned to sewing each week in school.

The singing, recitations, and graceful dumb-bell minuet in Miss Lipman's Second Grade suggested an effort to relieve the monotony of even primary classes, where one is so apt to fall into the rut of a small sameness. That I am never able to reach my ideal does not discourage me, for I am sure that complete satisfaction would indicate pedagogical petrification. AURELIA GRIFFITH.

Principal Golden Gate School.

THE NEW HOBBY.

I had almost written the "New Fad," but the latest Mr. Webster says that it is low, even if George Eliot does use it, so I will compromise on “hobby." The last two numbers of the JOURNAL have the disease in a