Among Ourselves.

Most readers, like good-natured cows,

Keep browsing and forever browse;

If a fair flower comes in their way,

They take it, too, nor ask, "What, pray!" Like other fodder it is food,

And for the stomach quite as good.

In

Do

Prof. S. H. Clark. “I'm as Cross as a Hornet Today; you better look out!" deed, and do you expect pay for acting the hornet today? you think it will stimulate a better spirit and better work on the part of your children today that they know you are in danger of stinging them? Have you forgotten that boys seldom go near hornets' nests without throwing stones at them, and that even girls sometimes try it? Did you ever hear the maxim: "Like priest, like people?" Do you know how far you have fallen in the estimation of every child in the room whose love you crave by that foolish remark? Do you teach selfcontrol and yet expect your pupils to attain it in an atmosphere filled with the venom of hornets' stings? Have you never heard, that he that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city?

A City Psychologist. Some of the papers are poking fun at Professor Royce, of Harvard, for suggesting that every board of education should employ a competent psychologist whose duty it would be to examine the children for the purpose of determining their mental condition and suggesting the kind of instruction and drill needed. By it he would discover at once the "born shorts," the precocious, the latents, the defectives in imagination or memory, the sense-defectives, the truly incorrigible, etc., and would be able to advise with the teacher and parent. He holds that such an expert would soon prove the most valuable member of the teaching force. Our own opinion is that every superintendent and principal, if not every teacher, should possess such ability, and that the people will not be long in demanding it. No one is professionally educated in the best sense who lacks it.

The Teacher's Health. The Chicago board of education requires each teacher to pass a physical examination before the contract is signed. Could anything be more appropriate? There are at least two great reasons for such an examination: The work of the teacher is exhaustive and only those in good physical health should undertake it. The atmosphere in every schoolroom should be as pure as it is possible to make it. A sickly teacher, particularly one afflicted with exemia, or bronchial or lung troubles of any kind, may easily poison the air in a room to such an extent as to make it dangerous for the children to breathe it.

Whack! Whack! He is an earnest, hard-working teacher and often wonders why he is not securing better results. Though he was taught better, as the children march out of his room, he beats time by bringing a long pointer down on his desk with a noisy whack, whack, that grates on the ear of every sensitive child in the line and makes sufficient confusion to afford opportunity for grunts and pranks from the rougher boys and girls. He formerly used a gong, but finds this is better for marching, as it is more "stickcatto-like!" When are we to learn that (whacking sticks, gongs, and the whole tribe of tom-toms have no place in the schoolroom? A quiet tap with a pencil or counting for a few paces until the children catch the step is in far better taste and is much more effective. Occasionally it may be well to resume the tapping or the counting for a moment, but it should not be continued longer than absolutely necessary. If the line is boisterous or stamping heavily, do not add to the noise and disorder by any

of the above-named devices, but stop the line at once and let it move only as it moves quietly. A little perseverance in such a drill will soon work wonders.

The Trouble. "If your sagassity was only equal to your perspigassity," as Mrs. Hyde often wrote to Jane, "your usefulness to the commuity would be unlimited. You see a wonderful lot of things, you hear as many more, and you imagine five times as many as you see and hear. Such insight is invaluable to the gossips, for it gives them a constant supply of delicate morsels to chew. But did you ever think that you are in miserably poor business and that you are feeding a class of social buzzards of which you are the chief among ten thousand? If

you were only wise enough to use your penetration in discovering the good in your neighbors and in devising ways and means to help them reach up to a better life, instead of pulling them down, you would not only be a better teacher, but a bet. ter woman also." In which remark is much food for reflection.

Babies! There is a time and a place for babies, but the schoolroom is certainly not the place for them. No matter how cute and sweet-all babies are cute and sweet-a baby may be, it cannot be brought into the schoolroom without attracting the attention of the pupils and interfering with the work of the school. It frequently happens that mother wishes to spend a day with a neighbor, and, that she may be free from care, sends her two-year-old Angie with his brother Fred to visit the school teacher! Angie smiles, Angie talks, Angie tumbles off on the floor, Angie pouts, Angie wants a drink of water, Angie wants a piece of bread and sugar, Angie cries, Angie gets his fingers in the ink and rubs it on his face, Angie wants his mama! Angie! Angie!!! Angie visits the teacher in her dreams that night! It takes at least another whole day to overcome the distracting effects of that visitation. Yet, out of the goodness of her heart and the weakness of her courage, that teacher tells that mother at church next Sunday how much the children enjoyed having Angie with them that day and expresses the hope that he may come again. He comes! Who is to blame? Not Angie!

Shall the Boy Fight? We are surprised to see the editor of the Child Study Monthly answering this question in the affirmative. He heartily commends a mother who had cempelled her son to go and pummel a fellow from whom he had received some affront, and urges mothers to teach their boy to fight when insulted. He says that he had recently forced his own boy, "an eight-year-old, against the boy's own inclinations, to go and trounce his antagonist. He whipped him in a most creditable manner-had he not, I would have felt disgraced for life." Sic! He says further that a mother must sometimes be willing to sit at her window and see her boys fight like a fiend in the gutter outside. "Tenderly bandage his wounds, if he comes out second best, but ask no questions, give no advice. Rather than have your boy a coward, dear mother, the next time he is involved in a righteous quarrel, stand over him and make him fight it out, even at the risk of nervous prostration and hysteria." It is a long time since we have seen such pugilistic doctrine advanced in a respectable journal and we wonder whether our brother's longing for children's gore may not have been aroused by the smell of Spanish blood. The average mother has about all she can do to keep her boys from fighting at any provocation and certainly would hardly thank anyone for adding to her difficulties. The boy who has the reputation of "never taking an insult" usually has all the fight he needs and frequently has an extra one or two on hands. If he wins, he seldom fails to become a bully and a braggart him

self. If he loses, he spends much of his time in sneaking around and tormenting little fellows who only resist to their undoing. The term "insult" covers a multitude of offenses in a boy's mind: The crook of a finger, an inadvertent remark, a frank statement of a difficulty to a teacher, talking to another fellow's girl, an innocent remonstrance against an unkind word, an imputation of lack of courage, etc. The boy who is taught to fight and has once tasted gore, is too generally on the alert for an insult and has no difficulty in finding one as his reputation as a fighter may be waning a little. We recall a winter of school in which, under such instruction as the Doctor gives, the boys managed to fill out nearly every day with a scrap or two. One would "insult" another and get a whipping from the insulted. Then the "insulter's" big brother would come around and thrash the "manly" vindicator; and then this big brother would catch a dressing on his way home from the bigger brother of the other fellow who had hid in the fence corner in anticipation of his coming. Periodically the heads of the families involved would join in exchanging compliments. By the way, many of our readers have probably seen that mother whom the Doctor mentions, urging on her "noble b'y" in choice brogue and have also seen Mrs. O'Flanigan, the sturdy mother of the other brave lad, in a state of wrath, approaching from the rear! No, no, "dear" Doctor, such advice as you give savors not of the Sermon on the Mount, but rather of the law which died when the new gospel came. Is it not better to teach a child to pay no attention to unkind remarks or slights, even to yield to a boor or a bully for the time rather than have an unseemly squabble with him? that it often requires more courage not to fight than to fight? that the really manly man is he who dares to revile not again? that enemies are to be made friends by kindness rather than by violence? that the only time when he is justified in striking another is when his personal safety or that of one who is unable to defend himself is in danger? These boys are to be men some day. They will be very much the same kind of men as they were boys. They ought to learn under mother's tutelage the better ways of righting wrongs and of showing their courage.

Nature Studies for November.

When one has made a collection of objects, he very naturally looks for similarities and differences, that he may readily distinguish one from the other. If the objects collected were once parts of living plants and animals, the characteristics noted must be those that are permanent and universal in the kinds collected, but need not be those that were essential or nonessential to the success of the organism in its struggle for existence. Should the object of the collector, however, be greater than the mere recognition of his specimens and include a knowledge of their life histories, then he must note all classes of characteristics with equal faithfulness. In the following outline, for the study of trees in their late fall condition, attention is given to identification, life history, and economic importance to man. The outline will also serve as an outline for an essay describing each kind of tree growing in the vicinity of the schoolhouse, and narrating its life history.

I.

Habitat. Does it like the prairie, the rocky hillside, or the moist river bottom best?

2. Phyllotaxy. Are the leaves or leaf-scars opposite or alternate on the twig? If they are alternate, then in about how many vertical rows are they placed? To learn this, find two leaves or leaf-scars that are in just the same vertical row. The others between are each in separate columns. The vertical rows will be found to be two, three, five, eight, thirteen, twenty

8. Location of buds. Where are the buds with reference to the leaves or leaf-scars, and how many in a cluster? Note the presence or absence of an end bud.

9. Description of buds. Give their form, surface (whether smooth or hairy), color and number of scales to be seen on the outside. These scales are altered leaves so arranged as to protect the tender parts within from wet and frost.

10. Spines or prickles. Where are they and are they modified leaves, stipules, bark cells, or twigs?

11. Description of twig. Give its length, color, form and surface. To get the length, find the ring of scale-scars which determines the place of the bud of one year ago, and measure from this to the tip of this fall's scale bud terminating the twig. By twig is meant this year's growth.

12.

Description of pith. Give its color, comparative size, and its condition. This last may be clear, or the pith may be crossed by shelf-like partitions as in the black walnut.

13. Fruit. What is the kind of fruit, by what animals is it eaten, and has the tree any special device for scattering the seeds? Is the fact that the fruit is edible a damage or a benefit to the tree?

14. Description of tree or vine. Give the height of the tree or the length of the vine, the shape of the top, the durability of the wood, and the uses of the wood.

15. Remarks. Has the tree described ever been celebrated in song or story? Are there more trees in Kansas than there were twenty years ago? What are some of the enemies of trees? Would there be more birds if there were more trees? Is it advisable to largely increase the number of trees in Kansas? Ought there to be a grove of trees near every school house? Should trees be planted for shelter and company near every dwelling and stock lot?

Note. To prepare properly for the tree study described above, each school room should possess, in addition to the collection of sections of limbs suggested in "Nature Studies for October," a collection of twigs and leaves. The leaves may be preserved by pressing them in large books, or a sketch may be made of the leaf on a card and the card tied to the twig. The twigs should show two years' growth, this and last year's. By cutting away the bark and wood near the larger end of the specimen for one-half an inch a place for the number of the specimen is inade. The number written in ink should correspond with a number written with the common name of the plant in a record book. L. C. Wooster.

THE Normal has recently come into possession of a most valuable set of books, "The History of America," by Wm. Robertson, D. D., in four volumes. The history was published in 1805 and is the gift of Hon. Isaac Sharp, president of the board of regents from 1883 to 1885. The donor has the heartfelt thanks of every friend of the institution. This history is very scarce and eastern colleges and universities are ready to pay a large sum for it.

PRESIDENT TAYLOR lectures on Friday afternoon of Thanks giving week before the McLean County Teachers' and School Officers' Association at Bloomington, Illinois.

We notice that the firm of Hatfield & Bentley, Wichita, has recently gained bond suits for something like two hundred thousand dollars in the United States circuit court. This firm is attaining a national reputation for successful management of bond cases.

MR. ABBOTT's classes in clay modeling have made wonderful progress during the last ten weeks. The manual training classes from the model school are deeply interested in every phase of the work. A dozen new benches, with full equip ments, have been added for the use of the department.

DURING the past month we have been favored with visits from State Superintendent Stryker and Professor Nelson, candidates for the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, on the Populist and Republican tickets respectively. Both of them made pleasant addresses, and made many friends while here. COMPANY H is at last mustered out and the boys are delighted to be at home again. Though so pleased to be released from from the service, they are practically unanimous in saying that the experience has been of incalculable value to them. Messrs. Huey, McConkey, Shelton, Wright and Torrance, are all in school again, with others to follow.

THE following are the orators selected for the preliminary oratorical contest: Messrs. Gift and Gray, Literati; Messrs. Daniels and Wood, Belles-Lettres; Mr. Ward and Mrs. Vickrey, Lyceum; Miss Mary Ott and Mr. H. Clark, Philomathian; Messrs. Reed (Philomathian) and Wolf (Lyceum), Misses Patterson (Literati) and Balcomb (Lyceum).

OUR Professor D. A. Ellsworth has become controlling editor in the Osage City Free Press, and we fear will incline to devote his entire time to the paper after the close of this present year. Professor Ellsworth has many elements of the successful journalist in his composition, and will undoubtedly make a popular paper. His writings, both poetry and prose, have already given him an enviable reputation.

It

HAVE you secured a copy of the Kodak? Over nine hundred copies have been sold and the supply will soon be exhausted. It would take several pages of the MONTHLY to tell the good things that have been said about this beautiful annual. makes a most handsome piece for the center table in any parlor. Orders may be sent to Miss Hattie Cochran, Emporia, Kan., or to the office of the State Normal School. Price, $1.25. MR. W. G. BUTLER, the new teacher of stringed instruments, was for a long time a student of John C. Bostelman, of the Corning, N. Y., Conservatory. The course in violin consists of studies by Weiss, Danela, Mazas, Sehradieck, David and Kreutzer, and solo, duetts and trios by the masters. Special attention is given to the orchestra and ensemble playing. The instruction is adapted to meet the individual requirements of the pupil. Tone, technic and style are made important factYou are invited to visit his studio, room 77. PRESIDENT TAYLOR has announced the following persons as members of the committee from the National Council of Education to investigate the relation of the libraries to the public schools: J. C. Dana, Springfield, Massachusetts; Frank Hutchins, Madison, Wisconsin; Charles McMurray, Normal, Illinois; Sherman Williams, Glen Falls, New York; M'Louise Jones, Emporia, Kansas. The work has already been outlined and arsigned to sub-committees, soon to be appointed. Professor Jones will report on normal schools and their relation to libraries.

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year, gives an average of professional instruction amounting to about eight weeks in the career of each teacher in the state. Educationtional associations and school journals are valuable chiefly to promote good fellowship and enthusiasm. Pedagogical departments in colleges and universities give a most elaborate system of theory, but lack the opportunity of illustrating what is taught, and they do not correct the conclusions of their philosophy by actual work with the children themselves. It is the mission of the normal school to make educational method its chief teaching, to found this method upon the most thorough and genuine philosophy known, to correct proposed methods, and establish beyond question methods that are good through the only reliable test, the observing and the use of the methods in actual work with the pupil of the grades for which they are designed in the schools.

Children and Ghosts.

SUPT. L. A. LOWTHER.

The original aim of this study, if it can be said to have had an aim, was simply to discover whether or not children believe in ghosts, and if so to what extent; to ascertain whether such belief plays any conspicuous part in their lives, and if possible, suggest a remedy. In the preparation of this paper many valuable suggestions were derived from a brief paper on the same subject by Miss Louise Maitland, in Studies in Education.1

The following questions were submitted to the children in the grades, from the first to the eighth inclusive:

I.

2.

3.

4.

What would you do if you saw a ghost?

Do you believe in ghosts?

What are ghosts like ?

When and where did you first hear of ghosts? Who told you?

One thousand and eighty-eight papers were collected and examined. Of this number, four hundred forty-eight papers were written by white boys; five hundred forty-three by white girls; sixty-two by colored boys; and thirty-five by colored girls.

After reading the variety of answers to the first question, one was convinced that there was nothing new or different left to be done, even if twice the number of papers had been called for. Some of the typical answers were: "I would run;" "run and scream;" "climb a tree;" "get under a bed;" "slip away;' "stand still;" "pretend not to see it;" "shiver;" "shut my eyes;" "fall;" "faint," "hold my breath;" "be afraid;" "pet it;" "fight it;" "kill it;" get a rock;" "get a gun;" "examine it;" "do nothing;" etc. One colored boy, by whose side I happened to be standing while he was writing, asked me how to spell "death." I noticed something very serious in his face;. glancing over his shoulder, I observed that he was laboriously writing, "I would run myself to death." Evidently he was never more in earnest in his life.

I.

In collating, these answers were classified under seven heads: Would run; that is, the personal reaction aroused in one of getting out of the way. 2. Would stand still; answers varying from standing still merely, to a condition of semi-paralysis due to fear. 3. Would resist; from a mild form of bravado represented by the expression, "running at it," to a bolder resolution to "kill it." 4. Would investigate; all forms of reconnoitering to ascertain the exact nature of the apparition. 5. Would do nothing. 6. Don't know. 7. There is no such thing as a ghost, hence, impossible to see one. Tabulating these results, we have:

1 Studies in Education, August, 1896.

In the first two items fear is a large element in determining the character of the motor activity aroused. Putting these two items together, we have eight hundred seventy-five, or eighty per cent., who have more or less emotional belief in ghosts. Combining all other items, as representing various degrees of non-belief or indifference, we have two hundred thirteen, or twenty per cent.

Strangely out of keeping with the above are the answers to the second question, "Do you believe in ghosts?" Of the one thousand eighty-eight answers, only ninety-nine said "yes;" nine hundred eighty-nine answered "no." In other words, while ninety-one per cent. insist that they do not believe in ghosts, the results on the first question show that eighty per cent. would run, or be afraid, or in some way disclose a state of mind not wholly tranquil. This illustrates in a striking manner the peculiar working of the child mind, falling unconsciously into endless contradictions and illogical statements. The claim of nine hundred eighty-nine to intellectual respectability compelled them to answer "no." Yet, assuming that the two hundred thirteen who would resist, investigate, do nothing, etc., were consistent non-believers (which was not always the case), there remain seven hundred seventy-six of those who answered "no," who outline a course of action. wholly at variance with non-belief.

The answers to the third question, "What are ghosts like ?" also discount the large negative answer to the second question. Paradoxically enough, seven hundred sixty-nine children attempt some description of what most of them affirm does not exist. The results are shown in

It seems reasonable to infer that all pupils whose answers to the third question are included in items one to nine inclusive, of Table B, have a feeling that a ghost is something out of the natural order of things, approaching the supernatural or spiritual. There are four hundred sixty-nine of this class, being fifty-tour per cent. of the number attempting to answer the third question.

Many of those who think a ghost "like a person," evidently have the idea that it is some one trying to frighten them, that This is, the apparition may be explained by natural causes. feeling is summed up in one characteristic answer: "A ghost is simply (when seen) a foolish person endeavoring to scare It is usually dressed in white to look more

some one.

unearthly."

It is hard to account for the large number comparing a ghost