the trade games, dancing games, and a few others are useful. The songs are used daily, but less than in ordinary kindergartens. There is a piano in each class room, and in every inhabited building also.

English is begun by the word method, and much use is made of colored prints of animals and objects on which the names are placed. The blackboard is used freely. Reading to the class rhymes from Mother Goose, fables, or fairy tales (following their own tastes) forms a distinct feature, and, with a broader outlook, such readings are equally a feature of the higher grades. There are also conversations on every-day matters-the weather, their experiences, their Sunday lesson, etc.; on nature, its operations and products. They walk abroad with the teacher; they see pictures of birds. Living nature is brought into the room in rabbits, ducks, geese, a goat, and they visit the cows, the horses, and the birds. There are many colored models of less known creatures.

One of the specialties of the institution is a cabinet of teaching models of a great variety of man's works-engines, ships, farmsteads, etc.—and also of many kinds of animals, plants, fruits, mineral products, and the stock articles representing national wealth, a good part of which was selected for the purpose in Europe. The cabinet is very accessible and is in daily use by all the classes. It may be pointed to as typifying the objective and realistic tendency of the school--a tendency made necessary by the character of the minds dealt with.

The first boys' class above the kindergarten contains 12 pupils from 11 to 16 years old, differing much in capacity. The spoken vocabulary is very small, the grammar often defective. Two never use the pronoun "I;" two are just beginning to spell "cat" and "rat;" one can not add beyond 1+1; some can not write legibly; about half know the four points of the compass. In drawing, however, the class have kept together in a simple course of drawing lines to dictation and the simplest geometric forms. Penmanship is taught by the form elements.

The subjects comprise the finger occupations of the kindergarten carried further, the color and form study also, and the nature and object lessons. Geography is added, and there is memory drill. They have read during the year Harper's First Reader (54 pp.), all of Child Life Primer (95 pp.), Child Life First Reader (29 pp.), Progressive First Reader (36 pp.), Barnes's First Reader (35 pp.). They can not read the harder parts.

The second boys' class adds small digits, have got first notions of subtraction (91, 10-3), can tell how many 3's there are in 10, 7, etc. For the first time in the school a speller has been used, with great success, and in six months they have learned 128 words of four or five letters perfectly.

The third class appreciates very well the story of Morse's discovery of the telegraph and Whitney's cotton gin, as read to them. They are learning subtraction by the use of dot cards.

The fourth and highest class is composed of boys of better endowments. They have been trained already in tables of measure, using tin measures, and can reduce inches to miles, find of 48, borrow, and do the four rules. Five of the stronger minds use Carpenter's North America, reading clearly, fluently, and with entire comprehension without previous preparation. They locate, but do not bound, our States, know the capitals, the products, some of the chief men. They have not a clear idea of the leading great nations and countries of the world. They know a little about some European countries and our colonies. They write descriptions, unassisted, of the subjects of pictures placed on their desks. The following is from a reproduction by a boy of 15 of a story read to the class two days previously. The paper was quite long, careful in execution, and interesting:

A little boy named George White was a very mischeivous lad he used to torment his teacher by bringing rats, and mice to school One day the teacher told the principle about it and he said that George could get his walking-ticket Monday morning, etc.

The class has derived benefit from drawing and cutting out geometric figures, following Trybom's Manual of Training in Cardboard Construction (for fourth and fifth grades). Their ages run from 11 to 17, averaging nearer 12.

The first class of girls above the kindergarten has read 380 pages of primer and first readers, but are not ready as a whole to enter a second reader. In number most can count by 2's, 5's, 10's to 100 and write to 100 from memory and add and subtract up to 10. They draw simple natural geometric and symmetric forms with one or both hands; they match color and form correctly and quickly. In hand work, nature study, object work, sense training, and stories their work is like that of the boys' first class, but a little more advanced. Most can spell easy words of one or two syllables.

In the girls' second or highest class there is much disparity, but the more intelligent are fully as far advanced as the upper boys. The ages run from 15 to 18, excepting one girl of 11, whose grade is below the rest. In arithmetic the abler ones perform division of fractions by mixed numbers with cancellation. They read in concert very well indeed. They use Carpenter's North America. Their geography is chiefly that of the United States, with as much as possible of actual interest associated. They use an elementary book in American history. They draw birds and flowers from copy on the board in colored chalk to some extent.

The majority sing well together. Their tastes are led in the direction of good music; and a similar leading appeared in the motto I noticed on the board, “Her voice was soft, gentle, and low-an excellent thing in woman." Pithy moral sayings are considerably used in this way, and there need be no doubt that the young women are susceptible to the higher and refining influences of which these instances give but a slight hint. Their compositions point in the same direction. I was shown the best recent work of five girls of 16 to 18 years, containing about 2,000 words, in reproduction of matter previously discussed. One girl had a few errors in spelling, but the rest were about perfect; the MS. was very neat, the capitals and points rightly used. The thought was clearly and naturally expressed in simple, correct language, free from the childish errors often committed by the feeble-minded.

I will add two points, characteristic of the emphasis everywhere laid upon the objective side of things. One was the object lesson, given from models of fruits, buildings, etc.- -a kind of lesson which outside children largely pick up for themselves, but which these can not get at. The other point was the application of the sense tests for smelling, etc., as described under the training class; these are not necessarily a part of the daily work, but are always used in the case of newcomers, even in this grade.

The writer's opportunities for giving full descriptions have been very much greater in the case of Waltham than elsewhere. To this, and not to any prepossession, should be attributed the large space above given to Waltham. The descriptions are characteristic in a general way of all the work done in modern institutions and may properly serve as introductory matter.

THE SYRACUSE STATE INSTITUTION FOR FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDREN, SYRACUSE, X. Y. Superintendent, James C. Carson, M. D.; head teacher, Mrs. Emily P. Wilbur,

The fifty-second annual report of this institution informs us that there were in September, 1902, 546 inmates, of whom over 100 were of the custodial class-adults and unteachable-for whom the school was not intended and for whom the State makes provision elsewhere; for males at Rome, for females at Newark. The school proper contains about 275 pupils, taught by 11 teachers, and 2 attendants who perform some of a teacher's duties.

There is a farm belonging to the institution some miles back in the country, on which live about 40 of the able-bodied male inmates, taking care of the grounds and stock.

Additional provision is made for 125 feeble-minded in the New York City school on Rainsford Island. The Syracuse school, however, is purely under State control. Those discharged from it mostly go to Rome and Newark, a smaller number being sent back to county authorities and parents.

By the by-laws the superintendent has the power of appointing and dismissing teachers and prescribing their several duties and places, but is not designated as an educational director. The pedagogic control is in the hands of Mrs. Wilbur, who is called the head teacher, but receives no titular designation in the report.

The school hours are from 9 to 12.30 and from 3 to 4.30, with a recess from 10.40 to 11. Saturday afternoon is a half holiday. Introductory morning exercises occupy twenty minutes, after which the classes file off to their rooms. The sessions are divided into periods, four in the morning and two in the afternoon. At the end of each period a bell strikes, and the pupils are all redistributed to fresh teachers, so that no pupil can be said to belong to any one teacher except in the subject or subjects taught by her. The classes are designated by their subjects, which are very various. There does not appear to be any general grading. There are, however, classes in number work, for girls, first and second; for boys, first, second, and third. There are also classes in the First, the Second, the Third and Fourth Readers, respectively. Mrs. Wilbur takes each new class under her observation for three months. Drawing, dancing, sloyd, and sewing are specialized.

There are trial classes, largely composed of low-grade children, in which the simplest objects connected with kindergartens are used for learning form, color, and number. The form board and large peg board are here used for improving the power of the fingers. Especial value is attached, in this respect, to sewing and to unraveling rope for mats and braiding it in strands. This elementary training is well described in the report for 1901 and comprises a great many devices of the kind known in other institutions.

The kindergarten classes do not appear to use the ring games. They fill the usual position of training children for higher work. Dissected pictures are quite largely used and furnish a much-prized resource, both for training and occupation. Such pictures (glued to thin board and cut up) can be made on the premises ad infinitum.

Other elementary work, in part transitional from the kindergarten, is indicated by the designations of certain classes, as follows: "Exercises and observations in attention; articulation; musical articulation; words (on strips of card); words and First Reader; chart and First Reader; counting; telling time," etc.

In beginning the study of words the single word printed in big letters on a separate strip is used a great deal. A next step is frequently the matching of single letters to these words. In general, the usual methods are employed, and the final results, as shown in the reading aloud by advanced boys, appeared satisfactory. In the early stages of reading two or three First Readers are gone through before the Second is used.

I was permitted to test the upper class of boys in English by telling them a short story, which 10 out of the 16 present reproduced at once in writing. Ten minutes were allowed. The following is an average specimen:

As I went to viset a friend I went to the door a big sat-dog grold at me the nan cane and drove hin away and I went to bed. the next morning as I went over the feld the dog was laying down and the dog look up and rase his head and he know I was one of the friends that belong to house

The best of these pieces was free from errors in spelling.

The attainments in number work were quite up to the usual standard. The highest class of girls use fractions to the extent of finding three-fourths of a bushel. "I had 100 acres; I sold, then 1; how much was left?" (Done by concrete method.) "A stove cost $54; an oil stove cost as much; how much more did the first cost than

the second?" (This was a little beyond their power in oral work.) They wrote to dictation a sum in 5 columns and added up correctly. The highest boys' class do simple interest, not discount. The class were adding ++ on slates; some found the least common denominator.

The oldest and brightest boys form a class with Mrs. Wilbur in "Current events." They know the members of Mr. Roosevelt's Cabinet by name and office; they know what the prosperity of Syracuse began with; they make collections of pictures to illustrate geography, and the "Great Round World" is supplied for their use. Their knowledge of history and geography, however, is not what one expects in other boys; it lacks in connection and relation, as is probably the usual case with the feeble-minded. They appreciate historical characters and facts and such matters of general interest as the Philippines and Cuban affairs.

In sloyd, which is a new subject, a special teacher is employed, who gives praetically three days in the week. She has three sets of boys, ten in each set, and each boy has two periods of one and one-half hours every week. Her intention next year is to give the regular sloyd to those who are advanced enough. At present the work is mostly in thin wood, from which they make little light, ornamental articles—a toothbrush holder, match holder, book rack, boxes, etc.; this is decorated with knife work and burnt work. Special educative value is assigned, and no doubt correctly, to the training given in measuring dimensions and distances and fractional parts, one of the first things made being an accurately graduated rule. The boys are selected; all the best ones are in their Fourth Reader. They use the plane first, the knife later, as requiring more hand control than they at first possess. They work from drawings. The superintendent judges that sloyd work has already produced "a noticeable increase in the manliness, truthfulness, and self-reliance of these boys." Mrs. Wilbur thinks its effect is to make the boys attentive and nice in their other work.

Drawing is another new subject, taught at present to 17 boys. They are doing outline forms, devising and cutting out simple pasteboard pattern objects (rosette, fleur-de-lis); they work them into a wall-paper pattern and color it. They are beginning to do rudimentary sketches of landscape in wash, and later will draw from objects.

Nature work is attended to. There are 15 garden plots provided for those who wish to cultivate them.

Reading is provided by portable libraries sent from the city library and exchanged from time to time. There may be 50 to 75 who care to read.

In the way of entertainment, dancing parties are conducted by the teachers as often as twice a week in cold weather, and various popular programmes are given at intervals.

Physical exercise.-Every child must if able take part in calisthenics during school hours each day. I saw one class of 30 boys and girls doing a most complicated set of exercises with dumb-bells and wands, a very showy piece, which is thought very much of. This is their best class, and for that sort of work it was as good as it could well be. It was absolute memory work, without orders, under the lead of two pupils.

I saw four sets of quadrilles, boys and girls up to 14 or so, very well done, and enjoyed by the dancers.

For those needing to be taught to walk the horizontal square-barred ladder is a favorite appliance.

The limitation of area (58 acres) is obviously unavoidable in the present location; it does not permit of employing the boys in cultivation to any extent.

The buildings are old in part, and deficiencies in accommodation can be pointed out. There are a good many boys who have no day room to go to, and are obliged to sit in desks in class rooms in their leisure time.

It is proper to point out the fact, mentioned in the report for 1902, that at the time of the presentation of the report no case of consumption was known to exist among the inmates. To this statement I would add (as an evidence of very efficient housekeeping) my own observation of the wholesomeness of the air and its entire freedom from asylum odor in certain parts inhabited by the class of very untidy children.

THE PENNSYLVANIA TRAINING SCHOOL FOR FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDREN AT ELWYN, DELAWARE COUNTY.

Chief physician, Martin W. Barr, M. D.; principal teacher, Miss Susanne Lied,

In September, 1902, of 1,010 inmates, 600 were supported by a State appropriation. The following is the classification:

The industrial department includes the farm, garden, bakery, kitchens, dining rooms, dormitories, laundry, clothes rooms; also the care of helpless inmates. The manual department comprises the tailor, shoe, and paint shops, and those for mattress and hammock work; sewing rooms; sloyd; also the knitting, chair seating, and mat making of the custodial buildings.

The president's report for 1898 announced the purpose of enlarging the scope of manual training, to fit as many as possible for partial self-support after leaving the school. More improvable and fewer custodial cases are now received. The latter number one-fourth of the resident inmates.

There is no colony, and no way to provide for the trained pupils except by dismissal to their homes, or guardians, or to the bureau of charities; we must, however, take note that 10 well-trained boys found work out of the 80 inmates who were discharged in 1901-2.

Of every 100 admitted under present conditions a very few come under the head of unimprovable idiots. About 30 may be found fit to receive instruction by regular text-book methods, 20 more may enter the "object room" for general information, and most of the remainder are trainable to usefulness of various kinds. From 500 to 600 attend Sunday services and week-day entertainments; about 100 enjoy reading. The school hours are 9 to 12 and 1 to 3; kindergartens have recess in the middle of the forenoon, followed by marching and games till 12, and those who can take exercise do so from 9 to 9.30. Other classes have no recesses. Saturday is a general holiday. Miss Lied performs the duties of principal.

The scheme of grading is as follows:

1. A "preparatory" class containing young children of all capacities that are considered as possibly teachable.

2, 3, 4. Three kindergarten grades (C, B, A), mostly between 6 and 12 years of age. Above this a threefold division is made into those of high, middle, and low mental grades. For "high-grade" children there are three primary grammar grades (C, B, A), which we can number as grades 5, 6, 7 of the system.

'Middle-grade" children may possibly learn to read, but the classes (one for each sex) which they enter on leaving the kindergarten prepare them for manual occupations--the boys, by sloyd and the hand loom; the girls, by basket and needlework. This, of course, is not in the academic series of grade progression.