and here teachers will have the invaluable opportunities of an experience meeting, in which they will compare experiences with one another and with their superintendent, take counsel, and gain fresh courage for work.

Here, in

The third way by which the superintendent will improve his teachers is the still more detailed and individual work of visitation. the little kingdom and home of the teacher, the superintendent appears in friendly and sympathetic spirit, to note progress, to advise in emergencies, and to call attention to matters of discipline or instruction as it may appear necessary.

I pass now from this synopsis of the superintendent's duties respecting teachers, to those respecting patrons; for if the success of the school is dependent upon both the good teacher and the patron, it follows that the duties of the superintendent include a service to patrons which will influence them to more interest and intelligence in affairs of their schools.

The methods by which the county superintendent shall communicate with the people are various, and must be selected by each according to his taste and ability. With some, the favorite and most effective method is by lectures, meeting the people at school-houses of the neighborhoods. Others will also make use of the local newspaper or the educational journal that is most likely to reach the patrons of the schools.

Of the matters in which the people should be informed and interested I note the following: (1) School-houses and grounds. Whatever, in the experience and judgment of the age has proven itself tasteful, healthful, and helpful in appliances for instruction, should be persistently urged upon the attention of the people until the children are provided with rooms warmed, ventilated, furnished, beautified, and located in grounds tidy and shaded. (2) The next matter deserving the attention and best effort of the superintendent is the supply of instructive and interesting reading for the schools. It is astonishing to note what a dearth of good reading there is among the country schools. In my own State-I am almost ashamed to confess it, and indeed would not speak of it, only that I am satisfied there are other States no better off-in the State of Minnesota, outside of the cities and towns supporting graded schools, the value of school libraries in country districts is reported at less than $5,000; and this includes the value of unabridged dictionaries, which doubtless nearly equals the entire amount.

The folly of supporting a school for disciplinary results, without the materials of knowledge in good literature, is too evident to require a moment of time in emphasizing it. A tonic does not make muscle and sinew. A good school is an appetizer. It ought also to provide wholesome intellectual and moral nutrition for the increase of knowledge, for the culture of taste, in choice books so near at hand and so well adapted to minds of every age.

We require, then, in final summary, a county superintendent in full accord with the spirit of the times, and able to communicate to the schools under his supervision the ripest fruits of the experience of the day, with the result of good teachers under permanent engagement in good school-rooms, well supplied with apparatus, and surrounded with the conveniences and adornments that will make school life a culture of intelligence, health, and taste.

The paper was discussed by Messrs. Raab of Illinois, Akers of Iowa, Cornell of Colorado, Parker of Illinois, Little of Washington, Allen of New York, Newell of Maryland, Farr of Virginia, and Dougherty of Illi

nois.

Colonel Parker wished that eastern men could visit the West and see the county superintendency work. There was more life, he said, in one county in Iowa than in all New England outside of the cities.

In referring to Pennsylvania, Mr. Little suggested that the reason that that State had such competent county superintendents was because they were paid good salaries,-from $1,500 to $2,000. Doctor Allen spoke of the movement in New York to take the examination of teachers out of the hands of county superintendents, and place it in the hands of the State superintendent. He instanced the case of a superintendent last year issuing a certificate to a boy nine years old. He further said that there was a strong movement at work to take the matter of educational affairs out of politics.

Maryland appeared to be the banner State in regard to tenure of of

fice.

Doctor Newell stated that he knew of several instances in which the superintendents retained their places for eighteen years. They hold their places till death or resignation.

Dr. JEROME ALLEN of New York read the following paper;

READING CIRCLES FOR TEACHERS.

Reading circles are now a part of our educational systems. For many years they have been the means of producing a higher literary taste and a broader culture, but more recently they have been turned into the pedagogical channel. From the necessities of the situation, teachers' reading circles have been established by those who have recognized the necessity for more professional knowledge on the part of those who are called upon to instruct. The average teacher has heretofore known little concerning the professional literature of his vocation. His entrance into his work has not demanded it. The requirements of an average teachers' examination only ask that he should be prepared to know the facts connected with the branches he is required to teach. Beyond this nothing is asked; concerning the nature, parts, growth, diseases, and incentives of the human mind, nothing is said; Socratic questions are ignored, Pestalozzian principles passed by, and Froebel's

discoveries not referred to. A careful comparison of one hundred sets of examination questions from different parts of our country shows that in not more than ten is any one of these subjects mentioned. The result is that they are not known. These are facts as they exist in the districts, where inexperienced young men and women are invested with the dignities and prerogatives of teachers for the space of three or six months.

These facts have led to the establishment of reading circles, distinctly designed to give teachers that knowledge imperatively demanded in order to train young minds intelligently. In view of these facts it becomes a question of more than ordinary importance:

What ought a teacher to read?

The answer is most plain :

That which will most directly help him in the work of instruction. There can be no dispute here. The question for us to settle is, What does most directly help the teacher? Let us examine the subject.

1. He teaches human beings. It follows that he must know themall there is of them possible to be known-their bodies, their moral. natures, their minds. All knowledge he can secure that can help him in understanding child life, growth, and influence should be his. I cannot know too much here. He cannot know it too soon. It would be better to know less of something else than not know this. What is the value of the facts of history, however important we may concede history to be, or, the processes of arithmetic, so necessary in the work of business, or grammar, or geography, compared with the knowledge that makes us know how to touch the forces of human impulse and turn them in the right direction? To know a child is next to knowing God. The memorable lesson of our Savior, when he called a little child and set him in the midst of his disciples, is one of the most radical in all hi teachings.

2. He is especially set to train the mind. It follows, then, that he must know mind-growth and mind-science. Under this head we must recognize the usual separation of the mind into the threefold division of the intellect, sensibilities, and will. With these at the very outset, the teacher has to deal. His first thought should be, not How much can I induce them to learn? how can they be made to read fluently and express corr, but, How can I, through reading and expression, lead these pupils to think correctly, feel properly, and will intelligently? in other words, How can education be made to them the means of training them into well-rounded men and women, able to take their places as citizens of this Republic and members of the commonwealth of God?

The idea underlying all this is that the child is a being to be so educated as to be able to take the place assigned to it as a part of the divine handiwork of the Creator, and not as a member of the synagogue of Satan.

This view of the work of the teacher is far different from that taught in most teachers' examinations. There the fact is everything; the knowledge of so teaching that fact that the learner may be educated, nothing. We have exalted the mechanical work of the teacher so assiduously that his real work has been sunk into insignificance. It follows, then, that

If a teacher knows all science, literature, and art, and does not know the mind and its growth, he is not prepared to teach. His wori 's empirical.

So far, we have discussed knowledge essential to a teacher's success. Closely connected with this are methods of instruction, organization, school government, school systems, school laws, and the history of ed ucation. Without a knowledge of these subjects there may be a great degree of success, if there is possessed a thorough and practical knowledge of the nature and growth of the mind, but it is essential that this should be supplemented by the topics of secondary knowledge just mentioned. This should come as a part of the necessary reading of all teachers, especially those who have not had the advantages of professional training.

It is objected that teachers cannot be made to read professional and psychological literature, that they have little time to read anything, that we have no science of education, and that it is necessary for them to know something about history, literature, science, art, and everyday affairs. Now, the fact is, we have a science of ed cation, and some knowledge of the common branches is possessed by all teachers. It is essential for us to train up professional teachers as fast as possible. Empirical work is ruining our schools. Our salvation lies in better professional knowledge and practice, through which we shall get more permanency. To dissipate and scatter our forces by recommending teachers to read everything, will be to destroy all definite work and special preparation. Our teachers' reading circles are set to do one thing-the improvement of teachers as teachers. Any attempt to cover the whole range of literature in a reading-circle course designed for the rank and file of those engaged in the vocation will fail of making the quality of instruction appreciably better. "This one thing I do," was the motto of St. Paul, and it has been the motto of all successful men and organizations since his time. The lawyers' reading club discuss ✓ matters; the doctors' associations stick to their materia medica and dry bones; the ministers contend about "apostolic" succession and foreordination. Why should not teachers use equally as much wisdom? The time is coming when they will do so. The very necessities of the times will shut them up to this course, and no other. We conclude by a recaitulation of the arguments and points as discussed in this article.

6742-No. 2——2

Primary knowledge.-As a teacher, what ought he to read?

Answer. That which will most directly help him in the work of instruction.

1. His pupils are human beings; he must know what they are, morally, mentally, and physically.

2. He is especially set to train the mind. It follows, then, that he must study mind-growth and mind-science.

Facts.-a) How to train the mind into a symmetrical maturity is the most important knowledge a teacher can gain. All text-book knowledge is secondary in comparison with this. (b) If a teacher knows all science, literature, and art, and does not know the mind and its growth, he is not prepared to teach. His work is empirical.

Secondary knowledge.-Methods of instruction, organization, school government, school systems, school laws, the history of education.

Facts.-Teachers have little time to read. They do know something concerning the branches they study. They know very little concerning mind-science and the fundamental principles of education.

Conclusions. It is of the utmost importance that a teacher should read the literature of his profession. To encourage general reading, unless professional knowledge has been obtained, will destroy the real professional benefit coming from reading circles for teachers.

Dr. Allen's paper was discussed by Hon. Hubert M. Skinner and others.

THIRD SESSION.

Wednesday Evening, February 24, 1886.

Hon. CHARLES S. YOUNG, of Nevada, delivered the following address in the hall of Columbian University building, corner of Fifteenth and H streets :

CO-EDUCATION OF THE RACES.

In all the commercial and political relations of races there is necessarily consociation. In this consociation there must always be some clashing of interests. In no civilization, ancient or modern, have the antag onisms of race elements caused greater disturbance than in that of the New World. In the North the bitterness thus engendered grew to enormous proportions until 1763, when the Treaty of Paris closed the French and Indian war. In the South the disturbance from race commingling culminated in the most awful fratricidal war of modern times, daily growing more threatening to the perpetuity of our nation, until January 1, 1863, when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Now upon the western shore the agitation caused by race antagonisms is but just begun. Whether or not the races, with