SPELLING. As THE SPELLING CLASS. Spelling is a matter of mere memory. See that crevice in the floorThe methods, therefore, of teaching spell- Slender line from desk to door, ing are the best which will most aid the First meridian of the schoolmemory in retaining the forms of words. Which all the scholars toe by rule. In the primary grades the children are Ranged along in rigid row, required to spell all the words occurring Inky, golden, brown and tow, in their daily lessons by sound, and in the Are heads of spellers high and low, higher primaries by letter. Oral spelling Like notes in music sweet as June, is chiefly by sound, letter spelling by Dotting off a dancing tune. writing. In the higher grades the pupils Boy of Bashan takes the lead,— are required to spell orally and by writ- Roughly thatched his bullet head;— ing. Every device the ingenuity of the At the foot an eight-year-old, teacher can invent, whereby the memory Stands with head of trembling gold; can be aided in retaining the correct or- Watch her when the word is missed! der of the letters and the proper ones, is Her eyes are like an amethyst, resorted by the teacher. The complaint, Her fingers dove-tailed, lips apart; that by the modern methods as good spel- She knows that very word by heart! lers are not made as were made ten or And swings like any pendulum, twenty years ago, is without foundation Trembling lest it fail to come. in fact. No method and no amount of Runs the word along the line, effort will teach all children to remember Like the running of a vine, the correct orthography of even familiar Blossoms out from lip to lipwords. If they ever spell well, it will be Till the girl in azure slip, by frequently consulting the dictionary. Catches breath and spells the word, It is a gift which all do not possess. Flits up the class like any bird, well might it be expected to make a good Cheeks in bloom with honest blood, mathematicians of all the children who And proudly stands where Bashan stood! attend the schools, as to make all good-Scribner's Mag. for May. spellers. To convince any one that persons who were in the schools of twenty years ago were not good spellers, the complainant has only to examine the notes received by teachers concerning the children. All who go out from our schools are not good spellers, I confess, nor have I any apology to offer; but I believe a much larger number spell well now, in consequence of our better methods of teaching, than by the old methods, when children were taught little else than oral spelling. To be able to spell well is a matter of great importance, as well on Of all the passions, none are so soothaccount of its usefulness as the evidence it gives of culture. There is no subjecting as hope; and nothing is so dreadful in the public school course of instruction as the disappointment of it, especially which receives more careful attention when confidence has been great, and the than spelling. If we cannot succeed in fixing indelibly in the memory of a child object to be realized is great also.—Rev. the correct orthography of common words, Wm. Jay. we hope to so impress him with the importance of spelling well, that in case of doubt he will call to his aid the dictionary.-R. W. STEVENSON, Supt. of Schools, Columbus, Ohio. Report, 1873. FLASHES OF THOUGHT. SELECTED BY D. M. Employment is nature's physician. It is indeed so important to happiness that indolence is justiy considered the parent of misery.-Galen. A desire for knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being, whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all he has to get knowledge.-Dr. Johnson. There is such a sin as oppression; it consists not in that gross violation of justice, which is cognizable by law, and against which civilized governments have provided; but in taking such an advant-in its influence on the movements of a age of the necessity and weakness of the poor as converts them into mere instruments of a superior power, the victims of a selfish emolument, with no other consideration than how far their physical exertions may be rendered subservient to the gratification of an unfeeling rapacity. -Rev. Robert Hall. majority of women, and they would be able in the positions of Superintendent, Trustee or School Inspector to devote much more attention to the requirements of those positions than most men. Of course we would recommend the appointment or election of women to these positions, to be made only in connection with jurisdiction over primary, intermediate The great struggle for human progress and elevation proceeds noiselessly,-often and girls' schools. Our own knowledge unnoted, often checked and apparently and experience of the influence and charbaffled, amid the clamorous and debasing acter of male trustees and inspectors of strifes impelled by greedy selfishness and public schools, especially in our large low ambition. In that struggle, main- cities, lead us to believe that the cause of tained by the wise and good of all par- education and other even more important ties, all creeds, all climes, bear ye the part interests would be much better served by of men. Heed the lofty summons, and, women. The experiment has already been with souls serene and constant, prepare tried in Illinois, and in some towns in to tread boldly in the path of highest Massachusetts, and we may now have the duty. So shall life be to you truly ex- opportunity of watching its working in alted and heroic; so shall death be a Boston. Wherever tried, it has thus far transition neither sought nor dreaded; so worked to the complete satisfaction of all shall your memory, though cherished at parties interested. While we do not befirst but by a few humble, loving hearts, lieve in the divergence of woman from linger long and gratefully in human re- her proper sphere, we see no good reason membrance, a watchword to the truthful for not recognizing her as peculiarly caland an incitement to generous endeavor, culated for the duties appertaining to freshened by the proud tears of admiring school offices.-N. Y. Commercial Adveraffection, and fragrant with the odors of tiser. heaven!-Greeley. WOMEN AS SCHOOL OFFICERS. The annual report of the Commissioner of Public Schools of Rhode Island contains some sensible conclusions in regard to the appointment of school officers, and offers a number of very excellent reasons why these should be selected from among women and teachers. These reasons may be briefly included in the three conditions of natural fitness, experience and time. It is so generally admitted that women make the best school teachers, up to a certain grade of education, that we need not attempt to argue the point. That the conditions which fit them for this position will, after they have graduated from the platform, enable them to direct and instruct other teachers, looks reasonable certainly. The element of time, which must of necessity enter so largely into man's arrangements, has far less weight BOOK-SCIENCE. I do not know what the requirements of your examiners may be, but I sincerely trust they are not satisfied with a mere book-knowledge of these matters. For my own part, I would not raise a finger, if I could thereby introduce mere bookwork in science into every arts curriculum in the country. Let those who want to study books devote themselves to literature, in which we have the perfection of books, both as to substance and as to form. If I may paraphrase Hobbes' wellknown aphorism, I would say that "books are the money of literature, but only the counters of science," science (in the sense in which I now use the term) being the knowledge of fact, of which every verbal description is but an incomplete and symbolic expression. And be assured that no teaching of science is worth any thing, as a mental discipline, which is not based upon direct perception of the facts, and practical exercise of the observing and logical faculties upon them. Even in such a simple matter as the mere comprehension of form, ask the most practised and widely-informed anatomist what is the difference between his knowledge of a structure which he has read about and his knowledge of the same structure when he has seen it for himself, and he will tell you that the two things are not compar. able the difference is infinite. Thus I am very strongly inclined to agree with some learned school-masters who say that, in their experience, the teaching of science is all waste time. As they teach it, I have no doubt it is. But, to teach it otherwise, requires an amount of personal labor and a development of means and appliances, which must strike horror and dismay into a man accustomed to mere book-work, and who has been in the habit of teaching a class of fifty without much strain upon his energies. And this is one of the real difficulties in the way of the introduction of physical science into the ordinary university course, to which I have alluded. It is a difficulty which will not be overcome, until years of patient study have organized scientific teaching as well as, or I hope better than, classical teaching has been organized hitherto.--PROF. HUXLEY, in Popular Science Monthly for May. SCRAPS. CONTRIBUTED BY MRS. 8. C. SIRRINE. EVERY heart has a secret drawer, the spring of which is only known to the owner. TRUE MORAL COURAGE is the diamond pen which may write poetry, and mildness with a world-braving stoicism. SATURDAY NIGHT, of nature and of the year, is a breathing moment, where time of light and darkness form a sublime arch. HOW HOLY is the joy and pain of pure unspotted music. Its jubilee and its sounds of woe are not for any one circumstance in life, but for life, for exist ence itself, and nothing is worthy of its tears but eternity. WONDERS OF CHEMISTRY.-Linen can be converted into sugar; sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid; alcohol into ether and water. Sugar can also be converted into oxalic acid, and likewise into pure charcoal and water. Alcohol will readily change into acetic acid or vinegar. Coal tar is transformed into dyes that surpass the Tyrian purple of old. Starch may be transmuted into gum; alcohol into sugar, vinegar or oxalic acid. And these are but a few of the magical changes which modern chemical science has made familiar as household words. THE BOY AGASSIZ. CHAPTER I.-HIS HOME. It was in Switzerland. The country of mountains and lakes. A small country, not much larger than the State of Massachusetts and shut up in the centre of Europe, far away from the sea. In the western part of Switzerland, near France, is the lake of Neuchatel, a long lake, deep, blue, and as clear as crystal. On the west stand the Jura Mountains, and towards the east one can see the High Alps. The Jura Mountains come close up to the lake, so that the vineyards that are planted on the steep slopes almost overhang the water. The mountains on the opposite side do not come so near the lake, and there is a strip of level country along the shore. Near the northern end of the lake is another smaller lake called Lake Morat. Between these two lakes stands the little village of Mottier. It was here that John Louis Rudolph Agassiz was born on the 28th day of May, in 1807. His father was a Huguenot clergyman. His grandfathers for several generations had been ministers of Protestant churches, and the family were originally from France. His mother was a native of this part of Switzerland, or the Canton of Vaud, as it is called. So Louis was a na tive of Switzerland, though belonging to a French family. Mottier was a fine place for a boy. The village was small, and the woods, the grassy fields, the lakes, and the high hills were all within easy reach. There was | bird in the woods; he was personally ac no end of sport to be found everywhere. There were birds in abundance in the woods, and as for fish, the lakes seemed to swarm with them. As for boating, it was the one thing that afforded unending delight to every boy in Mottier. Louis did not go to school till he was eleven years old. What he did with himself up to this time is not fully known. All we can be sure about is that he had the free run of the woods and hills, and had a glorious time fishing. No boy in Mottier had ever been known to like to fish quite so well as Louis Agassiz. He thought it was certainly the greatest fun that had ever been invented for the delight of small boys like himself. Mottier is not like any village you ever saw in this country. The houses are made of stone, and the roofs of red tiles hang over the walls so that there are deep shadows under the eaves. There are balconies on nearly every story, with stairs on the outside, and as the roof hangs over them, these balconies are sheltered from the sun and rain. The family often sit out there in pleasant weather, and the railing is sometimes surmounted with rows of plants in pots, and bunches of dried grasses, onions, squashes, and the like, so that it looks from the street as if the family kept their store-closet out of-doors. In the streets are stone troughs with streams of cold water spouting in silvery fountains out of iron pipes. Here the horses and cattle come to drink and the women come to fill their pitchers. There are no water pipes in the houses, nor gas lamps in the streets, and the houses stand huddled together in a curious jumble, one house facing one way and the next the other way, so that the streets are crooked and narrow. There are no gardens in the village, but outside of the town the whole country is one vast garden, extending close up to the foot of the snow mountains. Most of the children preferred to play in the narrow and rather dirty streets. Louis always made his way into the open fields or out on one of the lakes. He knew the name and the song of every quainted with the family of storks that had such a ragged nest on the top of the chimney of one of the houses; and as for the fishes, he knew all their names, and where they lived, and what they best liked to eat. On the matter of bait, he could satisfy the most diffident shiner that swam, or suit the most hungry pickerel that ever leaped out of the water for a fly or grass-hopper. The boats on the Lake of Neuchatel are rather rude affairs. Round the landings of some of the towns, where the visitors from the hotels go out sailing, are boats that look like boats on the Hudson or Connecticut. The native boats, such as Louis must have used, were queer looking skiffs, broad and flat at the bottom, very square at the stern, and with a low, broad bow that looked as if any extra big wave would certainly come aboard, and swamp the whole clumsy affair. As for oars, no American boy would think of using such clumsy things. It was all the same to Louis. It was a boat, and it would take him out on the wide, blue lake, so deep and clear, and would float him right over the pools where the best fishes lived. There are two ways of going a-fishing; one way is to catch as many fish as you can, take them home, cook them, and ea them up; another way is to catch them for the sake of seeing what they look like, learning their habits, finding out how they live, and then letting them go again, or keeping them to show other people how such fishes really look. Boys generally fish on the first plan and count their greatest gain in having good stringful for the frying-pan. Louis went on the other plan. He went to learn something about the fish whether he caught any or not. He was more anxious to catch one of each kind than to get the extra big fellows that were so fine for the cook. He wanted to see how they looked, to count the stripes on their backs, to look at their fins, and in fact to know all about them. If he caught an extra fine one he was more ready to cut him open to see how many bones he had, and to take him apart like a watch, to see how he was made, than to make him ready for the dinner table. Perhaps you think this very silly in him. Louis would not have agreed with you. He cared more to know about the fish than to eat him. Then he used to catch fishes that were not fit for the table. Minnows, horn. pouts, and other fishes that boys think very small game were his delight. He did not wish to eat them, but he did want to know how they looked, and what kind of eyes they had, and how the scales were colored. The water of Lake Neuchatel is wonderfully clear, and when the waves are still one can see the bottom where it is quite deep. Our ponds and lakes are brown or ruddy with iron stains. These Swiss lakes have blue and white water, that is like glass when it is calm. Louis took advantage of this, and leaning over the long bows, where the shadow of the boat kept away the reflection of the sun, he would watch the fishes playing round his line for hours. He did not seem to care much whether he caught anything or not, provided he could study their habits and learn how they lived. In time he found out where they laid their eggs, he knew by heart all the different kinds of food they had, and knew just when they came up to the surface to catch the stray flies or when they sought out their soft beds, where they spent the winter. After a while he knew the name of every fish in the whole lake, and was personally acquainted with every finny family that swam or crawled in its waters. When he was eleven years old his father decided to send him to school, and with his younger brother, Louis set out for the academy, or gymnasium as they called it, at Bienne, a small town in the next canton. About this time the Agassiz family moved away from Mottier, and went to live in the Valley of the Orbe, at the other end of the Lake of Neuchatel, towards Geneva. Concerning Louis' school days at Bienne, and his vacations at Orbe, more another time.-Chas. Barnard. A WORD TO TEACHERS.-The work you are engaged in is a great and noble one. Fit and prepare yourselves for it; give your time and attention to your business, so that you may become active, energetic and live teachers. You will find that in order to become a successful teacher it will require considerable sound, common sense mixed with your book knowledge. A mere matter of books, without originality, will be of but little use to you as teachers. Acquaint yourselves with each day's lessons; if you expect your pupils to be prepared, you must set the example by being prepared yourselves.-T. P. MARSH, Supt. Jackson Co. A TEACHER SHOULD Be kind, candid, and firm. Put up a Programme and teach by it. Make previous preparation for each recitation. Render the school-room attractive, and keep it clean and tidy. Avoid scolding, or governing too much. Have cognizance of all that transpires in school. Labor to prevent communication. Not be interrupted while hearing a class. Give short lessons and require perfect recitations. important points, with plenty of drill. Have frequent reviews of principles and lessons by printing or writing them. Have every pupil in school prepare his General Exercise on one of the following Occupy at least 15 minutes daily for a subjects: Orthoepy, Orthography, Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, History, Constitution, or Physiology. So grade the spelling classes that every word in the lesson is learned. Give the Reading classes constant and thorough drill. and drill in Penmanship. Have 20 minutes daily for instruction Strive to teach Geography, History, and Constitution topically. Make extra exertion to have the recita tion in Grammar a practical one in the use of language.-Wм. J. Waggoner, Supt. Richland Co. THE experiment lately tried in Eastern schools of using a newspaper for reading exercises instead of a reading book is proving a great success. |