there to remain till the seeds of truth and | teacher, but is a stranger to your school, knowledge sown by her appear in the fruits of wisdom. and from the two teachers you cannot get more than two-thirds the instruction that I say custom should do this, for it is a you would have received had you emlamentable fact that, at present, custom ployed but the one teacher for the whole does exactly the opposite. It is the fault time. There are some districts that are of school boards, of teachers and of soci- willing to pay the highest wages to the ety. Few of our teachers, and those are best teacher for a winter school, and examong the best, ever aspire to anything so pect to balance their expenses by hiring high and noble as this. Few of them, a very cheap teacher for the summer. perhaps, feel themselves fitted to do so There are districts that follow this plan, great a work. Too many are like the ap- and in not one single instance can you prentice in a shop, dodging and changing show me a good school as the result of from place to place, doing a little here such management. With no single exand a little there, not daring to assume ception, the schools of this county to-day, any one position and be responsible for that are as good as we ought to expect, the work. He who would open an acad- are those, and those only, that have for emy in our county would carefully select years hired teachers by the year. Nothsome favorable location and then trust to ing is plainer to see, than that a poor the merits of his school to make its influ- | teacher following a good one is worthless. ence reach out through the community Do not think that because the children and draw patronage; and if he were the who attend in the summer are small, that right man in the right place, the longer" anybody can teach them." Had they he remained in that place the greater not attended the winter school it might would be his patronage. So with the do, but having imbibed the enthusiasm common school teacher, after he has of the previous term's work, do not now demonstrated his fitness for his vocation offer them husks. There are young men he ought to feel sure that he will have and women in the county who would permanent employment. There is a great like to follow teaching as a business, but surplus of teachers, and many of them can find employment in the school room very poor ones, and this has a tendency for the winter months only, consequently towards this unsettled state of affairs. they are quitting the teacher's ranks, leaving them to be recruited with beginners, who are to grow in experience and share the same fate. Let us look toward Germany and behold those gray-haired sages engaged in teaching the young. Men who have grown gray, and at the same time wise in their profession. Let us look to that country, which leads us in education, and learn a lesson. learn that six or eight years in the school room, as a teacher, does not necessarily make an “Old Maid" out of a young lady, but may, and ought to make a teacher rich in experience, whose mind, replete with wisdom gleaned from years of labor, comprehends, controls and guides the minds of her pupils onward and up. ward, to a culture not attainable except when children are directed by those to whom years have given wisdom. A love of change and variety is a weakness of our day and society, and this wide-spread evil has its influence among our schools. Parents demand a change without good reasons. Even children sit in judgment over the teacher, and hav. ing found her wanting in their puerile scales, report the same to their doting parents, who forthwith raise the cry, " Our school amounts to nothing." He who thus condemns a teacher upon a child's judgment and testimony, has done an unjust act. It is now time of year to hire teachers. The first and most important question is, Shall we not hire for a year? And to this question let me answer yes; why? Because it is cheaper. You may take two of the best teachers in the county, put one of them into your school four months, then dismiss the first and employ the other, who is just as good a Let us J. P. B. PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. BY ROSE C. SWART, OSHKOSH. [A Paper read before the State Teachers' Association, July 17, 1874.] Children enter the primary schools possessed of much isolated knowledge of surrounding things, gained chiefly thro' the medium of the senses. They have perceived much, they have reasoned but little, and are without habits of continued or consecutive thought. Even our language is to them as a sealed book, except for the few words easy to pronounce, and of obvious meaning, which they have used to make known their childish wants and tell their childish thoughts. standing, or we have no surety of success. We come thus to the study of primary instruction, its purposes and principles. If we trace the word "instruction" to its origin, we shall find it to mean "a build. ing up within." He builds best who understands the object whereunto he builds. The world needs workers. It needs men and women of practical learning and disciplined forces. "Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look upon the fields, for they are white already with the harvest, but the laborers are few." We cannot afford to waste the midnight oil to make mere book-worms and Gradgrinds. We cannot afford to convert the brain power of the world into a storehouse; we It becomes the province of the primary must make it a dispensing laboratory. school to take these little children and The first object of all education, primary teach them to observe more widely and or university, should be to furnish the think more wisely. That this is a work individual with productive capital that of great importance, requiring careful, will be adapted to his future needs. The thoughtful laborers, need not be argued department of primary instruction is prebefore an enlightened audience. By such paratory to the department of higher init is a generally admitted fact, in view of struction. It is in the former that children the significance of which it becomes must be furnished with the requisite outfit primary teachers and the supervisors of for the latter, and it is from the latter that primary schools to inquire earnestly con- young men and maidens must pass to the cerning this work and their duty. It is pursuit of their life work. Any neglect to them I would appeal to-day. Believe in the outfit forebodes disaster farther on, me, it is not enough that we go to the and points to possible failure in the ultiwork with good intentions. A man who mate attainment of the end. Hence, it is calls himself a watchmaker may set to of vital importance that the work done work among the delicate wheels and in the first school be of such character as springs of your watch with the best of shall best fit for the schcol and the life intentions, and yet bring ruin upon its that is to follow. We have seen that thus nicely-adjusted mechanism. Of what far in his education the child's perceptive worth to you are his good intentions, if faculties have been his only agents in the the sequel shows that he has no knowl-acquisition of knowledge. His reasonedge in brain or skill in fingers to educe ing powers are existing, but as yet undegood results? As you receive from him the wreck of his blundering handiwork, he is no less culpable in your eyes because he meant well. It became his bounden duty to do well. Society, in self-defense, cannot afford to employ unwitting workmen-can no more afford it in its schools than in its workshops; cannot as well, since mistrained minds can work more evil in the world than mishapen matter. As teachers then, yea, as primary teachers, we must go to our work with under veloped. It is necessary to regard these facts as his education advances. His best success lies in the line of his adaptability to learn concerning those things which have already awakened his interest. This bespeaks certain of the arts and sciences. A child will come to school joyfully to learn about the leaves, the flowers, the birds, the fishes, the forms of water; to learn to write, to draw, to sing. And if he can be taught these things in such a way that he shall gain a love for the study of nature, a quick eye to the symmetry of form, an ear attuned to harmony, or a soul singing melodious, a field will have opened up in his mind that will, by and by, "blossom as the rose," but that, neglected, had remained a bar ren land forever. In trying to avoid one extreme, it is possible to go so far as to fall into another. In an endeavor not to overrate the ability of children, we are in danger of underrating it and regarding them much like intellectual infants in arms. Being impressed with the idea that we must not make too great a demand upon them, we may fail to require sufficient exertion. Anxious to bring instruction entirely weary and disgust them with repetitions of what they already know, or keep them so long on diluted food that they lose the power to digest a stronger diet. In this case children naturally weak-minded and indolent, having no incentive to arouse themselves, will remain so; and those of stronger mind and more active temperament, finding the work prepared for them insufficient to employ their time and talents, will devote them to mischief and naughtiness and making trouble for the teacher. Either of these extreme methods of instruction will fail to secure the desired result. The child is in need of two things: knowledge and that discipline of mind which will aid him to make the best use of it; and instruction and self-development must walk side by side, if he shall attain at last to his fullest intellectual stature. He must begin to learn this early: that gold cannot be had without the digging; that The teacher must adapt to the mind of the child, not only the matter of instruction, but also the method of it. He may fill the ears of pupils with abstractions, load their memories with classifications within their comprehension, we may and technical terms, and puzzle their heads with subjects beyond their comprehension, but this is not to instruct. It is a process calculated to destroy rather than to "build up." Its results will always be disastrous. Pupils of keen conscience, kept in the path of right and duty by a watchful eye and guiding hand at home, will give diligent attention and endeavor to understand, but failing so to do will become dazed and discouraged. Others without these restraining influences, and with the necessity upon them to be doing something, find the legitimate school work uncongenial, and turn their powers of mind and body to mischief-making; which met, perhaps, by the teacher with harshness or injustice, leads to rebellion and its attendant train of evils. The child has learned to dislike what he should have learned to desire. He has become discouraged and disobedient at the outset, and henceforth will have nothing to do with books or teachers, save upon compulsion. If the activity and ability of the child had been turned in the right direction, who can estimate the good result? The tiny streamlet, feeling its way timidly along, sending out its little reaching rills to lap its pebbles, and singing as it goes, is turned aside by some perverse influence, and, in the desert sands, sinks out of sight, taking its music with it, when, attended by kindlier circumstance, and having gained, by and by, a broader path, it might have widened and deepened into a noble river, to fertilize and bless the thirsty lands along its steady progress to the sea. "A pebble on the streamlet scant, Has turned the course of many a river: A dew-drop on the tiny plant. Has shaped the giant oak forever." "Merit yields no meed of skill The child should grow in knowledge and power as the oak grows in size and strength; first, the slender stem above ground, adorned with few and tender leaves; and below ground the slender root, running not far nor deep into Mother Earth, the substance of things; but nourished by forwarding influences-sun and rain, in wise proportion,-little by little it climbs upward, spreading its branches abroad into the air, and creeps downward, sending its roots deep and wide into the earth; and finally, if the winds rush upon it and the tempests beat among its branches, it withstands the shock, because of its strong hold deep down with in the solid ground. Those superficial | not require as much knowledge and wisterchers who would cultivate the branch-dom to know what not to teach, as to es only, miss the strength; and those analytical teachers, who would bend all their energies to promote the growth of the roots only, will miss the grace and beauty. The wise teacher will cultivate both root and branch, that to strength may be added symmetry, and to beauty, use. So the boys and girls of to-day, being rightly taught, shall be the high-minded, strong-hearted men and women of the future, able by reason of energy, knowledge, judgment and self-reliance, to fight a good fight with the legions of indolence, falsehood and vice, and come off victors. School discipline is a worthy means in the hands of the teacher to this end: judicious discipline, which shall not be too severe at first, nor too easy at last. The best good of a child at school consists always in obedience, never in freedom. And this is equally true of a child at school and of a citizen of the commonwealth. From the cradle to the grave restraint is ever more honorable to man than entire liberty, which degenerates into license. It is even more honorable among the lower animals. A dog who does his master's bidding commands our respect. We honor a bee more than a butterfly, because it is subject to laws which compel it to be useful in bee society. To be constrained to duty and usefulness is always the highest mission. Heaven's stars have no liberty; earth's dead leaves have much. The primary teacher should possess a thorough and liberal education. A knowledge of languages and higher mathematics may not, indeed, be necessary; and the primary teacher may not need to delve so deep into any given subject as the teacher farther on in the course, who makes of that subject a specialty, and must teach it in detail; but she needs a knowledge of many subjects; a sufficiently thorough knowledge, to enable her to glean from the broad fields the ripest grain to feed the hungry little ones. And who is prepared to say that it does know what to teach? The primary teacher should have a special training for the work. We shall not need to go far for testimony on this point. It will be found near at hand on the lips of many a one who, with heart in work and an endeavor animated by an understanding of its greatness, has found herself hampered and hindered by lack of that training she should have received. And beside the wise head and the well-directed effort, more than all these she must possess tender hands, a loving heart, and a keen sense of moral responsibility. She has to deal with the babes of the earth, of whom the greatest and truest of all earth's teachers said, "of such is the kingdom of heaven." If the clay be marred in the hands of the potter, who shall say it was the fault of the clay? And while the story of this needed preparation and earnest work is yet fresh, be reminded that the time is not so far distant that "the memory of man runneth not to the contrary" when any body was deemed worthy to teach a primary school, and putting a low price on one's services was considered a qualification for the place. Much has been said, much has been written, yes, much has been done, to improve the manner of the work and the condition of the workers; but have those happy days yet dawned when we can afford to rest upon our oars and float in the current? Oh, no; not while the cities of Wisconsin pay from $250 to $350 per year to primary teachers and get such work done as is worthy of such hire. An old gentleman of childish memory used often to say, speaking out of the wisdom of ripe age and experience, "We get about what we deserve in this world." As primary teachers, let us ask ourselves, do we get about what we deserve? If so, let us proceed forthwith to make ourselves more deserving. If not, let us pocket our small earnings under protest, and do our work so well it shall shame our paymasters. Teachers of the primary schools, you have before you a noble work. Make Sadowa and Sedan yourselves worthy of it. Understand its | unification theory. dignity, and its bearing on the future have prepared the public mind to hail welfare of the children intrusted to your with eagerness every scheme which promcharge. Make haste slowly, but be not ises a high state of organization, and that satisfied unless your pupils increase in "linked sweetness" of subordination knowledge daily. Strive to fit them for "long drawn out" characteristic of a desearnest study, clear scholarship, responsi-pot's military establishment, and which ble citizenship; and thus make your is widely but erroneously supposed to be work worthy of you as women. Do it so necessary to the highest efficiency in well, so nobly, that you will bring no every department of effort; whereas it is reproach upon woman's work, but rather is but a means of placing the energies of add to it a brighter and ever-brightening many under control of a single will for luster. Do it so well, so nobly, that a the purposes of a single man, and every doubting world will no longer ask you to camp and battle field evidences at what produce your credentials to prove that a fearful cost to individual life and libyou are indeed God's ambassadors. erty this much-admired end is attained. Though the heart faint and the body tire Such means are not in consonance with sometimes in the service, look resolutely the form and spirit of our institutions; away from every glittering castle of ease but there are grave reasons for fearing and indolence. "At the core, holding but that this may become a secondary conbitter dust and blight," they cannot satis-sideration to many of our people, so intent fy. Then work on in all faith and all courage, your strength in the consciousness that you are helping forward in the world God's great plan of labor and purpose of good, and your reward in the consciousness of duty done and the world better by your living in it. DEMOCRACY HERE ALSO. BY ALEX. 8. CHRISTIE, STOCKBRIDGE, WIS. are they on attaining greatness by the servile and dangerous imitation of military and monarchical measures. At this juncture it may not be amiss to submit the following considerations: As warp is not web, so the preparatory studies of an extensive course are not fitted to subserve the ends of a common school education. The status of a common school as regards its educational needs and capabili ties is a function of many variables, an unavoidable condition which alone forbids a procustean law. A If teachers in our common schools be not permitted to disseminate any kind of knowledge for which their pupils have a desire and need, the latter can seldom obtain it, however freely it may be dis pensed elsewhere. A glance into the gloomy profounds of plebian arithmetic will assure us of this. es It is to be regretted that those who adVocate the unification of our various grades of schools have not thus far laid aside "glittering generalities" and descended somewhat more into the "harrow. ing details" of their plan for the dissemination of knowledge, specifying the grades to be recognized or established, their precise order and degrees of subordination, with the course of study to be pursued in each; for, until this be done, the justness and relevancy of criticism Probably not more than five per cent. must depend on either an equally vague of the school population of the State generality or the critic's powers of divin-ever go beyond the common school. To ation. It may be thought that criticism further the interests of so few by shaping is premature at this stage; but it should be remembered that a theory may grow into favor by degrees without being presented in any other than the most general form, if it be presented often without demur; and especially is this true of the the curriculum of the lower grades to the material injury of so vast a majority, would be a wrong and a folly against which no argument need be brought. To transfer the control of the common school from the local boards to an oli |