CHRISTMAS AT SCHOOL.

"I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time, the only time in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and therefore, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe it has done me good and will do me good, and I say God bless it."-Charles Dick

ens.

When we think of the Christmas of today, with all of its hurry and trading of presents which we see all around us, the question that comes to each of us is, Can we get the children of the school away from the commercial spirit and lead them out to the spirit of that first Christmas?

Can we not show the children a picture of that holy night with its stillness, the clear sky and the great, wonderful star shining over the land, the awe of the shepherds out on the cold hillside as they listen to the angels' song of "peace on earth, good will to men"?

Tiny Tim, in the Christmas Carol, said he hoped the people in church saw him, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas day who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.

So the aim of the special work of the school at this season should be to point the children not only to the life that was given on Christmas day, as an example, but that through their work some of His teachings might be carried out in their lives. Some children have lived so long in a covetous, unhappy atmosphere, looking at Christmas time only as a time of receiving, that the lesson of unselfish giving is the most blessed one that can be taught to them. But all teachers know that this condition is most unchildlike.

The natural child is the happiest in his service for others, and all he needs is to be directed to something to do for them.

Sometimes so much work is planned, so many stories told, the teacher is so overworked and because of this so cross that the lesson taught is that Christmas time is a time of great labor and crossness. Sometimes a teacher with a poor, thin little imagination thinks it her duty to freeze out all the enthusiasm which the children get at this season; also that all of this Santa Claus deception must be cleared up among her children. Either of the two will be very much exhausted when the vacation comes and on her lips will be the question, Does it pay?

She who strikes the happy medium between the extremes will begin her work in time to have the gifts which are made in school finished early; thus without hurry and in a quiet way the beauty of working for others will be taught without the feeling of exhaustion, and in its place will be the joyous feeling that for this year we have taught the great life lesson that "to lose the life is but to find it."

The following gifts may be made at school without interrupting the regular school work and with very little expense to the teacher. They are simple, but we must remember that parents do not look at the work which the children bring home from the teacher point of view. These little things which are simple to the teacher are great to the parents, for they are thinking of the short time which has passed since these hands were baby hands and of the wonderful miracle which is so fast changing this little child into a grown-up.

A Simple Sachet Bag.-Take a linen envelope; in the upper corner paint or color with good color crayons a spray of holly, have two folds of cotton that will

just fit the envelope; between the folds sprinkle sachet powder, seal the envelope and tie round with baby ribbon.

Blotter. On a piece of drawing paper 3x5 draw two sunbonnet babies; let the children color the dresses and bonnets with chalk or paint; cut a piece of blotting paper the same size; tie the two together at the upper corner with a tiny bow of baby ribbon.

Calendar. At any supply house tiny calendars can be had for a penny apiece. On a piece of gray cardboard 3x5 mount

a half-penny picture of Hoffman's Christ head, leaving room at the bottom for the tiny calendar to fill the space nicely.

A Picture.—Cut from cardboard a circle 3 inches in diameter, using the same center, cut out a circle 2 inches in diameter. This gives a circular picture frame. Dampen a straw of raffia and smooth it until it is straight. Wrap this around the frame until the cardboard is covered. Perry's half-penny Madonna of the Chair

fits the frame.

SUBJECT MATTER OF ARITHMETIC. The industrial world is becoming more and more complex and the activities of each individual in it are becoming more and more simple. From the estate of the American pioneer on the Western frontier who forced nature single-handed to yield him shelter, clothing, food, fire, and a few comforts with but very little commerce, to the estate of the present American home where no clothing is any longer woven, but few garments made, and food products nearly all partly prepared in shop or factory, there is a long stride. Text-books which contain problems about all the duties of the pioneer day will contain matter which sounds strange to the child of today unless his teacher is energetic, sympathetic, and interesting. From the modern viewpoint many of these problems are not practical. It is true that not all of them relate to the home life as now constituted. But at the same time they all relate to the life of some home, and that which is not practical in one home is intensely practical in another.

Inasmuch as children from homes of widely different activities meet in the same school, it is perfectly clear why text-books fail to be practical in the popular view, and they must always fail. There is scarcely a class of problems found in any book which has not been attacked as being unpractical

and not suited to modern schools. The different subjects treated in arithmetic have been criticised to about the same extent on the same grounds.

A professor of Cornell University would discard all problems in finding the greatest common divisor of numbers of more than three orders, and also problems of measuring coal. For apparently just as good reasons he might object to problems about anvils, tongs, bellows, and forges, for a very small number of children will make use of these tools when they are grown up-certainly not more than would engage in mining or selling coal. Would the learned professor have "The Village Blacksmith" discarded from our English courses for the same reason? If it is proper for our teachers to take time to develop strange terms and conditions found in the English lesson, why should not time be taken to develop the language of arithmetic when it is strange to the pupil?

Next to the ability to get thought from the printed page, a large knowledge of arithmetical processes does more to aid a man in this world of competition than any other subject. He must buy and sell, and if he would not lose he must understand commercially, "for value received." If he is to get fair treatment he must understand how to exact "measure for measure." If he

wishes to invest his savings, he must "size up" business propositions, making sure that he is not deceived as to the "units" of the transaction. It is important to note, further, that the problems he will have to meet in business are all arithmetical-they deal with units in the concrete; they almost never take on the abstract forms of algebra or the higher mathematics. Journal of Education.

QUERIES.

4. Given a right triangle A B C, the hypotenuse B C, being 45 feet. On A B, 12 feet from A, a line is drawn perpendicular to A B. On A C, 18 feet from A, a line is drawn perpendicular to A C, meeting the perpendicular which was drawn to A B, on the hypotenuse. Required, the lengths of A B and A C.

No answers were received to queries 1, 2 and 3 of the November number. Will not some of our readers give these problems a trial? Solutions should reach Robert J. Aley, Bloomington, Indiana, on or before December 14, 1905.

METHOD OF ATTACK.

In solving any arithmetical problem the student will find the following suggestions useful:

1. The first essential is a thorough understanding of the proper relations between the conditions' given. This requires some form of analysis leading to a complete statement of the conditions.

2. The solution should involve no unnecessary work. Cancellation and other convenient short methods should be used if possible.

3. All arithmetical work should be carefully checked. The student must realize that accuracy is of the highest importance and that to secure accuracy his work must always be checked. Any arithmetical work that has an error in it is valueless. The check also gives the student a means of

knowing for himself whether he has a correct result or not. He has no need of answers to his problems.

Example: If the time of the beat of a pendulum varies as the square root of its length, and the length of a pendulum that beats seconds is 39.2 inches, find the length of a pendulum that beats 50 times a minute.

Solution: The given pendulum beats 60 times per minute, the required pendulum beats 50 times per minute. Since the longer the pendulum the more slowly it beats, the required pendulum is longer than the given one. Therefore, the square root of the lengths of the pendulums are in the ratio of 60/50, or 6/5.

MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS.

The ancients had no convenient symbols of operation. Addition was generally indicated by placing the numbers to be added adjacent to each other. Other operations were written out in words. The symbols and were probably first used by Widman in his arithmetic published in Leipzig in 1489. He used them to mark excess or deficiency, but they soon came into use as symbols of operation. Xas a symbol of multiplication was used by Oughtred in 1631. The dot (.) for multiplication was used by Harriot in 1631. The Arabs indicated division in the form of a fraction quite early. as a symbol of division was used by Rahn in his algebra in 1659. Robert Ricordi introduced the symbol for equality in 1557. was used to indicate division by Leibnitz and Clairant. In 1631 Harriott used > and < for greater than and less than. Rudolff used to denote square root in 1526. -Lyman's Advanced Arithmetic.

In New York City the male teachers are paid from $300 to $900 more per year than the female. A strong movement has been organized by the women with the slogan, "Equal pay for equal work." The women ought to succeed. There is no way by which this discrimination in pay can be justified.

The dyspeptic is not wanted anywhere. There should certainly be a law making it illegal to grant him a license to teach school. The cross, scowling teacher is almost as bad as the confirmed dyspeptic. A sour face is soon followed by a sour stomach, and this in turn brings on the whole train of attendant evils.

Sir Henry Irving, the great actor, is dead. His ashes have been placed in Westminster. His funeral was natural in character. The whole English-speaking world united in doing him honor. Not since David Garrick has an actor been so honored in England. It was Irving's purity of character and charming personality, no less than his great artistic achievements as an actor that made it possible for him to attain this great recognition.

One of the most prominent men in the country at present is Mr. Charles E. Hughes, the lawyer in charge of the insurance investigation. He has impressed every one with his sincerity, his courage and his skill. The secret of his power lies in his natural ability, in his thorough training and in hard work. His memory is good, but he supplements it by the most thorough preparation.

Teachers' Banquet.

The teachers of Grant County have recently organized the Grant County Educational Club. The club opened its work for the year with a banquet and lecture at Marion on the evening of November 3. About four hundred people sat down to the banquet and afterward listened to a brilliant address by President Bryan of Franklin. The meeting was a great success in every way.

As teachers we have been slow to recognize the importance of the banquet. Nothing brings people closer, nor makes them better able to understand each other than dining together. It can be easily shown that the banquet is in large measure responsible for the fine professional spirit that characterizes the lawyer and the doctor. As teachers we need these valuable things. The Grant County teachers have done well to take the initiative in this good work. They ought to have imitators in every county in the State.

School Visitation.

There are many ways that a teacher may take for self-improvement, but none pays dividends more promptly than intelligent school visiting. Every teacher should spend a few days each year in carefully observing the work of other teachers. Many school corporations now give. their teachers two or three days a year, with full pay, for the purpose of visiting. In many cases a report of ideas gained is required.

A teacher in a rural school may gain great help from visiting several grade teachers in a good city system. The help will probably be along the lines of more system, greater care in the assignment of lessons, more attention to the individual pupil and a more interesting and broader method of presentation.

The

city teacher might receive great profit from a day or two spent in a good country school. The things of most value that would be learned are these: More economy in the use of time, more self-reliance developed in the pupils and a greater spirit of unity in the school.

We realize our own weaknesses most readily when we see them in another. One can hardly spend a day in another's school without seeing some of his own indefensible practices rehearsed. Seeing them in the concrete is worth far more than reading of them in the best pedagogical treatise ever written. The concrete presentation makes a very deep impression and urges the observer to defi