the program of work for a year, which was devoted to the subjects of the industries of their own state. The Athenæum, which was the attractive building of the woman's club, was

thrown open to the kindergartners as social headquarters during their stay. The Froebel Union entertained all visiting kindergartners at a reception on the evening of Wednesday, July 7, with Miss Caroline T. Haven and Dr. Hailmann as the leading guests of the evening. Members of the Woman's Club of the Milwaukee Kindergarten Association and of the Woman's School Alliance assisted at this reception. Music was furnished for both programs of the kindergarten department, and the kinder-symphony deserves special mention, which was conducted by Miss Kippenberger, the Froebel Union as a body participating in it.

MISS MARY C. MCCULLOCH, OF ST. LOUIS,

spoke in her usual inspiring way on the subject of "Ideals to be Realized by the Kindergarten Supervisor," and as a fitting consequence Miss McCulloch was unanimously elected, on recommendation of the nomination committee, to serve as the kindergarten department president for the coming year.

Miss Caroline T. Haven deserves great credit for having made the Kindergarten Department of the N. E. A. success

ful. We would recommend her practical method to the future officers of this department, especially the sending out of the advance announcement of the program as early as the month of April.

Toward the close of the sessions of the kindergarten meetings at Milwaukee, a short time was devoted to the interests of the International Kindergarten Union. The second annual report was read by the secretary, and copies were afterwards distributed to those present. This report will be sent to all branches before the beginning of the regular meetings of these organizations.

It was the intention to have abstracts of several important reports of the St. Louis meeting read at Milwaukee, and these had been duly prepared; but owing to the extreme heat and the lateness of the hour it was deemed advisable to omit them from the program. The full reports of all the papers will soon be issued, and copies will be sent free to members of the union.

THE FIRST MIRACLE.

HE huge weeds bent to let her pass,

TH

And sometimes she crept under;

She plunged thro' gulfs of flowery grass;
She filled both hands with plunder.

The buttercups grew tall as she,
Taller the big dog-daisies;
And so she lost herself, you see,
Deep in the jungle mazes.

A wasp twanged by; a hornèd snail

Leered from a great-leafed docken;
She shut her eyes, she raised a wail
Deplorable, heart broken.

"Mamma!" Two arms, flashed out of space
Miraculously, caught her;

Fond mouth was pressed to tearful face

"What is it, little daughter?"

-Wm. Canton.

ART INSTRUCTION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.*

WR

FREDERICK OAKES SYLVESTER.

E have a great calling, a great subject, and the greatest, grandest thing to teach that God ever made a human being. I believe in drawing. I believe it is a greater language than writing, and that it was the foundation of human expression before writing existed. Children love to draw, and I believe there is no other more natural expression for them. Every child I ever knew was eager, yes, more than eager could not be stopped from drawing. Parents encourage to the best of their ability their children's efforts until they attain a degree of skill equal to their own, until the skill shown is equal to their power to give encouraging criticism and guidance; then they stand by and make fun. The mind of a child is a sensitive thing, and withdraws within itself rather than be ridiculed. If onetenth of the time was spent in encouraging and directing the artistic tendencies of children that is spent in compelling them to imitate a certain kind of letter or figure or kind of line, we would in a few years have pupils that could make far better pictures of given objects than the written names, and more intelligible. At the present day we have so far progressed that nine-tenths of our pupils can draw the appearance of a cylinder better than they can write its name, and it would be understood by every person in the world, no matter of what nationality. Everybody, even those who cannot read writing, can read a drawing. This language is neither English, German, French, nor Chinese. It is nearest of all to a universal language. I believe that the larger part of the training in this subject should take advantage of the perceptive power of mind so excessively active in a child. What can equal the observing or

* Given at the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Western Drawing Teachers' Association.

perceiving quantity of a child's mind? There can be noquestion as to that, and our main efforts should be directed to sustaining this quantity and refining the quality. Children do not reason very much, but they observe a great deal,. and it seems to me that the larger part of this work in drawing should be in observation, simple and direct, and directly from objects; simple, free, and unimitative work. One of our weakest points in our subject is that people have begun to think it is for show, and I am afraid that we allow them to think so too often; that we allow the pupils to think so, and that we even at times think so ourselves. We do not make or write words for mere show; we demand the idea. That is the main thing we look for and strive for. Surely the time has come when our work should rest proudly upon its own intrinsic merits as an educative feature in training the mind and soul of a child. I would lay more stress on that part of drawing which trains the eye to see and the hand totest the position and relation of actually observed objects,. and less on that which makes slick drawings, drawings that please the pupils, the parents, and I am sorry to say, a great many teachers-drawing teachers and even supervisors. Above all things I would avoid freaks and imitations of things, as our principal, Mr. Bryan, says, "which never existed either in heaven or earth." Surely we are not tryingto make artists of these children; that would be terrible.. God knows the world is full enough of aspiring would-be artists now without early training. It is training we want, training to see to see correctly and directly; to see where things are in relation to other things; to see enough to put things where they belong, even the simplest things.. Drawing is nothing but putting things in the right place after all; and what use under heaven is a line if it is not in the right place? if it means nothing, expresses nothing? I have seen pupils spend a whole period in drawing a pretty ellipse, only to find in the end that it should have been placed two inches farther to the right. We are swallowed: up in making slick, good-looking things, pretty things, that please the untrained eye. I never yet have had a childi