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THE END IN EDUCATION.

In a recent sermon, Dr. W. F. Oldham, of Columbus, Ohio, declared that the greatest end in life is living. This was probably intended as a sentiment or keythought for all of life; but it is worthy of special emphasis for us as teachers, lest we fall into the error of thinking that education is only for the years yet to come. Only to the extent that school life is a complete life for school days-the best life that can then be lived-will it serve its full purpose in preparing for the years that are to be. The chief end is the immediate end. If we call it character, let us say that the question of character is just as important to a child now as it ever can be. The end in all education, in school or out, is life to-day.

WHAT DO THE SCHOOLS NEED?

The West Virginia School Journal for July, printed a group of letters from. prominent teachers in that State received in answer to the question, "What one thing, in your opinion, will do the great est good for the public schools of West Virginia?" Out of twenty-six replies, there were seven who advocated such special preparation of teachers for their work as would improve the professional spirit; five favored higher wages; nine saw the need of closer supervision and a more unified system; two advocated greater care in the selection of teachers; two felt the need of closer sympathy between school and community; five would demand compulsory education; while one each pleaded respectively for uniform examinations, "a baptism of the teaching spirit," and "a civil service defense absolutely impregnable to the influence of politicians, sectarians and paternalism." The variety of replies shows a wider diversity of opinion. than should exist among teachers well qualified for their work. It seems to us that a persistent effort to raise the standard of preparation would be the surest and quickest solution of all the other problems. Give us teachers of ability and character, and all other things shall be added.

SUMMER SCHOOLS.

It is reported that, although the enrollment at the Chicago or Cook county normal school last year was over 900, the total at both that school and Colonel Parker's Chicago institute this year is only 800. Of this number 250 have registered at the former and 550 at the latter. This decrease in attendance must not be taken to indicate a declining interest in the peculiar advantages that the summer school affords, but must rather be assigned to the rapid increase in such facilities. The summer school has come to be an important factor in American education, whether reference be had to the local normal for the benefit of the rural teacher or to the university six or eight weeks' course for post-graduates. It is a means of growth for thousands of teachers who could not possibly let go of their places for special work during the school year, but who do find it possible to go year after year for a few weeks of study and for the new life and thought that they find in contact with larger minds. The summer school is more than a passing fad, and its place in our system is at once manifest.

WHAT WILL THE COUNTY INSTITUTE DO FOR ME?

When this issue reaches our readers the institute season will be fairly opened. A vast quantity of time and energy, with no small amount of money, will be expended in this very commendable work. The remuneration, the benefit, will depend chiefly upon the attitude of the teacher, who, for the week, becomes a student. Notwithstanding the multiplied facilities. for normal and professional training, it is true that the great body of our teachers, especially those in the rural schools, receive no other training than the institute affords. It is this consideration that gives them such importance; that makes it worth while to secure the best available instruction, and to use every means to make them a source of real help. Presuming that the best possible arrrangements for instruction have been made, the

question for each individual teacher is, What can I get out of the week's work? It is possible to make it largely a social affair; it is possible to attend perfunctorily, and it is rumored that some teachers find a way to be there and not to be there at the same time, though, considering the natural limitations and the high moral standards of teachers, this appears hardly credible. On the other hand, it is possible to go to the institute hungry for all that is to be offered, eager to know more of the subjects presented, and especially to learn of better methods of instruction. This is the commendable attitude. The indifferent teacher and the half attentive teacher will doubtless absorb something, but to get the most the teacher must make the week a time of earnest thought and work.

SALARY AND SERVICE.

A few weeks ago, when Superintendent Maxwell succeeded in getting a bill passed by the New York Legislature and signed. by Governor Roosevelt, providing an increase of nearly $2,000,000 in the yearly salaries of New York city teachers, there was great rejoicing, as there should have been. Either fortunately or unfortunately, teachers, like other men and women, are subject to physical needs and to those requirements of home and society which demand financial means. To teachers, as to others, subsistence for self and family is the first consideration. Salaries for teaching have been notoriously inadequate. The long campaign for better pay is defensible on the simple ground of necessity; and rejoicing over such an achievement as that just mentioned and over the substantial recognition of professional ability in many places surely needs no apology.

But there is always danger of commercialism. It is easy to look askance at teachers who are accustomed to speak and think of teaching as something higher than most other occupations. It is easy to measure a teacher's worth or a teacher's success by the salary paid. No less is it No less is it easy for a teacher to measure out the service to be rendered in proportion to the salary received. Too many times small pay means correspondingly small service

-a most expensive theory, disastrous to the teacher, and especially hard on the innocents.

The other ideal is that of service. It is the standard of the real teacher. Even his salary is regarded as a means of better preparation and enlarged usefulness. He believes, as firmly as any other, that the teacher is worthy of his hire, but he feels that there are rewards which are not measurable by a money standard. One might put a value upon the work of teaching arithmetic, writing, reading, history and the sciences; but who shall measure the work of inculcating truthfulness and honesty and uprightness and gentleness and economy and industry and frankness and unselfishness and purity-the work of building character, of making citizens, of shaping destiny? All of these may or may not be included in the teaching of the curriculum, according as the teacher is a true teacher or a mere hireling. Earnestness, faithfulness, patience and that quality almost akin to the mother's love are not commercial commodities. The teacher who has them may have to regret the smallness of her salary, but she does not lose her reward. She has her part, as Professor Scott puts it, "in doing the high things." There are faithful teachers even in humble places to whom opportunity itself is reward. The late venerable teacher, Henry Barnard, as Dr. Winship tells us, used a fortune of $50,000 in the publication of an educational work which will be of untold value for generations to come. It was a work of love and a noble sacrifice. His ideal was one of service. So let us teach. So let us live. Success means more than salary, and character is greater than wealth.

Extolling that which is pure is a better aid to virtue than denouncing that which is vile. When a guide shows a traveler through a perilous region he is likely to show him along the right way rather than to take him from pitfall to pitfall and pointing out to him just what to avoid in his course. Many a bad book would never have done one-half the harm it has, had an emphasis not been placed upon its worst phase by its reviewer.

MATHEMATICS.

ROBERT J. ALEY, BLOOMINGTON, IND.

HISTORY OF ARITHMETIC.

XXV. ARITHMETIC IN THE COLONIES-Continued. Dilworth's Schoolmaster's Assistant, mentioned in the July Inland Educator, is worthy of some further notice. It was the authority in the latter colonial days. All arithmetical arguments were settled by an appeal to Dilworth. Many English editions were issued, and at least seven American ones.

Thomas Dilworth was a school-master in Wapping. He was the author of several other school books besides the arithmetic, notably a grammar and a work on bookkeeping. In his book he follows the general lines laid down by Cocker. All the theory is propounded in the form of question and answer. The book contains three distinct divisions: whole numbers, vulgar fractions and decimals, to which is added a large collection of questions and a chapter on duodecimals.

The rhyme for the months is:

"Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Except February alone,

Which claimeth just eight and a score,
But every leap year one more."

For the time the book contains an unusually large collection of problems. The problems in the main are good. In the miscellaneous lists are found some rather difficult ones. The following are examples:

"A gentleman a chaise did buy,
An horse and harness, too;

They cost the sum of three score pound;
Upon my word 'tis true.

The harness came to half of the horse,
The horse twice of the chaise;
And if you find the price of them,
Take them and go your ways."

"A gentleman courted a young lady; and as their birthdays happened together, they agreed to make that their wedding day. On

the day of marriage, it happened that the gentleman's age was just double to that of the lady's; that is, as 2 to 1. After they had lived together thirty years, the gentleman observed that his lady's age drew nearer to his and that his was only in such proportion to hers as 2 to 1 3-7. Thirty years after this the same gentleman found his and his lady's ages to be as near as 2 to 1%, at which time they both died. I demand their several ages at the day of their marriage, and of their death; also the reason why the lady's age, which was continually gaining upon her husband's, should, notwithstanding, be never able to overtake it."

In the list of pleasant and diverting questions we find many of the old friends that were used to while away our own boyhood evenings. It is interesting to know that the boys of one hundred twenty-five years ago were puzzling their heads over the same questions. Here are a few of them given by Dilworth:

1. Place the nine digits in a quadrangular form, so that any three figures in a right line may add just fifteen.

2. A gentleman's servant went to market with an order to buy twenty fowls for 20d. He did so, and brought home pigeons at 4d. apiece, larks at a halfpenny apiece, and sparrows at a farthing apiece. I demand how many there were of each sort.

3. Let 12 be set down in four figures, and let each figure be the same.

4. Three jealous husbands, with their wives, being ready to pass by night over a river, do find at the waterside a boat which can carry but two persons at once, and for want of a waterman, they are necessitated to row themselves over the river at several times. The question is, how these six persons shall pass two by two, so that none of the three wives may be found in the company of one or two men unless her husband be present?

5. Says Jack to his brother Harry, I can place four threes in such a manner that they shall make just 34; can you do so, too?

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It requires 3, 21⁄2 and 2 minutes, respectively, for the first, second and third boy to ride around the block. They will be together at the starting point at a time equal to the L. C. M. of these numbers, which is 30 minutes. -P. G. Huston, Weirtown.

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Amount of $600 @6% for 2 years=$672.
From Sept. 1, 1890 to June 1, 1892, is 11 yr.
Amount of $1 for 14 yr, at 10% = $1.175.
$672 $1.175 = $571.91.

-Alice Irene Clem, Monroeville. 21. (11 p. 355.)

The amounts are to be on interest 9, 6 and 3 years respectively. From table on page 276, the compound amounts of $1.00 at 4% for 9, 6 and 3 years are $1.423312, $1.265319 and $1.124864.

The sum of these amounts is $3.813495. 1.423312 3.813495

The oldest son receives

of $10,000

=

$3,731.50.

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=$2,950.00.

-C. E. Walts, Union.

$3,318.50.

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John Morrow, Charlestown, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22; Carol Beard, Terre Haute, 22; C. E. Crawford, Michigantown, 19; Colonel Sentman, Stone Bluff, 22; A. F. Malmstone, Lake Sta., 18; Augusta Sayler, Rensselaer, 18, 19; R. H Baummirk, Saline City, 18; Geo. C. Carothers, Kentland, 18, 19; E. E. Walker, Hardinsburg, 18, 19; Homer Scott, Van Buren, 18; John F. Hoeing, Huntingburg, 18, 21; H. A. Blunk, Crown Centre, 22; L. W. Clements, Elnora, 18, 19, 20; J. L. Allen, Henryville, 19, 20, 21; Thos. Singleton, Washington, 18, 19; W. A. Mayfield, Youngs Creek, 18; B. F. Scott, Bluffton, 18, 19, 20, 21; Wiley Hamilton, Sandborn, 18, 19, 20; J. B. Schwartz, Collingwood, 18, 19, 21; Eva Chaney, Atkinsonville, 18, 19; P. G. Huston, Weirtown, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22; Alice I. Clem, Monroeville, 18, 19, 20; Clarence Walts, Union, 21; H. H. Williamson, Sandborn, 18, 20, 22; Ella G. Warner, Carlisle, 19.

SOLUTIONS REQUESTED.

27. Solve No. 9, page 355. 28. Solve No. 62, page 305.

29. A man plows 19 acres, which is in the form of a rectangle whose dimensions are as 125 to 152. How wide a strip must he plow around this in order to double the plowed land?

30. Reduce 8.36741 to an improper fraction.

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Fairchild's Solution Book.-This book is by Prof. J. T. Fairchild, of Crawfis College, Ohio. It is prepared for the common-school teacher. It contains complete solutions of 471 problems in arithmetic and mensuration. The solutions are notable for their clearness and conciseness. The reader will find good examples of nearly every kind of problem that can come up in arithmetic or mensuration. The historical notes, definitions and suggestions made at various places in the book are very helpful. A splendid list of 142 miscellaneous problems is given at the end of the book. Every teacher who possesses a copy of this book will certainly derive much benefit from it. It is published by the author at Crawfis College, Ohio.

Beman and Smith's Elements of Algebra.This book comes from Ginn & Co., and is prepared by Professor Beman, of Michigan University, and Principal Smith, of the Brockport Normal, N. Y. The authors have followed the general plan of their geometry and have introduced as much of the modern spirit of mathematics as is compatible with a good elementary text-book. Factoring is not only fully treated, but it is made use of in the solution of equations and the treatment of fractions. The remainder theorem is given before factoring, as it should be, although many books do not so place it. The whole book is arranged so as to hold the interest of the reader. There are frequent reviews and an unusually large number of fresh and interesting exercises.

Hinds & Noble, New York, have recently come into possession of the University Tutorial Series. The following are some of the mathematical books of the series: Deakin's Euclid. The author, Rupert Deakin, is headmaster of King Edward's grammar school, Stourbridge. The book is issued in two forms, books I and II separate, and

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