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er which is so indispensable in conducting the education of children wisely and sucsessfully.-Circular of G. F. Witter, Sup't of Schools for Wood Co.

ADVANTAGES OF INSTITUTES AND ASSOCIATIONS.

1. Teachers of the County or districts become personally acquainted with each others systems of teaching. Mr. A. may huve a plan for teaching the alphabet which is better than Mr. B's plan. If B. knows nothing of A. or his plan, of course he will receive no benefit from it. B's way of teaching Geography, Grammar, &c., may be much better than A's, hence to have A. benefited they must meet and talk the matter over, compare plans, &c. This can be done and well done, in a Teacher's Institute and not only Messrs. A. & B. will be benefited, but all who may attend.

2. Every well conducted Institute is in itself, a model School. Classes are formed, instructions given, and exercises gone through with, as they should be in the school room. These cannot but benefit the teacher.

3. Through these Institutes you can reach the patrons of the schools, and awaken them to a sense of duty. The co-operation of parents and friends of Education is required to ensure success to our schools. These persons generally, (?) attend Institutes, and their share of the work can be placed before them to advantage. Much is gained in this way.-Maryland School Journal.

For the Journal of Education.

SOME MORE LASHINGS.

BY DILLWYN.

The "Lashings for Mothers and Educators" in the July and August numbers of the JOURNAL meet my approbation entirely. If I should take any exception to them it would only be that they are not sufficiently pointed, and will not reach those for whom they are especially designed. We know that

"Those best can bear reproof who merit praise."

For the inefficiency and failure of schools, castigations are often inflicted on the teachers, which ought to be brought to bear on the parents and school boards. I am bold to declare from my experience in teaching and "boarding around," that when the home work of moral training is properly and adequate ly performed, that of the school (discipline and instruction) will be easy and will accomplish vastly more for the moral and intellectual development of youth. We have a greater lack of good homes than of good teachers; we have more need of genuine Christianity in the domestic circle than of abler clergymen in the pulpits. Give us the former and the latter will not be wanting. The author of the Lashings says: "All bad habits with which children may be afflicted, are the result of education." I would add, or rather from the want of the right kind of discipline and from unconsciously countenancing incipient depravity under the guise of shrewdness and sagacity. All parents like to see their

children smart, and they are often too short-sighted to discover when this smartness is at the expense of the child's morals; and even when they disapprove the child s waywardness and cunning tricks—out-witting his teacher in some school-boy capers, or making petty tresspasses on a neighbors property-family pride is too strong to arrest the propensity, or to allow merited chastisement to be inflicted. And when the juvenile culprit is arrested or punished by the teacher or proper officer, impertinent interference defeats the object of punishment, and encourages a repetition of the same and other misdeeds.

Parental affection is one of the best constituents of humanity; but when it is strong and not regulated by sound judgment, it exerts a corrupting influence, and runs into abject folly. The noblest exercise of it is seen when it curbs all of the vile dispositions to which a youth may be prone, leads him into the path of rectitude, and teaches him to observe and practice all of the moral virtues. This promotes the true and honor and dignity of a family-it would be a sure means of perpetuating the prosperity and respectability of a nation.

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No complaints against teachers are more common than that they lack capacity for governing, or that they are too despotic in the school room; and these complaints come from parents who are not able to govern their own children at home, or if they are, they are still more despotic with them than any schoolmaster. Difficulty in government always tells a bad tale about home training. When the home training is righly performed, any teacher of ordinary capacity may guarantee for success in school discipline. But where it is not thus properly accomplished, where the teacher is not treated with due respect out of the school, and where the pupils hear frequent discussions about his plans and regulations by his patrons, he may retire from the strife.

Children generally comprehend nature's artless language as well as adults, and sometimes better. In home discipline, they well understand the motive of threats, and whether they will be executed. A well merited chastening often loses its benefit by the air and manner in which it is applied. A freakish boy will understand how much his shrewd pranks are admired even when he is taking a whipping for them. Parents often unconsciously applaud what they attempt to punish.

Why do many children, when grown up pursue a course directly opposite to that of their parents, in morals, religion and business habits? I will answer that it is just because the course of conduct in the parents was so displeasing and repulsive to them that it led them to seek refuge in a different routine of life; and their enmity to the former took away their judgment concerning the latter. Young persons have often pursued a career of depravity less from natural proclivity than in retaliation for the ascetic and dogmatic tuition under which they were raised. How great then is the resposibility of the parental relation! I will assert in conclusion, that there is a far greater percentage of

failure in home training than in school discipline. Truly it is a great thing to be a parent. How few are rightly qualified for it! The parental relation is one of which it may too often be said,

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

Fond du Lac Co.

DISCIPLINE OF CHILDREN.

In order to improvement in character, we must all go through a course of discipline, and the earlier this is done, the less severe the process. That father felt it who was dealing with his son, and when one remonstrated at what seemed undue severity he remarked: "We all must be subdued sooner or later, if we would be good for anything, and am determined that he shall not have as much trouble in self-discipline as I had." What this course had been, was known only to himself; to others, except for an occasional flash of life and energy, he seemed a man of meek and quiet spirit. People said, “grace had done much for him," but grace does not help us without our own consent, and many a man who professes to be in a state of grace would be the better for a little more discipline and self-control.

This, too, is one of the things of which there is said to be a sad want in our national character. "A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame," and often worse consequences follow. Our notions of liberty are carried too far, and excluding discipline and wholesome restraint, amount to license. Indeed, a recent writer on Mental Health, Dr. Ray, of Rhode Island, ascribes multitudes of the cases of insanity to the utterly ungoverned feelings and passions of young people, leading them into excesses long before reason and common sense, to say nothing of religion, could have time to assert their power. Want of discipline is a fruitful source of insanity. Want of self-control leads to all kinds of mischief and evil.

To succeed with children, the secret is to begin early, and firmly and quietly teach children obedience. In order to do this, some of us will have to begin by governing ourselves, and so we may have double duty to perform. So much the more need of diligence. We must never sacrifice our children because we were neglected. It is but teaching them to yield to motives. The self-control is their own; no power on earth but their own can subdue the will, however much we may compel mere outward obedience. But it is much gained when the will yields to motive. At first it may be the mere fear of physical pain, then of the parent's displeasure, and of some other form of punishment, until finally the same self-restraint keeps him from disobedience to God and makes him faithful to the strong law of right. The longest and most important step in education has been taken, when the victory over the will is gained. Should any say, "With me it is too late; my children are disobedient and are past this early period of discipline," it is indeed a critical case, yet not desperate. It may not be too late for self-control, if that be needed, and for

renewed faithfulness, for repentance even for our sin of ignorance, and the earnest prayer, "Visit not my sin upon them." There is wonderful power in prayer, when we do all we can. Sometimes we must watch and pray, some. times work and pray.-N. Y. Observer.

HOW TO TEACH READING.

Heartily, intelligently and enthusiastically taught, there is no study in the common school course more interesting and beautiful than reading. When thus taught, the youngest and dullest will, with few exceptions, enter the reading class with a hearty interest and recite the lesson with as much pleasure as they would experience in an animated conversation. Dead reading in a live language like ours, will not do. Let us therefore banish it as nearly as possible from our schools, and aim to make all reading natural. Our ardor will, no doubt, be sorely tried by repeated failures on the part of pupils. clinch our will and resolve to persevere, and we shall succeed.

We must

How to teach reading, is a problem that should be got at, as one gets at a problem in mathematics; it is necessary to get a clear conception of what is to be done, then the nature and order of each successive step is to be sought for..

It is scarcely necessary to say that the object to be aimed at in teaching reading is to make good readers. A good reader is one who can take up the thought on the page before him and convey it in its full proportions, to him who listens. No thought worth handling is so insignificant as not to deserve decent handling, but a poor reader cannot convey the most ordinary thought in a clear and pleasing manner, much less can he express, in all their nice shades, the beautiful sentiments and choice thoughts which enrich good prose and choice poetry.

Where to begin is a question that is best decided by a view of the whole field. Reading consists of two departments; the mechanical and the emotional, or orthoepy and expression. The former has reference to pronunciation, and embraces articulation, syllabication and accent; the latter has reference to the utterance of thought, feeling, or passion, with due significance and force, and embraces emphasis, slur, inflection, modulation, monotone, personation and pauses. (Parker & Watson's classification.) Having in view this or a similar classification of elocutionary topics, bearing in mind the simple principle in pedagogy, that instruction should be adapted to the wants and capacities of learners, and possessing the limited degree of common sense which every teacher may be supposed to have, it is one of the easiest things imaginable, to decide where to begin. The following plan has been tried with good success: at the opening of the school term, point out only the more prominent mistakes, and have them carefully corrected, and give only some general instruction on reading, such as may suggest itself, but aiming to get our pupils thoroughly interested

in their lesson. Notice very carefully wherein your classes fail and let that be the starting point. If it be articulation, make that a special object of attention and kindly criticise for a few months, until the classes have acquired distinctness of utterance; give a daily drill of three or four minutes on elementary sounds and phonetic spelling. Take up only one leading topic at a time. -Maryland School Journal.

HOW TO TEACH GRAMMAR TO SOME PURPOSE.

It has been for a long time an earnest and growing conviction with the writer, that much more time is given than is judicious and necessary to the exercises of analysis in our public schools.

The important question to be answered is, are these the best possible exercises to promote the art of speaking and writing the English language correctly? Is there not a shorter and more natural method of effecting the same object with a surer success, and with the saving of much valuable time?

To teach the children of educated parents grammar, which it is of course important for all to comprehend, appears to me about as useful as it would be to teach a boy to drive his hoop on philosophical principles.

You may go through the labor of proving to him that according to the laws of momentum, etc., if he strikes his hoop with a certain force at regular intervals, his hoop will go at the rate of five or six miles an hour. The question is, will he drive his hoop any better than before?

We think not. The knowledge that he has acquired by his own observation and practice is superior to all theories in this instance. But we are told while the study of analysis any parsing may be superfluous to the child of educated parents, it is notorious that a large portion of the children in our public schools are of that class whose home surroundings are deficient in educational culture to say the least, that in very many instances their parents are ignorant of the first grammatical proprieties, and that the instances where any exact knowledge of the best usage of the English language exists, must be exceedingly rare; that, therefore, the study of English Grammar is indispensable for them. We admit the premises fully, but, beyond the learning of the parts of speech and their simplest rules of parsing, deny the conclusion.

For the exercise of analysis-I would substitute the correction of ungrammatical sentences. Let this be a daily exercise. Of course with these there should be taught such simple rules as these: The verb must agree with its subject nominative in number and person, etc. The example will be remembered, though the rule may be forgotten.

From the correction of ungrammatical, the transition is easy to that of inelegant sentences, which the mere rules of grammar will not teach. Teach the derivation and history of words-thus gradually unfolding their beauty and power. Teach the transposition of sentences, then the translation of poetry

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