ful, and to have been warmly seconded by the people and teachers of Fond du Lac. The result was evidently a good time, long to be remembered. The Report of the Secretary, Miss S. J. Damon, is highly creditable to her pen.

We should not omit to acknowledge a list of 15 subscribers, through Mr. Pickard. For a new volume many more would have subscribed.

WAUKESHA CO.-Passing Eagle, we looked in upon one of Supt. Hendrickson's Examinations. Some eighty or ninety were at work and the crop of young teachers is surprisingly large this year. Waukesha county is ready to do her part to sustain an Educational Periodical when the rest of the State is. She is moving for the Soldiers Home in Milwaukee. Her schools are to have a stall at the Fair. We hope this will prove true of every county in the State.

GRANT CO.-The County Teachers' Association had a spirited meeting at Platteville, at the call of Supt. Purman, early in April. The attendance was 76; an earnest working spirit prevailed, and the people testified their interest by a great turn out. J. J. Copp, Principal of the Lancaster Academy, gave a lecture on the evening of the 11th. A very cordial willingness to help sustain the Journal, if it should go on, was manifested.

JEFFERSON Co.-The spring exeminations were completed at an early day, to enable the teachers to engage their schools. Steady improvement is noted by the Superintendent, and progress has been made in weeding out the inefficient tcachers, who do not advance with the times, and exhibit some desire to improve their qualifications. There are a good many of these mechanical teachers every where who keep mechanical schools and through whose dry veins no drop of vitality circulates. They are a dead weight upon the school system, and the sooner they "dry up "entirely the better. Under Mr. Purdy, himself an experienced, skilful and progressive teacher, Jefferson county, we are glad to believe, is going ahead.

PENNSYLVANIA.—Among matters of especial interest in this State just now are the education of orphan children of soldiers and the working of the "District Institute." The $50,000 given by the Pennsylvania Central Railroad as a fund for the former purpose will be increased it is hoped by the bounty of the State. Provision has been made thus far, on very favorable terms, by the Superintendent of the Fund, Hon. Thos. Burrowes, for the education of 110 children, in several different schaols, and arrangements are in progress that are expected to provide room for 500.

The District or Town Institute is a feature of the school law which contemplates the meeting of the teachers of each town twice a month on Saturdays for mutual improvement. Wherever it is taken hold of intelligently and earnestly, it is working good results. To the influence of County and District Institntes Mr. Burrowes looks for the more speedy realization of the magnificent

plan of the twelve Normal Schools for the State. Another, the Fourth, is about going into active operation in California, in the south-west part of the State.

PERCE'S MAGNETIC GLOBE.—This neat and ingenious piece of apparatus for the school-room answers a purpose which nothing else could. It exhibits to the child a palpable proof of many strange things told him in geography, and but clumsily illustrated by a common globe. It beautifully shows for instance the possibility and reality of the rotundity of the Earth, its diurnal mation, cause of the tides, attraction of gravitation, etc. A box of Magnectic Objects accompanies Globe, such as men, animals, ships, light houses, which, placed any where on the globe, adhere to it, showing that the world has no upper or under side, etc. In short, the fund of instruction which it may be made to impart, in the hands of a competent teacher, is surprisingly large.

The various sizes range from three to twelve inches in diameter, and from $3.00 to $21 in price. The five inch size, for $5.00, is a good one for common schools. The same with a revolving brass meridian for $7.00.

We think active men could po a good work for schools and a good thing for themselves, in introducing these globes. Address the Publishers, Charles Scriber & Co., New York, and see advertisement in April number.

MENTAL ARITHMETIC.

Will some experienced teacher please explain, through the columns of the Journal, his method of teaching Mental Arithmetic? Should the pupil be required to repeat the question before giving the analysis, and should he ever be allowed to solve the example from the book? An answer will greatly oblige,

J. L.

ANSWER.-Leaving the general question of "methods" open for "experienced teachers" to answer, it may be replied in regard to the other questions that it is best to have the pupil repeat the example before solving it, as culti vating attention, memory and exactness of statement. Furthermore, the language used in the analysis should be required to conform to that used in the statement. To effect this will require much care and intellegence on the part of the teacher. To use the book while solving the question is somewhat incompatible with the idea of mental arithmetic. It might possibly be allowed in very long and difficult questions, but if the drilling is sufficiently deliberate, this will not be necessary. Not one half or even fourth is usually accomplished in mental arithmetic that might be, before it is superseded by the crutches of late and pencil. The whole subject is well worthy of discussion. We recom mend teachers to procure the late edition of Colburn's Mental Arithmetic, and follow its methods.

The following from the pen of Mr. J. C. Zachos, in the Massachusetts Teacher, with the attending testimony, is of great significance and importance :

During the winter and spring of 1864, I took charge of the elementary reading classes of the evening schools of the Warren Street Chapel, Boston, an institution which, for the last thirty-five years, has taken a remarkable place among the benevolent enterprises of Boston in behalf of children and of the poor. I had just returned from a missionary post at Port Royal, S. C., among the freed people of the islands, where I became deeply interested in the efforts in progress to elevate the social and intellectual condition of this down. trodden race. Especially was I interested by their eager zeal to acquire the elements of reading, which seemed to them the "sumum bonum" of all that distinguished their condition from that of the whites. I gave myself with all the force and ingenuity of my mind to their instruction; but I soon felt that nothing but some skilful application of the phonic method could overcome their negro dialect and accent, or ever put the art of reading within the possible reach of most of the adults. With the children it was a mere question of time and patience; but the adults had, few of them, either the time or patience or necessary facilities of teaching, to go through that tortuous and long road that leads to the goal of their wishes-even with all the hope and zeal with which they were inspired. Many gave up with tears what they undertook with smiles. "Too hard, massa; too hard. Neber can learn to read !"

I did employ phonic methods with them; but for want of the necessary books and the very facilities mentioned above, I could only obtain partial results. When I returned to Boston, I brooded over this problem with intense interest; and it was with a purpose, if possible, to solve it favorably, that I undertook those elementary classes in reading in the evening schools of the Warren Street Chapel. On the first of January, I put a little work to the press, called the Phonic Primer and Reader, the use of which I could not get

till the latter part of March; but meanwhile I worked with blackboard and charts which I constructed for the purpose. The result is embodied in the following letter, given to me at a later period, but conveying the convictions of the trustees of these schools at the close of my experiment :

"We. the undersigned, take great pleasure in stating that the Rev. J. C. Zachos had for five months the sole charge of our most elementary classes in reading, in the evening schools of the Warren Street Chapel, during the winter and spring of 1864, and met with most unusual and gratifying success in the teaching of these classes. He employed his peculiar method of phonic teaching during the whole time, and succeeded, with such as could be retained in the classes from twenty to thirty lessons of two hours each, in enabling them to read with facility and ease the "phonic text" of the book employed by the scholars. In two cases this was accomplished in twelve lessons.

"It is proper to remark that the most successful scholars were Germans of the ordinary unlearned class, but such as could read their own language, which is strictly phonic. But similar results, in a less striking degree, were obtained from the Irish scholars entirely unlettered.

"It is proper also to state that the scholars had no book till the latter part of their course, but were taught by the blackboard and by charts. Neither the books nor charts could be taken home, so that the pupils had to rely simply on the lessons in the chapel; these were given twice a week, alternately to both of the sexes.

"Some of the German scholars could not speak English, and hence had to be guided in reading entirely by the signs of sound, and not at all by the sense; yet they read with facility and very intelligibly any part of the seventy-five pages of their reader.

"No such results have been known in the history of the chapel schools during the twenty-five years of our connection with them; and we believe this result chiefly owing to the superiority of the phonic method employed by Mr. Zachos, as some of the most skilful teachers in reading have heretofore given their services to the chapel.

REV. C. F. BARNARD, Supt. of the Chapel.

Com. in charge of the Evening Schools of the Warren St. Chapel."

I must confess that the results took me by surprise as well as the committee; and I was induced at once to call the attention of teachers and those interested in the cause of popular education. On or about the first of March the following appeared in the Boston Transcript:

"READING MADE EASY.-There is, in the night school of the Warren Street Chapel, Boston, an experiment in successful progress, which is well worthy the attention of educators and philanthropists.

"It is a method of teaching the reading of the English purely by the sounds of the letters.

་་ 1.

It corrects, in a short time, the brogue and foreign accent so common among our immigrants.

"2. It encounters all the fearful irregularies of our orthography by two or three simple rules of discrimination, easily applied by the pupil; and, without changing in the least the present spelling of the language, enables the learner to wend his way among its intricacies, with a 'pass-key' for every word.

"3. It shortens the time and labor of learning at least to one tenth of that employed by any method at present used for teaching reading.

"Thus Germans, reading their own language, but not at all acquainted with English, have been taught to read with facility in less than twenty lessons. And the demonstrations at the Chapel, thus far, go to show that any unlettered person, of ordinary intelligence for that class, can be taught to read the Bible in forty or fifty lessons by this new method. Such as are disposed to examine the class are cordially invited to attend at the Chapel, between seven and nine o'clock any evening of the week, except Mondays and Saturdays."

I am anxious to subordinate all claims to originality in invention to the great uses of such a moral lever for elevating the unlettered masses to the knowledge of the elements of reading. This is truly an American question; for it is not too much to say, that on its happy solution depends the perpetuity of American institutions.

If such results as are mentioned above have actually taken place, they can be reproduced again on a scale commensurate with the ignorant masses of our large cities, and the vast field for their application among the freed people of

the south.

There are a few of us, among whom the writer of this article is the humblest, who are determined this thing shall have a fair trial; and we invite the co operation and help of every one interested in popular education, and every true lover of his race. J. C. ZACHOS.

West Newton, March 1, 1865.

NOTE. On the question of originality in this method, I will let Mr. William Russell, the distinguished elocutionist and a Nestor among teachers, answer. I will simply remark that I was not aware of the usages of the Scottish schools, till Mr. Russell informed me, nor of the case of the Rev. Mr. Mulkey, in BaltiThe results to which I have come have been purely the suggestions of my own study, and have not been derived from any one or from any book. But I am most happy to be fortified in the uses of phonic methods by such excellent testimony, and actual trial.

more.

LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS, Feb. 13, 1865. MY DEAR SIR.—As I value very highly your ingenious method of simplifying