points, especially if our assignments have been vague or have taken the absurd form of pages or titles of poems.

It is interesting to speculate on the success of the "every-word-or-flunk" contingent in teaching Ivanhoe to second-year high-school pupils. Scott, for all his vividness, is at times ineffably stupid and scholastic, especially from the point of view of children, and besides he uses of necessity the language and general style of educated adults of his period. Many pupils come through the struggle to define every word he says and visualize every one of his pictures without any notion of the story as a story, or if they have any such notion, they get it in spite of the efforts made instead of because of them. Such students may justly call us to account in later years for wanton waste of golden opportunities.

As defective as the work that has just been considered is that of the teachers who weakly give children what they want to study, or, having selected a book for them, allow them to find what they can in it. Little children, as a rule, prefer sweets and pastries to wholesome food, but no sane parent allows his children to regulate their own diet. Fancy the world if all in charge of children did so! Now, we can see the results of diet that has been ill regulated through a period of years, in pasty-faced, anemic, undersized adults, and because we can see, we take heed, as is manifested by the activities looking toward the conservation of health, the prolongation of life and the elimination of disease. In this we In this we are blessed inare blessed indeed. But what are we to say of the unseen and therefore unheeded results of an unregulated mental and spiritual diet which is set before help

less students? It is the business of the teacher to teach making such wise provision in the assignment and giving such wise guidance in the recitation that each day will find his pupils farther along than ever before, even though no member of the class is conscious of the teacher's leadership. Such direction of the activities of a class can be neither irksome nor deadening, but on the contrary is conducive to vivid interest, ardent study, and sound mental growth.

The way is none too easy or too short. The perfect teacher who avoids both Scylla and Charybdis is still to come. When he does come, even he will not see the end of the journey nor reap the harvest, which he, like all of us, must believe to be rich if he is to undertake his task at all. As for the rest of us, we can only say in the words of Rabbi Ben Ezra, All that I aspired to be,

And was not, comforts me.

Right here it is necessary to sound a note of warning. Mere brightness. and spontaneity should never be mistaken for evidence of thought. Everyone can call to mind recitations which it would be hard to equal for sparkle and animation, but it must be remembered that tin is brighter than gold and that the English sparrow is only too active and loquacious. Are the pupils in a class endeavoring to settle some point vital to the understanding of the masterpieces under discussion, or sion, or are they only catching at straws and flying off at tangents, being more concerned for a chance to "scrap" or to get credit for a recitation than to dig for a truth? Between these two possibilities there is all the difference between the vitality that expends itself in the bearing of worthy

fruit and the rank growth that produces nothing but showy leaves.

A class in which the teacher declaims during the entire hour, occasionally interrupting himself to ask a question to be answered in concert, is not being properly taught even when the pupils earnestly shout the expected answer. The teacher should not deceive himself even when this response is accompanied by a stiffening of the muscles and a flash of the eye. Too often these manifestations are merely a reflection of the expressions of the teacher's own interest and earnestness. Under such instruction children are being taught what the teacher wishes them to believe on given points, and are only very rarely being led to form independent opinions or see relations for themselves. Frequently the habit is being formed in them of talking rapidly and superficially in glittering generalities on subjects of which they have no real knowledge. The time that has been wasted for these children can never be made up to them.

The interest in a lesson lies in the subject-matter itself, if the lesson be properly taught, and needs no props from without. The end of an English lesson, like the end of a history or an arithmetic lesson, should never be obscured by extraneous expression. Can anyone show an adequate gain for a class of children who have spent time in preparing and presenting a "dramatized" problem which elicits from the audience such comments as, "James, how do you pronounce j-u-s-t?" or, "Charles, why didn't you look at James when you spoke to him?" Not a word, it will be observed, on either the problem as a problem or on the sequence of events and the naturalness of the presenta

tion. What is the aim of the teacher in such a case? Is it to develop the thinking powers of the children, or to help them to express their thoughts in clear, straightforward English, or to teach them elementary principles of constructing and presenting something that may fairly be called a play? If it is any one of these aims, valuable time has ben woefully wasted, for each of them could have been better satisfied by a simple lesson driving straight to the point. Such a lesson will have the added value, if properly presented, of furnishing an interest and a legitimate enjoyment incomparably beyond that of the other because of qualities inherent in the subject itself. Once more, the fault lies with the teacher, who has wasted the time of his pupils and defeated his own purposes because he has had no definite aim.

This source of weakness is by no means confined to dramatization, for after all is said and done it lies at the basis of most of our mistakes in teaching literature. If the end to be achieved is vague in the teacher's mind, the discussion wanders now here, now there, never reaching any goal, though the teacher be honest and the class responsive and eager. Not all talk is profitable.

If a child's prejudices are met fairly and he is frankly told that great critics. often differ as to the value of a given author's work, it is possible to save him from contempt for a writer or from what is worse still, a distrust of his own judgment, a state of mind from which he may never recover in literary matters. It is true that a high-school boy's judgment is immature, but it is just as immature when he likes a piece of work as when he dislikes it. A teacher must respect a

pupil's prejudices whatever form they take, just as he does those of a friend, though that friend's judgment differ from his own never so widely. Indeed, he must treat them with more consideration, for the boy, because his ideas are indefinite and wavering, is the more easily injured. We must be thankful when a boy will express himself at all, for when he does, he all unknowing bares to us the secret places which every right instinct bids. him to guard from impious eyes, and thus gives the opening by means of which we may the sooner help him to come into his own. At such times we are unquestionably standing on holy ground. If we meet the issue delicately and wisely, growth beyond our dreams may result; but if we are harsh, unsympathetic, or uncompromising, the learner may withdraw into himself, to be roused again only with the greatest difficulty, if indeed he is ever roused at all.

There is probably no better way to learn to utilize all the opportunity that work in the class-room offers one, than to form the habit of constant self

examination, not the destructive, introspective sort that benumbs the faculties and so renders all effort futile, but the constructive, objective kind that enables one to see himself wholly outside of self in relation to his pupils. This self-examination may well take the form of some such questions as follow:

1. Have my pupils gained in power to read?

2. Have they gained in power to enter into the spirit of an author?

3. Have they gained in power to distinguish between what they personally like and what is true?

4. Have they gained in power to judge independently and dispassionately?

5. Are they able to do all this without the inspiration of my influence and personality?

It is on the answers that each teacher can give to such question as these that his work stands or falls, and manifestly no mere outsider could possibly be so severe in his judgment of work done in the classroom as the conscientious teacher himself.

into character; to establish a firm foundation for all the years yet to be; to gain the respect and confidence of the instructors; to select the qualities most to be admired in those with whom I daily come in contact and imitate them; to live from day to day. in such a manner as to leave no regrets but to win the approval of the world, and most of all the approval of my own soul-this is my symphony.

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himself, or yet with his remote ancestors. It rests squarely with the parents who through ignorance or neglect have failed to mold him aright in the plastic days of childhood. What is needed, especially in this complex civilization of ours, with its myriad incitements and temptations, is a livelier appreciation of the responsibilities as well as the privileges of parenthood. Most of all, perhaps, from the point of view of coping with the problem of vice and crime, do parents need to appreciate that it is in the very first years of their children's lives that the work of character-building should be begun.-H. Addington Bruce.

PEDAGOGICAL ETHICS. During the brief organ recital which opened one of the general sessions at

the Auditorium, the writer of these lines saw at least two persons in the audience, well up in front near the organ console, and two on the stage in full view of the audience, reading papers. Presumably all these people are teachers, engaged in the work of instructing the youth of the land in principles of ethics and a few other essentials of right living. When the music was over, and speaking began,

the papers were laid aside. The

speaking the readers could understand, and they, at least outwardly, gave courteous attention. Query

Does inability to comprehend what is assigned a program-place justify rank discourtesy to the person delivering that part of the program, as well as rude annoyance to the vast majority of the audience willing to give respectful hearing?-West. School Journal.

to

The annual meeting of the Indiana Association of Teachers of Psychology and Education was held at Bloomington, April 15 and 16. The executive committee changed the place of meeting from Crawfordsville Bloomington in order that the members might also have the opportunity of attending the sessions of the second conference on Educational Measurements, held on the 16th and 17th at that place.

The president of the association was Professor M. E. Haggerty, of Indiana University; Secretary, Professor G. H. Tapy, Wabash College. One general topic was presented for dis

cussion at the opening session: "Cooperation between Departments of Education and Local School Systems" --Leader, Superintendent H. L. Smith, followed by Professors Roberts, Black, Childs, Book, and others. At the luncheon session the topic was, "What Are "What Are the Present Important Fields. of Educational Research?" Leader, Professor M. E. Haggerty, followed by Professors Jordan, Tapy, Dr. L. P. Ayres, and others.

All the discussions were considered interesting and helpful to the members of the association. The committee on time, place and officers for the next meeting of the association proposed that the meeting be held at the time. of the State Teachers' Association in Indianapolis, October, 1915, that a luncheon session with one general topic for discussion constitute the program, and that the officers for the ensuing year should be: President, Geo. L. Roberts, Head of Department of Education, Purdue University; secretary, F. M. Stalker, Professor of History of Education, Indiana State Normal School. The report was unanimously adopted.

CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION

AL MEASUREMENTS.

The second annual conference was held at Blomington, April 16 and 17. To those in attendance at the first conference who also attended the second, there came a sense of fine proportion in the great work that has been inaugurated in this field by the university and many of the public school men of the state. Facetious comment has often been made on the number of Indiana school people in attend