need another Owen; we need a million devoted teachers who will stand against the spirit of the age with the courage of an Owen, and hold up before the eyes of this and the coming generation the value of a man-hold up before their eyes the truth that in the last analysis, national as well as individual success must be measured in terms of truth and justice, and that rare but growing altruism which, rising above human selfishness, ameliorates in the name of human brotherhood the cruel operation of natural law. Strip Robert Owen of his fanaticism and he becomes at once the ideal citizen!

The central idea of Robert Owen's social philosophy was that men are almost entirely the creatures of their surroundings. Heredity and will may play a part in the making of human character. To Owen that part is a small one. With him men are good, bad or indifferent according to the environment that has shaped them. While few if any of us would minimize heredity and will as Owen has done, yet there is a sense in which environment is today recognized as a greater factor in the shaping of human character than in his day. We have come to recognize what Owen saw, though his age did not, that the much-vaunted human will itself, if not largely the result of the many-sided circumstances which have touched it, can be and is being skilfully trained in the schools, a training which one must of necessity denominate as environment.

Out of his belief in the all-potency of environment as a reformatory agency came his doctrine that it is vitally important that human beings be surrounded by circumstances favorable to their development. To make men better, Owen believed we must make their environment better.' It was home environment he sought to better when he taught the people of New Lanark cleanly habits and enforced in the houses of the employes of his cotton mills a rigorous sanitation. It was only in order that the deplorable industrial conditions under which the English factory hand labored might be made. such as should give him at least a chance to become a man that Owen began that

wonderful sixteen years of agitation of the labor problem which culminated in the quickening of the conscience of the British public, in the enactment of child labor laws, in increased wages for the productive classes, in parliamentary regulations of factory sanitation, in the inauguration and firm establishment of the idea that government has a right, in the interest of common justice and the general welfare, to interfere in internal trade and with industrial relations.

England owes the redemption of her factory system to the master of New Lanark. America, too, owes him a great debt. When one by one industrial enterprises sprang into fruition here they copied their industrial organization from the mother country and imported their skilled workmen from her soil. The reforms which Owen inaugurated there had been to a great extent consummated, and our social and industrial order fell heir to them.

Owen's abiding faith in the all-potency of environment contains a great lesson for every man and woman who hopes for a better social order and a more perfect humanity. All of us are coming to assign to environment a greater sphere of influence in the making of character and the building of citizenship. Carried to its logical conclusion, the thought of man's dependency upon his environment is an unanswerable argument for better schools, better pictures, better text-books, and better teachers. It is a thought that would, if given free play in the heart of the patriotic citizen, abolish at a stroke the saloon, the brothel and the gambling den, and build with the profits of their overthrow model cities, each filled with every public device and creation that ministers to the good, the true, and the beautiful in the human soul.

Misunderstood and villified by the very class that he sought most to serve, disheartened by the defeat of several of his dearest measures, and chagrined over hisunexpected defeat as a candidate for Parliament, Owen seized upon a chance opportunity to purchase the Rappite holdings at New Harmony and founded therea communistic society through which he

hoped to create an ideal social, industrial and educational environment that should consummate in time the beginnings of an ideal race. The greatness of his hope only served to emphasize the greatness of his pathetic failure. And yet in the fullness of time important results did come from the New Moral World.

New Harmony afforded the world the most ambitious and extensive communistic experiment yet made. Its fate demonstrated that no commune without a religious basis can succeed even temporarily, and that no commune of any type can succeed permanently. Owen's experiment was the forerunner of Fourierism, and can therefore claim Brook Farm as an offspring. The communistic attempts on the Wabash set the whole world to discussing every phase of the social problem, and thus in a way not to be traced or proven led to social betterment. The educational experiments of the New Moral World were most ambitious and extensive. Through them, New Harmony became a center of light and learning in a trackless wilderness. By them Maclure perpetuated Pestalozzianism upon American soil and dominated the scientific

thought of the country for a quarter of a century. In them were the beginnings of much of our present day educational theory and practice. With them there was created a burning enthusiasm for public schools, "free as the living waters," such as has blessed no other community-an enthusiasm that was destined to reap a rich harvest in later days.

Above all, however, the New Harmony movement held up before the sordid eyes of a world steeped in selfishness the splendid spectacle of enthusiastic self-sacrifice for human betterment. Herein lies the chief benefit of every fanatical Utopian scheme of government. To paraphrase Emerson, “In a day of small souls and fierce schemes, one is admonished and cheered by such projects. There is an intellectual courage and strength in them which is superior and commanding. The projectors of Utopias are not the creators they believe themselves to be, but they are the unconscious prophets of the true state of society unto what the tendencies of our nature lead."

Rappite and Owenite played at least a small role in the great continuous drama that men call history.

DEVICES.

READING.

Rule grey cardboard (because it is not as easily soiled as white and the ink shows as clearly) so that all of the spaces are of the same length and of the same width. Write the words, on both sides, that are to be taught in the reading lesson in the spaces. Cut apart and keep in spool boxes. As new words are introduced and as old ones are repeated add these to the box. There are many uses for these words, of which two will be given: (1) Have a list of words on the

board, as flower, kitty, ball. Pass the boxes to the class. Have the children sort the words from the number in the box and place them on the desk in the same order as they are on the board. (2) Write the sentence "I see the kitty" on the board. The children sort again for the words used and lay them on the desk in the order they appear on the board.

Write with ink, on slips of paper, sentences that are very familiar to the children, skipping one word. Have the words that have been left out written on slips that fill the space left on the sentence slip. After the children have the right

word in the right space pass a little paste on paper and the word is fastened in place.

Later, make books, from butcher's paper, of a convenient size, mount a picture or a drawing on the page. Write a few (three) sentences about the about the picture. Write the same story on the board. Cut the words apart and after they have been placed in correct position by the children in the book have them pasted in place.

This kind of work is very strong as a modifier of reading, because the child must be familiar with the form before he can put the word that he has in his box in its correct position to have a complete sentence.

This work goes very slowly at first. The eye and the hand must have practice before they can work harmoniously. The work is ever new to the children because the words are each time used in a new relationship. The teacher must give the work often, but very little of it at a period. Too many sentences are likely to overpower the child before he begins his work.

SPELLING.

The first spelling work given in the Indiana reader can be made interesting to the children by having the pictures of the name words drawn on a strip of paper, the width desired. The pictures are made quickly and easily with the hectograph or by using carbon paper. Give the child the words, in a box, that stands for the pictures. Mount them. For variety write the words on a slip and have the picture mounted. In teaching the names of the colors, fill a space on the spelling paper with the color to be taught, mount the names in their place. Another time have the colors to be mounted by their names. Later in the year when the children have become more independent, prepare a spelling paper by mounting at the top of it a letter; the paper is more attractive if the letter be of some other color than black. A good red is frequently found in the letters of catalogues. Have the children write as many words as there are lines on the paper, beginning with the letter at the top of their paper or containing that letter.

Another good spelling paper is made by mounting at the top of the spelling paper a simple picture which can be found in catalogues; have the children write a list of words suggested by the picture, or write a sentence that is suggested. These devices will not make good spellers of the children; they are only aids to interest, to impress the child with forms and to show the practice side of spelling. There is only one way to spell, and it is the good old-fashioned way of learning to do the thing by doing it.

LANGUAGE.

In the first year of a child language work about all that can be done is to get point. One of the good ways to get him him to stand and talk, keeping to the to talk is to give him or interest him in something. Get some good pictures of child life (Perry's), mount them on heavy paper, cut them up in pieces that are large enough to handle easily and place in an envelope. Give these to the children to put into their proper relation. The child is interested because it is a puzzle to him at first to know just what the picture is. After the picture has been put together let the pupils tell to the teacher the story that the picture tells to them. At first one sentence will be splendid, but near the end of the school year quite a composition can be given orally by the children.

With their word cards (made by the teacher by writing on card board the words that may possibly be used) let a sentence be made on the desk that will tell a story that the picture tells.

WRITING.

In the beginning nothing is quite so valuable to the primary teacher in writing as a box of lintel. These seeds can be had from any wholesale grocer at fifteen cents a quart. Pumpkin seeds are almost as valuable. When teaching the child to write his name after he has had his practice at the board, give him a large sheet of paper on which his name has been written, with crayon, teach him to begin at the left and go to the right covering the lines with the seeds.

When a principle in writing has been given to the class and they fail to observe it, if the principle, in a bold hand, is written on a piece of paper and the child is given a pricking needle or a common pin and allowed to prick the line the point will be taught, because the pricking has required more skill with the hand

and more attention from the eye than the pencil has ever required, because the process is slower.

Many times the form in writing is impressed by simply taking the time, before the pencil is touched, to trace the form in air with the pointer finger.

SOLUTION AND OPERATION.

As the child's mind expands and matures, the ability to reason increases, and in order to train this power, the work in arithmetic, as it progresses, should take on more and more the form of problems. In the early stages, the leading purpose is to make the four elementary processes automatic; but when a fair degree of skill in performing operations is acquired, simple problems should be introduced. These should gradually increase in complexity with the growth of the power of the mind to follow logical processes. The incidental work of performing operations furnishes a constant drill which, in time, makes the processes of combination and separation come to be performed without conscious effort. But there is a disposition both among teachers and bookmakers prematurely to crowd upon the pupil the problem phase of the work. Α problem which requires twice as much time and effort to "see through it" as to do the work after the tools are selected and the order of their use determined, contains too much logic or too little arithmetic for a third or fourth grade class. The tendency to overdo the logical training of immature minds may be counteracted by supplementing the text in use by a generous amount of drill work in performing simple operations.

In the upper grades, the operations become relatively so unimportant that they may often be omitted. Even in the lower grades it is well to separate the solution from the operation and to require pupils first to solve the problems without getting the numerical answers (merely indicating the operations), and then, as a separate exer

cise, to determine definite results. To illustrate:

1. Mary had 5 cents; her mother gave her 7 cents, and she spent 3 cents for pens; she afterward earned 9 cents, and then spent half her money for a doll. How many cents did the doll cost?

2. A piece of land is 70 rods long by 60 rods wide. How many dollars is it worth at $18 an acre?

3. A man bought 54 sheep at $4.25 per head, paying one-third cash and giving his note for the balance at 7 per cent. interest per annum. How much interest will accrue on the note in ten months?

In the written solutions, these would appear as follows:

In the more complex problems suitable to upper grades, it is not always convenient thus to express the operations in one complete statement; but an oral statement of what he will do and why should be given by the pupil before he performs any of the operations. This will train him to look through the problem and to grasp and hold all the conditions. Until this habit is fixed, such work should be taken up as an oral exercise on the advance lesson, under the direction of the teacher, and when the pupil does not readily state the method of procedure and the reasons for it, skilful question

ing will reveal to the teacher the cause of failure. Without such training in the study of the relations of the given data, pupils are prone to "cut and try" and if one set of operations does not "bring the answer," they will blindly try another or merely "follow the rule."-Gillian's Arithmetic in the Common Schools.

WORTH THINKING ABOUT.

Pupils do not study arithmetic six or eight years to learn arithmetic, but to learn to think. All the arithmetic nine men in ten ever need can be learned in a short time. Why should we teach fractions and percentage by cases? Why not learn the nature of a subject, then treat it as a unit? How does the study of arithmetic by rules and cases interest pupils or lead them to rely upon their own reason? How does such a study of arithmetic qualify them for business? How does "ciphering" for answers and "per cents." lead to independent thinking? How does merely believing the statements of others upon any subject at any period of life create interest, enthusiasm,

or purpose?

THAT GRADING PROBLEM AGAIN.

In an examination, the teacher gives ten questions, with a choice of any seven, agreeing for his convenience and the students' benefit, to grade on the basis of 15 per cent. for each answer. If a student who answers ten questions makes a total of 145 per cent, what should his grade be?

This question has brought out a variety of solutions and some results differing widely.

Mr. S. P. Shull, of Kouts, says "The teacher can not in any manner fulfill his compact without giving the student 100 per cent., which is more than his paper is worth."

Mr. Shull says that aside from any contract, the value of the paper is 963 per cent. He gets this by the following proportion: x: 101 = 100: 105 x = 963.

Miss Philips, whose solution appeared in the August number, has corrected her solution, so that it is identical with Mr. Shull's.

Mr. Shull offers the following criticism on Mr. C. E. Smith's solution: "It does not permit the teacher to keep his promise, and seems merely an ingenious method of compromise between the 963 per cent. earned and the 100 per cent. promised-a compromise in which the promise has nearly three times the potency of the actual attainment."

Mr. H. G. Anderson, of Gwynneville, reasons as follows: "By the conditions of the problem, the teacher sets up a standard of grading. As this standard is 15 per cent. on the question for seven questions, the grade for seven correct answers is 105 per cent., and for 10 correct answers it is 150 per cent.

Let x be the required grade.
Then x105 145 150.

x = 101%.

By the conditions of the problem, the basis 100 per cent. must not be taken into consideration.