PUBLISHED THE FIRST OF EACH MONTH.

ROBERT J. ALEY, PH. D., EDITOR.

28 South Meridian Street

Plan.

Purpose.

Preparation.

Plan daily.

Have a definite purpose.

Make preparation to fit plan and purpose.

The daily plan should meet the pupil's individual requirement.

The definite purpose should be broad and far-reaching, and have the pupil's ultimate welfare in view.

Preparation is a continual process. It includes the whole school life of the teacher and implies daily work that daily duties may be met enthusiastically.

The teacher who plans all his work carefully does not have many surprises in his school.

If a teacher has a definite purpose in view in the assignment of the lesson, he will assign it so that the pupils will know what to emphasize in their study.

The teacher's preparation of a lesson should be more than a review. It should include the determination of teaching points, and the relation of the lesson to what has preceded and what will follow.

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Many schools are inefficient because the teacher talks too much. By careful preparation condense your thoughts, for thoughts are like sunbeams-the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.

The work of the school should be so interesting and so continuously related from day to day that no pupil will be willing to miss a single exercise. To realize such a school, the teacher must have a broad purpose, and must prepare in detail the plan for its realization.

Are you this year striving to make your pupils self-reliant, or are you satisfied to have them mere imitators? A clear purpose, a good plan and definite preparation are needed to settle such questions.

The school, like all other institutions, must be judged by its products. If the boys and girls who leave a school are without purpose, lack initiative, and can only work under direction, the conclusion is that that school is a failure.

Teaching is a serious but not a depressing business. No one should take a more hopeful or buoyant view of life than the teacher. The editor's recent visit with the teachers of Cleveland impressed this fact very strongly on his mind. Among the more than eighteen hundred teachers, not one disappointed or hopeless face was seen. The spirit of youth was manifest everywhere.

The Journal of Education says: "Indiana's loss of J. W. Carr, who goes from Anderson to Dayton, is serious to her professional interests. No other State has lost so many men as soon as they attain to national importance." All of which is true, and all of which argues that the Indiana educational system is the best in the Union for the training of national leaders. Indiana always has capable men ready to step into the places of. those who are promoted to larger fields.

The Saturday Evening Post in a recent editorial has this very sensible thing to say about writing: "The secret of writing is to have something to say and to say it. It has been our custom to ignore the first injunction, and to dilate on the second. Many are the exercises in the use of words, in the structure of sentences and paragraphs, in clearness, force and elegance. Sophomores wrestle yearly with the theory and art of exposition, description and narration. But what ⚫ does it all come to if the writer has nothing to say? Vast seas of words, surging over a tiny reef of thought; pseudo-literary culture, with all its areadful attitudes of self-consciousness, and little of the healthy dynamics of matter wedded to manner." Before teaching a class in composition it would be well to read the above several times.

Young People's Reading Circle.

No single educational force is doing greater service for the State than the More Young People's Reading Circle. than 55,000 good books are going into the school libraries of the State annually through this agency. Most of these books are placed in the country schools, where they are greatly needed and most highbasis, it is safe to say that each book is ly appreciated. On a very conservative read by at least ten people. The readers are not limited to the children, for in many places the parents are most enthusiastic members of the circle. No one can estimate the good effects of this move

ment.

The reading circle is in its infancy. It needs the active support of every teacher and school officer in the State. Its ideal is to reach every child in the State. Every child needs the uplift that will come from communion with the best books. Nearly every part of the State is doing good work for the circle, but Brown County deserves special mention. Three years ago Brown County was at the bottom of the list; today she is at the top. During the past year she put into her school libraries forty-eight books for every hundred pupils. Her boys and girls are reading and rereading these books. All honor to Brown County! Hubbard, of the News, ought to move Abe Martin, for. Abe will surely become lonesome among a people who are so intensely interested in educational progress.

Promptness.

The school is a great teacher of promptness. The school teacher's watch regulates the timepieces of the district. The school bell fixes the breakfast and dinner hours in many homes.

Promptness is economy. The doing of things on time means the saving of time. The train that loses ten minutes in the early part of a run usually goes in twenty minutes late. The man who fails to do things on time generally does not do them at all, or if he does them, they are poorly done. The school can teach

promptness best by example. The teacher who wastes ten minutes a day talking promptness is violating the first principle of promptness-that of example. The way to teach promptness is to be prompt.

The school program should be so sacred that neither teacher nor pupil will dare to break it. Promptness means quitting on time as much as beginning on time. Every exercise of the school should begin and end on time. Running overtime in a recitation or at the close of the day is fatal to habits of promptness. The whole atmosphere of the school should be such as to impress upon every pupil the value of time. The pupil who leaves the school without this lesson must learn it elsewhere before the business world has any use for him. Be on time should be written large in every school exercise.

Institutes of 1905.

The institute season of 1905 has been a very successful one. In the main the teachers of the State, by their serious interest and faithful attendance, have been greatly benefited. In general, the instruction was of a high grade. Most of the men who worked in the State were men of ability, experience and scholarship. These men appreciated the seriousness of the work they were doing and gave the teachers the best they knew.

For years there have been a few men of the mountebank order who have done a little work in Indiana. Fortunately, our State has never been a good field for these vaudeville artists. Their number this year was smaller than ever before. It is to be hoped that another year will see their extinction.

Institute work should be interesting, but it does not follow that it should be funny. The man who drags comic opera, variety show jokes and summer theater monologues into his institute work should. be refused a hearing. He should appear before the ten-cent audience that has paid its money to be amused. Teachers like amusement, but they do not want to be insulted by having cheap fun poked at them under the nom-de-plume of insti

tute work. Indiana demands the best, and hereafter the funny man and the entertainer will have to seek other fields.

It is now time to begin planning to attend the State Teachers' Association. This year's meeting will be a great one. With Dr. Hughes as president and Supt. Moore as chairman of the executive committee, nothing but the best is possible. The meeting this year will be largely on the inspirational plan. It will be worth. while to be there and get the full value of its great uplifting power. We should all join heartily to make this meeting surpass all previous ones in enrollment and interest.

Do the Hard Things First.

This motto is suspended over the desk of a prominent and successful bank president in Pittsburg. When asked the secret of his success, he points to the motto and says, "I live up to that text."

Most of us are very prone to put off the disagreeable things. We don't like to tackle a hard job. We do the easy things. and avoid so far as possible the hard ones. If we must do the hard thing we too often attack it in a half-hearted way.

Strong men are never formed by doing easy things. Strength of muscle and strength of brain are alike the product of doing hard things. No player on the gridiron wins his spurs until he tackles low and hard men larger than himself. No man wins fame in the intellectual world by indulging the small talk of his lady's boudoir. He must go out and measure intellectual swords with giants.

Many teachers fail because they are afraid to do the hard thing. Tom leaves school because his teacher was not brave enough to have a heart-to-heart talk with him. John forms habits that enslave him for life because his teacher was afraid to go to him and lay bare the future. The discipline of the school goes to wreck and ruin because the teacher lacked courage to grasp firm and hard the first outbreak.

Quite frequently the school fails of its highest purpose because the pupils have

no hard things to do. No boy or girl grows to full stature unless many times in his school work he is compelled to do hard things. Text-books without difficulties and teachers who shield their pupils from all hard things should both be excluded from the schools. It is the doing of hard things that develops sturdy manhood and vigorous womanhood.

Do the hard things, and do them first; then everything else is easy.

Arnold Tompkins.

Arnold Tompkins is dead. No more will his voice electrify great educational meetings. Never again will the discouraged teacher hear his word of sympathy and helpfulness. His friends will never again enjoy his genial comradeship. All this would be sad indeed were it not that the real Arnold Tompkins is still with us. He lives in his writings, in his speeches and in the hearts of those he has taught. In these fields he is immortal.

He was gifted by nature with an un

usually strong philosophical mind. Early in life he turned his whole attention to the study of educational problems. He evolved a simple but forcible philosophy of education. Truth and beauty were its two chief cornerstones.

His clearness of vision and unusual command of pure, simple English gave him convincing power. No man of his generation surpassed him as an educational speaker. As a writer he was clear, direct, convincing. On many educational questions he has said what seems to be the last word.

His life covered the period of great educational awakening in the Middle West. In formulating and directing the school thought of the last quarter of a century Arnold Tompkins played an important part. In Indiana, where he spent most of his life, he left an impress deep and permanent. No other man has done more than Arnold Tompkins for Indiana schools. We mourn his untimely death, but we rejoice that we have known him and been influenced by his teaching and his personality.

To the Patrons of the Educator-Journal:

We hereby acknowledge our thanks for the liberal patronage which we have received from the teachers throughout Indiana. It pays best to push an educational journal solely upon its merits, as it is clearly evident that there is a decided reaction against unprofessional propositions, which are made for the purpose of obtaining subscriptions from the country teachers especially. We are pleased to note the fact that a large majority of these teachers realize that inferior articles are generally sold by means of worthless premiums. Our circulation has been more than doubled in Vigo County, and we have made substantial gains in many other progressive counties of Indiana. We were quite fortunate in securing

the services of Miss Kate Moran as a contributor, as she has been principal of the Training School in the Indiana State Normal for nine years. We shall have the pleasure of receiving articles from other members of the State Normal faculty, as their students have favored us with very cordial support. We are pleased to state in this connection that we are also indebted to the other educational institutions of Indiana for their spirit of fairness, as a large majority of their students have been enthusiastic in their support of the Educator-Journal.

We request the patience of some of our patrons as we are obliged to begin several hundred subscriptions with the October number of the Journal, as our September issue was entirely exhausted several weeks ago.

Intelligent teachers and wide-awake advertisers are conscious of the fact that it ranks with the leading educational journals in the United States as to circulation.

Miss Helen Rose will continue as principal of the Ireland schools. She received her B. A. degree from Indiana University in 1900.

Miss Ally Compton, assistant principal of the West Newton high school, is a graduate of Wilmington College at Wilmington, Ohio. She is strongly recommended by Prof. A. J. Brown, president of the above-named institution, to whom she is indebted for her present position. He was formerly connected with the schools of Indiana.

Pope wrote judiciously when he said: "Men must be taught as if you taught them not,

And things unknown proposed as things forgot."

The Vigo County Teachers' Institute opened August 28th with a large attendance. County Superintendent Grosjean re-engaged the instructors of last year, by request of the teachers. Dr. H. W. Elson, of Philadelphia, had charge of the history, and Miss Bessie B. Rogers, of Elgin, Illinois, had charge of the primary work.

Dr. D. A. Rothrock, junior professor of mathematics in Indiana University, was married to Miss Grace Shirley, of Shoals, September 12th. They are graduates of Indiana University and are popular in both social and educational circles.

Mrs. Lillian E. Dean, who has been a student in the Indiana State Normal School, is teacher of the fifth year in the West Newton schools. After graduating from the West Newton high school she was connected with the Mooresville schools for three years. She is regarded as a very successful teacher, and is to be commended for her professional aspirations. She expects to specialize in literature in Indiana University with view to becoming a teacher in some city high school or college.

The Census Bureau at Washington has just published as a bulletin an analysis by Prof. Walter T. Wilcox, of Cornell University, of the census statistics relating to teachers. Taking the country as a whole, the reports find that there is an average of one teacher to every seventy-one pupils. The supply of teachers in proportion to school population has more than doubled in the last thirty years, and teachers exceed the total number of clergymen, lawyers and physicians. In 1900 Nevada had the largest proportional number of teachers; Vermont ranked second, Maine third, and Iowa fourth.

It was Ruskin who said: "There is only one care for the public distress and that is public education."

Miss Mary E. Beck, Hope, Ind., is teaching in the 7B grade in the Columbus schools. She receives fifty-five dollars per month, and has been a student in the Indiana State Normal school. Like many other progressive teachers she subscribed for the Educator-Journal and Klingensmith's Manual for the Indiana Readers.

Supt. R. A. Randall, Plymouth schools, has entered upon his second year's work there with very encouraging prospects. The instructors in the high school are as follows: J. T. Nuttall, A. B., principal (Northwestern University), Science; Emma Chesney, A. M. (Michigan University), Latin and German; Alice Mertz, A. B. (Indiana University), English; Katharine Preston, A. B. (Michigan University), History and Mathematics; R. A. Randall, B. S., M. Pd. (Michigan University, Normal College), Mathematics.

"The Spectator" is the name of the first annual issued by the seniors of the Angola high school. It is attractive throughout, and reflects much credit upon Supt. H. H. Keep and his co-workers in the high school.

The new course of study for the Hammond schools, by Supt. C. M. McDaniel, should attract much attention, as it has been prepared with considerable care. His teachers will find it most suggestive and