The General Assembly of 1899 enacted a law "Providing for the establishment of traveling libraries and township libraries, providing for the appointment of officers for the control and management of such libraries, providing for the levy, collection and distribution of taxes for township libraries." Part of section of

the law reads as follows: "On the written petition of fifty legal voters of any township filed with the county clerk not less than fifteen days prior to a township election, the County Board of Election Commissioners shall cause to be printed on the township ballots for such township the words: 'For a township library tax,' 'yes,' 'no.' If in the election a majority of the votes cast on said question shall be in the affirmative the township trustee shall thereafter levy annually a tax of one-fifth of a mill on each dollar of the property taxable in said township. for the establishment and support of a township library free to all inhabitants of such township.'

In the election of 1900 the library tax question was submitted to the voters of nine of the eleven townships in Howard County. In three of the nine townships the majority of those voting on the question voted in the affirmative. Since it was new and its importance was not realized by some of the election officials, proper reports were not made in two of the three townships in which the question was carried and the trustees and advisory boards did not levy the tax. The final result was that Harrison Township was the only one in which the tax was levied. It did not appear very encouraging to gain a victory in only one township of the nine, but we were pleased to see a start made and hoped to see better results in subsequent attempts.

A short time before the election of 1902 requests came from some of the voters in two townships-Howard and Union. -for another chance to vote on the library tax question. Petitions were cir

culated and filed with the county clerk. On election day the majority of those voting on the question voted in the affirmative in both townships. No attempt was made in 1904 from the fact that in a presidential campaign we have found that many voters forget the question on the lower part of the township ballot. We expect to have the question considered in 1906, and hope to have good results.

After the first distribution of the money was made, the question of the best way in which the greatest number of pupils and patrons could be accommodated was considered. It was thought best to divide the general reading books into sets and distribute them among the school districts, following the plan of the traveling libraries established by the Public Library Commission of the State. After a set is read by many people of a district it is sent to another district and replaced by a newly purchased set or one that has been in some other district. By this means the people of the whole township have access to many books without going a great distance for them. Reference books are secured for the schools, but are not placed in the traveling libraries.

The libraries thus established have afforded great relief. It is the solution of the library question. The levy is so small. that no one can have valid objection to it. We are sure of money twice each year with which to purchase many books. As far as library facilities are concerned the pupils of the country schools are on an equality with the city pupils. It is not necessary to resort to box suppers, etc., which many times are brought into disrepute because of the noise and rowdyism. The question should be submitted to the voters of every township in the State in which there are no township libraries. It will not be carried in all townships, but by careful, educational work it will in some places, and those who exert themselves for its success will be repaid many, fold.

THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION.

F. M. MCMURRY, TEACHERS' COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK.

CHAPTERS IV, V, VI.

One of the most important thoughts in Chapter IV is that touching the size of topics. There is a marked tendency in every study to isolate facts from one another, and learn them without reference to their relation. Spelling sets the extreme example in this direction, and other studies tend to approximate it in confining the attention of pupils as fully as possible to the little things in their fields. History, for instance, is often made to consist of names and dates and individual small facts. Geography, in its treatment of the United States by States, offers probably a greater number of unrelated little facts than could well be presented in any other way. Manual training, as it is usually taught, is made to appear to contain no topic of larger dimensions than the individual objects of construction. But war can not be successfully conducted when soldiers fail to be grouped and brought into such relation with one another that there is a unity of the whole. No more can studies hope

to be strong in their influence on young people, until the many little parts of which they consist are brought into connection so as to support one another and compose large topics. Classic literature is the best example of success in this direction. It does not consist of mere lists of statements, but of chains of thought, bearing directly upon some leading or dominating thought. Indeed, it is this controlling idea, in each story or essay, that holds the parts together and that has acted as a basis for the rejection of a good many little facts in the minds of the author. The poem of Maud Muller, or the drama of William Tell has such a close connection of facts and such unity of the whole, that its oneness is evident to any one. Here is the standard for all studies. But how the facts usually fall apart the moment one turns to instruction on an elm tree in Nature Study, or on Japan in Geography! It is the custom in each of these cases to marshal forth whatever facts are thought to be true. In the case of the tree, for instance, how frequently a class is told to observe all the characteristics it can, collecting, perhaps ten, twenty or thirty different things. Likewise, in the case of Japan, or any other country, for that matter,

facts are merely listed. And, as a result, so many little things have been mentioned that the pupils feel how little the subject is. It has, in fact, been belittled. It is just such lack of organization of ideas in the various studies that causes distaste for study among many children. Organization is just as necessary in education as in business. Interest and life are not likely to be produced without it.

But how secure it? This Chapter IV suggests one of the ways. Just as in literature some fundamental thought, or in arithmetic some rule, directly controls all that is said and done for a time-in composition in the one case, or in giving instruction in the other-so all the statements that pupils are asked to study in geography, history, nature study, etc., should be selected and arranged with reference to some thought-one or more— both broad and deep. Only in that case can they be held together-somewhat in. story form-and thus prove interesting and valuable. It behooves teachers, therefore, to conceive clearly what generalization they wish to teach in any subject and the relation that individual facts at any time bear to a certain general truth. What renders this demand especially difficult to meet is the fact that text-books themselves often ignore it. But whether this be true or not in the case of such books as happen to be in use, every teacher, by taking thought, can help along in this direction to some extent. Even if the book is utterly defective, the teacher can reach some decision as to what broad generalizations need to be taught on the elm trees, or on Japan, etc., and can mass the facts offered in one or more text-books with reference to them.

Chapter V, in its discussion of the recitation aim, helps to throw light upon the method of accomplishing this object. Suppose, for instance, recalling the fact that Japan is often called the England of the Orient, I set out with a class to determine whether or not this comparison is well founded. My aim for two or three weeks of work might be to see if Japan may rightly be called the England of the Orient. Of course the British

Isles should be reasonably well known to the class before this topic is taken up. But note, now, how this broad but concrete aim, might be broken up into concrete daily aims. We might begin by finding how the two compare as to size and location, and follow that up with comparisons as to physical features, climate, raw products, industries and character of people. These aims from day to day are not the generalization to be reached, for the latter are abstract, while the former are concrete. At least, interest on the part of pupils calls for such concretion, although in the case of objects about which our knowledge is so limited, it is often extremely difficult to word a really concrete aim. There is always a choice, however, between what is, relatively, good and bad, and an energetic teacher can usually find something that has some merits at least. For instance, a good portion of the young Japanese that one meets in the central States are students in the colleges and universities. Calling that fact to mind, one might raise the question, why this is true, while the Chinamen that we usually meet are laundrymen, instead of students. This problem would bear directly on the characteristics of the Japanese people as a whole, and its investigation would bring out the wonderful progress of that nation during the last five years owing partly to their uncommon receptiveness, and their energy to scatter themselves among all the more civilized nations of the earth in order to learn. But the outcome would be broad, general truths; and this aim would be merely the concrete means of approach to such truths. The aim can not well be worded, however, until the generalization has been conceived. Thus the concrete aim and the generalization are internally related, while entirely distinct from each other.

The value of a good aim, from the point of view of excitement of interest, can scarcely be overestimated. I know of a seventh grade class in New York City whose teacher remarked one day, in the composition period, that she had not yet. decided where she would spend her summer vacation, and, as nearly all the mem

bers of that class went to summer resorts of some sort, she would be glad to have them present the chief attractions of the place to which each was going next summer; she might, she said, be much influenced by them in her final choice. This teacher was extremely popular with these children, and each hoped that she might be prevailed upon to choose the place preferred by him. What livelier motive could have been furnished for a forcible presentation of one's idea. The word motive is one of the most valued words in modern education, and the careful selection of aims is one of the most reliable means for supplying or exciting motive.

It is of importance to consider whether an aim, or a definite, concrete purpose, is not just as necessary in all serious reading and study in private, as in school recitations. It is common for pupils and students to read books and to study, for the simple purpose of knowing of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. But if aims in class recitations are necessary for the sake of interest and definiteness, why are they not just as important in all private work? So long as one studies merely to know, his work is too aimless to be properly selective; he is inclined to take anything that comes, in the order in which it comes, and to retain it for better or for worse, as the case may be. But the moment he has a real object, he is likely to measure what is offered with reference to such object, and he is far more likely to get something of real value.

دو

I once asked an advanced class in Education when any person had read a book properly. The first reply received was "when one understands all that the book says. 3." On the other hand, I once heard a well known educator state, in a lecture, that one had read a book properly when he had gotten out of it the main things in it of value to him. I agree heartily with this latter statement, myself. Very many persons read books to satisfy some teacher, or to know what is in them, when they ought to read simply to satisfy some live needs that have arisen in their own lives. One difficulty with the application of such advice is the fact that many people are not conscious of any particular needs, either before they pick

up a book for the first time, or even by the time they have finished it.

All that can be said in such a case is that it is a pity. One great object of an education is to implant purposes, needs, ambitions, in the hearts of the persons being educated, and it is just as important to be growing in the number of these and to be improving their quality, as to be growing in knowledge and improving the definiteness and accuracy. Indeed, the object of knowing is doing, and it is desirable to acquire knowledge from day to day directly with reference to an outlet in action of some kind, whether esthetic, or narrowly utilitarian.

Children can be remarkably powerstricken in concrete purposes, even while they are learning their lessons well. But good instruction ought to open up objects or purposes to children continually. For instance, when a child hears a good story, he should call to mind more persons to whom he might well relate it. In learning to read well aloud, he should be endeavoring to add to life's enjoyment somewhere by a use of that ability. In reading literature, studying geography, etc., he should be picking out good topics for conversation at home, or learning facts that solve problems that he has been trying to answer for sometime, etc. In other words, one object of school is to fill the mind of a pupil with interesting problems of various kinds, problems that he desires and intends to solve. Lessons should be learned and books read to find solutions of them. It would not be a bad idea, occasionally, to consume twenty minutes merely having different members of a class state clearly the purposes or problems of various kinds, that they are anxious to solve. This is one way of testing the excellence of children's workand also that of teachers. If children were constantly growing in big and little ambitions, it would be far easier than it now is to word aims for recitations-simply because they themselves would have more aims. And if good recitation aims were far more common than they now are children would be more richly governed by aims in their lives outside of school as well as inside.

One can not easily discuss recitation