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A

B

Through E draw an indefinite line MN, making the angle MED equal to the given angle between the diagonals. With B as center and the larger base as radius describe an arc cutting MN in C, and join BC. Draw DA parallel to BC and ABCD is the required trapezoid. For by construction the triangles BEC and AED are similar, and as BE: ED= the ratio of the given bases and BC is one of them, AD must be the other. Hence ABCD meets all the required conditions. J. C. Gregg, Brazil.

114. A and B agreed to saw and split a a pile of cordwood for $15.00. A can saw 2 cords while B splits 3 cords, and A can split 5 cords while B saws 3 cords. must they divide the money? Solution. Let x = the labor of splitting

one cord.

mx= the labor of sawing one cord.

How

2mx: 3x or 2m: 3 is the ratio of A's ability to that of B, and so also is 5x:3mx or 5:3m.

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ABC and BCD are right angles.

AC 60 ft., BD 40 ft., OM=15 ft.
Find AB, BC and CD.

From similar triangles,

OC: OM = AC: AB,

and OA: AB=OC: CD.

900

Whence AB

900

=

and CO:

X

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John Morrow, Charlestown.

CREDITS.

Gregg, J. C., 112, 113, 114, 116; Lawrence, D. W., 116; Morrow, John, 112, 114, 115, 116; Shull, S. P., 115.

PROBLEMS FOR SOLUTION.

121. A straight fence through a triangular field cuts off just one acre. The sides of the field are 56 rd., 39 rd. and 25 rd. If the cross fence is the shortest possible, find its length and position.

S. P. Shull, Kouts.

122. 24 (V/2+1 3+15)=? Can this problem be solved? If not, why not? B. F. Wells, Kingsbury.

123. Draw two circles tangent to each other and to a given line MN at the points P and Q and whose radii are as m : n. J. C. Gregg, Brazil.

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125. A clock which indicates time at sea level, loses 40 seconds a day when carried to the top of a mountain. What is the height of the mountain, supposing the earth a sphere of 7,912 miles diameter?

[NOTE.-Send solutions to Robt. J. Aley, Bloomington, Ind., on or before October 14. Write on one side only.]

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D. M. GEETING, EDITOR.

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THE EDUCATOR-JOURNAL COMPANY, Commercial Club Bldg.,

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA..

Editorial.

Many urgent requests have come to us from our patrons who are expecting to teach, asking for the answers to the examination questions used in July and August. In order to accommodate our friends more fully, hereafter, twelve numbers will be issued each year.

The First Day of School.

The opening day is the most important. Why? Because a bad beginning makes a bad ending. Now, what is necessary in order to make the opening a success? (1) Good health and good spirits. A sick teacher and a melancholy teacher has no business to open a school. He may be tolerated after it is in running order, but let him stay away from the commencement. (2) Well-digested plans. There is not one teacher in ten thousand who is not able to arrange his plans the first day. Don't consult the pupils about what to do. By all means, never consult parents in reference to their pet schemes. The teacher should be master of his own situation. (3) Get to work as soon as possible. The sooner you get your pupils to doing something, the sooner they will be kept out of mischief. (4) Make the first lessons interesting. The pupil who commences with an interest will make a long leap ahead before many days of the

term have passed. (5) As far as possible, make your pupils do what they like to do. If you send your pupils home saying, "I don't like this study and I know I shall not," you have lost a grip which it will be very hard to regain. (6) Don't be too anxious about getting acquainted with your pupils. Speak kindly when it is necessary to speak; be affable, courteous, kind, and perfectly approachable, but don't take any special pains to inquire. after all your pupils' relations. Get educationally acquainted with your pupils. This is the kind of acquaintance that tells. (7) Find out personal difficulties. as soon as possible.

These are a few hints to the uninitiated teacher, but there is nothing in all the world that will help a commencing teacher, new or old, better than good, native common sense, and lots of it. If you haven't this, all the books and all the magazines and all the advice will not help you out of difficulties into which you will be bound to get.

Our Faces.

At a teachers' institute, while sitting where the entire audience could be seen, a principal of much experience remarked: "I think the teachers' faces are improving." Let a teacher sit before a hundred art students, or before a hundred ministers, or before a hundred lawyers, and he will see there is a mark on the face that shows the degree of cultivation. Α teacher is one who strives to have intelligence exist in another, and it would seem necessary that his countenance should abound with interest, and enthusiasm, and intelligence. But on most teachers' faces there is an expression of repression; it seems as though it asks repression of the pupils perpetually. This wrong conception of education marks itself on the face. Teaching is a joyous labor; it

does not consist in keeping the pupils from whispering. On the whole, the countenance of the teacher may show whether he looks at education from the wrong or right point of view.

The Great Law of Teaching.

A lady whose fame as a teacher is world-wide recently stated in a conversation that her first lesson in teaching came to her by observing the way a hen acted towards three little chicks that seemed afraid of her. The motherly heart was stirred within the hen, and she put her head down beside the frightened little ones, and turning it sidewise crooned to them affectionate little sounds that they understood. Now, after all that has been said, and can be said about method and principle, it must be said to the teacher that he is to have a heart of love. Meth

ods and principles do but little, but love does a great deal. We educate for love's sake; this generation so loves the children that it spends much time and money on them. It is the heart of love that builds the schoolhouses and equips them. The central principle of love must be largely and finely exemplified in the schoolroom, and when this is done, the methods growing out of it are the best the teacher can devise.

Come, Let Us Reason Together.

What are the most valuable features of a good school journal? Manifestly, it is a spirit animating its columns leading to a better appreciation of the real object of school work. Each month, however, for the coming year, this journal will see to it that its schoolroom department will be filled with novel devices in arithmetic, new plans in spelling, fresh suggestions in history, helpful outlines in geography and grammar, all these will receive added emphasis. But, above all, the spirit that animates its columns will be the love for the children. It urges teachers to gain a knowledge of the nature of the child-all there is of the child, the moral powers, body, and mind; how the child grows, what influences should be brought to bear to lead it to a healthy and symmetrical

We

maturity. We know that a majority of readers will catch the spirit of the true teacher from the discussions given, then with the suggestive devices they will carry on their work to the highest degree of success. In these suggestions we shall try to lead our readers to understand the true reason for doing things. We shall continue methods and ways, for few of us can rise above the technicalities of our work, hence these devices will be based on correct pedagogical principles. shall try to meet the immediate needs of our readers in these, but through them and by them we want to lift them up into a higher appreciation of our work. Why should every teacher study his profession? Why should he progress? In short, why should he be progressive, aggressive, pushing, earnest? Why? Because he has others depending upon him. His work is to lead, go ahead, and call, "Come on." It is hard to push humanity up, it is easy to attract them up. A leader is always popular. Leading is inspiring, strengthening; driving is depressing, debilitating. We want to help the teachers by giving them a progressive, professional magazine. As teachers, we have instinctive desires to get away from our surroundings. This longing is natural and right if it leads us to seek, to grow better. An indefinite longing is bad; a spirit of unsatisfaction-not dissatisfaction-is good; a poet has said concerning this spirit:

"Most times, however, she doth lift

Her gaze beyond to something far;
I look, and through a cloudy rift,
I see the shining of a star.
"But as I cry, 'Oh, why? Oh, why?'
She turns on me a wondering gaze,
And wonderingly doth make reply:

'I lead you out of slothful ways.'"

Sloth-educational sloth-is what we must get rid of, and the best way is through the reading of a live educational journal. The greatest encouragement we have is in the fact that those who have been longest with us are those who are most enthusiastic in our support. These friends are increasing, and we believe they will increase until every progressive teacher shall be one of us. Here are a

few words of encouragement from those who appreciate our work:

To tell you how much good your valuable papers have done me is an impossibility. Physiology informs us that our bodies are renewed every seven years; seems to me,

that, as a teacher, your paper has done more than that for me. S. S. S.

I have taken your paper for a year, and am still taking it. I find it a great help, a practical help. Shall want it as long as I teach. W. C. S.

OFFICIAL DEPARTMENT. JOHN M. BLOSS, ANTHONY, Ind.

SALARY OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT. A very important decision touching the per diem of the county superintendent was recently made in Colorado. The law is the same as that in Indiana governing the county superintendent; hence its importance to us. Under the law there the county school superintendent receives $5 a day while actually and necessarily employed for the county. The court held that he is entitled to daily compensation for each day on which official service is performed regardless of the time occupied in performing the same. The court further held that where the county superintendent made out and verified this bill for compensation according to law, a prima facie case was established, and the burden of proof was on the county board attacking the same to overcome the case as presented.-Board of Commissioners of Garfield County v. White.

flicting punishment. The case is an important one and especially interesting to school officers who very often in a general way instruct their teachers what to do in specific cases.

The

THE CONSTITUTIONAL LIMIT OF INDebtedne s. A question of unusual general interest was recently decided in Wisconsin which will apply to many school corporations in this State. A school town contracted for a school building which increased its indebtedness beyond the constitutional limit. work was completed by the contractor and an attempt was made to enjoin payment, basing the complaint upon the grounds that the indebtedness was beyond the constitutional limit. The court held that the contract was enforceable, when fully performed by the contractor, up to the amount of such constitutional limit. The case is known as McGillivay v. Town of Melrose.

CORPORAL PUNISHM NT.

In the case of Haycraft v. Grisby, Missouri Supreme Court, an action against a teacher and director of a school for severely punishing plaintiff, it was shown that the director had advised and encouraged immoderate whipping. The court held that the director and not the teacher was liable. The defense tried to show that such advice was not malicious; hence the director should not be held liable, but the court's decision was against the director because such advice was unwise and against good policy. That many a teacher would feel bound to carry out the instructions of his superior officer without carefully and considerately weighing the matter before in

MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

In the case of W. P. Myers Pub. Co. v. White River School Township, our own court has set forth the law governing the teaching of music in the public schools. The law provides that certain studies shall be taught in the common schools of the State, music not being specifically mentioned. The law provides, also, for the licensing of a teacher capable of teaching certain named studies, music not being mentioned. It was held by the court, nevertheless, that the school trustees have power to prescribe the teaching of music in the public schools. The law also provides that the county boards of education shall consider the general wants and needs of the schools "and all matters

relating to the purchase of school furniture, books, maps, charts, etc." Under the law which declares that the trustee shall provide "furniture, apparatus and other articles and educational appliances," it was held by the court that music charts not being general text-books for the use of individual pupils, but a few sufficing for the school, could be purchased by the trustee for the use of his schools. In the complaint against the township for the value of the music

charts, it was shown that these charts had been placed for the use of the public schools of the township where they had been used by the pupils. The court held that this sufficiently showed that the trustee directed that music be taught therein. So many different ideas prevailed about the introduction of music as a study into our public schools, that a careful study of this decision becomes necessary, covering as it does every phase of this subject.

TOWNSHIP INSTITUTE, 1.

DICKENS AS AN EDUCATOR. GEOLGE H. TAPY, SUPERINTENDENT WHITLEY COUNTY SCHOOLS, COLUMBIA CITY, IND. "Kommt, lasst uns untern Kindern leben!"-Froebel. Froebel and Dickens. Probably no two men, since the days of the Great Teacher himself, have had so broad and profound an influence on the educational history of the world as they. Froebel, the philosopher; Dickens, the literary genius whose pen touched into life this philosophy. There have been great educators and great writers before their time and since; but in all its entanglements of social movements and individual men, whether mysterious or intelligible, history does not reveal a happier coincidence than the birth of the world's greatest novelist just in time to immortalize the principles of a great educator in burning words and living human characters.

The age was peculiarly fitted for the work of these two men. The educational world had passed through fire and flood. Religious and political upheavals, persecution, bigotry, and neglect had left it without system or plan; and popular education was a vision that had appeared in the dreams of theorists only.

The age of Louis the Fourteenth-the age of the Jesuits-had passed; but its influence deep-rooted still remained. And partly against its influence and partly in harmony with its better elements the work of Rousseau, of Pestalozzi and of Froebel was directed. The spirit of Jesuit learning was

monastic and decidedly opposed to popular education. It delved into the old Latin literature and was altogether blind to the real life of the time. It fostered seclusion, bigotry, and superstition. Moreover, the Jesuits, by cultivating the religious ardor of their sect, sought political domination over France rather than the education of the people. To this end they neglected the history and language of France and everything that tended to prepare for real life. But when the power of the people, against which king and pope and noble and Jesuit could not stand, began to manifest itself in the approach of the French Revolution, the entire foundation of education changed. Preparation to live succeeded preparation to die.

The forerunner of this educational revolution was Rousseau. Acquainted with the hardship and misery of the poor of France he hated the oppressors of the people; and his contemplated reforms were not merely educational but social, religious, and political as well. Rousseau, unlike Froebel, was a theorizer. He was all sentiment and imagination. The Emile is not a scientific treatise on education but an inspiration that sprang like a poem or song from the imaginative brain of its author. With matchless courage he attacked the evils of his day; in his impulsive, brilliant, and often erratic manner he pointed the way where later less zealous teachers achieved practical results; but in the light of modern education his doctrines, many of them, are eccentric. His doctrine is altogether the theory and not the practice of education.

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