The magazine, EDUCATION, was established in September, 1880, by Thomas W. Bicknell, a name well known in the educational world. Dr. Bicknell modestly announced himself, upon the front cover of the magazine, as its "Conductor." The first article in the first number was written and contributed by William T. Harris, LL.D., its subject being, "Text Books and Their Uses." Dr. James McCosh, D.D., followed with an article on "Harmony in Systems of Education." The frontispiece was a fine steel engraving of Hon. Barnas Sears, D.D., LL.D., who also contributed a paper on "The Educational Progress in the United States During the Last Fifty Years." The Editor wrote about the "Reasons for the New Educational Magazine," the "Mundella Educational Bill," the "Concord School of Philosophy," which was being carried on by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and on "State Education a Help or Hindrance." There were six double numbers per year issued during the first five years, the magazine changing to monthly, except July and August, beginning with January, 1886. At this date, Dr. William A. Mowry assumed the editorship. In the number for December, 1890, it was announced that with the January, 1891, number, Rev. Frank H. Kasson would become associated with Dr. Mowry. With the number for September, 1891, Dr. Mowry's name disappeared from the cover, as he had assumed the Superintendency of Schools at Salem, Mass., and Mr. Kasson became sole owner and Editor. The following May, 1892, the present Editor came into the editorial staff as Associate Editor. This arrangement continued until June, 1901, when the present Editor became sole owner and organized The Palmer Company, incorporated under the laws of Massachusetts. This Company began at once to publish books and pamphlet helps for teachers, as well as the magazine. Mr. Palmer secured the services of Dr. Richard G. Boone, Superintendent of Schools at Cincinnati, as Editor, becoming himself Managing Editor. This continued until September, 1907, when the present Editor assumed the sole editorship, which he has retained to the present time. Thus Mr. Palmer has been editorially responsible, in all, for more than thirty years. In the later years the educational book business of the Company has made a very satisfactory development.

The Editor has more or less of a hard time of it! Let no overburdened teacher or school official envy him, and think that all he has to do is to hold down the "sanctum" chair and entertain agreeable

visitors. We admit that we enjoy the editorial chair and the visitors,as a rule. But,-oh, these "buts"! How they creep in through the key-hole or the broken pane of glass in the window-sash, or blow down. the chimney, or, in human form, boldly walk in, disregarding the "Busy" and the "Private" signs; or, more often still, send in long MSS. and personal letters berating somebody or something, or asking for detailed advice and literary criticism (of a favorable kind, of course), or technical and interminable disquisitions about abstruse subjects absolutely foreign to the given editor's field!

But there! You would better stop, Mr. Editor! For after all, it is only by contact with humans that any person can grow human and stay human; and to be human, to stay human and sympathetic through all the daily toil and varied experience of any profession is positively the only way to be happy and useful and successful.

Here is where the teacher has a tremendous privilege and responsibility. You can learn more about teaching by actually coming in contact with pupils and actually teaching them than you can learn in all the colleges and schools of education in the land; and we hasten to add that this is not saying anything whatever against the said institutions. They are splendid, and absolutely necessary; but the world registers its conviction of their inadequacy, of themselves alone, by asking you inevitably, when you apply for a teaching position, what experience have you had in teaching? There is the demand, and the test. What is your reaction to personality? It is a crucial question. 'And it is one of the great attractions of the profession to the true man or woman, that it brings one so closely into contact with the mind and soul of younger and older human beings. This is the realm of spirit, and spiritual qualifications are needed in order that one may become a really successful teacher. When you are such, and get hold of problems and have experiences that become luminous, and mature into convictions, write us about them, or else (and far better), come and tell us about them.

But how else can we

We know that this is asking a good deal. become or remain a successful educational Editor? There is no one on earth who can become and continue to be a good Editor if he affects the role of recluse and seeks his inspiration from books, in withdrawal from life. We love people. The latch-string is always out for them. We are never too busy to see people. Test the matter and see for yourself if it is not true. And perhaps, by some subtle spiritual alchemy, somewhat of your personality, blending with our own, may

go into the printed page, or otherwise be transmitted to other souls, to their comforting and upbuilding. Thus the greatest inspirations of master minds have been disseminated, to the uplift of human life and achievement. It was the method of the philosophers and of the Divine Master. Let it be yours and mine! It is a great privilege to be a teacher or an editor.

There is great significance in the statements made officially by the Department of Public Instruction for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania about the number of candidates graduating from Pennsylvania colleges and normal schools in June. These institutions graduated the largest number in their history this year. The figures are full of promise for the welfare of the schools and colleges, for the teaching profession, and for the country as a whole. The official report says that forty-six hundred teachers were graduated from teacher-training institutions in Pennsylvania during the past year. Figures from the forty-seven accredited colleges in the state show that the total number of graduates was more than seven thousand. Among these graduates were E. G. Gushee, sixty-three years old, of Philadelphia, and Mrs. S. Shoemaker Farley, aged fifty-seven, of Swarthmore, who received the bachelor of science degree from Temple University and State College, respectively. Of the seven thousand graduates, nineteen hundred and eighty took educational courses, and will enter the teaching profession. The normal schools established a high-water mark in the number of graduates, twenty-six hundred eighteen having received diplomas. These figures include the largest number of male graduates since the establishment of normal schools in 1859. Cheyney Normal School, organized two years ago, graduated twenty-one. Record classes also prevailed in the field of secondary education, thirty-one thousand having finished in the first class high schools of the state. This large number is attributed to the influence of junior high schools. These have had a phenomenal development in Pennsylvania the past few years, and have had the effect of holding students in high school until the completion of the course. It is estimated that 30 per cent of the high school graduates will enter higher institutions of learning this fall.

"To be President of the National Education Association is to represent the greatest body of teachers in the world. It is to accept a solemn trust that lifts one above the ordinary responsibilities of locality or group to broader duties to the profession as a whole and to the

Nation. In accepting this trust, I dedicate myself to the service of the entire Association and the profession it represents. The Association has an efficient headquarters staff, upon which I shall rely. It has a well conceived program which shall be my program. It has an outstanding mission, to which I shall give my best and for which I bespeak the enlistment and whole-hearted co-operation of the teaching profession. The cause of education is the foundation upon which we can unite to build a greater profession and a greater and better Nation." -OLIVE M. JONES, President of the National Education Association.

German experimental public schools are startling foreign observers by their exhibition of radical educational freedom. Four of these schools were originated by Dr. Paulsen in Hamburg, to prepare children for citizenship in the new and completely democratic State which was heralded in Germany after the World War. Dr. Paulsen, now Superintendent of Schools in Berlin, plans to open twelve in that city. He hopes that the coming generation, with freed souls and with the habit of personal responsibility, will be able to build a State in which freedom and co-operation shall replace the conditions of today. He does not claim to know what that new world should be, but believes that a generation brought up in freedom, with aspirations of the soul fully expressed, will be able to see what teachers and politicians of today cannot see, and to do what no nation has done so far. His idea is said to be making a deep impression on Germany.

Not school knowledge, but character and the free development of individuality are the aims in these schools. The beginners start at the age of six with a specified teacher. As they grow older they choose their own teachers. There are no grades, classes or promotions. The children simply go to school and live for five or six hours a day with their teachers. They talk freely, move freely about the building, and work on what interests them. They ask questions and the teachers are there to answer them. If they do not want to learn, no one forces them. In time every child does want to read or write, and the teachers wait until this desire appears, for love of reading and knowledge cannot be forced. After several years the child is said to have made great progress. The teachers emphasize, however, that advance in text-books is incidental, for no one can tell the kind of knowledge these children will need in a type of society as yet unforeseen.

Book Reviews

THE ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. By Francis Newton Thorpe, Ph. D., LL. D. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Price $1.75.

The value of this book is in the suggestion made in the preliminary chapter to the effect that "the rule of rules for the student of American government is multum, not multa." We are too apt to aim in education to give our pupils a smattering of everything instead of a real and comprehensive knowledge of something. The author claims that "Government is essentially organic in nature and must be studied as an organism." The book calls attention in a direct and simple way to the principles on which government rests. These principles are few in number. Their applications are many and varied.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS A MAN OF LETTERS. By Luther E. Robinson. Illustrated. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Price $2.50.

This is a noteworthy addition to the already large number of books about Lincoln. Some of the more extensive biographies are 80 extensive and so expensive as to limit their general circulation among the people. And the people should read the life of this the greatest of our Statesmen and Leaders. The present life of Lincoln is admirable for its comprehensiveness. It traces the development of his character as a boy, at the Bar, as a leader in political events before the War, as the champion of the oppressed slave, and his ultimate great service to the country as War President. It is like a fresh, clean breath of west wind after a "spell" of muggy, dog-day weather, to read even a chapter or two in the life of this great leader.

EDUCATION IN A DEMOCRACY. By Dallas Lore Sharp. Houghton Mifflin Company. Price $1.25.

There are four readable, pregnant chapters in this little volume, and whoever reads the first will read the rest. The writer has a style of his own, and it is an alluring style. In this book he says that the American School is as truly national as the American flag. It can neither be bought nor sold; it is "native, as native as the Mississippi River or these hills of Hingham." The titles of his chapters are: "The National School; Education for Democracy; Education for Individuality; Education for Authority. Dallas Lore Sharp is a poet, and he has no use for the crass materialistic standards which he thinks are dominating the education of America today.