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THE Ecuo.
Published Monthly by the Students of the
New York State Normal College.
WILLIAM M. STRONG, - - - Eprror-n- one
EDGAR S. MARTIN, - - - - Business MANAGER.
Contributions are solicited from alumni and undergraduates,
the only requisites being merit and the name of the author accom-
panying the article Matter must be in by the tenth of the month.
‘TERMS. — 1.00 per annum, in advance ; $1.23 when not paid
by January first; single copies, fifteen cents.
In accordance with the United States postal law THE EcHo
will be sent until all arrears are paid, and notice of discontinu-
ance is received.
Address matter designed for publication to the Bditor-in-
Chief; business communications to the Business Manager,
Normal College, Albany, N. Y.
HE ARGUS COMPANY, PRINTERS, - - -
ALPANY, N.Y.
‘CONTENTS.
Page.
LOG Ls ee OO ace ae, Geet
O Captain! My Captain! - - - -- 2
LITERARY DEPARTMENT.
The German Schoolmaster, ~~ - - 3
Impressions of James Whitcomb Ril oy, 4
The Value of Nature Studies in the
Primary Grades,- - ~~ ~~ = 8
Thought Analysis of Macbeth, - - 7
The Ideal and the Real in Teaching, 8
Southey's Life of Nelson, - - - - 9
How Can Arithmetic be Made Inter-
esting to Indifferent Students? - 10
Up-to-Date History, - - - - - - 11
Verse 0 es ee ae
News Department, - - - - - - - + 13
Exchange Department, -~ - - - - - - 16
Review Department, - --- - - - - - 18
ALBANY, N. Y., FEBRUARY, 1898. [No. 7.
EDITORIALS.
ib, INCOLN’S birthday.
\W2SHINGwOR v’S birthday.
“THE old order changeth, yielding place to
new.” The reason given in the poem is
apropos of the change in the form of The Echo.
We trust it will meet with approval.
At present there are roo local subscribers
The enlargement of the paper is made on an esti-
mate of twice that number. We believe we shall
secure them.
Tt will be our endeavor to make The Echo in
all departments of such interest and value that no
student will refuse to take it. The aim in the
new arrangement of material is that the depart-
ments may be made distinct and that credit may
be given to whom due,
With the approval of Dr. Milne, the editors take,
the liberty of changing the name from the Normal
College Echo to the form upon this issue. The
fact that there is in this State another Normal
College Echo seemed sufficient reason for the
change, especially since that was established be-
fore ours.
We are pleased to announce definitely for the
remaining numbers of the year articles by Dr.
Richardson, Prof. Wetmore and Prof. White.
We shall have other first-class articles.
] accordance with a suggestion from the De-
partment of Public Instruction that a monu-
ment should be erected to Dr. Edward A. Sheldon,
a meeting of those interested was held at Syracuse
2 THE ECHO:
December 28th last, and the “Sheldon Memorial
Association” was formed. Superintendent Skin-
ner was elected president. It is proposed that the
statue shall cost at least $10,000, and shall be
placed in or near the capitol; that a sketch of the
life of Dr. Sheldon and a photo-engraving be sent
to schools which will participate, and the children
be asked to contribute from one to five cents
each.
The State honors itself in thus honoring a great
educator.
O OTHER nation has two men whose lives
were dedicated to their country, of whom it
can more justly be proud than we of Washington
and Lincoln. Vain were it to attempt to add to
their eulogy. “We can only pause, and in the
hush and silence feel what lips have never told,”
then go on our way and strive to emulate their
great wisdom and courage and devotion.
[ee ECHO is in hearty sympathy with any
effort by organizations or otherwise to
arouse in the student body a college spirit. In
other respects we are a college, justly so called.
We haye a large body of students, pursuing suf-
ficiently advanced study. We have a faculty, the
members of which, in their respective departments,
would do honor to any institution; but the one
thing which is conspicuous for its absence here
is a genuine college spirit.
THE ECHO will devote each month one page
to verse and is desirous that this should be
the production of the creative imaginations of
Normal brains. To this end we solicit contribu-
tions from all who indulge “the imagination and
the poet’s dream.” We want all who can write
for The Echo to do so.
We want every student to become a subscriber.
We want to embrace the whole college.
Te HAVE presented to us such a succession of
war “scenes” as Dr. Husted gave on the
evening of Lincoln’s birthday, under the auspices
of the Eta Phi Society, was a rare treat. The talk
had the vividness and interest of personal experi-
ence, combined with an inimitable humor.
To try to put yourself in the place of the vol-
unteer, as described by Dr. Husted, is educative
toward an appreciation of “the mightiest war of
modern times,” and of the gifts laid upon the na-
tion’s altars that there might remain to us a na-
tion, united and free.
WE INVITE criticism and suggestions. Criti-
cism is the comparison of what a lesson,
or paper, or anything else is, with what it should
be, of the actual with the ideal. Hence, if we ap-
proach, in any degree, the ideal, your first criti-
cism will be to express appreciation of that and
then we will be ready for your second.
© Captain!
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rock, the prize we sought
My Captain!
is won.
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all
éxulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and
daring.
But O heart! heart! heart!
© the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle
thrills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths —for you the
shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces
turning.
Hear Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor
will
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed
and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object
won.
Exult, O shores, and ring, © bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
—Walt Whitman.
: THE ECHO. 3
LITERARY DEPARTMENT.
Gertrude M. Leete.
Ella M. Osgood.
Edwin Cornell.
Marion A. Everett.
The German Schoolmaster.
After the battle of Sedan Frenchmen thus ex-
plained the disastrous campaign, “We were de-
feated by the German Sedan
was the culmination of the struggle of a century.
Germany had been enthralled by a French writer,
Voltaire; had been crushed by a French soldier,
Napoleon; but now in thought and action she
was victorious and the hero of the victory was
the German schoolmaster.
Since the French revolution Germany has
built a state, has created a philosophy, has become
the teacher of the world. Who embodies this na-
tional movement? Not Goethe, the pleasure-seek-
ing world-poet; not Bismarck, the man of blood
and iron; her schoolmasters are Germany's em-
bodiment of the idea of our century. Through-
out the world the spirit of free brotherhood, con-
vincing that God is love, breathed upon the na-
tions with transforming power; great men were
its witnesses, in England, David Livingstone,
missionary; in America, Abraham Lincoln, eman-
cipator; in Germany, the patriot schoolmaster, the
nineteenth century hero of Europe.
Who is this schoolmaster? He is Kant, who
wins Germany from self-indulgence to duty; he
is Wolf, who makes living and influential the
beauty of Greek art and the nobleness of Roman
action; he is Fichte, who rouses a prostrate na-
tion to sacrifice all for liberty; he is
macher, who teaches that he may aid in a national
regeneration; he is the interpreter of the past, the
prophet of the future, the leader of the present;
he is the savior and guardian of the German
state.
When Germany would speak, she puts her
words into the mouth of a schoolmaster. Prof.
Martin Luther led Germany in the Reformation;
and to-day the real champion of Socialism is not
the liberal in the reichstag, not the workman on
the street, but the theorizing optimistic school-
master. The German obeys dictates that an Eng-
lishman would disregard, an American despise.
He obeys because he feels that his is the kingdom
schoolmaster.”
hleier-
of thought, that only through faith in ideals,
through freedom, through loyalty can Germany
be supreme and that, of this faith, this freedom,
this loyalty, the embodiment is the German
schoolmaster.
When, a century ago, Germany dreamed her-
self into the infinite calm and beauty of classic
ideals, yet was tempted to prove faithless to the
things of the spirit, to play slave to French sensu-
ality and unbelief, then she was transformed and
Its Luther
was the German schoolmaster; he woke the
faith in ideals that dwelt mighty among
the dark forests in the olden time, he
roused consciousness of character, impulse to
action. Kant said, “Thou oughtest;” and
Germany obeyed. After the terrible defeat at
Jena through shamed despairing Prussia is heard
the voice of Fichte, “All nations raise suppliant
hands toward you; Providence itself and the Di-
vine plan in the creation of a human race plead
a second reformation came upon her.
with you to save their honor and their existence.
There is, then, no way of escape; if ye sink, hu-
manity sinks with you.” Revealing to Germans
a future world-leadership, Fichte, the schoolmas-
ter, led the way to action and burned passion for
fulfillment into their very souls; inspired with
faith in ideals, he made young men patriots and
when he had spoken all, died for the Fatherland.
Thus came victory, and grateful Germans gave
largest freedom to them who loved it best, the
young men and their masters. They dwell where
German life is most intense, most searching,
most sensitive to deep impulses, most eager for
new things.
strongholds of the past, yet whence revolutions
proceed, the dreams of the future, the inspirations
of the present. There men freely seek the truth
about the past, and for the future freely hope the
best; there Philosophy makes patriots, creates
states, imagines Utopi there the spirit of the
old struggles with the spirit of the new, facts face
ideas there, thought dominates life. And the
king of that thinking world is the schoolmaster,
the ideal of German history.
Sut to-day an Emperor, eager for the happiness
of Germany, would deprive the scholar of liberty
of thought. William has forgotten the man
Their homes are the universities,
4
whose idea Bismarck forged into fact; he has for-
gotten that the soul of German unity grew to
power in conventions of schoolmasters. The
king has forgotten the king maker. He fears
lest truth seeking ruin Germany. He sees this
idealist, and calls him dreamer, this free man, and
calls him revolutionist. Let William remember
that for the land which is his royal heritage, yon-
der philosopher would gladly die; the scarred
hand that points toward truth has bled for
Germany.
Shall not the soul that thinks and loves be
free? Amid all the chaos of German thought,
the “storm and stress” of German action, there
is one thing unchanging, loyalty; loyalty makes
the questioner devout, the critic of the state still
a patriot; it breathes into all thought profound-
est seriousness, and makes thinking living. In
this lover of youth the loyalties of ages live; no
Spartan bought with more blood and sweat his
soldierhood, than the schoolmaster his right to
think; no hermit dwelt in such fruitful solitude
as he who, in his scholar cell, suffers that the
world’s life may be sweeter, wiser; no knight of
chivalry so devoted, so far seeking, as he who,
forsaking all for science, wanders out toward the
vast dark bounderies of the universe, knowing
not whither he goes, or when he shall return.
Such is the man to whom Germany commits
her high destinies. Let Emperors do what they
will; still shall the nation trust him, believer in
ideals; the free man about whom centre all her
instincts and her hopes; the patriot who lives and
dies for truth and Germany.
JERE.
Impressions of James Whitcomb Riley.
I had the pleasure not long ago of hearing Mr.
Riley. Have you heard him? If you have, you
will not want my impressions of him, for you
will have your own. If you have not, perhaps
mine may help you to a better understanding of
the man,
I was surprised when he first came on the stage.
Maybe I had expected to see an old, bent farmer
with grizzled hair and bits of straw clinging to.
his coat. Mr. Riley is, on the contrary, a boyish
looking man, and there was not a bit of straw.
Tie ECHO.
He is slight, rather short. His face is smooth;
his eyes, gray; his hair, light. But an exact
description of his features would not give you the
man. His pictures even, are disappointing, they
look like him, but— you miss the elusive, ev
changing expression that so delights you. The
best idea I can give of his appearance is to say
that his face looked at the same time merry and
sad, young and old.
For I did see the old farmer after all. He told
us about the pleasures “the all-kind mother”
gives her children in the fall, “ when the frost is
on the pumpkin and the corn is in the shock.”
There seems to be nothing amusing in these
words, but each time Mr. Riley repeated them,
as you may know they form the refrain of one of
his poems, the whole audience laughed heartily.
There was something so delightful in the old
man’s enjoyment of the autumn season, when the
farmer’s work is done.
Speaking of his method of writing, to a re-
viewer, not long since, Mr. Riley said: “I see
the frost on the old axe they split the pumpkin
with for feed and I get the smell of the fodder
and the cattle so that brings up the right picture
in the mind of the reader. I don’t know how I
do it. It ain't me, I’m only the ‘willer’ through
ich the whistle comes.”
His poem on the tree toad, however, would be
humorous without the author’s inimitable inter-
pretation. It seems in Hoosierdom there are
superstitious people who believe that the toad not
only predicts, but actually brings the rain. One
of these, an old man, through Mr. Riley, tells us
of his liking for toads. He has studied them from
the time, when as a small boy, he climbed trees
to the present time, when as an old man, he
talking in their praise.
his interest in these creatui
knows anything about them.
tell nothing about tree toads; history doesn’t tell
nothin’ about tree toads; the Bible does not tell
nothin’ about tree toads.” Then there
funny story of a woman who swallowed a toad.
Yet, its voice was not stilled, before every rain
storm she could hear it, and her relatives could
hear it right through her seal skin sack.
But Mr. Riley speaks not simply for the old
wl
As a sufficient reason for
says that nobody
“Science doesn’t
he
was a
Walls seis), 5
farmers, but for the small boy as well. There was
the red-headed boy. T wish I could remember his
name, who being taunted by some twins on the
color of his hair, replied, “I don’t care if my hair
is red, I ain’t twins like you and they can tell me
apart.” Then there were the brothers who used
to go “out to old Aunt Mary's.” As we listened,
we saw the “long highway with the sunshine
spread as thick as butter on country bread,” and
the two boys pattering along in the dust “out to
old Aunt Mary’s.” And our hearts were touched
as Mr. Riley’s voice grew tender at the closing
words,
And, oh! my brother, so far away,
[his is to tell you she waits to-day,
To welcome us. Aunt Mary fell
Asleep this morning whispering, ‘ Tell
The boys to come.’ And all is well
Out to old Aunt Mary's.”
Do you know Mr. Riley’s “ Happy Little Crip-
ple?” We can not forget him. We still hear his
shrill triumphant voice piping out,
“Tm nine years old! An’ you can’t guess how much
I weigh, I bet! —
Last birthday I weighed thirty-three! — An’ I weigh
thirty yet!
I’m awful little for my siz
some babies is!
An Doce one time he laughed an’ said: ‘I spect first
thing you know
You'll have ‘a little spike tail coat an’ travel with a
show!’
An’ nen I laughed —till I looked round an’ aunty was
a-cryin’ —
Sometimes she acts like that, ’cause I got curv’ture of
the spine.”
—T'm purt nigh littler ‘an
There is in this poem the same strange mixture
of humor and pathos that we found in Mr. Riley’s
face. One does not know whether the impulse
to laughter or to tears is the stronger. At the
oft repeated words “1 got Cury'ture of the spine”
many in the audience laughed. I did not. I felt
like saying, “O, the pity of it, the pity of it.”
This was Mr. Riley’s last selection. We had
gone to hear Mr. Riley read knowing nothing of
him except that he wrote dialect poetry, one or
two stray pieces of which we had read. We came
away feeling that we had added him to our circle
of friends, those dear book friends that cheer and
encourage, or touch and soften our hearts. Lis-
tening to him for one evening, reading hastily a
few of his poems has made him ours, this poet of
the people. For to understand his words one does
not need to pour over history or the classics, but
just to look at himself, his neighbor and the world
about him.
James Whitcomb Riley comes to us like his
own “ poet of the future” with,
“The honest heart of lowliness, the honest soul of love,
For human-kind and nature-kind about him and above.”
This love has taught him to interpret and ex-
press ordinary experiences for us who liye them.
And what is the mission of the poet but to voice
the soul and spirit of man, who whether of high
or low degree laughs the same laughter and
weeps the same tears?
H. P. D.—Smith, ’93.
The Value of Nature Studies in the Pri-
mary Grades.
The thought underlying all teaching is char-
acter building. The study of the child is not a
new thing.
It dates back to the history of the first child
and follows the centuries in their growth.
Mazzini tells us that we ought to regard the
world as a workshop in which we have each to
make something good or beautiful with the help
of the others. For many years primary instruction
was neglected; but a few great hearts and brilliant
intellects filled with a love for humanity, realized
that the welfare of a country depends. upon its
young, and a system of education for the little
ones was introduced.
Quintilian, Comenius, Rousseau,
Froebel and many others shake hands across the
centuries upon this same subject. It is, how-
ever, to Comenius, “the father of the intuitive
method,” to whom we are indebted for directing
the attention of the world to nature and her work
in the education of the child. He suggests that
we offer to our children “not the shadows of
things, but the things themselves, which impress
the senses and the imagination.”
We must surely agree with Fenelon that “into
a reservoir so little and so precious only exquis-
Pestalozzi,
6 IBBUS, TCE O),
ite things must be poured.”
place of dead books, why should we not open
nature's living book souls
intrusted to our care?
Those who live close to child life catch flashes
of the “wonder-light” that invests all things for
the child, and thus often discover beauty and mar-
vel unnoticed before.
One of the necessities of our life is knowledge
of our environment. We
among “nature’s trees and flowers, its rocks
and rills, through its storm and sunshine; amidst
its silent, eternal forces.”
The law which guides all nature, guides our
steps.
That the child may know himself subject to
this law, we would have him study nature; more-
over, his pursuit of happiness depends upon the
power within him to see and enjoy beauty. The
immediate ends in view in the nature lessons are,
observation, knowledge, expression, enjoyment.
The child must learn to see the plant or mineral
clearly, and to state truthfully what he has seen.
Select such materials as lie close to child expe-
rience and let each topic prepare the way for the
next. Interest is readily sustained because of the
great variety of objects, and instruction begins
with securing the child’s attention. One thing
never to be forgotten is to knit our novelties by
natural links to the things which are already
‘Lhe teacher herself must be so full of
the subject as to give the idea in her own mind,
and all teaching should lead the child to gain
something which he makes definitely and clearly
his own.
Remember it is not the knowledge itself but
the power of acquiring it that helps.
In connection with these lessons add to the
observation some selection from literature which
will show the thought of others in the direction
in which the child has been studying. Let him
ts as “tend to crystallize the
Therefore, in the
to the precious
must liye our lives
known.
memorize some py
poet’s thought.”
These memory gems should be the jewels
which can be repeated over and over again in
the fragments of time. Encourage pupils to
bring in items of interest. All such teaching
tends to inspire a love for humanity and the beau-
tiful in nature and will give the child happiness
and culture for the rounding out of his life.
Thoroughness, rapidity in work, and concen-
tration of thought should be instilled in the mind
of the child from the beginning.
that “ there is nothing in the world more precious
or more beautiful than an enlightened intelli-
gence,” and hold up high ideals. Make progress.
The highest place is none too high. Much will
She could gather and
glean attractive things and have them in store.
ary character-
istic and there must be a soul and a spirit behind
it all. Strive always to make scholars instead of
learners by relating truth broadly to the mind of
the child.
Lessons which direct the attention of our chil-
dren to the world about them and lead them to
love the beautiful therein displayed, will make
music in their hearts.
Remember
depend upon the teacher.
The love for children is a nec
The love of nature is. a
great gift and if it is frozen or crushed out the
character can hardly fail to suffer the loss. Rus-
kin maintains that “the greatest thing a human
soul ever does in this world is to see something
and tell what it saw in a plain way.” “ Many enter
the temple through the gate called Beautiful.”
The richness of life is wonderful. Anyone who
will sit quietly down on the grass and watch
a little will be indeed surprised at the number and
variety of living beings, every one with a special
history of its own, every one offering endless
problems of great interest. Then let us give our
children knowledge which will help their souls
to grow and will minister to their highest good,
thus rendering their minds a storehouse of won-
derful treasures that will never become covered
and coated with rust.
Let us unfold nature to, them in all her won-
derful moods that they may find “sermons in
stones, tongues in trees, books in the running
brooks, and good in everything.”
Frank De Land Sproul,
SEN: Cy
Akron, O., February 6, 1808
“Tt depends on what we read after all professors
have done their best for us.”
—Carlyle
THEE CEO: Up
Thought Analysis of Shakespeare’s Tragedy
of Macbeth.
To portray with the conscious hand of the mas-
ter a story, half true, half fictitious, to the end
that he might both please and instruct a court
clamoring to be amused — this was the purpose
of Shakespeare in writing the play of “ Macbeth.”
“The divinity of Shakespeare’s genius,” say
Kemble, “lies pre-eminently in this, that, while he
wishes to make his workmanship attractive and
faithful to the theatre, he could not choose but
make it, at the same time, potent and delectable
in the inner courts of man’s intelligent and up-
ward-reaching soul.”
‘The underlying truth which renders this play,
ranked. by some the first among all the creations
of the great English dramatist— the truth which
renders the play of “ Macheth ” satisfying to “the
inner courts of man’s intelligent and upward-
reaching soul,” is found in the sixth command-
ment, “Thou shalt not kill”
forced by the portrayal, such a portrayal as no
hand but Shakespeare’s has ever attained, of the
awful spectacle of a guilty human soul, goaded
of Lady Macbeth, to a mortal insanity,
in the case of Macbeth himself to a moral paraly-
sis, by the knout of an avenging conscience. And
over and under and through the whole, making
the tragedy three times tragic, runs the black
thread of fate—fate inwoven within the soul’s
own texture by the
This truth is en-
in the ¢:
——— divinity that shapes our ends
Rough hew them how we will.”
‘The inspiration whose breath evolved this pic-
ture came first, perhaps, from Shakespeare’s de-
sire to present at court a play which should, from
its Scottish character, find favor in the eyes of a
a Scotch-born king. The author's sympathy with
his subject, however, comes from the intuition of
a great genius that sees in the barest facts the
material for an awe-inspiring, terror-striking play;
the incentive that a great mind has to use the tools
which it alone can wield, the sympathy of «
mighty brain with a mighty subject; the daring of
a powerful intellect to wrestle with a question be-
fore which gods have faltered —free moral
agency and the irresistible power of inborn fate.
The bare facts of the story, the canvas upon
which he painted his picture, Shakespeare ob-
tained, no doubt, from Holinshed’s Chronicles of
England, Scotland and Ireland. From what
other sources he may have derived the knowledge
which forms the basis of the play we are uncer-
tain. We are sure only that the great part of the
material came not from books, plays or chronicles
but from the matchless master brain itself.
The main action of the plot of this remarkable
drama portra
And, as if the blackness of the course of
evil were not black enough as seen blighting the
fairness of one sinning, guilty, foredoomed human
being, beside this one stands another, equally sin-
ning, equally guilty, equally doomed.
tion of the story reaches its first climax in the
death of the innocent Duncan, its second in the
death of the guilty Macbeth.
Preceding the first climax and leading quickly
to it, there passes before us, in swift panorama, the
scenes connected with the first murder, from its
inception to its consummation. So rapid is the
movement of this part of the drama that hardly
s the progress of sin in a human
soul.
The ac-
haye the uncanny spirits sounded the key-note of
evil for the whole until the temptation placed by
them before the ambitious Macbeth has become
art and the kindly, harmless, courteous Duncan
lies in his chamber dead. And yet, in this short
action of the drama there have been presented,
drawn with unmistakable clearness, the characters
of four of the chief actors, together with the am-
bition, the temptation, the resolve, the opportun-
ity, the instigation, the evil action of the man who,
we can but remember “ would holily” that which
he “ would highly.”
Remember and still not
wholly evil, for in this fact lies all the potency of
that which follows. Hark! hear that knocking!
No wonder Macbeth starts and in that first return
to a full consciousness of his great guilt wails in
his torture, “Wake Duncan with thy knocking.
I would thou couldst!”
The Erinyes are let loose. Never again can
joy or peace visit his guilty pillow. “The mind is
its own place,” and Macbeth’s mind from this
time till his death is but the scene of one wild,
desperate conflict. A never-sleeping, never-quiet
conscience sits on the judgment seat; an ever-
remember Macbeth
8 Teles, iS{CiaNO),
mocking, ever-haunting fear shadows his path-
way. Goaded by the one, spurred by the other,
he moves along to his ill-gotten place. That
which he has gained by blood he keeps by blood.
Banquo must die. Macduff must die; if not Mac-
duff, then.all Macduff holds dear. First, strong
ambition, then guilty fear, and last of all the fiend
revenge prompts him to murder. Black dark-
ness of a moral numbness settles over him while
on his wife there falls the shadow of a mental ab-
erration. Ghosts sit beside his banquet board,
and from her small, white hand the blood stain
never washes. The unrepented sin makes of
Macbeth a moral ruin, and of his wife a mental
wreck. Death comes, a glad release to both.
The one bright touch, throwing the blackness
of Tartarean darkness into bold relief is found in
the unquestioning affection which these two
through the whole sad action have borne each
for the other.
Permanen: So long as crime and sin
darken our earth, so long as conscience with its
nether torments inflicts a punishment, matched
only with the pains of Tartarus, on guilty souls,
so long as in man’s nature lies the potency of all
temptation, that long shall man read, study and
stand horror-struck before Macbeth; that long
shall all the persons in this powerful drama move
on the vision, not men and women of the long
ago, but living, breathing, sinning human beings
who pay, each day, in our own world, in our own
time, the penalty of crimes committed and evil
unrepented.
And so we call the play a moral study in dra-
matic form; a picture, like that of Goethe's
“Faust,” of the Titanic struggle between good
and evil for the possession of a human soul.
ALR. B, 08.
The Ideal and the Real in Teaching.
The greatest value of a Normal training lies in
the opportunity which it affords the would-be
teacher to work out in practice the theories ad-
vanced in the method courses. The study of
methods serve to outline a general plan of work
and define clearly the aims which conformity with
the underlying pedagogical principles should ac-
plish in the t
hing of a given subject. Af-
ter a year of this preparatory work comes the
practice teaching. Granted that one has a cer-
tain mastery of the subject assigned, and an in-
telligent comprehension of the fundamental prin-
ciples of education on a psychological basis, there
naturally results a clear conception of the scope
ies. That which of-
fers the greatest difficulty to the prospective
teacher is the planning of the lessons in detail
in obedience to the laws of pedagogy.
It seems to her that once having attained the
power to transform her knowledge of subject-
matter into usable material the rest will be simply
a perfecting by practice. A week with the class,
however, proves that the problem is far more
complex than imagined. The teacher, knowing
so well what should be accomplished and having
high aims in the work set before her finds the real
so far below her ideal that blank discouragement
at the prospect of utter failure is the result. To
one whose life has been never free from study,
of the work and its possibi
and whose efforts have heretofore met with suc-
cess, this lack of power to adapt the means to the
end is fairly overwhelming. But in practi
teaching there is no evading the issue. Each
day’s lesson throws the real into more striking
contrast with the ideal. The work as planned
does not appeal to the class as a whole; ques-
tions do not bring the desired answers; the atten-
tion of the bo:
is not held:and they become
restless; the girls whisper and the fine points so
carefully thought out by the teacher seem utterly
beyond the pupils’ comprehension.
The thought comes to the teacher that she is
hampered by her ideal, that the material she has
to work with is poor. But even as she passes
judgment on her pupils, is she conscious that
they, too, are forming opinions concerning her
who should be their leader. She realizes that she
must control, must hold them to the work she
plans for them. Profiting by the experience of
each day, concentrating all her powers of judg-
ment and focusing her knowledge of pedagogical
principles till they become clearly defined and
applicable to the particular work in hand, cen-
tering every energy on the proper adjustment of
the means to the end in view,.at last she begins
to see the solution to the problem.
TisUS) JCI) 9
She has gone so deeply into the subject herself
and has studied so many aspects of it in her ef-
fort to select and arrange advantageously the ma-
terial for the class, that she is full of it. She has
twice as much in reserve as she gives; she has
prepared more ground than the class can possibly
cover in the period and she is so perfectly fa-
miliar with it that the thought of the lesson pro-
gr so rapidly that a moment’s inattention
leaves a pupil behind. She finds that she can
govern by means of her work.’ The home work
is thoughtfully planned and the pupils are held
strictly to the requirements. Results begin to
show and some are greater than she has expected.
The conyiction comes that it is not poor ma-
terial but blunt tools and clumsy use of them
that has impeded her progress. She has power
to hold the class as a whole and does so with a
firm hand, but her interest is awakened by a trace
of unusual attention on the part of one of the pu-
pils, a particularly good paper or recitation from
another, a falling behind of another because of
inattention. She comes in contact with these at
first and finally with each and all outside of class.
A word of appreciation, well-merited commenda-
She
begins to feel that she has an influence as she
meets the class day after day and notes the effect
of what she has Said. She ponders over the in-
dividuals. They are ever present in her thought,
she ceases saying to herself “If I can only do it?”
and begins to think “ If they can only do it?”
Step by step, day by day, gaining wisdom from
failure as from successful attempts, striving ever
to help them to help themselves, at last she rea-
lizes that she has a new and different hold on the
class. There is no effort (now) at class manage-
ment, the pupils have confidence in their teacher;
they are anxious to succeed. Their thought fol-
lows their leader’s, certain that some good is to
result from the work whose end they cannot see.
They are not discouraged, though they fail, but
start again to keep up with the procession, con-
scious that though their greatest effort is less
than the least of another it is appreciated and
places them high in’ their teacher’s estimation.
There is no disorder, the class and their teacher
have come to an understanding. They know
tion, or deserved rebuke works wonders.
that so long as their attitude is a right one and
helpful to themselves, to their classmates and
their teacher, she will be lenient, but whenever
they do anything to disturb intentionally the
class or interfere with the progress of the lesson,
they must be sacrificed for the good of the others.
The class is a unit and has the true spirit of
work.
By the end of the twenty weeks the pupils,
equally with the teacher, express regret at the
coming change and she who has been their guide
feels that she has had a glimpse of the ideal in the
real and that as a teacher her creed may be ex-
pressed by Thomas Carlyle, when he says:
“The situation that has not its duty, its ideal,
was never yet occupied by man. Yes, here, in
this poor, miserable, hampered, despicable actual,
wherein thou even now standest, here or nowhere
is thy ideal; work it out therefrom; and, working,
believe, live, be free.”
Ww—, ’94-
Southey’s Life of Nelson.
The life of Nelson served as such inspiration
to British soldiers that Robert Southey was
moved to put it in permanent form as a part of
historical and biographical literature.
The style of the author is at once so attractive
that the reader cannot fail to be charmed. While
the leading facts of Nelson’s whole life are
brought out, together with those military charac-
teristics displayed even in childhood, yet whem
we consider the largeness of the man and the
great activity of his whole life, we must consider
the author concise, and, best of all, reliable as to
historical facts.
Horatio Nelson was born September 29, 1758.
He leit home while yet a boy to join his uncle's
ship, and with him took a trip to the West Indies.
Next a trip to India, where, on his return, he
While his
uncle was influential in attaining for him this po-
sition, the youth must have been worthy and
with a judgment beyond his years in order to hold
such a position. Soon after this promotion his.
uncle died and he was thrown on
resources.
was promoted to rank of lieutenant.
his own
10 SU SUS, 18CistO),
He was influential in securing the enforcement
of the navigation act, which shows he was true
to his convictions and ever looking out for the
interests of his country.
He married a Mrs. sbet and very soon re-
ceived the honor of colonel of marines.
In an expedition against Corsica Nelson shows
his determination in the few words, “It will
either be Westminster Abbey or victory.” He
was victorious and received honor of knight of the
Order of Bath, Sir Horatio Nelson.
He went to a blockade of Cadiz and while there
sailed against Teneriff. In stepping upon the
shore a shot was fired which wounded him so
AE
ter his recovery he sails for the Mediterranean
sea to attack the enemy at Malta, but finds they
are gone. Thinking they have gone to Egypt
he proceeds to Alexandria. The French are not
there but Nelson takes the city. Ina few days the
French come up and an encounter takes place.
The French are much stronger but Nelson is vic-
torious. Returning to England he is received
with great rewards and presents and is created
Baron Nelson of the Nile. His object is to re-
cover the Island of Malta, and so returning to the
Mediterranean sea, he preserves Sicily from the
French, and is given the sword of Charles III of
Spain in honor of the event.
Sent to the Baltic, a battle occurs off Copen-
hagen, which results in a victory to Nelson, and
he is raised to the honor of viscount.
The last battle in which Nelson was the com-
mander was fought off Cadiz. The enemy
thought Nelson was not in command and had it
not been for the medals which he
which he refused to take off he might not have
been killed. His determination to live with his
colors and his medals and to die with them shows
him a man of bravery to the end, and while it
betrays a weakness of human nature, i. e., a fond-
ness of distinction and praise, it is excusable in a
man so worthy, and the conduct of Nelson must
ever serve as a noble example of courage, wis-
dom and justi
Nelson’s position in history as the chief
power against the French aggressor, Napoleon,
makes him a light. That’ England
that he lost his arm and the sight of one eye.
wore and
beacon
mourned his death was but a natural result of
grief at her great loss, and his burial in Westmin-
ster was a fitting sequel to his life. Reviewing
this book we must have noticed that to the author
Nelson was the ideal of what a true soldier should
be and do, and therefore we are ready to grant
him the privilege of concealing as of minor con-
sequence the defects of his hero and lauding his
great worth.
His is a quality well worthy of imitation in all
of us, and it would be a thing worthy of admira-
tion in us if we could carry it into real life and be
generous enough to praise the good qualities of
even our enemies rather than to magnify their
blunders because of personal dislikes.
A. B. Vossler.
How Can Arithmetic be Made Interesting
to Indifferent Students ?
By connecting arithmetic with something that
is interesting and attractive to them. But how
can that be done?
Most problems of the teacher present them-
selves differently to the teachers in two classes
of schools; on the one hand, the graded school
in which the classes are large, the work of
each grade carefully outlined by the City Super-
intendent, text-books chosen, amount and meth-
ods of work fixed, and all successful pupils mov-
ing up a grade at stated intervals; and, on the
other hand, the ungraded school, where the
teacher must organize, classify, choose, devise.
Most schools are between the two extremes. A
movement toward either brings certain advant-
ages and certain accompanying disadvantages.
The teacher in the ungraded school may ex-
pect condolence for her lot; but, rather, I con-
gratulate her. Particularly, if she has a small
school she has the opportunity for doing much
individual work. And thus far the world’s great-
est teaching has been largely individual. What
some have called the “laboratory method” of
teaching arithmetic has two essential points, that
the pupil be led to discover principles and invent
rules, and that the work be individual, the teacher
helping each one, and each one taking a different
Tt taxes a teacher's resources, but there
lesson.
ANGUS, TDC IK), Il
are possibilities in it. If the class has the same
lesson, and the work is done in class most prin-
ciples of arithmetic can be discovered by all or
many of the students. The boy who
no aptitude for learning or applying rules
sometimes becomes interested when arithmetic is
treated as a field for discovery, a subject on which
he is stimulated to use h inventive powers.
When a pupil can once be led to make a dis-
covery — discovery for him, even if the math-
ematical world has known it for two or three
thousand years —and has felt the joy of it, he or-
dinarily passes (without examination) out of the
class of uninterested pupils. It is not a hard
thing to lead a class to discover what it took the
human race centuries to find out, provided the
teacher knows the truth thoroughly in its rela
tions and knows the minds of the students. What
boy or girl cannot invent the rule for dividing
one fraction by another? The pupil who does
may be pardoned if, afterwards in the “egotism
of discovery,” he regards the rule as his rule. It
is one of those illusions that are full of hope;
don’t dispel it. And is it not in the truest sense
his?
The teacher in a grade can, in part at least, lead
“her class to discover, if she is allowed the freedom
without which there can be no great teaching.
The teacher must know her pupils, not merely
to be able to call them by name readily, but know
the history and surroundings of each. One ad-
-vantage of this is that she can set problems con-
nected with that in which the pupil, who is care-
less in class, is interested. I have had an ad-
vanced arithmetic class become enthusiastic over
the problem to find, by measurement and com-
putation, how many tons of hard coal the recita-
tion room would hold, first guessing on the
number.
Get the pupils’ parents interested in their arith-
metic. Very likely the parents would spoil the
pupil’s reading by attempting to teach him ex-
pression; but they can usually help him in arith-
metic, and their interest will interest him.
Our courses in arithmetic should be kept
abreast of the movements in modern commerce
and science. Antiquated processes should be
dropped, and the requirement of a new age intro-
has
duced. If the student is to be interested, his
arithmetic must deal with the problems actually
arising to-day. The Euclidean method of finding
greatest common divisor, for example, is a grand
triumph of the reasoning power; but it is little
used outside the school roem, and should not
occupy much of the student’s time.
It is not a Utopian dream that the boys and
girls in school to-day may live to perform all their
reductions of compound numbers by moving the
decimal point. The indications are that the
twentieth century is to be arithmetically a deci-
mal century, as it is physically to be electric.
‘Wm. F. White.
Up-To-Date History.—Early Revolutionary
Period.
The following are bona fide answers given on
a recent fifth grade test:
1. To what did the “Sons of Liberty” pledge
themselves?
Ans. The Sons of Liberty pledged
themselves to try and put off the yoke of
England.
2. The Boston Tea Party. Where was it held,
who attended it and what did they do?
Ans. 1. The Boston Tea Party was held
in Boston. It was not like the parties your
mammas like to go to.
Ans. 2. It was held in Boston. The
Boston people attended it. They sat down
and behaved like ladies and gentlemen.
3. Who were the Tories and who were the
Whigs?
Ans. The Tories were a tribe of people
in England. The Whigs were a tribe of
people in America.
4. How did the Colonists feel about the Stamp
Act?
Ans.
England.
5. How were the people of Philadelphia notified
of the adoption of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence?
Ans. They rang a big bell to notify
themselves that they were free and inde-
pendent.
The Colonists were ashamed of
12 THE ECHO:
VERSE.
Washington.
“Broad-minded, high-souled, there is but one
‘Who was all this, and ours, and all men’s.”—
“Rome had her Caesar, great and brave,
But stain was on his wreath;
He lived a mighty conqueror
And died a tyrant’s death.
France had her Eagle, but his wings,
Thongh lofty they might soar,
Were stretched in false ambition’s flight,
And dipped in murder’s gore.
Those hero-gods whose mighty sway
Would fain have chained the waves,
Who flashed their blades with tiger zeal,
To make a world of slaves;
Who, though their kindred barred the path,
Still fiercely waded on,
, where shall be their glory
By the side of Washington?”
Lincoln,
(Commemoration Ode.)
Life may be given in many ways,
‘And loyalty to truth be sealed
‘As brayely in the closet as the field —
So generous is fat
But then to stand beside her,
When craven churls deride her,
To front a lie in arms and not to yield —
This shows, methinks, God’s plan
And measure of a stalwart man,
Limbed like the old heroic breeds,
Who stands seli-poised on manhood’s solid earth,
Not forced to frame excuses for his birth,
Fed from within with all the strength he needs.
Such was he, our Martyr-Chief,
Whom late the nation he had led,
‘With ashes on her head;
Wept with the passion of an angry grief:
Forgive me, if from present things I turn
To speak what in my heart will beat and burn,
And hang my wreath on hig world-honored urn.
Nature, they say, doth dote,
And cannot make a man
Save on some worn-out plan,
Repeating us by rote;
For him her old-world mould aside she threw,
And, choosing sweet clay from the breast
Of the unexhausted West,
With stuff untainted shaped a hero new,
Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true.
How beautiful to see
Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed,
Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead;
One whose meek flock the people joyed to be,
Not lured by any cheat of birth,
But by his clear-grained human worth,
And brave old wisdom of sincerity
They knew that outward grace is dust;
They could not choose but trust
In that sure-footed mind’s unfaltering skill,
And supple-tempered will
That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust,
Nothing of Europe here,
Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still,
Ere any names of Self and Peer
Could Nature’s equal scheme deface;
Here was a type of the true elder race,
And one of Plutarch’s men talked with us face to face.
I praise him not; it were too late;
And some innative weakness there must be
In him who condescends to victory.
Such as the present gives and cannot wait,
Safe in himself as in a fate.
So always firmly he:
He knew to bide his time,
And can his fame abide,
Still patient in his simple faith sublime,
Till the wise years decide,
Great captains, with their guns and drums,
Disturb our judgment for the hour,
But at last silence comes.
‘These all are gone, and, standing like a tower,
Our children shall behold his fame,
‘The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man,
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame,
New birth of our new soil, the first American.
—Lowell.
THE yECHO: us}
NEWS DEPARTMENT.
J. L. Meriam.
Mae Crawford.
Dr. Milne has the honor of having addressed
the first class graduating from an institution of
learning in Greater New York January 20. They
numbered 125 pupils of the Girls’ High School in
Brooklyn. In his remarks Dr. Milne, referring
to the mental development of girls after their
school life is ended, pointed out the fact that,
while their needs are different from those of the
boys, if the after development of their lives is con-
sidered, the tendency is*to make the school
courses the same for both. It is for the women,
he said, to preserve the beautiful and refining in-
fluence of education, much of which in the case
of men is rubbed off by contact with the harsh
world. Women being the leisure class, so to
speak, should utilize their opportunities for intel-
lectual self-culture and might thus become an al-
most guiding force in the world.
De Alumnis.
This institution may be proud of having gradu-
ated 4,283 students between the years 1845 and
1897. The report of 1895 shows 710 deaths.
"52, Mrs. J. B: Hatch, Minnie
Theresa Pepper, recently died at her home in Des
Moines, Ia, She had taught for more than 24
years and had written for school pape
formerly
*63.
Poughkeepsie, very
Margarette Hyde died at her home in
cently. For nearly 20 years
she has been teaching in a private school of that
city.
92. Clementine Helfer is now doing her sec:
ond year’s work in sity. Ad-
dress, 704 University avenue. Since graduating
Miss Helfer has taught two years each in East
Syracuse and Fort Plain.
98.
Syracuse Unive
ome of our February graduates: Mr.
Wilford is engaged at Andes; Miss Wilcox
teaches at Stapleton; M Stafford teaches at
Fishkill; Miss .McMillan teaches at West New
Van Schaach teaches at German-
Halsey teaches at Coxsackie.
srighton; \
town; M
a \
’93. Allen H. Wright, since graduating taught
one year, studied law one year, engaged in news-
paper work two years and is now teaching near
Rome. Address, Rome, N. Y.
04.
ture, at present residing in Geneva, Switzerland,
is the happy mother of a daughter, born in De-
cember, ’97.
Mrs. Guernsey, formerly Minnie Serip-
Report of Exhibit Grammar Department.
The snow fairies were busily employed the last
day of January and the greater part of the first
day of February, but before night fall of the first
old mother earth was snugly enfolded in her er-
mine robes and the fairies had retired.
In pleasing harmony with the scene without
was the scene within the Model chapel of the
State Normal College. Here the human fairies
had been at work success had certainly
crowned their efforts,
On two sides of the commodiou:
room were displayed specimens of the pupils’
work for the past twenty weeks. This work was
arranged in four sections, each including that of
its respective grade.
Maps of various kinds showed the pupils’
knowledge and skill. Relief maps in sand, putty,
crayon and papier mache; maps showing the pro-
ductions, railroa
different sections
executed.
The blue prints and pictures illustrating the
subjects of thought were a special and attractive
feature of the work in reading and language.
Drawings from the natural objects, water-color
work, and reproductions proved that the simul-
taneous training of hand, eye and mind is being
carefully observed in this department.
The poems and selections illustrated by free-
arranged in prettily
decorated booklets, gave the whole a dainty and
and
and artistic
temperature and rainiall of
were numerous and well
hand drawings and tastily
attractive air.
The aim in all this work has been to develop
the aesthetic side of the pupils’ life and to make
the acquisition of knowledge des
menting the necessary routine of school work.
As a result the exhibit was a pleasing variety
rable by orna-
14 TREE GEO:
which reflected great credit on Prof. White, his
able corps of teachers and the members of his
department.
Patrons and friends of the school and students
of the College embraced the opportunity to wit-
ness the fine collection of work exhibited.
“What man has done, man can do.”
Class of ’g9.
The following officers have been recently
elected: President, Mr. Thompson; first vice-
president, Miss Merwin; second vice-president,
Miss Vroom; secretary, Miss Jones; treasurer,
Miss Everett.
Officers of Phi Delta.
President, Brother Turner;
Brother Frost; recording secretary, Brother Pit-
kin; corresponding secretary, Brother Bookhout;
financial secretary, Brother Coulson; treasurer,
Brother Terwilliger; marshal, Brother Herrick;
chaplain, Brother Ganow; inner guard, Brother
Chapman; outer guard, Brother Greene; critic,
Brother Armstrong.
vice-president,
Student Teachers and Observers.
High School—Thirty-three teachers, seven
observers.
Model School — Forty teachers, nineteen ob-
servers,
Primary — Twenty-two teachers, ten observers.
High School.
The Quintillian Society has elected the follow-
ing officers for the third quarter:
President, Miss Foy; vice-president, Miss Sher-
wood; treasurer, Miss Burns; secretary, Miss
Ernst; junior editor, Miss Bell; senior editor, Miss
Reblum; critic, Miss Martin.
’98 Class Officers— President, William Fitz-
simmons; vice-president, Miss Borthwick; secre-
tary, Miss Welch; treasurer,
The Civies class has presented the High School
a large framed portrait of George Washington,
draped with the American flag. This gift occu-
pies a prominent position on the front wall of the
chapel.
The members of the High School extend their
sympathy to Miss Farrell, who has been absent
for the past two months owing to serious illness
in the family. They also welcome back Misses
Olive Whale and Nettie Wager, both of ’o8.
The chemistry s has had a pleasing variety
of instructors, Mr. Brownell, Miss Collier and
Miss Bennett. The class has found them all able
and pleasant teachers.
Primary Exhibit.
After examining the work of the little ones,
which has been exhibited in the Primary chapel,
we have an entirely different idea of what it is
possible for children to accomplish with right
training.
Among the drawings and water colors which
were all made from natural objects, we noted
many artistic studies. The general excellence of
the work showed the superiority of this original
and most delightful method of teaching draw-
ing. The sketches in the first grade illustrated
their nature work of the term. The objects from
which the other drawings were made typified the
passing of the seasons.
In geography, the maps showed improvement
in quality and number.
The language display was very interesting,
The first grade illustrated Miss Hyde’s delightful
plan of correlation. The letters written by the
children to Dr. Milne describing their imaginary
visit to the home of the Esquimaux, were es-
pecially interesting. Every one was fascinating
by the ingenious little Esquimaux village which
was made by Miss Hyde in connection with this
work. The second grade children’s “Story of
the Cow Who Lost Her Tail,” was written on
paper cut to represent that very cow. The next
grade had reproductions of the legends in con-
nection with the painting of “The Madonna of
the Chair,” which were illustrated with a good
copy of Raphael's famous picture. The result of
a series of lessons extending through the entire
term, was shown by the fifth grade in a booklet.
The subject was Homer’s Illiad, and the cover
was decorated with a copy of Alma Tadema’s
well-known painting. This style of work is es-
A .
THE ECHO, 15
pecially valuable for it introduces the children
to new and elevating fields of art and literature.
An entirely new, interesting and certainly at-
tractive feature was the collection of blue prints
made by pupils of the fifth grade. “These photo-
graphs were made from botanical specimens which
were collected by the pupils. All’ the work on
the pictures was done by the children.
The Primary chapel is an ideal school room.
Miss Pierce, the able and accomplished principal,
believes in the value of artistic surroundings for
the little people. Beautiful pictures, pieces in old
ivory, palms and ferns make the room delightful.
Even the blackboards are a mass of decoration,
for here are seen pictures of choir-boys, the coat-
of-arms of the State and many other sketches exe-
cuted in colored crayon, by two of the teachers
in the department.
Miss Pierce and her teachers are to be con-
gratulated upon such a successful exhibition.
De Rebus.
Four more collegiates have joined the Normal
College; three of these are graduates of Cornell
University, one of Amherst College.
King, ’98, has given up his college work for the
present and is preaching in the city. He has sup-
plied at the First Baptist church.
Miss Alice Pollock, ’98, will be at her home in
Newark the remainder of the year.
Miss Stewart, ‘98, is teaching in Greater New
York. Her address is Little Neck.
Chickering, ’98, has exchanged his college work
for that of the ministry and is preaching at
Mechanicsville.
Henkle, ’99, has returned to college after a
struggle with pneumonia since Christmas at his
home in Baldwinville.
The collegiate students are given this term a
special class in advanced psychology, under Dr.
Hannahs. A study of Herbart will be made.
Miss Isdell, principal of the Kindergarten, at-
tended the annual meeting of the National Kin-
dergarten Association, held in Philadelphia Febru-
ary 18 and 19.
Miss Hyde, of the Primary Department, re-
cently attended the funeral of her aunt, Miss
Margarette Hyde, of Poughkeepsie.
An effort is being made to organize a College
orchestra. Will any one who plays a suitable in-
strument please confer with Mr. Cummings or
Mr. Dibble?
Miss Alice Merriam, ’98, was suddenly called
to her home in Little Falls two weeks ago by the
death of her father.
By reason of a severe attack of typhoid fever,
Brownell, ’98, has been compelled to give up
school for the present and has returned home.
Killpatrick, of this city, and once a Normal Col-
lege student, has recently made himself known
in England by winning a foot race there.
Sickness prevented Prof. Groat from attending
to his College work a portion of last week. At
this time he was pleasantly surprised by a visit
from his father.
Prof. Wetmore addressed the State Y. M. C.
A. convention of New Jersey, held at East Orange
February 11.
Prof. Gager has offered this quarter a seminary
course in biology. This is the first time such a
work has been given here. The number of stu-
dents in the class is limited by the small supply
of apparatus.
On account of sickness Miss McClelland was
unable to teach her classes from Christmas till
the close of the second quarter. Her work was
carried on by Miss Leete in History; Misses Bret
and Bainbridge in Grammar.
The Normal College prayer meeting, held each
Sunday afternoon in the Model School chapel,
has been discontinued. While it is to be regretted
that an organization of such a character should
be given up, yet ample excuse is seen in the fact
that our students find in the city churches suf-
ficient Sabbath worship.
“T call a complete and generous education that
which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully and mag-
nanimously all the offices, both public and private,
of peace and war.”
—Milton.
16 ANOS ICT),
EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT.
Annie R. Barker.
Mary L, Baker.
Scissors and Paste.
“Tt beats me,” he said, as he laid down his
newspaper, thoughtfully, “I dunno’s I ever
thought it afore, but now that it does come ter my
mind, it certainly beats me.”
“What air ye talking about?” asked his wife,
anxiously.
“ Literatoor,” “ Course
seen it showed up in the newspaperstime and ag’in
how all an editor has to do is ter set down with a
pot o’ paste an’ a pair o’ scissors, an’ cut. out
things ter put inter ’is paper.”
“Certainly. I don’t see nothin’ so beatin’ bout
that.”
“ But this is the question: Some feller hez ter
git them pieces up in the first place. It never
struck me afore, but I’m blest ef I wouldn't like
ter know who the feller is that starts in an’ gits
up them there things fur the editors ter cut out!”
he answered, we've
Something New and Apropos.
(Laws of Teaching.)
Know thoroughly the subject to be taught and
explain to the pupil why you teach it.
Gain and keep the attention of the pupils.
cite their interest.
In teaching use language that your pupils un-
derstand.
Begin with the known and go by easy degrees
to the unknown. Take the whole class with you.
M. Greenwood in School and Fireside.
Thus saith the Promiscuous Adviser: I would
rather prescribe advice to twenty teachers than
to be one of the twenty to take the dose of my
own prescribing.
Washington Gladden is of the opinion that
children nowadays respect authority less than did
the children of a generation ago. Perhaps there
is less authority for them to respect.
We learn to talk during the first few years of
our existence, but it takes us all the rest of our
lives to learn to keep still.
A polite man is one who listens with interest to
things he knows all about, when they are told by
people who know nothing about them—Ex.
Young Lady — What is it to be a brilliant con-
versationalist?
Bright Talker — Listen to me.
Young Lady — That is just what I’m doing.
Bright Talker — That is being a brilliant con-
versationalist.
“What is a critic?” He is a man who rips
things to pieces without knowing how to. put
them together again— Chicago Record.
In answer to a teacher’s question as to what
constitutes an “optimist ” and “ pessimist ” some
school boy ventured to reply: “An optimist is a
man who is happy when he's miserable, and a pes-
man who is miserable he’s
simist is a when
happy.”
‘Those who pass the best examinations often
fail as teachers, while those who slip through by
the “skin of their teeth” are frequently found to
be the very salt of the earth.
The Legislature of California has passed a law
pension association to
in San Each
organizing a compulso:
include all te Francisco,
te ‘ity will be obliged to contribute
one dollar a month, and these monthly contribu-
tions will be increased by a fine for absence. One-
twentieth of the month’s salary is deducted for
each day’s absence. Twenty-five per cent of all ,
receipts is to be placed in a reserve fund till the
total receipts amount to $50,000. After thirty
years’ service teachers may retire with a guaran-
teed annuity of $600. Teachers'who have already
served the city several years may count these
years as part of the necessary thirty, by paying
twelve dollars for each year of their service
Teachers who may become disabled before they
have taught thirt sive such a por-
tion of the annuity as their term of service bears
to thirty years.
achers
her in the
y years may rev
Mama (to Willie who is sliding down the cel-
lar door) —“ Willie, what are you doing?”
Willie —“ Makin’ a pair o’ pants for a poor or-
phan boy.’— Ex.
THE ECHO. 17
Among the Colleges.
1. He who knows not and knows not he
knows not—he is a Freshman. Shun him.
2. He who knows not, and knows he knows
not —he is a Sophomore. Honor him.
3. He who knows and knows not he knows —
he is a Junior. Pity him.
4. He who knows and knows he knows — he
is a Senior. Reverence him— Ex.
Williams College has decided to admit no stu-
dents by certificate who have not had four years’
work in Latin and three in Greek. Modern lan-
guages will no longer be accepted as a substitute
for either.
Harvard and the University of California have
arranged for an inter-collegiate chess match to be
played by telegraph—Ex.
Military drill under a commissioned army of-
ficer has been introduced at the University of
Chicago.
The course at the Cornell Law School has been
altered in length from two years to three years.
This fall, for the first time, the doors of the
University of North Carolina were thrown open
to women and four young ladies took advantage
of the opportunity — Ex.
Amherst is to have a new astronomical observ-
atory.
Rutgers College has lately adopted the
policy of leaving all matters of college discipline
for a student committee to decide.
According to the report of the United States
Commissioner of Education there are 15,000,000
names enrolled in the educational institutions of
the country.
America has 300 universities and England 94,
yet there are 2,778 more professors in the latter
than in the former— Ex,
America has 800 students in the German uni-
versities.
Dartmouth college has the distinction of hav-
ing issued the first College paper in the United
States, and the great honor in having Daniel
Webster as editor-in-chief — Ex.
“Cork screws will sink more men than cork
jackets can hold up.”
In the Great Round World.
Where do the eyes of the nation point? A.
Toward the Pacific (@) the rise of Japan’s navy;
(b) the completion of the Siberian railway across
the Russian Empire and Northern China; (¢)
seizure of Chinese territory by Germany, Eng-
land, Japan, France and Russia; (d) the Klondike
gold discoveries; (e) the impending annexation
of Hawaii; (f) the talk of trans-Pacific cables; (g)
the development of the Canadian Pacific steam-
ship connections with India, China and Japan;
and (h) the proposed ship canal across the neck of
land connecting North and South America, make
the future of the Pacific bright.
Mr, F- r (translating Plato)—But now,
then, therefore, another soul than another of
higher or lower degree— D-Doctor, you have
to take it this way —is that very thing itself ac-
cording to the actual being, or does it not seem
so to you?
Professor — The thought seems clear to every-
one. Go on,
Prof. ——“You will have to apologize for
throwing a brick at Prof. ms
“All right, sir. I will apologize. I threw a
brick at Prof. ——. I missed him. I am sorry
for it’— Ex.
The man who refuses to subscribe for a College
paper and then reads it over the shoulders of his
neighbor is short enough to tie his shoestring to
his necktie— Drury Mirror.
Hi. Wather’s Mittens.
He killed the noble Mudjokivis,
With the skin he made him mittens,
Made them with the fur side inside,
Made them with the skin side outside;
He, to get the cold side outside,
Put the warm side, fur side, inside —
That's why he put the fur side inside,
Why he put the skin side outside,
Why he turned them inside outside.
—Exchange.
18
REVIEW DEPARTMENT.
Gertrude E, Hall.
Augusta M. Britton.
“The Rural School Problem.” (Abstract of a paper
read by Albert Salisbury, of Whitewater, before the
Wisconsin Teachers’ Association.) The School Jour-
nal, January 29, ’08.
Deny or resent it as we may, the’ country school of
the last thirty years has been in a state of retrogres-
sion. To the thoughtful observer the causes of this
retrogression are apparent. Forty years ago 2 district
school equipped its pupils with “a good education,”
under the direction of teachers of maturity who, what-
ever their culture was, certainly knew what life meant.
Now the number of pupils has decreased from a room-
ful to half a dozen, taught by the cheapest girl teacher
that comes along.
The time of the young teacher is upon us. ‘The
problem of teacher-supply is therefore important
Still more vital than this is the problem of demand.
When school authorities in the country call as hard for
good teachers as do the city boards, they will get
them,
The difference in the quality of city and country
schools lies in the different methods of their adminis-
tration. In the city a few strong men control and the
majority follow. In the country the majority control.
This brings us to the second problem, that of local
school administration.
In so minute a territorial unit as the ordinary school
district, there is little suitable material from which to
select school officers, be the choice ever so wisely made.
As long as the size of this unit is limited by the distance
a child can walk twice a day, there can be no improve-
ment.
The most refractory element in the situation is the
thinness of population. It is well known that the
majority of country schools in Wisconsin have less
than twenty-five pupils, and there are several that boast
only one pupil. This results from the small territorial
unit. Consequent upon the slim attendance, teachers’
wages are low, and the quality of teaching at a
minimum.
The only available remedy is consolidation; which, of
course, necessitates free transportation. The town-
ship system, if properly organized, would reduce the
number of school officials two-thirds, and multiply by
three the possibilities of their efficiency. The old
district system must be abolished; but this is slow
work, and must be done with tact and judgment by
interesting prominent men in the cause. Nien
The School Review for February gives the proceed-
ings of the Michigan School Masters’ Club at its last
meeting. Principal E, C. Warriner, of Saginaw, urged
the claims of History. His argument is that to pre-
THE ECHO:
pare for intelligent citizenship is an aim of public edu-
cation, No one can become a good citizen without
the study of American History and civil government.
He speaks of a junior at college who has never been
instructed in civil government and who will be gradu-
ated with only such knowledge of our government as
he has chanced to pick up. This, he says, is not pre-
paring young men for intelligent citizenship. History,
therefore, should find a place in every High School
course,
“Stepping Stones to Literature,” A Reader for Sixth
Grades, is just received from Silver Burdett & Co.
This reader is one of a series. The merits of the book
are that it presents either whole pieces of literature,
or “such selections as constitute in themselves literary
wholes.” “In the Sixth Book the pure myth”—a
leading feature in the earlier books — “does not appear
but in its place is much of history, especially of the
legendary lore, which appeals to the developing imagi-
nation of the child — such as the tales of ancient Rome
and Scott’s poems.” The selections are a great im-
provement upon those in school readers of the past,
and the illustrations are particularly fine. There is,
however, little basis for the comparative method of
literary study, and this will be a cause of regret to
some.
“Todd’s New Astronomy.” By David P. Todd, M.
A., Ph. D., Professor of Astronomy and Director of
the Observatory, Amherst College. Cloth, rzmo. 500
pages. Illustrated. Price, $1.30. American Book
Company, New York, Cincinnati and Chicago.
This new astronomy is designed to meet the present
requirements of schools and students for a practical
and scientific text-book in this important and most
interesting study. Of the author’s ability to write an ideal
work on the subject, which should be at once simple,
scientific, practical and interesting, there can be no.
question. In addition to his former work in the United
States Astronomical Observatory at Washington, and
as director in the Amherst College Observatory he is.
well known to the public as leader of two solar eclipse
expeditions under the auspices of the United States
government, one to the west coast of Africa and one
to Japan, and as leader of another astronomical expedi-
tion to Japan, organized by Amherst College.
By placing more importance on the physical than on
the mathematical facts of astronomy, the author has
made every page of the book deeply interesting to the
student and general .reader. While mathematical
results are given, the beauty and interest of the study
are not obscured by unnecessary mathematical pro-
cesses. Questions of universal interest, such as
“Where does the day change?” “ Where will the sun
be overhead at noon?” “Where does the Southern
Cross become visible?” “ What are meteors?” “ What
THE ECHO. 19
is the difference between the sidereal and the solar
day?” etc., receive special’ attention in the treatment.
The illustrations are an important feature of the
book. Many of them are so ingeniusly devised that
they explain at a glance what pages of mere descrip-
tion could not make clear. They include scenes from
the author’s own laboratory and from his expeditions,
diagrams, especially invented for this book and repro-
ductions from photographs by Barnard, Roberts and
‘others famed in astronomical photography. The fine
colored plates are a particular feature of the book, one
of these, the frontispiece, being a reproduction of the
color effects as seen by the author during the total
eclipse of 1896 in Japan.
In an article of the February number of the Edu
tional Review, Mr. J. K. Paulding speaks of the publi
school as a center of community life. He says that
probably there has never been a time in the history
of our schools when so much has been attempted in
the way of inculcating in the child a love of country,
together with some idea of the relation in which he
stands to it, while it is sought to inspire him with
a sense of the greatness of its destiny and the mag-
nitude of its mission among the nations. Those who
have understood patriotism best have conceived of it
as a cultivation of the common life of a nation, State,
or given society, rather than as a narrow idolatry of
particular customs, forms and habits of speech. It is
just in this common life that we of this crowded, busy
nineteeith century metropolis are most deficient, We
have it neither in politics, art, literature nor religion.
In the chaos of beliefs and opinions, there is at
least one agency at work in behalf of the common life,
viz., the common schools. To a certain extent already,
in the country distri the social life of the com-
munity has centered about the school house. In the
city this is not the case; but is capable of becoming
so. Already the parents of the children know the
school house as they know no other department of the
public administration. In many instances they are ac-
customed to repair to it to attend lectures. If the doors
of the school room were opened a little wider, the life
of the neighborhood could be led to enter through
them. Reading rooms might be established, clubs for
study formed; thus all that is highest in the life of the
neighborhood might in time come to be centered in
the school house, which would become a symbol of the
moral and intellectuat striving of the local community,
All this is important for the cultivation of the ideal of
patriotism defined as feeling for the common life. The
end and object of all such endeavors should be the
cultivation of the.“common life.” The rich, even more
than the poor, in our modern society, stand in need
of the revivifying touch of a community of aspiration,
since everything in their environment not only favors
but forces the exercise and development of the in-
dividual will—often to the disadvantage or detri-
ment of their fellows; while the poor have, at least,
their sufferings in common. Nowhere better than in
the public schools can this sentiment be inculcated
“The need of the community is greater than of the
individual,” said Democritus, “and hence should be
most regarded.” In this thought lies the germ of pa-
triotism and it is time that the ideal of education should
be shaped to meet the growing needs of the people.
The thirteenth holiday conference of the Associated
Academic Principals of the State of New York was
held at Syracuse, December 28-30, 1807. According to
an innovation of last year one session of the conference
was held in three groups.
The English group, under Principal Charles W.
Evans, reported as follows:
That the lack of harmony in regard to English teach-
ing is due to two causes: First, 1o the fact that new
aims haye recently appeared to the teachers of Eng-
ish, and, secondly, to the fact that the Colleges have
made a great diversity of requirements.
That every recitation should be made to contribute
to good English
That much oral composition and topical recitation
may profitably be called for.
That a large amount of poetry and literature adapted
to the age of the pupils should be studied in the
grades.
That English should always be regarded as a means,
not as an end.
That English should be considered of first import.
ance in the high school, and it should not be dropped
nor abridged for less important subjects.
That the present demands for English are not ex-
cessive.
That daily practice in writing English is desirable,
but that the written work should be distributed among
classes in other subjects.
That the study of nature is necessary for the highest
literary appreciation.
That the discussion of the larger principles of liter-
ary criticism will greatly add to the pupils’ interest and
form the basis of much yaluable composition work.
The following resolution was reported to the Confer-
ence by the science group under charge of Professor E.
W. Wetmore of the State Normal College:
Resolved, That in every high school course the
equivalent of five periods a week for one year shall
be devoted to physics.
The February number of “The School Review” con-
tains a report of the Holiday Conference-
“Tt is very mucH within your choice what you will
do to make your way successful.”
—Huxley.
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