hindrances. This commission served without pay and held thirty public hearings from Massachusetts to California, at which persons appeared from more than forty states. More than 125,000 answers were received to the printed list of questions about rural conditions.

The first purpose of the commission is to suggest some means of getting rid of the disadvantages of country life. The second purpose is to outline a plan for taking an inventory of the advantages and disadvantages of country life so that rural social conditions may be raised to the highest possible standard. The people of the country are the backbone of our nation. If, as some think, the young men and women are leaving the farms we should use every possible means to remove from country life every hindrance and disadvantage.

It has been suggested by the commission that the country people all over the United States gather in their schoolhouses on some certain day and there discuss these various questions which are of vital importance to them. Governor Warner and the governors of several other states have issued a special proclamation in connection with the regular Arbor Day proclamation, suggesting that the people of the different communities meet on this day. It is my idea that the teacher in every separate community shall take this matter up in connection with her regular Arbor Day program. I would suggest that you have a program of an hour or more in length, giving the first half of it to the children and their Arbor Day exercises and that the second half be given to the fathers and mothers for the discussion of some of the topics mentioned in the accompanying suggestive program. Every teacher will need to vary the program to suit the needs of the particular locality but this general outline may be followed. Let me urge upon every teacher the desirability of working out this plan in her district. If it is taken up in the right way I am sure that a great deal of interest and enthusiasm can be aroused. The matter rests very largely with the teachers. If they do not take it up, no one else will.

This meeting, in every locality, should result in an immediate permanent organization, with the adoption of a constitution and by-laws, the election of officers, and appointment of committees to see that work is begun at once along the lines most needed in the individual community. This association may be called by any name agreed upon but one that seems particularly well adapted is "Community-School Association" with the name of the school district or community prefixed. In the answers received by the commission from the people of the different states the country school was mentioned by the great majority as the first thing that needed improving. This is particularly true in Michigan. It therefore seems logical that the schoolhouse be made the social center for the purpose of such an organization as here suggested and that the teachers should set the movement on foot. Let not your opportunity pass by for participation in such a great advance.

Let me suggest that you see that your special Arbor and Community School Day program is well written up in your local newspaper. It is hoped that in this way wide publicity will be given this new movement and abundant opportunity afforded for free discussion of these important topics.

If you desire a copy of the "Report of the Country Life Commission", write to Senator Julius Caesar Burrows or William Alden Smith, Washington, D. C.

SUGGESTIVE COMMUNITY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION PROGRAM.

1. Discussion of "The Commission on Country Life," its appointment,

purposes.

2. Discussion of some urgent pressing need of district (new schoolhouse, repairs, or additions).

3.

Improvement of school property (beautifying of interior, exterior, and grounds of school).

4. Advantages of a good library (establishment of library in district, circulating library).

5.

6.

7.

8.

Establishment of clubs (literary, mothers' clubs, agricultural societies). Athletics and recreation in a school (establishment of permanent recreation grounds for community and school,-base ball grounds, tennis courts, running track, etc.) It is suggested that this topic be taken by a young man sufficiently interested in the subject.

The social side of country life. (Suggested that this topic be taken by a woman).

Any other topic which might be timely or particularly interesting to the people of the community.

I. The child who can tell clearly and fluently what he thinks or knows, and can then write what he has said, has had the best training in language. II. The child should be taught to speak rather than to write.

III. In every recitation a pupil should be required to tell orally what he knows about a given topic without suggestion, question or interruption from any one.

IV. Spontaneity, fluency, and correctness of form, in the order named are desirable.

The purpose then to be attained in all language teaching is spontaneous, fluent, and correct expression of the thoughts of the child. The child must have ideas to express before there is any need of expression. It is our aim therefore, to place him in possession of such ideas.

The development of the highest possible type of character is the purpose of all our work, and in no other branch of study is there such possibilities for splendid results as in the teaching of English. We surround the child with the best that we can acquire of the products of beauty, culture, art, literature, and music. We find the best material for the development of ideas and the power of expressing them, in the master-pieces of litera

us.

ture, the highest thoughts that the world's greatest workers have given We aim to shut out the crude, the ordinary, the common, and give only the best. Stories, poems, pictures, descriptions, oral compositions on every day life and things, and on the subjects that pertain to his work in all branches of study, make up the material which can be used in the development of language work.

The preparation of stories and poems for teaching and telling is one of the most important features of the teacher's work. We cannot tell a story so that the child will wish to reproduce it unless we ourselves enjoy telling it. Tell your stories again and again, in your home, to your friends. Select stories of high literary merit, adopting the phraseology as your own and giving it to the pupil as his. Throughout the year call on him from time. to time for the stories of previous months. The teaching of a poem will be a pleasureable experience if you get the pupil to visualize any picture suggested, feel its rhythm and grasp its mood and thought. You will be successful if you have aroused the child's imagination, stirred his emotions, and made him feel an added sense of the dignity and nobility of life. Know your poems in word, in thought, in the expression of every line and change, and your pupil will catch the spirit with the words.

Before attempting the descriptions of the things of every day life have the child observe carefully. Every child above the primary grades should be familiar with the nature-side of his environment; the birds of his locality, their form, size, color, nests, eggs, songs, and habits; the trees,-their age, bark, wood, leaves, uses, and conditions of growth; the land and water forms of his home surroundings; the flowers and plants native to the soil. He should have an intelligent idea of the industries carried on about him; of local commerce, conditions of trade, and something of the powers that operate the industrial world; of steam and electricity and of the works of the various departments of labor.-The child will appreciate and respect labor in proportion as he understands its uses and methods.Let him tell of the work of the miner, the farmer, the builder, the architect the merchant, the factory hand. Help him to acquire a full knowledge of the words or symbols of the arts or crafts which he is observing.

Through the medium of descriptions, pictures, and stories, he acquires in geography work, the mental pictures of the places, people and conditions of the world. Encourage him to reproduce the story and describe the mental picture. In history he finds the biographies of the great of all times, the customs and conditions and manners of people, the descriptions of battles. Their oral reproduction will add to his knowledge and power of expression. In literature he finds the stories of fairies and folk-lore, of myths and legends of many lands, of arts and artists, of music and musisicians. These not only add to the richness of the child's vocabulary and to the store of his knowledge and ideas, but develop the highest emotions of his nature.

Do not give any time to written work unless it is for the express purpose of teaching spelling or capitalization. A child must first have ideas and the power to express them fluently and well in oral language before he can write them. He will write well when he can talk well if he has been properly trained in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. His language will be generally free from error if his vocabulary and manner of expression are acquired from the world's great masterpieces.

Closely limiting the child in his story telling to such forms of correct English as have been previously taught does not interfere with the growth

of a free, unaffected speech, but it results in a command of desirable language and an appreciation of the power of words. Through such development of the best forms of expression we may hope to cultivate a taste for the best literature.

FIRST AND SECOND GRADES.

The teacher in the primary grades should be an adept in telling stories. She should tell them sympathetically and dramatically, yet in such a simple way that the child will really enjoy them. He will naturally and quickly imitate the teacher's manner and adopt her words and manner of expression. Start with simple, short stories. They should conform to the following; (1) be clear in outline, (2) appeal to the child, (3) deal with familiar conditions, (4) make vivid mind pictures, (5) require the expression of feeling and arouse it. Some of the best books of simple stories are: "How to Tell Stories to Children", Sara Cone Bryant; "In the Child's World," Emilie Poulsson; "The Story Hour," Kate Douglas Wiggin; Hawthorne's "Wonder Book;" Anderson's "Fairy Tales". Stories from other books may be simplified for small children.

Have conversation lessons in which the pupil tells his name, place of living, and describes incidents and conditions of life which he has experienced. Encourage him to use the newly acquired words, assisting him when necessary, making them permanently his through frequent repetition.

Games should be played with the idea of getting the child to express his thoughts in short, clear sentences. Have the correct forms of expression repeated in as many ways as possible to make their use a matter of habit. Give special drill in the correct use of verbs used in games and conversations, as take, give, speak, tell, run, seek, find, feel, think, tear, make, sit, sink. The teacher should give commands which necessitate action and involve the above. The child in obeying should describe the act, using the words as, "Johnnie, close the door!""Miss B., I closed the door." "Johnnie, have you closed the door?"-"Miss B., I have closed the door." "Miss B., I am closing the door;" "Miss B., it was I who closed the door."

In the teaching of poems use a soft, pleasant voice and have the pupil do the same. This includes care in enunciation and articulation. The following poems are suggested: Wynken, Blynken and Nod, Little Boy Blue, Japanese Lullaby, Eugene Field; The Wonderful World, William Brighty Rands; Hiawatha's Childhood, The Children's Hour, Longfellow; Song from Pippa Passes, Browning; O Little Town of Bethelhem, Phillips Brooks; Take Care, Alice Cary; Calling the Violet, Lucy Larcom; Seven Times One, Jean Ingelow; Obedience, Phoebe Cary; Bluebird, Emily Miller; Little Birdie, Alfred Tennyson; Dandelion, Helen Bostwick. Do not tax children with the memorizing of too many poems, but teach the best only. Teach names of seasons; of holidays; of nearby cities, and rivers; and

of months and days. Have much picture study in these grades. Collect copies of the masterpieces. Select from Landseer, Bouguereau, Reynolds, Van Dyck, Millet, Murillo, and Bonheur.

The descriptions in the second grade should include familiar objects as a pencil, a chalkbox, an apple, a book, an orange, a watermelon, a top, a table. Develop necessary words for descriptions as-surface, rectangular, before describing a box.

Compare the different trees of the locality as to foliage, bark, age, size, shape. Collect bark and wood specimens, also specimens of branches of evergreen trees, and of leaves of deciduous trees; compare and describe. Make a collection of bird's nests, mineral specimens of the locality, soil, plants, and vegetables for the same purpose.

Narrate briefly, shopping expeditions and visits to places of interest Dramitize many short stories.

THIRD AND FOURTH GRADES.

Continue the teaching of poems. Teachers should tell all stories required for language work in the third grade, but in the fourth year the pupil should be responsible for assigned stories.

In these grades have exercises in the narration of personal experiences, a walk through the woods, a football game, a game of hockey, a race, a dog and pony show, or any other experience which has appealed to the child's interest. These descriptions should not be of a desultory order nor strung together with ands but told in well arranged sentences, brief, vivid and to the point. The child should be trained to bring out the important point of the narration in a pleasing manner by arriving quickly at the points of interest. In describing objects he should be assisted in a choice of words. especially fitted to the subject described. The description of a nail might be as follows:

"A nail is slender and cylindrical in shape and made of steel. One end has a sharp point, the other a flat, round head which prevents its penetrating the wood. The nail I am describing is about -inches long."

It may be necessary to develop in advance, the words,-cylindrical and penetrating. Further descriptions may include a post, a board, a saw, a hammer, a pin, a floor, a wall, a window.

The collections of bark, leaves, woods, grasses, seeds, soils, and minerals should be continued and descriptions given and comparisons made. Have pupils begin to discriminate in the choice of words used and to vary their use somewhat.

Teach the correct forms of the following irregular verbs using action work when possible.