THE

OHIO EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED AT

57 EAST MAIN ST., COLUMBUS, O.

O. T. CORSON, EDITOR.

MARGARET W. SUTHERLAND, ASSOCIATE EDITOR.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES.

PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, $1.50. In clubs of four or more, $1.25 each. Single Number, except August, 15 cents. August Number, 25 cents. All club subscriptions not paid within three months, $1.50.

MONEY should be sent by express, draft, money order or registered letter. Make all remittances payable to O. T. CORSON.

THE MONTHLY is mailed the first week of each month. Any subscriber failing to receive a copy by the tenth should give notice promptly, and another will be sent. Any person wishing his address changed must send notice not later than the twenty-fifth of the month, and must give both the old and the new address. Notice will be given to each subscriber of the time his subscription expires.

"VOICE of Ohio sounds thro' the Nation."

THE Writing of this note was prompted by the action of the board. of education in Erie, Penn., where we were engaged in institute work at the time it was taken. In common with many boards of education in this state, the Erie board has a rule prohibiting the taking of collections in the public schools for

any purpose a very wholesome rule which ought to be enforced under ordinary circumstances. However, when the superintendent pre

sented the La Fayette Day idea to them, by a unanimous vote the rule was suspended and the collection ordered to be taken in connection with the other exercises commemorative of the occasion. In our judgment this action was wise, sensible and patriotic. We are as much opposed as any one to turning the public schools into places for raising revenue for building battle-ships which Uncle Sam is abundantly able to build for himself, or for the endowment of great universities which should derive support from other sources. We also believe that under ordinary circumstances rules adopted by boards of education should be respected and obeyed. But the celebration of La Fayette Day was not an ordinary circumstance. The taking of free contributions from the boys and girls in our public schools for the purpose of paying for a monument to mark the grave of this great patriot who left home to fight for the liberty of America in the dark hours of the Revolutionary War has not established a precedent which will prove troublesome in the future. On the other hand wherever such contributions have been taken, boys and girls have been taught lessons of patriotism and gratitude the re

membrance of which will make them better citizens when they grow up to manhood and womanhood, and the world will as a result be impressed with the patriotism of our sixteen millions of public school boys and girls who constitute the real standing army of our glorious Republic. Notwithstanding opposition which existed in some of the places of high authority in this. country, we have no apology to offer for our support of the move

ment.

THE evolution of a name is in some instances remarkable, as well as very puzzling to the editor. In 1896 perhaps the name was plain "Mollie Smith"; later in the year when the address was changed, "Mary Smith" made the request; by 1897 it was "Marie A. Smith,” and still later "Marie Antoinette Smithe." Such evolution is seen only in one other connection — the comparison of the name sometimes found on a commencement program with that of the same individual as recorded when entering the primary department of the school.

In this connection attention is called to the difficulty arising from requests to discontinue, or change

address, sent in by persons who write from the town to which paper is to be sent and fail to give former address, or by others who record their request on postal cards without giving date or place. O, that some power could make plain to all the necessity of being explicit in directions of this kind. If you want your address changed at any time, please notify us not later than the twentieth of the month, giving the name as originally sent in, and both the new and the old address.

IN Massachusetts, the past year, a number of vacancies occurred in the Normal Schools. We are reliably informed that in filling these vacancies not a single graduate of Clark University presided over by G. Stanley Hall was selected. In Philadelphia, a number of vacancies occurred in principalships and other important positions, and to our certain knowledge all of these vacancies were promptly filled by students and graduates of the Department of Pedagogy of the University of Pennsylvania in charge of Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh, who is known in nearly every county in Ohio. In the language of another, "It does not take a team of horses to draw an inference" from the previously stated facts.

We have information of the most reliable character that in each school in Ohio there is an organization very similar to one in which we had membership as a boy - of pupils for "Teacher Study." Great freedom of thought and action prevails in these societies and while the reports are not usually published in Teachers' Journals or books on Pedagogy, at the same time they are very suggestive and helpful to all who have access to them. Only teachers of warm sympathetic hearts can understand or appreciate the work of these societies. The "laboratory method" is not followed to any great extent by the members, and technical terms are almost en

tirely avoided in the discussion of topics relating to the management

of the teacher and the welfare of the

pupils. As a rule, however, there is great unanimity of opinion, and the conclusions reached are fair and just. We hope to be able from time. to time in the future to publish a few of these conclusions which may prove suggestive to those who are engaged in "Child Study."

THE kind words of appreciation coming from all sources of the state relative to the October Monthly, and the large orders for extra

copies, are very gratifying and encouraging. We trust this number may also prove helpful, and that the Thanksgiving Program by Miss Sutherland may at least be suggestive to teachers in their preparation for a suitable celebration of the occasion which will no doubt come on the last Thursday of the month, or November 24. While the day is a national holiday, and as a rule schools will be dismissed, the children in the schools should have their attention called to its significance, importance, and sacredness by suitable exercises. Intelligence is an important factor in true thanksgiving, and the public schools should do everything in their power to develop intelligent appreciation of all the blessings we enjoy, personal and national.

THE GEOGRAPHY SYLLABUS.

BY F. B. PEARSON.

The reception which has been accorded the syllabus on Geography is gratifying to the committee who were charged with its preparation. No sooner was it distributed than Hamilton County adopted it as the basis of examinations in Geography for the year, and this example was followed by other counties, in rapid succession; so that now, from the best information obtainable, it seems probable

that a majority of the counties have taken like action. Moreover it is learned from the State School Commissioner that there is such a constant demand for additional

copies, that the publication of another edition seems well-nigh inevitable. All this is additional evidence of the influence which Boards of Examiners are exerting throughout the state, and also a prophecy of what these Boards can accomplish for our schools by vigorous, hearty, reasonable and concerted action. As Mr. Corson has often said before institutes and associations "The people can have just as good schools as they want, and they will have just as poor ones as they will permit." No sentence that he ever uttered showed a keener analysis of existing conditions in the educational field of

Ohio

nor a truer prophecy of what we may attain under the right sort of leadership. If we want supervision we can have it, provided the people through the instrumentality of teachers, make it evident to our legislators that such enactments would meet a popular demand. Legislators do not care to stultify themselves by advocating measures that will prove to be dead-letters, and that will exist only on the pages of the statute books. It is not a long journey from the office of Examiners to the Legislature. Moreover, it is the safest route to travel when we want to help on school legislation.

If we need school libraries, it is only necessary for the Examiners to set about the work patiently yet perseveringly, and, in time, every school in the state will find itself in possession of a collection of books, all its own. If better equipment for the teaching of Geography is needed, let the Examiners but take the initiative and very soon the teachers will fall into line, and the whole procession will move rapidly forward to the consummation of their desires. There is no doubt that those who give to this syllabus the attention and study that this department of education really merits, will find that their present equipment of books and apparatus is quite inadequate, and this discovery will be quite important. When we find that we actually need something in order to do our work satisfactorily to ourselves, we are very apt to develop sufficient genius to get it. But, first, we must want it. We shall probably discover a need for physical maps and then will get them; or we shall realize that some of the many books on Geography that are named in this syllabus are a necessity in order to the best results, and forthwith these books. will be ordered and, strangest of all when they arrive the money I will be in hand to meet the bill.

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It can hardly be hoped that all the copies of the syllabus that have been issued will escape the rapacity

of the waste-basket, but it is clearly within the realm of possibilities that. those who thus dispose of their first copy will seek eagerly for a duplicate before the return of another August if Examiners and Executive Committees exert a fair degree of pressure about once every thirty days throughout the year.

It would be unseemly for the writer to extol the virtues of this syllabus, but he can assert, without arrogating to himself any superior information, that the subject of Geography is rapidly advancing to a position of importance among the branches (so called) of education, and that the teacher who neglects this study will sooner or later find himself relegated to a place in the rear that will be found uncomfortably lonesome. He may rail at the examinations in Geography as abominations to the gaze of civilized man as being a hodge-podge of Geology, Botany, Astronomy, Meteorology, Chemistry, Physics, Minerology, Anthropology, History, and what-not but the passing of those examinations will be a prerequisite to his teaching school just the same. will be found that a knowledge of the subject includes more than the mere location of places on the globe - because the location itself depends upon so many other things. than mere locality. The Cincinnati Commercial-Tribune recognizes this fact, and has that masterful ob

It