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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 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. It 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

tions will be

server and writer, Frank Carpenter, traversing the whole continent of South America, and supplying its columns every week with an article on this comprehensive sort of Geography.

We want Ohio to be in the van, in this as in other matters, and if all the counties of the state will but enter upon this matter of geographical study with the same zest that characterizes the work in many of the counties, there can be no doubt of the fact that at no distant day other states will inquire for the Buckeye Method of teaching Geography.

STATE CERTIFICATES FOR TEACHERS.

The Ohio State Board of School Examiners issues the following circular of information to persons desiring to become applicants for State Certificates:

Arithmetic, Algebra, Geography, English Grammar and Composition, History of the United States. including Civil Government, General History, English Literature, Physiology and Hygiene including effects of Alcohol and Narcotics, Physics, Theory and Practice of Teaching, and such other branches, if any, as they may elect.

Applicants for High School Certificates, in addition to the abovenamed branches will be examined in Geometry, Rhetoric, Civil Government, Latin, Psychology, History of Education, Science of Education. Also three branches selected from the following: Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Geology, Astronomy, Trigonometry and its Applications, Logic, Greek, German, and Political Economy. The Board advises applicants not to attempt to pass an examination for the Common School Life and the

The Board will hold an examination in Columbus on Tuesday, High School Life Certificate at the

December 27, 1898, beginning at 8:00 a. m. and continuing December 28 and 29.

Under the law, the Board can issue none but Life Certificates. For the present the Board will issue but three grades of certifi cates, viz: Common School, High School, and Special Certifi

cates.

Applicants for Common School Certificates will be examined in Orthography, Reading, Writing,

same examination.

PSYCHOLOGY-REQUIRED FOR

EXAMINATION.

James's Briefer Course in Psychology, (Holt); Ladd's Psychology, Descriptive and Explanatory, (Scribners); Preyer's Mental Development of the Child, (Appleton). Recommended for reference: Bowne's Introduction to Psychological Theory, (Harpers); Sully's Psychology, (Appleton); Baldwin's Elements of Psychology, (Holt).

HISTORY OF EDUCATION

REQUIRED.

Compayre's History of Pedagogy, (Heath); Quick's Educational Reformers, Revised Edition, (Appleton); Painter's History of Education, (Appleton). Recom

mended: Krusi's Life of Pestalozzi, (American Book Co.), Aristotle and Froebel, of "Great Educators Series" (Scribners).

SCIENCE OF EDUCATION
REQUIRED.

White's School Management, (American Book Co.); Lange's Apperception, (Heath); Rozenkranz's Philosophy of Education, (Appleton). Recommended: De Garmo's Essentials of Method, (Heath); McMurry's General Method, (Public School Publishing Company); Page's Theory and Practice, (American Book Co.).

Applicants for Special Certificates will be examined in Special Branches, and in addition thereto, Physiology and Hygiene including effects of Alcohol and Narcotics, Psychology, History of Education, and Science of Education prescribed for applicants for High School Certificates.

Special Certificates will be granted in Penmanship, Drawing, Music, and Physical Culture, only.

The standard for both classes of certificates is as follows: Minimum grade for Common School branches, 60; average grade, 80;

minimum grade for High School branches, 80.

All applicants for certificates of either grade must file with the Clerk of Board, at least thirty days before the date of examination, an application blank filled out and two satisfactory testimonials that they have had at least fifty months' successful experience in teaching, and for Special Certificate at least fifty months' experience in teaching the Special Branch. Also file last county certificate or certified copy thereof.

These testimonials should be from educators well known to the Board.

The holder of a Common School Certificate may receive a High School Certificate by passing examination, at one meeting of the Board, in all the additional branches, as above stated, and furnishing satisfactory evidence of continued success in teaching.

No branch will be added to a Common School Certificate after the date of its issue; but, when issued, such certificate shall name the additional branches, if any, which the applicant has passed a satisfactory examination. Eminent attainments in any particular line of study will receive. due consideration in determining an applicant's qualifications.

upon

As an essential condition of granting a certificate of either grade, the Board will require evi

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