gave no term, however, to be used instead of science. The Century, the International, and the Standard Dictionaries all define science as "knowledge"; then as a "systematic arrangement of facts." It is nonsense, ethical, pedagogical, and scientific inconsistency to claim that the child of the lower grades is not ready for a systematic arrangement of facts. The first consideration of the teacher is to give the child correct methods of study. The entire field of Herbartian philosophy of interest is within the borders of awakening the curiosity of the child so that it will lead to the systematic discovery and arrangement of knowledge. Professor Griggs, in ridiculing the adoption of the word science in primary courses of studies has the "Report of the Committee of Fifteen" against him, the Educational Council of California, and the dictionaries of the language. "Nature-study," which will always have associated with it the sentimental adoration of flowers, is not a good term. Let the teachers keep to the word science, and train the child from the time it enters school, to classify, arrange, investigate, discover truth, and express it accurately, no matter whether it be in studying the life of a salmon, the growth of a plant, the habits of a bird, the elements of the earth, or man.

A Uniform SUPERINTENDENT ROBERT FURLONG, in School Term. an able address before the teachers of Marin county, advocated a change in the law governing the apportionment of school moneys, so the county school district will have sufficient means to employ good teachers, and for the same length of terms as in the large cities. The argument that people in the country should have equal facilities with cities in the education of children is a good one. People move to cities to educate their children. This is wrong. The country schools should be of sufficient merit to have people move to the country. The State should provide sufficient money to hold school in county districts at least eight months; and if ten months is good for the city, it is also good for the country. The Educational Council should, therefore, strive to have a uniform. length of term. Then, and not till then, will it be possible to have a uniform course of study. Superintendent Furlong is an active, earnest worker, and will no doubt succeed in working a reform in this direction.

Sketches in EARL BARNES will begin the publication Education, of a pedagogical journal, "Studies in Education," July 1st. The journal will give the crystallized thought of the work accomplished in the department of education the first five years. We welcome it, and trust that the progressive teachers will subscribe for it, and that Superintendents will put it in the teachers' libraries. Be loyal to our own publications. The following is a list of the leading articles: "Methods of Studying Children," by Earl Barnes; "Chil

dren's Sense of Property," by M. E. Schallenberger; "The Development of a Child's Personality," by E. H. Griggs; "Children's Ambitions," by Hattie M. Willard; "Children's Plays," by Genevra Sisson; "Children's Superstitions," by Clara Vostrovsky; "Intellectual Habits of College Students," by Earl Barnes; "Art with Young Children," by L. M. Maitland; "Children's Attitude Toward Law," by Estelle M. Darrah; "Children's Historical Sense," by M. S. Barnes.

A Word with You.

*

In the first issue of THE WESTERN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION we had "A Word with You." This number completes the first year of record. The journal is a success. True, the editor has not grown rich has not even made as much money as he might have made in the chicken business. But the year has been well rounded up, and foundations have been laid for greater work in the future. The many pleasant letters from subscribers commenting favorably upon our work, the far-reaching influence of our journal among educators East and West, and the steady growth of patronage are agreeable. In the mean time it is hoped that teachers will find the journal helpful, and a medium of current educational news and thought of the Pacific Coast.

THE CALIFORNIA SYSTEM OF VERTICAL WRITING.

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ALIFORNIA teachers are always up to date. Now comes Mrs. I. B. Rodgers and Miss Belle Duncan, two practical school-teachers of Pacific Grove, with at complete system of vertical penmanship, the result of their work in the school room. There are six wellgraded books. The cover has a beautiful design of the California poppy. It shades nicely with the deeper brown of the background, is restful to the eye, and entrancing to the esthetical mind. The cover is great.

The copies follow well-known pedagogical lines, and are unique in having at the end of each line the picture to illustrate the thought expressed in the copy, and also lines, such as Professor Allen's poem on the poppy, and selections from Joaquin Miller.

There are practical forms for business and social correspondence. There is a letter from Professor Kleeberger's child, in Wisconsin, to Clyde Ennis, the son of Deputy Superintendent of Schools Ennis, of Los Angeles, which are good specimens of vertical penmanship, and also illustrate lesson on climatology.

The book therefore has many unique features. It is a creditable addition to the school literature of California. The advantages claimed for the system are as follows:

1st. It is based strictly upon the actual demands of the school-room.

2d. It was evolved from a study of detail of nearly all published vertical systems in the hands of experienced teachers.

3d. The simplicity of all letter forms; the reducing of all capitals and all the small letters of more than one space to the uniform height of two spaces; bringing the small "s" and "r" to the same height as all the other one-space letters, -all conduce to ease and rapidity in learning to write. Vertical lines are shorter than slant lines, and to untrained hands are more natural lines.

4th. It is the only system that gives due prominence to capitals from the beginning. The child is at once ready for his first written sentence, and is prepared to write his name.

5th. The copies at once attract and interest the child. Letters by themselves are meaningless, arbitrary symbols; words are real, and sentences are thoughts.

6th. The selections, with correct capitalization, punctuation, and literary and scientific merit, correlate with language and science work. This will be appreciated by all progressive teachers.

We are indebted to Superintendent Charles Eldred Sheldon, of Burlington, Iowa, for the following:

A little five-year-old Californian, who has both a grandmamma and a great-grandmamma, lately made a great discovery, which he proceeded to announce as follows. It was in the early evening.

READING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

BY FRED M. CAMPBELL, EX-STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

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OMEBODY has said, and well said, "Teach a boy to read and give him a taste for good reading, and you have educated him." It has long been recognized by educational people that, in addition to the studying, as such, which pupils should do, they should also be encouraged and stimulated, and, indeed, required, to do a good deal of reading.

It was to this end that John Swett, when, as State Superintendent of Public Instruction more than a third of a century ago, he formulated and gave to California the best school law, by all odds, which any State in the Union ever had, embodied in said law a provision making compulsory the establishment and maintenance of a school library in every school district, and setting aside a certain percentage of school money for that purpose.

That this provision, however well designed, has fallen very far short of securing the desired result, is too well. known to require statement here.

Nor is the whole cause of failure to be found in the raids which have been so successfully made upon this fund by the agents of school supply houses, and its consequent squandering, in large part, for all kinds of ingenious, elaborate, and expensive appliances, high-priced encyclopedias, voluminous dictionaries, bulky compendiums, and storehouses of condensed human knowledge on all conceivable subjects.

two or three hours over his papers, morning and evening, reading from twenty to fifty different items on as many different subjects, and what is the result? He has passed the items before his eyes in a half-mechanical way; the ideas, if there are any in the items, have passed vaguely through his mind; but there has been left no residuumthere has resulted no clear, definite information, no intellectual vigor, no strengthening of mental fibre. On the contrary, the results are mental lassitude and the consequent weakening of the power of concentration. And this is just as naturally the result of mental dissipation as physical weakness and general demoralization is the result of physi cal dissipation; and desultory and promiscuous reading, as has been said, is mental dissipation, no matter what the amount; indeed, the greater the amount of such reading the greater the dissipation.

Another evil effect of such reading is the serious impairment of the memory. It may be put down as axiomatic, that whatever reading is done carelessly, aimlessly, and to be forgotten, by just so much inevitably saps the power and strength of memory. For confirmation of this statement, I shall simply invite all thoughtful adult readers of this article to apply honestly to it the test of their individual experiences.

Education and development are no more the resultants of the amount alone which the person reads, than are physical health and vigor the results solely of the quantity one eats. Quality, regularity, time, judiciously selected and wisely limited variety, skillful preparation, proper mastication, good digestion, ready assimilation, are all quite important factors in this matter of food and eating-and the parallel holds good in reading.

Thomas Carlyle once said, in a letter written to hist

The list of authorized library books in the manuals of county boards, from which trustees may make selections, is so large, and covers so wide a range of subjects, that even in those districts (if any can be found) in which the fund has been scrupulously guarded, and the effort has been made. continuously during all these years, and equally by each succeeding Board of School Trustees to expend it judiciously, the library will be found to be very far from what it should be. But even if no fault can be found with the library itself, still its promiscuous and injudicious use by pupils fails to secure the desired results. And this it does because the reading is desultory; and the effect of promiscuous and desultory reading, so far from yielding mental growth, development, and acquisition of valuable and available information, is mental dissipation.

"I can assure you, on very good experience, it is far less important to a man that he read many books, than that he read a few well, and with his whole mind awake to them. This is indisputably certain. A very small lot of books will serve to nourish a man's mind, if he handles them well; and I have known innumerable people whose minds have all gone to ruin by reading carelessly too many books.”

There is a g od deal in the old saying: "Beware of the man of one book." He has secured something definite, tangible, and available, from his reading. He, at least, knows and remembers all he has read. He has wasted no time and dissipated no power over a mass of other reading. He has done much thinking over his meager reading. He has drawn large intellectual dividends from his small investment.

The foregoing very imperfectly and crudely suggests, rather than states, the reasons why so much thought and effort are now being given by Superintendents and Boards of Education to this matter of reading. And certainly nothing could be more important. The effort for improvement and for better results is finding expression in the provision for "Supplementary Reading," and in all the new courses of

study now in careful preparation in the several counties and cities of this State, definite provisions and requirements therefor will undoubtedly appear.

It must be distinctly remembered, however, in this connection, that names merely count for nothing; and unless care be taken, and the object to be attained be kept steadily and clearly in mind, the evils complained of will not be corrected, but will continue only under another name. If, for instance, under the head of "Supplemental Reading," a large catalogue of books be given from which trustees and teachers may make selections, and such list be augmented, by request, at each meeting of the county or city board, as heretofore, what advantage has been gained over present conditions?

Let it be repeated, trite as it is, and be constantly borne in mind, that for any, but especially for the young, reading, to be effective and to yield the fullest and best results, must be with a definite purpose and an end.

In providing for "Supplemental Reading," a very definite aim and purpose, therefore, must be kept steadily in viewthe aim and the purpose, namely, of providing a thoroughly graded, definite, progressive, and wisely limited course of reading along certain fired lines, from the first year up to and through the ninth year of the school course. And, such a course having been established and published, it should then be rigidly insisted that it be followed and completed in every school in the jurisdiction. The result will be that pupils completing the course will derive more of real profit

therefrom, than from all the rest of their course combined. The inspiration and momentum they will have acquired along certain lines of reading will carry them on after they leave school, and they will be the happier and the wiser for it the longer they shall live.

I herewith present a schedule, or tabulated form, embodying my idea. The table is self-explanatory; and I am sure it will be readily recognized and acknowledged as the most graphic form in which such a course could possibly be presented, showing the whole thing at a glance, and more clearly than could be done in pages of printed matter.

The books named in such a scheme should be provided out of the library fund, and should be the property of the school. They should be purchased in sets of 5, 10, 20, or 50, according to the size of the grade, classes, or of the school. In district schools, composed largely of primary pupils, a larger number of books for those grades should be provided than for the advanced grades. Additions to the sets can be made from time to time, to meet the varying conditions, until the school is fully equipped in all grades.

One thing more. It is clear to me that in providing reading supplemental to the regular prescribed series (in this case the State series), it is not the part of wisdom to prescribe other sets of readers. All sets of readers are alike; that is to say, they are all built on the same general plan; all contain short selections, are "snatchy." Some, it is true, are better than others, but they are all too nearly alike to meet the requirements of " Supplemental Reading."