THE CALIFORNIA TEACHERS' ASSOCIA

TION

C. L. McLane of Fresno was chosen president of the California Council of Education at the meeting of that organization held in Chico November 28. Wm. H. Mackay of Chico was named vice-president, L. E. Armstrong of San Francisco was re-elected secretary, but under the plea of stress of business resigned in favor of James A. Barr of Stockton. The following were chosen as directors: A. F. Lange, Berkeley; C. McLane, Fresno; Duncan McKinnon, San Diego; J. A. Cranston, Santa Ana; Noel H. Carrison,

Merced; Agnes E. Howe, San Jose; E. Morris Cox, Oakland; William Mackay, Chico; Mark Keppel, Los Angeles.

At the session yesterday tentative reports were made by several committees, appointed at the last session of the organization at Los Angeles. None of the reports were finally accepted, and the work of the committees is to be extended until the next semi-annual meeting of the council in April, 1912.

Among the educators of the State who were present were the following: Alfred Roncovieri, superintendent San Francisco county schools; Oliver P. Jenkins, Stanford; D. R. Jones, San Francisco; James A. Barr, Stockton; Alex F. Lange, Berkeley; M. E. Dailey, San Jose; Clara M. Partridge, Berkeley; J. W. Linscott, Santa Cruz; Minnie Coulter, Santa Rosa; William Wood, Alameda; A. J. Cloud, San Francisco; A. M. Simons, Laruise; Craig Cunningham, Madera; H. H. Crutcheon, Long Beach; Ora Lovejoy, Los Angeles; A. S. McPherson, San Francisco; Lulu E. White, Redding; Delia D. Fish, Red Bluff; O. W. Erlewine, Sacramento; Miss Agnes E. Howe, San Jose; Hugh J. Baldwin.

PRESIDENT JUDSON ATTENDS INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT VINCENT Among the forty-four presidents and chancellors of American universities and colleges who attended the inauguration of George E. Vincent as president of the University of Minnesota, was President Harry Pratt Judson, of the University of Chicago. The significance of President Judson's presence at Dr. Vincent's installation lay in the fact that the latter was formerly Dean of the Faculties of Arts, Literature, and Science, under President Judson at the University of Chicago. President Judson was one of the four speakers at the exercises preceding the inauguration of the new president, the subject of his address being "The Idea of Research."

JOSEPH PULITZER

An intimate sketch of the late Joseph Pulitzer is given by William Inglis in the current issue of Harper's Weekly. "Above all else in his mind stood the welfare of the great newspaper he had created, into which he incessantly poured every atom of power in his brain and heart. He was a prodigy of force, yet with a myriad antennae that seemed to touch every part of the world and all the affairs of men. In his presence one felt himself to be near a dynamo of incalculable strength coupled with incredible delicacy of action. And one felt that the vast energy in the man had somehow got beyond his control and was burning him up-as indeed it did, and brought him to his end long before he should have gone."

The Health Index of Children

BY

Dr. Ernest Bryant Hoag

has been adopted by the Teachers' Reading Circles of Virginia and Alabama. In California it has been adopted very generally by the County Boards of Education. Price 80c net, postpaid.

Whitaker & Ray-Wiggin Co.

SAN FRANCISCO

Something DEFINITE for the

Teacher of Agriculture

Something Widely Used in California Schools "One Hundred Experiments in Elementary

Agriculture for California Schools," Third Thousand, 44 pp. with notes, 25 cents per copy.

"Course in Nature-Study and Agriculture for the Elementary Schools of California," Second Edition, 10 cents per copy. Special Rates for Larger Quantities Note the Change in Price

Riley O. Johnson

State Normal School, Chico, Cal.

Five Little Song Pictures

A Collection of Children's Songs. Price 50c.

Leila France, composer of "The Old Flag Forever," has written the music for The Sandman, The Moon is a Lady, Seven Times One, The Honey Bee and Christmas Carol, and Elizabeth McDermott has illustrated the same. The songs are dedicated to the school children of California. Have your School Board order copies for you. Price, 50 cents for book. Address

Elite Publishing Co.

Los Altos, California

Note "Old Flag Forever," a good patriotic song for schools, 1 cent per copy in lots of not less than 25. Send stamps.

FROM EAST TO WEST

What three men, each successful in his line of work, from three different sections of the country, have to say of Ritchie's Primer of Sanitation :

Clarence H. Dempsey, Superintendent of Schools, Malden, Massachusetts: I examined Ritchie's Primer of Sanitation with pleasure and interest. It is one of the best and most practical books of the kind I have seen, and is written on sensible lines.

Reverend Francis Reilly, Professor of Biology, St. Ignatius College, Chicago: Primer of Sanitation is opportune. Its treatment of this important subject is consistent throughout and convincing. The direct result of acquaintance with this work, owing in great part to its concreteness in illustration, incident, and statistics, must be to enlist the student's co-operation in the cause of general health. Until this is accomplished in the case of the individual student, we cannot look for effective sanitation.

F. B. Pickel, M. D., Oregon State Board of Health, Medford, Oregon: Ritchie's Primer of Sanitation should be used as a textbook in every public school in the United States.

Chicago

Manila

Los Angeles County News

The Elizabeth Lake, Fairmont, Santa Fe Avenue and Huntington Park high schools, of Los Angeles County, have been burned during the school year. Fairmont school has been replaced with a concrete building; and frame buildings are being erected to replace the Elizabeth Lake and Santa Fe Avenue schools. The Huntington Park high school will be replaced with a fireproof building. The hundred and fifty pupils enrolled in the Huntington Park high school are now housed in the gymnasium, and in tents.

Superintendent Keppel organized five new districts, in October. The districts are named, Alpine, Hansen Heights, New Era, Palomar and Van Nuys.

Van Nuys is a district whose future seems exceedingly bright. It embraces all of the 47,000 acres of land formerly known as the "Van Nuys Rancho" and also 3,000 acres of land known as the "Rancho el Escorpion." This immense area of land has been subdivided and is being sold in tracts of from 5 to 40 acres, to actual setlers. Three new towns have been located in the tract; a boulevard costing more than a half million dollars, and sixteen miles in length, is hearly finished; and an electric road, running through the tract from east to west, for a distance of nearly twenty miles is rapidly nearing completion. At the present time there are one hundred and fifty children of school age in the district, where a year ago there were not more than six or seven children. Undoubtedly, a year hence, the district will be compelled to establish a high school. Those who have it in charge are planning to vote bonds, and build three splendid fireproof school houses-one in each of the newly located towns.

Bell School District dedicated its new, handsome, commodious eight-room school house on September 28, 1911. Superintendent Keppel made the dedicatory address, and former pupils of the school furnished a delightful musical program. This eight-room school cost but $12,000 to erect, all finished and furnished complete.

Watts City District is now using its elegant, new, twelve-room brick school house; the old school building was cut up into two portions; two rooms were used for shower baths and toilet purposes, and the remainder of the building was made into a combination auditorium, kitchen and grandstand. The grandstand faces north and can accomodate six hundred people. About six hundred can be seated in the auditorium, and the kitchen is capable of supplying two hundred people with meals at one time. The school ground covers four acres, and a diamond has been laid out directly north of the grandstand.

At the close of the school year 2,662 teachers were employed in the schools of the city and county. The number employed at the present time is approximately 2,650.

The Bohnett Attendance Law-found in Section 1696 of the Code-whereby each pupils's attendance is credited to the district in which the pupil resides rather where he attends school, is a source of much trouble in Los Angeles County. One consequence of it is the changing of the boundaries of about forty school districts. The Los Angeles County Institutę will be held December 18-22, 1911, at Los Angeles. In this institute Los Angeles city, Pasadena city, Los Angeles County, Long Beach city, and also Santa Ana city, and Orange County participate. The Southern California Teachers' Association will occupy the last two days of the session. It is planned to have a school exhibit that will show the progress in industrial education in Los Angeles city and county. The principal speakers will be Dr. E. C. Moore, President, G. P. Benton, Sara Louise Arnold and Miss Patty S. Hill.

MEETINGS

The California Teachers' Association, Agnes Howe, San Jose, Cal., President; A. J. Cloud, San Francisco, Cal., Secretary. Meeting Stockton 26th, 27th, 28th, 29.

Central California Teachers' Association, E. W. Lindsay, President, Fresno; Margaret Hanson, Secretary, Visalia. Northern California Teachers' Association, H. M. Chaney, President, Redding, Cal.; Naomi Baker, Secretary, Red Bluff. Meeting, Sacramento.

Southern California Teachers' Association, J. H. Francis, President, Los Angeles; Mark Keppel, Secretary, Los Angeles.

California Council of Education, C. L. McLane, Fresno, President; James A. Barr, Stockton, Cal., Secretary.

Superintendent of Schools Will C. Wood of Alameda, and Supt. F. F. Bunker of Berkeley, conferred November 10 on the plan to fix the summer vacation in the schools of the three cities for July and August, instead of June and July, as at present. The superintendents believe that since August is a warm month, it would be to the advantage of the pupils to be at leisure then. The matter will be taken up by the boards of education of the three cities.

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Duncan Stirling, formerly superintendent of Monterey county, is now teaching in the high school at Gonzales, Monterey county.

* * *

G. W. Moore of Colusa was elected chairman of the Northern California School Trustees' Club which met at Chico, October 26.

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Miss Anna Wiebalk of the San Francisco State Normal School addressed the Juvenile Court on "Story Telling."

*

C. A. Stebbins and Edward Hyatt are running a series of articles on agriculture in the public schools in the Town and Country Journal.

* *

At Seventh-street school, Los Angeles, instruction is given in poultry culture, which the children take home and apply. Many of them come to school bringing their tiny chicks and ducklings in their little hot hands, to show proudly to their teachers, and several have made considerable money from the sale of eggs. Last year Edith Sugg, an eighth grade pupil who is now in the high school, clothed herself and paid for her music and painting lessons from her poultry income, and hers is not a solitary case. Mrs. George E. Larkey is the moving spirit in this work, and considers this wholesome outdoor employment of inestimable value to the children.

* * *

Allison Ware of the Chico State Normal School, was one of the principal speakers before the Marin county institute.

* *

Allison Ware had a fine article in the Sacramento Bee November 11, "An Undeveloped Resource-the Rural School."

The Sacramento Board of Education will hold a competitive examination for teachers for substitute list on December 18.

C. C. Boynton

The Contra Costa school trustees have organized to purchase supplies by the wholesale. Thirty-two districts have signed an agreement, and have given contract to H. S. Crocker & Co.

* * *

The election of the Board of Education at the recent primary in Los Angeles stirred up more than an usual amount of political activity. Political coercion was charged against the teachers. It was also claimed that they were assessed for political purposes. This was unfortunate for the schools. In San Francisco where tenure of position and an appointive board is a part of the system political activity on the part of teachers is not indulged in. It is unfortunate that Superintendent Francis has to have his valuable time taken up by trying to stop political activity in the election of his Board of Education.

PACIFIC TEACHERS' 13th year.

717 Market St., San Francisco

AGENCY

A regular organization has been formed in Eureka for the purpose of having the State establish a Normal School at that place.

* * *

Superintendent Baterman of Santa Clara county is arranging an excellent program for his institute November 28 and 29.

* * *

The Board of Education of Pasadena reports that the portable school houses used in that city are a great success.

Men teachers of Alameda county organized for the "mutual discussion of school problems, the protection by united effort of the interests of the schools of this county and of ourselves, and general social intercourse," as adopted in a resolution, at a meeting, November 20. One hundred and twenty men teachers were present and P. M. Fisher of the Manual Training and Commercial High School was elected president. H. D. Brasfield, Fremont High, was chosen vicepresident, and S. E. Coleman, Oakland High, was elected secretary.

G. W. Wright of Centerville High and C. L. Biedbach of McKinley school, Berkeley, were appointed members of the executive committee to serve with President Fisher."

"Education Reforms and the Social Movement" was the subject of an address delivered before the gathering by Mayor J. Stitt Wilson of Berkeley.

Winslow's

Geography

Readers

1. Last year's best sellers; a most popular series of Supplementary Readers.

2. A valuable side-light on the State Geographies, in which the story is told in a very interesting and readable manner.

3. The 750 illustrations-well executed half-tones of real scenery, industries, and people-add much to the interest.

4. The maps, which are numerous, are clear, distinct, and modern.

5. The industrial and commercial features of the subject are given most emphasis. 6. Don't fail to get a Set for your school.

Book Notes

Dr. Wiley and his campaign against food adulteration are awakening the American people to an attitude of alert watchfulness over what they eat. Both consumer and merchants are beginning to display an intelligent desire to know for themselves, what constitutes purity, and how to detect its adulteration. The latest and simplest treatise on the subject is a very readable little book by Professor John C. Olsen of the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. The name is "Pure Foods, Their Adulteration and Cost," and it is published by Ginn and Company. Here one learns the elements which make up the common foods, how the foods are produced and prepared, how preserved, how flavored and colored, simple experiments for testing the genuineness or purity of manufactured food articles-in fact, all the necessary everyday knowledge required on this point in ordinary domestic or mercantile life.

Among the Americans who attended the Congress of Races in London this summer was Paul S. Reinisch, Professor of Political Science in the University of Wisconsin and author of international reputation. Professor Reinisch's latest book, "American State Government" has only recently been published. For ready reference no volume has yet appeared to surpass this in its convenience for the student or general reader of state economics. As in his previous book on "American Federal Government," the author has here gathered together the best of the documentary material, including speeches, state papers, etc., which can be found to enhance the interest and clarify the understanding of this field. Both volumes are published by Ginn and Company.

Muzzey's "American History," which has just come from the press of Ginn and Company, finds a niche already waiting for it. The lack of an elementary American history, clearly and logically written, and designed to appeal to students of high school or early college age has been all too apparent. The remarkably pleasing style, profuse and carefully chosen illustrations, and, more than all, the absence of all detail not necessary to preserve an interesting, continuous and accurate narrative from the standpoint of today, mark the book as unique in its field.

A "Practical Botany" is one of our most recent contributions to everyday science. Professor J. Y. Bergen, the co-author with Dr. Caldwell, whose name is inseparably connected with the botany study of two generations, voices the trend of modern education when he says of this book as compared with other botanies, "It has more about hay and less about mitosis," and indeed, the facts of botany have been so interwoven with accounts of their practical use in agriculture. commerce, and even therapeutics (note the chapters on Pollination, Foresty, Plant Breeding, Plant Industries, and Bacteria) that they at once impress the reader or student with their interest and workable value. The book may be obtained from Ginn and Company, Publishers.

Moliere's "Les Femmes Savantes," edited by Charles A. Eggert, Ph. D., formerly professor of French, Illinois Wesleyan University, cloth, 16mo, 187 pages, with notes and vocabulary, price, 40 cents, American Book Company. In this edition of Moliere's entertaining comedy, the notes give special attention to peculiarities in language and style, and to the explanation of allusions in the text. The vocabulary has been prepared with great care, and is particularly helpful in the interpretation of idioms. The introduction gives a brief account of Moliere and of the Precieuses. The help rendered throughout is such as will enable even young students to read this masterpiece with intelligence and appreciation.

"Hart & Feldman's Plane Geometry," by C. A. Hart, Instructor in Mathematics, Wadleigh High School, New York City, and Daniel D. Feldman, Head of Department of Mathematics, Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn. Cloth. 12mo, 303 pages. Price, 80 cents. American Book Company, New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago. This book is the outgrowth of an experience of many years in the teaching of mathematics in secondary schools. The book in its present form is the combined product of experience, classroom test, and severe criticism. Argument and reason are arranged in the parallel form. Every construction figure contains all necessary construction lines. The mechanical arrangement is such as to give the student every possible aid in comprehending the subject matter.

of child life. The story describes a German officer's inability to show his really devoted love for his two little motherless children, the loss of his eldest son, and the pathetic death of the young survivor. The text is accompanied by the usual explanatory footnotes, exercises for translation and grammatical drill, and a full vocabulary, suitable for second year students.

Houghton Mifflin Company are performing a real service to the schools in issuing in their Riverside Literature Series excellent school editions of some of the best modern fiction. Among their most recent publications of this kind are Cooper's "The Spy," Aldrich's "Story of a Bad Boy," Charles D. Warner's "Being a Boy," and Kate Douglas Wiggin's "Polly Oliver's Problem." They have also in recent years published in the same series Kate Douglas Wiggin's "Finding a Home" and "The Flag-Raising," which are the cream of "Timothy's Quest" and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm." It has been only in recent years that publishers have been willing to make available for school use such choice contemporaneous copyrighted literature.

By Reuben Post Halleck, M. A., Principal, Male High School, Louisville, Kentucky.

$1.25

Hart and Feldman's Plane Geometry.

$0.80

Opinions from People Who Know the Value of a Good Spelling Book

April 25, 1911.

To Whom It May Concern: Power's Graded Speller is the result of the study and class-work of Miss Alice Rose Power, one of the most successful grade teachers in the San Francisco School Department. Therefore it is based not on theory but on practice. This speller has been used here with great success as a supplementary text-book. The words were carefully selected with a nice reference to the ability of children properly graded and to their ordinary, daily use. They are words which should be in the vocabulary of every grammar school graduate. Respectfully submitted, R. H. Webster, Deputy Supt. of Schools.

remember

Men and women who can when it was held an honor to be the best speller in a school, will smile over more than one feature of this speller. The arrangement of words according to vowel and consonant sounds, the review of difficult words at the end of each grade, and, best of all, the dividing of words into syllables will meet with their unqualified approval. After all, to insure correct spelling, is there anything equal to dividing words into syllables? A teacher in San Francisco and an old publishing house in Philadelphia, whose noble motto is "Droit et avant," have joined their efforts to give the school-world this book whose "essential aim is to use the minimum of time of pupil and teacher, and to bring out the maximum of practical results."-School Board Journal.

San Diego, Cal., May 7, 1908.

To Whom It May Concern: This is to certify that I have carefully examined Power's Graded Speller, published by the Lippincott Company. From a mechanical standpoint there is no book on the market that I have seen or heard of, that is so excellently constructed. The paper, type, and general mechanism are a credit to the publisher, while the inductive method of the book in the excellent choice of words, blending into a beautiful union from the first grade to the eighth grade inclusive, is ingratiating and demonstrates the fact that the author is a master of this fine art. Yours very respectfully, Hugh J. Baldwin. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia