Holstein cattle are to be seen over there. Melting snows from the highest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains afford abundant and perpetual water which is extensively used for irrigation purposes. The east and west forks.of the Walker River, both large streams, and the Carson River are crossed in going from Markleeville to Bridgeport, and the journey along the valleys thru which they flow is a constant delight. These streams abound in mountain trout and white fish, and sportsmen and camping parties are frequently met with during the summer and fall seasons. Wild flowers line the roadsides. Wild rose bushes were seen on every hand, and in spring and early summer doubtless one could hardly find in the State more delightful long drives than thru these fertile valleys of Mono County. The fall season is not without pleasing attractions; goldenrod and asters are profuse; ripe wild cherries, bright red choke berries, and nuts upon the hazel bushes may be gathered in numerous places.

Bodie is a live mining town of about six hundred souls. The miners are a very intelligent class. They get four dollars a day for ten hour's work. They come out of the mines when their shift is done, demand the choicest beefsteaks from the butchers, don natty suits, read books, magazines, and the newspapers, and are posted and able to discuss most intelligently politics and all other topics of the day.

The teachers and the school children at Bridgeport and Bodie, tho far from the educational centers of California, from fifty to eighty miles from the nearest railroad, seem by their work to be closely related to the rest of the State in the cause of public education.

In addition to performing the duties of County Superintendent, Miss Cornelia Richards was for seven years principal of the school at Bodie. At the beginning of the present school year Mr. R. J. Sinnott, formerly of Sierra County, assumed the duties of principal and at the time of the State Superintendent's visit he appeared to have the school well in hand. Miss Richards took the summer course at Berkeley this year and is ambitious to climb loftier educational heights.

The trip of nine days' duration and four hundred miles of travel by team to these two mountain counties will not soon be forgotten by either of the two State officials. There were a few accidents and some slight unpleasant experiences; for instance, a breakdown of buggy, a sick horse, a sick State Superintendent, details of which may not be given; but, all in all, the trip was a most pleasant and satisfactory one.

Teachers and school trustees that were met expressed an interest in and an appreciation of the WESTERN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

DISTRICT SCHOOL TAX

Elections for district school tax can only be called between the first day of January and the fifteenth day of August in any year; this by the provision of Section 1830 of the Political Code.

An election for voting school district bonds may be called at any time. The Board of Trustees of a school district may call a school bond election when in their judgment it is advisable, and must call such election upon presentation of a petition signed by a majority of the heads of families residing in the district.

SCHOOL SESSIONS

The hours for opening and closing school, intermissions for noon and recess are matters that may be determined and fixed by the local boards of school trustees or boards of education. Where the board has taken no action definitely determining these matters, then the school must be governed by Section 2 of the Rules and Regulations adopted by the State Board of Education. In general these are that the daily school session shall open at 9 a. m., and close at 4 p. m., with an intermission of one hour at noon, and a recess of twenty minutes in the forenoon, from 10:40 to 11, and a recess of twenty minutes in the afternoon, from 2:40 to 3 o'clock.

NO SCHOOL ON SATURDAYS

Section 1679 defines a school month to be twenty school days, or four weeks of five school days each. Therefore, under the law it is not contemplated that schools shall be in session on Saturdays. The school registers and all school reports are arranged for records to be made for the days of the week beginning on Monday and ending on Friday. Furthermore, there is a large class of people to whom Saturday is counted the same as Sunday, and it is against the spirit and the intent of the American public school system to override this long established custom of having the public schools closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

COURSE OF STUDY FOR HIGH SCHOOLS

The provision contained in subdivision 12 of Section 1670 relating to the course of study for high schools, in that it shall be such as to prepare graduates for admission to the State University, is considered to be directory rather than mandatory. There is no University authority to whom the course of study for a high school is to be submitted for approval. The State University is the last link in the chain of the State educational system, and the completion of the high school course is presumed to fit for admission to it, but the high schools are and of right should be established and maintained for their own sake, more particularly for the sake of the boys and girls that attend them. Entrance to the University is incidental to the purpose for which the people by vote tax themselves to support high schools. The relation between the high schools and the State University is annually becoming better understood and more harmonious. There is no room or reason for conflict in scope or purpose of each.

THOMAS J. KIRK,

Superintendent of Public Instruction.

PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.

THE WESTERN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION succeeds
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Subscription, $1.50 a year. Single copies, 15 cents.
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Address all communications to THE WESTERN JOURNAL
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THE WHITAKER & RAY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. Entered at the San Francisco Post-office as second-class matter.

The Official Organ of the Department of Public Instruction of the State of California.

President Roosevelt paused for a moment to turn aside from questions of statecraft to praise Charles Wagner's book, "The Simple Life." The book has had a tremendous success. It has made thousands

The Simple Life pause as they read: "The spirit of simplicity is a great magician. It softens asperities, bridges chasms, draws together hands and hearts. The forms which it takes in the world are infinite in number; but never does it seem to us more admirable than when it shows itself across the fatal barriers of position, interest, or prejudice, overcoming the greatest obstacles, permitting those whom everything seems to separate to understand one another, love one another. This is the true social cement, that goes into the building of the people."

This has the right ring. It should stir the pulsations of the heart of those who feel the grip of artificial life. Great is the man who is simple, yet not a simpleton. Every public school, every normal school, every university should drive home the lesson of simplicity. The discipline of a school should be characterized by an avoidance of artificial methods. The building of character should be on the basis of the simple, natural life. Strength, strength in life in its nearness to nature. There must be abhorrence of those methods which give the child false strength by artificial The teacher who is constantly using artificial incentives in discipline and in study is hurting the child.

means

Yesterday we received from Indiana a letter asking that we write an editorial in praise of punctuality buttons, gold stars for merit, and a lot more public school tomfoolery. Today we read that the women of the California Club were delighted with a talk on Heraldry. For what? These baubles of artificial life are a menace to modern civilization. The artificial life has created all kinds of excesses. First, the multiplying of books. The beautiful, artistic supplementary readers have given the children such a stimulus that mental dissipation is the result, and a child reads a book as a man reads a modern daily newspaper-and discards it after breakfast as waste paper. It is. The simple life would give to the child a few books-so few that they would be treasures and teachers.

The artificial life has led to the introduction of all kinds of complications

:

in school discipline. The military rule, the Henry George Jr. Republic, the roll of honor, the gold star of merit, and devices without number. The simple life requires none of these things. The artificial life has led to the introduction of luxurious velvet carpets, the sponge sofa, the cushioned dining-room chair, the luxury of furnishings that degenerates the physical, and the French dinner with debilitating wines. The simple life requires none of these things. The artificial life requires the mansion with its servants for every service. And, as a result, people are helped into being helpless.

The simple life does not demand that we return to the campfires nor huts of our ancestors. It does not demand that we endure hardship of the hermit. It does not demand that we yield any of the sweet amenities of the life of today. It does demand, however, that in the furnishing of your abiding place, in the care of and feeding of your body, in education, in social intercourse, there be a nearer approach to that which is plain, simple, healthy, brotherly, and to that which gives moral and spiritual power.

The man who devotes himself to his family, who votes for the best man, who pays his debts, and leads a decent life, is a good citizen. But what of it? The man should have ideals. There is mediocrity in goodness as well as in poetry. The man who builds, who creates, is the good citizen. Poe was often in the condition that he did not know one lamp post from another, but he was a good citizen. He was not an ideal citizen like Lowell or Longfellow, but Poe's ideals were great. Good citizenship demands more than negative qualities, more than mediocre goodness. Every boy and girl should have great ideals.

There should be a decided and effective attempt to increase the salaries of men and women engaged in the work of supervision and teaching. There has been no general increase. Here and there an incidental raise in salary has been made. Prosperous counties like Santa Clara and prosperous cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles have not made a general increase. Now, if ever, this should be done. Superintendents get smaller salaries as a rule than sheriffs. Teachers are paid less than policemen. Why? The time has come for an effective federation of teachers, and a united demand for wages commensurate with the high quality of the work required. If teachers do not get an increase now when there is an increase in values on everything, there will not be much hope from it, when times are less prosperous.

***

Teachers owe it to themselves to read one or more journals devoted to the work of teaching. A book on pedagogy will not have the influence on the professional spirit of a teacher that a journal which knocks at the door of your professional life once a week or once a month. Subscribe for some good educational journal. Keep it near you. Read it for suggestions, ideas, and practical hints.

MEETINGS

INSTITUTES

NOTES