is to be happiest and most successful. Play gives mastery of only the simpler processes of living; the fundamental requisites are certainly gained in this way, but everything finer and more subtle and complicated comes only by diligent application, and that not voluntary and spontaneous in the start at any rate. Growth in the higher reaches is secured only by struggling; the tendency is to stop on the lower plane of development, where the fundamental instinctive activities suffice to keep body and soul together, and there must be constant pressure brought to bear upon the learner of life's ways to get him to ascend to the point which the race has reached in social, and intellectual, and ethical, and even physical living The boy will not undirected, unaided, and unforced equip himself for the duties and privileges of life in civilized society by making his own the insight, and power, and skill, and control which history, literature, science and mathematics give; other and simpler things will appeal to him too immediately and seductively. And what then is the doctrine? Youth climbs the mountain of life most naturally and in a sense most effectively by play, but the topmost point can be reached only by work; what is the golden mean? There is seen to be a harmonizing principle, when it recognizes that work becomes most effective when one has an end in view to attain by his efforts. If there is nothing but a blank wall ahead of him, his life will be miserable indeed. Work must always have a clear goal in sight toward which it tends, and this must be worth reaching. Mere drudgery for the sake of discipline alone disintegrates personality; kills initiation and spontaniety; the activities it produces are always the results of force imposed from without Drudgery which is not tributary to some useful end does not stir the inner life to noble impulses, it does not result in that organization of the being where all works together in harmony. And youth is the time of all others when things that receive any consideration must have a life relation; they must help to solve some of the problems that confronta mind coming up rapidly to the meaning and responsibilities of existence-problems of a social, and ethical, an intellectual, and a physical character. Anything which promises to be a guide to youth through the unknown country which it is entering will be mastered, no matter what effort is required to attain it. And herein lies the possibility of making work effective, of leading the adolescent boy and girl to apply themselves to tasks that are hard, and in themselves uninteresting and unattractive, but they lead somewhere. If the history and literature of the high school are made to illumine the dark places of the pupil's every day life; if the geometry gives his mind poise and stability in the midst of phenomena which would otherwise be distracting and unsettling: if the physics be made to interpret the real world of forces acting in the pupil's environment; if grammar be made wholly tributary to the right use of language in the every day needs of a student; in short, if the school leads the student to see the significance of the work that must be done for successful living, then it loses its aspect of drudgery, and the pupil will put forth his strength upon it, as he does so freely expend himself on his baseball, or his billiards, or his novels, and on other things which touch his life. One need have no fears in saying that a youth can not be led into participation in the highest life of the race without tremendous effort on his part; modern life is altogether too complex, too involved, to be mastered in a free and easy way. The youth who will not strain himself, who will not gird up his loins to do battle with ignorance and sensuality, will forever forfeit the happiness which comes from a broad, deep knowledge of the world, and a consciousness of a mastery over it. But the end of effort, of struggle, must always be the comprehension and conquest of one's self and the world to which he is related, and the youth must be made to see his progress toward this end in his work, when all the powers of his being will become co ordinated in the effort to attain it. WHAT THEY SAY. John A. Stewart.-In the grammar of life the great verbs are To Be and To Do. Florida School Exponent.-A pessimist is an egotist who foolishly imagines the sun sets every time he shuts his eyes. Matthew Arnold.-Not a having and a resting. but a growing and a becoming, is the character of perfection, as culture conceives it. Dr. Alice B. Stockham.-In the children you have a storehouse of untrained power, tremendous energy demanding ways and means for expenditure. Henry Sabin, Iowa.-There is actually some danger that the teacher will know too much. Better draw water from one clear, living spring than from a hundred shallow ponds. Superintendent J. J. Allison, Joliet, Ill. — Manual training and domestic and industrial science will intensify the interest in the common school studies, and make the pupils effective in their use. Robert J. Aley. - Good, old-fashioned counting should be dignified in our schools. It is correct from the arithmetical standpoint, and it seems to fit admirably to the mental condition of the child. Frederic Allison Tupper, Boston - Selfsacrificing service can never go out of fashion, for it is above and beyond fashion. Rules Governing the Recommendation of Teachers, Chico State Normal School. In the belief that the old time general recommendation which it has been the custom for members of Normal School faculties to indite and to address "To Whom It May Concern," or "To Any Board of Education," are very generally valueless, the faculty of the California State Normal School at Chico have passed the following regulations by which to be guided in the future in assisting their graduates to secure positions. In adhering to them it is their purpose to avoid the stereotyped and formal statements which ordinarily get into such recommendations and to substitute letters which shall discuss each candidate upon his individual merits. It is the purpose to make each individual picture thoroly honest and specific, and exact in details, a revelation not only of scholastic and professional acquirements, but of living personality and of social and business qualities especially as revealed in the life of the student during his connection with the institution. It is impossible that all graduates should have equal merits in all respects. It is just from the point of view both of school trustees and of teachers themselves that they be understood and employed strictly upon the basis of individual merit. Any thing that can be done to further this end should be done. PLAN FOR RECOMMENDING STUDENTS. 1. The faculty jointly shall make out a recommendation for each student about to gradu ate. 2. While it is to be kept in mind that a recommendation is to help someone to a position, the decidedly weak points in the individual are not necessarily to be omitted. 3. Any special work, whether in school or in student affairs, as athletics, debates, Normal Record work, and all other recognized student enterprises, as well as excellent work in school in addition to ordinary school work, may be mentioned. 4. At some time to be agreed upon later, each teacher shall hand to the President in writing, anything he or she desires said of each individual to be recommended. 5. This material shall be put into the hands of a committee of three (of which the President of the school shall be one) to be put into proper form; later it is to be submitted to the faculty for its approval. 6. After the adoption of this or some similar plan of general recommendation, no teacher shall give a general letter of recommendation to any person who may be graduated from this time on. 7. However, it shall be mentioned in the recommendation that school officers or other persons interested (but not the person recommended) are urged to apply freely to the President or teachers for information regarding the fitness of any candidate for a position. 8. Also it shall be understood that any teacher may on his own motion or on request for an applicant for a position, write a personal letter of recommendation to any school officer, provided that the faculty letter of recommendation be mentioned in said letter. 9. This faculty will not support applicants for positions who have been known to make political favoritism, rather than professional fitness, their reliance in securing positions. 10. So far as possible, Sections 6, 7, 8, and 9 shall apply to those graduating before their Concert Company MISS GRETCHEN BERNETT ... Contralto.. Assisted by Geo. L. Kronmiller, Baritone Julius A. Haug, Solo Violinist Mabel Richardson, Humorous Interpretations En route through Southern States. JOAQUIN MILLER, Poet of the Sierras HON FRANK J. BROWNE, In his Shakespearian Lectures and HARR WAGNER, In his slightly humor. talks on Uncle Sam Jr. and New Columbia. HERBERT BASHFORD in Original Readings, from "Songs of Puget Sea, Forest, Rangers, etc." .. ... Assisted by WINIFRED JUNE MORGAN Violin Soloist, Leader of Stanford University Orchestra for two years. Available for Dates in California. The Modern Lyceum Bureau 723 Market Street, San Francisco. E. W. JAKOBS. Syllabus of School Management. Based on Arnold LOUIS S. STONE, ARCHITECT Tompkins' Philosophy of School Management. FLOOD BUILDING, Room 62 San Francisco, Cal. Jr. University, California. Ready in September. SCHOOL BUILDINGS A SPECIALTY This Syllabus, which was first used with a class of university students and afterwards extensively used by county superintendents of schools in California, is a topically-arranged, suggestive outline of the Philosophy of School Management by Dr. Arnold Tompkins. City, county, and state superin. tendents find the Philosophy of School Management a valuable book to use in directing the professional reading of teachers, and it is believed that this Syllabus will be of material assistance, as it will afford a basis for study and discussion and will enable superintendents to direct and unify the work more easily and thoroly than could be done without such an aid. At the end of each section of the Syllabus a number of questions for discussion are given. Ginn & Company, Publishers. Wholesale Dealers in chool Books : School Supplies chool Stationer and Pacific Coast Depository for the Educa- School of Practical, Mining, Civil, Mechanical tional Publications of Messrs. Ginn &Co., Electrical Engineering, Metallurgy, Cyanide Process, etc. Surveying, Architecture, Drawing and Assaving. (Incorporated) 113 Fulton St., one block West of City Hall. Assaying of Ores, 825; Bullion and Chlorination Assay; $25; Blowpipe Assay, 810; Full Course of Assaying, 850, Prospector's Course, $15. Established 1864. Open all year. Send for Catalog. Adjustable School Desks Library Globes, All sizes. High School Adjustable Desk and Chair Useful Holiday Gifts CHILDRENS' DESKS AND CHAIRS FOR HOME USE. Also at Send for Catalog North West School Furniture Co. 291 Yamhill Street, PORTLAND, Or. CONTINENTAL Building and Loan Association |