RESIDENT EDITOR'S DEPARTMENT.

OUR February number contained a brief article from a successful teacher of much experience, under the caption of "Queries and Notes," to which the writer, who handed his article to us, had not attached his signature, and we, inadvertently, failed to do it. The article, as its title indicates, was rather suggestive than exhaustive, and we, perhaps interpreting those suggestions in the light of what we knew to be his practice, failed to see that they inculcated anything dangerous. We have received, however, a communication which we herewith insert, from a teacher of nearly the same experience, in which the writer expresses the opinion that the advice "about dates" is calculated to do much harm. We agree perfectly with this writer, in his estimate of the value of chronology in the study of history; and we doubt if the author of "Queries and Notes" would differ from us. We supposed when we read his article that he had in mind those teachers that make history, as taught in some schools, little else than a chronological table. We have, ourself, been in a school where the pupils were reciting the "chronological recapitulation" in Anderson's Grammar-school History of the United States. Upon asking the teacher whether she could remember them all, she told us frankly that she could not, adding that she had no faculty for remembering dates. We suppose it was to guard against something of this kind that our correspondent aimed.

We agree, too, with our second correspondent about the "bones of the turkey." They are undoubtedly a great convenience, at least, to the living bird, though we are thankful that we are not called on to masticate and digest them. But we think the illustration a good one. We would have a chronological skeleton on which to hang historical events, but we would urge teachers not to make too much of the bony part. Our own experience in studying and teaching history leads us to the belief that a few of the most important dates, thoroughly fixed in the mind by frequent repetition, is the best groundwork for chronology; and that minor events grouped around these dates, in such a manner as to show their logical sequence, will be most easily retained and made available in this way. The same principle, we think, will apply to the facts of geography. We remember being told by a gentleman whose knowledge of geography was very extensive and accurate, that if he knew more of geography than most people, it was because he had not tried to remember so much. He had fixed a few important points definitely in his mind, and clustered all others, as they came up, around them.

With this brief statement of our own views, and thanking our correspondent for his strictures, we allow him to speak for himself. We hope this article may be as useful as the preceding, in stirring up somebody to a further discussion of methods in teaching history.

DATES.

To the Editor of the “ Teacher."

In the February number of the "Teacher" you ask "what about dates ? " and then proceed to answer the question in a manner which seems to me calculated to do much harm.

I have no desire to enter into a controversy on the subject, nor present myself as the champion of any particular hobby; but my convictions, which are the result of twenty years' observation in the school-room, are directly opposed to your views; and, with your permission, I will state my reasons.

The whole tone of your short paragraph seems to me calculated to encourage the too prevalent tendency to seek a mere smattering of knowledge, which, either for business purposes, scientific investigation, exact reasoning or the speculations of philosophy, is utterly worthless.

You say of dates, "Let them mostly repose in the safe repositories of encyclopædias"; and "there should be no special effort made to remember what your library will keep so nicely"; and again, "the most important (dates) will crawl into the mind of their own accord."

This would be a very popular programme with lazy pupils, and you would probably find none of that class in the Commonwealth who would not endorse it.

It applies equally well to all knowledge.

Why not store your library with standard works on history, geography, philosophy, etc., and fold your arms with the consoling reflection that encyclopædias are safer repositories of knowledge than your children's brains?

There can be no escape from the conclusion, if " no special effort should be made to remember what your library will keep so nicely."

But it seems to me that chronology bears the same relation to history that maps bear to geography.

We teach pupils that history is a record of events arranged in chronological order; and if we teach wisely, we attempt to show them that each event is the logical, or psychological, sequence of others. "History is philosophy teaching by example." Events succeed each other as effect succeeds cause. Now, can a knowledge of past events be anything more than a mere jumble, without a chronological arrangement?

I am, by no means, an advocate of making the teaching of history to consist entirely of memorizing dates. I regard that as only a part of the work. We do not eat the bones of the turkey, but there can be no doubt that the turkey finds the bones very convenient for support and locomotion.

It seems to me that both chronology and geography are essential in teaching history.

A pupil must learn when and where an event took place in order either to retain it or derive any use from its knowledge.

You say you once knew a man who had a genius for remembering dates, but his mind was as dry of all attractive knowledge as a Sahara without an oasis.

Well, what of it? Does that argue anything?

I once knew a very pious man who tried to shoot a squirrel without any lock on his gun, but I never supposed that that argued anything against guns with locks on them, or against good men's shooting squirrels.

Boston, Feb. 24, 1873.

SCHOOL JOURNALISM.

D. B. H.

THERE is no department of periodical literature which has increased more rapidly than this. In fact, it may be said to be the growth of the last quarter of a century, and, in looking over our exchanges, we do not hesitate to say that we are proud of it. We say this, notwithstanding one of our religious journals has recently spoken of it as "pitiable." And why? Because, forsooth, "the same subjects are under discussion now as "last year, or the fifth, tenth, or twentieth year before." Well, sure enough, why do not the teachers' journals grapple with these subjects and settle them at once, as our religious journals have settled the questions concerning the trinity, infant baptism, future punishment, etc., and then, "leaving the things that are behind, press forward" towards a higher mark? Whatever the short-comings of school journalism, and doubtless they are many, we have the satisfaction of knowing that they are due rather to the immaturity of youth than to the dotage of age. Can all the professions say as much of their periodical literature?

Of the journals now before us, taking them as they happen to lie on our table,—and we have them from almost every New-England, Middle, and Western State, and some from Southern States, there is not one that does not contain articles of interest upon subjects that had not been broached twenty years ago, and many of them not half that time. Had the discussions and suggestions contained in them been available when we began teaching, we might have been spared many a blunder, and profited not only by our own experience, but by that of many who were more competent to draw lessons of wisdom from their experience.

With such an array of school journals at command, while we would not advise our Massachusetts teachers to take others in preference to our own, we would advise all our young teachers, and those who propose to teach, to take some of them, in addition to it. It seems hardly worth while to advise our older teachers to do it, for if they are not already alive to the necessity of availing themselves of the best thoughts of educationists throughout our own country, at least, they must be, in Falstaffian phrase, “past praying for."

ANNUAL MEETING, 1873.

NOTHING daunted by their recent snowy experience, the directors of our Teachers' Association have voted to make another trial of Christmas week and Worcester as the time and place for our Annual Meeting. The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday following Christmas are the days selected, and the

exercises will be conducted in general session except during one half-day when the association will be divided into Primary, Grammar, and High School sections, each occupying a separate hall and attending to separate exercises as at the recent meetings at Boston. The President, Secretaries, and Treasurer have been constituted an Executive Committee to prepare the programme and arrange the various details of the meeting, and in order that the exercises may be of the highest interest and benefit, they earnestly invite teachers school committees, superintendents, and all interested, to suggest to them questions for discussion or topics to be considered at the meeting, addressing their communications to the President,— Albert G. Boyden, Bridgewater. With reference to the time, it may be remarked that it is found that Christmas-week is already quite generally a vacation-time in the large places in the State, and that the custom of closing the schools at that season is becoming more general; and it was the opinion of the directors that, if possible, the meeting should occur when the schools are not in session.

ALFRED BUnker.

TEACHING SCIENCE TO CHILDREN-PRANG'S NATURAL HISTORY SERIES, EDITED BY PROF. N. .A CALKINS.

MR. EDITOR:

It is the wish of the writer to call the attention of teachers, and of all interested in the education of children, to the admirable Natural History Series, prepared under the supervision of Superintendent N. A. Calkins, of New York City, and published by L. Prang & Co., of Boston. At the recent meeting of the State and City Superintendents of schools, held in Worcester, this series received the cordial approval and recommendation of those present, and it has received a similar endorsement by all the leading educators of the country who have given it an examination. The writer had intended to present his views of the importance of the subjects of study embraced in this series, and to show how this series meets the long-felt want of our schools; but after reading the following article in a recent number of the "New York Times," he prefers to send it to you, rather than anything which he might write, with the request that you will reproduce it in your Journal for the benefit of your readers.

P.

ONE of the greatest practical difficulties of teachers is to keep pace with the now scientific drift of the age in the instruction of children. Every intelligent person now recognizes that the teaching of children should, so far as possible, begin with natural science; that is, that the child should be taught to observe nature, and to classify its observations. The first unconscious movement of the young mind is to note everything without, and especially to watch the habits and appearance of animals, the colors and actions of birds, the favorite place and the beauty of particular flowers, the habits of insects, and all the obvious phenomena of the natural world. Children in cities, of course, lose this most healthful education, and, unless artifically trained, grow up unused to this sympathy with, and observation of, nature. The residents of towns, who themselves were brought up in the country, can alone appreciate how great a loss it is in early memories, and in healthful mental habits, to spend childhood and youth in a large city. But even with the young who are

growing up in the country, the great object of the modern system of education is to train these native habits of observation, to lead the pupils to observe every peculiarity of the animal or the flower, and then to put these characteristics in a class, and so finally to reach one great end of science, the classification of phenomena. As soon as the scholar begins to group objects, a new world is open to him. The "kingdoms of life" are no longer an inextricable labyrinth of individual objects, but they shape themselves into orderly and systematic realms, where each member is united by common resemblances to the other, and classes and long links of relationship are discovered and fixed in the young mind. When the habit and training of classification are once imparted and fastened, all observation becomes scientific. The child puts the bird or the flower, or the forest animal, or the insect in its proper place in the great realms of life, or seeks to join it with others by peculiarities which it notes. In this mental process, the memory is cultivated, and not by arbitrary and uninteresting methods, but in a healthful, natural way. The reasoning faculty is trained, for the pupil must constantly ask, "Why is this animal or flower placed in this class?" or, "What is the meaning of this peculiarity or habit?” or, "How shall I place this new appearance, and classify it?" The scientific logical power is under continual exercise, and in a simple, pleasant manner.

Step by step, from particulars the pupil goes to generals, and begins to approach the higher ranges of reasoning. The mind asks itself what is the bond connecting these vast links of resemblances, and why nature is so orderly and delights thus in such complete classes and graded kingdoms? And finally, as it matures, it approaches the grand problems of the day: "The cause of order," "the link in variety and species," the thread of the labyrinth of the natural world, and "origin of force.". But these are the higher results of the training.

Modern science holds that each child is better trained from infancy in its methods than under the old system of arbitrary memorizing and unthinking recitation and exclusive linguistic instruction. It believes that the natural world, its appearances, processes, and modes of action, are a more invigorating study, a more exact training, and a greater stimulus to the mind, than any memorizing of a language, or repetition of historical facts and dates, or exercise in grammar or prosody. The difficulty, however, in schools is to find the methods and books ready to hand which shall enable the teacher to teach science properly, that is, to lead the pupil's mind on, to train it to act itself. For science can be taught as mechanically as ever Latin or English grammar was.

We rejoice that a very ingenious method of teaching habits of observation, and of presenting classification in nature, has just been presented in this city to the Board of Education by one of our best authorities on improved methods of teaching, Prof. N. A. Calkins, one of the Assistant Superintendents of our schools, and author of an excellent treatise on the " 'Object Method," or Pestalozzian system. Mr. Calkins' work, or "Natural History Series," as it is called, has been adopted by our public schools, and should now be taken