faculty. We would not therefore have history follow geography, or vice versa, because both are high in memory and imagination. The same is true of arithmetic and grammar, both requiring memory and reason, and particularly reason.

As

this is the last of the faculties to appear, special care should be taken not to overtax it.

We must also take into consideration the three great classes into which all of the common school subjects fall-the practical, the disciplinary, and culture values. Here it is not wise to bring together two subjects, belonging to the same class. Each has a different aim, and a change gives variety and removes the fatigue point. History and literature are culture subjects and should be separated. Reading and spelling are practical in value and one should not follow the other. The teacher should understand the educational value of the different subjects and carefully avoid bringing any two together that possess a high value in any class. The best plan is to separate them but consider the intellectual faculties involved. She should consider the educational value in designating the amount of time that she will give to each subject.

Lombard has shown by experiment that the nervous energy is subject to rhythmic variations during each day :—

The diagram will give a general idea of its rise and fall. Our nervous energy is usually the highest in the morning after a good night's rest. As the day progresses it gradually falls till the rest period is reached, when it rises, but not as high as it was in the morning. This shows the value of the rest period. It now takes a downward course till recess, when it again rises, but not as high as it was at the former period, when it again falls gradually lower till rest and food are taken at noon. After this it again ascends, but not as high as in the morning. This variation will be followed out during the afternoon, so that the poorest time for work during the entire day is about four o'clock. Here the nervous energy is at its lowest ebb. Let us turn to the subject of the intellectual faculties again. The last to appear requires the greatest amount of nervous energy. The subjects that demand reason call for more brain power, and hence should be placed on the program at such times when the nervous energy is at its highest point. We see that arithmetic and grammar are two that require the exercise of reason. We have seen that one should not follow the other, and we now see that they should be placed at such a time when there is an an abundance of nervous energy. As arithmetic is high and grammar medium, there can be no question as to what time of the day arithmetic should appear on the program. Such subjects as writing, drawing, singing, sewing and manual training should come at those periods when the nervous energy is at its lowest points, which is just before exercise, recess and dismissal, morning and afternoon. These subjects should never come after recreation and recess, because there is a certain amount of exercise in them and they require less nervous energy than other subjects. There should be a variety in the program. Monotony should be avoided. It is a good plan to bring in music after a period of quiet work, but at a low point of nervous energy.

The teacher may not be able to succeed in getting her program to run smoothly and satisfactorily at first, but with care and study along these lines she will be able to map out one that will be systematic and will prove of great value in her work.

Some Factors Factors of of School Government

PRINCIPAL E. L. COWDRICK, LAWRENCE, KAN.

MONG the questions pertaining to school management and methods which have been under discussion for the last score of years, none outranks in interest and importance that of government, and upon few others are there so many differences of opinion. We are possibly nearing the end of the reaction against the old methods of discipline, though the new ones are yet on trial, and it is too soon to pronounce them either a success or a failure. However, it is a fair question to ask whether or not the new ways have produced a higher type of citizenship than did the old. Is it not possible that in our zeal to train the children in the virtues of self-government we are allowing them license instead of liberty? The lesson of obedience is a hard one both to teach and to learn, yet it needs must be learned before the child is truly educated. He who is to rule must first learn to obey, and the only time to learn to obey is in childhood, and the only places this lesson can be learned are in the home and in the schoolroom.

In the governing of a school three prime factors must be considered: the school board, the parents, and the teacher. To these must be added that indefinite and mercurial something. called public opinion, which raises "a mortal to the skies" one day, only to "pull him down" the next. No organization is so sensitive to changes in the current of public opinion as is the public school, and the teacher realizes, as few others can, the crushing force of its decrees; and too, he realizes, as very few do, how fickle and changeable it is.

As public opinion is merely the sum total of the private opinion of individuals who support the schools and are the parents of the children therein, it is easily understood how an adverse public opinion will render the hard task of the teacher yet harder, and even in the end make his best effort a failure. The ing of a school is not easy, and if the children get the idea that the teacher is arbitrary and unreasonable, the difficulty of his

govern

work will be greatly augmented. Parents, whose chance remarks and hasty comments make or unmake the teacher's influence, are not careful enough of what they say in the presence of their children, especially as a little encouragement from his parents is often all a child needs to make him unruly or even insubordinate, and thus the good feeling of the school is broken up, the enforcement of discipline is interfered with, the children grow more restless, the teacher more nervous, until radical measures sometimes have to be resorted to before a proper respect for authority is restored; and all this trouble was because the teacher was criticised and blamed unjustly, while all the time he both merited and needed assistance and encouragement, not hindrance and fault-finding from the patrons of the school.

The disciplining of a school depends upon the teacher, and he is justly held responsible for it; his task is a never-ending one, and at no time can he rest in ease and comfort, feeling that his work is done, for he can never tell how soon some new difficulty will arise to cause trouble; the simplest and most reasonable direction will often find a pupil unreasonable, and unwilling to obey; something of no moment in itself becomes of prime importance from the necessity of the occasion, forced upon the teacher against his will, and no foresight can provide against these emergencies, no skill avoid them.

In controlling a school the first and most difficult task before the teacher is the disciplining of himself, for when this is accomplished, if it ever is accomplished, the rest is comparatively easy. Lack of self-control on the part of the teacher is one of the most fruitful sources of disorder, and the teacher who finds his pupils growing restless and noisy should enter upon a rigid course of investigation to discover the cause. It may be that he will find it in a very unexpected place, and fortunate is he if he recognizes it when found, for then he may correct the fault and none be the wiser.

This self-education is fourfold in nature: physical, mental, moral, and spiritual; and each must be symmetrical with the other three, none given undue prominence, if one would be what God intends, the "likeness of a man created in His own image."

The body must be educated in order that the teacher may be

dignified—but do not mistake stiffness for dignity—and graceful in carriage and gesture, for the pupils unconsciously imitate him in these as in other things, and an awkward teacher is very apt to have awkward pupils; but the converse is not always true. However, a graceful teacher is certainly more likely to have graceful pupils than one who is not. Other things being equal, I would give a graceful teacher the preference over a handsome one, although I am not particularly prejudiced against the latter; but all can be graceful, even if all cannot be handsome. I look for the time to come in the near future when more attention will be paid to this important part of preparation for teaching, much too long neglected. We are prone to sneer at "finishing schools," so-called, but in this particular the sneers are out of place, for they are giving a training which finds a place in the curriculum of none other; or at least in few, if any, of the schools for the training of teachers; so, after all, these schools may fill a long-felt want in our educational system as long as courteous manners and correct carriage of the body have no attention given them in the public school, all accorded them being merely incidental.

Little need be said about the teacher's intellectual preparation, for the teacher of to-day is more thoroughly equipped for his work than ever before; he must be if he would not be surpassed in the keen competition which laborers in all trades and professions must meet,—the teachers most of all. There is no excuse for poor teaching with normal schools and colleges and universities on every side, where the best of training may be had for the asking; and the teacher who is poorly prepared for his work will soon find himself compelled to give place to the one who is well prepared. It is very seldom at the present day that a teacher fails from lack of text-book knowledge, but it is true that too many are content with that; their learning is not broad enough. I once heard President Quayle, of Baker University, say that no teacher could teach a subject in a satisfactory way unless he knew twenty-or was it forty?-times as much about it as was found in the ordinary text-book; an extravagant statement, possibly, but one which contains a great truth, for the teacher must be full of his subject in order to do either himself