Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-05-05
Notes on Education.

W I'm an dllenuallCe Oh ileE ScuODlS VI
y, ISL children, Milwaukee expended
last year $2l6, l93.3S.
The president of the Detroit board of
educstion recommends, that the city
should supply the pupils Of the public
schools with text books.
Professor G. o. Thompson, the or
ganizer, and for many years the head of
the Worcester Free Institute OF Tech
nolOgy, has resigned his post to accept
the presidency of new technical
school at Terre Haute, Ind. In so far
rs may be - will reproduce at Terre
Haute the methods of the Worcester
schools. He is to have $4,000 to cover
the loss resulting from change of resi-
dence, an annual salary a 900 from
June lst, together with house rent,
with the privilege of supervising the
building OF his house, and leave Of ab-
sence from June to March, 1888, for
European study. He will select his
faculty, arrange the course of study, and
buy the library and equipment.
The new school laws of Iowa provide
that the salaries of county superintend-
ants shall be increased TO 81 Il day; that
boards of directors shall set out and
properly protect twelve or more shade
trees on each school house site, and that
n State Educational Board Of Examiners
shall be created. This board is to have
power 10 issue state certificates valid
for five years, and State diplomas good
for life, and its members are to be the
superintendent of public instruction,
the president of the State University,
the principalOf the State Normal school
and two persons to be appointed by the
Executive Council, one of whom shall
be a woman. The object of this law is
10 do away with the annual cXamina-
ton of well-qualitied teachers.
Wisconsin expended upon public
education last year $3.50, 1854 each
pupil in the public schools costing the
State S7.67. The receipts Ofthe private
schools of the State Were S7O,5SS, and
expenditures ST5,052. The annual re-
port of the State superintendent advO-
Gates kindergarten work, gradual rails
ing of teachers qualifications and
lesSening of the number of kinds of
teachers certificates, the imposition of
state tax for the support of public
schools the making obligatory the
township system, and the wider adOp-
ton ofthe graded system. Wisconsin
now has 5,Si3 public schools, under the
charge of 7,O65 teachers. The school
population numbers l9l, los children,
and the percentage of attendance ut the
public schools is 6l.W.
The plan for establishing magniti-
cient musical cOnSCrvatOle in Boston
provides for the purchase of the st.
James Hotel property and the cNpendi-
ture of S7OD, OOn in preparing it for the
purposes of the school. 1t Is proposed
that the institution shall furnish inStruc-
ton not only in all branches Of the art,
but i'm literature and other branches rs
weli-in fact, that ii shall b" made an
institution with musical education aS its
special object. One of the principal in
struCtOrS in the Royal Academy OfMus-
ic AT London and anothcrfrom Stuttgart
have already been engaged. The
Chautauqua Literary Circle will pro-
vide literary instruction, DIR. Vincent
having been engaged to lecture and di-
rect that branch. There are now nine
hundred and fitty-One students, from
thirty-eight States, receiving instruc-
ton at the present quarters Of con-
servatOrv.
AT meeting of Iowa school Superin-
tendent last week nespeakermadesome
suggestive objections to the involved and
pretentiOus fashion in which textbooks
are written, Men of letters" he said,
land men of science have sought TO veil
their thoughts with the Obscurity of
strange and foreign terms rather than To
make the road following them i'll their
investigations easy. They have sought
the vainglOry of qualification in their
selection of medium for the communi-
cation of their thoughts, rather than the
lasting praise consequent upon simple
style. Hence the difficulty in following
them i'm their text books, and the inn
portance of being taught how to read
thoughts from printed characters.
think can safely say that One-hatt OF
the pupils II theState of Iowa who have
advanced so farm the subject of arithme-
tic rs partial payments cannot tell the
meaning Oflhe word argument, which Is
found i'm the rule for partial payments"
From these premises the speaker went
on TO draw the conclusion that the prac-
tice of requiring very young children to
commit to memory little declarations
is at least dangerous, if not perniciouS.
The first thing for the child to do Is to
familiariZe itself with the external
world. Fill the mind with PreceptS.
Precepts are the raw material out OF
which concepts are formed. The child
cannot think until it has some material
with which to think.
-