The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-03
BOOKS RECEIVED.

"The School and Society,"" by John
Dewey, professor Of pedagogy in the
University of Chicago. limo; cloth,
gilt top, 75c net. Published by the
University of Chicago Press, Chi
cago.
In a book of not 1875 pages, Prof
Dewey, head of the pedagogical depart
ment of the University of Chicago, has
stated the place of the school in society
simply but with startling force. The
traditional method he sums up as read
ing-readers, Biographies, arithmetics,
histories and the whole host of text
books. He insists that the old-time
household, with its multifarious pro-
duction of nearly everything used in it,
gave an education which was rich in a
reality, immediacy, interest and moral
power that the passive processes of the
modern school cannot think Of rivaling.
Mr.. Dewey recognizes manual training,
cooking, sewing, drawing, modelling and
the other "fads and frills," as half con-
sciouS steps in the movement to adapt
the school to the new problems 1t has
to face. In all these processes the
child is going out of himself, not taking
in. He Is constructing, not being sim
ply instructed. He is interested in an
object that is for him real and full of
meaning, not forced to study something
that can only have reality and mean
ing in later life. The author insists
that the school may be reorganized on
the basis of these "fads and frills,' but
with broader view of their meaning
and a deeper sense of their educational
value. Here Mr. Dewey is able to step
out of mere theory into the field of his
own achievement. In the university
elementary school the pedagogical de-
partment of the University Of Chicago
has organized a system of education
that already carries the child from the
kindergarten age to that of IA years
on the principle of outgoing activities.
The child learns because he meets prob
lens in what he is doing that he must
solve. He reviews history by recog-
nizing the problems of food and cloth
ing that confront primitive men, and
reinventing the simple appliances with
which civilization began and made it's
earlier steps in industrial progress.
Cooking presents problems-not those
of following a recipe, but those of
chemistry and physiology. The prob
lens that fascinate the university stu
dent and organize his learning appear
in the school-life of child-a life that
is one of making and doing, that offers
motives for all that he learns and ia
miliarizes him with methods that are
far beyond the routine work of the
common school. Number and Ian
guage are but media. They are given
not as the subject-matter of education,
but in their actual uses. The school
reflects active life on all Sides and is
itself organized by the same principle
that organizes life in society. Mr..
Dewey speaks therefore both of what
he has done and what it may become
when it is carried out farther and made
more complete. His thesis is simply
that the child should be in actual touch
with life: that the school should i'm
mediately interpret that life through
the constructive activities of the child;
that real discipline is the daughter of
such constructive experience,
1.-THE Four-masted Cat-boat," by Chas
Battell Loomis. 16mo, SIPS. New York,
The Century Co.
The title story of this first collection
of Mr.. LOOMS Truthful Tales" is as
incredible as anything else in the vol
ume-and every one who knows the
authors work in the humorous depart
ment of The Century and in Puck and
other avowedly humorous papers, will
realize that this means good deal.
Each of the tales and sketches might be
said to consist of facts founded upon
fiction. There are forty pieces in all,
grouped under such rubrics as "a few
idiotisms," AT the literary counter,
Unrelated stories related" and "Es-
says at essays. - My Spanish parrot" is
a typical 'idiotism," THE father of
Santa Claus" is found 'at the literary
counter" Cupid on runners is one of
the unrelated stories and 1.-THE bull,
the girl and the red shawl is an at
tempt at an essay. 1t would be putting
it mildly to say that the readers enjoy
ment of Mr. LOOMS nonsense will be
in no wise impaired by the pictured
cover and five-and-forty thumb-nail
and full-page drawings by Florence
Scovel Shinn.
Tales of Space and Time, by H.. G.
Wells Published by Doubleday & Nc
Clure Co. Cloth, $1.5O.
Grouped under a title in neat vol
ume is this series of stories. They are
unique for style and conspicuous for
daring humor. The boldness of Mr..
Wells Imagination is the striking fea
ture of his y-telling. He revels in a
future where the developments Of mod
ern science have brought about a
strange, new world, where mans inven-
ton, unrestrained, has built up cities
of machines and intricate organizations
which leave little room for the indi
vidual. But The crystal egg" THE
heir of the past THE vacant coun-
try etc, have to do nevertheless with
individuals of very interesting kind.
Peg Woffington, by Charles Reade.
Published by Doubleday & Mcclure
Co. Cloth, $500.
This new edition of Charles Reade's
most famous novel, Peg Wellington"
is distinguished by the unique illustra-
| TONS The work is done by Hugh Thorn
son, the illustrator of Jane Austen, and
there are seventy Illustrations The
book with its delightful portrayal of
early theatrical life in London, when
! Garrick, Colley, Cibber and Kitty Give
gathered about the immortal Voting
| ton, lends itself readily to elaborate IL
| Illustrations
His Defense" by Harry Stiilwell Ed
wards, author of Two Runaways.
! Cloth S1.25 Published by The Cen
| fury Co.
The first of these stories, from The
| Century. The Atlantic, etc.-the one
| that gives its title to the group,-has
| proved more popular than anything
| else the author has written since the
appearance of 1.-Two Runaways' The
| charge against Hiram Ard was Gus
sim his mother-in-law, and his de-
fense," when the case came before
jury, was plea of eXtenuation that
moved the plaintiff herself TO take II
all back" In this new collection OF ms
southern tales, Mr. Edwards reintro-
duces some of the characters that APP
peared first in the earlier volume-no-
tably the runaways themselves, lsam
and the Major. In William Marsdaf
awakening" delightful story OF
greater length than any of the others
the negro element is inconspicuous. AS
in his other writings. both pathos ana
humor abound in the book, though 1t is
the humorous rather than the pathetic