2. The second view is that of a supervisor, who has passed the student's standpoint, and now attempts to select such parts of the subject as should be taught, under given conditions, arranging them in the order of nature and assigning the time to be given to each topic. This view gives rise to what may be called a running outline or course of study.

3. The last view is taken from the position of a class-room teacher, who selects each lesson of the running outline, and decides upon its general, secondary, and specific objects; decides the exact form of the matter, and determines the method. The different steps are so arranged that the child is led naturally from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the more difficult, and caused to do his own work in such a way as to grow strong by the acquisition of knowledge through the understanding. This may be termed the working outline, or the specific outline of daily class work, which deals with the matter and method of each lesson.

This classification of the teacher's work is natu:al and practical, as its use seems to show. Each should present itself in the order named. The subject should first be comprehended as a subject. This done, the teacher may expect to better prepare a suitable running outline which should always, so far as possibility permits, be complete before the working outline is attempted.

The plan of study would consist in taking some study, say numbers. The student should first complete the logical outline; second, complete a running outline; third, select representative lessons from the running outline, and make a study of matter and method, filling out sketches and plans of lessons, studying carefully forms of questions and their relation to expected answers.

The teacher that has mastered the art of asking questions is truly an artist. Indeed, this field seems to be without limit. If a teacher once fully appreciates the importance of proper questioning he will conclude, with other artists, that there is no end to improvement, for the perfect point continually recedes.

We have explained thus fully the three kinds of outlines, as the ideas and terms may be used from time to time in this department. It will be observed, however, that this department will deal mostly with the working outline, it being more didactical in nature.- Arkansas Educationalist.

COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

NDIANA and California are again talking of compulsory education. ute books of a number of our states do not compel. Neighbors will not turn informers against neighbors, and should not do it. The social strife it would engender would more than offset all possible benefits from the enforcement of the law. The only way to have such laws as these enforced is to make it the duty of some officer to visit the schools, ascertain who is violating the law, and prosecute the offenders. This would be expensive in sparsely settled sections of the country and even in the cities. Still, the fact remains that if compulsory education is demanded, the law should provide for an energetic enforcement of its requirements, as the English law does, and as the New York and Buffalo truant laws do to some degree.

After all, a live teacher or superintendent, who knows how to make the schools attractive, has proved much more effective than compulsory education laws would have done, in more than one community that we could name. The reports of schools often come to us where an increase of from twenty-five to thirty-five per cent. in the school attendance has been effected throughout a village, or in a given school, simply by changing superintendent or teacher. There are teachers who can go into a village where the schools have been unattractive and the people indifferent toward them, and before the first winter has passed set the town on fire, as it were, with zeal for the schools. Enthusiasm is the best of all whips. It drives the teacher himself, and the school board, as well as the parent and pupils.

If the parents force the pupils to remain at home and drudge when they should be in school, it would seem as though there should be a penalty for such an offense, as there is for other kinds of neglect and cruelty toward children; but then it must be made the official duty of some regular limb of the law to attend to the business or suffer a penalty. Inter-Ocean.

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THE

TACT IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM.

HE school is too often considered a unit, rather than a family of distinct individuals. Because of this misconception, many flagrant wrongs are committed.

As well try to nourish an animal and a plant with the same food, as to build up character, and lead out thought, by the same rules and regulations. The forest may be all oaks, but no two are exactly alike. There is beauty in the dissimilarity. For this reason the landscape charms the vision. In the process of mental development, there must and will be, variation. Yet many educators do not realize this fact; and in their neglect endeavor to make the same methods of instruction and rules of government cover each individual case.

On the first day of school the inexperienced teacher generally awes his pupils by a hideous array of rules, the breaking of which, he gives them to understand, will bring summary vengeance upon the head of the offender. However, there are always some knowing ones on the "back seats," who, by sundry winks and nods, manifest a doubt of his ability to carry the threats into execution. They have been there before. In reality, such a beginning only arouses a feeling of antagonism ; and, ere long, the bitter fruits begin to ripen. But another fact is soon brought to light in the experience of the observing teacher. He finds that these rules cannot meet every case. Here and there he must deviate from his original resolution. No, the military, cast iron system cannot prevail without injuring the symmetrical, natural growth of the child.

The teacher should be an accurate observer of human nature. He ought to be able to read the character of his pupil; to know his surroundings at home, and his mental ability. He should be so familiar, if possible, with his charge, that he can sympathize with him in all his ambitions and inclinations. In no other way can the teacher know just what course to pursue, either in giving instruction, encouragement or reproof. For instance, not many years ago, when we had rather limited experience, we made a strict rule with reference to tardiness. One there was who habitually broke it, and as often suffered the penalty. We afterwards learned, as is often the case, that the parents ought to have been punished, rather than the child. Oh, how many instances

there are, where a little tact on the part of the teacher would encourage the desponding, and, at the same time, increase his own popularity.

Only a few years ago, a boy of ten years came into the school-room and asked for a seat. The appearance of the lad was anything but inviting, and his reputation was even worse than his appearance. There was scarcely a vice with which his youthful heart was not familiar. Visions of insubordination rose simultaneous with his entrance, but we concluded to try an experiment. Being familiar with his antecedents, we put him in a class by himself, so as not to parade his ignorance before the school. In reality, he ought not to have been in my room. He was treated as a gentleman, and it was not long before he exhibited some native talent in penmanship and arithmetic. By judicious management he soon became interested in these branches, and from that time there was not a more faithful student in the school. At the close of the term he ranked among the first in both studies above mentioned. In the class it is impossible to make each one understand by the same method of instruction. For while some can readily understand by mere verbal description, others must be reached through the sense of vision. The energetic, ambitious teacher will watch his class as sharply as the lawyer does his jury; and will not let a fact pass until the countenance of each one shines with the light of complete understanding.—Practical Teacher.

HIS FIELD OF INFLUENCE.

THE

HE teacher should be the educator of his neighborhood. The school-room work should be but a part of his duties. He should feel a responsibility for the intellectual condition of parents, as well as children. He should be the preacher and the director of all movements which would tend to arouse mental activity. In country districts and small towns, various educational agencies may easily be set at work. It is always feasible to organize literary societies, which, with proper management, may be highly useful. A library and reading-room may frequently be established, and the teacher's knowledge of books and periodicals may be so utilized as to make the collection entirely whole

some and improving. Or if this be too ambitious, many families may be found for whom he may become in a private way the literary agent, may stimulate them to begin reading, and may tell them what to read and how. He may suggest ideas which will induce them to think on some of the current questions of the day; may set the children to collecting specimens in the woods and fields; may be the example of his own activity induce others to forget for a time the monotony and dwarfing tendencies of exclusive devotion to business, and give little glimpses of the pure pleasure to be gained by occasional intellectual recreation.

Such a work will often meet with prejudices and opposition. The teachers are frequently young, and sometimes imprudent, and conservatism becomes active only when it is threatened. But judicious efforts will meet also with sympathy, and caution and judgment will allay fears.

We hope and believe that every year shows an increase in the influence of the school teacher. The additional permanency and pecuniary recompense attached to the positions in latter times, are making the profession of such a character that it will stand by itself, and not be used merely as a tool by which to rise. As the teacher grows older he will find the respect and influence belonging to experience and ripened judgment, attaching to himself. He will find this in a greater degree as respects literary things, for his business develops literary judgment faster than does that of the merchant or farmer. It is indeed sad to see the condition of the teacher in some places-a mere puppet, a subordinate in the social scale, criticised by every parent, deposed by any breeze of prejudices, oftentimes dependent upon the like or dislike of some boy or girl, whose relations are influential in the management. Such a position no genuine man or woman could accept, and happily in our system he very seldom is asked to accept it. But just so soon as our graduates go into teaching expecting to stay, just as soon as they feel in their hearts proud of their profession and work, just so soon as they are fit to have any influence in the community, they may have it. And if they will grow up and develop with the work, and not contract themselves within the narrow limits of recitation hearing, the teachers may rank with other men and women as the officers and the leaders of society.-The Student.