Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/289

Rh informal class of three boys, lie led them to observe their common surroundings—fields and farms, buildings and machinery, plants and insects—bringing out their embodiment of laws of form and size of the widest sweep. Breaking a live coal into fragments on a hearthstone, his pupils saw that the smaller a lump the sooner it cooled and turned black; step by step they discovered that the moon, the earth, Jupiter, and the sun, from their relative magnitudes, are in the same case—are but cinders, or cinders in the making. Simple models, easy to reproduce, served in other lessons—an inverted wedge gradually withdrawn from immersion in a jar half full of water became an extractor of square root; an inverted cone, similarly treated, was employed as an extractor of cube root. A diagram, which has only to be seen to be understood, enabled bis class to perceive that the surface of a sphere is equal to the curved surface of the cylinder which incloses it, and hence is equal to the rectangle which the cylinder describes in being rolled round once on a plane. Mr. lies abundantly exemplifies the inventiveness which he recommends as an element in making a lesson stick to a pupil's mind. On the very threshold of Euclid he has come upon novel and important implications of the elementary laws of space; he has thence opened new paths of approach to the study of mechanics and physics. A distinctly refreshing note is struck in illustrating that not the immediate but the total indications of geometry point the way to the constructor; that if calculation is to be just, it must be directed with judgment. This little book can be as helpful to the teacher as that other unconventional aid, William George Spencer's Inventional Geometry.

New Course in Art Instruction embodies the ideas of many teachers, who, starting at different points and working along different lines, arrived at the same conclusions. Its aims are, first, to acquaint pupils with the rudiments of all kinds of drawing included under the two departments, mechanical and free hand; secondly, to lead pupils to feel that, while art and love for the beautiful may be fostered by an artistic and beautiful environment, skill and power and quick original perception of beauty come only through faithful and persistent practice in drawing; and, thirdly, to develop a love for the beautiful in Nature and art. The fifth year or grammar course includes the study of measurement, geometry, writing, drawing, development, color, historic ornament, botanical drawing, design, paper-cutting, and model and object drawing. Each subject is logically pursued throughout the grade, and each subject supplements others in the grade. The book abounds in each department in practical directions, concisely and perspicuously given, to which the illustionsillustrations [sic], clearly and accurately drawn, are a real help.

advent of the kindergarten in the educational system of this country has great significance, and statistics show a steady increase in kindergartens, teachers, and pupils.

Symbolic Education, by Susan E. Blow (Appletons' International Education Series), discusses practically the foundation of Froebel's philosophy in Mother's Play and Nursery Songs.

The editor. Dr. Harris, says the kindergarten inspires its teachers with the true missionary spirit, to devote themselves to the work of unfolding the self-activity of humanity in its feeblest and most rudimentary stage of growth. The teacher of advanced pupils does not need such refinements of method to secure profitable industry—it is the teacher of feeble-minded adults, or of very young children, that must have what the Germans call a "developing method." The good kindergartner continually follows Froebel by directing the pupils' own efforts without stunting them by officious help. Mothers should take heed of the warning that over-cultivation of verbal memory cripples alike the power of original thinking and accurate observation. He says that the first self-revelation of the child is through play. He learns thus what he can do—what he can do easily at