Quality Rather Than Quantity. Pres. Eliot of Harvard, says: "The International is a wonderfully compact storehouse of accurate information." The International is Scientific It is the School-Teacher of the Republic. The International and its abridgments are in general use in the colleges and public and private schools of the country. Should you not give the students access to the same Dictionary in the home that they use in the schoolroom? Specimen pages and testimoniais from eminent persons and publications sent on application. G. & C. MERRIAM CO., Publishers, Springfield, Mass., U. S. A. The Journal of School Geography A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF THE COMMON-SCHOOL TEACHER OF GEOGRAPHY. EDITOR: RICHARD E. DODGE, Professor of Geography, Teachers College, 120th St. West, New York City. ASSOCIATE EDITORS: W. M. DAVIS, Professor of Physical Geography, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; C. W. HAYES, Geologist, U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C.; H. B. KUMMEL, Assistant Professor of Physiography, Lewis Institute, Chicago, Ill.; F. M. MCMURRY, Dean, School of Pedagogy, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, N. Y.; R. DEC. WARD, Instructor in Climatology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. THE JOURNAL aims to present, in such a form as to be readily used by any teacher, the newest and best recent geographical information, together with suggestions from practical teachers as to the application thereof. Especial attention will be given to the NOTES in which the editors will summarize selected topics from recent geographical publications. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION:-One dollar a year in advance. Single copies, 15 cents. Subscriptions should be sent to the Journal of School Geography, 41 North Queen Street, Lancaster, Pa. All correspondence, except concerning subscriptions, should be sent to the editor, Richard E. Dodge, Teachers College, 120th St. West, New York City. OF THE AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. The books are strongly and durably bound in boards, with cloth backs. Language-Talking With the Pencil. .30 By WILLIAM SWINTON, 126 pages. Bound in boards with cloth back, square 8vo, beautifully illustrated. Minna Von Barnhelm. .50 Edited by M. B. LAMBERT, Boys' High School, Brooklyn, N. Y. Modern German Douze Contes Nouveaux .45 . Twelve Stories from the French, edited for school use by C. FONTAINE, Director of By M. CLAKE. 12mo, cloth, 203 pages. Volume 17 ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS. Revised Text-Book of Geology .45 Of JAMES DANA, edited by WILLIAM NORTH RICE, Western University. 12 mo, cloth, 462 pages 1.40 Single copies of any of the above will be sent by mail, postpaid, to any address, on receipt of the price. Special terms for introduction. Correspondence is cordially invited, and Teachers' meetings-Trustees may abandon small schools-The central school idea-The Indianapolis Education Society-Indiana State Normal alumni-National Educational Association-What the war means Educational information Book reviews Book notes . . Indiana State Board questions for April with discussions. ..175 . 178 . 180 182 182 PUBLISHED BY THE INLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA GOPYRIGHT, 1897, BY THE INLAND PUBLI THE INLAND EDUCATOR—Advertisements. IT T is a well-known fact that the man who has received the best business training receives the highest salary. If you are ready to strike for a better position and more pay we can help you. Our summer business-training school is open to you. Every cent you spend here increases your capacity for earning money. Twenty thousand former students now in first-class paying positions. Branches taught: Bookkeeping, Stenography, Typewriting, Penmanship, Banking, Commercial Law, Newspaper Sketching, Telegraphy. Strike For More Pay. OPEN ALL SUMMER. Special Inducements. Indianapolis Business University. When Building, Opposite Post Office, E. J. HEEB, Pres. TE EACHERS with successful experience or special preparation for teaching wanted for first- A JOURNAL FOR THE PROGRESSIVE TEACHER. VOL. VI. AS MAY, 1898. THE TEACHING OF BIOLOGY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. SI take it, the principal reasons for the 1. That the student may receive that peculiar mental training and acquire that peculiar mental habit which can come only from a study of living organisms. 2. That he may gain, as fully as may be, an understanding of how each of the vast array of animal and plant forms about him is related each to the others, and to the physical environments which surround them, and how they have come to be what they are. There are many other excellent reasons for the study of nature, sufficient to demand for it a prominent place in the work of the schools, even if those here given did not obtain, but they cannot be considered in this brief paper. Now, what is that peculiar training or mental habit which is supposed to result from a proper study of animals and plants? It is that mental attitude which refuses to take things on faith or to accept things on authority; which demands the production of the evidence, and which insists upon a personal examination of the evidence, that right judgments may be formed and conclusions drawn first-hand. The training should be such as will enable one to distinguish fact from fancy, reality from fraud and make-believe; to know truth, as well as falsehood, when he sees it; to know what he knows and to realize, and promptly admit it, when he does not know. This power, it seems to me, is the most important thing the schools can give the child. And to give it in the highest degree requires that the child be brought in contact not only with the living forms of the animal and plant world, but with the inorganic world as well, and the various forces or forms of energy whose phenomena surround him on every hand. All these are perhaps equally good as material for teaching the necessity for examining evidence. first-hand, but organic objects, living and active, and the phenomena connected with No. 4. their life and growth, possess peculiar advantages not shared by other objects. Now, as to the second reason: Throughout life each person is surrounded, whether he realizes it or not, by multitudes of animals and plants. Unless he be actually blind, or practically so, as a result of the methods in the schools, his mind is constantly questioning these things, for they press upon him from every side; he cannot get away from them. What is this animal or this plant? What are its habits? How does it live? Upon what does it feed, and what feeds upon it? Why is it found in certain places and not in others? What are its relations to soil, shade, and moisture? Why are the plants which grow here large and thrifty while those over there are small and stunted? Why can I not find two exactly alike? In what does this animal resemble others that I have seen, how does it differ from them, and what do these likenesses and differences mean? In short, what are these animals and plants, and how have they come to be what they are? These are but a few of the multitude of questions that will be constantly coming to one throughout life, and the training which every child receives in the school should be such as will enable him to take an active and intelligent interest in these questions, for this means not only right thinking, but right living, and he will thus add not only to his own happiness, but to that of others as well by being able to lead them somewhat into a realization of the law and beauty which pervade nature. Whatever be the method to follow in teaching biology in the public schools, every one will admit that it should not be such as will kill off the enthusiasm of the pupil. The child enters the school knowing a good deal already about animals and plants. Every normally constituted child is full of the spirit of the naturalist, but I regret to say that the whole tendency of the methods in most of our public schools is to |