The opinion prevails with some that copy-books are the only things needed to make good writers. If properly used, they are helpful, but in many schools they are a needless expense. Copy-books furnish perfect forms to the child's eye, which tend to discourage him. He has never seen his teacher write so beautifully, and wonders if the copies are real when his teacher admits they are printed ones. His sense of justice is insulted, and his attempts usually end in failure and disgust. What we need is more real, live, energetic teachers who can set copies for their pupils. Children love to look at nice writing, especially if done by their teacher. In large school systems copy-books may prove their usefulness, if properly used. The cause of much slow, poor writing in the public school is a decided lack of interest shown by the grade teachers.

Should we blame the teachers for slighting their work at times, when we stop to consider what they are expected to do every week of the school year? Look at the present curriculum of the public schools! Is there not a stupendous amount of work to be accomplished during the four or five hours' time allotted to a school day? Give the primary teachers an opportunity to lay the foundation well, then the building may be as extensive as the builders may desire.

How many words should the eighth-year pupil be able to write per minute? This question is difficult to answer. Some teachers expect forty or more, others are satisfied with fifteen words per minute. I am satisfied with pupils doing work averaging twentyfive words a minute. Business-men as a usual thing are not rapid writers; few of them average a speed of forty words. Is it fair to expect the child to equal the adult of constant practice?

In conclusion, permit me to say that I am convinced that poor writing is not the result of styles or systems, but is directly due to false ideas of teaching. Supervisors should meet with their teachers frequently and outline their work by example, so that their teachers will understand how to teach as their supervisor desires. Thirty minutes spent in a room once a year by the supervisor is no inspiration to pupils or teachers.

THE PHONOGRAPH AS AN AID IN TEACHING

SHORTHAND

THEODORE F. LAKE, TEACHER OF PHONOGRAPHY, COMMERCIAL HIGH SCHOOL, BROOKLYN, N. Y.

We live in an intensely mechanical-practical age. Wherever human ingenuity can be applied to lighten human labor, it has been done. From the improved tool of the farmer to the automobile of the millionaire, inventive genius has invaded every conceivable avenue for lightening labor and promoting comfort. Up to a short time ago, however, the sentiment has generally prevailed that, with the exception of the timehonored ferule, the teacher's profession has not been open to mechanical invasion. True, there are machines in the profession; you and I work side by side with them every day; but these have been generally looked upon as due to other causes than human ingenuity. But why should not. a teacher employ machinery, or any other motive power, so long as he obtains as good or better results, and that without the sacrifice of nerve tissue and brain-cells? Already the largest school of correspondence in this country has taken up the use of the phonographic record as a means

of teaching foreign languages. It is not a fad with them. It is a means of meeting certain conditions that cannot be met in any other way.

While I believe the Commercial High School of Brooklyn, N. Y., is a pioneer in the use of the concert phonograph as a means of class dictation, still it is our desire to disclaim all tendency toward faddism. The innovation there was nothing more than a necessary step brought about by existing conditions. With several hundred boys to recite in shorthand each day, and with periods of forty-five minutes each, we have the problem which confronts us, how to make the greatest possible use of the forty-five minutes.

The time of shorthand study may be logically divided into three periods: the period during which the principles of the system are being acquired, the vocabulary period, and the period of dictation. During the late vocabulary period, or after the student has mastered the principles of his system and is ready to apply them, we usually devote ten to fifteen minutes at the opening of each recitation to a review of these principles, using carefully prepared lists of words for the purpose, and giving as much time as possible to individual needs. The remaining thirty or thirty-five minutes is then given over to dictation. I need not tell you that it is during this period of early dictation, while the pupil is making his first application of the principles, that his need of individual attention is most urgent. And you cry out in your despair: "Oh, for someone to do this mechanical work and give me opportunity to help the boys to pass among them as they work, criticise them, offer a suggestion here, a hint there, or a word of commendation or encouragement !"

Individual instruction has been the slogan of the theoretical pedagog from time immemorial. But in the public schools, where overcrowded conditions prevail and large classes are the rule, the teacher despairs of ever solving it.

These rambling introductory remarks have not been delivered with a view of impressing you with any profound learning on the subject or any philosophical presentation of it, but merely to confirm your suspicion and mine that relief should come from some quarter. I will tell you where I found mine. While passing a phonograph exchange on Bedford avenue in Brooklyn, one morning something over a year ago, I heard one of Mr. Edison's concert phonographs delivering the words of Lincoln's Gettysburg address, and the thought came to me: Why not employ it as teacher No. 2. For the paltry sum of $75 and a certain amount of diplomacy, we persuaded the phonograph man to transfer title to us. Teacher No. 2 was taken to our class-room, the record made, the horn turned on a class of sixty boys, and to our infinite delight we witnessed the students take the dictation quite as readily as they ever took it from me.

What is the result? The machine relieves me of an immense amount

of purely mechanical work, and I am at liberty to pass among the students and bestow such individual instruction or assistance as they may need. The speed may be regulated as I desire by a simple turn of a lever, and, perhaps most important of all, the dictation is mechanically uniform. As you well know, even in the case of the experienced dictator, it is the instinctive tendency to pause after each new or difficult word or outline, thus cultivating in the student a halting, hesitating style, and robbing him of the ability to attack and record new and difficult outlines without serious loss of time. Then, too, for the simple pressing of a button, you have at your command the material for endless repetition. To be sure, the pupil must be perfectly grounded in the principles of his system; and this repetition must be administered in such disguise and in such discreet doses as not to become monotonous and be productive of mind-wandering. But, no matter what the conditions, repetition in shorthand we must have until each new word or combination of words slips thru its beaten track of brain-cells, and the fingers move involuntarily to the sound. I know of no better means of gaining this repetition without the sacrifice of lungs and precious nerve-cells than the phonograph.

I am about to open a recitation. After a few minutes devoted to a thoro review of the principles, the cylinder upon which our last dictation exercise is recorded is then placed upon the machine; so that at the very beginning of the general dictation work speed practice may be introduced. Bear in mind, however, that the matter which the machine is about to reproduce has been thoroly mastered at a preceding lesson. The machine may now be set in motion at a speed easily within reach of the class, and during the time devoted to this part of the lesson the speed may be almost imperceptibly increased, until at the end of the exercise the student has gained a number of words per minute.

The class is now ready to take up the work of the advanced lesson, and here I find another device serves my purpose admirably. On hard, well-sized paper the advance lesson may be traced in correct shorthand, using hectograph ink. By then using the hectograph something like one hundred excellent copies may be made for class use. Armed with as many copies as you have students, you take up the third division of your class work. Passing a sheet to each pupil, you require him to read or transcribe the shorthand notes. This done, you require him to pick out each new and difficult character and phrase and familiarize himself with it. You are now ready for dictation. You have a record of the hectograph matter, and, setting your machine at a rate of speed easily within reach of all, you conclude your recitation, preserving your record, however, for your speed work on the morrow.

Many of our boys, on coming out of the school, wish to prepare themselves for the civil service, and particulary for the court-reporting branch.

I find that an almost perfect reproduction of the attorney examining the witness may be obtained by means of the machine.

And now a few hints as to the machine itself, and I am done. The apparatus complete will cost you seventy-five dollars, and twenty-five blank cylinders ten dollars more. But here your expense practically ceases, for each cylinder may be shaved from one to two hundred times, thus giving you several thousand records.

If your class is small and you do not care to use the large horn, which in reality distorts the sound, you may place your machine at the head of a long table or series of tables, the length of which you extend half-inch rubber tubing. From this main rubber tube branch tubes may be run with receivers to the ear of each student. By this means you have an almost noiseless dictation period, and practically the same result is obtained; altho the horn dictation is nearer the actual condition of the class dictation. The great trouble with the phonograph, as used in the office, has been that you cannot dictate and shave the record at the same time. But in its use in the schoolroom this objection has little weight, for the amount of matter used in a day is small when compared to that of an office, and it is an easy matter to have your pupils shave the cylinders for you as often as you desire.

Your greatest trouble at first will be in the making of your records. We little realize what defects in enunciation we have until we hear our words hurled back at us from a brass horn. But these defects you will soon learn to overcome, and with a little patience and a proper enthusiasm you are bound to succeed, and will undoubtedly find the phonograph a great aid in teaching shorthand.

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

FIRST SESSION.- WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1901

The meeting was called to order in the Light Guard Armory, at 2: 30 P. M., by Dr. W. O. Krohn, Chicago, the president.

After a solo by Miss Tekla Farm, of Detroit, the address by the president, on "Physical Training as Corrective of Brain-Disorderliness," was given.

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Following this came a paper by Miss Nina B. Lamkin, Kelso School, Chicago, on Physical Exercises for the Average School."

After another vocal solo by Miss Farm, a paper written by Mrs. Frances W. Leiter, of Mansfield, O., was read by Miss Charlotte Carne, directress of physical training, public schools of Detroit. The subject was "Legislation - Why Needed."

"Physical Training and the American Teacher" was then given by Hans Ballin, supervisor of physical training, Little Rock, Ark. H. E. Kratz, superintendent of schools, Sioux City, Ia., led in the discussion of Professor Ballin's paper, followed by Mrs. Louise Preece, of Minneapolis, and Professor Ziegler, of Cincinnati. The president appointed as nominating committee:

Hans Ballin, Little Rock, Ark.

Dr. Augusta Requa, New York city.

Theodore Toepel, Atlanta, Ga.

SECOND SESSION.- THURSDAY, JULY II

The meeting was called to order at 2:30 P. M. by the president, Dr. W. O. Krohn, who spoke regarding physical training and the work done by the turners of America.

The remainder of the afternoon was devoted to the following exhibition given by the turners of Detroit, under the able direction of Berthold Seiffert :

4. Hoop exercises, girls from 10 to 12 years of age.

5. Class work on three horses, boys from 12 to 14 years of age.

6. Class work on swinging ladder and rings, girls from 12 to 14 years of age.

12. Apparatus work and fencing, young men of the Detroit S. T.-V.

9. Indian club and wand exercises, young ladies and men of Detroit S. T.-V. 10. Class work on four double bars with pyramids, boys from 14 to 18 years 11. Dancing roundel, girls from 12 to 14 years of age.

of age.

The Committee on Nominations reported the following:

For President-Dr. W. O. Krohn, Chicago, Ill.

For Vice-President-Theodore Toepel, Atlanta, Ga.

For Second Vice-President- Dr. Augusta Requa, New York city.
For Secretary - Mabel L. Pray, Toledo, O.

The report was unanimously adopted, and the department adjourned.

MABEL L. PRAY, Secretary.