the State. The superintendent of the Industrial School for girls, located at Middletown, Ct., in his annual report, presented April 1st, 1872, says: The first inmate to the school was received January 1st, 1870; the formal opening took place the 30th of June following. April 1st, 1872, there were seventy-two inmates, one-third were foreigners. Some of them, only a few, are fifteen years of age. The provisions of the institutions provide for ages between eight and fifteen years of age. All had started in a downward career leading inevitably to ruin, and but for the State stopping and providing a place for their education and care they would add in time fearful scores to the criminal population of the State. Ninety-four since the opening have been provided for, and not one has proved an eloper; all are accounted for. The excess of seventy-two as by report of April 1st, 1872, had been provided with homes as servants in worthy families. Elisha IIarris, M. D., Secretary of the New York 'Prison Association, after visiting the school said:

"The Middletown school presents a practical illustration that relieves all doubt of the fact that a cottage and family grouping and treatment of delinquent girls, can save the girls for useful and happy lives and, at the same time, save the cost of vice and crime into which such girls are sure to plunge. I have recently seen four young women in one of the county penitentiaries of New York, who two years since, stole from dry goods stores and jewelers more than enough goods to pay all the expenses of the Connecticut Industrial School for three years. The moral and financial economy of such institutions should be popularly understood and appreciated. Again, I thank you for the opportunity to see this best of models."

These girls, between the ages of eight and sixteen, do all their room work, their own washing, ironing and cooking, make and mend their own clothing and bedding, and attend school three hours a day; beside this, have made over forty thousand paper boxes. They entered the school in the worst possible plight, pale and sickly; they soon change to beauty and health in many instances. Their parents were, in nine cases out of ten, criminals and drunkards. More than sixty per cent. were wholly or in part orphans. Not a few were taught by professional beggars, thieves, and prostitutes, the vilest arts and vices. They were born and bred amid profanity and impropriety.

Statistics of all reformatory institutions go to prove that sixty per cent. are saved. Of the Industrial School of Connecticut, seventyfive per cent. At Lancaster, about the same.

Having called attention to the importance of the cultivation of good morals in the youth of our country in order to retain the salvation of our republic and to the workings, difficulties, and successes of such schools, we come now to the question, Is such a school demanded for this State, and if so, is it advisable to establish it at once?

PEDAGOGIC LITERATURE.

A writer in the Christian Union, in an article entitled "The Unprofessional Profession," develops, in plain spoken terms, the. meagerness and ineffectiveness of pedagogic literature now extant. The title to his article seems to be derived from the implied fact, that the teacher's work should be ranked among the "professions," but, as he goes on to show that teachers themselves have done so little to discover, collate and systemize facts and principles relating to their occupation, that, as yet, the result is not entitled to the mantle of a "profession." "A Teacher " replies by a spirited article, hurling dozens of eminent writers' names in the face of his assertions to prove the high character of our professional literature.

We admire the spirit in which this was done; but the charge of the ineffectiveness of past and current literature, relating to the practical workings of the teacher's occupation, is indeed too true, and we shall do ourselves more honor to acknowledge than to deny it; but the remedy lies with us. We must, with the same zeal exhibited among the members of the now recognized "professions," set ourselves to make practical observations and present carefully digested results to the managers of our journals for publication, or at our meetings and conventions in the form of papers. Every State body of teachers should have some organized plan in this matter so that the results upon some one subject may be compared, and well founded facts and principles be deduced. Every teacher can take hold of this matter with benefit to himself and to the "profession."

The suggestions in the following extract from the writer first alluded to, are in point:

"Something like this: A teacher, say at the beginning of a term, enters on her record-book the character of her class-so many boys or girls, or both together; ages, so and so; have been taught so long, and in such and such a way. They take up a given subject, say fractions, and pursue it in a manner carefully set down; their progress from day to day is minutely recorded. At the end of a specified time, the results are briefly summed up. They know so much; can solve at sight such and such problems; fail to solve problems so and so; when set a new but allied task, they give such and such evidences of intelligence and skill. In the next room, a teacher of corresponding rank takes a similar class, and pursues the same subject by a different method; and so various methods are tested and their results compared."

Further, the writer courteously says:

"I would not be understood to say that teachers never make and record observations such as I have mentioned; for that would not be. true. My complaint is that so few do it, and that the organs of the teachers' associations do not seem to recognize that their peculiar and most fruitful field of effort lies in attending to just such professional matters." And he finally urges that the publication of such observations in teachers' journals would put them where they belong as representatives of the educators of the time.

We think that we may safely assert that the RHODE ISLAND SCHOOLMASTER has open doors for all such communications, and if some of our wide awake teachers will organize the matter suggested, there may be something published through our modest journal, that will redeem it from the weight of censure that our critic throws upon the current literature of the "Unprofessional Profession."

L. W. R.

Josh Billings says he will never patronize a lottery so long as he can hire anybody else to rob him at reasonable wages.

TEACHERS' ENCOURAGEMENTS AND DISCOURAGEMENTS.

At the Teachers' Institute at Westerly, December 16 and 17, Commissioner Bicknell, requested the teachers to write upon a slip of paper, first, the leading encouragement they found in their work, and second, the greatest discouragement. The following are a few of the answers or statements as written by the teachers.

The encouragement is numbered one, and the discouragement,

two:

1. Good attention of my pupils in recitation.

2.

Want of interest on the part of dull pupils.

1. Endeavors to follow a good example.

2. Tale bearing.

1. Improved regularity of attendance, and increase of interest and ambition.

2. Disposition to whisper, and to move the lips while studying. 1. Good salary, affectionate and earnest pupils.

2. Results unsatisfactory.

1. The thought, I can serve God in doing it, and love of the work.

2. Inexperience.

1. Seeing my pupils trying to make improvements, and that I have made them interested in their work.

2. Classifying my pupils and keeping them equally interested in their studies.

1. The mental discipline I receive myself.

2. Want of appreciation of the value of the study on the part of parents and pupils.

1. Perfect sympathy and appreciation of the Principal.

2. That I cannot make my pupils comprehend as fully, as I want them to, the value of truthfulness and accuracy in scholarship, and so in character.

1. The interest and zeal manifested by the pupils in their studies. 2. A feeling of incompetency on my own part as a teacher. 1. Progress of the scholars.

.2.

Indifference of parents.

1. Interest manifested by pupils in their studies.

2. Whispering in school.

1. To see my pupils wide awake, and to know that I am influencing them for the noblest good.

2. Want of interest and dullness, seeing no growing results.

THAYER STREET GRAMMAR SCHOOL, PROVIDENCE, R. I.

FOURTH GRADE,-two divisions, four rooms, one class in each room. WORK FOR ONE YEAR.

Written Arithmetic.

Review, and advance to Decimals.

Mental Arithmetic. Multiplication and division tables in all possible ways, with practical examples upon the same. Exercises in rapid addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; using the circle of numbers, the triangle, the square, or any other device, and ordinary columns, &c. Learn the prime and composite numbers to 150. Rapidly factor the composite numbers to 150; also, such other numbers as are easy multiples of numbers whose factors are already known. Follow the teacher's dictation of various combinations of small numbers. Those portions of the Intellectual Arithmetic corresponding to the topics taken up in the Written Arithmetic.

Writing. Half an hour each day, including the instruction and board illustrations by the teacher, tracing the copy, and slate or paper practice. Nos. 1 and 2, Potter & Hammond's school-series.

Voice Culture. Position. Free concert movements and breathings. Scale tones to F. Vowel, consonant, and combined sounds. Triangle and other forms as by Monroe, or by the teacher's own invention. Distinctly articulate the syllables of words by a free use of the lungs, tongue, lips and under jaw. Repeat phrases and sentences rapidly, distinctly, vigorously.

Reading. Daily. Hillard's Fourth. Accompany reading with recitation of sentences and passages.

Geography and Mapping. Review, and complete the United States. Spelling. Oral or written, from the Spelling-Book, and from words classified upon the board, such as Arithmetical terms, Geographical names, names of trees, plants, and the parts of a flower; names of common minerals and rocks; names applied to animals; articles found in a grocery store; articles of food; different parts of a dwelling, ship, or carriage; streets in Providence; reading lessons; &c., &c. 88 pages of the Speller.

Drawing. Three times a week. Straight lines and the combination of straight lines. Equal to Bartholomew's No. 1, or Spencerian No. 1, or to Walter Smith's elements. Inventive or copy system, or both.

Definitions. Arithmetic, Geography, Drawing, Music, Reading lessons. Music. Daily instruction and drill. Concert and individual reading, in time, by letters, by numbers, by syllables, and by words. Class-exercise by each pupil reading in order a single measure, the time being marked by the usual hand-motion. Class and individual singing. Simple exercises in notation, (writing measures, &c.)