NOTES.

NATURE STUDY.

At the New England Conference of Educa tional Workers, held in Boston last month, Professor L. H. Bailey of Cornell University delivered an instructive lecture on "Nature Study, what it is and how it may be taught." He said that he thought it a mistake to attempt to teach children science as science. He would not, he said, teach botany or entomology to children, but he would teach them about plants and flowers and insects. He had never told his children about botany, and he thought it was well not to startle the child with hard names, but to bring it into contact with nature in its simplest forms. Whatever the teacher loves the best and knows the most about is the best thing for him to teach; and the best of these are the things by which the child is surrounded. There is not an object in nature, however simple it may be, that will not furnish a fact, a reason for the fact, and the suggestion. Give the child a taste for nature study and in time he will naturally turn to that department to which his tastes incline. Even those who are brought into the closest contact with nature are not those who know it. The farmers have never seen cornstalks, potatoes, sheep or chickens. They have looked at them, but they have not seen them.

Prof. C. F. Hodge of Clark University spoke of the necessity for activity in education. Knowledge, he said, is useless unless it is made practicable. The knowledge acquired should be turned to account by teaching facts of importance that the child can apply in the every-day walks of life. Teach them how to know and how to exterminate the insects that prey upon apple, peach, plum, cherry and other trees; insects that are to be found in city lots and city tenements.

THE NEW EDUCATION IN NEW YORK.

Over in Gowanus there are many parents who object to the new course of study in the schools. One father in the "Slab City" district wrote:

"Teach my daughter readin' and 'rithmatick and not those new-fangled yankee notions about cutting paper dolls with sizzors."

The fact that the "Slab City" parents object to clay modeling in the schools is illustrated in the following note sent to a teacher in one of the Tenth Ward schools:

"Miss: John kem home yesterday wid his clothes covered with mud. He said you put him to work mixing clay when he ought to be learning to read an' write. Me man carries th' hod, an' God knows I hev enuf trouble wid his clothes in th' wash widout scraping John's coat. If he comes home like this again I'll send him back ter yez to wash his clothes. MRS. O'R-."

Here is one from a Brownville mother who objects to physical culture.

Mis Brown-You must stop teach my Lizzie fisical torture she needs yet readin' an' figors mit sums more as that, if I want her to do jumpin' I kin make her jump.

MRS. CANAVOWSKY

The number of parents who object to the temperance plank in the educational platform is greater than the number of objectors to any other class of study in Williamsburgh. Here

is a copy of a note sent to a teacher in the

Stagg Street School:

"Miss: My boy tells me that when I

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The Glad New Year

Who comes dancing over the snow
His soft little feet all bare and rosy?
Open the door, though the wild winds blow,
Take the child in and make him cozy.
Take him in and hold him dear,

He is the wonderful, glad New Year.

- Dinah Mulock Craik

The Guest

Perhaps you have heard of Jack Frost
Who's traveling down from the north
To give us a call, big folks and small,
No matter what it may cost.

He sails on an iceberg, I know;
And the wind is his captain and crew;

And he reaches our shore somewhat before
The beautiful lady of snow.

He's a reckless young fellow, is Jack!

He has the wonderful knack

Of pinching your ears, and bringing the tears,

And giving your pitchers a crack.

But everyone has his bright moods;

And I think you may search many roods,

And find no such wreaths as Jack paints when

he breathes

On the window, a dream of the woods.- Sel.

A Wind Song

What does the North Wind say

When he swings in the pine-tree to and fro?
Oh, he sighs all day,

"Little flowers there below,
Cuddle down in your beds,
And cover your heads,
For I'm bringing the snow,
The cold, cold snow;
Oh, ho!"

What does the North Wind say

When he whistles and roars down the chimney so?
Oh, he sings all day,
"Little folks there below,

Little Nell, little Ted,
Hurry out with your sled,
For I'm bringing the snow,
The merry, merry snow;

Oh ho!". Helen T. Eliot

In Winter *

(Song)

ALICE E. ALLEN Music by Elsie Dean Miller

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
Baby snowflakes swinging,
There were more,― nine, ten, eleven,
Heard the children singing:

Then these little snowflakes spied
Sister snowflakes near them,

"How those children sing!" they cried,
"Let us go and hear them."

See them dancing-millions more,

Hurrah! Dick and Dolly,

Give three cheers - one, two, three, four!

Isn't winter jolly?