A GEADED SCHOOL COURSE OF STUDY, AS EXEMPLIFIED IN INDIANLPOLIS-Cont'd. 4. Subjects in black type are prescribed and must be taken before gradua. tion, but may give place to electives. 5. Subjects in italics may be taken as indicated. The subject is placed in the lowest grade in which it may be elected without special permission. Pupils of a higher grade may take any electives arranged for a lower grade. 6. There are two courses in German: I, extending through four years, and II, extending through three years. Botany. PROPOSED UNIFORM COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF THE STATE. Reported December, 1885, by a Committee of the State Teachers' Association. 1. Mathematics, 540 lessons-20 per cent. English, 618 lessons-21 per cent. History and philosophy, 432 lessons-16 per cent. Physical science, 540 lessons--20 per cent. Language, 510 lessons-20 per cent. 2. The course has been prepared with special reference to use in cities of ten thousand inhabitants and less, and with not more than three teachers in the high school, 3. The arrangement is such that pupils who wish to do so may enter the freshman year in our State colleges at close of the third year high school. 13 ED VIII. HIGH SCHOOLS. Township high schools necessary to a complete system.-Superintendent Jones, of Dakota: "In my last annual report I suggested that authority be delegated to each township in the Territory to establish a central high school, and that it be made a connecting link between the common schools and the universities. It would not be expected of each township that it establish and maintain such a school at once; but if the power is granted to them those having the necessary wealth may move in that direction immediately, while the weaker corporations should either wait till they acquire the ability or unite with one, two, or three others for the purpose. I am of the opinion that while the State undertakes to provide for the collegiate education of our children in addition to the common school course, there should be no break in the connection between them. "No satisfactory reason can be urged for tolerating the 'missing link' which now exists, if there is a satisfactory reason that can be given for the establishment and maintenance by the State of the universities, which provide for the higher education. In fact the high school course is of far greater importance to the people than is the university course. At all events, the pupil is now barred from the university by a yawning chasm, which should be bridged over by the same system which bestows the common school education, when the structure will be complete. The pupil who begins with the first steps will climb the intellectual ladder round by round, till he reaches the climax; and the complete idea, the perfect system, the unity and grandeur of the structure will be the glory of the Commonwealth.” Influence of the high school.-Superintendent Morgan, of West Virginia: "As a part of the free schools the high school has become a factor of transcendent importance in the education of the people. "Its influence is now specially marked in two directions. It is the crown and completion of the free school system, and by its close connection with the intermediate schools and the system of promotion therefrom it not only encourages but compels thorough work in them. The intermediate schools are in turn encouraged to thorough work by the prospect of advancement. In the second place, it affords the great body of the people the convenient means of academic training." IX.-HYGIENE. An improvement in heating and ventilation.-Superintendent Kennedy, of Wayne County, Pennsylvania: "The improvement made in heating and ventilating the graded school building at Honesdale deserves notice. The plans were made by William J. Baldwin, of the Sanitary Engineer, and are in successful operation. This system furnishes each of the 600 pupils 1,000 cubic feet of fresh, warm air per hour, and keeps the moms at a proper temperature in the coldest weather. The air is introduced into the building through a cold air duct; from this extend smaller ducts, conveying the air to the heating-coils, of which there is one for each room. The air, when warmed, is passed by a separate duct into each room about 8 feet from the floor. Each room is provided with a foul-air duct (ventilating shaft), which starts from the floor and extends to the attic. Each ventilating shaft is provided with two registers-one near the floor, and the other near the ceiling-the first for ordinary ventilation, the last for ventilation in summer. Each ventilating shaft is provided with a radiator, to secure perfect draught. The foulair ducts are collected in a chamber above, and from this a large duct passes through the roof, allowing the foul air to escape. The air is introduced into and taken from the rooms without perceptible currents, is pure, and maintained at a temperature of nearly 72 degrees." Forcible removal of foul air necessary.-Superintendent Smith, of Syracuse, N. Y.: "We have not found the best results while depending on natural ventilation, and for this reason the power ventilation is contemplated in the High School at the beginning of next school year, by which the cold and foul air is to be withdrawn from the building by means of a fan acting on the principle of suction, and forcing the air through ventilating shafts into the open air in the roof. Drawing in the air in this manner from the rooms causes a partial vacuum, which is balanced by an equal amount of pure air, coming over steam-heated radiators in cold weather, or through the same apertures in warm weather without heat, making it possible to have nearly perfect ventilation at all seans. This school was built with these shafts just as they will be when the apparatus is completed, depending upon the natural flow of foul air through these shafts; but during all the years the building has stood there has been at times no ventilation, and never such as should be had. The newer buildings are better than the old, but, as has been fund in respect to the High School, we shall not realize such changes in the air as the best sanitary conditions require, till some mechanical appliance is made use of for driving out the contaminated and used-up school-room air." Speaking of buildings without ventilating shafts, Superintendent Smith says: "Only the greatest care on the part of the teachers by opening windows or doors will protect pupils, as well as themselves, from the effects of overheated and bad air. This is not likely to be attended to as it should be on account of the many duties requiring teachattention and thought; and in many cases teachers are made conscious of the condition of the room by the complaints of pupils that they have headache, or by a feeling of exhaustion or prostration in themselves. The teacher at once opens into the outside tir and exposes all in the room to such sudden change of temperature that there is even more danger than to have continued as they were. We hope for better things in the Dear future." Ventilation of rural school-houses.-Dr. D. M. Currier, of New Hampshire, suggests a plan for the ventilation "of rural school-houses by constructing an incoming or cold-air det under the timbers of the floor, reaching from outside and opening directly upwards under the stove, and furnished with a valve to regulate the flow. Completely round the stove by a galvanized iron case. Ventilation could be provided by placing register in the chimney near the floor. The chimney should be large, and the smokepipe should pass through it to the top, thus creating a powerful ventilating draught.” Headache in school children.-"Prof. N. J. Bystroff has examined 7,478 boys and girls in the St. Petersburg schools during the last five years, and found headache in 868, that is, 11.6 per cent. He states that the percentage of headache increases almost in a direct progression with the age of the children, as well as with the number of hours ocaped by them for mental labor; thus, while headache occurred in only 5 per cent. of the children aged 8, it attacked from 28 to 40 per cent. of the pupils aged from 14 to The author argues that an essential cause of obstinate headache in school children is the excessive mental strain enforced by the present educational programme, which leaves out of consideration the peculiarities of the child's nature and the ele mentary principles of scientific hygiene. The overstrain brings about an increased irritability of the brain and consecutive disturbances in the cerebral circulation. Professor Bystroff emphatically insists on the imperative necessity for permanently admitting medical men to conferences of school boards. Of palliative measures he mentans methodical gymnastics, mild aperients, in well-nourished children; steel in the |