MISS M.: In visiting the winter schools, I find some faults in management and instruction which should be corrected. Allow me to speak plainly of what I notice as defective, in your school, You lack energy. In your manner, you appear dull and stupid. Your heart beats too slowly; your blood runs sluggishly in its round of circulation ; your eyes do not flash with enthusiasm; your voice falters, all indicating a want of earnestness in your work. And the difficulty is, your pupils imbibe your spirit. "As is the teacher, so is the school." They, too, are wanting in interest and zeal. Idleness and mischief have been engendered, and there is already complaint. that you do not "keep order." This is the natural consequence. The evil effects cannot be avoided when the cause still exists. A cold bath in the morning, or an hour or two of vigorous Free Gymnastics, would do you good. It would also be useful for you to dwell frequently and long upon the greatness and importance of your work, and the responsibility of your position. I advise you to read the life of Dr. Arnold, and other similar works which are well calculated to awaken the spirit of earnestness in the teacher. By some means, do wake up and stir yourself,

or I must advise you to seek some more congenial employment. Another great fault is found in your instruction. You have adopted the old tread mill process of teaching books. Your pupils do not dream that there is anything beyond the mere formal lesson assigned, and even that is regarded as an unmeaning task. You assign a spelling lesson and require it to be studied and recited, but in recitation no attention is given to syllabication or defining. The words may be spelled correctly, but they are remembered, if at all, as unmeaning trash. They may as well be Latin or Hebrew as English, for the definition and use of the words are not understood. The same is true in your reading lessons. Not one of your pupils can take up a sentence and define the words of which it is composed. Not one in ten of them have an English Dictionary, and if they had they would find no use for it, under your method of instruction. Defining extensively and accurately, is an indispensable part of every recitation, in every department of instruction. Nothing should be passed over in any book whose meaning is not understood. But you may say you have not time. My reply is, take time. Let the lesson be shorter if need be, but see that it is understood. It is of the first importance that our scholars should learn their own language. The child at home demands the meaning of words whenever he hears them used, and he would have the same interest to define and investigate at school, if he had the slightest encouragement from his teacher to do so.

This habit of investigation is valuable as a habit in life. To induce thinking and inquiry is one grand object of the school. In this respect your system is a total failure. And I find the same fault in a majority of the schools I have visited this winter..

Make your

Another timely suggestion is this. instruction practical. The object of school is to fit

the scholar for the business of life. If he studies theEnglish language, he should be able to converse fluently and correctly, and to write a respectable letter on business or friendship. If he studies Arithmetic, he should be able after leaving school, to transact mercantile business correctly. But do you secure this result? How many of your pupils can write a letter with every word correctly spelled, with the right use of capitals and the correct use of language? How many of your scholars in Arithmetic can make out a bill of goods and give a correct sum of items? How many can write a legal note, order and receipt. How many can cast the interest in partial payments and make a proper endorsement when a payment is made? How many can measure a pile of wood and give you the value, in dollars and cents? Yet, if your instruction has not prepared them for such practical work, it will be of little importance to them. If you would make practical scholars, you must drill them in practical examples not found in their text-books. Convert your school room, occasionally, into a little mercantile college. Take your pupils out of the tread mill of formal recitation and require them to solve independent examples, and to transact the real business of common life. In this way your services will be rendered infinitely more valuable.

I trust, Miss M., that you will receive the above sug gestions with the same kindness with which they have been made. Yours truly,

H.

STATISTICAL.-Number of heads of families in Vermont, 56,070; children between four and eighteen, 86,562; weeks of school taught by males, 11,136; weeks of school taught by females, 52,908. There have been 3,364 less weeks of school by male teachers, and 1,843 more weeks of school by female teachers during this than last year.

THE VERMONT TEACHERS ASSOCIATION held its fourteenth annual meeting, at the brick church in Montpelier, commencing Tuesday Jan. 12, 7 o'clock P. M.

At the appointed hour the house was well filled; the President, Rev. Pliny H. White in the chair. After prayer by Rev. O. D. Allis of W. Randolph, Hon. Timothy P. Redfield in a brief, appropriate address welcomed the association to the hospitalities of Montpelier. The President responded in a very happy manner, alluding to the commendable interest manifested by the citizens of Montpelier in education and to the credit they had done themselves and the State, in erecting a School House almost rivaling the Capitol in size and architectural beauty. He also paid a just tribute to the patriotism of Vermont Teachers, her sons promptly volunteering to do battle against the enemies of the Republic, and her daughters coming up to fill their places in the equally important war against ignorance and moral degradation. Cordial greetings were exchanged by the teachers and other friends of education and the audience retired for the evening.

Wednesday morning. After prayer by Rev. Mr. Parkinson of Randolph, Mr. G. P. Beard of Northfield opened the discussion upon "The proper method of Teaching Arithmetic." Allusion was made to the comparative importance of this practical branch of education and the consequent demand for rare qualifications in the Teacher. The nature of the subject directs to the proper method of teaching it. Arithmetic is both a science and an art. The science embodied in axioms and rules, must be thoroughly understood. Every mathematical operation requires logical reasoning and hence is peculiarly disciplinary.

In the art, teachers should insist on accuracy and ra

pidity. The end to be gained is discipline and practical skill. Each pupil should be made as far as possible, a clear sighted, original, independent thinker. The method adapted to the character of the subject and the end in view, requires the best text books in preparing lessons, but independence of them in recitation. In Mental Arithmetic let the pupil (standing and without a book) give orally, a full solution of the example, step by step. No other method is tolerable. In written Arithmetic the scholar (also standing) should recite by topics in a logical order the principles of the lesson illustrating upon the board by original examples. The discussion was followed by a lecture by E. Conant of Randolph, upon Recitation. This subject. is one of so much importance and was so happily treated that we propose to give a more full abstract in the March number of the Journal.

After the Lecture, the discussion was resumed and applied not only to the proper method of teaching Arithmetic, but to recitations in general. Mr. Orcutt regarded the subject of the lecture one of the most important that could be brought before the Teachers of Vermont, and was much pleased with the manner in which it was treated. Should the principles here developed be fully understood and applied to practical teaching in all our schools, a complete revolution would be effected. For this deficiency our teachers are not to be blamed. We have no Normal Schools in which to train them for their important work; we give them limited opportunities and almost no encouragement to self culture. Mr. Orcutt illustrated and enforced with earnestness, several of the points advanced by Mr. Conant. The time assigned for recitation must not be spent by the teacher in lecturing, nor asking questions. It is entirely the work of the pupil. The teacher must assign lessons, guide the class, correct mistakes, and suggest improvements as to the method of recitations, but he has no right to occupy the time in any