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NE of the encouraging features of the Trans-Mississippi Educational Conven tion, to be held in Omaha June 28-30, is the consent of Dr. G. Stanley Hall to make up the program of the Child Study Congress. This insures an excellent meeting and gives additional reason why every teacher of the state should attend that convention. I am sure that every member of the Nebraska Child Study Association, as well as those of adjoining states, will lend Dr. Hall every assistance. Let the rallying cry now be "On to Omaha." Mrs. Grace B. Sudborough, president of the Nebraska Society for Child Study, who has had the management of this affair, deserves great credit in securing such an unquestioned leader as Dr. Hall to take charge of the program.

Or the many interesting papers on different phases of child study delivered before the Central Nebraska Teachers' Association, Kearney, Neb., we are able to furnish rather a full ex

tract of the one delivered by Supt. W. R. Hart, of Nelson, Neb., on "Practical Child Study." This address of Mr. Hart's was full of sound sense and, even in the present condensed form, is stimulating and suggestive. The many county and district associations of the state are among the chief sources of inspiration to the people, and the more vital the problems they consider the more influential for good they become.

Character is largely a matter of habit, and habit is the result of experiences. In the teaching of morality but little is accomplished by dealing with abstract principles. Before the mind can generalize or use to advantage the generalizations of others it must have material upon which to act, and this material is gained only through concrete illustrations. The greater the number of these concrete cases the safer the generalization. A bright, interesting story,

in which the effects of human actions are clearly shown, will accomplish more good when simply read to the children without comment than any number of moral lectures. If this story is selected with reference to the age and understanding of the child it will impress its own truths as no amount of moralizing can do. "The Ethical Value for Children of the Odys

sey," by F. W. Coburn, calls attention to the importance of such stories in developing the moral character of children. It is to be hoped that the reading of this article will induce many teachers who have not yet read the Odys sey and other early classics of the race to do so at the first opportunity. Is it not cruel to deprive a child of all the myths, fairy tales, folk lore, hero worship, and imaginative stories of his ancestry until he has passed the age in which he has pleasure in them?

In passing from the article of Mr. Coburn to the chapter on the "Passionate Boy," by Mr. Stableton, the reader may feel like asking himself the question, To what extent the perversity of character in No. 6 was due to the dearth in his earlier years of good literature, with suitable ethical content, out of which he could have gained the material for truer conceptions of the cles of Mr. Stableton show, at least, the imeffect of right and wrong conduct? These artiindividuality of children in all discipline. The portance of understanding and respecting the time for en masse treatment of children is past for every true teacher.

The readers of this department will certainly appreciate the interesting article of Dr. H. T. Lukens on "The Method of Suggestion in the Cure of Faults." Indirectly much of the information may be found of service to teachers, besides it is interesting to know to what important use hypnotic suggestion may be put in the hands of a worthy specialist. Dr. Lukens describes in this article the plan used by Dr. Edward Berillon, of Paris, in permanently curing, by means of hypnotic suggestion, a large class of degenerates. The success of Dr. Berillon's experiments will doubtless encourage the medical profession to make more careful study of this subject.

As indicated in the last issue, we are able to present in the present number of the MONTHLY the first part of President A. H. Yoder's paper on "Pubescence and Adolescence." The rest of the paper will follow later. The word pictures descriptive of this age selected by President Yoder are vivid and represent typical cases of the sudden changes that naturally occur during

the adolescent period. What we need most is greater knowledge of these changes and the accompanying phenomena. This will naturally come as a result of the greater attention which is now given to this period.

THE editor of this department has no desire to deprive anyone from quoting from its contents, and yet he has been surprised to find several editors making use of the material without giving due credit.

JUDGING from the program of the third annual meeting of the Kansas Society for Child Study, held at Emporia, Kan., April 21-23, one would infer that the movement is increasing, not only in popularity, but also in attracting to its aid the most intelligent students. On the program are many of the strongest teachers of the state, a few of whom have both a national and international reputation. Several notices of meetings in other states have also been received with equally encouraging features.

THE Handbook of the Wisconsin Child Study Society, which has just been received, contains many points of interest. It is edited by the secretary, Elnora Cuddeback Fulcomer, Milwaukee, Wis., and besides the constitution, list of members, plans for organizing local societies, of members, plans for organizing local societies, and suggestions for the study of children, contains several articles of especial value to beginners in the work.

FROM among the many yearly programs of the child study sections of mothers' meetings we publish one from the Woman's Club of Decatur, Ill. This is typical of many others that have been received, and we believe will be helpful in suggesting plans of organization and lines of study.

SEVENTH DIVISION WOMAN'S CLUB, DECATUR, ILL.

CHILD STUDY PROGRAM 1897-98.

September 21.-A Study in Human Nature. October 12.-Clothing of Children; Care of Their Bodies.

October 26.-The Eye and Ear (Dr. R. L. Watson). November 9.-Bad Habits: Cause and Cure. Good Habits: How Inculcated.

November 23.-Emergencies (Dr. Ellen F. Grimes). December 7.-Heredity, or the Right to be Well Born. December 21.-Duty of Parents to Children; Duty of Children to Parents.

January 4.-Plays and Games; Imitation. January 18.-Fears, Nature of, Cause and Cure; SelfControl.

February 1.-Instinct of Justice; Right and Wrong Punishments; Training of the Will.

February 15.-Reverence and Worship; Sunday Ob

servance.

March 1.-Truthfulness and Accuracy; Children's Falsehoods; Imagination.

March 15.-Fairy Tales, Mythology, Classics, Allegory, History, Adventure, Poetry, Pathos and Tragedy. March 29.-Esthetic Side of Child Nature. April 12.-Etiquette; Children's Parties. April 26.-Household Sanitation; Diet. May 10.--Parental Influence; Companions. May 24. Symposium: "The Benefits of Child Study."

Physical Measurements

IN the April number of the American Journal of Psychology, edited by President G. Stanley Hall, Mr. Frederic Burk gives an extended review of the various studies which have been made upon the development of children of school age in height and weight, the factors which condition this growth, and the theories which have been put forth by investigators relative to the subject. For the past twenty years or more measurements and weighings have been made of children at different ages, in groups or by individuals, and this article is the first atcorrelation of the material and in a form availa tempt to gather all these results and attempt a ble for pedagogical reference. The object of the review, as stated, is to give the salient conclusions which have been made and to furnish a

pathfinder to the literature. What at first strikes one is the surprising number of studies which have been made: the bibliography gives over one hundred titles dealing with the prob lem. The studies which are correlated are upon a heterogeneous assortment of races and conditions-Americans, English, Danes, Swedes, Germans, Swiss, Poles, Belgians, Russians, Italians, and Japanese. The writer finds, nevertheless, in the general form of the growth curves, a striking uniformity. Boys and girls grow at approximately the same rate and the same amount until about 11 or 12 years of age. The slight difference is in favor of the boys. At this age the girls' rate suddenly and materially accelerates, and in two or three years they reach practical maturity in height; nor are there any sudden increments of weight thereafter. The boys' rate does not show its correspondingly marked acceleration until the girls' rate has again slackened (in the 14th or 15th years). The boys then grow with the same singular rapidity for two or three years, exceeding the girls and reaching practical maturity in the 18th year. By virtue of these changes girls are actually taller and heavier than boys during the two or

three years of their prepubertal acceleration, which is usually the 12th, 13th, and 14th years, though there is considerable variation in the exact years. This general law of growth holds practically true of every study made and for all races. A chart giving the curves of growth of American and Japanese children shows that in these two divergent races the same law rules, though the Japanese are lighter and the acceleration of the girls' rate occurs on the average a few months earlier.

Among the most valuable features of the review are sets of tables and charts giving the height and weight at each year of age for the "average American boy" and "average American girl." These figures have been obtained, not by gross average methods, but upon a mathematical principle. Those for height have been worked out by Dr. Franz Boas, the well known anthropologist and mathematician, calculated from data of 45,151 American boys and 43,298 girls from 5 to 19 years, that had been gathered in the cities of Boston, St. Louis, Toronto, Worcester, Milwaukee, and Oakland (Cal.). The table of weights has been calculated by the mathematician M. de Perott from about 69,000 children in the cities of Boston, St. Louis, and Milwaukee. The tables are as follows, that of height being in inches and that of weight in pounds:

rate of growth makes it a more favorable period for mental education than the later storm period in development.

Turning now to the problem of individual variations, the writer gives tables of weighings and measurements of individuals from birth to 25 years; and also a valuable table computed by Dr. Boas from the same 90,000 American children showing the limits of individual variation and the percentage at any given age of any given height. These extreme limits increase very slightly with age; the limits of variation of sixty per cent of children is not more than four or five inches at any age.

The growth of children is by rhythms, and nowhere shows regularity of rate. There are large rhythms of two or three years each to be followed throughout-acceleration and then retardation; of these the most marked acceleration is that just preceding puberty and the most marked retardation precedes this acceleration. There are also one or two smaller rhythms to be observed still earlier in the school age, but the studies in various countries do not agree upon the periods, form, nor their duration. They are probably governed by more or less local causes. But the rhythm principle is shown to extend still further, and seasonal rhythms, weekly rhythms, daily rhythms, and even hourly rhythms, have been clearly demonstrated by various investigators. The seasonal rhythm has been worked out by Malling-Hansen, of Denmark, who, by careful and accurate measurements in detail, has shown that the year is broken up into these vibrations of the growth rate for both height and weight. Children in Denmark grow most rapidly in weight from August to December; from December to May boys grow only one-third as fast, and from May to August almost the whole weight gained dur ing the period from December to May is actually lost. In regard to height, the period of maximal growth is from April to August; the minimal from August to November, and from November to April is a period of moderate growth. It is thus seen that while the winter is a period of moderate growth for both height and weight, the maximal period of growth in height is the minimal period of growth in weight and vice versa. The speculative question is raised whether or not, therefore, growth in height is not at the expense of weight; at least it would appear that the two forms of growth are directly opposed to each other. The same fact is

brought out by daily rhythms, the child in the daytime increasing in weight and losing in height, while at night he increases in height and loses in weight.

The conditioning factors of growth which have been put forth are nutrition, race, climate, etc. The facts are gathered and reviewed at considerable length, especially in the case of nutrition, but the writer finds no conclusive principles; the data is not sufficient. In regard In regard to death rate and growth, the Hartwell law that the death rate is lowest during the rapid acceleration of the pubertal years is accepted as established. The evidence, principally European, suggests the probability that periods of most rapid growth are periods also of greatest resistance to chronic diseases, though this is doubtful.

The important pedagogical problem hinges upon the relation of the rapidity in growth to mental development: whether or not a child who grows most rapidly learns more rapidly than one who is growing slowly; whether, of children of the same age, the taller and heavier are brighter or duller mentally. Dr. Porter unequivocally concludes from his study of 34,500 school children of St. Louis that the heavier and taller child is more precocious. Dr. West, from a study of Toronto children, takes a directly opposed view; Dr. Gilbert, from a study of a comparatively small number of New Haven and Iowa children, yet by means of a very accurate method of laboratory experiments, is doubtful, but is rather inclined to agree with Dr. West. The test of precocity differs, how ever. Dr. Porter accepted as the evidence of precocity the school grade of the child in comparison with its age, while Drs. West and Gilbert take as the test the teacher's off-hand judg ment upon thechild's degree of mentality. Mr. Burk gives the data in support of each view, the criticisms which have been made pro and con, but reaches no conclusion; he thinks more investigation in the light of criticisms which have been made is necessary.

In conclusion the writer makes a plea, in face of the facts reviewed, for the recognition of the problem of growth as a legitimate field of psychological and pedagogical inquiry. It is evident, at least, that mentality is in some way conditioned by the factors of physical growth, and the subject is one of which no educator nor psychologist can afford to be ignorant in the

present phases of these sciences and their manifest essential relation to the growth problem.

The article reproduces a large number of tables giving data from foreign publications heretofore inaccessible to the general reader, and calculations therefrom, and is replete with charts illustrating various phases of the problem. Six extensive tables give the measurements and weighings as made by all investigators, the annual increases, and the percentage rate of growth for each. A bibliography is given which contains a condensation of the facts to be found in each important investigation.

We are able to give but a meager account of an article so full of condensed material and valuable facts of former investigations. Mr. Burk, by this study, has performed a great ser vice to the teachers of the country, and not to the teachers only, but to everyone interested in the health, growth, and education of children.

Practical Child Study

[Abstract of paper by Superintendent W. R. Hart, read before the Central Nebraska Teachers' Association,

ALL

Kearney, Neb.]

LL child study is practical that has for its object a deeper insight into child nature. Child study rests on a broader foundation than the passing fads that live but a day and are gone. The child is not a mere Jack-inthe-box to be played upon by the whims of edurational system-makers. His interests are as many-sided as the civilization into which he is born. We not only need a child-centered pedagogy, but a child-centered business code, a childcentered theology, and a child-centered marriage license.

The practical or unpractical phases of child study will be determined by one's point of view. The interest of the naturalist will lead him to regard the child as a developing animal. The parent's interest will be centered in the laws of heredity, as these become more widely diffused and better understood. The teacher will be concerned with the growth of intelligence. Practical child study must include all these and The child must be regarded as a part of Biology must compass the life of man in common with all animal life.

more.

nature.

The study of children by parents leads parents to a study of themselves. When the influence of heredity is understood and believed in like