tory Museum, collections have been prepared For the weekly lectures or talks on art, given to high-school pupils in one of our lecturerooms, we likewise furnish much material in the way of illustrative books, both for lecturer and pupil. To these may be added the easy and practical examination of art objects and pictures, and art-books, and of the fuller natural history collections. The teachers bear witness to the usefulness of the library in these ways, and to the extension of the so-called "laboratory method" to all branches and grades of study. One of our school principals writes: "The books thus supplied in history, geography, and other departments of school study are of inestimable value, stimulating and developing in the pupils a taste for solid literature, and enabling the teachers to give a broader education than could possibly be done by the use of text-books and oral instruction alone." Indeed, he adds that, "after having been accustomed for a time to this method, he should hardly know what to do with his school if he could not avail himself of the opportunities for this supplementary use of books in connection with the text-books in use." The librarians also notice gradual improvement in the methods of study in those who come week after week, perhaps year after year, to make use of our books for school-work. CHILDREN'S READING: WHAT SOME OF THE TEACHERS SAY. THE Public Library of Denver is maintained, by School District No. One; a district embracing about half the population of the city and a large proportion of its taxable property. It has at present an enrolment of about 10.000 children. The library is a part of the district's educational system; and while it serves the public as effectively as its resources permit, every care is taken to make it popular with the teachers, attractive to the children, and adapted generally to the needs of the schools. With this end in view a great deal of attention has been paid to the purchase of books for teachers and pupils, and every effort has been made to induce both teachers and pupils to make use of the library. A recent inquiry showed that of the 700 children in the high school over 90% have library cards. Of the total books lent for home use about one-third are from the juvenile room, which contains about one-fifth of the library's lending department. Of the total number of visitors to the library—they have averaged for a good part of the last winter about 1500 per day -nearly 700 are children. The library came into existence, as an institution of practical use to the schools, about five years ago, with about 7500 volumes. Since that time its connection with the schools has in creased as rapidly as the growth of volumes on the shelves has permitted. It now has 35,000 volumes, a great many of which are all the time in teachers' and pupils' hands. Collections of from 10 to 50 and 60 volumes are sent to teachers' rooms on their request and largely of their own selection, and are kept for one month, or six months, or as long as wanted. Teachers lend these books for home use, or not, as to them seems best. This work in the schools has been going on for several years; but to a large extent only during the past 12 months. The school district itself purchased, four years ago, about 3000 volumes of supplementary readers. This collection it has increased to about 8000 volumes; the list now including not only supplementary readers but a large number of books called desk - books, like Matthews's "American literature," " Portraits and sketches of American authors,' "How to teach reading," Dole's "American citizen," etc. The fact that the school district sustains and controls the library; that it is under the supervision of the superintendent of schools, and that it has been for several years in close touch with teachers and pupils, explains the interest taken by teachers in a circular of inquiry about children's reading which was recently sent, through the principals, to every teacher in grades one to four, 101 in all. The principals were requested, at one of their meetings, to call the attention of the teachers to the fact that in answering these inquiries they could help the library in its work; but that they were under no obligations whatever to make any reply, and that no one save themselves and the librarian would ever know whether they replied or not. The object of this explanation was to make sure that only those teachers who were interested in the matter for its own sake should express any opinions. Of the 101 circulars sent out, 73 were returned. The principals of the grade schools, 16 in number, were also asked to reply to the questions, and 13 did so. Their replies are included in the figures below. The questions and the replies, the latter tabulated as fully as possible, were as follows: 6. What proportion of the children under your care do you think are in the habit of reading books? As many as one in 10? Average of all estimates is 30 per cent. 7. Do the children under your care read the trashy story-paper and "nickel libraries" to any great extent ? 51 say, no; 6 say, yes. 8. If so, do you think some of them would change to better reading if the better were of fered them? 9. If you have any decided views on children's reading in general, will you write them down on the other side of this sheet? The replies to question I (a) are perhaps what might naturally have been expected; and yet it seems a little remarkable that there are among 101 average teachers of children between six and II, or among the 73 who replied, only one who is of the opinion that it would not be well for CHILDREN'S READING: OPINIONS AND SUGGESTIONS pupils to read more books than they now read. OF TEACHERS. Will you help the public library by answering as fully as you can the following questions? Return this sheet by mail in the enclosed envelope. 1. (a) Do you think it would be well for pupils in your grade to read more books? (b) What are the reasons for your opinion? To (a) 13 answer, yes; one answers, no. 2. How early in their school life is it possible, on the average, to interest children in independent, outside reading? The reasons for the affirmative replies, and a good idea of the character of the notes accompanying them, will be found in the following extracts: "The reading habit should be formed early." Reading would add greatly to their limited vocabulary, and improve their language, written and oral." "Reading will make them more intelligent thinkers." 'The pupil who does the most outside read 32 say, in the first grade (children about 6%1⁄2 years old). ing is a better reader than the one who does lit25 say, in the second grade 14 say, in the third grade 44 72 82 64 3. (a) Could you increase the amount of reading done by the children in your grade if you had books which you could lend them for home use? (b) Could you increase the reading, even in the first grade, if you had appropriate books to lend ? To (a) 73 say, yes; 2 say, no. 4. Can you name some of the more essential characteristics of the books which especially interest the children in your grade? tle or none; is more intelligent and a better talker." "I find all my good readers are those who read at home." "Those who are liberally supplied by their parents with good books as a rule express their thoughts correctly." "It is easier to influence a child's taste for good reading at the age of eight or nine than several years later." "Reading awakens their interest for other 31 say, "Should be about plants, animals, and other things." familiar things." 24 Say, "Should be about fairies and the like." II say, "Children who read good books are better “Must have human interest" (this essential is prepared for their grade work.” also impliedly mentioned in many other replies). To say, "Should have illustrations." 5. (a) To the children of what grade can you❘ show the difference between books - between those that are true to life and those that are not; between those that may be called literature, and those that may be called silly? (b) To those, say, below the fifth grade? To (6) 32 say, yes; 5 say. no. "I find that pupils who read most are those who most intelligently grasp nearly all subjects." "If outside reading did nothing but familiarize children with good conversational English it would be worth while." The answers to the second question are probably very much affected by the experience of those who make the replies. Teachers who have never taught in the first grade would be commonly, I suppose, more sceptical about interesting children in reading while they are still in that grade than those who have had experience in primary work. It will be noted that the 71 replies to this question all say that it is possible to interest children in outside reading | by the time they are in the third grade. This means by the time they are 10 years of age. Question 3 (a) comes as a natural result of the opinions indicated in the replies to 1 and 2. If one can draw any conclusion from these answers it would seem that they indicate that not yet has sufficient attention been paid to the reading of the very young. We have been talking about the "juveniles" in our library work for years, and have meant, in general, books for children of the age for Oliver Optic and Harry Castlemon; we should have been putting in a good part of our time in the consideration of books for children of the age for "Mother Goose," and "Puss in boots," and "Jack the giant-killer." Question 3 (b) is also in effect a part of the reply to question 2. 44 out of 50 teachers are evidently of the opinion that children of six and seven years of age could easily be persuaded to take an interest in books at home. In their replies to question 2, teachers make such remarks as the following: "Every child would read at home if he had anything interesting to read." "You can interest children in outside reading just as soon as they are able to read at all." "My pupils are second grade, and have surprised me by asking for stories." In replying to question 3 some of them say: “Surely, and to great advantage even in the first grade, and in this grade many more books are needed than we now have. The little ones are greedy for them." Another says that most of the children in her grade are from homes where parents have little or no leisure to procure books; but gladly make use of whatever is placed in their way for the children. Another says: "I find that two-thirds of my children's reading is confined to Sunday-school papers." The replies to question 4 must be considered as being the natural outcome of the movement of recent years toward nature study. In the schools of this district, in the last two or three years, very much attention has been paid to natural history. The most elaborate of the courses of study issued by the district last fall was devoted to the sciences of botany, geology, zoölogy, metallurgy, astronomy, etc. It would seem from these replies, in the first place, that it is evident that teachers can interest their children in any subjects they wish; and in the second place, that the result of the work of récent years, in these particular schools at least, has been to interest children in plants, animals, and like familiar things. Of course, it is not yet proven that paying so much attention to natural history is a good thing from an educational point of view. The important point to note is that teachers can produce certain specific effects upon children, can direct their attention and their interests, if they wish. In answering question 4 some of the teachers say: "Almost any subject if expressed in short sentences and illustrated." "Must be true to the child's experience, and expressed in the child's simple way." "You can interest primary children in any tale on earth that you tell them, and in almost any that you read to them." "A child is interested in the life and actions of a normal child if naturally and pleasantly described; he is very fond of detail." "I find the boys mostly interested in historical works, while the girls are attracted towards accounts of the manners and customs of the various nations." "They like stories of modern life which come near enough to their own experience to be easily understood.” Question 5 is, of course, very much of a leap in the dark, and not much reliance can be placed upon the replies. It was understood in the drawing up of these questions that they would not be of any great value by reason of the replies to them that might be received. The object kept in view in preparing them, and in sending them out, was the interesting teachers in several aspects of the problem of children's reading. We wished to draw attention to the library and to books in general; and we took pains to frame the questions in such a way as to call the attention of the teachers to their own indifference, if they were indifferent, and their own ignorance, if they were ignorant, of the things the circular spoke of. Question 5, it was thought, would raise certain questions, and perhaps for the first time, in a good many of the teachers' minds. The replies to 5 would indicate that more of the teachers had given the question serious consid eration than librarians generally have supposed. They say, for example, that first-grade children "can appreciate the difference between a good story and goody-goody stories." And "any child of average intelligence can be made to see and understand the difference, if one will give time and attention to the effort." The replies to question 6 are, on the whole, rather encouraging. If one-third of the children from six to II in the average city school | are in the habit of reading, we have a great field for work, and there is enough to do to keep us all busy for many years in taking pains that the reading they do is of the proper kind. In regard to question 7, the general opinion seems to be that the story-paper and the "nickel library" does not come into a child's life until he is past the 4th grade, or is nearly 12 years of age. It would be interesting to know if this is a fact. I believe the teachers who made replies to question 7 know what they are talking about. years from six to II; if they can be induced to read, in the main, whatever the teacher may care to give them ; if they are not likely to come in contact with cheap and nasty literature until they have passed this period: then is it most evident that this is the period in young folks' lives within which the public library and the school-room library can, and should, do its best and most enduring work. Here is the period when the reading habit should be formed; here is the period when, to as great an extent as possible, right taste should be formed. It is suggested by the replies to these questions that it is possible, at least, that a great deal of our public library work has been aimed at people who are already beyond salvation, and that we should amend our ways, widen out our children's departments, work our way still more thoroughly and effectively into the schools, gain the co-operation and the aid of the teachers- they above all others can help us - win the sympathy and good-will and assistance of the parents, and get at the children between If children can be led to read during the the ages of six and II. SCHOOL LIBRARIES. BY ELECTRA C. DOREN, Librarian Dayton (0.) Public Library. As great even as a good book is the power to communicate to another the love for one. To win children to this love, to lead them to appropriate to themselves ideals from characters in books, to appeal to the sense of ethical relation through their imaginations, to deepen and enrich the emotions by suggestion; in other words, to so read a good book into a child that he is bound in some way to live it out in himself, is a privilege, the hope of which alone is enough to sweeten days of unseen and never-to-be-acknowledged drudgeries of the school-room and the library. To make possible this privilege, and to realize to a greater degree than has heretofore been done the ideal mission of the book to the people, is the ultimate aim of the school library system of Dayton. It is one thing to select books for a given purpose and bring them together as a symmetrical collection of ideas tending toward that purpose; it is another to invent and operate the machinery for distributing them to convenient points for the user; and it is another and a very different thing to use the book - to open it to the reader, be he child, woman, or man, so that it shall be felt by him to be a real thing. Within the limits of opportunity and with such means as have been at its command, the Public Library of Dayton has taken the first and the second step. The last can only be taken when the public shall demand that the course of instruction shall include the pleasure of reading as well as the study of it as a word-calling exercise. To describe this movement so far as it has taken place in Dayton with the third step as its goal in view is my object. A fondness for reading as a preferred form of idleness is not necessarily a love for good books; it is too often a love for bad books, and if unguarded by circumstance, which in itself is a kind of circumspect prohibition, or uncorrected by natural good taste or conscience, it will soon develop into a vicious habit, and the speedy degeneration of memory and will-power takes place. Mental and moral fibre having been attacked and weakened are thus prepared to succumb before temptation of a more active sort when the opportunity for it shall arrive. Notwithstanding the solicitude often expressed by parents, educators, and librarians upon the subject of children's reading, it is a matter which has been left largely to regulate itself by chance. To organize chance and to array it upon the side of good sense is the better part of valor in a reformation of this sort, for such in part it must be. Having at my disposal, last spring, three months of good leisure, I determined with Miss Eastman, then the assistant librarian at Dayton, to follow up a series of library lectures instituted by the library board during the preceding winter, with a study of the use made of the public library by teachers and pupils of the public schools. The address at the opening of this lecture course by Mr. Frank Conover, the secretary of the board, upon the "Relation of the public library to the public school," and also that of Dr. W. J. Conklin, the vice-president, upon the “Educational value of the public museum," had called special attention to these institutions as educational factors, and were an excellent preface for the purpose which we had in view. This purpose is set forth in the following note addressed by us to each of the principals of the public schools: "We are seeking information concerning the reading of children as a working basis for ourselves in making selected book lists which we hope will help the child in his choice of out-ofschool reading, and at the same time be a means by which we may co-operate intelligently with the teacher in the work of his education. To this end we have formulated the questions enclosed. The ruled blank we would like to have filled out by yourself and the list of questions by the children as indicated in the note enclosed to the teacher. "In order to better inform ourselves as to the mental grasp of the children in the various grades of school-work, and also better to appreciate the educational system of which we deem the Public Library and Museum a part, we are, with the consent of the superintendent of instruction, visiting the school-rooms from the 4th to the 8th grades, and hope within a few days to visit your district." The following questions enclosed to the teachers were answered in writing by each child: 1. About how many books have you read since Christmas? a. Name as many of these as you can. b. What book in your own home library is most read and best liked in your family? What magazine? What paper? 2. What book did you like best of all the books you ever read? 6. If not, do you choose your own books? 7. Do you read any newspaper? Name. 8. Have you ever been in the museum above the library? a. How many times? In the course of the three months, from the school-rooms of the city in each of the 20 March until the latter part of May, we visited districts, paying particular attention to the four grades between the third reader and the grade next to the high school. Thus we became personally acquainted with the teachers on their own ground and had an opportunity for judging of the children as we saw them in class recitations and in the brief talks which we were permitted to have with them. We heard something of their histories, and saw their homes and the conditions of the localities from which they came, walked the distances which they must walk to get a book from the library, and gathered on all sides a store of impressions by and realize in a more perfect way the needs which we might better interpret their answers, and capacities of those for whom we hoped to see fuller provisions made. The distance of schoolhouses from the library varies from a block and a half to two miles or more, four of the schoolhouses only being within one mile of it. Omitting the answers of the third reader grades and the rooms of two districts which made no returns to us, 3192 children between the ages of 10 and 14 years sent in papers. Of these, 1069, or about one-third only, said that they drew books from the public library; 733, or less than one-fourth, drew from other libraries, such as the Sunday-school, Y. M. C. A., etc. In most cases these children were also public library readers, some of them drawing from three different libraries at one time. A little less than two-thirds of the entire 3192 did not take books from any library, nor had they books at home. Over one-half of those who did take said they chose their own books. " To the questions, Do your parents ever tell you good books to read, and help you to select them?" the answers, "Not very often," "Nobody helps me," "I choose my own books," from pitiful little 10-year-olds, had a most mournful aspect. In one case a small urchin of the eighth grade who had read 58 books since Christmas, "an average," according to 3. Have you a card to draw books from the his calculations, "of three to five books a public library? 4. Do you take books from any library other than the public library? 5. Do your parents ever tell you good books to read and help you select them? week," naively replies to the question, "Do you choose your own books?" "Yes, by the —, one of the librarians." help of as follows, verbatim et literatim: The list is |