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way to the discipline of the school. The growth of the kindergarten in our public schools has been both rapid and steady. And yet there are many schools which have as yet no kindergartens .... There are thousands of children of kindergarten age who would be much better off in publicschool kindergartens than they are on the streets or even in their own homes. [" Kindergarten age" in New York means from five to six.] It is very clearly the duty, therefore, of the educational authorities to provide kindergartens at the earliest possible moment in those schools which are not so provided." School Excursions, &c. In many of the schools the regular school exercises are varied from time to time by excursions to parks, gardens, museums, aquariums, manufacturing establishments, and to places and buildings of historic interest. These excursions are usually made after 2 p.m., so that, as the school day generally ends at 3, the pupils lose but one hour of the school session. The purposes of the visits are explained in advance, and suggestions are given as to the best way to utilise time. The teachers accompany their pupils, and direct attention to what is specially worthy of observation. Later, in oral or written form, reports on what has been observed are called for. In this way the work in nature-study, geography, history, and language is made interesting and profitable ; the powers of observation and expression are greatly strengthened ; and school life is made more real. (Eighth Annual Report of New York Board of Education, 1906.) Manual Training. In the schools of New York manual training is well-nigh universal —at least in one form or another ; but all schools are not provided with special rooms or appliances. The two main features of the work are (i) that it is not all postponed to the higher grades, but simple exercises in constructive work, and simple domestic operations are used even in the lower grades as affording the means and the opportunity of connecting the rest of the teaching with the concrete facts of life ; (ii) that all through the school course, the manual work is used as an adjunct to the language work, which is regarded, as on the Continent of Europe, as the central feature of the school programme. As one of the Directors of Manual Work expresses it, "We have established a conviction that the child not only learns to do by doing, but learns to know by doing." The handwork is taken, not so much as a separate subject, or for the sake of the finished products, but as a road to knowledge, and the knowledge thus gained should be correlated with its other knowledge. In the upper classes, of course, the handwork becomes more specific in character. Of its value Dr. Maxwell has no doubt: " The usefulness of the workshop for boys and the kitchen for girls no longer admits of discussion ; it is established by ample experience. The workshop cultivates accuracy, truthfulness, invention, and skill; it gives the boy the use of his hands and the use of tools ; it teaches him the inherent dignity of labour, and shows him the abiding satisfaction to be obtained from skilful workmanship ; it prepares him for mephanical pursuits if he is so minded ; it increases his efficiency in life ; and it enables the teacher to discover special aptitudes, if such aptitudes exist. The school kitchen is equally important for girls. Its lessons make for health and economy not of the student alone, but of the household of which she is or of which she may become a member. There is, perhaps, no part of our school machinery which has so great an influence for good in a social way as the teaching of domestic science." The value of this work is further emphasized in the following extract from the report of Miss Mary E. Williams, Director of Cooking under the New York Board of Education : " The many by-roads of a girl's education lead, in the majority of cases, to the door of the home, and while each path has trained memory, judgment, or hand toward the making of a finer type of woman, we have been able to show and to teach her how those faculties that have become hers may be used and improved in the exercise of the ordinary duties of the usual day, and to inculcate a love and respect for the work which is her own. We realise that some of these girls may never be home-makers, but practically all will be a part of and an influence in some home, and we are sure .that the lives and health of the little ones, who are next to make the membership of our schools, depend largely upon the ideals and ability of the pupils leaving us now. Nothing can ever be done later to compensate for the lack of intelligent care during the first five years of life, and as this care alone can lower its fearful death-rate (which the statistics of this city gave for 1905 as 24,539), it is most encouraging to us all to know

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