| Show THE WORK SCHOOL convention THE territorial school convention finished its labors yesterday taken as a whole there is good reason to congratulate cor the members upon the result the changes in text books were quite radical but are geue generally rally speaking in the line of progress the most important part of the deliberations libe rations of the conven was wai in relation to readers it was deemed advisable to discard the series used during the last five years and adopt aalop another better adapted to the requirements of the common sebo schools ois the choice appeared to be between barnes co s I 1 new national and Ban crofts readers the latter were chosen by the almost unanimous voice of the convention we have examined both series and without hesitation endorse the selection the new national series has a number of excellent points to commend it among them is the intensely attractive character of the lessons this feature encourages a taste for reading in inthe the pupil the matter is however in the more advanced readers ersa largely a mixture of notion fiction and history this fact somewhat depreciates preci ates the otherwise excellent stimulus it gives to the desire for reading in the minds of the young the national series is well and ingeniously graded la in tile the bancroft books special pains have been taken to incorporate only oaly such lessons as will cauvey come important truth or principle and these precepts and facts are so clothed as to render them as attractive and palatable as possible to the pupil in the higher grades chief prominence has been given biography and the simpler lessons in science and philosophy so 80 that whatever is impressed on the mind of the scholar cholar fc will havea have a salutary effect viewed and compared as a whole the choice of the Biu bancroft series must be considered as sound and proper but even aside from the purely educational merits of the respective readers in question there was a decided advantage in the change from al financial standpoint while it is in the line of educational progress it is also a benefit to the people financially the bancroft series being forty cents cheaper for the set than those heretofore in use aud and the publishers rive give a free exchange supplanting the old ones with new so far as we can learn without a close scrutiny of the subject the change of spellers Harring tons for watsons and of ef is also advantageous in point poin t of comparative utility as well as slightly in the matter of price ther is ome borne question as to the advisability of the change made in the matter of grammars but the thing is a done and is not subject to so recall it is therefore a dead issue so to speak and may not be a profitable theme for dis cassion oa that account la any event the difference either way does not involve any matter of magnitude and we promptly dismiss th that at part of the subject with a repetition of the introductory statement that for fort their work as a whole the convention is to be con granulated |
