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Show I REPORT OF BUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SCHOOL8. 475 younger, and this must excuse our want of true practical sense in dealii with these people. It is in the school system thrtt we are most interested. If Indians were mixed with white communities, where ideas are absorbed, as a matter of course much of our present work would be needless. It is as teachers of beginners that we are apt to fail. Not books so much as thinga and experiences are what they.should understand. Common sense is the teacher's best qualficatlon. A teacher wlth her desk full of things to illustrate reading and language lessons makes her pupils understand all they are taught. One can not express what he does not understand. There should be unanimity through all the grades in giving a knowledge of every-da life Conversation should be B part of each day's work. $caching number should begin with object work, and there should be no effort to force into higher grades till what has been taught is assimilated. The Indian is a close observer of nature, and all forces have suggeahd something to him, so that he has some knowledge of geography, as well as history; but he has not come into pos-session of number, and it is harder for him to grasp. Another lack, the great one, is of appreciatlan of the value of yxk. A Pawnee chief in 1822 expressed the feeling of most Indians when he said, Let us exhaust our present resources before you make us toil and interm t our happiness." It is the object of ,novernment to give the Indian what will tenk'to self-preservation; but this is counteracted if he is not given a chance to measure wits with others. It lies with the schools to impress pupils with the necessity for work and the success achieved by those who do work. The outing system is doing this for older pupils. A CHBRACTERIZATIOJS OF YOUTH. By CHARLES C. VAN LIEF, Ph. D.. president State N o m l School, Chiw, Cal. The period of youth is consecrated to the perfection of the powers for maturity. If there is one fact fundamental in human development, it is that youth is devoted to forming individual creative powers; hence it is the moet important period of growth and the most difficult to train. Instinctively the nrce feels the mystery of life culminating in adolescence. It is an interesting study to follow the observances which have centend round this period, em hasizin the fact that very earl this physiological rebirth impressed the race anC?affectej both the religious and t i e social and artistic usages. Dr. Colin Scott tells us "no theme has been so stimulating in art or litemture." It is the centml'thought in biological science, and has been persistent in shaping social and economic humanity. The instinct culminates finally in certain Christian rites, such as codmation, when coincident (as with some sects) with the opening y m of adolescence, and in the vital work of such associations as the Epworth League and Christian Endeavor societies. This is as far as racial instinct caries us. It was for evolutionary physiology and ps.Ycholo$ to, show that the period demands far greater recognition in educntion. In the fo lowm characterization I have drawn from the best researches, especially those found in fhe American Journal of ,Psychology and the Pedagogical Seminary. We will give attention to the changes mc~dentto adolescence not generally known, yet which are of great im,portance in training. Blood pressure, as inhcated by relation of heart to arteries, furnishes a key to much that is characteristic of emotional and volitional life. Along with this marked condition of the circulatory system, the nervous system and the brain should be noted. Brain growth, accordin to Donaldson, is mani-fested by increase of weight, which is very rapid in child%ood; It nearly reaches maximum several years before puberty (about 9 or lo),, and attains greatest weight early in puberty, after which there is a falling off in wewht. Adolescence, then, is characterized, not by increase of brain weight, but by the organization of the brain. What changes take. place is not, wholly known, but judg-ing from eneral movement and the ehasacter of the act~vrtyw hich is making for intellectd organization, they probabl lie along lines of increase in fibers of associs, tion and of their final incasement in t i e medullary sheath, which is aptly compared to the rubber insulator on electric wires, preventing irradiation and consequent dis-sipation of nerve current. Childhood, then, the time of rapid brain growth, is one of low blood pressure, while adolescence. the sg- e of slow -g rowth of brain, is the time of high and inereaslug pressure. The earl years of adoleaceneeare normally characterized by a decided increase in stature angweight. The years of maximum growth are also the yea* of maximum |