correctly. This again was excellent preparation for teaching Spanish. We were plunged into intermediate schools with no course of study, no programs-nothing but buildings, enthusiastic teachers, and a mob of children. It approached the classic instance of Mark Hopkins and the log. I gathered up all the old "method" books around the house and started in teaching handy phrases and the elements of pronunciation.

The first term I had six classes which averaged forty-two pupils each, a classroom containing forty-eight desks and fifty-four children, and one blessed class of only twenty.

As the term went on I worked out a series of conversations about the family, the house, directions for reaching it, furniture. food, parts of the body, and so on, embodying the use of common adjectives and adverbs and the most elementary principles of grammar. The vocabulary was much the same as that which we give now. When three of us were appointed in the spring to prepare an outline of work for the following year we found that all three had been teaching practically the same words, with the exception of verbs.

Early in the year the Superintendents came to visit us. Being a new teacher, I was visited frequently and at length, and was told on several occasions, "Don't bother about grammar; high school is time enough for that. Just make the children talk." Since this coincided with my own prejudices (for I did not realize what good training I had had in Latin grammar), I proceeded according to instructions. Indeed, in classes of that size, composed largely of boys who had left school as soon as they could, legally (14 years was the age limit then), but had come back to "take a whack" at this new sort of school work-in such classes it required all of my ingenuity at first. to keep reasonably decent order, without attempting to get real work from individuals.

After they had learned by rote a number of set phrases and (presumably) to describe everything in the room and locate it by the use of prepositions, I began working out with the children the conversations referred to above. They were in the form of questions and answers, somewhat after the fashion of Worman (only we did not include "establecimientos en donde los discípulos reciben instrucción," and so forth), and after the pupils had written them in their notebooks, the lessons were memorized. Then, when visitors came, Juan and Pedro would be invited, in Spanish, to converse "sobre la

familia," or some other subject, which they would arise and do with gusto. When all the Juans and Pedros who could "converse" fluently had been exhausted, the rest of the class would be distributed about the room and would take turns in asking and telling where they were, or one pupil would act as teacher and ask questions about. the various articles in the room. The work was animated, the children liked it, the authorities were pleased, and the teacher was pretty well satisfied, except when it came to written tests, which her conscience obliged her to give occasionally. Then the slaughter was fearful, even among the innocents who could recite verb endings and describe everything in the room to perfection, orally.

Toward the end of the first year I read an article in a magazine for teachers of English, which described the experiences of the author in teaching English in the Philippines. It caused a decided change in my ideas, and I planned the next term's work convinced that the verb was the thing. At that time we were using no text until the fourth term, so I wrote for the third term a series of lessons on trades, occupations, and traveling, which could be changed from tense to tense with a little ingenuity. About the same time I began studying German and became acquainted with synopses of verbs, which were promptly introduced to my classes. And again they showed off beautifully. In the second term we bought and sold all sorts of things pasted on cards, as we do still, only then the conversations represented practically no original thought on the part of the pupils ; but neither they nor I realized the fact. And in the third term we turned our stories into different tenses and wrote synopses on the board or bought tickets to San Francisco and described our journey quite fluently. The brighter pupils learned a good deal of grammar, most of it subconsciously, and I had private classes of slow children at noon, after school, and in my "free" periods-for by that time we had, as we still have, only five or six classes besides our classroom.

While the new work was experimental, I was fairly well satisfied with it, but it did not accomplish what I had hoped for it. I began to read and hear controversies on the direct method and kindred topics, and took a course in the psychology of thinking, and gradually it dawned upon me that I was going at the thing from the wrong end. I was giving the children good enough material and making them use it, but they were not having to think for themselves. I realized at length that while they could scarcely formulate the problems in a foreign language—at least in an economical fashion

I could present such problems in a way that would make it necessary for them to use their minds as definitely as they would in arithmetic. I began to see that it was more my fault than theirs that they had failed in original, constructive work; that while I must endeavor to preserve the interest and enthusiasm that the other sort of work had engendered, I would have to give them just the same thorough drill that I had had in Latin if they were to acquire an independent use of the language.

In some ways I have been sorry to abandon the children of my own brain, as usable books have come out, but I know that I am teaching far better, now that all my thought goes into the manner, than when I was originating the matter. My classes are not so interesting to visitors as they used to be, and sometimes they are not so interesting to the pupils themselves, especially to those who do not like to work; but when they have had four terms of Spanish the children who do work have the foundation for a real knowledge of the language, and they know what they know.

In the ninth grade, especially in the B9, many of the pupils "slump," but I think that that is a condition about which we need not be too discouraged, for I know that in some cases it has proved to be merely a psychological "rest period," and in others the pupils have simply reached their intellectual limit.

HELEN D. SNYDER

LA SOCIEDAD DE MENÉNDEZ Y PELAYO

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENTS OF SPANISH HISTORY
AND LITERATURE

On August twentieth of this year a new society, founded in honor of the great critic and scholar, Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, was formally inaugurated at Santander, his birthplace; it was there that he had spent the happiest years of his life in incessant labor, and by his last will and testament he bequeathed to the municipality of Santander his library of rare books, one of the foremost private collections in Spain. The building which formerly housed it has been enlarged and greatly beautified, and at its side there has been erected a new city library; thus, the one with the old treasures carefully gathered by the great scholar, and the other, containing recent publications, stand within easy reach of one ⚫ another.

The chief object of the Society Menéndez y Pelayo, as evidenced at its opening meeting, is to create at Santander a hearth, a centro de estudios, where students in history and letters may most profitably carry on their work by making use not only of the library now thrown open to specialists, but of the counsel and direction of the scholars connected with the association. It is the hope and desire of the society that teachers and students interested in the language. literature and history of Spain and of her former colonies, may take up their residence at Santander, and freely use the many precious books and manuscripts of Menéndez y Pelayo's library. Students, both native and foreign, are to be welcomed, and no matter in what particular Spanish field they wish to specialize, nor, on the other hand, how broad their taste may be, the library will be found to contain an unusual amount of material for every branch and every epoch of Spain's culture.

No brief statement can hope to give an adequate idea of the scope of Menéndez y Pelayo's collection. It is commensurate with his unparalleled learning and wide interests, for to him no period of Spanish history or literature was unknown; to him the great Spaniards of all times were familiar names. His library contains practically all of the material which formed the foundation of his

writings, and since his literary studies are replete with references to history and chronicle, the student interested in the political and economical story of Spain will find his needs satisfied no less than the specialist in her language and literature. Even Spain's earliest period is represented by rare manuscript chronicles, and much of the material is unknown and worthy of prompt publication. Outside of Spain, the library is very wealthy in the literature of the lands which were once her colonies, as may be inferred from Menéndez y Pelayo's remarkable Historia de la Poesía hispano-americana, in some ways the creation he himself prized the most. During many years he collected the works of the innumerable eminent writers whom he analyses in that comprehensive study, and his friends, knowing that he was engaged upon this task, frequently sent him copies of rare editions. Thus students especially interested in the writers of Spanish America will find ample material for their investigations.

The scope of this brief article hardly permits more than a mention of certain epoch-making publications by Menéndez y Pelayo, such as his Antologia de Poetas Líricos Castellanos, in thirteen. volumes, containing illuminating introductions on various periods. or famous poets, as well as an invaluable study on Spanish ballads; or his Orígenes de la Novela, with the most ample survey hitherto attempted on the growth of Spanish fiction; or his unsurpassed studies of the Comedias of Lope de Vega, printed in the Academy's edition of that prolific playwright; or his capital Historia de las Ideas Estéticas, which has furnished material for many historians and critics since its first appearance. These and many other noteworthy creations give an idea not only of the vastness of his own labor, but reflect the richness of the library which enabled him to realize such gigantic undertakings. Moreover, almost every page written by Menéndez y Pelayo suggests further work to be done by students, who can thus find a constant guide and inspiration for original writing. No achievement could better represent the purpose of the new society in which the whole of young Spain is to be vitally interested, than the publication of articles and books inspired by the material to be found in the library of Menéndez y Pelayo.

For the study of the Spanish language this collection also offers every inducement, and it will no doubt become one of the chief aims of the society to combine with the opportunity of study in