Round Table Meeting

On April 26 and 27, the last session of the Monongahela Valley Round Table for this school yes was held at Morgantown. This was the tenth meeting of this somewhat informal gathering of teachers, but by no means the least interesting. SuptW. H. Gallup and his corps of excellent teachers had much of interest to show in their beautiful school rooms, and members of the Faculty of the West Virginia University added to the occasion by their presence and by participating in the discussions.

The work of this Round Table has for two years been an inspiration for the educational up-lifting of the entire Monongahela Valley, and we believe its influence has been felt in other sections of the State. At the session at Morgantown, nine county Superintendents were in attendance, which is, so far as we can recall, the · largest number that have ever been present at an educational meeting in the State. We have now thoroughly tested round table methods, and have demonstrated that they are most helpful and effective. It was the success of this organization that led to the enactment of the district institute, or round table feature of the recently amended law relating to the duties of the county superintendent. We have great faith in the outcome of this pedagogical movement, and believe it will become not only a popular but a very important aid to our educational progress. Possibly in time the Round Table may supplant our present plan of county institutes.

We are very much pleased to record the re-election of Dr. R. G. Boone as Superintendent of the Cincinnati schools. His many friends in West Virginia will be glad to learn of the Doctor's good work in the Queen City.

Those readers of the Journal who have in mind a vacation tour can get valuable information from T. R. Bartsch, who has a card of announcement in this issue.

Summer Schools

The summer school is now as permanent as the normal school. It is no longer a speculation or an experiment, neither is it now a field for adventurers, but it is either an institution, as in the case of Martha's Vineyard and Chautauqua, or a department in a greater institution, as in the case of Harvard and Cornell, the University of Michigan or Chicago, of Columbia or the University of New York.

All this could not be but for the serious demand for it on the part of the teachers of the country. Probably nine out of every ten attendants upou these summer schools are engaged in teaching or supervising, and as a class they are the most aspiring and devoted of the younger members of the profession. It may well be doubted if any teacher has attended three sessions of summer schools without either being promoted to a better place or having the salary raised in the same position.

The summer school is now a necessity, as it would not have been fifteen years ago. Any teacher of physics or chemistry, of history or literature, of ancient or modern languages who left college fifteen years ago has been unusually fortunate if he has kept track of the grand advance in method and equipment for teaching these subjects most effectively. There is one opportunity ever open to men and women who dread the reputation of not being informed as to the latest and best ways and means of teaching the subject, and that is in the summer school. There is the same necessity in the case of elementary school teachers.

Almost without exception, a college professor or a normal instructor does decidedly better work in a sum school than in his regular classes. There is a hunger on the part of earnest teachers, an intellectual awakening in contact with such zealous persons which calls out all that is best in lecturer or instructor.

Best of all, earnestness and zeal are