e, but underestimates, perhaps, the desirability of
including music for use at later years as well as for infant classes.

The syllabus contains admirably illustrated exercises in detail. They
are earnestly to be commended to the reader who is responsible for
girlhood, and notably to those who are interested in the formation and
conducting of girls' clubs. The syllabus is excellent in the attention
paid to games, in the commendation of skipping and of dancing. The
following quotation well illustrates the spirit of wisdom which is at
last beginning to illuminate our national education:--"The value of
introducing dancing steps into any scheme of physical training as an
additional exercise especially for girls, or even in some cases for
boys, is becoming widely recognized. Dancing, if properly taught, is one
of the most useful means of promoting a graceful carriage, with free,
easy movements, and is far more suited to girls than many of the
exercises and games borrowed from boys. As in other balance exercises,
the nervous system acquires a more perfect control of the muscles, and
in this way a further development of various brain centres is brought
about.... Dancing steps add very greatly to the interest and recreative
effect of the lesson, the movements are less methodical and exact, and
are more natural; if suitably chosen they appeal strongly to the
imagination, and act as a decided mental and physical stimulus, and
exhilarate in a wholesome manner both body and mind."

Plainly, our educators have begun to be educated since 1870.

Of course, there is dancing and dancing. The real thing bears the same
relation to dancing as it is understood in Mayfair, as the music of
Schubert does to that of Sousa. The ideal dancing for girls is such as
that illustrated by the children trained by Miss Isadora Duncan. Some of
these girls were seen for a short time at the Duke of York's Theatre in
London not long ago, and the American reader, rightly proud of Miss
Duncan, should not require to be told what she has achieved. Just as we
are learning the importance of games and play, so that a syllabus issued
by the Board of Education instructs one how to stand when "giving a
back" at leap-frog, so also we shall learn again from Nature that
dancing of the natural and exquisite kind, never to be forgotten or
confused with imitations by any one who has seen Miss Duncan's children,
must be recognized as a great educative measure--educative ali