snowstorms. The paramount and common interest of
the children in the morning is snow and, therefore, the day should hold
snow in the foreground in their thinking, so that, at the close of the
day, their horizon in the snow-world may be extended, and so that they
may thus be able to make contributions to the home on the subject of
snow.

=Real interests.=--In the morning the pupils had objective snow in which
they rollicked and gamboled in glee. All day long they had subjective
snow in which the teacher with fine technique caused them to revel; and,
in the evening, their concept of snow was so much enlarged that they
experienced a fresh access of delight. And that day was their snow
epiphany. On that day there was no break in the stream of life at the
schoolhouse door. There was no supplanting of the real interests of the
morning with fictitious interests of the school, to be endured with ill
grace until the real interests of the morning could be resumed in the
evening. On the contrary, by some magic that only the vitalized teacher
knows, every exercise of the day seemed to have snow as its center. Snow
seemed to be the major in the reading, in the spelling, in the
geography, and in the history.

On that day they became acquainted with Hannibal and his struggles
through the snow of the Alps. On that day they learned of the avalanche,
its origin, its devastating power, and, of course, its spelling. On that
day they read "Snow Bound" and the snow poems of Longfellow and Lowell.
Thus the stream of life was clarified, rectified, and amplified as it
passed through the school, and, incidentally, the teacher and the school
were glorified in their thoughts.

=Circus day.=--But snow is merely typical. On other days other interests
are paramount. On circus day the children, again, have a common interest
which affords the teacher a supreme opportunity. The day has been
anticipated by the teacher, and the pupils have cause to wonder how and
whence she ever accumulated such a wealth of pictures of animal life.
All day long they are regaled with a subjective menagerie, and when they
attend the circus in the evening they astonish their parents by the
extent and accuracy of their information. They know the animals by name,
their habitat, their habits, their food, and their uses. In short, they
seemed to have compassed a working knowledge of the animal kingdom in a
single day through the skill of the teacher who knows how to make the