222 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
Mgrs. J. PowkLL Rick, Los Angeles : California has a law making music a regular 
study in the schools, and the State normal schools require their teachers to pass an 
sxamination in music before thev can get a certificate to teach. 
Me. N. Cor STEWART : I think the regular teacher should do the work. The super- 
risor must visit, see that the work is done properly, and encourage and instruct teachers 
where necessary. Every pupil should be able to sing alone. 1f he has been instructed 
oroperly, and has tried to do the required work, he will be able to sing intelligently. 
MR. DE CoATE, of St. Louis: All cannot learn to sing ; neither can all teachers learn 
0 teach music. 
Mk. STEWART : I know a lady who could not tell one tone from another, who finally 
pecame a splendid teacher ; and I knew a boy who for several years sang the same tone 
111 the time, who finally learned to sing solos well in public. 
Mrss M. Horr spoke of the danger of laying too much stress on the mechanical part 
»f singing, to the neglect of musical expression. 
Mr. HoLT : Too much teaching of songs has been done, and the elements have been 
neglected. 
CoMMISSTONER WM. T. HARRIS : 1 have seen too much notation taught to young 
shildren. The child should be taught beautiful airs at first. 
Mr. Hort : Dr. Harris has evidently seen poor teaching. At first there should be no 
mechanical exercises used. We must establish the tones as they exist in nature. We 
must teach the real things in music before we teach the characters which represent 
hem. There is a better way than the old way of teaching a lot of *‘signs ” which are 
neaningless to the pupil before the things they represent are first taught. 
Dr. Harris: I am in sympathy with this matter of teaching music in schools. And 
although it is often poorly taught, it is doing a vast amount of good. 
Miss HorER : The artistic singing of songs is often neglected for the ordinary work of 
reading music. 
Dr. Geo. F. RooT: Music is largely an imitative art, but to build up a system of 
;eaching on this basis is wrong. 
MR. Grice : We cannot make artists of our pupils. It is not so much a question 
whether the pupil enjoys it, but whether he is able to do the necessary mechanical work 
in order to learn to sing from the notation. 
MR. S. W. STRAUB : There are different departments in music. Pleasing the pupils 
is one thing, and teaching them to understand the higher class of music is another, but 
the mind must be trained to recognize the tones and their relationship, and this requires 
mechanical work. 
Systems of musical notation. 
Mr. E. W. NorsE, of Chicago: I have tried the tonic-sol system, in a_quiet way, 
put I did not call it by that name. The teachers fell in line and liked it. We used it 
in Englewood in the first four grades. The pupiis who had spent four years on sol-fa 
iid more work in the fifth year on staff than those in Chicago who had been brought 
up on stafl alone. 
Mz. Montz, of Chicago : I am in favor of the sol-fa system. We can teach better 
by using tonic sol-fa first, and afterward teaching the staif. 
Mz. GLOVER : The aim seems to be, by the sol-fa-ists, to read from the staff in the 
snd. To use the tonic sol-fa to aid in this, is what I cannot understand. To be able 
to cultivate the ear in music, no notation can assist. If the staff cannot be used as a 
means to learn, 1 would like to have the objections of the staff pointed out.