learned his spelling, Will for whispering and Fred because he had spoken disrespectfully. Harry sat with his book open before him, but the spelling still remained in the book, while his thoughts wandered to his mates outside, playing, ball. Will and Fred sat in listless attitude as yet not sorry for any misconduct. Time passed and no change. Miss B still waited, her head aching, while her heart so longed for some little word of love and sympathy. A rap at the door and a small curly head was thrust within, while a pair of large brown eyes looked into those of his brother, who sat across the room. "I so sorry you naughty, Ted dear. I did so want you to play with me, and you hurt Mamma, Ted dear." Two large tears, which had formed on the lashes, now streamed down the cheeks. Then a sob, a rush toward "Ted dear," one hug and kiss, and the baby form had turned and fled from the room. But that was enough, love had done its work. Four hearts were softened. Ted arose in a manly way, walked up to Miss B, took her hand in that begrimmed little one and apologized; while Will, who all this time, had been fighting a warfare in his seat, now came forward also. In a moment the speller, which had dropped to the floor, had two bright eyes riveted on it; and in a short time the spelling had been perfectly recited. Only a wee brother's love, only the idea that the naughty boy had hurt some one whom he loved, and in one moment he was ready to make all right. Would it not be possible for more of us, as teachers, to gain that deep love of our boys and girls, so they will be hurt if they know they hurt us, and know also that unless they do their best they hurt their fathers ahd mothers? even, the plan is so ingenious-the cells on the other side of the comb being arranged so that every other intersection comes in the center of a cell upon this side. Then again, the floor of the cell isn't flat, but made of three little rhombs so nearly square that you have to look twice to make sure. Let the children see how nature shingles a fish or a pine stem, and thatches a bird (Fig. 5). There's no end to her : seed pods are really little flowers made of wood FIG 2. (Fig. 2). And when the snowflakes come falling we shall find them only quaint shall find them only quaint little flowers which the wind has shaken from their stems in the fairy gardens of cloudland (Fig. 3). The law governing the arrangement in all of these is radial repetition, which in Nature means at once more and less than it does in conventional design it includes such exact repetition of an element as may be found in a snowflake, or such a careless repetition of an element as we see in the wild carrot (Fig 4). As we found the prototypes of our vases and urns in the seed pods, so here in the flowers of all sorts we find the beginnings of our ornamental rosettes. Let the children discover these little rosette in Nature and draw them singly, or in borders, or for surface patterns. them see nature's surface patterns. She has some cute ones! Take that made by the honey-bees (Fig. 3). How do they manage it? The walls are so thin, the cells are so Let wonders. Look at a pine cone! It is built in ascending spires like the tower of Babel. These scales are like scales in music, like "runs," beginning p. increasing in force to f. and diminishing to pp. They begin small, grow larger as they ascend, and then smaller again to the very smallest at the tip. This rhythmic arrangement will be delightful to meditate upon, a fascinating field to investigate, one of these days. Now we will attend to beauty of arrangement, in rows, in according to Miss Warner's outline, that bye-and-bye, when rosettes, in surface patterns, in the things we are to study the flowers begin to come again, and the butterflies, we may find new delight in them, seeing the same beauties in other forms, and feeling the truth of Emerson's fine lines : Third and Fourth Grades November and December NATURE STUDY AND DRAWING November woods are bare and still; November days are still and bright; Each noon dries up the morning's chill; Each day my steps grow slow, grow light As through the woods I reverent creep, Watching all things lie down to sleep. -H. H. How will it be when the woods turn brown Their gold and their crimson all dropped down And crumbled to dust? Oh, then as we lay Our ear to earth's lips we shall hear her say "In the dark I am seeking new gems for my crown " We will dream of green leaves when the woods turn brown. - Lucy Larcom Blue sky, clear air, wonderful color in woods and on distant hills are some of the beauties of the late autumn. The dried seed pods, leaves and branches, are full of interest. The frost, the snow, the wind, challenge the attention with their beauty and their mystery. Let us help the children to enter into the spirit of it all. The Leaves at Play PRIMARY EDUCATION(Nov.'97) November PRIMARY EDUCATION The Wanderings of the Birds Nature in Verse Winter Pine Robert Louis Stevenson The Sparrows Kate Hennessey What the Acorns Say Kindergarten Magazine FROST Little Jack Frost Winter Jewels The Little Artist SNOW The Babies' Blanket The Snowflake's Story WIND Wind Myths The Weather Vane Sweet and Low Which Way the Wind Doth Blow Windy Night Whichever Way the Wind Doth Blow The Windmill FRUITS AND VEGETABLES Songs and Games for Little Ones Songs and Games for Little Ones 'Nature in Verse "Take the games played in many kindergartens to-day as an example of what child study should teach us not to play," writes Miss Sarah Wiltse in North Western Monthly. "I used to allow much free play in my kindergarten, and trying to make the most of Froebel's barnyard play, I encouraged the children to personate the domestic animals; but I soon discovered one child who would be a cow every time, and a cow that hooked and kicked every animal that came near him, and when rebuked for his rough play, turned upon me with his horns and hoofs, saying that he was not Henry, he was a cow that knew no better. If a child with brutal tendencies would use the personation of a domestic animal for the indulgence of the lower instincts, what should we expect of that child when he personated the cat in the well-known game of the cat and the mouse? I studied the effect of the games I condemn, and am sure that the timid child is injured by personating the hunted mouse, and the child with cruel, selfish tendencies is influenced in wrong directions by such games." No people can ever safely forget or neglect the source of their loftiest inspirations. We shall appreciate our destiny only as we first appreciate our beginnings. The roots of the American republic are bedded deeply in the soil of Puritanism. Were some of our ancestors Scotch? They were Scotch Puritans. Were others Dutch? They came here with the principles which so powerfully influenced the Pilgrims in Holland. Were still others English? In so far as their work was vital and enduring they were men of the same spirit and temper as those who a little later in England fought at Marston Moor and Nasby, Worcester and Dunbar. Others may sneer at Puritanism, but for an American to do so is like a son desecrating the home in which he was born and the memory of the parents by whom he was trained. The Pilgrims to whom John Robinson preached on that memorable day before the "Speedwell" sailed were Puritans. The Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth were Puritans; their children who founded here "a church without a bishop and a state without a king" were Puritans. The principles, which have given us our right to be called a Christian nation were derived from the Puritans; most of our colleges were founded by Puritans; our school system came from the Puritans; our ideals are all Puritan. These ideals will become realities, and the American nation worthy to possess its privileges and possibilities, only as we are loyal to the principles and the spirit which were the inspiration of our fathers. Our hope is not in Puritanism in its narrowness and with its bigotries, but in its larger spirit which reveres God and seeks his will; which owns no authority but truth; which believes in righteousness and does right; and always and everywhere trusts the people. -Amory H. Bradford, D. D. -Robert Burns Honor For Puritans The sleepy river flows as slowly by Delfshaven to-day as when two hundred and seventy-seven years ago a little company of English Christians prepared to embark on its waters as they started on the most memorable voyage ever sailed on any sea. The precise point of their departure cannot be identified. The river is lined with warehouses and factories, and neither tradition nor history speaks of the exact spot where the "Speedwell" was anchored. But some things which preceded the embarkation are known, and among them that a day of fasting and prayer was observed, when John Robinson, with the inspiration of a prophet and the tenderness of a pastor, preached a sermon that has become historic. The solemnity of the occasion cannot be reproduced. It was one of those historic moments when men chosen of God dimly realize that they are facing a mission of vast and mysterious magnitude, and therefore humble themselves before Almighty God and seek to know his will. The Pilgrim Fathers were all Puritans, and yet they were not bigots. Their eyes were open toward the future, but they did not forget the truths which had been forged in the fires of the Reformation. The sermon of John Robinson on that memorable day was an eloquent and solemn presentation of the principles of Puritanism; the principles which in England led to Hampden, Harry Vane, Cromwell, the Puritan Revolution; the principles which inspired the heroic souls who dared a winter voyage on the North Atlantic in a craft smaller that ocean yachts to-day; which led to the compact in the cabin of the "Mayflower," to the Declaration of Independence, to the Union of States, and to all that distinguishes that which is best in American civilization. Some hae meat that canna eat And some would eat that want it; But we hae meat and we can eat, So let the Lord be thankit. Pilgrim Hall (From "Little Pilgrims at Plymouth" *) "We will accompany Suzette to Pilgrim Hall. Not that this was her first visit there. She and Dick had been there many times during the weeks they had spent in Pilgrim Town. "The hall is built of granite and has a portico across its front which, if you should ask me its style, I should tell you it was Doric. In its pediment is a carving in wood of the Landing. It is highly imaginative, of course, for an Indian is represented as kneeling before the Pilgrim who is stepping out of the boat; and we know no Indian was there. The Pilgrim's right hand is outstretched, and in that hand a saucy English sparrow had built its nest that spring, and consequently the Pilgrim looked very much as though he had been birds' nesting, like a naughty boy. That was what Susette heard a gentleman remark as she was going up the steps, and as she looked up, the sparrow flew down, almost brushing her cheek in passing. "In all her visits to the hall Suzette could never quite decide which thing it was that pleased and interested her most; whether it was the bit of quilt that once belonged to the lovely Rose Standish, or John Alden's bible, or the shoes that Penelope Winslow, wife of Governor Josiah Winslow, wore when a baby, or Edward Winslow's gold ring, or the redoubtable sword of the redoubtable Myles Standish. "This trusty sword, as Longfellow calls it, 'Curved at the point and inscribed with its mystical Arab sentences,' has also upon its blade the sun and the moon with lion's faces engraved inside of them. This is said to be a Persian blade, and made of meteoric iron, which drops down to us from somewhere in the great blue space about us. Orientals believe that swords made of this iron are specially lucky, and that the bearer has a charmed life. "In that hall, too, are the huge iron pot and pewter platter of Myles Standish, and if we gauge his appetite by the size of them, it must have been excellent. In that pot was cooked, perhaps, a portion of the eagle the Pilgrims killed and which they thought tasted so much like mutton. "And there is the dressing case of Penelope Winslow, which shows that, if our Pilgrim Mothers did eat without forks, they were not quite destitute of the elegancies of life; and also a bead purse which she made. "But I think that, after all, the one thing of deepest interest to Suzette was the sampler of Lorea Standish, the little daughter of Myles Standish. All our great-grandmothers had to work their samplers, as they were called, when they were little girls, working the letters upon the canvas in the pretty cross-stitch which is still the prettiest of all for simple marking of clothes. And here is the inscription on that sampler just as it is embroidered : Lorea Standish is my name Lord guide my heart that I may doe thy will, Also fill my hands with such с onvenient skill as may conduce to vertue void of shame and I will give the glory to thy name : "Suzette never tired of looking at this faded bit of work. She liked to think of the little Lorea sitting in the kitchen of that solitary house over there in Duxbury, working away * By permission. Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society, Boston. The National Monument National Faith Monument, erected to the memory of our forefathers at Plymouth, Mass. It was designed by Hammatt Billings, and the corner-stone was laid August 2, 1859. It is built entirely of granite. On the main pedestal stands the colossal figure of Faith. the largest and finest piece of granite statuary in the world. It is two hundred and sixteen times life-size, and estimated to weigh two hundred tons. The pedestal is forty-five feet high, and the statue thirty-six feet, making a total height of eighty-one feet. This noble figure was the gift of Hon. Oliver Ames, of Easton, a native of Plymouth. The sculptor was Joseph Archie, a Spaniard. Upon the four buttresses are seated figures emblematical of the principles upon which the Pilgrims founded their Commonwealth-Morality, Education, Law, and Freedom. Each figure was wrought from a solid block of granite. On the faces of buttresses, beneath these figures, are alto-reliefs in marble, representing scenes from Pilgrim History - The Departure from Delfshaven, The Signing of the Social Compact in the cabin of the Mayflower, The Landing at Plymouth, and The Treaty with Massasoit. Upon the four faces of the main pedestal are large panels for records. That in the front contains the following: "National Monument to the Forefathers. Erected by a grateful people in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty." The right and left panels contain the names of those who came over in the Mayflower. The monument was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies August 1, 1889. Guard well the trust that's given you, and to yourselves be true.-Dana The principle of language, I conceive, to lie in the fact that language itself is the out-growth of the need of one human mind for communication with another. It must be then a logical production of the mind of man corresponding to that mind's development. Having settled this, we feel that the teaching of language must follow the natural evolution of the child's mind. Is there anything in the experiences from the ages of six to twelve that creates a demand for the definitions of the parts of speech and the rules of syntax? There is certainly a demand for the subjects and objects, and an inexhaustible draught upon the different parts of the irregular verbs, but there is no insatiable craving for the methods by which past tense and past participle are formed; nor is there any lack of fluency in the use of interjections previous to the acquisition of the valuable knowledge that they are used to express wonder, surprise, admiration, or grief. In the first grade: The work should be largely conversational. The very first thing to do is to give the pupil a reason for seeking expression, and nothing furnishes this so readily as some action of his own or some occurence in which he has taken part. If you begin his first school day with some simple nature lesson, whose details are partially old and partially new to his mind, ask him in a conversational way, unembarassing to him, questions whose answers will come from his experience. For example: "Where did you find those leaves you brought in after recess?" "I found them across the street." "I thought there were no trees so near." (Probably Willie says "blowed," but pay no attention at this stage to such peculiarities.) What ever your nature lesson has brought out can be elicited by questioning, and before many days without much questioning. Connect some pleasing story with the lesson at once, and allow the children to give it back to you in a succeeding lesson. Acting the Stories The plan of acting the stories is found to be a great help. In the first grade the stories are simple and the acting very primitive. For instance, the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare" is given by one child traversing the vacant space in the front of the room, ou a run, while the other walks, the first falling down and going to sleep, while the little tortoise travels slowly on, and is found at the goal by the Hare, who wakes and runs on at the proper time. Noticing the zest with which the children entered into this way of becoming familiar with any of their stories, I let them try it with their history lessons, when I had been telling them about the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving day. They constructed the Mayflower and the Speedwell out of chairs, and several started out on the voyage in the two ships. I said they might turn the chairs upside down to show that the Speedwell had sprung a leak, and unfortunately threw in a suggestion that the passengers should wave their handkerchiefs so that the Mayflower would come back with them. This taught me that in allowing them to act history, I must beware of side issues, for afterwards in telling the story of the Pilgrims, the children, whatever else they might omit, never failed to say "and they all waved their handkerchiefs at the Mayflower!" Whatever they themselves do, they remember, and that is why the action sentences in the Speer work are so successful in teaching the first steps in reading. Drawing is one means by which the mind seeks expression. Language is another and later means. The children's drawings are the funniest things in the world, but if you have not tried this, you will be surprised to find how intelligibly they do express their story. Written Expression Coming now to the written expression, that begins by the close of the first month, when the children have learned to form enough of the letters to make the simplest sentences. These can be given to them first by visualization. They learn to take in the sentences as a whole, including the capital and the period or the question mark, and this seems much superior to the old plan of copying sentences from the board. As long as they are copying, they are working more or less mechanically, but when reproducing what is photographed on their own minds, they are doing independent work. We should never manufacture specimens of false syntax, for the less of that they see and hear, the better, while the mistakes occurring daily are found sufficient for drill in correction. A helpful plan for occasional use is to send a portion of the class to the board to write sentences either from dictation or visualization, and to call attention to the mistakes. Their keenness in observing and carefully thinking is promoted by this exercise. I think the second year is not too early to begin the pleasant work proposed by Supt. Skinner of Nebraska City in his "Studies in Reading and Literature." Lead the children to begin the study of words and their meanings. Let them tell you what picture is brought to their minds by certain words, for instance: woods, picnic, bridge, tiny, wild, rub-a-dub, ding-dong, -presenting first very simple, later more complex ideas. First by talking, questioning, and having them produce. their pictures orally, lead them to write small compositions, giving them such themes as: What a little girl would be like that could be compared to a sunshiny morning. A girl compared to a hornet. A baby's cradle compared to a rose leat. A boy who was like a beaver, and so on. Their imagination readily grasps the idea, and they make a beginning of the interesting study of the delicate meaning of words. |