4 Just Published Beebe's Picture Primer By ELLA M. BEEBE Critic Teacher, Detroit Normal Training School 25 cents This primer will prepare the child for any first reader. The vocabulary includes only 108 words, and the first quarter of the book is entirely in script. The gradation is perfect, the stories are interesting, and numerous rhymes and jingles to be memorized are included. Continuity of thought and interest are maintained by the judicious use of small pictures of things with which the child is familiar. The book contains 340 pictures, including, besides hundreds of small pen and ink drawings in the text, many larger reproductions of famous paintings. Several of the smaller pictures are printed in color, and the book is illustrated in an unusually attractive manner. It is so simple that children can read it with confidence and ease, and it is also so rich in thought and imagery that every lesson will attract and please. As a primer it stands alone, and is so entirely unique in character that comparison with any other is impossible. THE BRADLEY BOOKS STORIES AND RHYMES FOR A CHILD STORIES AND RHYMES FOR A CHILD By Carolyn Sherwin Bailey This beautiful book appeals to one at a glance. It is attractively bound in cheerful and artistic covers, and the illustrations are reproductions of really fine charcoal sketches with frontispiece in colors. Mechanically the book will prove a bright spot in the school book shelf and the stories and rhymes are as cheerful and interesting as the exterior of the book suggests. They are stories that can be read to children without elimination or explanation. The "big words" are already eliminated, and a child of primary age can read the stories understandingly or comprehend their meaning if read aloud by the teachers. Price, postpaid, $1.00 CAROLYN SHERWIN GALLEY 34 BEACON ST., BOSTON 378 WABASH AVE., CHICAGO A Case of Children's Co-operation in School-room Affairs A JENNIE REBECCA FADDIS N intermediate grade undertook the management of its own small school-room library. A librarian was chosen by ballot. Library cards for charging books were made by the children and a box tray for holding these was constructed by one of the little girls. Various regulations were adopted, among them the fixing of a small fine for overdue books. Things worked quite smoothly, everybody conforming to rule, until Winthrop Van Meter refused to pay his large fine. The small but efficient librarian had reminded the boy many times of his neglect, but he could "never remember" to bring the book until the fine amounted to fifty-three cents. Then he simply returned the book, stubbornly refusing to discuss the matter, to the great annoyance of the children who were most interested in gathering a large sum of fine money, as well as in maintaining a library. JENNIE R. FADDIS 125 M. V. O'SHEA ANNIE KLINGENSMITH 127 ELLA M. POWERS 128 ANNIE M. NOBBS 129 KATE K. O'NEILL 132 Suggestions for Teaching Reading in a Mixed MARGARET MYERS 134 CHRISTIANA MOUNT 136 MARGARET MYERS MARY W. CAULEY MARTINA GARDNER 138 An appeal was made to the teacher to use her authority in dealing with Winthrop; but this she said she could not do, as she was not even a member of the library managing board. She suggested merely that a committee decide what they deemed best to do with Winthrop and report to her. This body of three decided that the whole school must have an opportunity to express themselves on the case, and that Winthrop must hear what they said and have a chance to defend himself if he wished. At first the boys were inclined to be lenient with the offender, looking their sympathy rather than giving voice to it. A girl who had something to say had evidently given the matter serious consideration and stated clearly the reasons for her belief that Winthrop should pay the fine he had incurred. Two more girls followed, agreeing with the first speaker. An earnest boy led several others by stating briefly that some of the boys had paid their fines "without grumbling" (none had exceeded seven cents before this) and he thought it was only fair to make "Win pay his if he could." "If he can" was a much worked phrase for a time. Finally, Win was called upon to tell what he thought he could do. He rose very slowly and said in a grumpy tone that he didn't know what he could do. A girl jumped to her feet and moved that he be allowed to pay part of the money, perhaps twenty-five cents. This was warmly seconded and a term of two weeks in which to raise the twenty-five cents granted to the boy. The matter was apparently entirely dropped, till at the expiration of the two weeks the librarian and committee again appealed to the teacher to settle the difficulty by insisting that Win bring the money. Again she urged the impossibility of such assertion of authority as did not belong to her. Another trial before the school was requested, coupled with an outburst of youthful determination to "settle it this time." The seriousness of grave responsibility settled upon the young faces as the chairman made an explanation of the duty before them. Win was called upon to speak first this time. The boys and girls were acquainted with his spells. of sullen stubbornness, even in regular recitation, as well as the abounding good nature that usually characterized him, so they were not much surprised to hear him say, "I'm not going to pay that fine. My mother says I don't have to and I'll not pay any of it either." His speech was ended and his sulky self settled once more in his seat. Twenty-five cents was indeed a rather large sum for many of those children to get for the asking, and the home chores that most of them did regularly yielded no money returns. A sympathetic schoolmate suggested that Win be allowed to pay just what he could. Nods of affirmation showed signs of relenting severity. At this point the teacher interposed the question as to whether the speaker meant that Win might bring one cent or two cents if he chose? Emphatically, "No, he must bring at least ten cents, they said. It was settled that he was to bring ten cents in the next ten days, or forfeit all privileges of the library for the rest of the year. Several times during the days that followed the librarian was heard to say that not one cent had appeared. Nine days passed. On the morning of the tenth the librarian and two or three other smiling children met the teacher with the news that Win had brought his money. As the school bell called the children from the playground the librarian gathered a large group around her with the question, "Have you heard the good news?" which she answered quickly with "Win's brought his ten cents." No happier boy than Winthrop entered the school-room that day. He continued to draw books, but paid no more fines. grade in a fair-sized city in Wisconsin was, with her classmates, assigned thirty-five words for a spelling lesson. When the test came she missed three words. The teacher required her to stay after school, and write each of the thirty-five words fifteen times. When the teacher was asked why she inflicted such a heavy penalty upon the unfortunate pupil, she replied that it "would be a lesson to her to prepare her work.” The child explained that she had not been able to spend as much time in study the night before as she was accustomed to because her older sister had had some of her friends at the home for a social evening. The teacher refused to recognize this as an excuse; she said the home ought to have been so managed that the child could have attended to her schoolwork, failing which she must take the consequences. This particular teacher often tells her pupils how their homes should be run so that the business of the school may always be the first consideration. She informs individual pupils that their parents "have no right" to do this or that, because otherwise she would not have complete control over them, her subjects. Needless to say, this is a difficult problem to solve to the satisfaction of all concerned; but it is within reason to say that it can never be solved if the teacher persists in running the school without regard to the duties imposed upon pupils by the homes and the community in general. What is the moral of this? First, eliminate from the course of study every topic which is not of distinct service in Concerning the Nerves of Pupils modern life; there will be enough left to expend all the In a recent work of great merit Forel, the eminent Italian alienist, has called attention to the factors in modern life that produce nervous overstrain and mental disturbance; and the school plays an important role in unsettling the nervous system of the young. Often teachers or rather those who lay out their work for them forget that children live much more rapidly to-day in the home and on the street than they did a half or even a quarter of a century ago. As culture increases; as books and pictures and music become more plentiful; as the telephone brings children together more frequently for social intercourse; in short, as the objects of interest increase in the environment, the child must make a correspondingly greater effort to adjust himself to them, to assimilate them. To read a book expends energy; to study a picture expends energy; to learn to play or sing expends energy; to respond to people on the street expends energy; to participate in a "party" expends energy. Now multiply all these things in a child's environment, as we are doing everywhere, for this is what culture means to us, and you may reach the point where his resources will be overtaxed. Add to all these a constantly enlarging school program which the child must complete, and you have a situation which should receive very serious consideration from teachers as well as parents. Sometimes one hears a teacher say that it is no concern of his what demands are made upon the child outside the schoolroom. If the child comes to school he must do the work laid out for him, "and that's all there is about it." No, it is not all there is about it. The home has the first claim on a child, and the teacher must adapt his work in general to the home life of the community, unless he can change it. The teacher is the servant, not the boss, of the community in which he works. This is not to say that he should be subject to the commands of any particular individual member of the community; but it is his place to adapt himself to the social régime of the people among whom he lives. He goes wide of the mark when he sets out to carry through his plans and ideals whether or not they fit into the community life. To cite a case in point. Recently a pupil in the sixth energies of pupils that should be given to the work of the school. Then, be reasonable with children who are compelled to adapt themselves to conditions of life growing ever more complex. Above all things do not assign additional work as a penalty for a pupil who has failed because he could not do justice to all the demands made upon him, outside as well as inside the school. Be very circumspect about keeping delinquent pupils in the school-room at intermissions; the one thing they may most need is the relaxation which comes from getting out of their seats into the open air. If you will study some of these backward pupils you will notice that as the day wears on they grow restless and inattentive, and then they make errors, and go down in their work. Now, detain them after school, and you simply make matters worse. Certain pupils must be kept day after day; and yet the teacher thinks that if she keeps on with her discipline she can cure them of their "carelessness" and "stupidity.” What a multitude of intellectual sins these terms do conceal! How easy and simple it is to say that a child can be bright and accurate and ready in his responses if he only wills so to be! It saves a deal of hard study to lay everything to the will. If a pupil goes wrong at all, falls short in his efforts, we can settle his case without trouble by declaring that he is "careless" or "indifferent" or "wilful," and that if he would he could do as others do. Happily, though, we are beginning to appreciate that the will as it is expressed in the reactions of daily life is always influenced, and, if you please, determined by a great variety of factors operating in every child's life. That is to say, when a child deviates from the normal in his behavior, there are forces playing through him for which he may not be responsible and which he may not be able to control. When he is "careless" he may be afflicted with defective vision or hearing, or he may not be properly nourished, or he may never have thoroughly mastered the elementary processes which are essential to the performance of the task in hand. The point is that there is a cause for his deviation, and it is the teacher's first duty to get into the habit of analyzing psychological situations arising in the school-room in the effort to discover what causes lie back of any given expression. Among competent teachers the term "careless" is sparingly used, because usually it reveals lack of insight, and deficiency in the ability to analyze complex phenomena. Luck does not guide the artist's hand To paint those forms that live for aye; Nor cause the sculptor's work to stand Deathless in marble, bronze or clay. - Porter 127 When the Birds Come Annie Klingensmith March! March! March! They are coming Just where they stopped years before. March! March! March! They are slipping Into their places at last! Little white lily-buds, dripping Under the showers that fall, fall fast; Buttercups, violets, roses; Snowdrop and bluebell and pink; Throng upon throng of sweet, of sweet posies March! March! March! They will hurry Forth at the wild bugle sound; Blossoms and birds in a flurry, Fluttering all over the ground? Hang out your flags, birch and willow! Shake out your red tassels, larch! Up, blades of grass from your pillow! Hear who is calling you March!- Lucy Larcom All through February the second grade had been watching for the first bluebird. The buds on the elm trees were swelling, the pussy willows had pushed off their waterproofs and emerged fairy pussies in silvery gray, and some of them adorned Miss Ashleigh's desk, but the days were dull and sombre, with never a flash of blue wings to brighten them. At last the sun shone out, the snow vanished in a night; and, as March came in gentle and lamblike, there were the bluebirds flitting from fence to stump and back again, looking for a convenient summer dwelling. Soon the robins, sleek and pompous in vests of red, were prying about in wet places where the snow had lain longest, alert to surprise unwary earthworms venturing out of their burrows in hope of a luscious last year's leaf for breakfast. The bluebird's musical tones came softly to the ear of those who lingered in their haunts; and in the sharp cold and darkness of the early dawn, the robin's notes rose, high and clear and sweet, for all who waked to hear. All these things were eagerly noted by the second grade and duly reported in school. Bluebirds and robins in colored crayons glorified the weather bulletin, where was written the exact date of their first appearance for all who stood still to read. Paint boxes came into requisition, and, forthwith, whole flocks of the delectable birds appeared on the children's desks. Compositions descriptive of the beauties of these. the vanguard of the great invading army so soon to come, were written, first on the board, that Miss Ashleigh might most effectively aid in the spelling and the difficult task of getting the capital letters and periods into the proper places, and then on paper. Next came the scissors, and birds were cut as illustrations for the papers. Last of all, clay was the medium, and children of imagination and experience modeled nests and eggs. Then Miss Ashleigh turned to Lucy Larcom, Helen Hunt Jackson, the Cary Sisters, and to a store of poetry, which she had in a perennial notebook, and bird poems came forth to gladden still further the already joyous second grade all so ready now to read about the birds, with which they had been living. Poems were hektographed and used for reading lessons and for copying. Words from these appeared in the spelling lesson and some poetry loving children were soon ready to recite them. As March passed on its appointed way to its appointed end, now balmy and bright, now boisterous with nipping winds or again drowned with rain, increasing numbers of bluebirds and robins appeared, and other birds, sparrows, of many different feather, albeit all were brown, phebes, blackbirds, purple finches, meadow larks, and the vagrant cow bird, trooped back from their winter sojourn in the sunlit landsall gay, all light-hearted, all seeking to begin life over again, and provide homes where broods of young might be reared. And the children, abroad in the streets and parks and fields, beheld with new eyes, dreamed of birds at night, and interrupted all sorts of serious matters, such as number lessons and writing and busywork, to tell tales of birds. On visitor's day the blackboards were full of compositions, naively worded and not badly spelled, and illustrated with drawings that were after the manner of the very oldest masters. Paper cuttings made borders above the boards, and clay modelings filled the windows. Tired mothers came and, led by small hands, sought out the work of their own first, and then went about to see what other mothers' children could do. The children read bird compositions, recited bird poems, sang bird songs, and played bird games. At the close Miss Ashleigh gave a very small lecture on birds, naming the most common, to be expected in that neighborhood; and, as she talked, showed colored prints of the birds mentioned, telling how they might be attracted by food and water, nesting materials and boxes placed in sheltered nooks where the timid folk of the air might feel safe. They'll come again to the apple-tree- When the orchard branches are fair to see, A "The Wind" ELLA M. POWERS INTRODUCTION SECOND grade teacher who desires to present the poem, "The Wind," by Robert Louis Stevenson, to her pupils will preface the first reading of the poem by a few questions. These questions will create an interest in the lines which will be read to them. The poem should first be presented upon some breezy March day when the experiences of the children will heighten their interest in the poem. The teacher very tactfully says something similar to the following: "How many of my boys and girls felt the wind blowing when they came to school this morning? Did anyone see the wind? What did the wind do to you? And to you? And you?" By this time the probabilities are you will be receiving such answers as, "It blew off my hat!" "It blew my scarf!" "It blew my dress!" "It blew my cap off!" "It blew my hair in my face!" "It blew me right off the sidewalk!" After a few more questions of a similar character, the teacher takes from her desk the copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's poems and reads (better to recite) the poem called "The Wind-" When she reads the last two lines of each stanza, she prolongs the word, "O" making it as realistic of wind blowing as possible. Each word in these last two lines is simple and after reading the poem through she writes these last two lines upon the blackboard. O wind, a-blowing all day long, O wind, that sings so loud a song. The children repeat these lines in imitation of the wind as the teacher reads the lines. Again the teacher reads the poem but when she reaches these last two lines of every stanza, she asks the pupils to join with her and repeat these lines. Eagerly they watch for the signal (the teacher's uplifted hand designates just how long the "O" shall be prolonged.) After a few days the pupils can repeat the entire poem just because they have given such attention. Then, different pupils may be given the privilege of repeating the first four lines of each stanza. Thus the poem is memorized without any conscious effort upon the part of the pupils CONVERSATION LESSONS The conversation lessons based upon the pretty poem will relate to the subjects suggested by the children themselves. Olive M. Long. Encourage natural, free expressions. Gently correct any sentence which violates the correct forms of speech, by repeating the child's thought expressed in correct language. These conversation lessons should call for short sentences. Do not forget that a short sentence, to a little child, is often quite a long story and requires much bravery to tell it. So ask such questions as call for short answers. Instead of saying, "Now, tell me all the things the wind does," ask one question at a time as: "What does the wind do to the snow?" What does the wind do to the branches of the trees? What sound does the wind sometimes make? (In this connection, develop such words as "howl, whistle, shriek, groan, sigh, wail, whisper, moan, scream, etc." To more fully emphasize the meaning of these words, the poem may again be read and the children be allowed to imitate the meaning of the various words by giving the sound to the "O" at the beginning of the lines which they repeat in con cert. Tell me from what direction the rough, cold wind comes. Point to me the direction from which comes the soft, mild winds. From what direction come the damp, chilly winds? What winds are usually followed by fair weather? How does the wind help you? How does it help your mother? WRITTEN WORK There may be written work done by the teacher at the blackboard and it may be supplemented by the written work done by the children both unaided and aided. "I saw you toss the kites on high," the opening line, will serve as a written sentence illustrated by colored chalk and later, written and reproduced from memory by the children. at their seats. Then the line, "And blow the birds about the sky," is not difficult to write or to illustrate and many drawings will be the embodiment of artistic skill on the part of the little ones. Do not discourage them. The written line followed by its illustration, will serve a most satisfactory writing and language lesson to take home to Mamma. Again, the lines. "I saw the different things you did," will admit of originality in the pupils. One pupil will possibly show a broken tree, another an umbrella turned inside out, a third, will illustrate the line with a drawing of a ship, a waving flag upon a |