The'' ' Qui15y Method S' ' Illustrate: kIDGE BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME PROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF $l«nirg M, Sage 1891 AdULki. , i^/isjuT^i... Cornell University Library arV15977 The "Quincy methods" illustrated. 3 1924 031 '434'' 834 olin,anx The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031434834 a THE gUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Pen Photographs From The QuiNCY Schools. LELIA E. PATRIDGE. " The methods of the Qulncy Schools are the methods which have been used and are being adopted wherever they are known and understood, and wherever the teachers have the skill and the permission to employ them." Geobgb a. Wausx)1s, Agent Masa. Board of Education. New York and Chicago : E. L. KELLOGG & CO. COPYBIOHT, 1885, By LELIA E. PATRUJGE, PEEFAOE. rpHIS volume has been prepared to help the earnest teachers of -L children-. No better plan than the presentation of actual lessons which show the appHcation of the principles of education could be devised. It is an admitted fact that the teaching in Quincy reached a point of general excellence hitherto unattained. These lessons are with few exceptions pen photographs of ordinary school-room work ; many weie sketched wliile the teacher was unconscious that anything more than the usual notes of a visitor were being taken. They are not presented as models to be copied, but rather as types to be studied. The principle guiding the selection was briefly this — the best whenever and wherever found. Tlie book is not a manual of the Quincy course of study ; tiie material having been gathered, the author arranged it in accordance with the latest and best educational thought. To have reported merely the verbal col- loquy between teacher and pupils would have been of little ser- vice ; hence the descriptions whicli accompany and form part of every lesson. It has been the aim of the author to make the scene live again in the mind of the reader. In the preparation of this volume aid has been obtained from many sources. No words can express the value of the inspiration and instruction derived from many years' study of Col. Parker's matchless work. He has ever seemed the greatest of living teachers. The superintendent and teachers of Quincy* have rendered the author indispensable aid, and to them grateful thanks are rendered. The advice and suggestions of PVof. Thomas W. Balliet and Miss Mary A. Spear, of the Cook County Normal School — the latter for- merly of Quincy — have been invaluable. The writer has had before her continually that vast number of teachers who believe that education is the realization of the highest possibilities of the child, and who are working unceasingly to make it such ; to them she dedicates this book. * Only Ave of tIjos« whose lessons are reported in this book are left in Quincy. A.ll^lt.(o " Go, to-day, into the Qiiincy schools, and in a few moments two or three young children, standing about an earth board, and handling a little heap of moistened clay, will shape out for you a continent, with its mountains, riyers, depressions, and coast indentations, designating upon it the principal cities, and giving a general idea of its geographical peculiarities. .... The children then (under the old system) could glibly tell what a peninsula was, but they did not know one when they lived on it. "In the upper grammar as well as in the lowest primary there was an entire change of spirit. It was certainly most pleasant to go into the rooms and feel the atmosphere of cheerfulness, activity, and interest which pervaded them." — diaries Francis Adams, Jr., in " The New Departure.'" " The schools of this town (Quincyj have suddenly become celebrated to a degree unprecedented in the history of any town of its size in America. They have been so numerously visited by school superintendents, teachers, and newspaper reporters, even from distant cities and States, that restrictions were required to prevent the overcrowding of certain rooms, or interference with school-work. A surplus of volunteers from abroad have tendered their services gratuitously as assistant teachers, that they might thus thoroughly learn the Quincy methods. "The children write EngUsh earher, write more, and write it better through- out all the schools of the town than is the case in all the schools of any other town within my knowledge in our country The training in expression is remarkable. "—Son. B. G. Northrop, Secretary of the Connecticut Board of Education, in ^'Education.'''' "The work itself was a prodigious success, and the reconstructed schools of Quincy were visited by thousands of eager observers. Superior teachers came to study and work in them, often without compensation, and went forth to bear the new flame to other communities. The result has been that elementary in- struction has received a mighty impulse toward the methods and freedom of nature from the Quincy experiment.'*"— J2eu. A. D. Mayo, ^ee article in Jour- nal of Education, " The New Editcation and Colonel Parker.''^ " An examination of the schools of Quincy in connection with the other schools of Norfolk County, which was made in 1879, after the improvements had been some time inaugurated, showed that the schools of Quincy ranked from twelve to twenty-five per cent above the average of the towns of Norfolk Coimty. The appreciation of the Quincy work is proved by the number of teachers drawn from Quincy to take more lucrative positions elsewhere ; and especially by the number of grammar-school principals taken to fill the office of school superintendent, an office which each principal thus taken is filling with success." "While the critics are condemning, (the Quincy methods) they are found to be dihgent in applying them; and when well incorporated into their own work, the same persons, unconsciously to themselves perhaps, will be bold to claim the methods as of their own originating The methods of the Quincy schools are the methods which have been used and are being adopted wherever they are knovm and understood, and gvherever the teach&'s have the skill and thevermission to employ themy— George A. Walton, of Massachusetts Board of Education, in "■Methods of tJie Schools of Quincy. Masa.*^ ("Education." September, October, 1888). ^ -c ». , CONTENTS. _,. PAGE Preface, iu IisrTRODUCTioiir, xi SECTION I. THE FIRST TEAR'S WORK BEGUN. CHAPTER I. — Prblimbstabt: The First "Work of the Teacher, 1 Development of Thought and Expression.— The Unity of School-work. — Grouping.— The Training of Attention. —Busy- Work.— Physical Education.— Technical Skill.— Moral Training. n.— The First Day m School [In Detail], . . . H Contrast between the Old Ways and the Xew.— The Gathering of the Children.— Taking the Names.— The Opening Exercise.- A Language Lesson.— Going Out to Recess and Returning. — Busy-Work, — ^Assigning Seats. — A March. — I'usy-Work. — ^The First Lesson; Conversation. — Dismissing.— Opening Exercises of the Afternoon. — ^Writing. — Drawing. — Busy- Work. — ^The First Picture Lesson. — Singing. — A General Exercise in Number. — An Object Lesson. — A Conversation. — Dismissal. — Notes and Com- ments.— Programs. SECTION II. THE FIRST TEAR'S WORK GONTINUED. A SERIBS OF OBJECT LESSONS. I.— A Body Lesson: Preparatory to Physiology. A General Exercise, .... .... 49 II. — A Test Lesson in Number, 54 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER in.— An Impromptu Lesson on the Horse: The Be- GiNNiNQ OF Zoology. A GtKneral Exercise, 60 IV.— Preparatory Exercises; and a Lesson on Color, 64 v.— Two Lessons in Direction. General Exercises, 73 VI.— A First Lesson in Dimension, 81 VII.— A Plant Lesson: Introductory to Botany. A General Exercise, 87 VUI.— A Lesson upon Hills: Elementary Geog- raphy, 91 IS.— A Lesson upon Granite: The Beginning of Mineralogy. A General Exercise, . . 97 X.— First Lessons in Form, 103 XI. — A Lesson upon Snow. A General Exercise. 113 SECTION III. TRE FIRST YBAR'S WORE GONTINTTED. I.— Preliminary: The Teaching of Reading, . . 119 II.— Reading: Teaching the First Word, .... 121 III.— Reading: Teaching the First Sentence, . . 128 rv.— Reading and Language Combined, 135 v.— Reading: Combination Lesson, 144 VI. — Reading: An Advanced Lesson in Script, . . 152 VII.— Reading: Transition from Script to Print, 162 VIII. — Reading: Exercises in Phonics, 168 IX.— Imitative Exercises, 176 SECTION IV. THE FIRST YEAR'S WORK CONTINUED. I. — Preliminary: The Teaching of Language, . 187 n.— Language: Thinking Exercises, 190 CONTENTS. Vii CBAPTER pagb in.— Language: Cokversation Lessons, 197 IV.— Language : An Action Lesson. A General Exercise, 208 V. — Language: Lessons upon a Picture, .... 214 Tbe First Lesson.— Plan o£ Six Succeeding Lessons.— The Eighth Lesson in Full. VI. — Language: Story Lessons. General Exer- cises, 225 SECTION V. THE FIRST YEAR'S WORK CONOLUDED. L — PRET.rivnNARY, 247 The Teaching of Number; Technical Writing; Spelling; Draw- ing; and Modelling in Clay. II.— Number Work. Two Lessons; with Illustra- tions Drawn by Pupils, 254 ni.— A Lesson in Technical Writing, A General Exercise, 272 rv.— Two Spelling Lessons: The Word; and the Sentence, 280 V. — A Drawing Lesson. A General Exercise, . 291 VI. — A Lesson in Modelling in Clay. A General Exercise, 298 Vn. — A Singing Lesson. A General Exercise, . . 309 Preliminaiy: The Teaching of Singing. SECTION VI. TEE SECOND YEARS WORK COMPLETE. I. —Preliminary, 323 The Teaching of Zoology, Botany, and Geography.— Reading. — Language. — Number.— Spelling. n.— A Five Minute Lesson upon the Cow: Zoology, 380 VIII CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE III. — A Series of Plant Lessons: Botany, . . . 336 Making Plant Diaries.— A Lesson on the Bean-plant. — ^Another Lesson, the Leaf. rv.— Several Lessons in Geography, 355 A First Lesson in Civil Geography. — Three Lussons in Struc- tural Geography. v.— Beading : A Lesson Involying a Case of Dis- cipline. An Exercise in Imitation, . . . 371 The Lesson in Reading.— The Case of Discipline. — " Stories" Writton by the Children.— An Imitative Exercise. VI.— Language Work, 397 (1) A Lesson with a Moral. — (3) Letter-writing. — (.3) " Talking vrith the Pencil."— (4) Object Lessons. — (5) Juvenile Weather Reports.— (6) A Child's Story. Specimen of Drawing by pupil. Vn. — Two Lessons in Number, 428 An Early Lesson with Figures. — Picture Number Work. — One More Lesson with Figures. Vin. — ^Penmanship: A Lesson in Tracing, .... 449 Preliminary: The Purpose of Tracing.- Samples of Penman- ship and specimens of blackboard sketching. IX. — A Lesson in Spelling, 462 X. — Drawing : A Lesson in Form, illustrated by . Designs and Drawings made by the Pupils, 468 Preliminary: The Motive and Plan of the Work. XI. — An Exercise in Clay Modelling, with Copies OF THE Children's Work, . , 477 Preliminary: The Use of Modelling in Clay. SECTION VII. TEB THIBD TEARS WORK COMPLETE. I. — Preliminary, 485 The Beginning of Arithmetic. — Supplementary Geography. II.— Elementary Zoology: A Study of the Dog, . 488 Preliminary.- Three Descriptions of a Dog, written by the Pupils. III. — A Lesson in Botany: The Blackberry, . . . 501 Preliminary. — Three Descriptions of the Blackberry -plant, written by the Pupils. IV.— Supplementary Geography: Robinson Crusoe, 519 v.— An Exercise in Sight Reading; A Recitation, 534 Preliminary.— The Exercise in Reading.- The Recitation. CONTENTS. IX CHAPTBR PAGE VI.— Language Lessons and Papers, 560 PreUminary. — (1) A Thinking Game. — (3) A Conversation Les- son.— (3) Children's Talk with the Pencil:— " What I Did at Recess"; "What I Did this Noon"; "The Pig's Party."—(4) An Action Lesson. — (5) Three Picture "Stories," "written by the Pupils.— (6) "Little Red Riding Hood. "—(7) ALetter.— (8) Three Descriptions of the Loon. — Preliminary to Fourth Tear's Work. — Papers written by Pupils. — (1) Description of a Duck. — (3) De- scription of the Horse.— (3) Description of "The Chair and The Lady."— (4) "The Battle."— (5) "The Bear and the Man."— (6) " What I am Thinking About." VII.— A Lesson in Arithmetic, and a Case op Dis- cipline, 593 Vin.— Some Spelling and its Examtnation, .... 609 Preliminary. — Giving out the Lesson.— Studying the Lesson.— Spelling the Lesson.— The Examination.— The Next Lesson.- Another Lesson in Spelling. SECTION VIII. TRB FOURTH TBAB'S WORK OOMPLMTE. I. — Preliminary, 625 The Teaching of Arithmetic— The Course in Geography. II. — ^Arithmetic: Practice Work, 631 III.- -Geography and History: A Combination Lesson, 641 IV.- -Conclusion, 657 The " Quincy Methods" Illustrated, Should always be read and studied in connection with Col. F. W. Parker's " Talks on Teaching." The former contains the actual practice in the School-room of which the latter is the theory. Twenty-one thousand copies of " Talks on Teaching " have been placed in the hands of American teachers. hed Price, $1.09, postpaid. Address, E. L. KELLOGG 6- CO., EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHERS., 25 Clinton Place, N. Y. IKTEODITOTIOir. THE two words "Quincy Methods" have stirred up a most re- markable discussion among American teachers. Quincy, a suburb of Boston, only known before as the home of the Adamses, the Quincys, and for the production of a superior kind of granite, rose to fame solely through its schools. The School Committee of Quincy, of which Charles Francis Adams, Jr., was a member, it appears, had arrived at the conclusion that they needed as superintendent some one who comprehended the problem of rightly ministering to the mental and moral growth of childhood, and appointed to that post Col. Francis W. Parker, who had just returned from a two-years course in pedagogics and philosophy in Germany. Under the direction of Col. Parker the schools underwent a re- markable transformation. In the words of Hon. J. W. Dickinson, Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, "In less than a year after they were placed under the charge of Col. F. W. Parker the teachers had become indoctrinated with his ideas and methods, and in consequence the schools were wonderfully trans- formed. The primary schools deserve especial mention. I made a careful comparison of their methods, and the results obtained with those of the best primary-schools I knew in town or city, and Was surprised at the great superiority of the Quincy work." The reconstruction of the Quincy schools caused them to be visited by thousands of earnest teachers ; leading journals sent correspond- ents to describe the work at length. In 1879 a series of " Quincy Letters," from the pen of Mrs. S. C. P. Hallowell, appeared in the Philadelphia Ledger, and attracted wide-spread attention. Especially upon me these graphic sketches produced a profound impression. A graduate of a Massachusetts Normal School ; a teacher of teachers for years, first in the Philadelphia Normal School, and later in the Teachers' Institutes of Pennsylvania, I had been forced to the conclu- sion that the results of the methods employed in our schools were ex- Xll INTRODUCTION. ceedingly barren, to say the least. I turned for light to the writings of that greatest of modern educators, Froebel, and through a course of Kindergarten training began to obtain an insight into the possibilities and necessities of child-nature. The address made by Col. Parker before the National Educational Association at Chautauqua marked him in my mind and that of many others, not merely as the "com- ing educator," but as the educator who. had come, and was already doing his work among us. In the following September (1880) I went to Quincy to see what that work was. There I found the ordinary Primary schoolroom — the common ap- purtenances, the usual number of pupils under the charge of a teacher, but teaching of a remarkable character. It was development, not acquisition ; growth, instead of accretion. It was the gaining of strength, mental, moral, and physical, through self- activity. It was education by work, using work as a distinct moral agent; not for its own sake, but for the sake of the children doing it. In fact the teaching was the teaching of the Kindergarten. A few weeks' ob- servation of the schools decided me to study this new and attractive phase of education. After filling my Institute engagements I be- came the following year a member of Col. Parker's class in Didactics at Martha's Vineyard. The insight into the theory thus gained, made me still more desirous to watch the practice, and at the open- ing of the school year of 1881 I wag again in Quincy, and through the kindness of Superintendent Brown (Col. Parker having been ap- pointed a supervisor of the Boston schools), I was permitted to attend the sessions of the Training Class, also the weekly meetings of the teachers. These advantages, added to assiduous visiting of the schools themselves, gave me materials for copious notes, and at the end of my stay I was rich in sketches of the Quincy work. Returning to my Institute work, I was called upon to tell what I had seen and heard in Quincy. I found that there were multitudes of teachers who were disappointed with the results of their hard but unsatLsfaotory labors, and were anxious to know of better ways. To them I presented the distinguishing features of the Quincy work: 1. The joyous life of the schools and the comradeship of teacher and pupils. 8. By grouping their pupils (in the lower grades) they obtained many of the benefits of individual teaching. 3. The skillful use of a great amount and variety of " Busy-Work." 4. Lessons in subjects not usually taught— Drawing, Modeling, Form, Color Natural Histoiy, etc. INTRODUCTION. xiii 5. The constant use of Drawing as a means of expression. 6. Use of text-books as repositories of knowledge. 7. Amount and variety of Supplementary Reading. 8. Substitution of the expression of original thought on the part of the pupils for the old-fashioned memoriter recitation. 9. Carefully varied programme, wlwse order was known only to the teacher. 10. The atmosphere of happy work which encompassed teachers and pupils. 11. Disorder not worrying the teacher and wasting her time. . 12. The confidence, courtesy, and respect characterizing the attitude not only of pupils to teacher, but teacher to pupils. 13. The absence of scolding, snubbing, or spying. 14. The dignity, self-possession, and lack of self -consciousness of pupils. 15. The making of the child the objective point, and not Courses of Study, examinations, or promotions. 16. The great economy, naturalness, and practicability of the devices em- ployed. 17. The marked attention paid to the so-called dull pupils. 18.. The evident growth of moral power. 19. The remarkable skill of the teachers evidencing their comprehension of underlying principles. 20. The wonderful originality and individuality of the teachers— none being imitators; the devices used varying from day to day. 21. The high ideal set before the teachers by the Superintendent, and their hearty co-operation with him in striving to attain it. 23. The absence of machinery, and the absolute freedom from any fixed or prescribed mode of work, each teacher being encouraged to invent and try any device not violating fundamental laws. 23. Examinations aimed to test the teacher's power to teach. 34. Examinations such as to test the children's power to do, not their power to memorize. It was harmonious education; — the moral and physical natures were recognized and trained along with the mental. There was that alternation of action which results in pleasing and useful variety of work and play. There, too, was the unceasing training in good habits, the unremitting exercise of the better nature and the noblest impulses. It was, in brief, child-gardening. Set to tend the human plants" placed in the sunshine of their school-rooms, these teachers sought to learn the divine laws which governed their development, and watched each mind to see what helped or hindered growth. Hence the dull children, like backward plants, received most care and pains. It is true that the pupils were taught to read and write, and ultimately to cipher; that is, the form of the work done belonged to the old education, but the ideal being no longer the gaining of skill and knowledge, but the higher one of growth, the spirit in which it was done was of the new. The old order seemed literally to have passed away, and a new atmosphere of xiv INTRODUCTION. euthusiastic but normal activity filled these scliools ; a new attrac- tion held these happy pupils, self-poised, self-controlled, all in their places -without jar or effort. The interest manifested by my audiences was both encouraging and significant; but I doubted if ray listeners could improve their schools from the outlines I had given them. To aid them practically I felt that I must know more of Quincy myself. So I decided to return to Quincy at the close of the Institute season for further study. In February, 1882, Mr. Amos M. Kellogg, editor of the New York School Journal, proposed the preparation of a book which should consist of sketches of actual lessons taken directly from the school-i-ooms of Quincy. Had the requirement been for a book on the philosophy of teaching I should never have entertained the proposal ; but I thought I could be eyes and ears for such as could not go to Quiucy to see and hear for themselves, and consented to try to prepare a book. To accumulate the needed materials I spent the ensuing soring in Quincy, taking reports of lessons, and the summer following I attended Col. Parker's second course of lectures on Didactics at Martha's Vineyard. Listening day after day, note-book in hand, to those wonderful "Talks on Teaching," the highest expression of pedagogical truth ever uttered in this couniiy, it occurred to me that the publication of my notes of these lectures (the principles of the Quincy teaching) would fitly precede the coming book of practice. To this suggestion Col. Parker generously replied: "The notes are yours — do with them what you will ; but I must first revise before I can endorse." Though laboring like a giant in his new field of work — the principalship of the Cook County Normal School, Chicago — the proposed revision became really a re-writing, and the book proved to be more his " Talks" than any " Notes" of mine. But he chose that the title should be what it is. " Talks on Teaching" being finished, I spent the remainder of the school year taking re- ports of lessons in Quincy. During the summer I attended Col. Parker's third and last course of lectures upon Didactics. In Sep- tember, 1883, I went to Normal Park, where I had been appointed a member of the Faculty of the Normal School. Here I knew I could best arrange the immense mass of material gathered in my five visits to Quincy, because I should be surrounded with the Quincy atmos- phere, and could watch the Quincy work in its latest phase of development. The great labor of selecting, arranging, and writing out my INTRODUCTION. XV voluminous reports of lessous resulted in over-work and ill- health; hence the delay in the appearance of the book. It was planned at first to include the teaching of the whole eight years in one volume, but this was found to be impossible, and the four primary years only are given. The remaining material, illustrating the work of the grammar grades, may form another volume, should health and the pressure of other duties permit, LELIA E. PATRIDGE. Cook County Normal School, KoauAL Faak, III. EXPLAE^ATORY. 1. These lessons should not be copied. "Imitation never leads to creation."— OoZ. Parker. The teachers of Quincy achieved re- maikable results because they studied how mind grows and invented their own "methods," instead of copying those of others. Do not COPY. 2. The "Purpose of the Lessons" is given to enable inexperienced teachers to discern the steady leading toward the main thought, and the skilful introduction of minor points. 3. Special preparation for daily lessons by the teacher is an indis- pensable element of success. For the purpose of calling attention to this important part of teaching, detailed mention is made of the work done previous to each lesson. 4. By " Preparation of Lessons" by children too young to study books, is meant what is already in the mind of the pupils. The teacher must know the pupils' previous knowledge of the subject. The teachers must begin where tlie children are, in order to take the right length of step to connect the known with the unknown. 5. As the making out of plans of lessons is a most difficult thing, the teacher's statement of what she proposes to do step by step, is placed before every lesson. It will be observed that while the gene- ral arrangement is always carried out, unimportant details are often changed ; because the true teacJier follows her pupils while she leads tJiein. 6. The " Notes and Comments" are generally intended to lead the reader to observe what might otherwise be overlooked. 7. To avoid embarrassing personalities no real names or true ini- tials are given in the book, except those of Mr. Shatluck and Mr. Carter. Even the names of the different schools are ch;inged. All teachers of the First Grade are designated either as Miss B, or Mrs. C. ; those of the Second Grade as Miss D. ; of the Third Grade as Miss E., and of the Fourth Grade as Miss P. 8. Let no teacher who tries these new ways and finds her first work unsatisfactory be discouraged. All beginnings will be crude. If the tendency of the teaching be right, success must eventually crown her efforts; for the teacher who teaches from the stand-point of rightly ministering to child-growth works with the Creator. THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. CHAPTER I. The First Work of the Teacher. In the old days it was taken for granted that children knew nothing when they entered the schoolroom, had no power of gaining facts until they were taught how, and that the first thing they should learn was to read ; whQe the thought of the generation of power, as a motive, did not enter the teacher's mind. The New Education changes all this. Now the teacher regards her pupils as bundles of pos- sihihties, and knows that these little men and women have already begun the accumulation of facts. Accordingly she spends several weeks after they first come under her charge in taking account of their small stock in trade ; and then, having ascertained the amount stored up, begins her work of helping them to add thereto, following closely the methods they have already pursued under Nature's teaching. Development of Thought and Expression. During the time which the teacher gives to this preparation for regular school- work, there are two things in her beginning of the building of the character of the child which she seeks constantly to develop — thought and its expression. But in order to do this she must study the children, to know their minds and understand their ways; for, says Colonel Parker, "To force expression before the child is ready, or to 2 7'HE "QUnVCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. repress it afterward, are two of the greatest sins a teacher can commit." Thoughts, it is true they have already, vague, half -formed ; nor are they wanting in expression : but it lacks clearness, definiteness, and often, from want of good home-training, proper construction. That she may know the value of ideas previously gained, she is continually giving them test lessons, ranging from three to ten minutes in length, upon any and every important subject with which they are already acquainted. That she may furnish ma- terial for thought (that is, lead them to see facts in new relations), and also in order to train the senses (that they may discover facts for themselves), she has a great number of lessons upon objects of all sorts; also upon limita- tions, such as color, form, number, dimension, direction etc. All this involves, of course, training in language, but the power of expression needs a closer and more persistent training. This is accomplished by means of language lessons upon the body, upon animals, plants, stones, natural objects, such as hills, rivers, and natural phenomena like rain and hail, or snow. The Unity of School- Work. It must never be forgotten that all this work is a unit, many-sided it is true, but an organic whole, not to be dis- membered, whose aim is harmonious development. That is, a lesson upon color, for instance, impUes form ; upon num- ber, may take in both form and color; while dimension may imite color, form, and number. Again, each language lesson can be made the small beginning of scientific study in any direction, while every lesson should be a lesson in language, a lesson in attention, and a lesson in morals. The great difficulty, especially with inexperienced or careless teachers, is that, while bearing in mind the close connection of aU subjects, they do not remember that some one must be the controlling subject, and that one kept prominently in view. PRELIMINAR Y. 3 To illustrate: If the teacher is giving a reading lesson, though she may introduce, and wisely too, ideas of number or natural objects, physical exercises, references to every- day occurrences in which the children are interested, or any of the countless things which would add to the life of the lesson, she must not lose herself in these, but teach as she had planned, reading, from the beginning to the end of the lesson. Grouping. Probably the greatest evils that exist to-day in our public schools (excepting always the poor teachers) are the over- crowding of our city schools, especially in the lower grades, and the multiplicity of classes in the country dis- tricts. Because of this the average teacher finds it simply impossible to do anything like individual teaching. This is very bad, and yet there are ways by means of which the skilful teacher will be able to watch in some degree the mind-growth of each child under her care. Grouping is one of the best of these devices. This means the classification of the pupils accordiag to their manner of mental work. For instance, grouping together the hright, quick children of a class — ^those who always answer first, and putting in another group those whose minds work more slowly and heavily. This accomplishes three things: First, Having thus the whole group of nearly one calibre, the teacher has far better opportunity to watch the development of each pupU, and to give special attention to the so-called dull children. Second, The pupils work together without that friction (and friction always means loss of power) which is inevitable under the usual classification. Third, It implies smaller classes, and thus an approximation toward individual teaching — a con- summation devoutly to be wished. But this in turn necessi- tates less time for each recitation, which is also in many instances a gain rather than a loss, for often teachers go on 4 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. and on with a recitation, long after the attention of the pupils has gone on and on, far beyond the sound of the teacher's voice. Such things are worse thsn demoralizing: they are absolutely immoral; they are lessons in disgust and deceit. The Training' of Attention. "The great object of all primary work," to quote Colonel Parker again, "is training in the power of attention;" and since the little child has but limited capacity to attend, the groups should be small at first (numbering from, five to ten according to the teacher's power to hold the children) and the lessons short (never over fifteen minutes and seldom over ten). Indeed, the whole matter rests with the teacher's ability to absorb the pupil with the work in hand. When she can no longer interest her class in the subject she is trying to teach, the lesson as far as the learner is concerned is ended, and the recitation should cease also; for every time the child should attend and does not, he has not only lost so much training in attention, but he has had that much training in inattention. The utter absorption of the pupils of the Quincy schools in their work is one of the many things that no pen photograph can portray, while the re- sults, as seen in the higher grades, are the best proofs of the skin and persistence with which they are trained. Busy-Work. A series of most effective devices for aiding the teacher of crowded school-rooms is termed in Quincy " Busy -Work." This means anything and everything the child can do, which he loves to do, that is not out of place in the school-room ; such as sorting colored bits of paper of different lengths, or leaves of several kinds ; making shapes of splints, and de- sign? with kindergarten sticks, lentils, bits of colored paper, PKELIMIMARV. 5 shoe-pegs, or toothpicks; looking at pictures, drawing on slate or blackboard; stringing seeds, beads, beans, or but- tons ; building with blocks or cards, copying words or, draw- ing from the blackboard, weaving, paper-cutting, sowing, peas- work, etc., etc. The number is almost endless. Skill is needed, of course, in the use of this aid (Busy -Work) as it is in every other thing the teacher does, and as much time and attention given to its preparation. Variety is an ele- ment of success ; but if there be too great variety the chil- dren become spoiled, and the effect desired is lost, the object being, as the name indicates, twofold: first, to keep the children busy; and, second, to begin that training which (in the words of the man who made the "Quincy methods" possible) "WUl lead them to work, to love to work, and to work systematically." Here follow some suggestive queries given to the members of the Quincy Training Class to set them to thinking on this subject: Have pupils enough to do? Does the teacher devote as much thought in preparing for the time the pupils spend in their seats as for the time of recitation? Is the work carefully chosen with regard to the taste of the pupils? Is the work too difficult or too easy for them? Is the work given them so that they distinctly understand what they are to do? Do they perform the work? Does the teacher examine the work after it is done? Physical Education. The harmonious development of the whole being is the guiding principle of the New Education, and this unpUes not only physical exercise, but physical training as well. It means the systematic education of the body, not merely for 6 THE "QUINCY METffOPS" lLLUSTJiAT£D. the sake of health, strength, grace, and beauty, but as a means of mental discipline and growth. Because this must be for the present an ideal is no reason why the physical— that important part of the triune nature of the child- should be so entirely ignored in the public schools. It is not necessary that the teacher should possess the knowledge of the physician, the strength and skill of the athlete, or the appurtenances of the gymnasium in order to be able to develop in some degree the bodies of the children under her charge. There is indeed but one thing needed, and that is an interest in the subject sufficiently intense to carry her belief in physical education beyond theory, into practice. In this there are a few points to be observed. First, as to the teacher: (1) She should be able to do perfectly everything she ex- pects the children to do. (2) She should have a plan, and work steadily toward its fulfillment. (3) She should have an orderly arrangement of varied exercises. (4) She should make ber directions simple, clear, un- changing, and absolute. (5) She should have the times of exercise short and fre- quent. (6) She should insist upon vigor and accuracy, even with little children. (7) She should guard through all, the health — physical, mental and moral — of her pupils. Second, as to the pjipils : (1) They should love the exercises. (2) They should do with their small might whatever they are set to do. (3) They should grow in mind, body, and soul every day they work. Children will endure and enjoy a great deal of physical PRELIMINAR Y. 7 fatigue if they think it is play. They are also exceedingly unitative, and desire to do what they see others doing ; while they are never happier than when making believe they are something or somebody whose appearance or attributes have caught their fancy. These peculiarities of children have been very skilfully taken advantage of, in this matter of physical training, by kindergarteners and primary teachers, and with most excellent results. The exercise and motion songs, the plays, games, marches, and musical gymnastics, delight the children's hearts as much as they improve their bodies. With such happy devices as these at command, the trained teacher can make the meanest schoolhouse in the land a place of education for the body as well as a garden for the soul. Technical Skill. Children, being comparative strangers to the world of thought, are fond of the concrete : they joy in doing. Nature, the wise mother, has thus provided the necessary stimulus for that training in technical skill which can never be done so weU as now. Here, at least, the teacher works with every- thing in her favor. To help her she has the strong impetus of the child's desire, together with the great demand for such training in after-life, and needs only to provide the opportunities and mark out the course. As to methods, there is but one, and that is comprehended in the saying of Comenius, which might be called the teacher's golden rule: "We learn to do by doing." Practice, constant and con- tinuous practice, is the only thing that makes perfect in the matter of technical skiU; and the chUd will not tire of this if the teacher has the art to so inspire him that he wiH never do the same thing twice alike, because he wiU do it a little better every time. The marvellous dexterity of the different members of the body, deftness of touch in hand and finger, and the wonderful skill of throat, eye, and ear which train- 8 TH£ "QUmcY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. ing gives even to the youngest pupils, would be worth working for, aside from their happiness in these new means of expression. But beyond all this, and higher, stands the motive for this work — ^the development of thought and the generation of power. Moral Training. It was not only a great extravagance in the way of time and effort in the old plan of education, to isolate the different subjects, to teach reading by itseK, and writing by itself, and so on, but it was also a pedagogical blunder, for it pre- vented the pupils from comprehending the scope of the studies they were pursuing, and filled their minds with a series of incomplete and disconnected mental pictures. That was bad enough, but not the worst; for this fragmentary view of education encouraged the teacher to beheve that mental training was a thing apart from moral training, and that therefore she had no responsibility in the latter direction— an almost fatal error. It is as impossible to draw the line between mental and moral education, to teU where one leaves off and the other begins, in the work of the teacher, as it is to determine which is mind and which is matter in the brain of the pupU. Every exercise of the schoolroom, every particle of teaching, involves on the part of the child one or more of the three divisions of a moral action,— viz., comprehending, choosing, doing, — and is therefore generatiag power. This power may be used either morally or immorally, and the greater the amount gener- ated the greater the responsibility of the teacher, for the clearer the comprehension (if divorced from right choice and moral action) the greater the capEicity for wrong-doing. The teacher, then, is under at least the same obligation to train the pupil to love the good and do the right, that she is to teach him to think clearly and work well. In order to do this,, the intellect of the little one must be developed till Preliminar y. 9 lie can see his duty plainly, and the will exercised till he can do it cheerfully and unhesitatingly. This means persistent training in self-dependence and self-control, and an educa- tion in all the virtues by means of their unremitting exer- cise. In this, as in every other thing, the child can only learn to do by doing, and all reform must be a matter of growth. The baby, conscious only of himself at first, loves only himself. As his world widens, his affections should enlarge. If they do not, it is the fault of his education. When he first enters school he has had, in most cases, little or no training — either in obedience, the foundation of rehgion, or in self -sacrifice, the cardinal virtue; while his desires are strong and his reasoning powers mostly latent. The little one's morals and manners (the outgrowth of his under- standing of his relations to the world in which he finds him- self) are, like all other phases of his thought and expression, undeveloped. Now, it is the nature of this small human being to do again whatever he has done before; in other words, the tendency of action is to become habitual. It follows then, that every time he commits a wrong act he is in training for worse things. On the other hand, every time the teacher, hy Jceeping him out of temptation or making good attractive, has led him to do right, he has gained that much of moral stamina. Again, every explanation, every particle of showing, every bit of the pupiVs work that the teacher does— whenever, in brief, she does anything for him that he can do for himself, she has not only robbed him of an opportunity to discover, to think, or to do, but she is building up a habit that will result in making him that drone in the world's hive, and that unhappy nuisance in society — a helpless, dependent man or woman. If, on the contrary, she takes every occasion to withdraw her assistance (when it can be done without dis- lO THE "QUINCV METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. couraging the child), and has the power so to inspire him, that he will insist upon thinking for himself and desire to do for himself, she has in training one who can never become either a mere imitator, or a blind follower ; but, instead, one who win inevitably lead his fellows, if placed among those less fortunate than himself in this matter of education. Then too, every fit of temper in which he is allowed to indulge leaves him with an impetus toward the habitual giving way to bad passions that, if not checked, will render his hfe tempestuous and miserable; while every happy day, filled with kind acts and pleasant words, spent in the schpol- room, is a sunshiny time of growth for those gentler emo- tions which bid fair to develop into the strong serenity of noble manhood and womanhood. Not this alone, for every time the imperious little creature finds himself overpowered by a sway as gentle and loving as it is firm and strong, he is being disciplined into that submission which by and by wiU be transferred from the teacher, to that Higher Power which rules his life. Finally, and most important of all, whenever the little one, conscious only of his own overmastering desire to do that which he should not do, is led to conquer himself, and refrain, he has taken a step in the upward path which leads to the City Eternal. "Sow an act," says a modem writer, "and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap character; sow character, and you reap destiny." The destiny of these immortal beings lies in the hands of those who build the character. What responsibility can be greater, what work grander, than that of the school-teacher, the great character-builder of the next generation? CHAPTEE 11. ,THE FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL. Do teachers ever look back, down the long vista of years, and recall the lost, forlorn feeling that came over them when they stood for the first time upon the threshold of the cheerless school- room, -with its bare, dilapidated walls, rough, ugly seats, and unsightly blackboard leaning tipsily against the side of the room? Have they forgotten the dreadful homesickness that overwhelmed thein when, strangers in a strange land, they were separated from the older brother or sister to whom they had clung, and placed upon a high, uncomfortable seat, where, like Mahomet's coffin, they hung suspended between heaven and earth? Have they no memory of the dazed, bewildered state in which they sat there, staring through slowly gathering tears at the confused mass of crooked black things strag- gling down the first page of Webster's Spelling-Book, which they were told to study? What teacher, so remembering, can ever underestimate the value of first impressions, or doubt the importance of that first day in school. Caesar's crossing of the Eubicon did not mark a more eventful era in the history of Rome, than does this first experience of school life, in the develop- ment of the httle child. Slowly the world of educators is coming to recognize this, and slowly the old order of things is passing away, giving place to that which is better. Let us see how this great event is provided for, under the new regime. It is Quincy, at half-past eight o'clock on the morning of 12 Tttk '• QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. the first Monday in September. The school-yard is already half fuU of boys and girls, of all ages, from five to fifteen. Down the long village street — for this school district is like a little village — the children come samitering singly and in groups; and just entering the gateway, with a cluster of little people around her, is the well-known teacher of the Primary School. As she comes up the walk the children all start with smiling faces to meet and greet her. The older pupils come with outstretched hand and quiet but hearty "How d'ye do, teacher?" often adding, "I'm glad vacation's over," or, " It's nice to have school begin again." But the little ones, more demonstrative in their gladness, come run- ning toward her like young lambs, with a hop, skip, and jump; when, having reached her side, shyness suddenly comes over them, and they stand with finger in mouth, and downcast eyes, hardly able to bring themselves to look into her face or answer her cordial welcome. After a few pleasant words and kindly inquiries regard- ing their manner of spending the long vacation just passed, the teacher goes into the school-house, and the children remain outside to wait for the ringing of the fifst bell. At a quarter of nine this is heard, and those who choose pass in to their different rooms, but many stiU remain out- side — some to meet their mates, who have not yet come, and some to watch for the small strangprs, who are just begin- ning to arrive. The little new-comers are always accompanied by an older person; often a big brother or sister, sometimes by the mother, and now and then one is seen clinging to the dress of a white-haired woman, evidently the grand- mother. At five minutes of nine the last bell rings, and all enter the building, quietly make their way to their respective rooms, and take their seats. When the hands of the clock point to nine the gong strikes for the morning THE FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL. 1 3 exercises to begin; but in the lowest grade this is omitted, for filling the hall, the doorway, and the front part of the school-room, is a motley group, made up for the most part of women and small boys and girls. Apparently the larger portion are foreigners and belong to the laboring class, many being wives and children of the quarrymen who work in the granite district. The first room of the primary grade is long and narrow, with all the windows on one side and end. Low black- boards fiU the spaces between, and line the other walls, ex- cepting where sUding- doors open into the next room. There is no platform, and no teacher's desk; only a table with drawers, at the end of the room nearest the door ; while back of the six long rows of desks is another table, long, un- painted, and furnished also with drawers that are deep and wide — for blocks, etc. The walls are decorated with two or three cheap pictures and a variety of ornaments, the latter being entirely of home manufacture. Growing plants hang in the windows, and a few bunches of flowers are withering on the teacher's table. There are seventy-eight of the tiny seats and desks, and the three rows next the windows are filled with pupils left over from the last class, whose seats were assigned the closing day of the previous term. Most of these having entered the preceding April were consequently not ready for promotion. They are now sitting quietly, watching with wide eyes the proceedings going on in front. The teacher having taken her position at the table, has begun her work of taking the names and assigning seats for the small strangers.* Every moment the crowd is increasing. By this time it has surrounded the teacher's * It is a law of the town that every child who attends school that term must be re^tered during the first week, except in special cases, 14 THE "QUmCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. chair and filled all the vacant space before the children's desks. As fast as the teacher takes the names and ages* of the new pupils, the trainer,t who is assisting her, puts the child into the nearest of the vacant seats. In most cases this is done without more talking than is absolutely necessary— just the questions and their replies. Now and then some yoimg mother will say, " Why, don't you know me, Miss B. ? I used to go to school to you. My name was Mary C, and this is my little girl," with a proud, fond look at the chUd. ' ' Tou will find her a nice little thing ; she isn't naughty very often, and she's going to be good in school, I know." Or some other one says, with the unmis- takable brogue of Erin, "OchI but he's a swate httle fellow!" and then turning to her son, "Now, Mikie, ye are to be good and not throuble the teacher; mind that, me boy!" Or this: "Be a good girl, and do what the teacher teUfi you." It is noticeable that from the first to the last none of the parents show the least lack of confidence in the teacher, and not a youngster betrays the slightest particle of fear. The former may be owing to a knowledge of Miss B.'s many years of good work in this district, but the latter must be due to the fact that her personal presence inspires them with trust. One by one the names are taken, the children placed, and the crowd slowly disperses. As soon as they are rid of their young charges the older brothers and sisters pass to their own schoolrooms, and most of the mothers go their ways ; often without a parting look toward the little man or woman whom they are leaving in a new world. But two or three, who are near neighbors and former pupils of the * They are not admitted under five. t So called because a member of the last training class, and a candidate for a teacher's position. THE FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL. 1 5 school, gather in a httle knot in the corner to recall old days and discuss the new. At fifteen minutes of ten the last name has been taken and the last child seated. The teacher rises and comes close to the front of the first row of desks, standing silent a moment, while she takes a long look at her pupils. Not an inspiring sight — the new lot— certainly. Swarthy Canadian French, fair-haired Swedes and Norwegians, the children of Great Britain — Irish, Scotch, and Welsh — and a few Americans, make up this mixture of nationalities. Upon these descendants of the " children of toil" successive generations of ignorance, poverty, and hard labor have made their impress. It shows already in the stolid faces, misshapen figures, and heavy, awkward movements ; while timidity has robbed them of the last grace of childhood — unconsciousness. The older ones are an improvement, surely. Dressed in clean, light clothes, starched and ironed to the last degree, sitting erect, with hands folded on their desks, and a sort of a " We-know-aU-about-it" air, their shining faces, from which all Shyness has vanished, smiling up at the teacher to see what is coming next. During this three-quarters of an hour they have been left to take care of themiselves, with only a small admonitory speech from the teacher at the beginning, running thus: "I expect my big boys and girls who have been in school a long time to help me take care of the little ones that have just come in;" and a reminder later on of this style: "You know we wish to show the new children how to behave, and you must do it, because I am too busy ;" and it must be admitted that though so young they have done it well. Generally they have been interested in looking on ; some few, having found slate and pencil (nothing else) in their desks, quietly took them out and amused themselves by di-awing whatever they chose, yet there has been no actual disorder and but little whispering. l6 THE " QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. At last, ill a low, pleasant voice, the teacher says, " Let us sing a httle song that some of us know. Those that do not know it may listen, and see how they like it. When we are all ready to sing we will fold our bands on our desks. " Here the teacher folds her hands on the child's desk just in front of her, to show the new ones how it is done, and leads ofE with "Birdie in the Tree-top." The older children join in promptly, and sing with a vim that would bring down the house, if the bouse wasn't so vevj young ; but as it is, it takes it all in, if open mouths are any indication. As soon as this song is finished, a hand goes up, and some one says, "Can't we sing about 'Little Stars that Shine so Bright'?" The teacher says "Yes," and the children begin. By the time this is through, the airs of age and superiority which the small veterans are assuming become oppressive. Several suggestions are made to the teacher, such as, ' ' Let's sing 'I Wish I were a Sunbeam,' " "I know a nice song!" "They haven't heard us sing 'Down in the Meadows'!'-' But the teacher quietly nips the bud of their growing assumption by serenely saying, "I don't care to sing any more; we have something better' to do. I want to ask some of the boys and girls who have been here a long time if they can tell me something that has wings." Instantly every hand in the first three rows is in the air, and as the teacher calls their names the children rise, stand erect, with arms at the sides, and answer thus: "A bird has wings !" " A butterfly has wings I" "A mosquito has wings !" "A bumble-bee has wings !" ' ' A robin has wings !" " A fiy has wings !" " An angel has wings !" "A humming-bird has wings !" "A darning-needle has wings !" THE FIRST DA Y IN SCHOOL. IJ "You mean a dragon-fly," corrects the teacher. ' ' A wasp has wings !" "A duck has wings !" " A bat has wings 1" ' ' A goose has wings !" "A chicken has wings!" Here the teacher interposes: "We will all have wings! Sit up and spread out your arms, so (suiting the action to the word), for wings, and show me how you would use them i£ you were going to fly." At this the older ones flap their arms vigorously. Some of the new ones have gone so far as to put their arms out a httle way at the side, but when they see the others flying they drop them helplessly. The action gets beyond their power to grasp, and they can no more do it than the young birds can fly the flrst time the mother-bird tries to have them. When the flying is in fuU force, "That will do," says the teacher. "We will all fold our arms, like this (folding hers in front). Now, who can think fast and tell me something that can — run?" The little ones begin to show some faint signs of thought. A few of the faces are lighting up a trifle, but they are not yet ready for expression; no one shows any indication of a desire to speak. Of course the older ones carry on the lesson. The first one called up, naturally says, ' ' I can run !" Then follows : "A man can run!" "A dog can run!" " A horse can run !" "A cow can run!" " A donkey can run!" "A cat can run!" "A mouse can run!" " A rat can run !" "A goat can run!" "A hen can run!" 1 8 THE • • Q UINC Y ME THODS " ILL US TRA TED. " A pigeon can run!" " A bird can run !" "No, a bird hops," corrects a child. " Come out and show me how they hop," says the teacher, smiUng encouragingly. The child hangs back for a moment, slightly daunted by this sudden turn of affairs; but his pride at being thus called upon coming to the rescue, he marches out sturdily, and hops around, first on one foot and then on the other, greatly to the delight of the new pupils. "That is enough," and the teacher— as the child returns to his seat— resumes the lesson by asking, "What else can run?" "A fox can run!" " A kitten can run !" ' ' A pony can run !" " Yes," says the teacher, "and I think you would like to play pony a while ; so you may all go out and have a Uttle run in the yard. But before you go, let me see how straight you can sit, touching your back against the back of the chair, and folding your hands on the desk." The new ones nearly all make an effort to sit up. The teacher and trainer go through the aisles, and place those in good position who are sitting very much out of Une. Then the tesicher comes back to the front and says, "This first line of older children may show the new ones how to get up, — and go out, — and get their hats, — and come in,— and take their seats again." (To the older pupils) "Turnl" (they tiuTi to the right). "Stand! pass out." They do this with considerable pre- cision, returning with their hats, and taking their seats again. The second and third rows do the same ; now come the new ones. Standing in front of the first row of desks, the teacher says, " Turn— that way," indicating with her hand the right. Part do; the rest sit and look at her as if she had spoken in THE FIRST DA Y IN SCHOOL. 1 9 an unknown tongue. The teacher and trainer pass down the aisle, and turn these around bodily. Going back to her place in front, the teacher says, "Stand! aUof you." One after another they straggle up, several being picked up out of their seats and stood on their feet by the trainer. Then the teacher says, ' ' Go out into the hall and find your own hats, bring them in, and sit down in your seats." This command seems to be comprehended by nearly all, as they start ofE at once for the door, preceded by the trainer, who helps them to find their hats and gets them back to the door- way again. Eeaching this, and looking into the large, un- familiar room, filled with strange faces, they become be- wildered, and stand like a flock of frightened sheep, hope- lessly dazed and lost. "Come in and take your seats again," urges the teacher pleasantly. Upon this the quicker- witted of the group strike a bee-line for the first empty seats, and the rest are gently half pulled, half pushed into the remaining places. This performance is repeated with each succeeding row, until all have been out and back, and the whole roomful sit with their hats on, ready for recess. The teacher announces, "We are ready to go out. You may all turn to the right" (indicating as before with her hand). The older ones turn promptly, and the new ones come around, or are helped, slowly. " Stand !" They are all up, after a little. Some of the other children in the row try to help the Uttle learners by reaching over and giving the slow ones a slight push, which helps them to their understanding in more ways than one. The teacher continues, " I want all my big boys and girls to look after the little ones, and not let them go out of the yard; and when the bell rings, to see that they come back into the schoolroom. The first line may walk out quietly." The second and third follow in like manner; some of the strangers start, but are told to wait till their turn comes. Then the fourth row is caUed. They rush, crowd 20 THE " QUINfY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. and straggle out, ia a line that resembles the walls of Troy. The rest of the rows get out of the house in about the same style, where some of the older children are waiting to take them in charge during the recess. The care-takers seem to find great pleasure in this, and faithfully fulfil their duty, watching the little ones in true ■Jatherly and motherly fashion. If any happen to stray outside the gate, some older pupil chancing to catch sight of the small wanderers, leaves his play at once, and goes to coax the youngsters back. In fifteen minutes the bell rings, and the merry crowd, surging in at the four doors, falls into long processions, winding up the stairs or through the halls to their different rooms. The babies are met at the threshold by the trainer, who unties all the hard knots, shows them where to hang up their hats, and directs them toward the right door. Ar- riving there, they stand all huddled up in a bunch, blocking the doorway, and completely lost, as far as any idea of their seats is concerned. The teacher toward whom they look for help only stands and smiles, and makes no move to assist ; but she is watching, with the eye of the skiUed reader of character, every motion of these tiny men and women with whom she has hereafter to deal. Presently, some being pushed inside by those in the rear, the more enterprising make a dash for the nearest vacant desks, followed by the rest. These, beginning to understand by this time that they are expected to be seated, slowly manage, after several mis- haps, such as getting into an aisle where the seats are full or trying to sit in a chair already occupied, to get themselves distributed. This they do without other aid than that af- forded by the older pupils, who are intensely interested in the proceedings. Those who are so fortunate as to sit next to the strangers demonstrate their good-will by various and sundry pokes, pushes, and puUs, while the veterans who are too far off to THE FIRST DA Y IN SCHOOL. 21 reach, content themselves with considerable expressive ges- tui-ing. Now the teacher, folding her hands upon one of the front desks, begins to sing, "I Wish I were a Sunbeam." The older children catch up the strain and sing out full and clear, while the younger hsten with evident appreciation. At the close of the song, the trainer having been previously instructed, takes charge of the three rows of older pupils. She sets the first row to copying from the blackboard this sentence, "I met a man," written between hues, in her very best handwriting. To each one in the second row she gives a handful of shoe-pegs, and says, " Make something for m® on your desk, and then draw it on your slate."* The third division she takes to the table (the one back of the desks) for a lesson in number. Meanwhile the teacher begins to arrange the new-comers, assigning to each this time, the seat which is to be his home in the schoolroom — the chair and desk which he is to have for his own (by right of possession) during the term. While aiming, as a general thing, to place the shorter in front and the taller in the back seats, there are other points to be considered, in which her power to read character must be the guide. For instance, the shy little tots are placed as near to where the teacher will stand, as circumstances will allow (this with a view to getting acquainted), while one with mischief in his face is also given a front seat that he may be within reach of hand or eye. After all are placed, she takes paper and pencU, and, be- ginning at the head of the first row of those just seated, she asks each child his name: this she writes opposite the number of his desk. Two things she here seeks to accomplish : first, to get the children to speak to her ; second, to learn to associate each pupil with his place in the schoolroom. Sometimes she gets no re- * They make trees, houses, fences, ladders, pumps, stairs, hats, chairs, etc. 22 THE "QlflNCV METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. sponse, try as she will; then she has to refer to her book. Occasionally it comes in an unknown dialect, and she asks some of the older children to translate ; but usually she is successful in learning at least the first name from the owner himself. This done, she goes to the first child who sits in a front seat, and tells him that this is his seat every time he comes in, and bids him look around, and see who sits on each side of him, so as to know where to go. Then the child behind him is told to remember that he is always to sit just back of this one (taking hold of the first, and turn- ing him around so that the second can see his face), and to see who is on each side of him. And so she goes on, down the three rows. When in the course of this the teacher comes to any small foreigner who has not yet learned to speak English, she calls as before upon one of her young interpreters to translate. Meantime the trainer has given the number lesson to the third division, and examined the slate-work of the first and second. After this she teUs the children who have the pegs, to pass them across the aisle to the right (the first row), sets the third to writing the copy on the board, and gives the second division a lesson in number. Now she is examining the work done by those in their seats during the last ten minutes, while two children, appointed by her, start from each end of the first row to collect the pegs. In two or three minutes aU are in their seats, and the teacher standing in front says, "Listen to me. I have given these little folks seats of their own ; now I am going to let them go away from them, and see if they can find them, whUe the rest of us watch." Then, speaking to the new-comers straight in front of her, she says, "This row may turn to the right !" indicating with her hand the way she means, as all of them may not,— probably do not,— know right from left. Some turn at once, others hesitate, and the trainer helps the laggards at the rear of the row while the ^ttE PtRsf DA y /M ictioOL 23 teacher manages those in front. Returning to her place, she commands, "Stand! face me!" They come up pretty well, and in time get their faces toward the front. "You may aU come up here to the desk," says the teacher, stepping hack to the tahle as she speaks. Nearly all go forward, but a few still stand by their seats, while some get part way up the aisle, and stop. But the trainer is equal to the emergency : she comes up the rear of the aisle, and serenely drives them before her to the front, where they stand Kke a lot of little lambs clustering aroimd the person who feeds them. "Do you think you can find the seats you just came from?" the teacher asks, with her winning smile. One or two say, "I can," or "Yes'm." "Well, you may try it;" and as a few only look as if they had any idea of moving, adds immediately, "Allot you!" Then nearly all start ; the brighter ones and those who sit on the front seats leading. As fast as one sits, others who recognize him as a neighbor are thus enabled to reckon their latitude and longitude, and slip into their seats with a look of decided relief. Occasion- ally one who is sitting looks around and, seeing familiar faces farther back, changes his place for the right one ; now and then two make for the same seat- on difEerent sides, but the one who is in place holds his own till the other sees his mistake. All this time three children, two girls and a boy, remain at the teacher's side, lacking courage to move. To them she says gently, " Can't you find your seats?" One, suddenly discovering a face she remembers, now starts for an empty seat, but the other two remain silent and stationary. Then the teacher asks them their names, and referring to the paper, finds their seats, and sends them to their places under the care of the trainer. This same proceeding is gone through with, down the other two lines, the older pupils being all this time interested spec- tators. "I think you've done pretty well," pronounces the 24 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. teacher, at the close ; ' ' and now these big boys and girls may show you how well they can find their seats. The first three rows may face;" all turn hke automatons, but with much scuffing of feet on the floor. " A little too much noise, chil- dren : let us try it again. Face ! That is better : stand I" They spring into hne, turning to face the front as they do so. ' ' You may march once round the room the first hne lead- ing. Hold up your heads, put your shoulders back, and stand as taU as you can. Have your hands hang easily at your sides, rest on the right foot and start with the left." As she gives each direction, the children obey it, and now look as if they were made mostly of backbone. The teacher begins to clap her hands as she calls, "Left — right— left— right;" and they march off in good style, with heads held high, necks very stiff, and eyes roUing to right and left, to see if the strangers are duly impressed. When the circuit of the room is completed, the command comes, "Sit when you come to your seats 1" Now the trainer dis- tributes the pegs to the third row of veterans, sets the sec- ond hne to copying the sentence on the board, and takes the first, back for their number lesson. These being happily at work, the teacher standing in front, and smiling down at the three hnes of babies, begins, "Have any of you a Uttle kitty at home?" "I has," sings out a chubby httle girl, who is to aU appearance more fortunate in her home and parent- age than most of the lot. "Anybody else ?" " Me !" sa^s a sturdy Scotch lad. "Anybody else?" Two interrogation- marks in her question this time, but it gets no answer. Looking directly at a wide-awake little girl, she queries, "Haven't you?" Negatived by an emphatic shake of the head. Seemingly not daunted by this, the teacher fixes her eyes on another chUd, who appears to be. following her col- loquy, and he remarks, as if bringing forth the nearest idea to the subject under discussion he could think of, "I got a black and white cat!" "My cat's black and white too!" TBE PIRST DAY IN SCHOOL. 2$ comes a voice from the back. This seems too good a cue to be dropped, so the teacher catches it up and asks, " Hasn't anybody else a black-aad-white cat?" Not a sound (that wasn't the cue after all) ; and she hastens to cover her blun- der by taking another tack. "I'd like to have you tell me something your cat can do ?" But this question is a little too hard, consequently gets no answer. The teacher appreciates this fact, and tries to simplify by making it personal. Ad- dressing herself directly to the httle boy who spoke out, she asks, "What does your cat do?" "My cat don't do any- thing," is the instant response. ^ " Doesn't she walk ?" '"Yes." " Doesn't she eat ?" "Yes." "Now" (assuringly), "I think you can tell me something else she does." After a moment's thought, "She runs sometimes. " Here another boy comes to the front with the remark, very de- Hberately dehvered, "My cat run up a tree once." Quick as thought came the query, ' ' What made her run up a tree ?" No response except a dull stare. Then, suggestingly, " Did anything chase her?" " I'd dun know," drawls out the child without a particle of either interest or animation. "Did you ever see a dog chase a cat?" is the next iaterrogatory, pointed at a boy obviously older than the rest, whose face has just begun to light up. "My dog chased a cat once, and you'd just better guess she run," he says, quite losing him- self in his story. This the teacher realizes, and prompt to seize any advan- tage offered, she follows with the question, "Where did she run?" but his attention has flagged, his interest is lost, and he replies indifferently, " Oh, she runned way off." So there is the end of that lead ; another must be tried. "What's your dog's name ?" addressing her query to a small boy close 26 THk "QUWCV METHODS" itLt)StkAf££>. by,— who has been sitting with his back toward her watch- ing the class at the number table,— deftly turning him around as she speaks. He seems to regard this as a part of the regular program, and answers composedly, "His name's Jack; we calls him doggie.'' " And what is yowr dog's name?" this to a quiet child who sits with wide eyes and open mouth, and hasn't spoken all the morning. This direct question throws him off his guard, and he answers before he thinks to be shy, "I hain't got any." " Yom have !" to. another. A slow shake of the head. "Well, you have, I'm sure!" to a small Scotch boy, with a real baby face, who doesn't look to be over fom- years old. " No, J hain't, but mine imcle Jimmie has, — a dreat big one!" The teacher looks as if she had struck gold at last, and hastily adds, "What's his name?" " Oh, his name's Watch, an' he sleeps ia the barn, an' " (with great impressiveness) " he drowls dreffully !" This is inspiring; the teacher's face brightens, . and she goes on: "I should think you'd be afraid of him." Thought is infectious, and before the child gets quite ready to answer, another small boy, with a big head surmounted by a flaxen top-knot, drawls out, "When — I's — ^in— Bossn" (Boston) — ' ' I — see — a — dog — drawin — ^a— wagg'n. " ' ' Who was in the wagon?" is the next demand from the teacher. "I'd — dun — know;" all the interest dying out. The teacher getting desperate,—" Was it a boy or a girl?" " A boy," with a real Dundreary drawl. " Was he as large as you are, or larger?" " He— was— an— awful— big — boy." It takes a long time to get this off, and it being a part of the teacher's plan to stop while in the full tide of success, she now skilfully brings this, their first lesson, to a close, by casually remarking, "I think I should hke to ride in a wagon like that, and have the wheels go round and round ;" revolving her fore- TMU PlkST bA Y m SCH06L 2^ arms, held horizontally, around each other as she says it. " Let's all play we are riding, and we will make the wheels go round and round, like this." As they only sit and stare, she adds, "I want you— all, to try to do it." Ten or twelve try it; the rest look on. Some, who act as if they would like to do it, the teacher helps, by taking hold of their arms and starting the motion, and they go on after this. The re- mainder she lets alone, as being too timid to be touched. Soon after they get well agoing she says, " Now we will all stop and put our arms this way" (folding hers in front). "Now you may fold your hands on the desk." Every one manages to accompMsh this, it being the third time they have attempted it to-day. The teacher says pleasantly, "I wonder if you have forgotten how to stand nicely. We will try and see. All face the right " (moving her hand in that direction). More turn than at any previous time; the rest are helped as before. "Stand, and face me!" They rise and turn; encouragingly, "That was done very well. You may sit down quietly and fold your hands. Pretty soon I shall want you to show me again how well you can stand." The older ones, who have been going on with their work, have finished it. The trainer has examined the Busy- Work, collected the pegs, and all are now sitting with folded hands. Coming to the front the trainer begins to sing ' ' Little Jack Homer," the veterans joining in heartily ; then follows "Lit- tle Boy Blue," and they close with a song about "Tommy and the Robins who Steal his Cherries," which delights all the children. It is now fifteen minutes of twelve, and the trainer gives each new little one a slip of paper, on which is written, ' ' Please send me six cents for a slate. A B , Teacher." These the teacher tells them to take home to their mothers. They regard the papers with unspeakable awe, some solemnly laying them away (till they are ready to go) upon the top 28 THE "(iUINCV METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. of their desks, picking them up every minute or two, and waving them back and forth between their eyes and the window, as if they thought to see something more upon them than was visible to the unassisted vision. Some vary their examination of these mysterious objects by bringing another sense into service. They put the corners of them in their mouths and fall to biting them. A few of the boys put them proudly away in the depths of their pockets, bringing them forth every little white to see if they are really there. Several of the girls cherish them carefully in their aprons, and others who have neither pockets nor aprons roU them into small wads, which they carry in their grimy hands. Presently the teacher commands.— "First row! Face! Stand! Pass!" and so the dismissal goes on. The new pupils go out better and find their seats more readily, and leave the building less like a drove and more Kke a pro- cession. They have begun already to show the effects of education, though they have been in school but one half day. At fifteen miautes of two the school-yard is full, while up and down the streets the children are coming in pretty groups of three or four. Often an older child .leads by the hand a little brother or sister, and now and then a big boy or girl is seen with a tiny neighbor under his or her protecting care. Once in a while a ntmi- ber of little girls come in sight, escorting, with many matronly airs, a small stranger nearly or quite as old as themselves. Now the beU rings,* and the stragglers hasten their steps. Several of the larger children, with that pa- rental care which is so noticeable in the pupils of the Quincy schools, look around to see how the little ones are coming on— perhaps hasten their steps by a call or a warning word. Occasionally some .little fellow is taken by * This is the signal for those who are within sound, to leave the street and pass into the yard; they may go into the schoolhouse if they choose, but are not required to do so till the ringing of the last bell, at five minutes of the hour. THE FIRST DA Y IN SCHOOL. 29 the hand between two big boys and hurried on, or a tiny- youngster is caught up iu the arms of a senior, to be set fCently down inside the gate. The last bell rings, and a general move is made toward the four doors, but no pushing or crowding. The older pupils stand back and let the smaller ones go first, often giving a friendly lift to some short-legged youngster who finds the door-step too high. Quietly they pass through the halls, hang up their hats on nails near the doors of their respective rooms, and pass in. The trainer stands ready just outside the primary-room to help the little strangers dispose of their head-covering, which is accomplished with considerable difficulty, they being encumbered with a small package, which they will not under any circumstances let go out of their hands. So they patiently stand and wait, with chin in air, for the trainer to untie the strings or lift up the elastic that holds the hat, which being done they trot oflE into the schoolroom, stiU holding tightly the precious package. Two or three have slates under their arms, which they proudly display to their mates, and then bear away in triumph to their seats. The majority, however, have not taken their seats, but surround the teacher's chair to give her what they have brought. This proves to be the required six cents, care- fully wrapped in a piece of paper. Most of them hand the money at once to the teacher, but a few of the yoimgest girls begin to hunt under white aprons and through the gathers of dress-skirts for their pockets (where the money was probably placed for safer keeping by the mother). This being found, it takes at least three minutes to bring up the pennies from its depths, sometimes it being necessary to turn the pocket inside out to get at its contents. They have found their seats this time with but Mttle difficulty, the two or three who did not remember, being assisted by the trainer. 30 Thh "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Just before two o'clock the last empty chair is filled, and when the gong strikes, every child is sitting with folded hands waiting for school to begin. Now the teacher, taking her stand in front of the desks, begins to sing, " Spring once said to the nightingale, I mean to give the birds a ball," and the children join as before. Then follows "Trip it Lightly Along." When this is sung, the teacher says to the veterans, "Take your slates and pencils, ready to write " There is a Uttle rattling of slates, and two or three pencils roU noisily down the desk, dropping upon the floor; but in a moment these are recovered, and the room is still again. " Turn to face the blackboard!" * "Who can read the sentence that we are to write ?" The hands fly up, a perfect forest, in the first three rows. " Peter may read." He rises promptly, stands by his chair, holds up his head, and reads, "The com is in the dish." The sentence, taken from their reading lesson, is beautifully written, and he reads it distinctly and inteUigently. "You may all raise the right hand, and point with the first finger to the place where we begin." The teacher stands by the board, and the pupils point to the top of the stem of the " T." The teacher points to the same place, with her forefinger about three inches from the board. Together they trace in the air the words, "The corn." When the new word (com) has been written she drops her hand, and turns to watch the motion of theirs. At " dish," a difficult word, she begins again to write with them, and the sentence is carefully finished with the period. " Take your pencils and write." *This side position has been criticised, and justly, as raising the right shoulder higher than the left, and preventing the free movement of the arm, It was probably used in (bis SQbool because of the narrowness of the desks. THE FIRST DA Y IN SCHOOL. 3 1 Thus they are provided with work for the next ten min- utes. All this time the new-comers are looking on and tak- ing it all in, while the trainer has been distributing the new slates and pencils. The teacher now turns to them and says, in her gentle fashion : " These little folks may take their slates and pencils too." This means considerable noise, for of course they manage to knock every comer against the desk, and set the pencils to rolhng, while five or six drop and break the very first thing, but by and by they get into position, and look up to see what next. "All of you may make on your slates what I make here," slowly drawing a vertical line, eight or nine inches long, on the blackboard. Some begin marking at once ; others simply sit and stare— first at her and then at the board. The teacher now leaves the board, and goes down and up the aisles, looking at the slates. She finds that they have drawn Mnes ranging from half an inch to six inches in length, at aU angles, and of every degree of crookedness. Then she goes again to the board, and draws a horizontal line about the same length as the other, bisecting it, saying as she does so, "Now do this on your slate." Another ex- amination of the slates, with just about as satisfactory re- sults, but she gives the small artists no reason to suppose for a moment that she isn't perfectly charmed with their drawings. Smiling benignantly upon them, she says: "Make me just as many of these on your slates as you like," and goes over to examine the writing of the older pupils, leaving most of the little people quite 'happy and very busy. Two or three, it is true, put the ends of their pencils in their mouths, and composedly survey the rest. While the teacher is examining the writing, the trainer is passing through the first two aisles with a box of wooden toothpicks, laying a handful on each desk in the first three rows. Now the 32 THE " QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. teacher says to the third line of last year's pupils, "Make me as many things as you can out of two sticks ;" to the second, "Make me everything you can think of, and use only three sticks ;" and the trainer walks off with the third line, to give them a reading lesson at a blackboard in the rear of the room. By this time the babies have begun to tire of making crosses and are ready for something else. Two lines of these are given sphnts, eight or ten apiece, with the pleasant direction, "Make something nice for me.'' As they have no idea how to do this, the teacher sends to each of the new children, who act as if they were going to try, a helper from among her last term's pupils, selecting with great care such as can be relied upon for steadiness and patience. The young instructors, proud to be thus chosen, leave their stick-laying, and sitting beside the little new-comers designated, show them how to weave the splints into forms, with a tact and skill that many an experienced teacher would be fortunate in possessing. Leaving them provided with something to look at, and work to do (if they will), she stands in front of the other row of little ones and says, "Turn!" waving her hand toward the right. "Stand! Come to me." They cluster around her in an irregular group as she moves back with them to her table, from which she takes a chromo, about fourteen inches long by ten inches wide, entitled "The Little Mother." She stands holding this down in front of her within easy range of their eyes. The little people press forward and look at it. "What have I here?" is her first query. ' ' A picture, " decides the boldest of the group. "A picture of what?" "A little gurl," says a small boy with a decided brogue. "What else?" pursues the teacher. This is too general, and she gets no response. "Some of the little girls must look sharply, and they'll find out what it is." THE FIRST DA Y IN SCHOOL. 33 "She's got a dolly!" pipes out the tiniest woman of the group. "Who can see something else?" "A kittle?"— this from a boy with an old face and un- happy expression. "Yes," says the teacher, who is now waiting to see if they wiU go on by themselves. "Some fire," adds a girl. "I see a cover on it," irrelevantly remarks a httle fellow, who has had his curly head close to the picture. There the talk stops. After a moment's waiting the teacher tries to start the ball again by asking, "Where has she put the dolly?" "She's set her down," offers a boy, who seems to be look- ing everywhere but at the picture. "Down where?" steadily persists the teacher. "Eight there; can't you see?" with great earnestness, pointing his dirty, chubby finger at the doll in the chromo. "Yes, I see; but what is she sitting on?" No answer. AH look up at the teacher wonderingly, and then back at ths picture. She tMes again. "Is she sitting on the floor?" "No, she's settin' on a stool jest like one my grandma has," announces a serious Mttle fellow who has been latent on the scene from the first. "You mean she is sitting on the stool." There is another general uplifting of heads at this, but nothing is said, and they drop their eyes again upon tha chromo. This is enough for a beginning ia thought and its expression, and the teacher breaks in upon their study by saying, "I can't let you see the picture anymore to-day, but we wiU have, it to look at to-morrow. I fehaU let you find your seats now, and you may try to make me a fan with some splints which I will give you." She gives out splints to those who have come to their 34 THE ' • Q UINC Y ME THODS " ILL USTRA TED. seats, transfers the small teachers from the second division to this, and then takes that row out for a lesson on the picture. Meantime the trainer has brought back the first division of older pupils and now takes the second line to read, while those who have just returned to their seats lay- sticks by fours. When aJl this has been done the helpers are told to leave the splint-work and go to their own seats, and the teacher, standing in front, begins to sing, accompanied by the children : " Wandering up and down one day, I peeped in the window over the way; prhey point toward the window.] And drawing his waxed-ends throvigh and through, [Imltatiiig the motion of sewing shoes.] There sat a cobbler making a shoe." At the close of this, each stanza of which is accompanied by appropriate gestures, they sing another exercise-song, called "The Farmer." Then the third line of last year's pupils have a reading-lesson with the trainer, while the first and second, work at their stick-laying.* The teacher takes the remainder of the babies out to the front for their picture-lesson, leaving the others in their seats with the splints and their small assistants. When this is done the teacher passes up and down the aisles, look- ing at and praising the splint-work and the stick-laying, whUe the small workers sit with folded hands watching and listening. Behind her comes the trainer with her boxes, gathering up the splints and sticks. Then the teacher, standing before the whole class and holding up two blocks, says, "Tell me what I show you." The older children answer, "Two blocks!" *The children are not satisfled with less than two periods with the stick- laying; and the splint-work being so complete a novelty to the new pupils, it would not be wise to give them less than twenty minutes to play witti the splints. THE FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL. , 35 "I -want you to raise your hands before you speak again," admonishes the teacher, with gentle firmness. " I'll call upon some one." Picldng up another block from the table, and holding it beside the two she had, "Who wants to teU me what I have done now?" The hands go up before her question is finished. "Mary." Mary rises, and says ghbly: "You had two blocks, and you put one with it, and that made three blocks." "Tou may tell me now what I show you," holding up three splints. ' ' Jimmie. " "Tou have three spMnts." "Now what? Nellie." "Tou had three sphnts, and you put two behind you, and now you have one." ' ' Tell me no w. Maggie. " "One," as the teacher holds up a splint, "and two," as the teacher takes them from behind her, "are three." "Harry may clap so many times," holding up two sphnts. He does it. "Jimmie, so many times," catching up three blocks, "less two," still holding the three blocks. Jimmie claps twice. Then the hands fly up in a great flutter. "Was that right, Susie?" "No'm." " Can you do it right?" Susie gives a big clap. "Was that right, Richard?" The boy nods his head. Not sure that he understands, the teacher says, "Tou may come up here and tell me what I asked Jimmie to do." Richard comes, takes up three blocks, and explains: "Tou told him to clap so many times, less so many," laying down two of the blocks. " How many claps should you have given, Jimmie?" "One." 36 THE," QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. " Yes. I am going to tell you a story. If an old hen had three chickens, and one was drowned, how many would she have left. Patrick may teU me." "Two." "Yes. Now Patrick may come out here and tell us a story about anything he likes. " Patrick hesitates a Httle, then marches out, red-faced but smiling, and after standing a moment to collect his thoughts says,' with that inimitable Irish inflection, "If I had two ponies, and my fayther bought me another one, how many would I have thin?" The older children put up their hands, and he calls out, "EUen." "Three ponies!" "Very well!" pronounces the teacher. "Now Ellen may tell us one." EUen blushes, but comes out promptly and says, "I had two doU carriages, and my auntie gave me another ; how many had I?" Again the hands are all up. She looks at them gravely for an instant, then calls up Mikie to answer. He replies, "Three!" " Well, Mikie, what is your story?" asks the teacher. Mikie has a mischievous twinkle in his eye and begins, ' ' My-f ather-had - thi-ee - goats-and-one-run - away-how-many- had-he-then-Sammy ?" AU this in a breath, poimcing down upon Sammy before he had time to get his ideas together, much less get his hand up. But Sammy springs to his feet instantly with a broad grin on his face, and presently answers, "Three!" " Well, Sammy," remarks the teacher, " we wiU hear your story another day; we haven't time this afternoon, for I am going to show you something. I want you to look at it, and when you see anything to tell me, you may raise your hand." She takes from a box on her table a stufiEed dove and THE FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL. 37 holds it up before the class. The moment their eyes fall upon it the older ones are ready, and their hands are in the air instantly. "John, what do you say?" "I see a dove I" "Nellie." "I see two eyes!" "Harry." " I see two wings!" The teacher points to a child, who affirms "The dove has two feet," and then in rapid succession follow, as fast as she can call upon the children: "The dove has feathers."- "The dove has a breast." "The dove has a tail." " The dove has a head." "The dove has a neck." "It has a mouth." Like lightning comes the question, "What about its mouth — is it like yours?" Johnnie, venturing, " It is a hard mouth." "Yes, you may come and show me its mouth." Johnnie goes and takes hold of the beak. "Is that its mouth?" "I can open it and make its mouth." " What is that you had hold of?" A little girl raises her hand and says, "It's the bUl." The teacher looks at the bird, and remarks slowly, "It isn't quite like the duck's bUl." Johnnie answers briskly, "No, the duck's bUl is flat." "And how is this, Mikie?" Johnnie retires and Mikie remarks critically, "It's kinder round and kinder pointed." "Then we will call this a beak," announces the teacher. After a pause (to let the idea sink), she continues: "I am 38 THM " QUINCY METHODS" tLLUSTRATMD. going to call upon somebody to tell me the parts of the dove to which I point." There is great fluttering of hands at this, which the teacher silently rebukes by calling upon the one child whose upraised hand is quiet. "Carrie!" The child rises, stands by her seat, and watching intently the teacher's finger, calls out as it moves over the dove, "Beak, head, neck, back, tail, breast, legs, feet." "That will do." The child sits. "There is something more that nobody has told me about" — dead silence, during which every eye is travelling over the dove, trying to think what it can be. "This is what?" queries the teacher. " The beak !" in a chorus. "And what did you say this was?" "The head!" "You may put your hands on your head." It is done. Some of the babies, who have all this time been listening with very open countenances, put their hands on their heads too. The teacher goes on, " Tou may put your hands on the top of your head. We will caU that the crown. "Who wants to find the crown of the dove's head?" Obvioiisly all do, for the air is full of hands. " Jimmie," picking again for a steady member. Jimmie places his hand softly on the dove's head. "Tell me what you have found." "I've found the crown of the dove's head." "You may all put your hand on the back of your head. Nellie may find the back of the dove's head." When the little girl has done this, the teacher says deliberately, "Be- tween your mouth and the crown of your head, just below the crown, what is there?" "The forehead !" again in a chorus. "Find the dove's forehead, Maggie." The girl is a little doubtful, and placing her forefinger THE PikST Da V IN SCHOOL. 39 near the beak, she moves it slowly upward, with half an eye on the class to see when they think it is right. As for them, every eye is attentive, every chUd alert. "Now all put your hand on your throat." It is done with alacrity. "Find for me the dove's throat, WiUie.'' After this the teacher resumes, "That will do for to-day; but to-morrow I will let some one of you take the dove, and beginning at the point of the beak, you may put your finger the same as I did, and tell the parts as you touch them." The teacher makes this announcement a little slowly, and quite dehberately puts the bird away, knowing very well that every child in the older class is mentally enumerating the parts of the dove just at that moment. "Now" (briskly), "let us get ready to go home; and bC' fore we go I want you to think hard of something you sai* when you were coming to school this afternoon." This gives them a fi-esh start, and pretty much everybodji (among the older pupils) is ready with a speech. Here ar« some of them : " I saw a man in a wagon." "I saw a red horse." " I saw a green post." " I saw a man selling oranges." " I saw a cow over in Mr. C 's field." "I saw some boys and girls." " I saw a lantern." " Where was it?" is the teacher's sudden question. "It was hanging on the fence where the men were fixing the road." (Along, well-constructed sentence.) ' ' I think it was, " comments the teacher. ' ' Who else saw something?" " I saw a man painting a house." "I saw a woman with a baby carriage." "Anything in it?" queries the teacher. "Yes, two babies." 40 THE " QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. This was more than she expected, and with an amused expression on her face she asks, "What more did you see?" "I saw a big dog." " I saw a robin on a tree." "I saw a woman with a baby." "I saw little NeUie J ." ' ' I saw a bonfire." "I saw a train of cars." "So did I !" agrees the teacher. "I want you to look when you are coming to school to- morrow morning, all the little people too" (winningly), "and see if you can find something to teU me about, that" (im- pressively) " can— walk. The first row may — Face! Stand! Pass ! The second !" and thus through all the rows in the same order. As before they get ready to go, and for a moment while they sit quite content, waiting for the signal, the teacher stands and looks at them once more, as if questioning in her own miad, "Are they happier and better for these few hours?" Then she calls the first row, "Face! Eise! Pass!" and liae after hne the eighty tiny men and women file out. When the last little figure disap- pears through the doorway the first day at school is ended. Notes and Comments. For the benefit of inexperienced teachers, the program for the afternoon of the first day (none being needed for the morning) is given, followed by the scherae of work for the whole of the second day. These are not intended as models but rather as types. It will be. observed that the general exercises come first, last, and in the middle. First, in order to lead the child gently and easily from play to work. They come iu the middle to rest the little people, who have not yet gained the power of continuous work. They are brought in at the end, because the babies (the pupils of our primary schools THE FIRST DA Y IN SCHOOL. 41 are really little more) are too tired to work except under the stimulus of sometjiing very attractive. The pupils of last year are seated as "they are grouped, and their stick-layiag is graded accordingly. The following are a few of the forms made hy the children: X ^XXM (and their opposites in every variety of position). It will be also observed that the teacher devotes herself mainly to the beginners, leaving the older pupils to the trainer. This she continues for a few days, till the little ones get somewhat acquainted with their new surromidings, and then gradually introduces the trainer to them, giving less and less of her own time, until finally she divides her atten- tion equally between the two classes. If the steps taken in the teaching during this first day seem short, it must be borne in mind that they are to be taken by little feet, and that it is better to make the ad- vancement slow and sure, than to have to go back over ground once trodden — a most demorahzing thing for both teacher and pupU. 42 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. o o I a ft Or do GQ QQ I ^ ^". S m m I.- ^ m I. a m c3 5 B ^ ^ ^ . 33 ^ n . 33 ^ M y >> )>> i A a S a M a" S m ^ i IS ^ is d ? pq 3 S g I e« of o» Q (1| M gl M ■§ g 9 g CQ ^ 1 1 !$ S ^ PROGRAM. 43 o 1 ft o s i s s s 8 ^; s 8 s s; S 1 S S HA. Hi i i.Hm. i i i i i 44 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Second Day— Afternoon. Time. 1:50-2:00.— Teacher Marks the Eoll. Cleaning of Slates by the Children. 2:00-2:10.— General Exercise. Singing, "Clock," "Pony," " Sing a Song of Sixpence." 2 :10-2 :13.— Drill in Phonics. Chart. 2:13-2:20.— General Exercise. Conversation Lesson. Day of the Week, etc. 2:20-2:30. — A Language Lesson from a Picture. 2:30-2:40.— First Row. Writing. Copying Words from Blackboard. Second Eow. Writing. Tracing on Blackboard. Third Eow. A Language Lesson by the Trainer. Fourth Eow. A Picture Lesson by the Teacher. Fifth Eow. Shoe-pegs. Busy -Work. Sixth Eow. Shoe-pegs. Busy- Work. 2:40-3:50. — General Exercise in Language. EecaUing. 2:50-2:55.— Eunning Eecess. 2 :55-3 :05.— General Exercise. A Story by the Teacher. 3:05-3:15. — First Eow. Number Lesson by the Trainer. Second Eow. Sphnts. Busy- Work. Third Eow. Shced Pictures (home-made). Busy- Work. Fourth Eow. Shoe-pegs. Busy- Work. Fifth Eow. A Picture Lesson by the Teacher. Sixth Eow. Shoe-pegs. Busy -Work. 3:15-3:25. -Singing, " Little Miss Mufflt, " "Little Boy Blue." 3:35-3:35.— First Eow. Make a Picture of "Miss Muflat." Busy-Work. Second Eow. Number Lesson by the Trainer. Third Eow. Make a Picture of "Little Boy Blue." Busy- Work. Fourth Eow. Shoe-pegs. Busy-Work. PROGRAM. 45 Time. Fifth Eow. Shoe-pegs. Busy-Work. Sixth Eow. A Pictiire Lesson by the Teacher. 3 :35-3 :40. — Examining Busy-Work. Collecting Materials. 3 :40-3 -.50. — G-eneral Exercise. Bird Game. 3 :50-4 :00.— Dismissal. SECTION SECOND. I. Body Lesson. n. Test Lesson in Number. III. An Impromptu Lesson on the Horse. IV. Lessons on Color. V. Lessons in Direction. VI. First Lesson in Dimension. VII. Plant Lesson. Vin. Lesson on Hills. IX. Lesson on Granite. X. First Lessons in Form. XI. Lesson on Snow. In this Section, are presented specimens of the different kinds of lessons given preparatory to Reading, in the lowest grade of the Quincy Schools. They are intended to train the senses, arouse thought, and develop expression. These, it must be remembered, are not consecutive lessons ; they were taken down at different times, in different schools, during the first six weeks of the term. OHAPTEE I. A BODY LESSON. OENERAL EXERCISE. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— General: To combine Physical Exercise and Physiology. Particular : To teach the joints objectively. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER.— Making the analysis and inventing the device. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— ASl the bodily exercise they had previously had, and aU that they knew concerning the power and use of hinges. PLAN OF THE LESSON. — Begin with some general movements. Lead the pupils to think of the uses of the different parts of the body, by asking what eyes, ears, etc., are for. Have the children show some joint, and ask what they can do with it. Tell them, to move it. Ask them to find other joints. CaU their attention to the hinges of the door. Com- pare the arms to the door and the body to the door-post, and so get the idea of the hinges of the body. CaU upon them to name several, and teU the word joint. Close, by having the pupils move different joints when called for. THE LESSON. [Two lines of children have just come back from recitation with the teacher and trainer. The Busy- Work has been examined, the materials collected, and now all sit looking so THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. expectantly at the teacher, who stands in front, holding her beU.] Teacher. To-day we have learned what the heU says. Now open your ears; the bell is going to speak to you. What will it say? Eddy. [This is addressed to a restless little f eUow, of whom nothing is visible but a pair of short legs, encased in dirty, ragged trousers, and two muddy bare feet, the rest of the child being under the seat. This per- sonal remark brings him right side up suddenly, and he falters out with a very red face — '\ Eddy. To — ^to— fold the hands. Teacher [calmly assents]. Yes. You may fold yours and show us how. [Eddy, glad to get out of his embarrassing positions (both of them) so easUy, assumes the proper atti- tude and his most virtuous expression, and is good, for the rest of the lesson. The teacher waits impressively for this to be done, and the disciplinary hint to be taken by two or three other Uvely youngsters, and then resumes :] You may all hold up your hands. [A great show of small and un- washed members.] Raise them high in the air; make the arms straight; stretch them, and see how near to the ceiling you can come. [Mighty efforts on the part of the children.] Spread your fingers wide apart; try to make them long — as long as mine. [Apparently this is done by means of the facial muscles, to judge by the contortions of countenance visible.] Put your hands on your— [putting her hands upon her shoulders ; the hands go up] ; on your — [putting her hands upon her hips; the hands go down]; on your— [putting her hands upon the top of her head ; the hands are all on the tops of the heads]. Does any one know what we call the top? The crown [declares a bright little girl]. [Here the teacher stops working herself, and dictates to the children.] Teacher. Put your hands on the back of your head. On your ears. How many? A BODY LESSON. 5 I Children [in chorus]. Two. Teacher. What are they for? Children [in a general response]. To hear with. Teacher. Touch your eyes. How many? Children. Two. Teacher. What are they for? Children. To see with. Teacher. Pinch your cheeks. How many? Children. Two. Teacher. How many Ups? Children. Two. Teacher. What are they for? Children. To eat with. To talk with. Teacher. What shall we do with our hps when they talk too much? Children. Hold them together. Teacher. Do it now. [This is hard work, for the laugh wants to come out ; so in a moment the teacher continues.] Show me your wrists. What can you do with them? A Voice. I can move them. Teacher. All move them. AU put your hands on the place that moves. All put your hands on some other part of the body that can move. [This is great fun. Each child tries to find a different spot, and several put their hands upon their Ups.] John, where are your hands? John. On my shoLilders. Teacher. Maggie, where are yours? Maggie. On my elbows. Teacher. Mary, yours are where? Mary. On my knees. Teacher [swinging the door back and forth]. See me move this. It is a very heavy door, yet I can make it go away back here easily. If I had to lift it back I should need all of you to help me ; but this door-post [touching it] helps me now. We will all move our arms just as I move the 52 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. door back and forth. [Great giggling at this, and many vigorous arms, with a few limp ones. Every one quiets as the teacher speaks.] Show me what you would call the door-post. [The children in energetic pantomime signify their bodies.] What holds the real door to the door-post? Children [promptly]. Hinges. Teacher. Carrie may put her fingers on one of the hinges. What do you suppose holds your arm to your body? Children [in chorus, drawing the inference after an instant's hesitation]. A hinge ! Teacher. Put your hand on the hinge. [The children put their hands on their shoulders.] See if you can find another hinge to show me. [The children have considerable amuse- ment at the new name, and begin to find hinges all over themselves.] Mary may tell me where she has found a hinge. Mary. In my elbow. Teacher. Tommy, where is yoxirs? Tommy. In my neck. Teacher. EUa, what have you? Ella. My finger-hinge. Teacher. And yours, Susie? Susie. My knee-hinge. Teacher. Yes. Let us call them joints. You may all move the elbow-joints, both of them. [Much moving of forearms.] You may move the neck- joint. [The heads all wag vigorously.] You may move the shoulder- joints. [They make hard work of this, some moving the shoulders up and down, some swinging the arms to and fro.] You may move the knee-joints. [This is still more diflacult, and some have hardly discovered how to do it, when the teacher says;] You may move the finger- joints, all of them. [The air is full of wriggling little hands.] You may move the thumb-joints. [Here the tongues seem to be of great ser- A £ODY LESSON: 53 vice, moving sympathetically from^ side to side, as the thumbs are bent.] Tou may all shut your eyes and take a nap. I'U strike my bell when you are to wake up. [In a second the laughing faces are down on the desks, and the room is still enough to hear the clock tick. It ticks once, twice, the teacher strikes her beU, the heads come up, and the regular work begins again.] Notes and Comments. The device employed is happy and the disciplinary hint excellent. CHAPTER II. A TEST LESSON IN NUMBER. PURPOSE OF THE L£SS0IV.—1his is one of the first lessons given, and is not intended to teach. Nmnher, but to find out what the children already know, of this limitation. It is preparatory to the regular Number Work. It is also a great aid in the first grouping of the new class, for it reveals each child's mental grasp, and quickness of apprehension, in one direction at least. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER.— Royrever simple this lesson may appear, it has a definite plan, which has been clearly thought out beforehand by the teacher, whose analy- sis is given here. The objects used have also been thought- fully chosen, care being taken in their selection not to present too attractive, or unfamiliar things, lest the attention of the pupils be drawn from the idea of Number to the contempla- tion of the objects themselves. PREPARA TION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— Of course no preparation as such has been made by the little children five and six years of age, to whom this lesson is given, and yet in one sense, every limitation of things as to how many, which they have ever made has helped them in this. But henceforth they wiU. continue these limitations consciously, instead of un- consciously, as most of them have previously done. PLAN OF THE LESSON.— 1st. Show a number of things, and let the pupUs find the same number. Test. To see if they know the number. W TEST Lesson in number. §§ 2d. Call for a number of things by name. Test. To see if tbey know the name of the number. 3d. Show a number of things, and ask them to tell me how many. Test. To see if they know both the number and the name of the nxmiber. 4th. Take the children out of sight of the objects and then ask them to biing me a number of things. Test. To see if they can recall both the number and the name of the mmiber. 5th. Incidentally to test at every step their power to sepa- rate and combine numbers. THE LESSON. [The teacher seats herself at the end of the number table, which is in the back part of the room, and the children stand around it. On the table are a pile of blocks, a bundle of sphnts, some horse-chestnuts, some shells, a few spools, a package of toothpicks, a handful of pebbles, a box of beans, a pile of maple leaves, and a bunch of buttercups. Teacher [Holding up two maple leaves]. You may find me so many leaves. [Children each take two leaves.] Teacher. Maggie may teU. me what she has. Maggie. Two. Teacher. Two what? Maggie. Two leaves. Teacher. Tell it to me in a nice httle story. [Maggie only stands and stares.] Teacher. What have you? Maggie. Two leaves [again]. Teacher. Then tell me that you have two leaves. Maggie. I have two leaves. Teacher. I want all the little children to tell me the whole story when I ask you what you have. Somebody else may tell me a story. Johnnie. 56 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Johnnie. I have two leaves. Teacher. You may all lay your leaves down on the table. [Teacher takes up two horse-chestnuts.] You may all do as I do. What has Jennie? Jennie. Two horse-chestnuts. Teaxiher. Who can tell me the whole story? Carrie, can you? Carrie. I have two horse-chestnuts. Teacher. Now put them back on the table. Harry, you may hand me two blocks, and Mary may give me one block. [They do as she teUs them.] Can anybody teU me what I have? Susie. Susie. Three. Teacher. Three what? I want the whole story. Susie. Three blocks. Teacher. Who has three blocks? Susie. You have. Teacher. Now who will teU me the whole story? Mary. Mary. You have three blocks. Teacher. You may all take two beans. [Teacher waits till they have done so and then says:] You may take enough more to make three. [Two or three reach at once for one more bean, and the rest, all but three, imitate them. These three stand holding their two beans, not knowing what else to do. Teacher says to the three who don't know:] How many beans have you? Jimmie [answering]. Two. Teacher. I want you to have three. [Jimmie reaches out and gets one : the other two have been watching, and now they do the same.*] Teacher. Somebody may tell me the story about what you have in your hand. * Evidentlj three children, Jimmie, Timmie, and Uaggie, out of this group of ten, do not know three. A TEST LESSON IN NUMBER. 57 Theresa. I have three beans. Teacher. You may put the beans down, and take two pebbles : take enough more to make three. [The three before mentioned are the last to get their pebbles, and only do it by watching the rest and imitating.] Teacher. Timmie [one of the three] may tell me what he has [taking hold of his hand]. Timmie. I have three Uttle stones. Teacher. [Nodding toward his hand]. Where ? Timmie. In my hand. Teacher. [Holding up three buttercups.] Carrie may teU me what I have. Carrie. You have three flowers. Teacher. What kind of flowers? Carrie. Yellow flowers. Teacher. What kind of flowers does Jennie call them? Jennie. Pretty flowers. Teacher. What does Johnnie eaU them? Johnnie. Buttercups. [Teacher lays down the buttercups and picks up two spools.] Teacher. Theresa, tell me what I have. Theresa. Two spools. Teacher. Now how many? [Taking up one more.] Theresa. Three spools. Teacher. Maggie, tell me what I have? Maggie. You have three spools. Teacher. Jennie, what have I? Jennie. One block. Teacher [takes up two more]. Now teU me. Jennie. Three blocks. Teacher. Timmie, teU me what I have. Timmie. Two buttercups. Teacher. Jimmie. Jimmie. One shell. S§ THE "QtimCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Teacher. Susie, Susie. Three spools. Teacher. Mary. Mary. Two sticks. [Splints.] Teacher. Harry. Harry. Three horse-chestnuts. Teacher. We will go away from the table. [Teacher moves her chair about six feet from the table, and motions the children to gather aroimd her.] I am going to have you bring me something from the table that I want. Mary may bring me three spools. [She does so.] Maggie may bring me three blocks. [She goes to the table, stands, and fingers the blocks, but apparently doesn't know what to do.] If you can't bring me three, you may bring me two. [Maggie brightens at this, picks up one in each hand, and drops them, with a sigh of telief, in the teacher's lap.] Harry may bring me three horse-chestnuts. Carrie, bring me three shells. Jinunie, can you get me three beans? [Jimmie runs to the table and comes back with two.] Teacher. Susie, is he right? Susie. No ; you told him to get three. Teacher. How many did you bring rne, Jimmie? Jimmie. Two. Teacher. Can you get me three? [He drops the two, and goes and gets one more.] Teacher. How many have you brought me this time? Jimmie. One. Teacher. But I wanted three. [He picks up the two he brought first, and puts them with the one in the teacher's hand.] Teacher. Jennie may get me three buttercups.* * It is noticeable that some of the children seem to know at once what they are going to get, and gather the things up all together, showing that they recognize the nmnber as a whole; while others pick them up one by one, obviously count- ing as they do so. A tJiST L^SSON^ IN NUMBER, J^ Johnnie, bring me three sticks. Theresa, get me three leaves. Jimmie, bring me three spools. That wHl do. We will carry these things back to the table, and then you may go to your seats and make me two of each of these things we have been talking about, on your slates. [Some catch up the blocks, pebbles, etc., and put them on the table, but others do. nothing. One bean is left on the teacher's lap, and the teacher points toward it and motions to Maggie, who takes the hint and the bean and puts the latter on the table.] Notes and Comments. This gntire lesson, including the passing out and back to the seats, has taken just seven minutes. The teacher's speech has been brisk, her manner alert, and the children, as a matter of course, have moved and spoken in like fashion, except when they did not know what to do, and then the teacher waited patiently for them. The celerity of action of the lesson is its best point, for next to accuracy, rapidity of calculation is the thing aimed at in aU Number Work. Again, the opportunity this study (Arithmetic) gives for training in expression has not been lost, the teacher having here begun the teaching of correct and concise language. Having the children draw two of the blocks, sphnts, etc., is a happy device to make a change in the work, and yet keep the idea of number still in their consciousness, thus deepen- ing the impression of this limitation, already made. CHAPTER III. i AN IMPROMPTU LESSON ON THE HORSE. GENERAL EXERCISE. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON. — Primarily, to please the pupils. Secondarily, to prepare for the study of Zoology. Inci- dentally, to teach language and cheerfulness. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER. —Nearly twenty years of experience in teaching -primary school. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS —All the observation they had made of the horse, and whatever training in the con- struction of declarative sentences they had previously had. PLAN OF THE LESSON.—Lead the children to think as fast and as fuUy concerning the animal under consideration as possible, and to express themselves ia the best manner they know how. MEM. — To wind up in some nice way, so as to leave them ready to work THE LESSON. [To encourage promptness of attendance the teacher oc- casionally provides something that the children especially enjoy, to come in the five minutes between the ringing of the last bell and the sounding of the gong for school to begin. It is a dismal, rainy day, the room is dark, the atmosphere damp, and the Uttle people who have braved the storm wear rather cloudy faces. The teacher, having finished marking the roll, lays down her pen as the bell rings, and stepping forward, with her sunniest smile and cheeriest manner, says — '\ AN IMPROMPTU LESSON ON THE HORSE. 6 1 Teacher. What shall we talk about to-day? Irrepressible Youngster [eagerly]. A hoss. Teacher. Jack doesn't mean hoss, he means— [with a sig- nificant pause.] Jennie. Jennie. Horse [with the r very distiact]. Teacher. Very well. You may tell me something that the horse has. [Upraised hands are abundant.] Annie. Annie. Ears. Teacher. That isn't telling much. I want an answer about the horse. Annie. The horse has ears. Teacher. How many? Annie [disconcerted by her thoughtless answer, blushes, and falters out — ]. Two. Teacher [gravely] . WiQ you tell me now what the horse has ? Annie. A horse has two ears. Teacher. Johnnie. Johnnie [who has taken his cue from Annie's blunder and its correction]. A horse has two eyes. Teacher. Carrie. Carrie. A horse has a mouth. Teacher. Charley. Charley. A horse has four feet. Walter. A horse has four legs. Susie. A horse has a body. Ellen. A horse has a head. Patrick. A horse has a tail. Mary. A horse has a face. Walter. A horse has a neck. Michael. A horse has a mane. [Only a few hands are still up, their "points" being mostly taken.] Eddie. The horse has a back. Willie. The horse has teeth. Nellie. The horse has hair all over him. Hattie. The horse has a tongue. 62 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Harry. The horse has hoofs. [All the hands are down. The teacher gives them a start by saying, provokingly— ] Teacher. I can think of one thing you haven't mentioned. It is something that you have. [They fall to studying for a moment, and then two or three hands go up, and the teacher caUs— ] Maggie. Maggie. A horse has a nose. Katy [slightly crestfallen]. I was going to say that; she told my story. Teacher [cheerfully]. Well, you must think of another. Warren. A horse has cheeks. ^Bx>se. A horse has lips. [Katy, who has followed the teacher's advice, now flings up her hand joyfully and announces- -] Katy. A horse has a. forehead. Herbert. A horse has knees. Teacher [stepping to the blackboard]. That will do. Tell me what part of a horse I am drawing now. [The children call out as she draws — ] Children. Forehead, nose, mouth. Teacher. Something else besides the mouth. Children. Lips, ears, eye, neck, back. [The gong strikes for school to begin, and the teacher stops as if she were struck.] Children [with a cry of dismay]. Oh — Oh — but you haven't finished it. Patrick [anxiously]. You haven't made any tail. A child. [Disconsolately.] He hdsn't got any legs ! Little girl. You ought to put a mane on him. Teacher. I know it. I can't stop to do it now, but when it's time to draw pictures you may draw a horse for me, and put on his mane, his tail, his legs, and every other part you have named. AN IMPROMPTU LESSON ON THE HORSE. 63 Notes and Comments. Children are not as stupid about taking hints as their teachers often are, and many of the strongest impressions a child receives are made indirectly — a fact which this lesson illustrates. CHAPTER IT. LESSONS ON COLOR. PREPARATORY M'0/?A'.— While the lesson that follows is called the first lesson, and really is the first in color per se, the children have had, incidentally, many preparatory sugges- tive hints, such as a two-minute general exercise, to make them observing on this point, and lead them to associate the name with the color. Teacher. I see somebody that makes me think of a blue- bird. Who is it ? [Everybody begiris to look at every- body else ; a sharp-eyed little woman calls out — ] Girl. I know : ith Eddie, cauth hith frock ith blue. Teacher. There is a little pink growing in this room, and the one that can find it first, may bring it to me. Ctn a sec- ond a boy has caught a tiny miss in a pink dress by th'e hand, and is trotting her down the aisle on the double- quick, toward the smiling teacher, greatly to the amuse- ment of the other children.] At another time a diversion is effected by means of a guessing game of colors, running thus: Teacher. I am thinking of some color — guess what ? [The answers come thick and fast — ] Children. White! Green! Blue! Yellow! This gives them the names of colors, for they learn very rapidly from each other. Again Busy-Work is given them which trains the eye, such as sorting slips of colored paper LESSONS ON COLOR. 65 or bits of worsted ; and now and then a little preliminary lesson leading up to the regular lesson, Uke this: Teacher [suddenly holding up a red crayon before the pupils, who are all" in their seats]. Who will find me some- thing of that color ? [The hands are raised, and a little boy, being named, says—] Boy. That star [on the blackboard] is the same color. Teacher. Who will tell me a story about the star ? [Hands.] Mary. Mary. The star is red. Teacher. Everybody who can see anything that is this color [holding up a yellow crayon] may point toward it. [Instantly seventy -five pairs of eyes are travelUng around in search of something yellow, and in half a minute the room bristles with pointing hands.] Eddie may tell us a story about what he has found. Eddie. That ball is yellow. Teacher. That's nice ! AH of you may find something ia the room of this color [holding up a blue crayon]. What isit ? CMcZrew [in a chorus]. Blue! [Everybody hunts again ; presently the hands are all up.] Teacher. Now you may all put your right hand on what you have found ; quick ! [Such a scampering, and such laughing. A dozen or so fly at a small boy whose necktie is blue, and try to get near enough to lay their hands on it. Half the class make a rush for the two unoccupied chairs in the room to climb up and reach some blue sky in a picture over the teacher's table; whUe a little girl with a blue dress on, is surrounded by a struggling, giggling crowd, three or four deep, all trying to touch some part of her dress. In the midst of the hubbub, the teacher, who has enjoyed her practical joke as much as the pupUs, strikes her bell and the children slip into their 66 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. seats with a celerity which proves that perfect discipline and a joUy good time are not ia the least incompatible.] Teacher [whose eyes still shine with amusement, here announces:]. To-morrow morning I'd like to have you bring me something red : red paper, beads, glass, cloth, wool, or anything you can find — every one. Now you may go home to hunt for it. First row : Face ! Eise ! Pass ! [So the school is dismissed.] THE FIRST LESSON. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— First. To train the eye. Second. To find if the children know the color names. Third. To discover whether they associate the color with the name. Fourth. To see if they can separate the idea of color from the object. Fifth. To traia the children to distinguish different colors quickly. Sixth. To exercise the pupils in recalling color. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER.— Thmkmg out the plan of the lesson, making the color-chart and cards ; also select- ing the colored objects and the picture. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— All that the children have hitherto learned by themselves, or been taught of color, has been fitting them for this lesson. PLAN OF THE LESSON.— First. Have the children choose their colors and match them. Second. Ask them to name their colors. Third. Call upon them to select special colors named, and to match them. Fourth. Let them select other objects of a specified color. Fifth. Show them a picture and teU them to find a speci- fied color in it. Sixth. Tell them to shut their eyes and see colored things at home. LESSONS ON CO LOU. 67 MEM.— Be sure that all three of the colors are used. THE LESSON. [The teacher places herself at the end of a table and the children gather around. Upon the table is a variety of objects of different colors— some round beads, a few crayons, some blue and yellow envelopes, squares of glazed paper, pieces of cloth, bright bits of silk, five or six balls of worsted, a bunch of feathers, and a box of red, yellow, and blue cards. Hangiag on the wall just back of the table is a home-made color chart, consisting of a piece of cardboard about three feet long by two feet wide, upon which are pasted square pieces of paper of these same colors, of different shades, fotir or five of each. The cards are of the foundation colors; that is, the typical red, yellow, and blue.* Teacher [takes the cards from the box and places them on the table]. You may choose a card of any color you hke. [The children each pick up a card.] Mary may match her card on the chart. [At this all the children go to the chart and place their cards on the squares of the same color as the card they hold, sliding them up and down to find a match.] First tell me about Mary's card. [Children stop matching their own and look at Mary's.] Children. Mary's is right. Teacher. Now all tell me about Johnnie's. Children. His is right. . Teacher. Look at Annie's. Maggie. Annie ain't right. Teacher. Tou think Annie's isn't right ? t Look closer, Annie, and see if you have found one just hke yours. [The * Care should be taken in the selection of all materials for color lessons to get as perfect foundation colors as possible; no faded or poor shades are allowable, as they lead the child astray. t Qbserve the quiet correction of faultj^ language, 68 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. difference was only a tint, and the child now matches per- fectly.] Children. Now Annie's is right. Teacher. What about Nellie's ? Children. Nellie's is right. Teacher. Now that you have all matched your cards, tell me what color your cards were. [Teacher motions toward Mary.] Mary. I had dark blue. Nellie. Mine was light blue. Johnnie. I had light blue too. Maggie. I chose dark blue. Annie. Mine was light blue. Why, we all took a blue card ; some had Hght and some had d*-k. Teacher. Yes. Now you may all take a red card and try to find one like it. [All go to the chart and look for a match. When they have found this, they stand holding their cards against the square selected.] What will you say about Nelhe's ? Children. It is right. Teacher. And Maggie's ? Children. Maggie's is not right. Johnnie. Maggie's is right. Teacher. Yes ; it is the way the light falls that makes it look different to you. How about this ? [pointing to Mary's.] Children. Mary's is right. Teacher. Look at Johnnie's. Children. Johnnie's matches. Maggie's and Annie's are right. Teacher. Now all take yellow cards and match them quickly, and teU me whether they are right. Children. Johnnie's is right. Nellie's is right. [Maggie places a yellow card on one square then slides it up one space.] Annie [who is watching]. I like that. LESSONS ON COLOR. 69 Children. Mary's is right. Yes and Maggie's. Tommy's isn't right. Teacher. Not quite. Mary, see if you can tell him where to place it. Mary. I don't think NeUie's is right. Maggie. I think it is. Mary. Yes, I think so now [moving a Httle so that the Ught struck it differently]. Teacher. What color did you have this time ? Children. We all had yellow cards. Teacher. Yes. You may see what you can find on the tahle that is yeUow, to bring to me. What have you, Nel- lie ? Nellie. I have a yellow bead. [The bead is a sphere.] Teacher. Yes ; but can you think of another name for it ? * Teacher [as Nelhe hesitates]. Now put your thinking- cap on. [Nellie is stUl silent.] Johnnie, what have you ? Johnnie. A yellow piece of chalk. Teacher. Yes, a piece of yellow chalk or crayon. Mag- gie, what have you ? Maggie [holding up a bead]. I have a yeUow sphere. Nellie. Why, mine was a sphere too ! Teacher. Yes. Mary. Mine is a yeUow envelope. Teacher. Annie, what have you ? Annie. A piece of yellow paper. Teacher. Please bring me that picture, Johnnie [point- ing to a bright-colored chromo representing the interior of a room with two women and several boys and girls; the children are playing with toys]. Teacher. Now each one may find somethiag in the pic- ture that is blue. Nellie, what have you found ? Nellie. I have found a blue waist on a lady. * A hint toward form. 70 THE '•QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Mary. I have found a blue skirt on a lady. Johnnie. I have found a blue jug. Maggie. I have found a blue wagon. Teacher. Annie, what have you found ? Annie. I can't find anything blue. Teacher. I can see something that nobody has told about. Several children [excitedly[. So do I ! O-o-o ! O-o-o. Annie. I see it now; a jug on the mantel-piece; no, I guess it is a pitcher. Teacher. What was the next color you matched ? Children. Eed. Johnnie [who is still studying]. I see another blue thing. Teacher. Well, let that go now and find the red things in the picture. Maggie. I find a red dress on a lady. Nellie. I have found a red dress on a httle girl. Johnnie. I've found a lady's handkerchief that is red. Mary. I've found a band on a lady's skirt. Teacher. I should call that a belt. Annie. I see something that has a little bit of red in it. Teacher. Who can find anything more that is red ? Nellie. I see some red fire in the fire-place. Johnnie. One part of the ball is red. Annie. That is just what I saw. Teacher [to Johnnie]. Well, you must find something <3ise. Maggie. Oh, I've found something. Teacher. What is it ? Maggie. A lady's apron. Teacher. Now we wiU take the next color. Class. Yellow ! Maggie. I've found a yeUow-scarf on a lady's neck. Nellie. I've found a yellow bonnet on the lady. Johnnie. I've found a lady's hair that is yeUow. LESSON'S ON COLOk. ^t Teacher. Well, truly, that is yeUow; a pretty little girl with yellow hair. [N.B. — The teacher corrects the child as courteously as if he were six feet tall instead of half that height.] Annie. A part of this hall is yeUow. Mary. The girl's waist is yellow. Teacher. Yes, the body of her dress is yellow. Now shut your eyes, and think of something in your mamma's house that is yeUow. [The children shut their eyes, hut they won't stay, so they hold their eyelids down.] Annie [slowly, as if looking at it]. My mamma has a yel- low apron. Mary. My mamma is making a mat that has yellow in. it. Nellie. My mamma has a carpet that is part yellow. Teacher. Now think of something at home that is red. Mary. My mamma has a red dress ? Nellie. My mamma has a red mat. Annie. My mamma has a set of red furniture in her best room. Johnnie. My mother has a red feather in her bonnet. Maggie. There is red in our carpet. Teacher. Now shut your eyes again, and see if you can see anything at home that is blue. Mary. I can see some blue furniture. Annie. AH our best clothes are blue. Maggie. I see my Simday dress ; it has blue stripes in i Nellie. I see my blue dress in the closet. Johnnie. I can see my mamma's blue dress. Nellie. I have some blue ribbon. Teacher. All the folks in their seats are ready for recess, so I shall have to say good-by to you for to-day. 72 THE " QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Notes and Comments. The teacher, be it observed, leads the children to detect and correct the faiilty matching of colors instead of doing it herself. Another thing to be noted, viz., the teacher does not tdl the children anything, but devotes herself entirely to teach- ing—a thing as rare as it is beautiful. The lesson closed just at the "very bestest part," as a small girl remarked —a bit of high art in the plan of the teacher; the children ■wiU be glad to have another. CHAPTER Y. LESSONS IN DIRECTION. THE FIRST LESSON. GENERAL EXERCISE. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— Tlo teach the cardinal points of the compass, thoroughly. Incidentally to train the children in promptness, observation, and language. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER.— ThiDkiag out the plan of the lesson. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— Whatever they may have learned, either by experience or observation, of these points ; and all the education in alacrity^ both of mind and body, which they have hitherto received. PLAN OF THE LESSON.— Kave the pupils show their right hands, their left hands, point to the right, point to the left, and point to the place where the sun rises. Ask them what it is called. Bid them poiut to west, north, and south. Let them tell what they can see on the east side of the room, on the west, north, and south; also have them take seats to the east, west, north, and south. THE LESSON. [The children are aU ia their places.] Teacher [stands in front and says briskly] : Who is the first one to put his hands— [putting her hands on her head: the children do likewise]. Show me your right hand. Your left hand. [They have been taught right hand and left hand before.] Point to the right. Arms straight. Show me the left hand again. Poiat to the left. Point to the right and 74 THE "QUINCY MMTHODS" iLLUSTkATBD. left at the same time, so that I can see if your arms are straight. [Teacher does it herself.] Now put your left hand in your lap. Which way are you pointing ? Chorus. To the right. Teacher. Susie, rise and tell me the whole story. Susie [precisely, with hands at her side]. I am pointing to the right. Teacher [smiting]. Well, I want to see you do it. [Susie blushes, points, and repeats.] Point to the place where we saw the sun this morning. [Children point.] Which way is it? A voice. Toward the sunrise. Teacher. Which way is that ? Anybody. Another voice. East. Teacher. You may all face the east. ' [All turn and look to the windows behind them.] You may all face me. [It is done. 1 Now look beyond me ; tell me which way you are looking. A child [instantly]. I am looking straight. Teacher. Straight what ? Child [innocently]. Straight ahead. Teacher. Which way is it ? A voice. West. Teacher. All point to the right again I Which way is that? Chorus. North. Teacher. All point to the south. Put your right hand on the south side of the desk. Can you put your left hand on the north side ? It isn't very easy, is it ? A voice. It makes a cross. Teacher. Yes. All point to the north side of the room. Who wants to tell me what he can see on the north side of the room ? [A forest of hands.] Teacher. Maggie. ZSSSOJVS m PIRECTIOM. 75 Maggie [rising, and standing by her seat]. I see a clock, some ribbon, a fence [a toy], a picture, and a ribbon — Teacher. Yes, you told that before. Who will teU us more ? Wilhe. Willie. Flowers, picture, blackboard — Teacher. That will do. Who will teU me what is on the east side ? NeUie. Nellie. I can see cards, pictures, two windows, blinds, and a horseshoe. Teacher. I see a big thing. Mikie [speaks out]. A door. Teacher. Yes. You may go on, Mjkie. Mikie. Door knob, 'rasers. Teacher. Jimmie, teU him what he means. Jimmie. Erasers. [Mikie subsides at this, and sits down with an embarrassed grin.] Teacher. Who will talk faster, and tell me what is on the south ? [Johnnie, who has been waving his hand fran- tically in the air, is called upon. He rises and begins to mumble — ] Johnnie. There is a chart, some more cards, brackets— Teacher. If you don't open your mouth wider, I can't hear what you say. Johnnie [louder and more distinctly]. A table with plants on it, and — and — Teacher. Jennie. Jennie. And a motto. Teacher. Harry. Harry. There's a chair there too. Teacher [jpointing to the west]. Any one may tell me what side that is. Chorus. West. Teacher.- I must wait now for George to be still. [George, who has been shuffling uneasily in his seat, quiets at this, ^^ THE •' QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. and. the teacher goes on.] Who is ready for the west side ? Mary. Mary. I see a picture of a dog, a blackbird [stuffed], a door with two fans over it, a stove-pipe. [Here the teacher turns and looks.] Teaxiher. I can see something more. [A hand flutters eagerly, and the little girl is called upon.] Little girl [rises, all smiles and dimples]. I can see the teacher's table, and Miss [the trainer]. Teacher. Yes, I thought you could see something as large as that. [Laughter from the children.] Now you may all take — [a long pause, while the whole class, alert and expec- tant, wait to hear what follows] — a seat to the north. [There is a grand move at this, accompanied with considerable noise and some laughter as the class discover, standing in the first row to the right, a line of children, half amused and half embarrassed by this sudden tack.] All take your own seats [is the quick command, and they slip back again instantly]. You may aU [they are quite in the spirit of the thing by this time, and sit ready to spring at the word] take the seat to the east. [It is the turn of the back row to be dis- concerted, but before they have time to think, they hear — ] AU take your own seats. All move one seat to the south. [In- stantly the lefts are out, but being quite prepared, escape the laughter.] All take your own seats. All move — one seat to the west [comes in quick succession ; but they have learned how, and the change is almost kaleidoscopic for rapidity]. Take your seats [and they are back, flushed and breathless, but quite ready for the next thing, which is] : Now open your eyes wide and watch to see what Jimmie does. Jimmie, you may do anything you like (that is nice), and some one in the class may tell me what you have done. [Here follows a general language lesson.] LESSONS IN DIRECTION. "J"] Notes and Comments, The skill indicated in the varied repetition of the points taught, and the happy combination of physical and mental exercise, are manifest even in this report ; but the teacher's perfect command of the class, must be imagined, for it can- not be described. THE SECOND LESSON. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— To teach the semi-cardinal points of the compass. Incidentally to train in grasp and clearness of thought, and celerity of movement. PHEPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER.—L&jing out the plan and arranging the moves to be made by the pupils. . PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— AO. the knowledge gained and power generated by the previous lesson. PLAN OF THE LESSON.— Have the children put their right hands on the nortu side of their desks, and the left hands on the west side ; then fix their eyes half-way between, to find what ? Northwest. Place the left hands on the south side of desks, and the right hands on the west side ; half-way be- tween find southwest. Keep the left hands there, and change the right hands to east ; get southeast. In the same way get northeast. Have a chUd touch the northeast, southwest, southeast, and northwest corners of the room. Next have the first row go to the northwest corner of the room. Last row to the southeast corner. Third row to the southwest corner, and the fourth row to the northeast. The second row in their seats. Then first row move to the west, fourth row to the north, fifth row to the east, and third row to the south. Next, first row move to the north, third row to the west fourth row to the east, and fifth row to the south. Have the second row correct mistakes and pass from corner to corner. 78 THE '• QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Diagram. f? V ^ 7 \ * V a/ ^ ^ — 3 THE LESSON. [This lesson belongs properly in the next section, but is placed here as showing how the teaching of this subject would be continued. It is also a general exercise, and the teacher begins by saying — '\ Teacher. Show me your right hand. Put it on the north side of your desk. Put it in the middle. On which side is, your hand ? Children. The north. Teacher. Let me see the left hand. Put the left hand in the middle of the west side. Look half-way between your two hands. Are you looking at the north ? Chorus. No'm. Teacher. At the west 1 Chorus. No'm. Teacher. Where are you looking ? A voice. Half-way between both. Teacher. Half-way between north and west we call north- west. Place your left hand in the middle of the south side and your right hand in the middle of the west side. Look half-way between. Between what two points are you look- ing? Several voices. South and west. Teacher. And we call that what ? Children. Southwest. T^wher. Hold the left hand where it is ; change the right LESSON'S IN DIRECTION. 79 hand from the middle of the west to the middle of the east side, and look half-way between. Between what ? A child. South and east. Teacher. Yes, and that is what ? Children. Southeast. Teacher. Now put your hands half-way between north and east. Who will tell me what to caU thatpoint? Jimmie. Jimmie. Northeast. Teacher. J immi e may go and touch the northeast comer of the room, and the rest may be teachers, and tell him if he is right. [Jimmie hesitates a moment and then marches boldly into a comer.] Class [caU out]. That's right. [He returns.] Teacher. Ellen may go to the southwest comer. [She goes and the class chorus again] : That's right. Teacher. George, find the southeast corner for us. [George dehberately walks into the northwest corner.] Several voices. He's wrong! No! That isn't it! That's wrong! [George retires to private life in some confusion. Carrie is called : she selects the right comer, and the class signify it.] Teacher [suddenly]. First row go to the northwest comer. [This, takes them quite by surprise, and only the quick ones start, but in a moment they have taken their cue, and the comer is full. Southeast comer, last row ! [The second row were expecting this, and some had started, but with a laugh fall back as the row called, makes a rush for the southeast.] Northeast, fourth row ! Southwest, third row ! [This leaves the second row still sitting, alert but disappointed.] Now, children, I am going to call out changes, and if a row starts wrong, the second row may take their places. [Their faces brighten at this, and immediately every child becomes a member of the vigilance committee. Then the teacher calls out.] IVEove, first row to the west ! [Their heads are full of the senii-cardinal points, and they start for the op- So THE -• QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. posite corner. The second row with a triumphant cry of-J Second Row. Wrong! [fly for the southwest comer as the first make their way confused and shame-faced to the west side of the room. Then came in quick succession the following commands :] Teacher. Move to the north, fourth ! Move to the east, the fifth ! Move to the south, the third ! Move to the south- east, second ! [Only one corner is now occupied, and before they have time to become disorderly, the teacher gives an- other turn to the kaleidoscope, thus:] Move to the west, third row ! Move to the north, first row ! Second row move to the southwest ! Move to the east, fourth row ! Move to the south, fifth row ! Second row move to the northeast ! Now fall into hne, face the same way that I do [placing herself at the side of the room, and turning toward the door, which she opens as she speaks]. Heels together; heads up; stand as tall as you can; hands at your sides; rest on your right feet, and start with your left. Forward march ! Right, left, right, left [clapping her hands as she calls]. Pass out and get your hats, ready for dismissal. [Thtis the little people are sent home, happy in the thought that school is delightful, and learning, only play.] Notes and Comments. It is advantageous to make lessons upon special subjects such as this, a general exercise, for three reasons. First, it takes less time. Second, it encourages reserved or timid children to speak out. Third, it gives a restful and de- lightful variety to the program. OHAPTEE TI. A FIRST LESSON IN DIMENSION. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— First. To discover whether the pupOs have any idea of dimension. Second. To teach them what an inch is. Third. To begin to famiharize them with linear measure. Fourth. To teach them how to measure. Incidentally. To train the hands and eyes. PREPARATION MADE Br THE 7r/lC//£/f. —Cutting and painting the sticks, bringing the scissors, practising the measuring (so as to do it skilfully), and planning the lesson. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUP/LS.— Had the children been trained in a kindergarten, they would have known the inch, linear and square, better (probably) than the teacher; but as they had not, they were quite imprepared for this lesson, unless it be taken into account that the stimulus was ready — the love that little ones have for measuring. PLAN OP THE LESSON.— Fixst, find out if the chUjren know an inch, and if not, have them measure it. Next give three-inch sticks and have the children measure them, using inch sticks. Afterward give the class strips of paper to measure. When this has been done, measure the strips myself, having the children observe the process. Then have them measure over again. Next play store and have them measure yam, to sell, of the same color as their sticks. Cut the yam, and re-measure it slowly, to show them how. MEM. — Manage to have the pupils measure as many times as possible. Incidentally. Teach color. 82 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. THE LESSON. [The teacher has a box of colored sticks exactly one inch long. These are made of matches, or tooth-picks, and painted with water-colors— red, blue, yellow, green, orange, and purple.] Teacher [passes the box around to the group at the table, and says quietly—] Tou may take one. [They help them- selves.] Tell me what you have in your hand. George. A stick. Lucy. A short stick. Frank. A green stick. Tammy. A wooden stick. [Adding mischievously — ] A stick of wood. Teacher. How long is it? [Not seeming to notice Tommy's remark.] Willie [holding it up]. So long [innocently]. Teacher. We will call it an inch ; every one that has a stick as long as WiUie's may call it an inch long. Tou may aJl measure your stick by Willie's, and then tell me how long it is. [Teacher hands Willie's stick to the bright-look- ing Lucy, who measures, and the rest watch her carefully, and then in turn do the same.] Lucy. Mine is an inch long. Frank. Mine is an inch long. Creorge. So is mine. Emma. And mine. Willie. Mine, too. Teacher [who has been assisting Fannie].* Tell me that in a nice story. Fannie. My stick is an inch long. Teacher. We will put them back in the box again. [They * K any do not seem to know how to hold the sticks so as to measure exactly the teacher helps them without speaking ' A FIRST LESSON IN DIMENSION. 83 do SO.] Now you may each take out a stick of a different color, and perhaps it will be the one you like best. What have you, Katie? Katie. I have a green stick. Teacher. How long? Katie. An inch long. Teacher. Tommy. Tommy. I have a purple stick. Teacher. TeU me the length. Tommy. An inch long. Teacher [takes from another box a stick three inches long, and holds it up]. TeU me how long this is. George. More than an inch, I think. CAt'Zdrew [laughing]. Oh! oh! Teacher. We wiU each have one out of this box, and see if we can find out how long it is. Can anybody tell me how to do it? [Hesitation.] Frank. You might put the inch stick alongside of it and tell that way. Teacher. Let us try it. I'U measure, too. [Children all begin to measure.] How long, Frank? Frank. Three inches and some more. George. Two inches. . Emma [who has done nothing herself, but watched the rest]. Oh, more than that! Teacher. How long, Lucy? iMcy. Just three inches. Johnnie. Mine is three and a little left over. Teacher. You have all told but Emma. Emma. Mine is three. Teacher. How do you know? Did you measure? I am waiting. [Emma holds up the longer stick and tries to measure that way.] I should lay it down on the table. [Emma does so, and measures carelessly.] Emmn, Three inches. 84 THE " QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. George [who has been looking on]. You haven't gone to the end. Teacher. Suppose Emma tries it again. [The whole class watch; she works carefully, and comes out an even three inches. The teacher now takes a sheet of paper and a pair of scissors, and begins to cut the paper into strips.] Tommy [patronizingly]. That's writing-paper. Teacher. Yes. How many would Kke to measure this piece of paper? I don't know how long it is. [All the hands go up. Teacher gives a pencil with a strip of paper to each child.] You may mark ofE the inches. George [beginning to measure and count aloud.] One inch — Teacher. You needn't count out loud, because it troubles the others ; we just remember all the inches. George. All the inches on my paper? Teacher. Yes, yours only; you need not think about the others. Lucy [who is very slow and precise, and has only marked two inches]. I make buttons [dots] on mine. Teacher. Yes [snuling], you button your inches down, every one you get. [Children look and laugh.] Emma [complacently]. / make lines. • Willie. Oh, I know ! [Se has only marked off the inches, and now begins to count.] I'll see how many times I put that down [announcing presently in a loud voice — ] Four inches. Katie. I know how much mine is — a little over four inches. • Lucy. Aren't mine pretty buttons? Teacher. We wUl aU keep still and look on, till the rest have measured, and then we will teU. [Waits till aU have finished.] Now you may come and whisper to me what you have found. [Children do; sasnng either four inches, a Uttle more, or a httle less. Teacher makes no reply, but when the last child has whispered the answer. A FIRST lESSON- /J\r DIMENSION. §5 lays her own piece of paper down on the table and measures, saying—] AH look at me and count. Children [call out]. One, two, three, four. Oeorge [slowly]. I thought it was five once. Teacher. All do it with yours just as I did. [The children measure again, this time more deftly and carefully.] Children. Four inches. Teacher. Why, we all got it just alike I Now hand your pencils to me but keep the sticks, because I want you to measure something else. [Teacher takes some balls of yam from the table dj-awer.] Who has a yellow stick? [Fannie holds up her stick.] You may measure me some worsted of the same color; help yourself. Who has red? [Ellen raises her hand.] Ellen, take your ball of worsted. Who has green? Frank, you may match your stick. The rest of you come and pick out your own color. Let us play that you have yam to sell, and that I want to buy four inches. Measure carefully, because you don't want to cheat me, and you won't make any money if you cheat yourselves. When you get it measured, tell me, and I'll cut it off and then measure it again to see if it is right. [Children fall to work busily measuring the yarn, the more careful ones going over their measurements twice, and then holding on to the yarn very tightly at the point where they wish it cut. After it is cut, they watch the teacher with eager interest while she slowly measures the yam again to see if they have been exact.] Johnnie, you have given me too much. [Johnnie's face falls.] Tommy, I must have more, this isn't enough. [Tommy's smile fades for a minute and he goes to work measuring it over again.] Lucy's is just right. Those that have their yarn cut off may see if four inches of worsted is the same as four inches of paper. [After a pause filled with measuring — 1 That is enough for to-day. You may all take your yam home to show your mother how long four inches is. 86 THE "QUINCY METHODS" iLLUSTl'iATED. Notes and Comments. Children, like grown people, are more interested in seeing how a thing is done, after they have tried to do it them- selves, than before. Thus the children watched the teacher with close attention as she measured after their first trial, but they could hardly have been brought to do so before. CHAPTER YII. A PLANT LESSON. OENERAL EXERCISE. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— First. To arouse thought in the pupils, and lead them to its expression. Second. To discover what the children know about the beginning of plant-hfe. Third. To create an interest in growing things. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER.— PrOYiding a box of earth, a basket of objects, and making the outUne of the lesson. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— AS. their previous ob- servations concerning things that grow. PLAN OF THE LESSON.— First. Have the children name the objects. Second. Have the children plant the objects. Third. Have the children make a distinction between things that have life and those that have not. Fourth. Draw from the children the conditions of growth. Fifth. Interest them in nature, so that they will wish to care for plants. Sixth. Get the children to bring more boxes, that every row may have a gai;den. THE LESSON. [The teacher stands before her table with a small shallow basket in her hand, in which are various objects; on the table is a wooden box, about fifteen inches long by ten inches wide and five inches high, filled with earth".] 88 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Teacher. See what I have in this basket! Harry jnay come out and tell me. Harry. There is a horse-chestnut, a rubber ball, a shell, some beans, some corn, a pen, some apple seeds and an acorn. [Harry returns to his seat.] teacher. What have I in this box on the table? Susie. Susie. Some dirt. Teacher. Does any one know where I got it? Several voices [instantly]. Joe brought it. Teacher. Where do you think he got it? A child. At home. Another child. In his father's garden. A little girl [adds importantly]. I saw him digging it up. Teacher. Did you get it in the garden, Joe? Joe [proudly]. Yes'm. Teacher. What do you think I want it for, children? Children. To put flowers in. To plant things in. Teacher. I'U teU you. I am going to make a garden, and I am going to plant in it some of the things that are in this basket. Those who see anything here which wiU grow if I plant it in my garden, may raise their hands. [Hands go up all over the room.] Annie. Annie. Horse-chestnuts. Teacher. How do you know? Annie. I've seen horse-chestnut trees growing. Teacher. What do you say, Frank? Frank. I've seen little tiny horse-chestnut trees just coming out of the seeds. Teacher. I wUl let Eddie plant the horse-chestnut. [Eddie comes out, his face all aglow with pleasure, digs a hole in the earth with his fingers, and puts the horse-chestnut into it, watched with breathless interest by every child in the room.] Lucy may find something else to plant. [Lucy comes out, selects corn and beans, and holds them up so that the children can see.] Why do you take those? A PLANT LESSON. 89 Lucy. Because my papa plants them in his garden. Teacher. Then I'll let you plant them in my garden. [This Lucy does while the class ohserve her attentively.] Anything more in the basket that -wUl grow? Maggie. [Maggie picks out the apple seeds.] You may plant them. [She does so.] Richard may plant something else. [Eichard takes the acorn. Here some hands are raised.] Mary has something to say. What is it? Mary. I saw some acorns when I was coming to school to-day, and there were some httle acorn trees coming out of them. Teacher. Who ever saw anything like that? [Many signify by uphfted hands that they have.] Who will find one and bring it to me to-morrow? [A general show of hands, and the teacher adds impressively — ] I shall expect it.* [Eichard, who has been standing with the acorn in his hand, Ustening, now proceeds to plant it.] Charley may plant something in my garden, too. [Charley comes up boldly and looks in the basket.] Charley. There isn't anything here to plant. Teacher. There is a shell, Charley. Charley. That won't grow. Teacher. Well, here is a baU and a pen. Charley. But those won't grow either. Teacher [to class]. Do you think Charley knows about these? Wouldn't it be just as well to plant them as the other things we've put in the garden? Children [chorus]. No, they wouldn't grow. Teacher. Will the things you have planted in the box of earth grow ? Children [again in a chorus and decidedly]. Tes'm. * There was an oak tree jiist back of the schoolhoiise, and the next morning the teacher's table was covered with acorns in every stage of growth, from the swollen, unbroken shell to the acorn plant three or four inches long, with mud to match. 90 THE "QVIATCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Teacher. Very well. I'll put the box into this cupboard .[a dark closet], and leave it till next week, then we will look and see what a pretty garden we have. Children [instantly]. No; you must put it by the win- dow. Teacher [calmly astonished and with great simplicity]. Why? A voice. So it wiU have the Ught. Another voice. So the sun can shine on it. Teacher. If the sun shines on it the earth wiU dry up. Children. You wiU have to water it. Teacher. I might forget to water it. Several voices. I'll remember it ! I'll teU you I Teacher. I think I'll give this box to the first row to take care of, and if I can get another box of earth to-m.orrow I wiU give it to some other row. Voices. I'll bring a box ! I will ! I can ! I've got one at home like that 1 Teacher. Very well ; then each row can have a garden, and now this is what we will sing: " Shall I show you how the farmer sows his seed?" Notes and Comments. Please observe that the teacher does nothing except stand before the pupils, hold up a basket of things, and ask a few questions. The children do most of the talking, aU of the work, and promise to do more. Who is there who could not be a teacher? OHAPTEE YIII. A LESSON ON HILLS. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— First. To take the first step in the teaching of the science of Geography. Second. To lead the children to observe the forms of land around them. By the way, to teach language. PREPARATION 1/1 AD E BY THE TEACHER.— First. Performing a series of experiments with children and sand. Second. Deyising an ingenious plan. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— Ail the sand mounds and mud pies that they have ever made, and aU the hills they have ever seen (not looked at). PLAN OF THE LESSON. — First. Let the pupils make sand hills. Second. Call their attention to the diflference between them, and thus lead the pupils to observe slope. Third. Gret from the pupils the terms high, low, steep, sides, top, and bottom. Fourth. Have them tell me all about their hills. Fifth. Bring in the idea of drainage by pouring water on one of the lulls. MEM. — Be sure to take the steepest hiU for this, so as to make the washing away, more perceptible. Sixth. Tell the pupils to look at the hUls on their way home, and be ready to make them to-morrow. THE LESSON. A primary schoolroom. In an open space back of the children's desks, stands a long low sand table, and upon it two or three pailfuls of sea-shore sand. The teacher has $2 THE '•QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. jusb finished a writing lesson, given as a general exercise, and now says cheerily : " All the babies may go to the sand table and wait till I come." At this, about a dozen little children, five and six years of age, start off at once for the table, which having reached, they immediately begin to play in the sand. Meantime the teacher is setting the rest to work, giving to one group some pictures to look at; sending another to the blackboard to illustrate one of Mother Goose's rhymes ; a third division make i's from a copy on the blackboard, and the last, try to draw the teacher's chair. After all are busy, the teacher saunters leisurely down the aisle, stopping every step or two, to straighten some small rigid hand cramped around a pencil, to lift a pair of drooping shoulders, to give an encouraging pat to a curly head, or to catch play- fully at a little hand put shyly out to stroke her dress as she passes. But all this seeming leisure is a part of the plan, for every now and then, quick glances have been cast toward the babies and their play, and just as each little one is putting the finishing touches to a mound of sand, she stands beside them and asks : "What do they look like?" "Little bills," pronounces a mite of a woman, after a quick survey of the row of tiny hmnmocks on the table. ' ' That's what I think, " cordially assents the teacher ; ' ' let's call them bills. Look at Harr.y's. " "Oh, isn't it tail and sUm!" exclaims an excitable little fellow. "Mine is nice and fat," complacently remarks a small man, who is too busy patting down his own, to pay much attention to anybody's else. "See Mary's" (it was long and low); "if you were going to coast down one of these hiUs next winter, which one ■would you rather have?" A LESSON ON HILLS. 93 "Harry's," is the unanimous answer. "Why?" questions the teacher. "Because it is so high, of course," declares one, evidently thinking the question slightly stupid. "I'd take it because it's so steep," asserts another boy. "I like to coast where the hill is as steep as— anything." "How would this one do?" asks the teacher, pointing to Mary's. "Ho, I wouldn't like that; why, you couldn't get any slide at all, hardly," bursts out Bertie, who has just begun to talk. "Why not?" snuhngly persists the teacher. " Cos it's too little !" says the youngest of the group. " I think it's because it's so low," remarks a young phi- losopher in petticoats, who has been studying the hUlocks attentively all this time. "I think so too," echoes the teacher, with an approving pat on the golden head. "I'd like to know where you would begin to coast on Harry's hQl," she says in a moment. "Why, at the top! don't you know that?" with a half- pitying complacency. " Ajid where do you stop?" queries the teacher. "At the bottom," chorus three or four children; and one experienced slider adds meditatively, in a half aside: "Unless you get tipped over, and then you stop in the middle." The teacher smothers a laugh, and goes on: ' ' Each put your hand on your hill, where you would begin to slide." The hands are aU placed. ' ' And what part of the hiU is that?" "The top," agree the children. "Now let us play that this shell is a sled, and it's going down. Where is it now?" 94 THE " QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. " On the side," comes the chonis. "And now?" as it stops. "At the bottom." "What kind of a hill is this of Harry's?" "A high hill!" "A tall hill!" "A thin hilll" are the answers. "I like to call it a high hUl," remarks the teacher, as if iQcidentally. "What kind of a hill did you tell me Mary's was?" " A short hill!" "A fat hiU!" " A low hill." "Yes. I think it is a low hiU. Now each one tell me a nice httle story about his hill. Bertie." "My hill is high." " That's nice. NeUie." "MyhiUislong." "Yes. Annie." " My hill is short." "Minnie." " This is the side of my hiU." "Harry." " This is the top of my hill." " JimmLe.'' ' ' This the bottom of my hDl." "Carrie." "I made a big hill." "My hill is made of sand," concludes WiUie. "What are the "truly" hills made of?" is the teacher's sudden inquiry. ' ' Dirt, ' ' is the unanimous response. "I'll teU you what we will play next. Nellie, bring me a cup of water." She does so. "Now, I am going to pour some of this water down at the bottom of Harry's hUl, and we wiU see it run up." Such a burst of laughter. "You can't do it!" "Isn't she queer?" "Water don't nm up hill," are some of the remarks these amxised little A ZSSSOAT ON HILLS. 95 people are making, while the teacher stands, cup in hand, waiting to put her question in. "How does it run?" "Down." "Very well. I'U pour some here on the top, and we'll play it's rain." There comes a cry of dismay from the little group, for Harry's hill, under the steady stream of water, is rapidly disappearing. " Oh, don't- it's all running away." " Oh, you're spoiling it; please don't!" are the appealing requests that come from the little hUl-makers. "Why, what is the matter?" inquii-es the teacher, inno- cently. "It's aU melting away. " "It isn't steep any more, " com- plain the children. " How came it to run away? What made it?" "The water!" is the quick reply. "What did the water do?" "It carried the sand down with it." "It ran away with the sand," said a slow one, who had been thinking a great deal and talking but Uttle. ' ' Yes. Now I am going to let you run away— home, pretty soon, and I want you to look at all the hUls you can, and make some like them for me to-morrow in the sand. Good-by." The children aU go to their seats.* Notes and Comments. Turn every desire of the child (if possible) to good ac- count. Even the natural propensity of children to play in the dirt may be made the first step to that grandest of all sciences— Geography. * The next day the children could hardly wait to make in the sand the hills they had seen, and when made, the hills were all easily recognizable, being excel- lent copies of the originals. , 96 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. The idea of the tremendous wasting, wearing power the water has upon the land, is here implanted in the children's minds. It will grow with their growth ; and when children so instructed shall come to maturity, there will be men and women who can form some adequate conception of the great creative forces still at work, transforming the earth under their very eyes. CHAPTER IX. A LESSON UPON QRANITE. GENERAL EXERCISE. PURPOSE OF THE ifSSO/lT.— Mainly, to lead the chUdren to consider what they owe to their parents, and in doing this, to give them an impulse toward a series of observations, which if continued will end in the study of Mineralogy. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER. —First. All her sense of responsibility regarding the children's education ia morals. Second. Deciding how to introduce the matter of fihal gratitude. Third. Arranging the details of the lesson, and bringing the specimens. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— First. AU that they feel of affection or know of kindness. Second. Whatever they may have seen or heard of the process of quarrying granite. PLAN OF THE LESSON.— (1) Get the children to tell me all that they know about the work done in the quarries. (3) Lead them to think why their fathers do this hard work, and what is bought for them with the money thus earned. (3) Then make an appeal to their sense of filial gratitude. [Mem.— Be sure not to leave the mothers out.] (4) Finish by leading the children to see and name three of the parts of granite, the black, the shiny, and the gray. THE LESSON. [All the children are in their seats, and the teacher stands by her table, which is covered with bits of granite of various sorts. She begins her lesson thus:] 98 THE '• QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTfiATED. . TeacJier [holding up a piece of granite]. Children, what is this? Children [confidently]. Granite. TeacJier [holding up another]. And what is this? Children [nonchalantly]. That's granite too. Teacher [questioningly]. But this [holding up the first] doesn't look like that [holding out the second] ? A voice. Because that first piece you had was Quincy granite, and the other was Concord. Teacher. How do you know? A child [in a slightly contemptuous tone of voice]. Why, can't you see? One piece is darker than the other. Teacher [persistently]. But how do you know that this is Concord granite? lAttle hoy [confidently]. My father told me, and he is cutting a monument out of it down to his shed. Another child [excitedly]. My father's cutting an urn in his shed, out of Quincy granite. LMtle girl [sitting ia front proudly says]: My father's cuttiag curh-stones. Another child [not to be outdone]. My father's cutting curb-stones too. Young braggadocio [here caps the climax with a flourish by exclaimiag] : They are cutting an eagle up to Mr. W 's sheds, and I went up to see it the other day. Teacher [entirely unmoved]. That wiU do. I want you to tell me something more about this piece of granite [the Quincy]. Where does it come from? A voice. Out of the quarries. Teacher. It is so hard I shouldn't think the men could cut it out. Knowing six-year-old [patronizingly]. Why, don't you know?. They don't cut it out; they blast it. Teacher [ignoring the snub]. Can somebody teU me what A LESSON UPON GRANITE. 99 he means by blasting? [AH the hands are waving eagerly.] Timmie. Timmie [rapidly, and with great dramatic fervor]. Why, you see the men drUl some holes— so — [suiting the action to the word, while half the children in the room are making the motion of driUing] — and fill them with powder, and then they put a slow match to it, and it goes ofE, and a great piece of stone comes out of the quarry. Teacher [composedly, keeping to the point of getting the whole story]. But your fathers don't go up to the quarries to cut monuments. [AH are very anxious to tell.] EUie. Elite. They bring it down to the sheds on a stone-team. Teacher. I shouldn't think they could Uft it out of the quarry. [Everybody knows this too.] Maggie. Maggie. Oh, they have derricks to lift it out. Teacher. After they get it down to the sheds, what then? Children [together]. They cut it into urns and monu- ments. Teacher. Do the men ever do anything to monuments after they are cut? [This throws them off the track a little, and only a few hands are raised.] Carrie. Carrie. Tes'm, they polish them sometimes. Teacher [thoughtfully]. It's hard work, isn't it? What do your fathers do it for? [This is put to the whole class, and blocks them for a time ; then a small man with a httle old face, who looks as if he had already begun to be made ac- quainted with the stem realities of life, announces posi- tively] : Small man. Cos they has to. Little girl. They do it to get money. Teacher [stiU pursuing her pomt]. Why do they work so hard to get money? Children. To buy things. To spend at the store. Teacher. Do they buy anything for you? Mina. My father buys me candy. lOO THE " QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Teacher [gravely contemplative]. And that is all he ever bought for you. [The children begin to look serious, and to consider the matter thoughtfully.] • Ellie ["breaJdng the sUence]. My father buys me clothes. ^ Jdkie. My father bought me a pair of boots and a hat once. Teacher. TSiose are things to wear : do you have anything else that he spends his money for? Jean. My father bought me some oranges last Saturday. Teacher. What did you do with them? Jean [instantly responding]. I eat 'em. Teacher. Isn't thei'e something else that he buys for you to eat, that you have every day? All of you try to think.* Something that you had this morning. Katie. Meat and potatoes. Hattie. Bread and butter. Teacher. What would you do if you didn't have these things to eat? Children [promptly]. Die. Starve. Teacher [suggestively]. Then what do we think of our fathers, who work so hard to buy aU these things? Instantaneous chorus. They are good ! They are kind ! Teacher [continues]. But the meat and potatoes aren't good till somebody has cooked them for us. Mattie [before the others get a chance to speak]. My mother cooks 'em. Teacher. Then I think we should say something about our mothers. Again in a chorus. Oh, they are good too. Teacher. I want to know now, how the granite grows? [There is great giggling at this, and a quick response.] Josie. It don't grow ; it's a stone. Teacher [persistently]. Well, of what is it made? [This is * It seldom occurs to children that tood is bought. A LESSON UPON- GRANITE. 101 something of which they never thought, and not one has a ■word to say.] Each of you may take a piece, and see if it looks as if it was made of anything. [The children each come and get a specimen, and go back to their seats intently studying it, though most of them have seen granite every day of their lives since they could remember. It has suddenly dawned upon their mental vision that there is something new to be discovered in an old and famUiar object. After giving them time to look at the granite carefully, and not time to tire, the teacher asks:] What can you see, Patrick? Patrick. There are bits of black specks about it ; dirt, isn't it? Johnnie [excitedly]. No, the black is right in the stone. Carrie. It's all mixed in with the rest. Teacher. The rest of what? Ellen. The rest of the stone. Teacher [not to be baffled]. And what is the rest of the stone made of? Susie. I can see some shiny pieces. Teacher. Yes [summing up], we have found black pieces and shiny pieces in the granite; what else? Mikie. [Mikie points to a spot of feldspar.] Teacher. Does it shine? Mikie [tipping the stone to get more light on it]. I can't see any shine. Teacher. Is it black? Mikie [decidedly]. No. Teacher. How does it look? Mikie [examining his stone, says slowly] : It looks kinder like gray. Teacher. I don't quite like the way Mikie said that ; can anybody teU me better? [But the children are too much taken up with their speci- mens to have paid any attention to Mikie's expression; they were conscious only of his thought. The teacher turns to I02 THE "QtriNCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Mikie, who looks as if he would like to tell about it again, and he says promptly:] Mikie. It is gray. Teacher. Everybody who has found something black in his granite may raise his hand.* [Every hand is up.] How many have found something shiny? [AH hands are raised.] How many can see the gray. [Nearly everybody.] Nellie has something to say; what is it? Nellie. The gray in mine looks something hke the clay we make balls of. Teacher. Eddie may tell me what he has found in his granite. Eddie. I found something black, something shiny, and something gray in the granite. Teacher. Do you suppose that the granite is made of any- thing? [Pausing a moment to see if the children are moving toward the previous question, — Of what is granite made? and judging by their faces that they are, she continues:] I think I will let you ask your fathers about it, and when we talk of granite again, you can tell me all that you find out. Now the clock says that it is almost dinner-time, and I'll let you go. Perhaps your fathers wiU be home before you are. Notes and Comments. The moral point is by far the best point of this lesson. * The hornblende is quite perceptible in the Quincy granite. OHAPTEE X. LESSONS ON FORM. THE FIRST LESSON. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— First. To find if the children know the name sphere, and if not to teach it. Second. To draw from the children a description" of the sphere. Third. To contrast the sphere and cylinder. Fourth. To get the children to give their definition of a sphere. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER.— Making aU the forms except the balls. Thinking out, and writing the plan. Ex- perimentiQg with the sphere and cyhnder, and trying to imagiae what the children would be Hkely to say about them. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— Two or three years' ex- perience with the sphere (ball), but upon the cylinder they were mainly unprepared. PLAN OF THE LESSON. — Begin by asking the children what we shall call the sphere. Then get them to tell all about it. To help them in understanding the sphere, introduce the cylinder, and lead them to see the difference. When a good description is gained, teU them the name — sphere (if none of them can teU). Close the lesson by having them sum up the points they have given for a definition, and give to it the name sphere. Incidentally, train them to make complete sentences. I04 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. THE LESSON. Upon the table before the teacher is a box containing several balls, with crocheted covers of worsted, in the rainbow colors; also some cubes, spheres, and cylinders, made of various materials, such as clay, soap, pasteboard, and wood. The little children come around the table. As' the last child reaches it, and before the teacher can speak, Jimmie, whose quick eyes have caught sight of the balls, inquires : Jimmie.. Are you going to play bounce the ball? • Teacher [quietly]. I don't know what we shall play be- fore we get through. [Teacher passes the box to the children in turn.] Ton may each take the color you like. Susie. What are they made of? Johnnie. They are made of clay. Teacher. Are they made of clay? [Children begin to feel the balls.] Tommy. No ; I can press mine in. Katie [decidedly]. Mine is made of rubber. Teacher [holding up a ball before the class]. What shall we call it? Children. A ball. Teacher. Tell me the whole story, Ellen. Ellen. It is a ball. Teacher. I'll call it a ball if you say so. Each of you may teU me something about your baU. Michael. A yellow ball. Teacher. I would like to have you tell it to me so that I can understand it. Michael. Mine is a yeUow ball. Richard. A ball can bounce. Mary. A ball is round. Teacher. Isn't that a nice story? Susie. Mine looks like a red apple. LESSONS ON FORM. I05 Tommy. Mine looks like an orange. Jimmie. Mine is covered with yam. Ellen. I can roll my ball. Teacher. That is a good story. Michael. My ball bounces. Katie. I can roll my ball over to Susie. Teacher. Now you have aU told me a story but Jennie. Jennie [slowly]. The ball is made of rubber. Teacher. Mary may teU her story again. Mary. A ball is round. Teacher. And what will it do? pLooking at EUen.] Ellen. It will roll. Teacher [takes the cy Under and roUs it]. What does this do? Children. It roUs. Teacher [sets it on the base and pushes it]. Now see me roU it. [It slides along, and the children laugh.] Why doesn't it roll? — it is round. Mary. Because it is not round aH round ! Jimmie. It mil roll one way. Katie. It roUs hke a wheel. Teacher. Why doesn't it roll this way? [Setting it on the end and pushing it.] Michael. It just went right along here. Mary. Because it isn't round like a ball. Susie. It won't roll because it is smooth. Tommy [eagerly]. My brother Charley has an awful smooth piece of wood ; he got it from a tree. Teacher. Yes. Jennie, tell me something. Jennie. Sometimes it rolled that way when you didn't want it to. Teacher. Why doesn't it roU this way? Johnnie. Because it is only half round. Teacher. There is another word you can use which is better, because it may be half or it may be more than half. Io6 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Mary. It is part round. Tommy. It is part square, / think ! Teacher. Which part is square? [Tommy touches the base.] Katie [airily]. That's a circle. Jennie. It is part round and smooth on the bottom. Katie [who isn't going to have her circle ignored]. It is part round and part a circle. Teacher. Somebody else tell what they think about it. Michael. Just this side of it is round. Teacher. What do you say, Jimmie? Jimmie. I think it is part round and part flat. Teacher. Now will this [cylinder] roU like this [ball]? [Giving cylinder and ball a push.] Johnnie. The ball part will. Ellen. It does not roll when it stands up. Teacher. Does the ball roU when it stands up? Michael. You can't stand the ball up. Katie. The baU has to roll. Richard. The ball has to roll all the time. Mary. The ball roUs every way you want it to. Susie. The baU is round aU round. Teacher. Which way is that? Ellen. Every way. Teacher. What is this that rolls every way? Children. A ball. Teacher. I know another name for this ; do you want me to teU you what it is? Children. Tes'm. Teacher. It is a sphere. Michael. A spear? Teacher. A sphere. You may all tell me the new name for this. [Picks up the ball.] Children. A sphere. L£:sSO^rs ON- FORM. tO; Teacher. Now you may tell me how round a sphere is, and which way it will roU. Mary. A sphere is all round, and will roU every way. Teacher. We will all say that together. Children [repeat]. A sphere is all roimd, and will roll every way. Notes and Comments. The most striking point in this lesson is the skill of the teacher in the steady leading of the thought toward the end she had in view, and in moulding the expression to the form she wished. It will be observed that this lesson has combined the sphere and cyhnder in the teaching of the first elementary form, the sphere; and thus leads directly toward the pres- entation of the second elementary form, the cube. THE SECOND LESSON.* PURPOSE OF THE LESSON. —First. To lead the pupils to see and teU the differences between round and cubical bodies. Second. To get from the children a description of the cube. Third. To gain from the pupils their definition of a cube. Fourth. To associate (if not already known) the name with the form. Fifth. To teach the cylinder (form and name). Sixth. To fix the forms in the mind by means of recaUing objects of similar form. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER.— The same as in the preceding lesson. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— They have without * This was given the following day — and here the cylinder, the connecting link- between the cube and sphere— and the cube, are combined. Io8 THE "QVINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. doubt reviewed the previous lesson pretty thoroughly, having probably aired their newly-acquired knowledge at home, and tried various and sundry experiments with balls (cylinders if they could find any), to say nothiug of having discussed the matter more or less with their classmates. PLI^U OF THE LESSON.— Be^n with the idea of roundness (rolling) gained in the last lesson, and get the children to tell why the cube will not roU. Then lead the pupils to notice that the cube has faces, and have them find all the faces. Teach the edges in the same way. Next develop the idea that all the faces and edges are alike, then teU them (if they do not know) that all such bodies are called cubes. After this have the children teU all about the cylinder, going back to the idea previously gained that it will roU. Lead them to see and teU wherein it differs from the ball (bring in here the term base). Now combine their descriptions into a defini- tion and give to it (if necessary) the name cylinder. Last, have the children name everything they can think of, that looks Ukeeach of the three forms. THE LESSON. Teacher [takeB cube and tries to roll it]. See me roU this. Jimmie [laughing]. Oh, it hops ! Michael. It rolled clean over to me ! Mary. That didn't roU. Ellen. It can't roll because it is square. Tommy. It can't roll because it is not round in any place. Susie. It has square corners and can't roU. Teacher [to Susie]. Show me the corners. [Susie takes the cube and points to the comers.] Ellen may tell her story again. Ellen. It can't roU because it is square. Teacher. Now show me where it is square. [Ellen takes the cube and puts her finger on one of the faces.] You may LESSONS ON FORM. IQg each take a block and show me a square upon it. [They do so.] You may find all the squares you can on the block. [This is done.] Now you may put your hand on the outside of that square [pointing to one of the faces], and run the finger along there, and down there, and across there, and up there [indicating with her finger the four edges of this face]. What do we touch? Tommy. Sides. Katie. Ends. Teacher. All put your hands in the middle of the table. Now put them out here [at the side]. What have we found? Tommy [decidedly]. The sides. Katie [persistently]. The ends. Teacher. We caU sides and ends something else ; what is it? [No one speaks.] The edge; tell me. [Tommy and Katie are rather taken aback by this, but join in repeating with the others — ] Children. The edge. Teacher. Put your finger right in the middle of your square; now on the edge of your square. Now put your finger on the edges of all the squares on the block. Hold your block just before your eyes, and touch the square on the right-hand side ; touch the square on the left-hand side. Are there any more sides? Richard. ■ There's a square on top. Jennie. There's a square on the bottom. Teacher. Any more? Mary. There is one next to my face. Mien. There is one around on the other side. ; Teacher. Which square is the largest? Children. AU just alike ! Tommy [earnestly]. . Ain't none of 'em the largest? Teacher [gently]. None of them are largest. When I have a block like this, just as many squares as this has, and one square just as large as the other, I caU it a cube. no THE "QUIMCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. [Teacher sets the cube on the table beside the ball and cylinder.] Which of these wUl roll? Mary. The ball and that one [pointing to cylinder]. Teacher. Which one will not roll? Children. The cube. Teacher [taking cylinder]. Well, then, I'll roll this. Jimmie. You'U have to tip it over to roU it. Teacher. But I don't want to tip it over; I want it to roll as it is. Johnnie. It won't roll on the end. Katie. It will roll some vrajs. Richard. Some ways it won't roU. Teacher. What part wiU roU? Susie. The ball part will roU. Ellen. The round part wiU roll. Teacher. And what part wiU not roU? Richard. The bottom part and top part. Teacher. But I can make either part the bottom. — see [standing, the cylinder first on one end and tben on the other]. When men cut the granite monuments here in the sheds, what do they call the bottom part? Children [promptly]. The base. [They aU know that.] Teacher. Then I will caU the end this stands on, the base. Now you have told me that the sphere would roll every way, and that the cube wouldn't roll at all. What wiU you tell me about this? Mary. This wiU only roll one way, and stand still the other ways. Teacher. Now I'll tell you the name of this— a cylinder. You may all say it. Children [repeat]. A cylinder. Teacher. Now think very hard, and tell me everytMng you can, that looks like a cylinder. [At this some hold their eyes shut, to recall, and some look eagerly around. In a minute they begin to exclaim, one after the other, thus—] LESSONS ON FORM. 1 1 1 Children. The trunk of a tree ! A cork ! [there was one on the table]. My arm! That stove-pipe ! The curtain-roller ! A broom-handle ! My mother's rolliag-pin ! Teacher. That will do. What can you think of that looks like a sphere? Children. A marble. A base-ball. An orange. A glass agate. A peach. [Teacher gets a peach from her drawer and sUently shows that it isn't a sphere by trying to roU it end over end.] An apple. [Teacher also experiments with an apple which she happens to have.] A baU of yarn. A candy gooseberry. [A baU of candy greatly beloved by . Quincy children.] Teacher. Now name some cubes for me. Children. That box [on the desk]. A trunk.— No [judici- ally], a trunk is too long. A caramel. Teacher. We'll all play we've had some. G-ood-by. Notes and Comments. It would have taken but half the time, and not a shadow of the skill, to have had the children memo- rize the definitions of these three forms, and the defini- tions would have been infinitely better. But what would have been the result? Only one faculty of the mind exer- cised, an unnecessary formula glibly recalled and promptly forgotten. Instead, the whole mental machinery has been set going, thought has been aroused, and expression stimu- lated; while all the knowledge of facts that the child has acquired is now thoroughly at his command, because gained by the use of his own senses. Was it worth while? CHAPTER XL A LESSON UPON SNOW. CENERAL EXERCISE. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— First. To discover some of the properties of snow. Second. To find why it snows in cold weather. Third. To lead the children to notice snow crystals. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER.— Th& making out of the plan of the lesson, and then waiting for the right kind of a snow-storm. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— All that they have previously noticed regarding the snow. PLAN OF THE LESSON.— First. Arouse an interest in the snow. Song. Second. Call for properties. Third. Ask where it comes from, and why it doesn't come in summer. Fourth. Ask why it is different from rain. Fifth. Send the children to examine snow-flakes. Sixth. Have them draw the snow crystals. THE LESSON. A mild day in winter, and a soft, slow snow-storm, when the large flakes are floating gently down. The classes have just returned from recitation and it is time for a general exercise. AH sit with folded hands expectant, when the teacher says : Teacher. You may look out of the windows. What do you see? Seiveral voices. A snow-storm. A LESSON UPON SNOW. II3 Another voice. It snows. A hoy in front. I see the snow. Small hoy [after a long look, deliberately, as if he had waited to arrange his phrase]. The snow is coming down. Teacher. Let us sing, "Oh, see! the snow is falling down." [As they sing the first Mne of each stanza they make a waving motion with their fingers and hands to represent the faUing of the snow. When they have finished — ] I want some of you to teU me something about the snow. [Many hands are raised.] Bertie. Bertie. The snow is white. Teacher. Edith. Edith. The snow is cold. Teacher. Weston. Weston. The snow is soft. Teacher. Nellie. Nellie. The snow is wet. Teacher. AUce. Alice. The snow looks Mke pop-corn. Teacher. Susie. Susie. The snow looks like feathers. Teacher. Where does the snow come from? Stevie. Stevie. From the sky. Teacher. Mary. Mary. From the clouds. Teacher. That's what I think. Who was ever out in a snow-storm in the summer? [A general commotion at this, some laughing, and a few Ohs, with the general response from the children—] Children. We don't have snow-storms in summer. Teacher [quietly]. Don't we have any clouds in the sum- mer? [Some have their answer ready, and the rest are travelling back to look at last summer's sky to see if there were any clouds, and find it hard to remember. A little girl rather older than the rest being called up, says—] 114 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. Little girl. Yes, but it rains. Teacher. If the rain came from the clouds last summer, why doesn't it come to-day? Several children. Because it is cold to-day. Because it freezes. Teacher [promptly]. Because what freezes? [This is an unexpected turn in the conversation, but after a moment's pause a bright-eyed youngster puts up his hand, and being called upon, ventures—] Little hoy. Isn't it the rain? Teacher [slowly, questioning in her turn]. Then if it is the rain that freezes, why isn't this a hail-storm? [Here is a puzzler. The class look questioningly at each other, and then at the teacher, who presents a perfectly impassive countenance, and finding no help from either quarter, they turn with one accord to look out of the window at the snow, to see if that will throw any light on the subject. After a minute or two of perfect silence, during which every child in the room is racking his small brain to find a reason for this phenomenon, and the teacher is patiently waiting, a thoughtful-looking little girl puts up her hand timidly, and the teacher says—] "Well, Mary. Mary [slowly, as if not quite sure of her ground]. I don't think the rain all freezes. I think it half freezes. Teacher [in a calmly inquiring tone]. Just half? [Mary colors at the implied correction, and says hastily — '\ Mary. Part freezes. TeacAer [smiling]. Partly freezes. Not quite ; the water that is up in the clouds freezes differently. When it freezes one way it forms hail, and when it freezes another way it becomes snow. Small youth [sagely]. I just thought that was it I Teacher [considerably amused at this tardy wisdom]. Did you? Now I'll let you all go to the door and catch some of the snow-flakes on your sleeves, and look at them. [The A LESSON UPON SNOW. II5 children run gayly out to the door, stretch out their arms an instant, and then step back into the hall, to look at the feathery flakes before they melt ; after which they pass back to their seats. All this is done without confusion or crowd- ing, and with less noise than might be supposed.] Teacher [to the class when all is quiet again]. Did you catch any snow? Grand chorus. Yes'm. Teacher. Somebody bring some to me that I may see it. Children [with a shout of laughter]. We haven't got any now, it is all gone ; it has melted. Teacher [not to be baflB.ed by this]. If you can't show me any snow, can you tell me how a pnow-flake looks? [Quite a shower of hands.] Bertie. ■ Bertie. The snow-flake is flat. Teacher. Ellie. Ellie. I don't think they are flat. Mine stuck up. Teacher. Johnnie. Johnnie. There were some httle points on mine. Teacher. Annie. Annie. I caught one that looked just like a little star. Eddie [dehberately]. When I stuck my arm out, one came down, and it looked like a wheel. Teacher. Would you like to go again and catch some snow-flakes, look at them carefully, and then come back and draw them on your slates? Delighted chorus. Yes'm. Teacher. Go. [They scatter like leaves before the wind, and in two minutes the room is full of young artists, busily drawing that miracle of beauty, the snow-flake.] Notes and Comments. The science of natural phenomena is generally supposed to be so very abstruse that only the mature intellect is able to enter upon its investigation, and yet little children five and Il6 THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. six years of age have in this lesson been led to begin their discoveries in this branch of study, and have shown con- siderable power in inductive reasoning; several of these youthfiil philosophers having made as logical inferences as any graybeard could have done. All of which demonstrates two things : first, that the mental power already generated in the little child is seldom realized by teachers (and the generality of parents for that matter); second, that a knowledge of the nature of the child is needed, to render this power available. SECTION THIRD. I. Preliminary, n. Eeading.— The Word. III. Eeadiag.— The Sentence. rv. Reading. — Combination Lesson I. V. Eeading. —Combination Lesson 11. VI. Eeading. — Advanced Lesson in Script. Vn. Reading.— First Lesson in Print. Vin. Eeading. — Phonics. IX. Reading. — ^Imitation Exercises. Section Third is devoted to the presentation of the subject of Eeading, as developed during the first year at school. The lessons and exercises here described were given by different teachers, and are intended to illustrate not only the principal stages of progress, but also the more prominent phases of this most important study. OHAPTEE I. PRELIMINARY. The little children have now been in school six weeks. They have become acquainted with the place, their school- mates, and the presiding genius — the teacher. Physically, they have been made generally comfortable in every way. One long recess during the morning session, and a iive-minute run around the house in the afternoon, has been their out-of-door exercise; while short lessons, which bring about frequent changes of position, together with marches, movement songs, and three- minute intervals of light gymnastics, have afforded a modicum of in-door exercise sufficient, certainly, to secure good health. In the way of intellectual training they have had each day, at least, three special (class) lessons, and several gen- eral exercises, all preparatory in matter and objective in manner. By means of these they have acquired a ready command of their few idioms and quite a vocabulary of words. In addition to this, they have commenced the classification of their small stock of facts, previously gained, and the acquisition of new ones. Interest has also been aroused, and desire stimulated in the direction of investigation; and beginnings have been made in almost all of the sciences. In this last work great care has been taken, not only that all facts taught should be absolutely correct, but also that in their presentation they should be arranged systematically. In other words, they have all this time been led to ob- serve closely, stimulated to think rapidly, taught to express 120 TH£: "QVWCy METHODS'* ILLUsTJRATMD. themselves clearly and in good English, and trained con- stantly to attend to the work that they were doing. And not this alone. Eegularity of work and play has been insured, and obedience eziacted, bringing these little people thus early, to feel the force of law and order; while the over- confident have been quietly but persistently put down, and those lacking in confidence continually encouraged. During all these weeks of unconscious growth (the more unconscious the more valuable) they have also been in training in all phases of personal and social morality. In- directly, and by example, they have been taught cleanliness and truthfulness, helpfiilness and courtesy. These small men and women have now not only entered into, and commenced to take their share of the great world which lies around them, but they have also begun to take possession of those lesser kingdoms, where each shall rule alone: they have begun to learn the lesson of a lifetime— self-control. CHAPTER II. READING.~THE WORD. At the end of the first six weeks or two months, the teacher, who has all this time been quietly, perseveringly, and conscientiously studying her little ones, finds, as a result of her deUberate and skilful investigations, that she is able to group her new class according- to their mental power. This being done, she feels 'that now they may with advan- tage take up Eeading; that study upon which so much depends; that study which is the open-sesame to all the stored-up wisdom of the past. Accordingly, some bright clear day, without the shghtest " premonitory symptom, " she commences her work, begia- niug with the group that shows the best mental grasp, bringing the other groups into it one by one, as they seem to her to be able, to take up the work. THE FIRST LESSON. THE WORD. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— First. To begin that association of thought with written or printed words, which will finally become automatic. That is, to train the child to receive the idea expressed in the word through the eye, as readily as he has hitherto received it through the ear. Second. To arouse the emotion of desire. ti± Tkk '• QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. PREPARATION MADE BY THE TEACHER.— First. Selection of the time of giving the lesson, also the word and object to be presented. Second. Learning to draw the object rapidly and well. Third. The practice in writing "a hen" (while talking), quickly, and with well-formed letters. Fourth. Originating the two devices: first, the introduc- tion of the young pupil-teacher; second, the play of owning many hens and letting each pupil catch one. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— AR that they have gained from every lesson they have had since they entered school. PLAN OF THE LESSON.— First. Call the children out very quietly. Second. Draw a hen on the board, without speaking. Third. CaU one of the older children and ask him to be the teacher. Fourth. Get the children to show me the hen that is on the board, and then tell them that I am going to make another for the little teacher. Fifth. Write a second "a hen" and ask some child to find one, and when he selects the drawing, tell him that that is already taken, thus leading him to choose one of the written ones, then ask the little teacher to say if the child is right. Siocth. Play that I keep eggs to seU and have many hens ; write the expression ' ' a hen" all over the board. Seventh. Tell them that they may each catch one of my hens if they will be gentle to it. [Mem. Make that im- pressive.] Eighth. Let the Httle teacher see if they are right, and have each child say "a hen" before his hand is taken off the words. Ninth. Say "I don't think it nice to have hens in school," and rub one out, to give the children the idea of sending off. Tenth. Dismiss by teUing them I will send them off too. HEADING — THE WORE). 11'^ THE LESSON. Coming to the front desk of the row, where sits the group with which she has decided to begin reading, the teacher says quietly, ' ' This little class may come up here and see what I am going to do,'' stepping, as she speaks, back to the blackboard and motioning the children to follow her. They wonder a little as to what is coming, but go gladly, for every lesson has been to them a new and pleasing surprise, and the teacher the good fairy who planned it. Without another word or look at them she begins to draw. The children, thus left to themselves, cluster around her and watch the shape growing rapidly under her hand. Presently a small Yankee, with a large bump of language, breaks the silence by remarking oracularly, "I guess you are going to make a picture for us." The teacher does not seem to hear this, and keeps on with her work. "I guess it's going to be a picture of a hen," ventures a bright-eyed little girl, who has not taken her eyes from the drawing since it began. Seemingly deaf and dumb, the teacher draws on. "Oh! I fcwow it's going to be a hen," bursts out a boy who has got so close to the board that the teacher playfully taps his nose with the crayon to get him to move out of her way. "Yes, she's making the tail," announces another one of the eager watchers. "Now she's making the feet," is the next bulletin. "It looks just like -a hen," pronounces a chQd who has been deliberately surveying the picture from a little dis- tance. "It's done now," decides the tallest girl of the group, as the teacher puts the last touch to the top-knot, and stands back an instant to observe the effect of her work. "Stanley?" she calls, turning toward a row of last year's 124 Tlfk "QVlkcV METil6£>S" ILLUSTPATMD. pupils, who are sitting in their seats absorbed with some pasteboard animals, which they are tracing on their slates. A steady, sensible-looking little fellow quietly lays down his pencil, and comes up to know what the teacher wishes. " I want you to help me; you are to be my little teacher. NeUie," speaking to one of the group at her side, "you may show me the hen that is on the blackboard." Nelhe points to the picture. ' ' Now I am going to put another hen on the board for Stanley to find, because you don't know this hen," writing ' ' a hen" as she speaks. Stanley puts his finger on it as soon as it is finished, while all the httle ones look from the written word to Stanley, and then back to the word again. ""Wliat have you found, Stanley?" inquires the teacher. "A hen," briskly replies the boy. The teacher, whose slightest movement is followed by every pair of eyes in the group, writes it again a little way off, and then says : "N6w Stanley and Nellie have each found a hen, and I want somebody else to find one. Carrie," selecting the brightest child of the lot. The girl unhesitatingly points to the drawing. "But that hen has been already found," protests the teacher. "NeUie showed it to us. You can see another if you look," she adds encouragingly. Carrie stands a moment, and looks first at the drawing and then at the words, and finally, having apparently de- cided in her own mind that they mean the same thing, starts to put her finger on the nearest "a hen;" then prob- ably remembering that Stanley had selected that, she snatches away her finger, and places it on the word last written, turning with a quick smile of intelligence toward the teacher as she does so. The teacher cannot prevent the answering gladness of her READING.— THE WORD. 1 2$ own glance, but appeals instantly to her smaU iastructor, with a quick — "Is that right, Stanley?" " Yes'm," is the prompt decision. Not a look, a motion, or a word has been lost upon the small spectators of this scene, and inferences are being drawn and conclusions being arrived at, in every brain of the group. Meantime the teacher suggests persuasively— "Let's play that I have eggs to sell, and that I keep a great many hens" (writing "a hen," as she talks, on dif- ferent parts of the board), "and that they are very tame ; so tame that they will let anybody put their hands right on them if they do not hurt them and" (parenthetically) "of course you are gentle little boys and girls, and you would be kind to my hens, so I will let each of you put your hand on one.'' The little hands flutter, for a second, like birds, up and down the board, to find each, a separate word, and then settle ; and the eager, laughing faces are turned toward the teacher for her approval. "Yes, that's nice," cordially; "but you wiU each need to keep hold of what you have, so it won't get away," she adds, as two or three take their hands off the words they have found. "I will get Stanley to see if you have really caught one of my hens. " Then addressing Stanley : ' ' You know you are my Uttle teacher, and you are to have each one of these children tell what they have found, and then you must say if they are right. We will begin with Susie. What have you, Susie?" "A hen." The teacher looks toward Stanley, who asserts in most dignified fashion, " That's right. " This form of proceeding is repeated with every mem- ber of the group, very much to the enjoyment of the httle pupils and the satisfaction of the little pupU-teacher ; then, 125 THE "QUTNCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED. all being correct, the teacher resumes the reins of govern- ment gracefuUy by saying, with a smile, "Thank you, Stanley; you may go back to your work." Addressing the group, as if the idea had just entered her mind, she observes: '•! don't think it looks weU to have hens in the schoolroom; I am going to have them driven out," and then proceeds to rub out one of the words, add- ing: "There, I've sent one off. Jimmie may drive one out if he wants to," handing the eraser to him. Of course he does. His eyes shine, his mouth opens, and his tongue comes out to work almost as fast as his chubby hands. "Now, Edith, you may send yours away." And so, one by one, the words are erased, some of the shorter children being lifted up by the teacher to reach the hens "that flew high;" and at last the pleased little tots stand flushed with their exertions, looking up at the teacher to see whaf next. She is all ready for them, for, with a merry twinkle in her eyes, she says: "You've sent aU the hens away, and now I am goiQg to send you away — to your seats." The little people take the joke and the hint, and trot off smilingly to their places, little dreaming of the vast domain into which they have just taken, so easily and happily, their first step. Notes and Comments^ The act of association is accomplished far more easily when the faculties are under the influence of pleasurable excitement than when the mind is perfectly calm. Besides, whatever is enjoyed, awakens a desire for repetition. Hence the great beauty of this lesson was the delight it gave the children, and the next best point its utter simplicity. Be- cause of the latter quality, the children were not aware of any difficulty in the steps they took; and because of the READING.— THE WORD. 1 27 former, every faculty of the child worked freely and at its best, and the lesson was unconsciously absorbed. The device of the young pupil-teacher was excellent, for children love children, and children are impressed by chil- dren. The little child will learn far more rapidly from one of his own age than he will from the most skilful or gifted of grown-up teachers. "We send our children," says Emer- son, "to school to the teacher, but it is the pupils who edu- cate them." CHAPTER III. READING.— THE SENTENCE. The thought being the unit of mental action, it follows that the sentence is the unit of expression, and should be reached, in the teaching of reading, as soon as possible. After a few object-words have been learned (and the greater the skill of the teacher the less the number of words re- quired) the first sentence may properly be taught. The following lesson is presented to illustrate how one teacher took this — the next step. PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.— To lead the children to associate thought with written words idiomatically arranged. PREPARATION MADE BY THE r£>IC//f/f. —Originating the de- vice, planning the lesson, and practising the drawing and writing. PREPARATION MADE BY THE PUPILS.— First. AU that they know of reading. Second. All the power of oral expression that they have gained from four or five years of constant practice. PLAN OF THE LESSON.— Begin by having the children look out of the window to see a hen. [Mem. Be prepared for the worst, i.e., that they don't see any and have nothing to say aboutahen.] Next, lead them to say, " I see a hen. " Write it on the board and ask each child to tell me what I have written. Then play that that is their story, and that I will have one too ; so get an excuse for writing the' sentence again. Afterward tell them that my hen gets into queer places, and they may see and tell me where she goes. Next, READING — THE SENTENCE. 1 29 make a picture of a fence under the words "a hen," and ask where my hen is now. Last, get them to read the whole story. Do the same thiag with a ladder, a nest, and a basket. THE I