USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > West Bridgewater > Town annual reports of the selectmen, overseers of the poor, town clerk, and school committee of West Bridgewater for the year ending 1870-1879 > Part 8
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Every new word, found either in the reading or the spelling lesson, is brought into the children's thought, and made their own, through its use by them in simple sentences. The teacher talks with her class about these words until they really know something of them, and latent ideas are so wakened and stimulated, that the reading lesson becomes a positive delight. The radiant faces which they bring to the class bear emphatic witness that as soon as all teaching conforms itself to nature, all learning will become delightful.
These children have been taught printing, and now at
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the end of their third term have begun to print sentences embodying such words as their teacher may give them. They have also been taught to count, and rejoice in sundry acquirements satisfactory to such young people, in the way of spelling their own names, and astonishing visitors by their knowledge in town and state affairs. But on these points we lay no stress, as education, primarily, is a draw- ing forth, and the inversion of the natural order produces merely short-lived surface results.
We wish to call attention to the method pursued in the reading. We have heard children of the same age read far more glibly. We know of children who memorize more easily, but we know of none in the schools whose thought is more active, and who have greater capacity of using thought in connection with their school work.
We wish to give a part of the actual class work in one lesson, accessory to the reading. The words mouse, boots, candy and thanks, were printed on the black-board for the spelling lesson, and at recitation the children were expected to be ready to tell the teacher something about each. There are four pupils in the class, ages ranging from five to six years. Each scholar usually gives several sentences for every word. From among those given we selected the fol- lowing as average specimens :-
" I have got hold of the mouse by the tail."
" Boots cost a good deal of money."
" Molasses candy keeps me from getting cold."
"That boy did not thank the man for a sleigh-ride."
At Jerusalem, the class were taught to read by the word method ; and the teacher made this more attractive to her pupils by drawing on the board an object, and asking the class for its name ; printing this carefully, then asking the children to find the word in their books.
The class were taught in this way to fix in their minds all words by sight. Then the teacher by questions and sug-
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gestions drew out their ideas, and helping them to correct forms of expression, printed these below the name of the object drawn. New words which came in were dwelt upon and reviewed, until the children readily recognized them either on the board or in their books. Other classes in town have been taught by the word method, but the advantage of illustrations from the board accelerates both progress and interest.
The same class, in addition to printing, were taught the capital and small script letters. Also counting, and simple combinations in numbers, by the use of beans.
We do not stop here because there are no other classes in town worthy of commendation. Each school has excel- lencies, which, did space permit, we would gladly mention. The Primer classes in the North, and North Centre schools are highly creditable classes, and in some respects fully equal to these to which your especial attention has been called. In the Centre Primary, the method of the teacher for the Winter term has been almost identical with that pursued in the East School. But as an illustration, the work of a year is a better test of the actual merit of the system employed, than the work of one term, or even of two terms. Both the East and the school at Jerusalem are mixed schools, and it is well worth while to measure what may be accomplished in schools of this grade by carefully shaping the method of instruction so that it shall aid, and not thwart Nature. It may seem a slight matter to illustrate in detail, but the underlying principle is one which teachers cannot afford to overlook. To start the little children right is half the battle. Yea, it is the first fruits of victory itself. The child's mind is marvellous in receptivity, but it must receive as the flower drinks the dew, in Nature's way, which is God's way,-not always our way, nor yet the way of the text books.
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SCHOOL STUDIES.
No definite changes have been made in the course of study pursued, beyond such as were incidental to the intro- duction of new Readers and the Test Exercises. We have urged in all cases simple methods, and recognition of mental growth as the ultimate aim of all teaching.
Personally, we should be glad to take the study of Grammar, as found in the text books, out of our school course. Time spent on it is worse than wasted; for accomplishing little in the direction of its professed aim, it does blunt the natural acumen of the child's mind. Very few children are capable of assimilating the momentous fact, that " The subject is the object representing that of which something is said." But thereafter, when classes come upon propositions with subjects, which certainly to their minds are not names of objects, it becomes necessary to show them the beautiful truth that an object of thought in the mind, is one with the thought of an object. At this point lucidity and luminosity join hands and modestly retire from the grammatical field.
If inward conviction, among the majority of teachers, had candid expression, there would be but one verdict as to the utter worthlessness of this study, as it is now presented to the children of our Common schools.
The study of Grammar, in its present condition, is merely a farce consecrated by precedent. It will not bear the test of that incisive question : " What is its use ?"
The more truly cultured our teachers are, the more helpless they feel to meet this problem according to its old time solution.
What then shall lift them to the requirements of the occasion ? Nothing less than the divine inspiration of that iron-handed genius, which shall crush the whole baseless structure of grammatical theorizing, and create anew from the broad foundation of Truth !
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But this gift of the gods is rare, and the mass of teach- ers are left with the ineffectual knowledge of misdirected effort and misspent time, in attempting to shape this study to the needs or the comprehension of their pupils. And yet, it would be considered, by many, a seditious and dan- gerous doctrine that urged the suspension of Grammar from the course of study prescribed for the common schools. While all of Grammar that is of any significance to pupils should be properly taught in connection with Reading and Composition.
In our schools, we have suggested the oral presentation of the subject, as far as practicable, and with few excep- tions, this method has been adopted. But from the nature of the study, marked success cannot be claimed, if develop- ment of mental capacity be the criterion.
Next to Grammar, the study of Arithmetic is rendered in a degree unprofitable through indiscriminating methods of teaching.
It is an undeniable fact that scholars do not work well out of the book. This proves that they do not think well, for thought is not dependent upon books. Scholars who can explain an arithmetical process, step by step, with great accuracy and precision, are wholly at fault with a problem of the same nature stated in different terms. Showing that under the apparent clearness, there is a muddled residuum of uncertainty.
There is such a thing as smothering ideas in words, and it is to be feared the verbose explanations of the present day are doing this. It is not that too much is done, but the wrong thing is done; and in the substitution of artificial light for the true, scholars are in danger of becoming expla- nation blind.
The folly seems patent of presenting a subject to children, in the exact form it is given to maturer minds in
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the higher grade of schools, yet teachers not unfrequently make this direct transfer. And just here lies ambushed a. cause for the failure of much earnest effort, not only in Arithmetic, but in other studies.
A child's thought is susceptible of only daintiest hand- ling. It will not bear a hurried clothing in words The mental effort to retain the words will almost invariably annihilate the thought, and will entirely arrest generative power. Comprehension must grow as the child works, and in the primary stages, work must be chiefly imitative. Statement of knowledge, or of thought, can only come after it is consciously the child's own. The reasoning faculty is so far behind the perceptive, in childhood, that any attempt to unduly force the one, menaces the very life of the other.
When explanations follow the natural order they become helps to conscious thought, but too often they pre- cede thought germination, and destroy what words are powerless to create.
Better than this devastating flood of words, was the stern silence of the school-master of the olden time; teach- ing a quality of hard won self-reliance, wrenched from the clenched hand of unyielding necessity. True, such teach- ing did not aid, did not foster, but at the same time it did not enervate. And to be let alone is not always the worst of evils.
We commend the serious consideration of this question to teachers. Work with, and not against nature. In the developement of thought, respect the thought ; reverently wait on it, acknowledging the divine sequence of growth. Do this, and fewer "stupid" children will be millstones about your necks, and fewer brilliant scholars will collapse before the practical demands of life.
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READING.
The introduction of Monroe's Readers in place of Hilliard's is a satisfactory change, and teachers basing their work upon Prof. Monroe's suggestions, have inaugurated the reform in reading, which the introduction of these books aimed to establish.
The Committee did not decide to change the Readers solely because Hilliard's series had become monotonously familiar, but the chief reason for the change was dependent upon the teachers for effective exposition.
Monroe's Readers embodied the most cultured thought of the day upon the subject of which they were the exponents. They contained most valuable and practical suggestions regarding the use of the vocal organs. But what would this avail, if teachers ignored these suggestions, especially designed to insure the profitable use of the books ? Duty compels us to protest against that negligence, which in some cases, has failed to use these readers as they were intended to be used, and as the Committee have a right to demand.
We are forced to believe, that in some instances, the prefacing remarks, which are the key to the successful use of the books, have not even been read. Our judgment is based on results. Comparatively little can be taught from books on such a subject as vocal culture, but illustrations and examples for practice are given throughout the series, which, judiciously moulded to individual needs, could not fail to secure distinctness of enunciation, at least.
And yet, we still find children reading with motionless jaws and lips, with a nasal twang and monotonous drawl, that go far to prove that new Readers are not the sole requisite to good reading.
The most noticeable faults in reading, in our schools, may be classed under three heads :-
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1. Bad tone.
2. Indistinctness.
3. Mechanical reading.
Reading in the absolute is word-culture, but it has so long borne the degenerate fame of word-calling, that any attempt toward a truer and wider interpretation of its sig- nificance is comparatively rare, in the popular methods of teaching.
Reading considered as word-calling, has two glaring defects, and when we pass beyond this limit, to the field of word-culture, a third offence appears in the form of auto- matic reading. It is a mistake to require scholars to read like parrots after the teacher, without first giving them an idea of what reading means. It is waste of time to read to a class to any great extent, before they are prepared to hear. Give them a foundation to work on, a foundation to read from. And this can only be done by thorough and daily practice in consonant and vowel sounds. Securing all qualities of tone and pitch by vowel practice and word practice ; and then scholars are ready to profit by examples.
Year after year, from the Primer to the First Class Book, pupils are treated like dummies. They are told what to do year in and out, but how rarely are they taught how to do it ! The best readers under such mistaken training are the children having greatest imitative faculty, and by no means those having minds or voices most susceptible of culture.
To break up mechanical reading there must be supplied in its place intelligent reading. Children do not talk mechanically because the words which they use mean some- thing to them.
No word in reading which cannot be used understand- ingly by scholars, ought to pass until it has been made their own by its actual use in sentences. Introduce the word in its varying uses, and give its synonymes, one or
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more of which may already be in the vocabulary of the pupil.
By making reading language-study, as well as voice- culture, no chance is left for monotonous drawling to creep in ; and this offers the only sure remedy for that apathetic mouthing of words, which has its source in mental stagna. tion.
TEST EXERCISES.
At the commencement of the past school year, the following notice was put into the hands of the teachers :-
1. Teachers are expected to prepare for every two weeks of school a set of Review or Test Questions, cover- ing the topics studied during this time, for all classes quali- fied to answer such questions in writing.
Pupils will not receive previous notification of the days on which these tests shall be taken.
Teachers will instruct pupils to find their own percent- age of scholarship.
The teacher will ascertain the percentage of each class, and, at the close of the school term, the average percentage of each class, and report the same to the Superintendent.
The number of questions in any test shall not exceed fourteen.
2. Teachers in the Primary Schools, and of Primary Scholars in the Mixed Schools, will have daily exercises in sentence-making, and will insist upon neat and legible printing or writing of such sentences upon paper, slates, or black-board.
3. In teaching Reading, Teachers are requested to follow as nearly as may be Prof. Monroe's suggestions pre- facing each Reader, and so far as practicable have daily class exercises in consonant and vowel sounds, separately, and combined in sound-spelling.
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Attention will also be given to defining words, and pupils required to illustrate the use of words which they define, in sentences of their own.
4. An exercise in Mental Arithmetic from Walton's Charts, is expected daily in all the schools.
No other way was seen to reach certain great defects in the schools.
The system of tests has its side of disadvantages, but on the other hand the evils which it will counteract, will overbalance its possible imperfections. By previous experi- ments it was made apparent that not one pupil in ten could state an intelligible answer in writing, to a question involv- ing anything in the reply beyond the simplest proposition.
In oral recitation, pupils might do comparatively well, under the personal magnetism of the teacher; remove that and no capacity for statement remained,-chiefly from lack of self-reliance. Teachers are props, consciously or uncon- sciously as the case may be, and from too much, and too long continued propping, the power of standing alone is lost.
Before any real progress can be made, a basis must exist to work on. Before children can express ideas, the consciousness that they have ideas of their own to express, must be cultivated.
The tests were introduced in the hope of promoting self-reliance, as well as for their direct influence toward raising the work of the schools to a higher standard of accuracy.
And apart from the added thoroughness, and the stimulus to thought, which was hoped might come from these exercises, another reason which made their introduc- tion desirable, existed in the eventual establishment of a High School in our town.
The classification of our schools is such that systematic
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action is not attainable in a very high degree, but there can be a concerted aim for thoroughness, and the test work can be in all instances genuine work. The standard of admis- sion for the first classes of the High School will be neces- sarily low, but that will not imply a depreciation in accura- cy of acquirement.
Mixed schools have as good chances for thoroughness as graded schools ; and it is this very quality which the tests should advance, and to do this, the questions must be chosen with an aim beyond the percentage of correct answers. The true value of a test is never to be estimated by its percentage, but by the amount and quality of thought called out by it. We are always sorry to find a percentage ranging too high. It hints at tests so nicely fitted to the groove of mechanical memorizing that they thwart the purpose of their introduction. It is not desira- ble to cultivate the faculty of memorizing when it must be done at the expense of the power to think. Over every school-room door these words should be emblazoned,- " TEACH THESE CHILDREN TO THINK."
It is true that children trained to memorizing will make showy returns. But what, after all, is cramming worth ? Just as soon as life brings the thinking and reasoning powers into action, all that is foreign and superficial to the mind will fall away. And the greater part of the time spent within the school-house doors is barren of fruition. Teach children to think at the outset,-they will accumu- late bare facts less rapidly, but, assimilating as they accu- mulate, they will gain what time cannot take away. It is of comparatively little moment whether children memorize readily or not,-and yet, it is to the cultivation of this gift that educational efforts are chiefly addressed ! And to what end ? If teachers would but seriously ask themselves, to what end ? To meet the public demands? Who shall lead the way in shaping the public demand to truer ends ?
G
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Áre teachers knowingly to give stones in place of bread ? Surely it is a painful travesty when knowledge panders to ignorance, and insight to blindness !
In the Teachers' Reports of the year's work to the Superintendent, the percentage of the test exercises for. each term is given. This percentage should mean some- thing for individual schools, but any comparison of results on this ground would be an injustice to all. The work. does not admit of any such narrow limitations. Yet it does admit of inspection from the side of the Teachers' Reports not directly relating to the percentage, as the following quotations will show.
Miss Lincoln, of the Centre Grammar Schools, says :- " Comparing the written exercises of the present term with those of the first term of the school year, I find a decided improvement in penmanship, and in the general arrange- ment of the work. But the improvement in another direc- tion is even more noticeable, and that is, in the expression of thought. The pupils have gained much in ability to express their thoughts clearly and definitely. In this direction the written exercises have been of great benefit." In this school eighteen scholars take written tests.
Miss Dillingham, of the Cochesett Grammar School, writes :- " In comparing the tests of the present, with those of the past two terms, I notice a marked improvement, not only in the writing and spelling of words, but also in con- cise and comprehensive answers." Twenty pupils take the written exercises in this school.
In the East School sixteen scholars take tests; the majority being younger, as well as less advanced, than the pupils in either of the Grammar schools. Miss Wheeler, in her Report, says :- " The practice of having written tests causes a more thorough preparation of the lessons, and excites emulation among the pupils. There is great improve- ment in the tests written, not only that which would natu-
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rally result from practice, but in the knowledge of the subjects studied."
Reports from the North Centre and Jerusalem schools have not yet been received.
In the North and South Schools little has been done in this exercise, beyond the preparatory work of sentence- making, owing to the small number of pupils qualified for advantageous progress in this direction.
In the two Primary schools more marked progress has been made in'sentence-making than in the other schools. for the reason that the teachers of these schools, had fewer demands upon their time and attention from a multiplicity of classes.
In the Centre Primary, in charge of Miss Howard, during the Spring and Fall terms the work progressed most satisfactorily. Beginning with the simplest union of words in the expression of ideas, the uses of capital letters and punctuation were taught. Miss Holmes, the present teach- er of this school, has very successfully carried on what Miss Howard began. In her Report she says :- " Sentence-mak- ing is of great value in the school for several reasons. It teaches children to express properly thoughts they may have about things they daily see, and incites thought. It helps children to learn to spell correctly. 'Please tell me how to spell this word,' is the appeal from all quarters. It teaches use of capital letters. This practice is a help to the teacher, as it enables her to judge of the child's knowl- edge, and of his ability to express to others that knowledge."
In a visit to the Cochesett Primary during the Fall term, the Superintendent asked the boys to write or print for her four things they knew about Hawks, Crows and Blue-jays, and the girls were to tell what they knew about Doll, Doves and Kittens. They were told that four sentences on each of the subjects mentioned would be suffi- cient, unless they desired to say more. Their papers were
·
-
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to be given to the Superintendent, with no previous correc- tion or supervision by the teacher. Out of the fifteen exer- cises brought in, varying in length from one page to two pages of note paper, seven words were misspelled, inclusiv e of three which were wrongly used,-" their " for " there," and the reverse. It was the first time these children had practiced the expression of thought in consecutive sen- tences, and with but one exception the connection was natural and harmonious. In other schools the defects in spelling have been more noticeable, and, with the exception of the Centre Primary, the diction has not been as good. In most instances, this study of the use of words, so far as it has gone, has been wholly free from routine. It is true that it has been too much confined to the younger classes; and the many doors which it opens are as yet but half apprehended. But its results, albeit they are somewhat meagre, are so far encouraging that we believe all teachers must acknowledge the stimulus it brings to mental growth. Any exercise which helps to quicken the observation, and at the same time give its apprehension outer expression, leads directly to the fulfilment of the only legitimate aim of instruction.
TO TEACHERS.
The Superintendent wishes to thank the teachers for their cheerful co-operation in introducing the Test Exercises and the exercises in sentence-making, as well as more thor- ough methods of teaching Reading. The ultimate success of such experiments rests almost wholly with the teachers, and in this instance a most unselfish zeal was brought to the work, notwithstanding the increasing inroads it made upon the time out of school hours.
This harmonious and enthusiastic spirit has been the spontaneous outflow of individual resolve to do the best work possible for the children. So universal has been this
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spirit, and so far removed from any narrow aim of personal achievement, that the Superintendent is bound to grateful recognition of its vitalizing influence.
But, beyond commendation, unvoiced, silent, and so elusive in its fineness that it may not be shaped in words, is that side of the teachers' work for which we have no measure. It is the somewhat beyond the outer expression, but always in proportion to the completeness of the one do we find the fullness of the other. It has recognition, though nameless ; it is success, though beyond compass and estimate. If any have unhappily missed this distinctive mark of their high calling, they have missed the Reality of their work.
In conclusion, we wish to quote from the Report for the year 1873, of the Superintendent of the New Bedford schools, Henry F. Harrington, one of our most progressive educators. His reports, in liberated thought, and in sug- gestiveness, are of greater value to teachers than the com- bined folios of educational driftwood afloat throughout the country. We choose his opening words on the training of youth, as containing the key to much dissatisfaction, and to much actual loss of power which attends the teacher's work.
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