North Carolina journal of education

              INORXH CA.ROLIINA
journal of E&ucation,
Vol. I. GREENSBORO, N. C, NOVEMBER, 1897. Number 4.
COME LET US LIVE WITH OUR CHILDREN
Play is the highest phase of child develop-ment
; for it is self-active representation of the
inner life and thought.
To be wise is the highest aim of man, is the
most exalted achievement of human self-deter-mination.
The child, the boy, man, indeed, should
know no other endeavor but to be at every stage
of development wholly what this stage calls for.
Even as the child, every human being should be
viewed and trusted as a necessary, essential mem-ber
of humanity; and therefore, parents are, as
guardians, responsible to God, to the child and
to humanity.
God creates and works productively in unin-terrupted
continuity. * * * Qod created
man in his own image; therefore, man should
create and bring forth like God
Education should lead and guide man to
clearness concerning himself and in himself, to
peace with nature, and to unity with God; hence,
it should lift him to a knowledge of himself and
of mankind, to a knowledge of God and of na-ture,
and to the pure and holy life to which
such knowledge leads.
The educator, the teacher, should make the
individual and particular general, the general
particular and individual, and elucidate both in
life; he should make the external internal, and
the internal external, and indicate the necessary
unity of both; he should consider the finite in
the light of the infinite, and the infinite in the
light of the finite, and harmonize both in life:
he should see and perceive the divine essence
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Friedrich Wilhelm ArersT Fkoebei.,
(Born April 2:, 1793, Died June 21. 1S52 >
The Discoverer of the Kindergarten.
in whatever is human, trace the nature of man to
God, and seek to exhibit both united in life.
God neither ingrafts nor inoculates. He de-velops
the most tri^ial and imperfect things in
continuously ascending series and in accordance
with eternal self-grounded and self-developing
laws. And God-likeness is and ought to be
rnan's highest aim in thought and deed, espe-cially
when he stands in the fatherly relation to
his children, as God does to man.
Man, as a child, resembles the flower on the
plant, the blosssom on the tree; as these are in
relation to the tree, so is the child in relation to
humanity— a young bud. a fresh blossom; and
as such, bears, includes and proclaims the cease-less
reappearance of new human life.
NORTH CAROIvINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
HOW TO SECURE SCHOOL LIBRARIES.
Every public school in North Carolina should have a library. Much that a child should know is not found
in text-books. More can be learned about the world from stories of travel than from a geography, and more
about the great men of the world from historical novels than from a history. The study of a text-book is
usually regarded by the child as work, while the reading of books of travel or historical novels is a recreation;
and the books he reads will open a new world to him and inspire him with a love for reading and a desire for a
broader culture, which will affect his whole future life.
It is not the schools in the larger cities that need libraries, but rather the country schools in the thinly
settled districts. In such schools, the children know nothing of the great world except what they learn from
books, and there are no books to which they have access. Many teachers have appreciated this fact, and have
wished to provide libraries for their schools, but three reasons have prevented them from doing so:
First: Many of the best books are so full of tiresome details that children lose the thread of the story and
throw down the book in disgust.
Second: The best works of the standard authors contain incidents which it is not proper for children to
read, and many allusions which cannot be satisfactorily explained to them.
Third: The cost of providing such a library has been such as to make it out of the question for the
neighborhood or the teacher to buy it
All three of these objections, however, are met by the publication of the Standard Literature Series. The
plan in this series has been, (1) to cut out the "padding," the tedious details which have proven so tiresome to
young readers, but to leave a complete story in the exact language of the author, short enough to be read in the
limited time of a school term; (2) To cut out all incidents and allusions which are of a questionable character
and unsuited to children; (3) To add notes explaining every historical and classical allusion, so that the child
will have no difficulty in understanding what he reads; and (4), most important of all, to publish these condensed
volumes at a price so cheap that every neighborhood can afford to buy a set. Or, if the neighborhood should
not care to do so, every teacher can afford to buy a set for herself and carry them with her to each school where
she teaches, permitting the children to use them during the school term, and thus add to her own value and
popularity in the neighborhood. The books published so far are as follows:
In United States History: The Spy (paper 12ic., cloth 20c.; The Pilot and the Deerslayer by Cooper,
and Horse-Shoe Robinson by Kennedy, (each, paper 20c., cloth 30c.).
In English History: Rob Roy (paper 12ic., cloth 20c), and Kenilworth by Scott, and Harold by Bulwer,
(each, paper 20c., cloth 30c), Ivanhoe by Scott (paper 20c., cloth 30c.).
In French History: Ninety-Three by Victor Hugo (paper 20c., cloth 30c.).
Geography and Travel: Tales of the Alhambra by Irving, and Two Years Before the Mast by Dana
(each, paper 12 Jc, cloth 20c.)
For Higher English : Enoch Arden and Other Poems, Tennvson ; Prisoner of Chillon and other Poems,
Byron; The Sketch Book, Irving, (each, paper Uic, cloth, 20e.), Lady of the Lake, and Ivanhoe, Scott, (paper,
30c., cloth, 30c.) Evangeline, by Longfellow, Knickerbocker Stories, by Irving, and "Poems of Knightly Adven-ture."
(This includes: Tennyson's "Gareth and Lvnette," Lowell's "Vision of Sir Launfal," Macaulay's "Hora-tius,"
and Matthew Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustnni''), (each, paper 12Jc., cloth 20c.).
EoK Elementary Classes : Christmas Stories and Paul Dombey by Dickens; Gulliver's Travels by Swift;
A Wonder Book, Twice Told Tales and The Snow Image, etc., by Hawthorne (each, paper 12k., cloth 20c.),
Little Nell, by Dickens, Robinson Crusoe, (Illustrated) paper Uic, cloth 20c.).
The volumes can be selected at the prices named, or the full set of twenty numbers will be sent by mail,
postage prepaid, for $2.40, bound in paper; or in cloth, by prepaid express, for §4.00.
The Golden-Rod Books
Contain choice children's literature, selected and adapted from a wide range of well-known writers, and graded
to supplement First, Second, Third, and Fourth Readers with reading of an interesting character. Illustrated.
These are the titles-
L Rhymes and Fables 64 pages, 12 cents.
n. Songs and Stories 96 pages, 15 cents.
III. Fairy Life 128 pages, 20 cents.
IV. Ballads and Tales 160 pages, 25 cents.
On these and the Standard Literature Series, special discounts to schools and dealers.
714-716 Canal Street, New Orleans, La. 43.47 East 10th Street, New York.
IWortb Carolina journal ot ]66ucation.
Devoted to Education in North Carolina and the South.
Volume I. NOVEMBER, 1897. Number 4.
1R:rtb Cardinal 3c urnal of l£^u ation.
Entered as Second-Class Matter at the Post Office at Greensboro, N. C.
EDITORS AND MANAGERS :
PHILANDER P CLAXXON,
Prof. Pedagog5', State Normal and Industrial College.
LOGAN D. HOWELL,
Supt. Public Schools, Raleigh, N. C.
Published monthly at Greensboro, N. C. Subscription
50 cents; single number 5 cents. In ordering paper give
name, postoffice, county and state. Remittances should be
sent by money order, express order or bank draft, payable
to North Carolina Journal of Education. Personal checks
should not be sent for suras less than $1.00. Address North
Carolina Journal of Education, Greensboro, N. C.
The agricultural college of Minnesota now
gives instruction to girls in agriculture, horti-culture,
dairying, etc.
Thos. L. Brown, professor of horticulture and
general manager of the grounds of the Normal
and Industrial College, has recently been elected
secretary of the State Horticultural Society.
Many familes in the townships adjoining Mt.
Airy have asked to be allowed to pay their part
of the local school tax and share in the benefits
of the Mt. Airy schools. The two townships
composing the town of Mt. Airy voted the local
tax on August 10, and the town now has good
public schools.
A good ungraded school with a good teacher
in love with learning—especially if it be near a
stream, not far from the woods, and the teacher
be on speaking terms with nature—is an ideal
place for the early years of school life. The
graded school of the city is a necessity of the sit-uation,
and of course a very good thing, but in
it the average pupil is usually at a disadvantage
as compared with his country cousin under a
good teacher.—Pennsylvania School Journal.
At the approaching Thanksgiving season
North Carolina should give thanks not only for
abundant harvests and other material blessings,
but also for that all her schools, high and low,
public, private and denominational, are filled to
overflowing with earnest students, eager for the
light of knowledge, the power of training and
the grace of culture. This means much more for
us as a people than do acres of golden grain or
whitening fields of cotton. For a state becomes
great only through the right education of all its
people.
The Out-door Lesson in this number of the
Journal, in which Miss Slater tells the story of
an actual lesson with her children, is well worth
study. Children always find the study of insects
very interesting, and no department of nature
study is of more practical value. We remember
the great interest shown in this subject shown
by a class of children in the third grade of the
Asheville schools a few years ago, and the valu-able
training in careful observation which came
from the study. These lessons are especially valu-able
for children in the country schools.
The portrait of Horace Mann, on the first page
of the October Journal of Educatio.v, was pub-lished
through the courtesy of Messrs. Lee &
Shepard, Boston, who pubhsh in five volumes
the most complete hfe of Horace Mann, includ-ing
a collection of his letters,' reports and ad-dresses.
Many of these last are full of interest
to-day; and much of the work accomplished by
them in Massachusetts and New England a half
century ago remains yet to be done in North
CaroHna and the South. Well would it be for
us if many of our teachers and statesmen would
read these addresses and reports until they be-came
filled with the spirit of this "great educa-tional
statesman."
The Journal of Education endorses a circular
recently issued by Supt.Mebane warningdistrict
committemen and other school of^cers against
spending the school fund for high-priced, but
useless charts sold by traveling agents. This is
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
an ever-recurring evil. Afew years ago, one
company took from this state about $50,000 of
the scant school fund. In one county $1,100 of
these warrants were discounted by a local broker
at $800. The charts sold were worthless for use
in the schools. No committee should let a dol-lar
of the small fund committed to its care be
spent in this way. Charts and other apparatus
of the proper kind are useful and necessary; but
they should be bought with discretion.
On October 20, the L^niversity of North
Carolina had enrolled 464 students, two more
than the largest number enrolled in any previ-ous
year of its history, and it is expected the en-rolment
will reach 500 before the close of the
session. This does not include the 185 students
of the summer school. Ninety-four per cent, of
the students are from North Carolina; 100 of
them are working their way through college. No
other American university has so large a number
of its students from its own state. The five
women in attendance are reported as doing a
high quality of work. The school of pharmacy
has 14 students.
If our public school system can be extended
so as to include one or more good high schools
in each county, where boys may be properly pre-pared
for college; and if the state and private in-dividuals
will only do their full duty in provid-ing
for the needed buildings and endowments
for the university, the day is not far distant when
a thousand or more of North Carolina youth will
seek instruction and culture in its halls each
year.
In reply to an inquiry, Supt. Mebane has
written the following letter, with the spirit of
which most people who have children to educate
in the public schools or who pay a school tax
will agree. It only seems strange there should
have been any occasion for writing the letter.
No one should be recognized as a teacher whose
character is not above suspicion or who engages
in any business which degrades him in the es-timation
of the better people of his community.
"A man who is engaged in the manufacturing
and sehing of spirituous liquors has no business
in the school room to form and mould the char-acters
of our boys and girls. Such a man is not
likely to carry out section i, chapter 169, laws of
1891. He would not be likely to tell his pupils
that the business was destroying not only the
bodies, but also souls of men. No, sir; do not
grant a certificate to any such man."
The State Normal and Industrial College at
Greensboro has enrolled during the first three
weeks of the session about 415 young women.
This is a larger number than had been enrolled
lieforc Christmas in any previous year, and the
number present is larger than at any time in
the history of the school. The new students are
said to be better prepared than in prvious years.
All these young women are from North Caro-lina.
They represent every part of the state and
every grade of society. This is probably the
largest number of young women to be found in
any Southern college, and it would be difficult
to find a more earnest body of students any-where.
Ten young women, representing every
class that has been graduated from the institu-tion,
are doing graduate work. Eight or nine
are doing advanced work in pedagogics, while
others are doing graduate work in Eneglish or
science. The practice school has about 185
pupils.
Like all other schools in North Carolina, this
schoool is attempting to do a maximum of work
with a minimum of equipment and funds. There
is great need of more room and more money for
libraries, laboratories and other equipment, and
to employ additional teaching force; the state
depends on this school not only for the educa-tion
of its young woman, but also for the train
ing of teachers for the public and private schools.
The yearly demand for teachers is more than
twenty times greater than the college can sup-ply.
It will be good economy for the people of
the state to see to it that the supply of trained
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
teachers shall more nearly equal, the demand, young gentlemen, to make our alma mater such
and that opportunity for more thorough train- a place as this? I now give you this sentiment:
ing be given those students already in the col- " 'Our Alma Mater—Unceasing growth and
lege. Many a school attempting no more than honor and usefulness to her throughout the
this has ten times the material support this has. years.'
"
The Ideal Spirit of the University.
There is a right ring about these words from
a recent address of President Alderman to the
students at the university. They express better
than any other words we have seen the true
ideal of the spirit which should characterize
a great institution of learning. So long as this
ideal prevails may we look for a realization of
the sentiment contained in the closing words.
"I have an ideal for this university. My de-sire
and fancy would have it a place where there
is always a breath of freedom in the air, for sla-very
is not a proper condition for men; where a
sound and various learning is taught and taught
well, without sham or pretense; where the life
and teachings of Jesus furnish forth the ideal of
right living and true manhood; where manners
are gentle, and courtesies daily multiply be-tween
teacher and taught, and a gentleman feels
at home; where all classes and conditions and
beliefs are welcome, and rise in earnest striving
by the might of merit; where wealth is no prej-udice,
and poverty no shame; where honorable,
labor, even of the hands in menial toil, is glo-rified
by high purpose and pathetic desire for
the sweet waters and the clearer air; where there
is no air of uncharitableness, nor any chidings
or railings, but rather a large charity and sympa-thy
in all good efforts that make for righteous-ness
and culture, whether within or without our
own academic walls; where there is a will to
serve all high ends of a state struggling up out
of ignorance into general power; where men are
trailed to observe closely, imagine vividly, rea-son
accurately, and to have about them some
humility and some toleration; where truth,
shining patiently, lie a star, bids us advance,
and we will not turn aside. Will you help us,
Preparation for Opening School—How to Save to
the Children One-Fourth of the School Term,
and to the State One Hundred and Seventy-
Five Thousand Dollars.
Most of the public schools in North Corolina
and many other Southern states begin their ses-sions
in October and November, and the Journal
OF Education would call attention to the im-portance
of a full and prompt attendance and to
the preparation necessary thereto. For the want
of this preparation much time is lost and the
value and efficiency of the schools greatly im-paired.
Without a definite plan of work without hav-ing
examined and classified the children, with-out
books and apparatus, and without sufficient
announcement, the doors of the school room
are opened, and with a meager attendance the
teacher begins the weary task of "teaching out
the free money." Many children do not enter
until the beginning of the second, third or
fourth week. Those present have not the neces-sary
books; nor can these books be had of the
local dealer, except after much delay. Children
become idle and disorderly, parents grow dis-content,
and the school is foredoomed to fail-ure.
At the best, three weeks have passed before
all the children are in school and any proper be-ginning
has been made. "The schools run three
weeks before they start." In North Carolina
this is one-fourth the average school term, and
costs the state $175,000. Those who have an
abundance may spend wih less care, but in our
poverty we cannot afford this unnecessary
waste.
By a little forethought and a few days of
work, the teacher many change all this and sub-stitute
succcess for failure.
As early as the latter part of the second week
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
before a school is to begin written or printed no-tice
of the time and place of the opening should
be made at every public place, and this notice
should be repeated in all the churches and Sun-day
schools of the district. Notice should also
be given that on Monday, Tuesday and Wednes-day
of the next week the teacher will be at the
school-house to examine and classify the chil-dren,
and all children should be urged to be pres-ent
on one of these days, accompanied by pa-rents,
when possible, and bringing with them the
books last used.
Before the children come for examination, the
teacher, with the help of a committeman and
one or two of the larger boys and girls of the
community, should put the school-house in
order for their reception, cleaning and repairing
house and grounds, and making the place into a
fit home for the children during the next few
months. The teacher should also get from the
secretary of the committee a list of the names
of all the children in the district and the regis-ter
of the last session of the school, and should
ask the local dealer to order a sufficient quantity
of books for the children.
As the children are carefully examined and
classified in each subject the teacher should give
them cards showing the classes to which theyare
admitted and a list of books needed, urging
them to be present on the first day of school,
provided with books, slates, paper, etc., and
ready to begin work at once.
Many children in the district will not come to
the examinations. During the remainder of the
week they should all be visited and urged to at-tend.
Parents will give many excuses for keep-ing
their children out of school a part or all of
the term. But an earnest, tactful teacher can
usually succeed in convincing and persuading
them to let the children enter school. Her tact
and good teaching must keep them there.
The committeeman, the local minister, or
some influential citizen, man or woman, may
always be had to help in this. These visits will
also give a much needed opportunity to talk
with parents about the need of prompt and reg-ular
attendance, and to overcome many foolish
errors and prejudices.
In most communities the teacher must
do much of this missionary work, and it is as much
a part of her duty as it is to teach well the chil-dren
who attend. Schools are valueless to those
who do not attend with some degree of regular-ity.
There is much indifference and we have no
kind of compulsion except the strong will and
enthusiasm of the teacher. If there are children
too poor to buy books and decent clothing,
those who are able must be called on for aid. It
is cheaper to supply books and clothing now
than jails and poor-houses later.
The teacher who has followed the plan here
outlined may expect to open school with a full
attendance on the first day, the children sup-pHed
with books and ready to go to work with-out
delay. The confidence of the people will
have been gained. No time wiU be lost. The
school will accomplish its purpose. That com-munity
will accomplish its purpose. That com-munity
will soon be converted to the great doc-trine
of popular education.
I would remind you that a good, hve, ener-getic
teacher is cheaper at $35 or $40 per month
than a teacher who knows nothing of progress
and real teaching, at $15 per month. Pay your
teachers more and demand more of them—then
you will move forward.—Superintendent Me-bane.
No promptings of charity, no feelings of
mercy should ever have a particle of influence in
keeping an inefficient person in the position of
teacher.—President Halle, of the Chicago
School Board.
Every new scientific truth must pass through
three stages—first, men say it is not true; then
they declare it hostile to rehgion; finally, they
assert that every one has known it always.
—
Agassiz.
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
Probably no schools in North Carolina have
ever begun more auspiciously than have the pub-lic
schools of High Point. The town itself is a
progressive one, engaged largely in the manufac-ture
of furniture and other wood-work. The peo-ple
are thrifty and possessed of much public
spirit. .
After the school election last summer the com-mittee
was fortunate enough to secure on very
reasonable terms the handsome building repre-sented
here, which they proceeded to remodel and
furnish, until it is now one of the finest and most
perfectly equipped public buildings in the state.
Superintendent Crowell has gone to work en-ergetically,
and the people are supporting him
with enthusiasm. The school for white children
was organized with nine grades, and nearly 80 per
cent, of the school population have been enrolled.
An excellent beginning has been made on a school
library. The Journal wishes the High Point
schools great success. They will, doubtless, be
worth more to the town than all its manufactur-ing
plants, of which it is so justly proud.
tion and individual effort.
There is consequently a
strong tendency to make our
schools mechanical, adhering
to the forms of education
and neglecting its substance.
Under a mechanical system
the qualifications of the
teacher are not enough in-sisted
on; it requires only
average intelligence to
"tend" a text-book machine,
yet everybody knows that
the teacher is the one in-dispensable
element in any
system of education, and
that the ordinary mind can
only be developed by con-tact
with another mind that
is superior and has a sympa-thetic,
stimulating influence.
Not only is it true that knowledge begets knowl-edge,
but it is a maxim as old as the race that
the strongest influence in life is an inspiring per-sonality.—
Charles Dudley Warner on Education^
in September Harper'' s.
How the Temple Beautiful Was Robbed.—
A
Teacher's Story.
MISS M. W. HALIBURTON, NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL COL
LEGE.
The Teacher vs. the Machine Tender.—
We have a facility for being deceived by appear-ances,
and to think that when we have set going
a promising machine there is no need of inspec-
There was once a temple so grand and wonder-ful
that no one could build one like it. It had been
built—long, long years ago—by giants who were
strong and mighty and beautiful. These giants
still worked at times in this temple, keeping it
ready for those who came to worship there. They
were nearly always silent—except two, who some-times
sang as they worked.
The great stone walls of this temple were paint-ed
in softest tints of pearly gray and green.
That cool, lovely green color was everywhere in
the temple. It was in the many-hued carpets of
purple and blue and brown; it was in the waving
curtains of crimson and gold; it was under the
slender candlesticks, graceful and golden; it
draped the tall carved pillars of gray; it hung in
8. NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
all the cool niches ; it mantled all the stone al-tars.
Over all this was a great dome of wonderful
blue and white.
One day this temple seemed more beautiful
than ever before. Every now and then a little
fairy flitted among the tall pillars, or sang among the
green curtains a song of rapturous praise and grat-itude.
Then all was silent, except for the deep,
low music throbbing far back in the temple from
a great organ which played there always, and ex-cept
for the slow footsteps of the giant, who some-times
sang as he stole between the tall gray col-umns,
and shook out the curtains of green and red
and gold.
How beautiful and grand and solemn it all was
at that moment!
But just then there was the sound of many
voices and feet, as a crowd of noisy j'oung peo-ple
came tramping and stumbling into the Tem-ple
Beautiful.
These young people had hammers and chisels,
spades and trowels, knives and baskets. They
seemed not to hear the low, soft rolling of the or-gan;
they noticed not the swa^-ing of the curtains
or the shining of the great dome above. With
hammer and chisel they cracked the great walls
and green-mantled altars of stone, from which
they scraped the dainty tints of pearly gray and
green. With trowel and spade they tore up the
soft carpet of purple and brown and blue. With
knives and hatchets they hacked the wonderfully
carved pillars so stately and tall. With ruthles.<«
hands they tore down the curtains of amber and
crimson dj-es, and broke the graceful candlesticks
of gold.
Piling these into baskets, they stopped long
enough to kill the little fairy who had returned
to sing another sweet song of praise.
Then with heavy loads they went trooping
away from the temple they had robbed, leaving
the great organ playing on and on, pouring out
grand, deep music which now sounded reproach-ful
and sad. .And towards night the beautiful
giant who sometimes sang came back and sobbed
and moaned aloud as he stole slowly between the
the tall pillars and shook out again the curtains
of crimson and gold, now so trampled and torn.
Children, do you remember the ravine where
we stayed so long last Saturday because it was all
so beautiful ? Do you remember what a good,
long talk we had about the work we saw there of
the sun and the wind, the frost and the running
water, which for long, long years have been hol-lowing
out and building up that lonely spot, so
lovely that we decided to leave everything as it
was, so others might enjoy it? Some of you thought
the over-hanging rocks with the green and gray
lichens, broken here and there by fern-draped
niches, or fallen slabs mantled in mosses and liver-worts,
were the most beautiful things you saw.
Some thought the deep purple of the asters and
the paler blue of the gentians against the brown
rich soil at our feet the fairest sight of all. Many
said the tall trees, with their gray trunks and red
and yellow leaves, were far more splendid than
anything else. Others said the graceful sprays of
golden rod were the prettiest objects they saw.
One said the soft blue and white of the sky was
the most wonderful, and another that the cascade-rolling
its murmuring waters far back in the nar-rowest,
shadiest part of the ravine, was worth
everything else.
It was all very beautiful and solemn as we sat
there for awhile quite still, listening to find if
there were any sounds save the rolling of the
waterfall, the sighing of the wind and the song of
that dear little bird who sang so sweetly before he
flew away. As I sat there with you it seemed to
me that we were in a temple. The high stone
cliffs were the walls ; the fallen slabs were the
altars; the asters and grasses made the carpet; the
golden rods were the candlesticks; the tall trees
rose like pillars, their many-colored leaves shaded
us like curtains, and among them the wind sighed
like a strong giant who can yet be gentle. The
sound of the waterfall came to me like the rolling
of an organ, and the cloud-dotted sky was like the
great dome of a cathedral.
Once since then I saw a crowd of half-grown
students there. I think they did not enjoy it as
we did, for they did as I have told you in the story
of "How the Temple Beautiful was Robbed."
Ignorance is the greatest curse. In the havoc
it plays and has played there is nothing with
which to compare it. It stands alone.—Rev. J.
C. Troy.
NORTH CAkOLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
With Andree.
[Frank L Stanton, in Atlanta Constitution.]
Over the world with Andree
—
Over the hills and the sea;
We rise—we run
In the face o' the sun
And steer where the star-worlds be !
For a wind-swept wo Id is ours, and lo !
We go the way th t the storm-winds go
To the silent city of smw.
Over the world with Andree
With the gulls in their ocean flight;
From lands of bloom
To shores of gloom
—
From living light to night
!
To a land where the tomb^ of ages lie;
Where voiceless castles kiss the sky
—
To a ghostly city of white.
What if we charm the secret
From the Northland's icy breast.
Or sink and die
'Neath a hopeless sky,
By never a death-knell blest ?
We shall know that we perish not in vain
—
We shall lie where the lovers of Truth have Iain;
There, as here, on our mother's breast
!
Astronomy in Primary Classes.
MRS. P. C. PATTERSON, RALEIGH PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
We all know there are but few things a child
observes so early in life, or which excite so many
inqniries, as the sun, moon and stars. We teach
even our babies to blow kisses to the moon. We
remember ourselves as mere toddlers, not satisfied
with seeing, but desiring possession ; picking out
and appropriating the brightest and prettiest stars
for our own.
I feel that the readers of the North Carolina
Journal of Education are fully alive to the
importance of this subject in our school-rooms. I
wish merely to place before them an outline of our
work among the ver}' smallest children dtiring the
past year, hoping it may be fruitful of some sug-gestions
to those just entering this particular field
of nature study.
Our term opened the last of September. Glance
up at the illuminated expanse above us and see if
it is possible to have a more propitious season for a
beginning. There are the Great Horse, two Bears,
Bull, Eagle, Chair, Wagon, Whale and Fish
—
names especially adapted to interest children.
The first step was made at noon one hot day
with the question, "What makes it so warm?"
Some child replied, "The sun." Just what I
wished, to bring their thoughts to the sun. Then
naturally followed, "Where is it? Does it shine
in that south window? Does it shine in this north
window? Let us go out and see where the sun
itself is." Children must not be allowed to look
at the sun with naked eye. It is best to use a
thick umbrella, preferably of silk.
The sun appeared to them to be hanging directly
over a gable of the school building. I had the
children note this spot and remember it. They
also noted where they were standing. This gave
them a point from which to observe if the sun
moved up or down during the following days. At
least every tenth day we went out at noon to see if
the sun was where we first saw it. The children
saw that it went down farther and farther towards
the south till just before Christmas, and then they
observed it rise till the close of the term.
Also everj' day at twelve o'clock we measured
with a yard-stick "how much sunshine we have"
in our south window. It was more and more each
day. We saw "just three days to Christmas" that
the sunshine ceased to increase. After a few days
we found we were losing sunshine each day until
the close of the term. All this while we kept an
accurate account of our gains and losses in inches.
Soon after making our first observation of the
sun, to arouse interest in the moon, I read them
some little poem about it, and wrote some quota-tion
on the board for them to read or copy. I
asked, "Who saw the moon last night? Where
did you see it? How did it look?" I allowed
those who had seen it to draw it on the board.
This drawing induced others to look that night,
that they might draw it next day. When I felt
sure they had seen it, I let some of them cut out of
bright yellow paper enough new moons to go
around. I gave each child a card 5x6 inches, on
which they pasted these moons, in the left-hand
upper corner. I timed my first talk on the moon
just when they would see it as new moon. I then
asked different ones to tell me something of this
moon. One child called it a little baby moon
because it went to bed so soon. W^e at once accepted
lO NORTH CAROIvINA JOURNAI. OF EDUCATION.
the name. Another said it went to bed not long
after the sun ; anotlier, "It is right over there near
the sun." I selected some sentence from what had
been told me, and wrote it on the board for them to
copy just under the baby moon j^asted on their
card.
We followed this plan throughout our observa-tions
of the moon, from one phase to another, back
to new moon again. I now found that they knew
baby moon was in the west, near the sun, setting
soon after it ; that the half moon was overhead,
having moved farther from the sun; that the full
moon was opposite the sun and in the east. All our
observations were made at 7 p. m.
By the time we had made a fair start in watch-ing
the moon, the pupils were asking questions
about the stars as I had anticipated they would.
We decided to try to learn something about them
together. I related the story of some constella-tion
that could easily be seen, as the Big Bear, drew
it for them, and then let them draw it. I told
them to see if they could find it up in the sky.
Most of them found it the first night. They are
eager to look for stars. I next gave each child
seven little stars, and they pasted them on their
cards, forming the Big Bear. These stars are not
the conventional five pointed stars. Stars in the
sky do not look five-pointed to children, but round
so I made my stars with a round punch, cutting
about twenty-five at a time. I selected some sen-tence
from what they told me of the story, or of
how they found the constellation, or of some star
.in the cluster. This they wrote on the card.
It is surprising how much they found out.
When we were looking for the Big Dog I told
them Sirius was the largest star they would ever
see. Next morning a little man said I was mis-taken,
for he had seen a much larger star in the
east. Venus was then evening star. I had not
intended touching on the planets in that year's
course, thinking it best these observations should
be made later. I had hoped they would not notice
them. Perhaps I was wrong. Their young eyes
were so keen that I was drawn into some work on
planets to convince them they were not like other
stars. They found, too, the motions of the stars
which I had intended to put into the next year's
work.
' We had given fifteen minutes a day to these
lessons. At the close of the session my little fo^ks,
advanced first grade pupils, had learned by obser-vation
the following: The four cardinal points
of the compass; that the sun moved southward
until December 23d, and then northward; the
phases of the moon and its position in each at sun-set;
and seven constellations—Big Bear, Little Bear,
Chair, Orion, The V, Big Dog, and Seven Sisters,
—with their mythological stories.
In our talks and discoveries we were brought
more into touch with each other, and I believe we
had more pleasure in that fifteen minutes than in
any other fifteen minutes during the day.
There may be teachers, who, like myself, have a
fair knowledge of astronomy gained from a text-book,
but know no constellations in the heavens.
This knowledge, which can be gained only by
personal observations of the stars themselves, is
absolutely necessary. If a teacher has this, she
really needs very little knowledge of mathemati-cal
astronomy, and this necessary knowledge is
easily acquired.
Fortunately for me, at the beginning of my
course with my pupils, Mrs. Bowen's Astronomy
by Observation was placed in my hands. Finding
she so strongly urged working out under the
stars, I ventured forth equipped only with a lan-tern
and her book. By following her directions^
I soon had the zodiacal constellations, after which
it was easy to place others north or south of that
line. I went out six nights, not consecutive ones;
I learned twenty-seven constellations, eleven first
magnitude stars, two planets, and watched the
moon through her phases. With this basis I was
willing to start to work with my little folks. Of
course in watching with them I was continually
making new discoveries, and I found that my
month's preparation, followed up by systematic
observations after the class had begun to watch,
was sufficient for intelligent instruction in what
proved to be an interesting course.
If I were asked to name one product of vice
and crime that would soonest touch the hearts
of all good people, I would say a neglected child.
Give me the child and the state shall have the
man. Every case of vagabondage has its root
in some neglected child.—W. T. Harrison, U. S.
Commissioner of Education.
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. II
When All Wild Things Lie Down to Sleep.
HELEN HUNT JACKSON.
"November woods are bare and still,
November days are clear and bright;
Each noon burns up the morning's chill,
The morning's snow is gone by night;
Each day my strps g.ow slow, grow light,
As through the woods I reverent creep.
Watching all things ' lie down to sleep.'
I never knew before what beds,
Fragrant to smell and soft to touch,
The forest sifts, and shapes and spreads;
I never knew before how much
Of human sound there is in such
Low tones as through the forest sweeps,
When ail wild things ' lie down to sleep.'
Each day I find new coveilids
Tucked in and more sweet eyes shut tight
;
Sometimes the viewless mother bids
Her ferns kneel down full in my sight;
I hear their chorus of ' good night,'
And half I smile and half I weep.
Listening while they ' lie down to sleep.' "
French and German in Elementary Classes.
PROF. WALTER D. TOY, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA.
In the October number of the journal, it was
stated as the best judgment of competent au-thorities
that children should begin the study of
French or German at the age of ten. In schools
which have a kindergarten, a profitable begin-ning
may be made with children still younger.
For such classes the methods about to be sug-gested
may also be employed, with a constant
tendency toward greater simplicity. One of the
students at this university, a young lady, is now
teaching German in this way to a number of
little children in the village, ranging in age from
four to seven years. She reports that the interest
is good and the progress very encouraging.
And now a few words about the method. All
this elementary teaching must be oral, and its suc-cess
will depend almost entirely upon the man-ner
of the teacher. Therefore it is essential to
have the matter to be used perfectly under con-trol.
Doubtless those will succeed best who are
able to converse at ease in German or French,
but for the beginning now under consideration
short sentences can be used with sufficient power
and naturalness by teachers who get their in-spiration
from books. The essential point is
to make careful preparation, know definitely
what is to be said, and, by one's own interest, in-spire
the pupils with interest. The exercise
should never drag, and to this end the lessons
should be short but frequent. There should be
at least one lesson every day.
If the teacher be not perfectly sure of proper
pronunciation he should get assistance from a
competent person, and frequently consult writ-ten
authorities. Of these latter, Alatske^s Prim-er
of French Prouuticiation, New York, Henry
Holt & Co., is to be recommended. Every teach-er
of French should have some such book upon
his study table. For the pronunciation of German,
assistance can be had from the grammars; but
better still, from a good teacher or an educated
German. We have taken for granted that the
teacher is perfectly familiar with the laws of
grammar.
The first lesson may begin with the names of
a few familiar objects, such as the knife, the table,
the hat, etc., and the thing must be shown when
the name is given. Then very short, clear sen-tences
may be made: Voila la table^ voila le cou-teau;
das ist 7nein messer, das ist mein Hut, etc.
These must be made clear and familiar by spirited
enunciation and much repetition.
If care be taken to select easy sounds at first,
the children will imitate them without effort,
and by degrees new words and new turns of ex-pression
can be introduced.
The teacher will generally need a guide, such as
Sauveur's Petites Causeries, Bercy's Livre des
Enfauts, Keetel's ChiWs First Book, Chardenal's
Complete French Course, Stern's Studien und
Plaudereien (first series), Collar's Eysenbach (Ger-man
Lessons).
No one of these books need be rigidly imitated,
but from one or more of them may be selected
material that suits the requirements of the class.
It is worth while to repeat that here no long,
complicated sentences are wanted. In the inter-est
of the class the teacher will have a ready test
of the correctness of his method. If any given
13. NORTH CAROUNA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
method of procedure fails, let it be dropped at
once.
Let the beginning be simple. After the ice is
broken, it will be easy to introduce more interest-ing
exercises. Sometimes it will be found well
to let the children recite in concert, and for this
purpose short proverbs or very short, easy poems
are good.
While care must be taken to avoid the appear-ance
of giving theoretical rules of grammar, the
oral lessons should proceed systematically. So it
will be found useful to follow the order of some
conversational grammar, such as Chardenal for
French and Collar's Eysenbach for German. Such
a guide will aid the teacher in proceeding regu-larly
through the ordinary principles of the gram-mar,
but the new points must be added natur-ally
and without abruptness to the material
already acquired. Strength will come from re-petition.
As it is not always feasible to produce the ob-jects
about which to speak, simple pictures may
be used to afiford a starting point.
No attempt at reading should be made until
the class is firmly grounded in the simple forms of
conversation. With young children a whole year
may be spent in purely oral exercises; with very
young children, two years. When, finally, texts
are introduced, they should be very simple, and
oral lessons based on the text should be con-tinued.
For French we suggest: Hachette's Il-lustrated
French Primary Readers (W. R. Jen-kins,
N. Y.), Joynes' Contes de Fees (D. C. Heath
& Co.), Mere Michel ct Sou Chat (Henry Holt &
Co.). For German: Grimm's Kiiiaer juid Haiis-vicsrchen
(MacMillan), Deutsche Fibel (American
Book Co.), Des Kindes Erstes Buch (W. R. Jen-kins,
N. Y.).
In attempting to follow such a plan as the one
just given, the teacher must of course give play
to his own individuality and to his particular
needs.
It will be helpful if teachers who are conduct-ing
such classes will state their views and the re-sult
of their experience.
We reserve for a subsequent article the consid-eration
of elementary classes composed of some-what
older pupils.
The Study of Poetry.
PROF. J. Y. JOYNER, STATE NORMAI, AND INDUSTRIAL
COLLEGE.
"More life, and fuller, that I want."
In a former article I undertook to show that
poetry from its very origin, history and nature,
is closer to the childhood of the race and of the
individual than prose, and that, therefore, it logi-cally
has a place in the earliest education of the
child. In this article it is my purpose to discuss
briefly the general value and mission of poetry
and the necessity of the study of it in every
period of life for the best development and high-est
happiness of man.
"More life, and fuller, that I want." "I came,"
said the divine Life-Giver, "that men might have
life and have it more abundantly." The greatest
storehouses of this life, this spiritual life, outside
of the Bible, are the great poems of the world.
Poetry is the natural language of the soul. 'Tis
born of the divine in man and appeals to the di-
\ine in man. The true poet is close to man's
heart, close to nature's heart, close to God's
heart. He is the best interpreter of his own inner
life and of the inner life of man. 'Tis part of his
holy mission to give voice to this inner life. 'Tis
given unto him as unto no other to voice the
yearnings and the longings, the joys and the sor-rows,
the hopes and the fears, the aspirations and
the ambitions of humanity; to lift men with him-self
into a purer and a sweeter atmosphere, into
a higher.
Having more of the divine in him than other
men, and cultivating by continual exercise the
diviner faculties of mind and soul until these over-shadow
the other faculties, the ideal poet logi-cally
has more of the divine attribute of presci-ence,
and is indeed the seer of his age. With pro-phetic
ken, he dips into the future farther, some-times
centuries farther, than the ordinary eye can
see, "Sees the vision of the world, and all the won-der
that will be." From a glowing heart he re-veals
to men. his brothers, "in thoughts that
breathe and words that burn," the glorious
visions that he sees, stimulating, comforting and
NORTH CAR'OLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 13
guiding them in their toilsome journey upward.
I beHeve that the careful study of civilization
will reveal that the poet, more than any other
man in his age, has ever stood upon the Alpine
heights, holding before the entranced vision of
the armies of his fellow men, toiling wearily be-low,
his banner with its strange device, "Excel-sior."
A pillar of cloud for their guidance by
day, a pillar of fire by night.
His should be and is "The light that never was
on land or sea." His should be and is the power
"to give to airy nothing a local habitation and a
name."
Ay, "There are more things in Heaven and
earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your phil-osphy."
Many of these unseen things are glori-ous
realities to the great poet, and his are the
power and the mission of making them glorious
realities to less favored mortals.
In a word, the poet has less of the earthy and
more of the spiritual than any other man of his
age, and his noblest mission is the spiritual re-demption
of man. I would have you understand
spiritual here in its broadest sense, including, as
Dr. Corson so well says, "the wholedomainofthe
emotional, the susceptible or impressible, the
sympathetic, the intuitive."
Not only is the poet closer to man's heart
and the truest interpreter of the inner life of man,
but he is also close to Nature's heart and the
truest interpreter of the inner life of nature,
close to God's heart and the truest interpreter
of God in nature.
God has gloriously revealed himself in the book
of direct inspiration which we call Holy Scrip-ture,
and scarcely less gloriously, though less di-rectly
and clearly, in the book of nature.
The two great interpreters of this book of na-ture
are the scientist and the poet. By cold rea-soning
the scientist interprets the outer life of
nature to the reason, and leads the intellect of
man to look through nature up to reason's God.
By intuition the poet pierces to the heart of na-ture,
interprets her inner life to the spirit, and
leads the soul of man to look through nature up
to the soul's God. 'Tis well for the glory of God
in nature to be thus revealed to both the mind-side
and the soul-side of man. But the poet is na-ture's
favorite child and if she takes the scientist
on her knees and tells to him her beautiful story,
she presses the poet to her heart and sings to
him her inmost secrets.
The Child as Teacher.*
PROF. W. L. POTEAT, WAKE FOREST COLLEGE.
And blind authority beating witli his staff
The child that might have led him.
—Wordsworth :
'
' The Prelude. '
'
I purpose reversing the usual conditions. Let
us, just for to-night set the child on the dias and
the teacher below, put the teacher to school to
the pupil. Let us with Rousseau, sit at the feet
of infancy, and watch and learn. For such a
course we have the highest of precedent. The
college of apostles was put to school to a little
boy in arms.
There has been, as you are aware, a new inter-est
awakened in the child. Of course, from the be-ginning
the child has always been interesting
—
that is, always interesting to the woman; and
from the time that her superior insight and ten-derness
were able to impress her grosser and less
penetrating mate, the child has been interesting
to the father as well. But in later years this na-tural
and universal interest has been quickened.
We have learned at this late day to appreciate
the essential beauty of nature unmarred by the
touch of man; and so at last we have come to see
the beauty of the child, which is the beauty of un-perverted
nature. The new interest lies also in
his happiness, his freedom from perplexity. He is
healthful and happy in the midst of the disillu-sion
and complaint of the modern world, and so
let us love him.
Besides this sentimental, there is also a scien-tific
interest in the child now-a-days, in which we
may recognize two factors. The first you might
Condensed from the stenographer's report of the
president's annual address before the North Carolina
Teacher's Assembly, June 16, 1897.
14 NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
call archaeological. We have come to see that
the child is an authentic specimen of man in his
primitive state, and the primitiveness of the child
makes him attractive and important.
The second factor is educational. The child
has come to be studied with the practical purpose
of determining how best to educate him. There
is now a new science of which the child is the sub-ject.
It is called Paidology, or, more simply,
Child Study. Child Study began where most
things begin—in Boston—in 1879. under the
lead of a woman.* And who should begin it but
a woman? The first endeavor was to ascertain
the actual contents of a number of children's
minds. The results, published the next year in
the Princeton Revieiv, were made up largely of
what the minds of children did not contain; for
33 per cent, of them had never seen a live chicken,
51 per cent, had never seen a robin. Even in Bos-ton,
not 30 per cent, of the children, who ate
baked beans every Sunday, had everseen the plant
on which they grew, and one little girl answered
that she supposed that a cow was as big as her
thumb nail; another said as big as a cat's tail.
That was the beginning. The next work under-taken
was the detailed measurement of children,
their statue and rate of growth. Then followed
the study of exceptional or defective children. I
may say that it was discovered that a great deal
of what teachers had been calling dullness and
stupiditv was really to be accounted for by some
natural defect which might or might not be cor-rected.
For instance, in many cases, it was found
that a dull child merely needed a front seat be-cause
he was near-sighted. In the best city wards
of some countries it is now customary for physi-cians
to subject the entire school to periodic ex-aminations,
and the book in which these records
are kept is accessible to parents. Questions like
these are asked: How about this child's com-plexion?
How about his muscles? His eyes? Is
his digestion good? And in all probability the ad-vice
will be to take the child to the country, or to
the dentist, keep him at home a few weeks, or let
the family nhvsician prescribe for him.
*Mrs Quincy Shaw.
This scientific educational interest has spread
very rapidly. In the congress held in Chicago in
1893 the child study movement was organized
throughout the United States, and the American
Association for the Study of Children was formed
with Dr. Stanley Hall, leader of the movement,
as president. It has been organized in the Na-tional
Educational Association, and at the Buf-falo
meeting last year an effort was made to or-ganize
local circles throughout the country for
the study of the individual child. I commend that
to all the teachers who are here. I would com-mend
it also to parents; for if we are going to
train our children, it would certainly be well to
know thoroughly the material upon which we are
to work.
But I am to speak of the characteristics of the
child and of the lessons which we in our maturity
may learn from him.
I. The first child characteristic which one
thinks of is innocence. In this composite idea
there are two elements. The first one is purity.
The child is pure. Now, I see some learned theo-logians
here; they will not bother me, for I am
not talking theology. But if they do say "total
depravity," I say to them, "Of such is the King-dom
of Heaven," and leave them to solve the dif-ficulty.
Here is this childhood paradise of purity.
We all soon get out of it some how or other. We
are all driven out. You, with your solemn face,
say sin drives us out. How do you know? You
would better say you do not know. You remem-ber
Max Muller's beuatiful "Story of a German
Love?" About this very problem the author
says: "Is it sin that changes the caterpillar to the
chrysalis, and the chrysalis to the butterfly, and
the butterfly to dust? Is it sin that changes the
baby to the man, and the man to the hoary head,
and the hoary head to dust? And what is dust?
Let us say, we do not know."
But the child has that remarkable gift which
Browning so beautifully describes:
God's s:ift of purity of soul
That will not take pollution, ermine-like
Armed from dishonor by its own soft snow.
Even when the child seems to be corrupt, he
NORTH CA«.OUNA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 15
carrries with him this precious birthright. It is
a beautiful picture Victor Hugo gives us of tlie
stree waif in Paris. If you should ask this great
city, says he, "What is this?" she would say,
"This is my little one." He goes on to say that
he haunts the wine-shop, knows thieves, calls gay
women tJioti^ talks slang, sings obscene songs,
but has no evil in his heart, because he carries
with him this pearl of innocence, and pearls are
not dissolved in mud. Unfortunately this is past
us, as you know. All that remains to us is the
privilege of recognizing and doing obeisance to
it.
The other element in this innocence of child-hood
may be suggested, namely, ignorance. I
know that a child does know a great many things
that we do not give him credit for knowing. He
is wiser than we think. Wordsworth says of him:
Mighty prophet ! seer blest
!
On whom those truths do "rest
Which we are toiling all our lives to find.
I grant, nevertheless, that ignorance is char-acteristic
of the child. There are many things he
does not know, and which he makes no pretense
of knowing. There is a lesson for us. We know
too much in our day and time, teachers particu-larly.
We have the temptaion to which all spe-cialists
are subject, that of speaking with final au-thority
on every question that arises in any way
connected with our specialty. We know every
thing and assume the airs of omniscience. Renan
said it took him six years of hard labor to discover
that his teachers were not infallible. I was glad
to hear one of the teachers say to-day that
we hardly know anything. Berthelot remarked
years ago: "There is now no longer any mystery."
And yet, no matter to what point of the horizon
we direct our eyes there sits a silent sphinx. In
the investigation of nature, the fundamental
question in which we are most concerned is pre-cisely
the thing that escapes ou- grasp, just at the
moment when we think we have it. These phy-sicists
have surely hit upon one of nature's prime
secrets; they have got something at last in these
X-rays. But ask one of them what the X-ray is,
and he will tell you he does not know. If you ask
what life is, the biologist must confess that he
does not know. Plato could have answered as
well. "Behold we know not anything." The
same problems which perplexed the ancient
Greek mind are problems still, and I doubt very
much if we shall advance very far beyond the
point they reached in their solution. It will help
us if we can learn from the child to say we do not
know. The spread of science has been so rapid
and marked, and the conquest of the realm of the
unknown has been so vigorous, that one is
afraid he will not be thought quite up with the
times if he says he doesn't know. It has come to
be a test of one's veracity, particularly of a
teacher's, whether he can say, "I don't know."
2. Another child characteristic is simplicity.
You understand by that term freedom from arti-ficiality,
freedom from insincerity, from duplicity —naturalness, in short. Man, as normallv con-stituted,
is a compound of feeling and intellect, of
impulse and reason; but the result of his develop-ment
in civilized life is to suppress the one side of
his nature and to exalt the other at its expense.
Very early in his history man acquired self-con-sciousness.
I think theologians would call that
crisis the fall. With self-consciousness he ac-quired
the ability to look in on the operations of
his own mind and to disturb with ulterior aims
the natural and immediate promptings of his own
spirit. He has put the impulses of his spirit under
the constraint of his intellect, and the result is
that civilization has come to be artificial and for-mal
and mechanical. There has been a marked
elaboration of life; it has got to be exceedingly
complex; and, being complex, it is artificial and
mechanical.
Artificiality is the weakness and menace of
our civilization. I think the reason we have
so few effective men and women is that there is
too little of the savage in us. It has been educa-ted
out of us; we have got to be cultured and civ-ilized
and weak. In social life, for example, the
manners—dear me, how formal our manners are!
Take any little social event, or "social func-tion,"
as it is called. You must wear a certain
i6 NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
kind of cot, whether you own one or not; you
must do a certain way when you enter, the
very speech you make when you leave is pre-scribed
for you, and while you are there—I don't
think I would lose, if I should lay a big wager for
any conversation's lingering beyond ten minutes
on any subject that might be raised. Everybody
is so intent on making an impression that the
mind cannot do its duty. The gentlemen cannot
forget their ties and patent leathers, and the
ladies examine now their belts and now the flufTv
masses on their temples and foreheads, or occupy
themselves with disposing to the best elTect their
self-conscious hands. And when, at last, the
thing is over, you rush out into the wide expanse
of the fresh, open air, and say, "Thank God, that's
over with." Now, why should it not be pleasant
for friends to meet? It was once the custom for
it to be so.
And fashions—how artificial! Thev are not
confined to women. \'\'e are all under the rule of
this imperious authority, which is as deaf to the
suggestions of nature, of common sense or of
comfort as the dull cold car of death.
Observe also the artificialty in religion. How
formal and lifeless its public worship often is.
Once in a little village on the Massachusetts
coast, I went up a high green hill to see the sun
set. It went down beyond the most beautiful
stretches of water and a long low line of trees be-hind
New Bedford.
The whole scene—sun and water and land
—
was transfigured in a glorious serenity. I—I was
in heaven and talked with God. In the gathering
dusk I heard the bells calling the people to wor-ship
in the village below. I went into a beautiful
church which had been built there by a rich Bos-tonian.
The functionary at the farther end, in a
dress that no ordinary mortal wears, began to
bow and turn about, and do this thing and that,
and I felt the glow of the hill-top experience
gradually die out of my heart. I felt chilled and
indignant that anybody should intervene between
me and the spirit world with genuflections and
prescribed formalities. I am afraid I went out
disgusted and intolerant.
Here is another thing, public speech. Elocu-tion
has come to be a science. In rare cases it
is serviceable, but in the hands of many persons
it defeats its professed purpose and degenerates
into a ridiculous farce.
These are some illustrations of the artificiality
which limits and enervates our whole life; and I
think it is time we teachers, who are in part re-sponsible,
were recognizing and seeking to cor-rect
it.
3. Another characteristic of the child whichwe
ought to imitate is faith. I do not mean what
preachers mean by the term, that is, belief. I
mean a large and intimate familiarity with the in-visible,
with the world of spirit. A familiar stanza
of the great Ode from which I have already
(|uoted, sketches our melancholy loss of it with
increasing ^•ears:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy !
Shades of the prison house begin to close
Upon the growing boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy ;
The youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is nature's priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended ;
At length the man perceives it die away
And fade into the light of common day.
The advance of science and the consequent de-velopment
of our industrial life have stimulated
the growth of the materialistic bias which is so
marked a feature of the average man. Illustra-tions
abound. I cite but one. There is a great
clamor that education be practical; for is not
this a practical age? In other words, man is first
and last a bread-winner, and that reduced to its
last analysis is, man is a stomach with certain ac-cessory
appendages. What a travesty upon hu-man
nature!
What is a man
If the chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast, no more.
4. Another characteristic of the child is play.
Play is not what Herbert Spencer calls it, the
overflow of surplus energy. It is rather the seri-ous
business of the child; and the meaning of in-
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 17
fancy is that the child may have time to play.
Play is the work upon which he grows. And so,
if we could learn of the child, we should play while
we work. It would be better not only for the
worker, but for the work. I doubt whether any
man does his best work until he reaches, as one
has said, a play interest in it.
5. The last characteristic which I shall men-tion
is originality. The child is original. It is a
mistake to suppose that every generation starts
upon the shoulders of its predecessor. Each
child has to start afresh; he cannot inherit that
thing of experience, or thought, or speech; but
by the time he reaches maturity he hascaughtup
with the race in the work which it has taken cen-turies
to accomplish. But when that great
achievement has been made he is found, alas! to
have largely lost his individuality and to be of the
type of men amongst whom he has grown—only
one grain in the great democratic sand-heap of
modern society. We lose our originality because
of all the virtues, society likes conformity best.
Custom is its patron saint. In politics, gross
ridicule waits outside the party corral to beat
back the first show of independent thought or ac-tion.
If you dare express an opinion of your
own, you are suspected, you are dangerous. It
is time for teachers and all intelligent people who
care for the future of our country to resist such
domination and censorship of individual initia-tive.
I am afraid our very systems of education
are ingeniously contrived means for the suppres-sion
of intelligence and originality. Unless men
were made in absolutely the same mould, with no
pecularities to distinguish them, what is the sense
in putting them all through precisely the same
course in precisely the same time? Men like
Dickens and Tennyson and Darwin haverebelled
against the system which was too narrow to meet
their intellectual needs. A friend of mine told me
the other day that on quitting Johns Hopkins
University he resolved that he would go to work
and educate himself!
Before education in the schools and contact
with men have had time to swamp the child's ori-ginality,
how beautiful and impressive it is. Rous-seau,
in his Confessions^ tells of an experience he
had with an eleven-year-old girl—a beautiful
child—an experience, like so many of his experi-ences,
not altogether to his credit. The next day
he met her on the stairs, and he felt a strange em-barrassment
and confusion come over him. He
asked himself why it was that a man who had
never felt fear of kings should be intimidated by
a little child. I think I can explain that in part.
One reason for it lies in this matter of purity, to
which I have referred. Awe and reverence possess
us in the presence of purity, like the awe I felt
awhile ago as I looked at that glowing planet;
such as one feels in the presence of any majesty
or beauty in earth or sky. I felt the same thing
in the presence of a little child the other day.
There was a pair of great, calm, mysterious brown
eyes, round which smiles played like Words-worth's
fringe of daffodils beside a deep lake. But
more; our awe and embarrassment are due to our
recognition of the child's originality and inde-pendence.
His intuitions are swift and just, and
you stand or fall before them on your merits. No
allegiance to any regulation of "propriety," no
forecasting of consequences intervenes to delay
or to modify the verdict. An acute French his-torian
has said that no consecrated absurdity
could have survived in this world, if the man
had not silenced the objection of the child.
Walter Pater tells of the destruction of an old
Roman bridge at Auxerre—how the people, as
they stood on the banks of the river were hor-rified
when, as the rubbish was cleared away, the
skeleton of a child was found at the heart of the
central pier. The ancient builders thought that
the presence of a child entombed alive in the ma-sonry
secured the safety of all who should pass
over the bridp-e. If we could put a livine child
into the social structure which we are building,
as a nucleus about which it should gather and
form itself, we might at least take some steps
toward that old-time paradise from which we are
now so far wandered.
He who does most for others, does best for
himself.
i8 NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
The Alumni Building at the University of North
Carolina.
It is with unusual pleasure that we present in
this number of the Journal OF Education a pic-ture
of the Alumni Building soon to be erected
on the campus at Chapel Hill. The description
of the building, with an account of the move-ment
for its erection, is taken from the Univer-sity
Record. The building is much needed, and it
is a hopeful indication for the future of the uni-versity
that it is to be paid for by the alumni and
friends of the university. Every alumnus owes a
debt to his alma mater which can never be paid
in full, and he honors himself by recognizing this
indebtedness. Among the alumni of this insti-tution
are not many men of great wealth; but by
united effort they might endow the university
with buildings and funds that would help much
in the effort to accomplish more fully her great
mission. There ought to be no difficulty in
raising the remaining $5,000 for this hall.
"At the alumni banquet during the celebration
of the university centennial in 1895 it was re-solved
by the alumni present to erect on the
campus a building of handsome and imposing
architecture to mark the ending of the first cen-tury
of the university's life and to stand as a
perpetual memorial of the gratitude and affec-tion
of her sons.
"The building will serve not only as a stately
memorial, but will also supply a pressing need of
the university. The wonderful growth of the
institution has made it almost impossible to pro-vide
a sufficient number of lecture rooms for the
instructors, and has driven over two hundred
students into the village for liv-ing
quarters.
"The building is modelled after
the Boston public library, with
an addition of a very beautiful
and classic portico and fagade.
The materials to be used are
granite and fine buff brick. It
will be heated by steam and
lighted by electricity.
"The basement will be occupied by the lecture
rooms, store-houses and laboratories of the de-partments
of physics and electrical engineering.
The first and second floors by the administrative
officers of the institution—presidents, registrars,
bursars—and by all the lecture rooms.
"This will practically add a new dormitory'
building to the university; for, by withdrawing
the lecture and recitation rooms from the present
buildings, enough space will be gained o furnish
rooms for eighty additional students.
"On the walls of the public reception room will
be inscribed on tablets of bronze the names of
all those who contribute to the erection of the
building.
"The whole cost of the building has been fixed
at $25,000. About $20,000 was subscribed in
1895 payable in five years in one-fifth install-ments.
Two installments have been called for
and there is in the hands of the treasurer about
$6,900. The board of trustees at their annual
meeting in June decided to begin work on the
building immediately. The following gentlemen
were appointed a committee to take the matter
in hand: Julian S. Carr, Richard H. Lewis, John
Fries, Francis D. Winston, Locke Craige and
President Alderman. Frank P. Milburn, of
Charlotte, was selected as the architect and the
design herein printed is the work of his hands.
Mr. Milburn is a specialist in public buildings,
and has made the Winston and Charlotte court-houses
famous for stateliness and beauty.
"There is not enough in the treasury to build
this needed building, even if all the money were
paid in.
"Only a small fraction of the alumni and friends
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 19
of the university have contributed at all. The
university with limited means is growing mar-velously.
It needs sorely the opportunity for ex-pansion.
The building would change the whole
character of our life here for the better. Every
friend and every alumnus of the university
should co-operate in this movement by sending
their subscriptions to the Hon. R. H. Battle,
Raleigh, N. C, treasurer of the fund. Subscrib-ers,
if they desire, may pay the full amount at
once.
"The university deserves this building at the
hands of those whom she has helped to strength
and fitness for living. And she will not ask in
vain."
The Basis of Methods.
SUPT. B. P. MANGUM, WILSON, N. C.
"How must I teach this subject?" "What
'method' must I use?"
These questions come to us continually from
the normal graduate, from the young teacher of
short experience, and even from those who have
grown old in the service.
Much has been said and written about
"Methods of Teaching," and many of those who
are still seeking for the truth have read and
studied the theories and suggestions of learned
educators, but all, seemingly, to little purpose.
The subject of "methods" is a much abused one.
No man can give me a method for teaching my
individual pupils which I can follow word for
word and step by step. His plans, however well
laid, can be only suggestive to me, and from his
suggestions T must take those points suited to
my work, and omit all else. Otherwise, I do
violence to the author of the "method," to my-self,
and to my pupils. This is true for every
teacher.
It is not the purpose of this paper to decry the
study of methods, but rather to ofYer one or two
suggestions which will enable all earnest teach-ers
to adapt their study of methods to their ac-tual
everyday work; to put into practice that
which they read.
There are two fundamental qualifications
which the successful teacher must possess; first,
he must know thoroughly what he teaches; sec-ondly
he must know how to use what he knows
so skilfully as to make it an instrument of in-tellectual
culture. Simple as these statements
may appear, they must be subjects of constant
study by the true teacher.
The experienced teacher knows well that
many factors enter into the education of a child.
He knows that all the forces that play upon the
child mould his plastic mind, and that those are
the most potent which result in most training.
He knows that within himself and through his
his efforts many of these forces must have their
origin, and he desires to know how he may so
manage that the forces which eminate from
himself may be the most potent in the proper de-velopment
of the minds, before him.
First, then, teachers must be "all-time stu-dents."
No teacher ever reaches the point
where he can put aside his text-books and rely
upon the knowledge he already possesses. No
lesson or subject is complete in itself. The need
of correlation of studies and subjects is not dis-puted,
and thiscorrelationtheteachermustknow
how to secure. Again, he cannot afford
to consider the subject from his own standpoint
alone. He must study to bring himself down, or
up, to the plane of the child, and force himself
to look at the matter as it presents itself to the
child. He must be able to cut loose from the
text-book and face his pupils with the power of
full preparation, his mind, as well as his hands,
imincumbered, ready to throw his whole vitality
and personality into the lesson.
The Germans hold that no one is fitted to
teach who cannot instruct his classs at least as
well without the text-book as with it in his
hands. This power can be acquired only by con-stant,
carefull study of each day's work before
going before your class.
In the second place, it is necessary to know the
;20 NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
pupil who is to be taught. The study of
mere theories has given place to the more im-portant
study of the child's mind. Over and
above all natural qualifications the teacher
needs to have studied the nature of the
child until he understands the progressive
development of the faculties at different ages suf-iiciently
well to adapt his instruction to the ca-pabilities
of -the minds of his pupils.
A pilot must know the nature of his craft as
well as the waters in which he is to sail. All
children have not the same degree of mental de-velopment,
even though they may be in the
same class; the manner in which you explain to
one may serve to confuse another. Study, there-fore,
to know your pupils, the natural tendencies
of their minds, their daily environment and its
educational efifect. Seek for that which you
must overcome or help on in each child.
Know your subjects and your pupils, and you
will then be the better able to adapt and put into
practice the "methods" suggested by your study,
and yoii will be the more sure of seeing that
steady development which is the joy and reward
of the conscientious teacher.
An Out-Door Lesson.
MISS FLORENCE W. SLATER, CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
"Now children we are going collecting." The
announcement is as good as a thunder storm, it
never fails to drive away the clouds. Crossness,
drowsiness, discontents vanish like magic.
The older children hurr\^ after their tin col-lecting
boxes and cyanide bottles, while the little
folks run for the collecting nets.
Before we get well out of doors there is
something to look at. To-day it is the doodle-bugs,
who are making a little village in the sand
near the school house steps. We quietly sit down
and eagerly watch these curious little creatures.
On one side a clumsy little black fellow, about
the size of an ant, is coming toward us. Every
few steps he stops and raises his long, flat head
as if he wished to survey the landscape. Pres-entlv
he quickens his steps, his whole person as-sumes
an important air; he has found a spot that
suits him, he is ready to begin the building of
his future home.
First, he marks out a circle about two inches
in diameter, then with might and main he be-gins
the excavating. We see now the use of his
large flat head, which seemed so awkward in
walking. It serves the purpose of a shovel; with
it he scoops up the sand, and then with a quick
backward jerk he throws it quite a distance out
of the way. How he works! Beginning at the
circumference he goes around and around until
at last he reaches the center. Leaving him now,
we turn our attention to his brother, who has
finished his home some time ago and is safely
hid at the bottom of the pit. A nice fat ant
comes along, struggling under the weight of a
beetle's wing he is carrying home for dinner.
But it is destined never to get there, for he or
rather she—for among the ants the females do
all the work-—falls into the pit, heels over head.
Up jumps the sly doodle-bug, or ant-lion, as
we must now call him, for that is his real name,
and grabs the poor ant with his large scythe-shaped
mandibles. We expect to see the ant
chewed up, but instead she is gently squeezed.
The bod}^ gets smaller and smaller under the
pressure until there is nothing left but the empty
skin, which the ant-lion throws away. We pick
up the ant-lion to see how he did it and, to our
surprise, find that he has no real mouth, but only
a tiny hole in the end of each mandible, through
which the juices of the ant's body were drawn
into his stomach.
We have seen as much of the ant-lion as we
wish to-day. So we dig up several of them with
their homes and put them in boxes in the
school-house where we hope to watch for their
development. We know that when the ant-lion
is grown ven.^ curious things happen to him.
First he decides to take a long nap. So, to pro-tect
himself from the birds and other animals,
he covers his whole body with grains of sand,
cementing them with a sticky fluid. The nap
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 21
lasts two weeks or more, and when he wakes, he
has changed so that I am sure his old friends
would not recognize him; for he has come out of
his sandy cocoon with four beautiful, gauzy
wing, and with such a dainty appetite that no
one has ever seen him take a morsel. It is com-monly
reported that he cannot eat; for when he
left his old skin behind he forgot his mandibles.
We seem to have luck in meeting with lions
this afternoon. There is another, a different
kind, on the leaf of the buckwheat vine. This
is the aphis-lion, he clearly resembles his cousin,
the ant-lion, but he passes ants by without no-ticing
them, and gives his entire atention to the
little, fat, juicy aphides. He is having quite a
feast; for the leaves and stems of the buckwheat
are covered with aphides, light-green, pear-shaped
insects. The largest are not so large as
a green pea. Aren't they ridiculous looking;
standing, most of them, on their heads, their
beaks thrust into the" soft tissue of the
leaf. There are a good many ants there, too,
and they seem to be patting the aphides gently
on the back with their long antennae, and at
first we wonder why; but soon we see an aphis
emit from the end of his body a drop of delicious
honey, which the ant eats with the greatest sat-isfaction.
A great German scientist says the honey is
emitted from the end of the alimentary canal,
but it is generally supposed to come from two
little tubes which can be clearly seen standing
erect on the posterior portion of the back.
Wherever it comes from, it is ver\- good; and the
ants are not the only ones who enjoy it, for the
Indians spread cloths under the tree to catch
the honey dew, which soon hardens into a very
sweet sugar.
But the aphides, or plant-lice, as they are
sometimes called, are looked upon as the special
property of the ants; for the ants take as good
care of them as mendo of their cows, so they are
often spoken of as the ants' cows. They fre-qu
«ntly build sheds of dried mud over them to
protect them from the sun and storms. In the
fall both aphides and their eggs are taken to the
ants' nests and carefully tended all winter, and in
the following spring are tenderly carried back to
the pastures.
When Mrs. Aphis is rearing her family, she
usually lives in little tent-Hke houses made of
the upper skin of the leaf. If you look on the
under side of the leaf you will see numbers of
tiny holes. Each one is the door of the tent
above it, where the snug little family lives. Could
a fair)- queen find a more beautiful house, or one
more strongly fortified against all enemies?
Prof. Henr}- Comstock, of Cornell University,
has made many interesting discoveries about the
aphides. Among other things he found that
just as soon as a plant becomes completely cov-ered
by aphides, a brood is hatched with wings
and they fly to another plant, starting a new
colony. Their children are all wingless until that
plant has become covered, when, as before, a
brood with wings is born. From a certain plant
Prof. Comstock continued to remove aphides all
summer so the plant never became covered, and
not a wingless aphis was hatched on that plant.
Another plant he kept covered, and brood after
brood of winged aphides was hatched. This
shows that the hatching of the winged aphides
is not periodical. Whether it is voluntan,- or not
remains to be proved.
While we have been watching the ants' cows,
the aphis-lion has been making good use of His
time, for scarcely a single aphis is left on the leaf.
He is a fearfully greedy lion, he would devour his
brothers and sisters if his mother did not take
particular pains to protect them.
His mother is a most exquisite, dainty crea-ture,
with four gauze wings of the most delicate
shade of green. Her eyes look like molten gold,
and she is often called "golden eye." The co-coon
out of which she came looks like a rare
pearl dropped on the the leaf. But if you look
closely you will see that it has a dainty little ltd
thrown back from the top.
This beautiful mother places her eggs on the
top of slender foot-stalks. . This .elevation .pjw-
•2.1 NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
tects them from each other and all crawling in-sects.
Isn't it wonderful to see an insect mother
carefully providing for the protection of children
whom she will never know?
Now the sun is warning us that we must re-turn;
so we will call together the little ones who
have been chasing butterflies and dragon flies,
and take our specimens back to the school room
to be mounted and put in our natural history
collection.
Weather Charts for Second and Third Grades.
MISS M. W. HALIBURTON, N0RM.4L AND INDUSTRIAI,
COI-LEGE.
By the time children have reached the second
and third grades they are ready for a more com-plicated
chart and more individual work than
was indicated in my previous article for children
of the first grade.
In these grades a better time for making the
record is at noon. The day's weather is more
settled then than it is earher in the morning,
and, therefore, observations taken at this hour
give a better basis for that comparison which
should distinguish the work of older children.
The chart on the blackboard now consists of
fourteen columns.
mometer, he is sent out at the selected hour to
see just what it registers. This he records in the
proper column, filling out other columns in an-swer
to the teacher''s questions. Being aware of
the close criticism of his classmates, he will do
his work with care and thought, for he knows
they have been making the same observations he
has made, and that if he makes a misstatement,
many little hands will be raised to announce the
fact that his record does not agree with their
observations. The next week some other pupil
who has been particularly observant takes this
place, and so on until the chart for the month
is completed.
When the chart is completed it should be cop-ied
and kept for comparison with the records to
be made during the succeeeding months. In
the third grade the same thing is done, with some
difference. The boy who has been out to read
the thermometer writes the degree of tempera-ture
and then stands, waiting until each pupil
has filled out in blank books ruled for this pur-pose
all the columns according to his individual
judgment, no copying being done except of the
figures indicating the temperature and those in-dicating
the exact time of the rising and setting
of the sun and moon. These last m^y be given
by the teacher from a good almanac. The chil-
Day. Date. Temp-erature
Direction
of Wind.
Dew or
Frost.
Cloudi-ness
or
Fogs.
Rain—
Amount
of Fall.
S-w. ^1- Sun
Sets.
Moon's
Phases.
Moon
Rises.
Moon
Sets. Stan.
Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday.
Friday.
Saturday.
Wkly sum'ry.
In the second grade children are able to do
some individual work in this chart-making,
though not to the extent that those of the third
grade should attempt. One pupil should be se-lected
to do the work of filling out the chart on
the board every day for an entire week. Having
been taught with the others to read the ther-dren
make their own calculations of thelengthen-ing
or shortening of the days. After the books
are closed the boy at the board records there his
observations, knowing nothing of what the
the others have written in their books.
As an orderly little arrangement, the boy, be-fore
returning to his seat, collects and puts aside
I
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 23
the books to be distributed again the next day.
At the end of the month each child will have
his own record. He may compare it with those of
other children and see in what respects it differs
from them. At the end of each week the chart
on the board should be copied on a sheet of
strong manilla paper. If these are nailed at the
top between two thin slats, they can be hung
upon the wall and turned as needed, much as a
reading chart is used.
Much of the geography of the second grade
may be centered around this chart just as in the
first grade. In that grade the child has learned
the direction of the winds, but now you expect
more of him; you wish him to have some idea,
based on his own observations, as to which wind
accompanies the cold, the snow or the rain.
In order to lead the child to discover the
cause of the effects he observes, simple experi-ments
as well as awakening questions will be
needed, the preparation of which will require
some study. Do not wait for a snowy or a rainy
day to hit upon the best way to give a lesson on
snow or rain. Unless you have been teaching
little children a long while, you would better
prepare questions, experiments and illustrations
before hand, so as to be quite ready when the
state of the weather makes appropriate the les-son
you have prepared.
This use of the weather chart in the third
grade forms an admirable introduction to the
study of meteorology.
Drawing.
MISS NBTTIE M. BEMIS, DURHAM PUBI,IC SCHOOLS.
[We regret that this article catne too late for the excel-lent
illustrative drawings accompanying it, done by pupils
in the Durham schools, to be reproduced in this number of the Journal —Eds ]
During the autumn months there is an abun-dance
of interesting material for the drawing
teacher on every hand. Leaves, grasses, sprays,
fruits and seed pods are easily obtained.
The primary grades while studying the sphere
may draw apples, peaches and pumpkins; they
appeal to us through color, taste and associations.
Leaves and grasses may be drawn with pencil,
charcoal or brush. If placed in some geometric
figure, as an oblong, simple lessons in arrange-ment
can be given.
Hold a spray naturally and note the wonder-ful
laws of growth; the union of stem with
branch and the curve of the mid-rib; the place
of the leaves on the stem and the decrease in size
of stem towards the end of branch. Some of the
leaves turn back, some forward, some upward
and some downward, as if governed by a "gentle
lav.' of respect and room for each other." Very
few leaves will be found directly facing; all are
more or less turned, and the difference in appear-ance
must be carefully studied and expressed.
Place sprays or branches at a little distance
from pupils and small details will not be seen.
Pay little attention to the veins and notches on
the margins of leaves. Consider thoughtfully
the effect of the whole.
A branch with fruit and leaves hung on wall
or blackboard will prove an interesting study
in all grades. If an apple branch is selected, read
from John Burroughs' essay on "The Apple," or
"Wild Apples," by Thoreau. Do not let poor
work at first discourage one. Try to help pupils
to see and feel the growth and beauty of the
branch and they will express it in their drawing.
Milkweed pods are familiar to all and are very
attractive. The delicate, airy seeds, "balloon-ing
seeds" they are called in "Sharp Eyes," cruise
about over the fields and villages in the autumn,
as the dandelion balls of May and the thistle-down
of summer have done. Their travels would
be worth recording:.
Elementary Arithmetic.
PHILANDER P. CLAXTON.
In these short articles, to be continued in sev-eral
numbers of the Journal of Education, will be
given a brief outline of the essential elements
of arithmetic, their logical order and some true
24 NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
pedagogical method of presenting them to the
child.
All arithmetic is only a matter of counting,
backward or forward. All problems may be solved
by the long and slow process of counting by
ones. All operations of addition, subtraction,
comparison, multiplication, division, ratio and
fractional parts are only shorter processes of this
counting, and all tables serve only to give the
facts necessary to be known in order that the
shorter processes may be used. The names of
numbers mean little or nothing to children until
they have had much experience in counting, see-ing
and handling numbers to one hundred at
least. Until these names have a meaning, cor-responding
to a real mental content which may
be readily and clearly realized and easily held in
consciousness, all arithmetical operations, prin-ciples
and rules are a mere juggling with figures
or an unitelligible combination of empty sounds,
void of permanent educational or practical value.
Arithmetic deals with number and number re-lations,
and good number concepts are its essen-tial
elements. These cannot be gained from
books or teachers, nor from a little perfunctory
counting of small numbers of marks and dots on
a blackboard.
Every teacher of small children in city
or town schools knows the advantage in
children who enter their classes, even when their
time in school has been much less than that of
their classmates of the city. This is because the
country child has counted, over and over again,
his father's pigs, sheep, cattle, horses and farm-ing
utensils; his mother's chickens, geese and
ducks; the trees in the yard, the fruit trees in the
orchards, the apples or nuts in a basket, the rows
of cotton or com in the field, and the panels of
fence. He has measured by inches, feet and yards.
He knows miles and acres; quarts, pints and gal-lons;
pecks and bushels. He has estimated the
weight of bags of cotton and of fat hogs.
In this way he has made the necessary first step
in arithmetic.
The lesson to the teacher is plain. If children
have not this knowledge, let the arithmetic work
of the first weeks or months in school be as
much like this as possible. Let the children
count objects in the school room, on the
grounds, in the fields and woods, at home, every-where,
until they can count a few hundreds with
ease, and have gained distinct and lasting num-ber
Cvyncepts. Also, let them measure and weigh
till the ordinary units of measure and weight are
thoroughly known. Let them find sums and dif-ferences
of numbers of real objects by counting.
In the same way let them divide smaller num-bers
into equal groups and put the groups to-gether
again.
Do not attempt written or oral arithmetic nor
the usual learning of tables until a sufficient
amount of this work has been done by the chil-dren.
It will be, as it so frequently is, a waste of
time and breath.
Primary Reading and Spelling.
EDWARD MOSES, WINTHROP NORMAL COLLEGE, ROCK
HILL S. C.
The United States Commissioner of Educa-tion
has recently reported that sixty-nine per
cent, of all the millions of pupils in the public
schools of this country are enrolled in the first
three years of work. As most of the time and
money devoted to the instruction of these chil-dren
is properly spent in teaching them the
three R's, the question as to how these branches
should be taught so as to yield the best results
in this short period of time seems to me to over-shadow
all other questions of school interest.
In casting about for the best method of
teaching any subject we are entirely safe, if, per-chance,
we may discover and adopt the mode in
which that subject was learned by the race.
There is no surer touch-stone of the value or
worthlesssness of any method of instruction
than this.
I invite the careful study of the following
from De Garmo's Herbart and Herbartians, p.
III-II2, (quoted from Rein) with reference to
NORTH CAllOLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 25
its application to the teaching of reading and
speUing:
"We find that this idea of the analogy be-tween
the individual and general development of
humanity is a common possession of the best
and most noted intellects. It appears, for ex-ample,
in the works of the literary heroes Les-sing.
Herder, Goethe and Schiller; with the
philosphers Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel,
Comte; with the theologians, Clement of Alex-andria,
Augustine, Schleiermacher; with the
Darwinists, Huxley and Spencer; with the clas-sical
philologists, F. A. Wolf, Niethammer, Dis-sen,
Liibker; with the educators, Rousseau, Pes-talozzi,
Froebel, Diesterweg, Herbart, Ziller
and others."
"From the large number of voices let us se-lect
but two, Goethe and Kant. The former
said, 'Although the world in general advances,
the youth must always start again from the be-ginning
and, as an individual, traverse the
epochs of the world's culture. The latter points
out that the education of the individual should
imitate the culture of mankind in general as de-veloped
in its various generations."
The vital question then arises: How did man
learn to spell and to read words by the use of
letters? The answer is not far to seek.
1. The word to be written was separated into
its elementary sounds.
2. The characters (letters) for the sounds
were written, one by one, in the order of sounds
(spelling).
3. The sounds were given at the sight of
words already written (reading).
It is not surprising that good people who are
not at all interested in the history of education,
and think there is nothing better than the
conning of a-be, ab, and e-be, eb, and later, em-a-en,
mSn, and se-a-te, cat, should speak of the phonic
method as a new way of teaching reading, but
it is astounding to note the error as to the origin
of phonic practice and teaching into which some
American educationists of world-wide reputa-tion
have unwittingly fallen.
Col. Parker has gravely asserted that the
phonic method "had its origin in some of the
earnest minds that worked contemporaneously
with Martin Luther" and Dr. G. Stanley Hall
has recently declared with a blaze of pyrotech-nics
that the phonic method "came in with the
gorgeous and profuse scenery of philosophy"—
•
whenever that was. With all due respect to
these distinguished gentlemen, I beg to insist
that, despite Dr. Hall's brilliant incertitude, the
chronology of both needs radical revision.
The phonic method of spellling, if it ever
"came in with" anything, came in with the first ,
word ever written with letters by man, and the
phonic reading of the word had its birth
in the reading of the first word ever
read. Just as soon as men learned that syllables
of spoken words could be separated into ele-mentary
sounds, and had fixed upon certain ar-bitrary
characters (letters) to represent those
sounds, men wrote and read by the phonic
method and by that method alone. It would
have been absolutely impossible for the forms of
written words to have beeen fixed in any other
way. These forms were not fixed by drawing
letters indiscriminately out of a hat, even if we
persist in teaching children as if the letters for
each word were decided upon in that fashion.
It seems altogether reasonable to believe
that the word method and the alphabetic meth-ods
were the resort in the first instance, though
not now, of slothful and incompetent persons
who essayed to teach. Slothful teachers were
not long in discovering that it was much easier
to speak the names of the consonants than to
give their sounds. Incompetent teachers found,
as soon as the vowels lost their "original unitary
sounds" (to borrow Whitney's phrase) that they
could teach 'after a fashion, without exposing
their own ignorance, words which they did not
know how to pronounce by insisting invariably
upon the name of a vowel, which is constant,
instead of the sound of the vowel, which is vari-able—
a shrewd device for any teacher now who
is unwilling to go to the trouble to find out the
26 NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
correct pronunciation of the words he is paid to
teach.
Candor compels me to say that teachers of
to-day who ignore the phonic method in teach-ing
are following in the wake of almost all the
English and American educationists, and are,
therefore, in no wise to blame. The fault lies
with the leaders, and no general reform may be
hoped for until confidence in these blind guides
is shaken, and the precepts and practices of
Comenius and Pestalozzi and Froebel are heard
and followed.
Let us look at some of the statements of these
pedagogical English bards and Scotch review-ers,
who would bind upon the backs of our little
lambs the heaviest of burdens—the cruel and
impossible and altogether useless task of load-ing
the little child's memory with the unsightly
forms of every English word he has occasion to
write.
"The training of the eye by careful observa-tion
of the forms of words is essential to the
learning of spelling." Landon: Teaching and
Class Management, p. 279.
"Since spelling has reference to the forms of
words, the eye of the learner should be familiar
with these forms from having repeatedly ob-served
them before he can reasonably be asked
to reproduce them in writing." Currie: Common
School Education, p. 283.
"To the child the word mat^ though a little
easier than through^ is just as arbitrary. He re-ceives
them both on your authority. . . It
is to be borne in mind that spelling is a matter
for the eye, not the ear." Fitch: Lectures on
Teaching, p. 192.
"What changes are made [in spelling] will cer-tainly
not be made in view of making spelling
easier for children." Matthew Arnold: Report
on Elementary Schools.
Listening to the voices on this side the Atlan-tic,
we hear the same old doleful song:
"In order to know how a word looks, we must
see it ; and the best means of seeing a form is to
draw it; therefore, drawing or copying words is
the best means of receiving distinct mental im-pressions
of written words. . . . The most
natural and economical way of learning to spell
is to write words until we can write them auto^
matically." Parker: Talks on Teaching, p. 71-
"What are we asking a child to do when we
ask him to spell? To hold the picture of the
word in his mind so exactly that he can repro-duce
the form in writing. . . Spelling involves
power to recognize and remember forms. This
power can be gained only by observing forms.-'
Miss Sarah Arnold: Waymarks for Teachers, p.
177.
"The correct form of words is learned by ob-servation
and practice. . . . Write a word
or sentence upon the board, ask the children to
look at it carefully, then to write it without
looking at the copy." Prince: Courses and
Methods, p. 74.
"Spelling is a purely mechanical drill, and we
have got to hammer it in as early as possible."
G. Stanley Hall (the reputed father of the gentle
science of paidology) in New York School Jour-nal,
Oct. 9, 1897. The itaHcs are mine.
I regret that I am unable, for want of space,
to review specifically each of the utterances
quoted above. I must content myself with sug-gesting
that if the genesis of knowledge in the
child should really follow the course of the gen-esis
of knowledge in the race, these English,
Scotch and American writers on methods of
teachings, spelling andreadingarefundamentally
and thoroughly wrong, and that the practices
which they advocate should be abandoned by
all our teachers for the far better method so
generally in vogue in Continental Europe.
It would be wrong for me to leave the im-pression
that all English writers on education
are in error on this point. Joseph Payne, in his
noble posthumous work, "A visit to German
School," pleads strenuously for a reform in ac-cordance
with the German system, and Herbert
Spencer has spoken boldly on the subject: "The
mistress of a dame-school can hear spelling les-
NORTH CAROUNA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 27
sons. . . . but to teach spelling rightly by
using the powers of the letters instead of their
names. ... a modicum of understand-ing
is needful. . . . Knowing so little as we
yet do of psychology, and ignorant as our teach-ers
are of that little, what chance has a system
which requires psychology for its basis?" Edu-cation,
p. 116.
Is it not high time for a change? For an an-swer,
I point to Dr. J. M. Rice's reports in the
Forum on his examination in spelling of 33,000
pupils in schools of the North and West, to the
testimony of the Civil Service Commissioners,
and to the recent declaration of Dr. A. F. Night-ingale,
superintendent of the high schools of
Chicago, that no more than twenty-five per
cent, of the pupils who enter the high schools
can spell correctly ten words selected from the
first reader of the six-year-old child.
[To be continued.]
As every father owes a duty to his son, so each
generation owes a debt to the succeedine een-eration.
It is a duty resting upon the state, the
present generation, to educate its children, the
succeeding generation. The duty is a function;
and arises from the state as an association of
people for the advancement of evrey man and
woman in the association. The state owes no
particular duty to any particular individual, but
it owes the best it can do for every individual. *
* * Every child above twelve years of age
will, within ten years, become a citizen of the
state—amemberof the association for civilization —and it is for the interest of every one who may
be alive ten years hence to see that the child of
to-day is developed to the fullest extent and in
the wisest way possible. The general public, the
matter of "may do," but one of "must do."
By educating a child you do not benefit the
parent. So a man's duty in no wise depends
upon the question whether he has children or
not. It is the duty of the parent in the first
place to furnish education for his children; but.
if he be negligent of this, it is not right that the
children should suffer for it. * * *
Every child that becomes a citizen will wield
an influence, greater or less, upon the affairs of
the whole state, so every citizen, present and
prospective, is interested in the right develop-ment
of that child. * * *
The childless man can not claim that he has
no interest in the school and should not be
taxed. Existence—the mere fact of living
—
puts upon him a number of obligations, and as
a citizen of the state—a member of society—not
the least of these obligations is to help place the
next generation on a higher plane than his own.
—R. H. Griffith, in the Baptist Courier.
School Libraries.
No part of the equipment of a school is more
necessary than a small collection of good books
for general reading. Fifty or seventy-five volumes
of the very best books for this purpose, well
printed on good paper and strongly bound in
manilla, boards or linen, may be had for only a
few dollars; and no money spent on the school
will yield a better return. A taste for good lit-erature
and an acquaintance with a few of the
world's best books will prove to be more potent
and enduring in the life and culture of the chil-dren
and the future men and women than all the
lessons in arithmetic, geography, Latin and other
subjects of the usual school course.
Of course, children should be permitted and
encouraged to take these books to their homes
and to read them there. In this way other mem-bers
of the family, older brothers and sisters and
the father and mother, will frequently derive as
much profit and pleasure as the child itself.
Especially is this true in the country, where most
homes possess few books.
Committeemen will do well to spend a small
part of the school fund, five or ten dollars, for each
school room, in this way every year. This amount
may often be increased by giving some simple en-tertainment
and charging a small admission fee.
Almost every community has one or more citizens
28 NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.
of public spirit, who will give a small amount for
this purpose, if properly approached.
It is not our purpose here to make out any lists
of books, but we wish to call attention to some
very valuable series which may be had cheap :
Cliildreii's Classics, Ginn & Co., Boston; River-side
Literature Series, Houghton, Mifflin & Co.,
Boston; English Classics, Maynard, Merrill & Co.,
New York; Eclectic Schcool Readings, American
Book Co., New York; Classics for Home and
School, Lee & Shepard, Boston, and the Standard
Literature Series (advertised on the second page
of this Journal), University Publishing Co., New
York. These series contain from 20 to 175 books
each, the average cost of the books being less
than 20 cents. If they can not be had in any
other way, any teacher will find it a paying in-vestment
who will purchase with her own money
a few of these books and lend them to the chil-dren.
For most country and village schools the
Standard Literature Series, the 25 books of
which may be had for about $3.00, will probably
be found as valuable as any.
Natural science is now occupying a more and
more important place in education, and I hope
that my children at least, if not myself, will live
fo see the day when ignorance of the primary laws
and facts of science will be looked upon as a de-fect
only second to ignorance of the primary laws
of religion and morality.
Above all things, let my pupil have preserved
the freshness and vigor of youth in his mind as
well as in his body. The educational abomina-tion
of desolation of the present day is the stimu-lation
of young people to work at high pressure
by incessant competitive examinations.
The first mere word with which the child satis-fies
himself, the first thing he learns on the au-thority
of another, ruins his judgment. Long
must he shine in the eyes of unthinking people
before he can repair such an injury to himself.
Children should be led to make their own in-vestigations,
and draw their own inferences. They
should be told as little as possible, and induced to
discover as much as possible.
In no department of public or private works is
there such vital necessity for a perfect system of
hygiene, as in the planning, construction, drainage
and ventilation of our school buildings. At no
time in our lives are we so susceptible to disease
as in our school days.
Morals should be taught in public schools.
Punctuality, orderliness, love of truth, self-direc-tion
and charity are moral principles which should
be inculcated in the mind of the pupil that he
may retain them when he has passed out of
school.
The principle, "Ideas Before Words," require
that the child's experience and observation should
be made the basis from which to start, and that
ideas should never be taught merely for the sake
of illustratino; the meaninsf of words.
The great end of life, after all, is not to think,
but to act, not to be learned, but to be good and
noble.
Local History for North Carolina.
A LIST OF TOPICS WITH REFERENCES, PREPARED BY THE
UNIVERSITY SUMMER SCHOOL,.
FIRST AND SECOND GRADES.
Indians, with special reference to those of North Carolina
—
the Tuscaroras, the Cherokees and the Catawbas; sto-ries
from Hiawatha.
Consult Hawkes', Martin's and Lawson's North Carolina'
History, vols. I. and II.
THIRD GRADE.
Raleigh's attempt at settlement; the Albemarle settlement;
Governor Drummond.
Hawkes' North Carolina History.
Wiley's North Carolina Reader.
FOURTH GRADE.
Resistance to the Stamp Act on the Cape Fear River; Dis-pute
about the Boundary line; Black Beard.
Martin's North Carolina History.
Wiley's North Carolina Reader.
Lives of the Pirates.
FIFTH GRADE.
Alamance; the Mecklenburg Declaration; Moore's Creek;
King's Mountain; Ramseur's Mill; Guilford Court
House; Richard Caswell, William R. Davie, Hugh Wad-dell,
William Lee Davidson, Charles McDowell, Joseph
Graham, George Graham, Allen Rutherford, John Se-vier,
Nathaniel Macon, Timothy Bloodworth, George
Francis Nash, Thomas Polk, Ephraim Brevard, Wil.
liam Kennon, H. J. Balch, Abram Alexander, Capt.
James Jack. Race elements in North Carolina.
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION: 29
Spencer's North Carolina History.
Martin's North Carolina History.
Hawkes' N. C. History, vol i.
Mecklenburg Pamphlet, by Geo. W. and Alexander Graham.
SIXTH GRADE.
Life in early North Carolina, including social customs, re-ligious
observances, modes of travel, etc.
Hawkess and Wiley.
Alderman's Men and Manners in North Carolina.
SEVENTH GRADE.
Fort Fisher; North Carolina troops at Gettysburg; North
Carolina during last ninety days of the Civil War—Ben-tonville,
Greensboro, Johnson's surrender (Bennett
house); J. Johnson Pettigrew, Leonidas Polk, Braxton
Bragg, D. H. Hill, William D. Pender, Jas. H. Lane,
R. Barringer, Thomas L. Clingman, Gen. Ramseur,
Gen. Robert Ransom, Gen. Whiting.
Pickett or Pettigrew, Bond.
Fort Fisher, M. C. S. Noble.
Moore's N. C. History.
Spencer's Last Ninety Days of the War.
EIGHTH GR DE.
North Carolina in literature: William Hooper. Calvin H.
Wiley, Christian Reid. North Carolina in industrial life:
Thomas M. Holt and brothers, D. A. Tompkins, Gen.
Joseph Graham.
Life of William Hooper, E. A. Alderman.
Alamance, Wiley.
Utopia, Wiley.
Defense of North Carolina, Jones,
Life of Vance, Dowd.
NINTH GRADE.
North Carolina in statesmanship: Andrew Jackson, James
K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, James Iredell, Nathaniel
Macon, William Gaston, Cornelius Harnett, W. A. Gra-ham,
W. P. Mangura, Z. B. Vance, Matt. W. Ransom,
William Rufus King, James C. Dobbin, Thomas A. Ben-ton,
George E. Badger, John Branch.
Educational .Exhibit at the State Fair.
THE HELPER, School Education Co., Minneapolis, is a
large double-column folio filled with valuable helps for
teachers. It contains suggestions, outlines and helps for
Nature Study, Geography and Bird Study; programs and
exercises for Harvest, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Decoration
Day, Arbor Day, and Patriotic Day, which may be observed
on Washington's Birthday; 25 patriotic poems; 17 poems on
birds and insects; 24 poe 1 s of flowers and plants; 3; poems
of nature; 12 poems and exercises for different seasons; 50
or more choice miscellaneous poems, and 30 pieces of
music suitable for s hool use. The whole is well printed
on good paper and handsomely illustrated. It is unsur-passed
among publications of its kind, and is cheap at the
publisher's price, 25 cents.
To each new subscriber to the North Carolina
JouRNAi, OF Education sending 50 cents direct to us before
December ist we will mail/ree a copy of the The Helper.
Write at once and avail yourself of tuis magnificent offer.
WANTED—In every township in North Carolina, a
good live agent to secure subscrihers to the North
Carolina Journal of Education ; liberal commission ; for
terms and instructions address, LOGAN D. HOWELL,
Manager, Raleigh, N. C.
This exhibit might liave been more valuable had a larger
number of the schools been represented. But the exhibits
made were very creditable.
RALEIGH PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The exhibit of the Raleigh public schools was ex-tensive,
representing all branches of work. It covered the
entire eastern side of the educational department, and was
effectively arranged against a background of red and black.
Near the entrance were language, reading and arith.
metic papers and note books from every pupil in the schools."
There was also an exhibit of clay-modeling here.
The remainder of the exhibit was divided into three
sections—Elementary Science, Geography, and History.
In the Science department were charts showing collec-tions
of the seeds, fruits, and woods taught. Note books of
pupils, containing drawings and descriptions, were on the
table.
Last term Miss Slater, of St. Mary's School, offered a
prize to the pupil at the Murphy School who brought in the
best collection of insects. Several collections were exhibited.
The astronomical lantern, and the star books of first
year pupils attracted much attention.
The Geography section showed how this study is
taught from the third through the seventh year. There
were plans of the school-room, schoolyard, and a section
of the city, and maps of the county and State. Outline
maps oi the continents were filled in with physical and po-litical
divisions. Heliotropes and skyameter showed how
simple mathematical geography can be made.
Several hundred pictures mounted on card board and
used in teaching geography were !:hown. Many of these
were obtained fr m magazines and railroad guide books!
There was a projecting lantern in the exhibit.
Cotton and tobacco with their products were arranged
on a pyramid. The manufacturers of Raleigh take pleasure
in showing pupils through their establishments.
A European loan exhibit, collected by pupils, showed a
good device for interesting children in foreign countries.
But a very important part of geography and history
teaching cannot be shown—that of supplementary rending.
The record books showed that last session 1,775 books
were given out from the library at the Centennial school,
and nearly as many from the Murphy school.
History papers and maps were on the table under the
protraits of Washington, Lee and Murphy, and a bas relief
of Vance. The first two were bought by pupils in history
classes, and given to the school.
Dolls dressed as Indians, standing near an Indian Wig-wam,
and two Puritans with the spinning wheel illubtrated
how, in the primary classes, the little children are trained
into the true spirit of history.
NORMAL AND COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, ASHEVILLE.
The exhibit of school work from the Normal and Col-legiate
Institute, Asheville, N. C, was especially fine.
The Normal, Commercial and Sewing and Blillinery de-partment
were represented.
The design of the Normal department is to pre-pare
young women for teaching. Free hand draw-ings,
carefully mounted botanical specimens, and ex-
30 NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATIOI^.
cellent essays attractively arranged, did
credit to this part of the Institute work.
The Commercial department embra-ces
stenography, type-writing, and
book-keeping. It fits pupils for office
work.
The Sewing departments offers a
course in dress-making, the draughting,
cutting, and fitting of dresses, and the
harmonizing of colors.
Miss Katharine J. Mechling, of the
Commercial department, had charge of
the exhibit. Her cordial manners and
intelligent e.xplanation of the various
features of her exhibit did much to pop-ularize
the Normal and Collegiate In-stitute
with fair visitors.
OTHER EXHIBITS.
The University showed large charts
giving information concerning its
history, courses and present attendance;
and also large photographs of the build-ings
and grounds and the architect's
large colored design for Alumni Hall.
The exhibit of the Thompson School
at Siler City consisted of specimens of
pupils' work, mainly in the commercial
department. They showed that much
attention is paid in that school to
business education and penmanship.
Mr. C. J. Parker, manager of the
Educational Bureau,Raleigh,hada large
display of school desks and other
furniture, maps, globes, charts and
other miscellaneous school supplies.
Peace Institute exhibited photographs
of the building, grounds, members of
the faculty and pupils.
The firm of .Alfred Williams & Co.,
book sellers and stationers, sent cases
of books, magazines, &c., from their
large stock in Raleigh.
PREMIUM LIST IN EDUCATIONAL DE-P.\
RTMENT.
The premiums in the educational de-partment
of the Fair were awarded by
the judges, Messrs. T. K. Bruner and
John Wilber Jenkins, as follows :
For best general display of work by
a school, to the Raleigh Public Schools.
Largest and best exhibit by female
school, to St. Mary's School, Raleigh.
Best general display by male school,
to Thompson School, Siler City.
Second best exhibit by female school,
to Asheville Normal and Collegiate In-stitute.
Best display of maps and charts by
school, to the Raleigh Public Schools.
Best display of art works by school,
to St. Mary's School, Raleigh.
Best display of kindergarten work, to
the North Carolina Institution for the
Blind.
Best display of agricultural and me-chanical
school, to the A. and M. Col-lege,
Raleigh.
Best display of specimens of geology,
mineralogy, zoology and botany, to
the Raleigh Public Schools.
Best map of North Carolina, drawn
by a youth under i6 years a pupil of
any public school, to Miss May Lassiter,
Wake Forest.
Best county map, drawn by a youth
under i6 years, a pupil of any public
school in that county, to Miss May
Lassiter, Wake Forest.
A premium, not advertised in the
premium list, was awarded Mr. W. A.
Boyd, of Salem, for a very interesting
collection of magazines, newspapers,
educational reports, school publica-tions,
pictures of schools and colleges,
all of North Carolina, and of historic
value.
Questions of the State Examiners.
(CONTINUED.)
ARITHMETIC EXAMINATIONS.
ist. If silk is worth I3-4 a yard, how
much can be bought for $2-3 ?
If satin IS worth $2-5 a yard, how
much can be bought for I7-8 ?
In these two examples, is the arithmet-ical
thought identical ? If so, explain.
If not, ex. lain. Under which one of the
"Four Rules" is each of these examples
classed ? State the " Rule.
"
2d. Tell how you would explain to a
class why "you divide by 2 to find one
half of a number," as for instance $24.
3d. A can build a fence in six days, B
in ten days, and C in tw Ive days. If
they all work together, how long will it
take them to finish the fence ?
4th. At what per cent, must I mark
goods so that I may fall 25^ below the
market price and still make 255^ on the
original cost ?
5th. I have two pieces of cloth, each
15 yards long; one is 25^ longer than it
should be and the other 25^ shorter than
it should be. What would be the com-bined
length of the two pieces if each
were of the proper length ?
6th. The commissioners of a certain
county wish to build a court hou e to
cost $18,000. The cost of collecting this
sum, together with several incidental
expenses, will amount to $1,644. The
total cost must be raised by a tax on
property valued at $6,584,000. How
much will I have to pay on a piece of
property valued at $987.63 ?
7th. An estate is divided among three
persons. A, B and C, so that A has 5-8 of
of the whole, and B twice as much as C.
It is found that B has 27 acres more than
C. How large is the estate ?
8th. Copper weighs 550 lb. and tin 462
lb. to the cubic foot. What is the weight
of one cubic foot of a mixture contain-ing
6 parts of copper and 5 parts of tin ?
gth. A has $8 and B $7 with which
they buy a boat for $15.00. C gave
$10.00 for 'A interest in the boat, with the
understanding that each of them should
own only 1-3 of the boat. How much of
the $10.00 received from C belongs to A
and how much to B ?
loth. Find the diSerence between the
bank discount and the true discount on
$987.56 due in one year, 6 months and 15
days, money being worth 6^.
EXAMINATION ON BOTANY.
1. Describe the structure of a seed.
2. Describe root-hairs and state their
function.
3. What changes take place during
the germination of a seed ?
4. What constitutes a fruit ?
5. What are the parts and functions
of a typical leaf ?
6. Give some of the properties of pro-toplasm
?
7. What food does the plant get from I
the soil and what from the air ?
8. Name the parts of a typical flower
and state the function of each part.
9. Mention some special contrivances
for the dispersal of seeds.
10. Describe the two ways in which
stems increase in diameter.
ALGEBRA EXAMINATION.
1. Explain why (— 3)x(— 2)=6-
2. When is a" + b divisabl.; by a + b?
an — b" divisible by a -f b ? a ^
b" divisable by a — b?
3. Factor in as many ways as possible
aT2 _ b-- ; a^" — b'" ; Factor a-—
a
— 42 ; a^ + a— 12 ; a- — ioa+24;
a- -f 12a -f 35 ; x* -f x2, y2 -f y^
m2 -|- n^ + 2mn—c^ m +n +c
4. ^
-
c2 — m^ — n^ -f2mn n + c —
m
5. Divide 20 into two parts such that
such the sum of three times
one part and five times the other
part, may be 84.
6. A can do half as much work as B,
B can do half as much as C, and 1
together they can complete a piece
of work in 24 days; in what time
could each alone complete the
work ?
NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 31
7. X + 2y = 7, and x -f y = 5, fiud
value of X and 3'.
Thanksgiving Exercises. Children choose "Chi istmas," the weary
love "Rest;'
T"+ >" =^' "IT + -z~=^' -^ + MRS. B. c. SHARPE, NORMA!, AND IN- But "Welcome" of all is ihe sweetest
— ~c. DUSTRIAI, COLLEGE. and best
!
As violets greet Maytime, as stars greet
PART I.
the night;
As birds sing in chorus to welcome the
I. Welcome. light,
9. The sum of two numbers is twenty-four;
their difference is eight, what
are the numbers ?
10. Expand (a -f b) (a — b) (a= — b=) Which is the swee'.est of words you So with smiles and with music, sweet
' may hear ? greeting we call.
School News.
ThenewHemenway school building in
Wilmington, taking the place of the
one burned some time ago, has been
completed and handsomely furnished.
It was dedicated October 29. President
E. A. Alderman delivering an address.
There are now about 200 children in
the Asheville free Kindergarten. They
are taught by graduates of the Ashe-ville
Kindergarten training school and
the work is of the best character. These
Kindergartens were opened eight years
ago, and have ever since been an im-portant
part of Asheville's educational
equipment.
Supt. Mebane has sent a circular let-ter
to county boards of education ex-plaining
that the law demands super-visors
to visit the scho >ls while in ses-sion.
This is an important matter, and
it is to be hoped county boards and the
supervisors will follow the plain inten-tion
of the law.
Eastman, Georgia, is erecting afio,-
000 public school system. The schools
will open in January, '98. Teachers will
be elected in December.
The Winston Normal Institute has
received a donation of |3,ooo.
Wilmington has 170 pupils in its high
school, with five teachers.
Prof. Chas. L, Raper, of Greensboro
Female College, is writing a history of
the church and private schools of North
Carolina. The first instalment in the
September College Message is well
written and interesting, showing care-ful
study and giving promise of a valu-able
presentation of this subject.
It is a sad fact admitted in the intro
duction that "There are now almost as
many illiterate whites in this state as
in all the other of the original thirteen
put together."
We shall refer to this article again.
'Love" touc: es all hearts, and "Home" And welcome you gladly, dear friends,
is most dear; each and all.
*II. We Thank Thee.
Selected.
Sing rather slowly.
C. H. Congdon.
-4--3^i -N—^-
::^!5=1:
1. For flow'rs that bloom a - bout our feet; For ten - der grass, so
2. For moth - er - love and fath-er-care; For broth-ers strong and
—>, ;-
-• #-
-4 4-
fresh, so swett; For song of bird and
SIS ters fair, For love at home and
hum of bee; For
school each day; For
::tt: '¥^1
:1—ji
*-
all things fair we hear or see; For blue of stream and