# St. Nicholas/Volume 32/Number 3/Advertisements/Back/Merrill van Laer School

The St. Nicholas Advertising Supplement
The Merrill-van Laer School
Its Junior Department
There is a distinct advantage in beginning the education of a young child in an institution which is so complete that the pupil may carry on the work of her preparation for life under the same auspices. Few things are so detrimental in education as changing the child about, so as to bring her under the operation of opposing principles, It is hardly too much to say, Better a less
The Merill-Van Laer School of New York City provides in its departments a complete course of education, extending from the little one’s earliest days in the kindergarten to the end of school life. Beginning with the most elementary work of the kindergarten system, the child proceeds regularly, by easy stages, to a graduate course, and her progress throughout is directed by the application of the same well-founded principles.
An article in the advertising section of “The Century” for January, 1905, expresses fully, though necessarily in brief form, the principles upon which this School is conducted. Here it is designed to call attention more especially to its Junior Department for young children, the first advantage of which, as already stated, is that it prepares for the Senior Department, since both are inspired by the same methods and spirit.
With most thoughtful parents, the principals of the School believe that young children must be thoroughly drilled in the fundamentals of an English education, and that this is the primary requisite. While nature study and manual training receive their share of attention, they are kept subordinate to the more essential branches that must underlie every school course.
The Junior Department is under the immediate direction of Miss Pryde, a graduate of the Edinburgh Ladies College and the University of Edinburgh, A Kindergarten Class. the holder of a degree, also, from St. Andrews University, and formerly head mistress of the Bedford Park High School, London. To her English training have been added several years of successful teaching in America. Believing that laying the foundation for the child’s education in the earliest years is of supreme importance, the principals feel that no one could be better equipped for this work than the head of their Junior Department.
A visit to the School gives one certain well-defined impressions, The location, on a broad ​street near Central Park, Drawing from living model.is one well known for beauty and healthfulness. It is the choice residential section of New York. The buildings are in perfect condition—extensive, commodious, well lighted, and well ventilated.
There is discipline, but the spirit of the School is one of courteous thoughtfulness and harmony, securing the necessary good order without repression of natural childhood. Each branch of study is taught by the newest and most approved methods. Arithmetic, especially, so often a bugbear to the young, is from the first so taught as to give a complete grasp of the subject. The tiniest tots soon lose all fear of the intricacies of the multiplication-table, Main school-room, Junior Department. and in a very short time are able to play with it in a way delightful to themselves and their instructors. They learn it like little human beings, not like parrots, and can use it with readiness and accuracy. In fact, in this School the multiplication-table is a foe overcome and harnessed for daily service.
And what is asserted of the elements remains true as the pupil goes forward in the science of numbers. The digits become friendly little helpers, instead ef perplexing imps. In the study of In the Sub-primary Department. English, also, every child receives that best of training, daily usage of correct language, and is taught to make the written words as ready to her hand as words are to her tongue. Correct English is required in all school exercises, and soon becomes a habit. English spelling is admitted to be something that, in spite of Dogberry, does not come by nature. Miss Pryde, who teaches spelling throughout the Junior Department, uses an original method peculiar to the School, securing admirable results. This is not the place to set forth the method, but a visit to the School will enable it to be understood by actual ​demonstration. So far as there is reason In the spelling class. in English spelling, the child is taught to spell logically; so far as spelling is conventional, the child learns to remember it because of its departure from the usual rules.
In order to give the children, from their earliest years, such acquaintance with English literature as will lead to lifelong friendship with our great writers, all reading-lessons are chosen, not from “readers,” but from the standard books that are adapted to their ages. As the children grow the range of their reading widens, and thus, without especial effort, they acquire in connection with the school work a thorough and varied knowledge of the best that has been written in English. “Gilbert dancing” in the gymnasium.
There is another means of expressing thought that in importance stands second only to language. The Merrill-van Laer School looks upon drawing as a necessary equipment for the work of life, and children are taught to draw correctly from the beginning, and may develop the power as far as each pupil’s taste for the art permits. The work is under the direction of a professional painter, in a well-equipped studio where the young pupils have the advantage of the use of models and of all adjuncts to the art of drawing and painting, The importance of this side of a child’s education is fully recognized in the School, since drawing A recitation in arithmetic. is a regular part of the work, instead of a mere “extra,” being taught to the Junior pupils without additional charge.
Music can, of course, be especially studied, but it is not obligatory, except that the elements of music, in the form of sight-singing, are taught to the younger classes.
Although it has been said that nature study of late years has acquired perhaps undue prominence in the education of the very young, it is undeniable that it has its rightful place; and there is in the School such elementary work as will prepare the way for the special knowledge ​to be acquired later in the course, and will give the child a general understanding of the world about her. Familiar talks about plants, animals, and the outdoor world, and such laboratory work as lies within the comprehension of the youngest, are the methods mainly used.
Beginning of “Summer-work.”
The most characteristic feature of the classrooms in the Junior Department is the eager interest shown by each of the little pupils—an interest evidently inspired by the feeling that the pupil has a part to play in every happening of the school-room. One may see that each child accompanies mentally the recitation or work of every other in a spirit of sympathy and emulation. The sessions are, in a word, alive; and while there is no appearance of that driving pressure which results in a nervous strain on the part of both pupil and teacher, there is a continual progress and a steady achievement,
The little ones evidently enjoy their lessons; but it must be confessed that in order to appreciate to the full how welcome these school exercises are to the eager little minds and bodies, a visit to the gymnasium is necessary. Here, to the accompaniment of inspiring music, classes carry on gymnastic training in concert with a lively good humor that ts infectious, and give ocular proof that there is plenty of strength and vigor at command for the performance of their set tasks. Correct standing and breathing and an easy, erect carriage show there is no overdraft upon nervous force in the school work.
A most excellent preparation for any education, the Junior Department has been, as before noted, especially planned to lead to the wider and fuller training which, carried on by the Senior Department, presents in a graduate “ Merrill-van Laer girl” a type which is the best proof of the efficiency of the School.
The Junior Department is a proof that the youngest pupils most readily respond to newer methods of education, that a thorough revision and remaking of the system for teaching the young has resulted in unprecedented advance. Perhaps for this reason the principals and the head mistress of the Junior Department find in this branch of the School the most impressive exhibit to prove superiority of modern methods in education.
Parents are cordially invited to call, and become acquainted with the School's work; for the best proof of its value is obtained by witnessing its daily operation.