American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-06-14

BY JAMES RICHARDSON.


who read the Christian Union, especially
those whose plans for the spring campaign
do not take into account the outside mtlu
ences of reviving life and activity, save
perhaps, as disturbing elements likely to
draw the children's minds away from then
books, and their feet into paths not leading
schOol-ward.
AS winter gives place to spring, the
weather will grow warmer and the sun
shine more inviting, whether the schools
suffer for it or not The charms ofawaken.
ing nature-the springing grass, trees in
blossom, nesting birds, the endless de-
lights of the open air and spring time
sports-will eclipse the doubtful charms
of spelling books and grammars; and in
spite of all the teacher can say to the con-
trary, while the confinement of the school
room must inevitably grow more and more
= irksome as the season advances. What is
there in the school half so inviting as the
little torrent that pouPs through the hol-
low from the melting snow-banks on the
hill, live little river with uneQualed adj
vantages for miniature water-works? Or
as the sheltered nook on the sunny side of
the hill for the more domestic plays of the
girlss
The question in order for teachers to
consider just now is, What are you going
to do?
Will you renew the annual war with
these seductive distractions and attempt
to carry on your school work in downright
opposition to them?
Or will you adopt them as allies, con-
vert them into school attractions, and
make them help you in the work of de-
veloping and educating the children's fac
ulties of sense and intellect.
That some teachers have so far freed
themselves from the trammels of tradition
and text book routine as to choose the lat
ter course, we are well aware; but we re-
gret to think that their number is extreme
" small 1t would take, we fear, a very
wide search to find a dozen schools in
which the season could be inferred from
the nature of their work, schools which
make any endeavor to adapt their exer-
cises to what is going on outside the
schoolroom.
Is your school one of the dozene Have
you ever tried to enlist the forces and in
f1uences of nature, or the playful tenden-
cies of your pupils, to aid them in their
conquest Of knowledge? Or do you SIM
ply pled along in the traditional round of
book teaching, regardless of wind and
weather, and Indifferent to the unceasing
calls which the outer world is making on
the attention of your pupils?
ESQ, pray stop moment and consider
the impoiicy of your course. You are not
merely opposing the drift of nature empty
handed, but you are depriving yourself of
the assistance of what might be your most
helpful allies, and your pupils of the ben
eft of some of the most efficient means of
culture.
What is the purpose of the education
you are seeking to give? Certainly not
the mere mastery of any line of xt-books.
When made-as they too frequently are
are hindrance rather than a help to edu-
cation. The real end is the development
of individual power and skill and inteli-
gence, and the best means for any stage of
this development are the objects and ac-
tivities which appeal most forcibly and
closely to the proper tastes and appetites
of the subject of cultivation. The mud
dam which the boy is interested in may
be far more serviceable in educating him
than the most important of studies which
he is not interested in; and the true. test
of a good teacher is the ability to use these
outside interests in the furthering of the
specific purposes of the school.
How?
The spirit alone can be indicated; the
method of enlisting all things into the SER
vice of the school must depend on the
conditions of each particular case, viewed
with reference to the threefold aim of
schooling, primarily, the awakening of
sympathy between teacher and taught;
mainly, the cultivation of habits of critical
observation and Independent thinking;
incidentally, the acquisition of knowledge.
Mention has been made of mud-dams.
No teacher in the country need be told
how absorbing such limitations of mems
work are to boys. Wherever water flows
in manageable quantity, boys take to dam
building in spring as instinctively as
beavers. In the intensity of their enjoy
ment they forget their lessons, wet their
feet and soil their clothes continually, and
usually get more seedlings than compli-
ments for their achievements.
What splendid opportunities for cult
waiting sympathy between teachers and
taught are thus thrown away! What un-
equalled occasion for giving instruction!
Instead of treating the boys labors with
indifference, or worse, opposing them as
obstructives to education, suppose this
year you make them the occasion of an
unexpected talk or two about dams and
water powers; and if possible add little
practical instruction in regard to the mat
ter, by aiding the boys to design and build
miniature structures, in imitation of the
different sorts of dams made by men. By
so doing you will not only help them with
their sports, and thus gain an influence
over them not otherwise to be attained,
but you will help to furnish them with
useful Information and practical skill that
may prove Immensely valuable to them at
some critical period in their after lives.
So, too, with the attendant water-wheels.
By-and-by you will be trying to teach
them, from some work on natural philoso-
ply, the nature of water-power, and the
simpler means of making use of it. How
much more successful you might be now
when they are keenly interested in the
subject. With a jack-knife and few
shingles you can easily make in an after
noon a set of small models of the different
sorts of understood, overshot, breast-wheels,
and so on; then set the more intelligent
boys to making larger ones and putting
them to work under appropriate cOndi-
tions. 1t won't be long before the smallest
boy in your school has an intelligent COM
prehension of all of them-a better idea
than you could give with any amount of
textbook teaching. Be assured that in
struction of this sort will not be wasted,
and that the sympathy awakened between
you and your pupils will not tend to make
them less attentive-to your teaching in
other matters.
These are merely hints of a hundred
different means that might be adopted for
making the usual distractions of school
life not only subjects for instruction. but
binding teachers and pupils together in
A Theory for the Distant Future.
THE time is coming when there will be
no more shipwrecks, when ocean steamers
will not sink or disappear, and when
coasters need no longer fear the dread lee