The Potter journal and news item. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1872-1874, 1873-07-09

or bench-upon the blackboard, or
rather, the teacher makes it, obediently
to their instructions, This map is then
to be transferred from blackboard to
slate. 1t was easy enough to measure
the table by a string and order line of
that length to be measured and drawn
on the board; but it is different thing
to transfer that line to their states and
thus learn at once the significance OF
the ''scale . This done at last, though,
a map OF the school-room is made; then
one of the way to school with the streets
and.paths diverging from it. From this
arises the necessity of knowing the points
of the cOmpass-nothing being taught
till its need is felt-and the instruction
is given in a calisthenic exercise III
which the children are formed in hol-
low square, facing outward, and the
sides of the square are marched to their
respective points till they are under
stood and remembered, upon which
their application to the map on the
board is mere play. When sufficient
elementary knowledge has thus been
acquired intelligence is called more pos
itively into play and the children are
| told, for instance, as one way Of doing
this, that they may colonize an island.
! 4 rough sketch, a sort of land in the
distance, being made on the board every
point in the shape of the island is left
to be arranged by the children, who are
! to give reasons for their decisions.
| Some would have it a smooth plain,
such as hoop could be trundled on all
day; some are for mountains and ad-
/ ventures. Mountains carry the day
and determine the nature of the shores.
| The reason assigned for the choice Of
mountains is that they are places for
mines; iron and copper, if not silver
and gold, will be wanted i'll the colony
| mines will afford them; pasturage
will be wanted for cattle, too-the
mountain-sides will give it; rain will
| be Wanted-the mOuntain-tOpS arrest
the slouds and produce it; lastly, as the
! teacher suggests, rivers will be wanted.
! Shall the rivers flow from the sea into
! the mountains? Criticism is invited.
Whoever heard of water running up
| hill? The teacher draws river, start
| ing nowhere in particular and going
anywhere in general, and requires the
pupils to say why it is not right till they
see that nature does nothing at hap-haz-
ard; the rivers, as well as other things,
always run from some cause to some
end, so that in this island they must
rise among the hills in the springs that
the rains and vapors make and swell,
and then flow downward to their outlet
where they feed the sea. And here, if
the teacher is able, DEPRESSION explains
the dead IiYers of California and the
rivers lost upon the desert. But why
do they want rivers at all on the island?
For roads, one says; for fishing, says
another; to drain the lands; to water
them; to turn wheels; to carry mer
chandise. AS voice after voice resounds
ZeSt springs up till the scene is as
eager, if not as clamorOus, as the Gold
Room. And what kind of rivers is
wanted for these things, is then asked.
For carrying merchandise let us say,
stream full of eddies and rapids that a
vessel must skirt and struggle with, or
deep and quiet one that upbuoys the
vessel which the wind carries along?
And for turning wheels shall it be a
slow and sluggish current or a swift
one full of falls? All these things hav-
ing been settled, the map of the island
drawn in a satisfactory manner and the
colony being supposed to be on the way
to it, the teacher asks if it is desirable
to plant the colony III the interior OF on
the sea-shOre; and the subject being
well weighed and the opposing reasons
given it is resolved to have it OH the sea-
shore on account of the unexplored and
uncleared nature of the interior, and
from considerations Of safety and of
accessibility-all of which the children
appreciate quite as much as they would
the exploits of Hans or the escapes of
Gretchen in their stOry-bOOks. In this
method the colony being established,
so far as its geographical condition is
concerned, it is proposed to send off a
second colony to point farther in the
interior. Shall they strike out at a
venture? Follow the river, cries one.
Follow the river, by all means, and
have your way open behind you. But
how far? to the source? to the falls?
To the falls. There they are: to move
machinery, to saw lumber, to grind
corn; ships can go no farther; the tide
rises no farther. The falls, then, are
at the head of tide-water. And thus
the imagination is kindled, the intellect
is used and fact and a series of facts
are made alive with meaning-facts
which never had any meaning at all
before.
Sometimes this kind of exercise alter
mates with one which affords as much
pleasure as the old game of ''Dr. Bus
by" This is game played with cards.
evenly distributed, and on the back of
each Of which is written the name of a
town or city and on the face, in double
rows, a statement of the usual imports