The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1873-02-27
EDUCATIONAL.
Teachers Institutes in General
and the one At Wesley Chapel in
Particular.

M. Notwithstanding you to be
a friend OF education. we though,
perhaps it would not be trcspassing
too much upon the columns Of your
valuable paper to say a few word.
upon the subject Of Teachers Insti
tuUes. we has. I.oid.d Ia C~I..
county some nine years, and if oul
memory serves us right, there ha.
never been q County Superintendent
of public instruction who seemed te
take the interest in the course Of ed
ucation that the present incumbent
Mr.. Rollins, does. He seems to take
hold Of the duties of the Office with a
vim that is being felt and appreciated
l am fully persuaded that the local
institutes, or Teachers Conventions,
held in the different parts of the
county, are doing vast amount OF
good. But l am of the impression
that there is one thing lacking, which
deficiency we propose to remedy some
what in this brief article. We read
from time to time in the papers. the
Secretaries reports of the different
local institutes held in various parts
of the county, which inform us merely
that the programme was carried out,
without giving us any idea Of the re-
suit or conclusions arrived at by the
deliberations and discussions. We
propose to give some of the conclu-
sions and results of the convention
jns! closed which was held at the
Chapel, which is located
near the northern line of Pennington
ownship.
Friday evening the citizens were
entertained by the highly interesting
ecture delivered by the Hon. w. P.
Wolf, of Upton, in which he stated
hat it was not so necessary to teach
he science of physical culture in the
ountry schools as in village and city
chools. from the fact that the occu-
,ation of the pupils necessarily gave
hem the muscular development re-
Iuired.
An essay was read by Prof. Harris,
of Wilton. Subjeot-A Genius.
Feb. 15th.-The subject of geog-
raphy was introduced by Mr.. Yer
of Durant. lie stated that
he required his pupils to draw the
maps upon paper which he furnished
item at his own expense. He thought
this the best method of teaching pe-
ography. lie exhibited quite mum
Der Of sheets of paper on which were
specimens OF map drawing done by
some of his pupils which were GER
talnly very well executed. Mr.. Rol-
Inns concurred with Mr.. Vermillion.
but thought majority of the teach.
ers did not understand map drawing
themselves. hence could not teach
they knew nothing about.
Others thought the method was not
practiced in district schools.
Mr.. Beale discarded text books
'ntirely and required his pupils to
write essays on the different geog-
aphical topics.
The subject Of Arithmetic was then
by Mr.. Willets. His
method of teaching the science was
'cry practical. Mr.. Harris then ex-
blamed his rule for computing inter.
,st, namely: first find the interest at
he given rate per cent. for one year
md then reduce all time TO the frac
ional part Of a year. Mr.. Rollins
avored six per cent. rule: Obtain
The interest on the given amount for
the given amount for the given time
at six per cent, divide this by six
which gives one per cent. which null
tiplied by the given rate per cent.
will give the required amount.
p. M-Primary teaching was then
introduced by Mrs. Vermiilion. She
does not use the alphabet but teaches
the word method entirely, for which
purpose she has word chart. Many
OF the teachers did not favor the word
method.
Spelling was then brought up by
Mr.. vermiilion, who gave his method.
which consists in requiring his pupils
to write the words upon states, &c.
Others liked the old method bes,
Mr.. Rollins favored the method of
writing the lessons.