Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-04-02

one sort of study helps another in ways
which only those who have Uled can COLI
ceive There is another thing. Every
| wise parent is on the watch with the
| children to see how their minds grow,
and what they seem likely to be hit for
when they grow up; and nothing helps
! them so much in forming an opinion as
what comes out in what the children do
to teach themselves. In some things any
particular cleverness a child may have
| is almost sure to come out easily-for IN
stance, if it can draw well, or sing well,
! or invent machinery. But in some other
things children will keep much alike for
a number of years, learning the same les
sons, and one being about as clever as the
! other, so far as we can iudge-at71less they
do something for themselves Then we be-
| gin to know more about them; for, OF
| course, they pick out, as we all do, the
things they like best and can do most
| easily.
Let US take such simple matters as read
| ing, writing and spelling, and we will
suppose that you are very young indeed.
| 1t will be Of use to you as long as you
| 1--we, and it will actually make your les
sons much easier, if you will only take OF
your own free will little trouble IN ad-
dition to that of learning the lessons that
are set you. Suppose now you take some
book of poetry and learn verse or two
by heart, just what pleases you. Then
shut the book and put it away, and write
out as well as you can from memory what
you have been learning by heart. Then
go to the book again and compare your
writing with the print. You will see
what mistakes you have made, if any, in
spelling or in putting in stops. To tell
you the truth you ought not to make any
mistakes in copying, but it is pretty GER
tain you will; and you are sure to make
some at first when you write out from
memory. Next time take a sentence or
two in prose out of book of history or
geography, or out of a story book, and so
on. You will pick up knowledge faster
than you know; you will do something
every time you try toward making your
self more clever; and your usual lessons
in reading, writing and spelling will come
all the easier to you.
A good plan is to keep g diary, In
which you put down how you have
passed the day. This is exercise in
writing, spelling and composition, and
you will find it very amusing indeed
When you ask some boys whether they
can do certain things, they will make
some such answer as, "No, l have not
been taught yet; have not got as far as
that" But you may depend upon it that
no boy ever learned much who did not
sometimes go faster than his lessons.
Take geography. How very, Uery stupid
it sounds to hear a healthy, lively boy,
who is learning geography, say he has
never been taught to make maps; or, per-
haps, that he can't make a map just to
show the different divisions of the world
hananCp a hoe of
passes. Why, a common dinner-plate
will do beautifully to begin with. Get
plate as near the size of your maps as
you can, and make your first round
with a pencil-you can ink it after
ward. Then draw one line across
the middle for the equator, and
| another across the middle the other
way for the central meridian of longitude
You can easily fix the middle, and in fact
measure all distances, by piece of paper
marked with a pencil. Now measure off
with your piece of paper the degrees of
latitude by tens, as you find them on the
map you are copying from. You will
not be able to draw these lines exactly
across the circle without the help of
| pair OF compasses, but you can come very
near if you take pains. Then draw the
| two tropics, and the north and south polar
4
After this you will find it easier to draw
the inner rim of the great circle q am
| supposing you have no plate that fits), be-
| cause the parallels of latitude will help
| you. When once you have made the
lines OF latitude and longitude, and fig
urea the degrees round the margin, there
will be no difficulty whatever in making
your map correct. And when you have
done 1T, you will have learnt more geog-
raphy than many people who have spent
years at school carry in their heads all
their lives long.
will now suppose that am speaking
to boys and girls who have got some way
on in arithmetic. Let me assure you that
you will find your lessons much more in
teresting if you sometimes, of your own
accord, go out of the rule you are in and
try to do things that are more advanced.
1t is rather tedious to do % tons Is cwt. 9
qrs. lbs. at 81 9s. 32fd. per ton. Suppose
you go little way ahead and look into an
easy book on algebra 6 If A can do
piece OF work in nine days and B could
do 1t IN twelve days, how long would-they
be in doing it together" That is a much
more interesting question; and when you
have managed to find out how to answer
II you have done yourself great deal of
good and gone some way toward making
your other work easier.
Young people not so far advanced as to
do sums of this kind may yet help on
their own education as well as that of
their younger brothers and sisters, if they
have these, by giving them easy lessons in
arithmetic mean now and then, almost
as an amusement, and not in a stiff, formal
way.-Good Things.