The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1876-06-16
The Kindergarten"

| AS SO much attention is directed to
| the Kindergarten" system of late,
perhaps the boys may take hint from
the following account in the Bulletin :
Barnes, the schoolmaster in subur-
| ban town, read in the Educational
| Monthly that boys could be taught his
| tory better than in any in any other
way by letting each boy in the class
| represent some historical character, as
| if he had done them himself. This
struck Barnes as mighty good idea,
| and he resolved to try it on. The
| school had then progressed so far in in
| its study of the History of Rome as
the Punic wars, and Mr.. Barnes i'm
mediately divided the boys into two
parties, one Roman and the other Car
| thaginian, and certain of the boys
were named after the leaders upon
| both slider. All the boys thought it
was big thing, and Barnes noticed
that they were so anxious to get to the
history lesson that they could hardly
say their other lessons properly.
When the time came Barnes ranged
| the Romans upon one side of the room
and the CarthaginianS on the other.
| The recitation was very spirited, each
party telling about it's deeds with eX-
traordinary JUNCTION. After a while
Barnes asked Romad to describe the
| battle of Canine WhereupOn the RO-
mans heaved their copies of '.Way-
land's Moral Science" at the enemy.
Then the Carthaginians made q bat
tering ram out of a bench and TANNED
| it among the Romans, who retaliated
with VOlley Of books, states and
| cheWed paper balls. Barnes cOnclud-
| ed that the battle of Canine had been
sufficiently illustrated, and he tried to
| stop 1t but the warriors considered it
too good thing to let drop, and accord
| ingly the CarthaginianS sailed over to
! the Romans with another battering
| ram and thumped a couple of them in
| the stomach.
Then the Romans turned in and the
fight became general. A Carthaginian
would grasp a Roman by the hair and
hustle him around over the desks in a
manner that was simply frightful to
behold and q Roman would give a
| fiendish Whoop and knock a Carthagin-
ian over the head with Greenleaf' S
Arithmetic. Hannibal got the head
of Scipio Africanus under his arm, and
Scipio, in his efforts to break away
stumbled, and the two generals fell and
| had a ough-and-tumble fight under
| the blackboard. Calus Gracious
tackeled Hamilcar with a ruler; and
the latter in his struggles to get loose,
| fell aginst the stove and knocked down
about thirty feet of stove-pipe.
| ThereupOn the Romans made a grand
| rally, and in five minutes they ran the
entire Carthaginian army out of the
SchOOlrOOm and Barnes along with it,
and then they locked the door and
| began to hunt up the apples and lunch
| in the desks of the enemy.
After consuming the supplies they
| went to the windows and made disa-
greeable remarks to the Carthaginians
who were standing in the yard, and
dared old Barnes to bring the foes once
| more into battle array. Then Barnes
went for policeman, and when he
| Knocked at the door it was opened, and
| all the Romans were found busy study
| ing their lessons. When Barnes came
in with the defeated troops he went
| for ScipiO Africanus, and pulling him
out Of his seat by the ear, he thrashed
that great military genius with a rat
an until Scipio began to cry, whereup-
on Barnes dropped him and began to
| paddle CaiuS Gracious. Then things
settled down in the old way, and the
next morning Barnes announced that
history in the future would be studied
as it always had been. and he wrote a
note to the Educational Monthly to say
that in his opinion the man who sug-
gested the new system ought to be led
out and shot. The boys do not now
take as much interest in Roman histo-
~ us they did on that day.