The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-12-28
Mother Goose and the Schools.

1 have read with considerable interest your
article on Mother Goose While I heartily
subscribe to all the praise you lavish upon the
nursery classic, must be permitted to say
that your remarks are too general to do much
good. You commend in general terms the
study of nursery rhymes to all. That is noi
enough. Those adults to whom they are IN.
familiar are beyond learning. We must begin
with the children IL we would train up a gen.
Grafton to know Goose. In short, the study ol
the lyrics of Mrs. Goose must be made com.
pulsory in our schools, for children will never
learn them until they are compelled to. The1
too by the Introduction of this book into oul
educational institutions, the multiplicity o.
textbooks will be done away with, for, as you
suggest, the wisdom of the world is comprised
within its covers. 1 trust our School Committee
always SO ready to test new methods and trJ
new books, will consider this. L affirm thai
any competent teacher can take this collection
of nursery rhymes, and instruct classes by its
aid in all the wide range of human learning.
Permit me to give few illustrations in sup
port of my method of teaching with the new
textbook Suppose the subject of the lesson
ballad which begins thus:
There was an old woman tossed in a blanket,
Nineteen times as high as the moon."
This would direct the pupils attention to the
distance of the moon from the earth, and thi:
once learned he could very easily be induced tt
compute the suns distance or even that of thu
nearest fixed star. The instructor would o.
course inform him that the distance the ole
woman is said to have gone up is exaggerated
as from the nature of things it is impossible tC
go so far from the earth's surface, and here
would be splendid opportunity to touch upor
the theory of gravitation. and in that connec
ton to give an account of Nswton's life and
works. 1t would also suggest witch-craft, blank
et-tossing being a common punishment for thai
crime; witch.craft would suggest fairy-lore
and fary-lore mythology, and as one branch o.
mythology is star worship we should be brought
back to astronomy again. Thus this method
OF mine may not unaptly, opine, be called the
correlation of the sciences. To give another il
lustration drawn from the moon-myth:
"The COW jumped over the MOON" etc.,
the teacher might pass over the improbabilty
of this saltatory exploit, merely suggesting t.
the class that it was probably an extinct breed,
no modern cows being capable of such leaps
then by natural transition he would pass tt
the consideration of paleontology. Returning
to the study from the life, as the artists say, he
would treat of the value of the COW to pastora
nations. Naturally he would mention the higf
honors paid in India to the beast, and thi,
would lead to consideration of her place il
history Dd ylnv Tn " aots . n.
cow-headed Here idols found BY Schliemann a
MyceDe would of course be mentioned, ant
then, easily enough, the attention of the clas
could be turned to an analysis of the Homerit
myths.
To further illustrate:
''Five thousand ships and fifty thousand men
Sailed round the earth and back again,
But never found the end on't.'
In addition to the geographical lesson taugh
this would naturally bring up the subject O.
navigation, and navigation would necessitatt
trigonometry and thus create taste for mathe
matical stndies which would be of incalculablt
beuefit to the student. If history be the brancl
pursued, and the Jewish theocraey be unde
consideration the principal agents in its estab
lishment may be introduced in the followins
liues:
'Said Aaron to Moses
Let's cut off our noses;
Said Moses to Aaron
IT'S the fashion to wear 'em.'
Thus showing the influence of fashion even il
those early days aud furnishing fine text fo
lecture on its foles. In English history thu
following:
"When Arthur first at Court began
To wear long hanging sleeves,
He entertained three serving men,
And all of them were thieves"
would serve to show the Importance attached
to dress, the introduction of hanging sleeves
serving to mark historical epoch. In th
connection the ''Sartor Resartus'' of Carlyle
could be read with profit by the student.
But enough. believe have proved m,
point. The beauty of this system is its adap
liability to all subjects, simple or abstruse, an(
to all minds and all ages. Thus, Suppose WI
were teaching child the days of the week ant
their order, what better than this to impress
upon his memory?
'As Sally Snooks and Betsy Brooks
Were walking out one Sunday,
Says Sally Snooks to Betsy Brooks,
Tomorrow will be Monday"
Or il an advanced student were iDquiring int
the nature of diseases and the remedy therefor
and if the immediate subject under considera
tion were the stimulating properties of alcohol
he might impress this fact upon his mind b
continually repeating the following:
''Wife, bring brandy in spoon;
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do;
For our old SOW is in a swoon;
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do.''
am aware that my method has been in
measure anticipated by our educators and il
textbooks, particularly as regards the hast
with which the pupils are pushed from on
| subject to another. Bat they neglect to tax
the final step and marry immortal music to i'm
mortal thought, thus doing away with the pro
| sness of the present systems of instruction
| This step I now invite them to take.
GosLING.
cincinnati Enquirerl
SanscripPS Rice.