Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-26

height to render it we'll proportional.
In this school I found satisfying evidence.
of its progress, mentally and morally. undel
Mr.. Roberts. A little more severity in hii
government might be, perhaps, productive
of a little better order, among the little
fellows under his charge, a shortcoming,
however. easily lost sight Of, in view o fthe
teachers ability and fitness for his position.
In the several reading classes examined
I observed a careful attention given to the
principles of infection. punctuation and
articulation. His spelling and dictation
classes, if not far advanced, are at least pro.
gressive and we'll disciplined.
He examined his geography class on the
topography of Kansas and Missouri, the
lesson for that day, first combining his class
to the r~ecitals Of the textbook, after.
wards, supplementing the lesson with obser-
vations drawn from the logic of its sur
roundings.
The penmauship Of his pupils ranges
from good to poor. His arithmetic class l
found we'll advanced in analysis and at
work in percentage. His system of instruc-
ton in this branch is largely oral. He first
leads his pupils through an oral analysis of
each problem in the days set task that ap-
pears to invite his attention. and then leaves
them, alike to share the profit of their at
tention and the labor Of its solution.
His plan naturally tends to quicken their
observation. 1 am, perhaps, too favorably
predieposed in favor of oral instruction, in
any and all of the studies pursued in our
common schools, and, yet, the whole of
what success has attended myself as q
teacher I v entirely to this-that, as far
as the study permitted, l never made use of
a book. The success of the teachers work
consists more in the effective play Of his
intellect upon the faculties of his pupil than
in the mere mechanical transmission OF
another's thought through the machinery OF
the text book. A tale we'll read by the
teacher is better if we'll told, and a lesson,
we'll recited, less lasting than we'll learned,
The pupil should feel his teachers ~intellec.
tual power, for / doubt if even the unfold.
ing flower, harmonizing every color in the
sun which it is capable q rejecting, unless
in its own way it felt the influence of the
ray, would ever rear its head above the
level of the hot-bed.
That afternoon l visited the school in
DISTRICT NUMBER THREE,
taught by Miss Ella Morgan, This distric,
comprises an area Of about seven and one.
half square miles lying east of the east line
of district No. 2. According to last returns,
received from the clerk of this district, it
numbers rs children eligible for school ad-
vantages. OF this number l found fifteen
enrolled as pupils, twelve being present in
school, all young, yet with a record credit
able for the regularity of their attendance.
This school-house is a credit to the dis
trict. 1t has been but recently erected, is of
brick, large, c%ommodious, we'll lighted,
plastered, warm, and yet susceptible by its
internal and external arrangements to ven.
tilation and the correction of temperature.
1t cost the district $500.
In the experience of this, her first school,
Miss Morgan gives promise of rare success.
System in her work is clearly observable, in
the classification of her pupils, and the force
of her discipline plainly seen in their close
application to study. In the fourth and fifth
classes the reading is, at least, of average
worth. In the grades below the children
are all young, yet every class in this branch
is improving. Her spelling classes are re
CURED to give, with the spelling lesson, the
definition Of the words embraced by it, a
necessity overlooked by far too many of our
schools. In geography the class is primary.
In arithmetic her classes reach from mental
addition to multiplication Of fractions, in
the operations of which chalk and the ex-
cellent blackboard in this achool, 1 am hap
py TO say, play a prominent part. Penman-
chip is prscticed,orsits study pursued by all,
the work ranging from the product Of the
practiced hand to the h~ieroglyphic ga" of
the young beginner.
Taken all in all, the entire schooltime is
we'll occupied, the teacher patient and per.
severing, her work exact and calculated 10
exact as much from her pupils as their
youth and her tine will permit.
On the 18th inst. l visited the school
taught by B. A. E. Bagstadt in
D1sTR1cr NuxBER FORTY,
situated about twelve miles
northeast from the city. The
school house here is a new frame clap
boarded structure, about equal in size to the
one in No. 2. The people here are all, with
one or W. exceptions, foreign born, being
Russian or Scandinavian. Their school
house is a monument to their zeal in the
the cause Of education. 1t is warm, we'll
lighted, neat, ia we'll adapted bv its appli.