Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-06
Teaching the Young Ideas.

Washington SchOOl-EKhibitiOn by the
 Pupils of Room Three-The Quincy
 Method.
 An interesting event took place at the
 Washington graded school yesterday after
 noon. It was the second in 8 series of exhi-
 bitions in progress at this school, and was
 specially notable as further illustration of
 the trial of the famous Quincy method of in
 structing the young, inaugurated by the prin-
 cipal, MT. Burton. The exhibition was by
 the pupils of room No. 3, Miss l.. M. CatIin
 teacher, and was held in one of the regular
 school rooms on the main floor. Room is
 one of the basement rooms, the abundance of
 children of school age in this section requir-
 ing the use of the whole building, basement
 and all, all parts of the building being ia use
 and occupied by scholars except the coal bin.
 IA dim religious light" pervades the base ment, and not being a suitable place for the exhibition, it was held above. The room above was hardly large enough for the exhi- bition but the visitors sat huddled together in as close quarters as possible, so that there all ways seemed room for one more. Supsrin- tendent Parish and Rev. MT. Williams were present in the throng, and Principals Camp of the Dwight school, Pitman of the Woolsey, Dutton of Eaton and Graves of Skinner ar- ranged matters at their respective schools so as to attend, being present during part of the occasion. The scholars were exercised in addition. Columns of figures, from to 6 ! tiers deep, were nimbly arranged upon the ! blackboard, and the young folks rushed to the i attack with absolute eagerness. While some foII I,xyf fbox in fho fho l were carried by assault correctly and the com- | binations were fresh and new. This part of | the programme reflected due credit upon the | school A reading lesson followed, the object being to produce reflection to arouse the thinking faculties. The meaning of words was called for, and hands constantly went up for privilege to reply, the children evincing as | much interest as if over 15 puzzle. In this very satisfactory work was done. In one in ! stance the children seemed foored. That was | in response to the interrogatory as to what was peculiar about fox's tail. One little girl or boy. we forget which, came to the rescue, when the question was simplided as to what
 was funny about 8 fox's tail, and the school emerged from the bushes simultaneously, all discerning that a fox's tail was bushy. The lady in charge now took the children into a
 mental contemplation ss to the uses of char
 coal and it's comparative hardness with hard coal, and took them also 'tdown in coal
 mine" in the same fashion. The children's | eyes sparkled, and some of them had coal
 black eyes, as the lesson kindled their inter est Another feature of the exercises was writing upon the states 8 sentence, the teach CT simultaneously writing the sentence incor- \ rectly upon the board and calling upon the ! pupils to rectify the mistakes. This also was | a helpful process. Other exercises followed, | including recitations and singing of little Following, Principal Burton lucidly explained | the object and plan of the afternoons exhi- | bition, and complimentary remarks were made by Principals Putnam and Dutton. MT. Parish commended the Quincy system as il- Iustrated at Washington school, and hoped the new departure in instructing the young would
 become general in all our schools, and spoke | of unfortunate Chinese children whose hard ! lot it is to read words and words without ref erence to their meaning, trusting in Provi- | dence and 8 natural talent for mastering their | meaning in the sweet by and by. He hoped | for the general widespread adoption of this ! method for the young in our schools as 8 | means of decided benefit to the rising genera
 ton in New Haven. The pupils sang song, the programme calling for one in closing, and
 one visitor requesting that 1t be not over- looked.