The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-01-08
Quincy Ways Of Teaching.
Children Learning How to do Things by doing
them By Beginning to be Right one is New
err Wrong Away with the Spelling Book
Col. Parker Would Burn it..


An interesting meeting Of the Teachers
Association of Queens county-the annua
| Teachers Institute was held yesterday in the
| II 5h school at Flushing, the meeting being
divided into three sessions at all of which 4
good deal CT attention WAS given To the Illus
tratlon and CNpmnlllpn of the Quincy system
of teaching, whlch has recently been put INTO
practice in the schools Of the county. At {
O'Clock, when the first session WAS held, Com
missioner Charles + Suydam and the teach
ers having met IN the High school hall, ad
ljOurned to the primary school, to observe the
workings Of the Quincy system rs practlced
! IN the class of Miss Charlotte VI. Frost For
! three hours the children of the class were en-.
/ gagged in carrying out long and very inter
estng programme, in the course OF which
most of the features of the Quincy system, as
applied to primary schools, were made known
/ The system was only introduced into tins
| school on September |, but the pupils in the
different Rotations showed that they had i'm
proved rapdly-that those naturally bright
| had developed wonderfully, while those who
would have fallen behind under the old sys
tenn had been stimulated and encouraged by
the comparative ease with which ideas were
presented to them on the principle embraced
/ in the Quincy method. \ recess was taken at
noon and at 3 o'clock the institute assembled
! in the High school The attendance was lar.
ger than 1t has been at similar meetings Tor
years, teachers coming from every district IN
! the county to hear the discussions that were
promised Mr. Charles +. Suydam called the
meeting 10 order, and President Downing OF
the board Of education made n vigorous adj
dress on the necessity OF widc-awake earnest
! ness in teachers.
Col Francis w Parker of Boston, an educa.
la.
programme He gave practical exposition
of the Quincy system, in which he showed
how he would impart knowledge Of language
and afterwards give general course of in.
struction. Primary work, he said, should be
well done. 1t was seldom that grammar.
schoo! teachers received classes well prepared
for that grade. The purpose of schooling, he
said, was to develop the mind. Sometimes
teachers made an effort to teach words only,
which he thought was a mistake; children
should be taught to think for only by thought
could the mind of the pupil be developed. We
learn to do thing 10y doing lt-doing 1t un'
der careful criticism and direction, dong 1t
better every time until 1t is done well. The
first years work should be to prepare the
child for the work of composition The year
should be spent in acquiring the forms OF
words, so that the child would not be com,
PEELED to struggle with them afterward. Par.
tcular attention should be gwen to the use Of
words The method he recommended was 10
write familiar words on the blackboard until
they could be written rapidly and correctly by
the pupil. There was no necessity for their
making mistakes if thoroughly trained in the
beginning. Prof Parker gave illustrations on
the blackboard of his manner of work. one
was writing a small word and then causing
the pupils to trace it with their fingers in the
air. Progress should be so slowly and pa.
tently made that the child would never imag-
inc that he was doing "A difficult thing From
the start child should never be allowed to do
a thing wrong. As we learn to do thing by
doing It, a'chlld could only be taught to do Il
thing correctly by never being allowed to do
it wrong Care should enter INTO this work,
and praise should be judiCiouSly bestowed.
Bad spelling was a product of the schools.
| The teacher should never receive any careless
work, and should ever enforce the necessity OF
care. Everything child does should be in.
spected and marked. There was no use of a
pupil doing work if the teacher did not see it,
Teachers were sometimes careless themselves,
which he thought an ineXcusabc fault. There
should be no oral spelling during The first
year, and absolute correctness in copying
should be enforced. A sklllful teacher could
thus lead the pupil to absolute accuracy. He
the value of this rule. There was only one
right form for a word, and If one or more
wrong forms were used by the child, they
would be reproduced in after lite in the most
unexpected manner and time. Further, Col.
Parker never allowed n child to see word
incorrectly written. He never asked child,
us THIS correct? 2" 1t should be allowed to see
no incorrect words. People only learned to
speak correctly by hearing the language spok'
en- correctly. No one, he contended, ever
learned to avoid faults of expression by hav'
ing incorrect language given them to translate
into correct language. Children should also
be trained to know when they were wrong
They should be taught to be certain about
everything they had learned.
During the second years work children
should be taught by causing them to write up.
on slate all the words they knew. If they
had been thoroughly trained the first year they
would never make mistake. Then these
words should be combined into sentences,
which might be written upon the blackboard
and copied. Afterwards these sentences might
be erased and written again from memory
The speaker gave some illustrations of his
method of teaching children to form sentences
in the school-room. AS an instance, he would
take his seat IN chair, then call upon the pu
pills to tell what he had done with the pencil
Or he would walk to the window and open II
with the children watching him. Then he
would call upon them to tell what he had
done correctly. These sentences should be be
gun with a capital letter and ended with pc
Rod every time. When child wanted new
word, the mind should be first aroused 10 the
necessity for it, Then the word should be
written on the blackboard. 1t was wonderful
to all how readily and how permanently words
might be acquired in this way. He condemn
cd the spelhngbook as "a wicked thing" BY
his own method child could be taught &c
spell almost every word correctly IN three
years, but he challenged any one to produce Q
similar instance of success by the spelling
book method. All good things were of SLOW
growth, and usually the sowest growth wa:
In bn tppu rup nhiact lpSspp,