Litchfield enquirer., 1881-06-02
The Teachers Institute.

Armory Hall on Thursday, Friday and Sat-
 urday. At the outset it had been supposed that perhaps an hundred teachers would need entertainment from householders in the vii l lage, but when the number rose to near three hundred, the Secretary of our local board and others having the matter in charge were at their wits end. and, as stage after stage ar-
 ived loaded with teachers, tore about in awful
 perplexity looking up places for their accom-
 modation. In fact it was not favorable season to call out Litchfield hospitality Most housekeepers were ip the closing agony oi the spring cleaning, many with carpets up, halls newly painted, and houses in confu. sion.
 The weather was fine, though rather warm. New stages were put on between the village and Naugatuck Station and came in loaded to their very trunk racks; people came driving in from every direction; till, at last, some two hundred were quartered in private houses and near an hundred more at the hotels. The Hall, from being but partially filled Thursday morning, was crowded on Friday and crammed or Friday night. Even till the close of the exercises on Saturday noon the was a full and an attentive audience.
 The object of these Institutes seems to be mainly that of arousing the interest of the common school teachers in their work, and of l giving them some idea of the methods of teaching favored at our Normal School The l day sessions were therefore devoted largely to thi peculiar methods taught at that school. the evening sessions being intended rather as entertainment after the labors of the day. The Rev. B. G. Northrop, Secretary of the State Board of Education. had general charge of the meetings, apportioning out the time for the various exercises with most provoking exactness and without the slightest regard to the natural human weakness which leads us to prefer that one thing should be ended be- fore another is begun. He seldom spoke at length himself, merely introducing others, but on Friday evening, Dr. Chamberlain hav- ing disappointed us he made some excellent remarks on the necessity of 8 good, erect po- sltion while studying, claiming that stoop- ing by scholars often leads to those lung complaints which are the scourge of New England He also referred to the wonder full improvement in Litchfeld schools under the union system which he considers greatly preferable to the old, district plsn-and paid a we'll merited compliment to the singing of the pupils of the Center School in charge of MT. E. A. White.
 Mr. Carleton, Principal of the Normal School, spoke on Friday afternoon and closed the institute on Saturday. He, like all the Normal school teachers, insists strongly on de- veloping the faculties of children gradually, and not piling knowledge beyond their capac- ity upon them. In short they. make it the teachers duty to assist the pupil to learn him. self rather than to cram him with half digest ed, or wholly undigested learning. The per- captive as we'll as the receptive faculties of children should be trained. Especial regard should be had to the individual qualities of pupils. Chasing intellect sensibility and will, as the three qualities needing special training, the pupil should be helped to ac- quire that which he needs most. If lacking in sensibility, for instance, the weaker faculty should be developed by emotional reading Like all the Normal school teachers, Mir. Carleton makes constant use of the black. board, and his sketch of Napoleon's character with medium sized for Intellect, a very small for Sensibity and an enormous " for will, aptly illustrated his idea as well as his method of blackboard explanation.
 Prof. Stockwell took the sape general view of the teachers art, dwelling particularly on the advantage of object teaching. Placing some object which he has himself previously studied in the hands of the pupil, he makes him first discover what he can for himself about it form, coler qualities. names and uses of it's various parts, &c. In this way the pupil learns to observe to reflect on what he has observed, and draw just conclusions regarding the object under observation. Under the old plan of teaching, the memory was over-taxed, perception and judgment left un- developed. Prof. Sawyer strongly urged the development of imagination as one of the most important of human faculties, and the apt use of language for the adequate expres- sion of the ideas suggested by observation, reflection, memory, or imagination. Under this plan, it is to be observed, the pupil is largely his own teacher, being guided, and 1 aided rather than dragged along the difficult road to Knowledge. On Thursday afternoon with a chance class of pupils from our Center School, Prof. Sawyer illustrated his theory of object teaching by assisting them to the analy- sis of flowers
 Perhaps the most instructive exercises of the Institute were those conducted by Miss c. E. Bush, of the Normal School It would be impossible for us to give her most elaborate ] classification of the facts concerning the earth We inhabit, attempted ts be taught in our common schools under the general head of Geography. This is to be found in the last l annual report of our State Board of Education. On Thursday afternoon Miss Bush explained her plan of map drawing She first checks of her map into squares with latltudinal and | longitudinal lines; the one set of lines mum. bered, the other lettered. On this she draws the ''contour' of the continent to be mapped, filling in rivers, mountain ranges, etc., the more important features first, details after ward. It looks quite easy as she does it, but puzzles the pupil who tries it for the first time, immensely. On Saturday morning Miss Bush gave vivid sketch of American history, particularly of the Revolutionary period, detailing among other events the trai- tor Arnold's barbarous raid upon the Con- necticut coast, just century ago this coming season.
 The most wonderful exhibition of the h. stitute was that of the class in charge of Miss NJ. J. Atwood, also of the Normal School, whose power of rapidly combining numbers by addition, subtraction, multiplication, ex-