Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1881-12-03
THE TEACHERS INSTITUTE.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLEM-
ICAL PEDAGOGUES,
GRAMMAR TAUGHT BY Elk
AMPLE.
THE vexATloUs TsETER BOARD.

Fridsy, November 25th There was
a gathering of pedagogues from
far and near, and large and attent-
i've audience assembled to watch the
proceedings, and learn how the young
idea is taught to shoot and spout.
The proceedings were opened by the
County Superintendent, who an.
nounced the object of the meeting,
requesting attention and good order.
A song by Miss Dollie Randall was
| first on the order of exerci ses, and
was received with we'll merited ap
plause. After the song it was sug
gested that the election of a Secreta-
~ was in order. and then arose an
unanimous uncertainty as to the
proper manner of election A prof.
lessor from Virginia was finally
nominated, and general silence Civ
ing consent, was declared elected.
An essay on grammar, and how to
teach 1t, was read by Miss Ida Roths.
childs. The theory advanced by the
esssyist is that precept and example
are beth necessary 10 teaching chill
dren to speak properly, but, that
example is by far the more important.
After ennumerating many incorrect
expressions in common use, in and
out of school, she strongly recon-
mended that they should be corrected
by example; snd that while the i'm
portance of knowledge Of the rules
of grammar should not be ignored,
greater attention should be given to
practice than theory. In the discus
sion which followd, Prof. Van Wsg-
enen said he generally agreed with
tie essayist, and recommended that
attention should be given to gram
mar during all recitations, and at
any time when scholar should
make use of an ungrammatical ex-
preston. Some other teachers spoke
on the subject, but they all agreed
on the main point, that grammar is
taught better by example than pre-
cept, and that strict attention should
be paid to the ordinary conversation
OF pupils. A remarkable feature of
this discussion, in which all the
speakers were on the same side Of
the question, was that they displayed
a sublime indifference to the uuitles
of the occasion. They made frequent
use of the most unreliable syntax in
the presence of large number of
school children, who were listening
in open eyed establishment. Their
reckless disregard of the rights of
adverbs and pronouns was only
equsled by the ruthless manner in
which they disrupted the harmony
heretofore existing between verb
and its 6ject on questions of number
aud person: And the utter contempt
shown for their own opinions while
advocating in ungrammatical Ian
gusge, the force and benefit of gram
NAUTICAL example vas truly grand
in 1t, audacity.
After the farce Miss Maggie Holmes
read the short poem, Little Jim"
in excellent voice and accent,
aud with such feeling that the audi
ence was mute during the recital Of
the pathetic story.
Miss Minnie Leslie was then called
upon to illustrate her method of
teaching children to read. She cho5 ,
q class from the ranks of the teachers
and professors, ct will be observed
by tho careful reader that there are
teachers and there are professors ;
teachers teach, and professors pro-
fess.) and explained how he taught
the little ones to recognize objects
rapidly, as q preliminary step towards
acquiring the ability to associate at
q glance the forms of written or
printed words with their meaning.
A spirited controversy then arose MS
to whether both script and printed,
or only printed letters should be used
in the first stages of instruction. As
there was no possibility of an agree
ment, the subject was dropped, as were
several other questions whereon no
two of the same opinion could be
found.
Before arithmeti was taken up, q
disagreement on which subject was to
close the performance, Miss May
Lothrop favored the audience with a
song, which was given in her best