Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-01-31
I1DUCATg0NAL.
To the Teacher Of me mixed school


Do not hatter yourself that You are
unuo,iced, because your lot is east
III one OF tnc most remote cor
ncrs Of the earth. You are q public
character, and we know MI about YOU
You teach in District Number Five,
Birchvillc, that sleepy little town in
Nowhere county. Your school num-
beers all the way from ten TO forty or
fifty, and includes all ages from five to
fifteen. You try to teach a primary,
an intermediate, grammar school at
once, with perhaps q few high-school
studies thrown in for variation You
are a nolmal-school graduate, or have
gained Inspiration from Quincy or Cam
ton. Perhaps you have read Of better
things than YOU before knew in the
pages Of some educational magazine or
paper,
II is taken for granted that YOU are
earnest sensible and ambitious; that
you have the teachable rs well as the
teachers spirit. You do not wish to
grasp wildly Mt every new theory pro-
pounded, neither are you to shut out
truth, even ii it comes TO You in new
and startling guise. Your aim is
to bring order ont OF chaos. In your
heart Of hearts YOU have the detcrmi-
nation 10 overcome difficulties, and pot
succumb to the prevailing theory that
n mixed school must Of necessity be n
bowling Wilderness. Others have been
in your place before, some are still; SO
don't feel that talk is cheap. and re-
form impossible
In the first place, don't have too many
classes We have all heard of the
teacher who had twenty-four pupils
and twenty-five classes. This is true
in spirit if not i'll fact OF many mixed
schools. and enough to ruin any teach
er's efforts. Of course You must have
a larger number of classes than gra-
ded school
Study combination; direct all the ge-
Mus you possess TO that point, but in
such way that no pupil will be seri-
ousiy kept back, or pushed ahead be-
yond his ability Ii is often delicate
and difficult thing to combine two class
es. Here all the tact and skill of the
teacher comes into play. One class has
perhaps taken fractions, q second has
just finished division. Put the two
classes together, and take up some new
subicct-dccimals for example. By
and-by, when union OF spirit has been
effected, turn your attention 10 frac-
tons again; thus in reality taking up
all dropped stitches. Make your teach
ing SO plain and impressive that eyes
the dullest can follow. Fit its spirit to
those slower minds, the bright ones
will take care of themselves.
Those who have had a taste of the
subject before viii not be harmed by
the review. Indeed you will be sur
prised to see how much they need it.
You will be obliged to give some extra
thought and care to the duller pupils,
who might easily fall back if left to
themselves. This union may not all
be elected nj once: you must plan for
it, look ahead to it, work up to it. Ere
qucntly weeks must elapse before any
two classes can be brought TO point
where they can be safely united on a
new subject.
You have in your school, perhaps. 4
large number of small children. The
best thing for both parties is to send
them home at recess, both sessions. If
this is not allowed, give long recesses,
and furnish some outdoor occupation
that will be safe and interesting. One
school yard, to our knowledge, has in
one corner a great heap Of beachsand,
where the little ones dig in perfect
bliss, filling small carts and pals,
building forts and digging wells and
trenches Once in while the stones
Of the school ground are carted of.
For indoor occupation the mixed
school may collect an endless variety
Of objects Blocks, splints, drawing
and building cards, beads and straws
for stringing, paper animals and geo.
metric forms cut from pasteboard to
draw around, bits of glass, shells, pa
per dolls, paint-boNes, patchwork, pic
turo books, Christmas and advertising
cards, scrap books, Noah S ark, Gran
dalGs villages and acrobats, will be
found useful For bHsy work, stories,
drawings, number-lessons on cards and
slips Of paper or copied from the board
will be found indispensable. Select sew
eral of the older pupils to give out and
keep in order these objects. Let IT be
a post of honor to be earned by extra
neatness and good behavior. Have
lists of the various occupations and
specified times for their usage. This is
better than indiscriminate choosing.
Very likely such course will pro-
woke some criticism, for people are
found everywhere who will condemn
I'll play, even if it be fof the benefit Of
n whole school and an overworked
teacher You will meet fathers and
mothers who do not see why six-year-
old Tommy or Grace should not study
or work all day even in mixed school.
They seem to be utterly obliyious that
the school contains anyone but Tommy
and Grace; and do not see why the
teacher should not be ready at any, ev-
cry, and all times TO attend to them.
If YOU have tact and kindness you