Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1884-09-02
A SCHOOL ROR MITES.

Let us imagine ourselves ia the pri-
mary class at Kendall Green Watching
beginner take his first lesson. The
teacher, iady-for surely nothing but
n woman's patience could avail here
calls the boy to her and shows him some
familiar object, say a pen and when
he recognizes it the first step is made
they both know what 1t is. aud he knows
that they know il. so far she has only
taught him the object |; nov she shows
him it's printed equivalent, PEN. In
sensibly trained to memory for shapes,
he sson remembers that black lines
shaped in that way mean that object.
Now, il the object is not present.
how can he recall il to her ? BY
spelling pen on his fingers. Next she
teaches him to write pen on the black
board lastly TO substitute for the rude
pantomimes they have both necessarily
used up TO this time, the sign for pen.
This IL not she work of one lesson, or Of
one day--far from it; We should be tired
looking on long before our little hero
gets as fer ~ spelling on his fiHgers:
But gradually, after many delays and
innumerahle repeti,ions, so much Ia So
cured. New objects are introduced,
then their qualities are specified-" big
pen," white cat" next the action Of
those objects -"the pen writes" "the cat
eats" and lastly, the various lenses CT
verbs. always most tedious process, as
IL Is almost impossible, with such lin
tied means, 10 present clearly the diff
ference between past. present and fu-
ture action. One way of doing this 10
to teach the pupils to count up TO thir-
ty-one, the number Of days In a
month. and then connect the action
With a past, present or future date.
The protean Tough puzzles them. as
dses also the use Of the same word with
different meanings.
rirasome as che work il. its results
appear sooner than one would expect,
for the children learn 10 read, write and
speak Gin their langua9e) simultane-
ousiy. Little boys who can hardly
reach the blackboard write excellent
hands, and spell accurately. An sx-
ercise among the more advanced
scholars, which I witnessed, required
theni to write sentences introducing
words from the days lesson. An ex-
ample of the use Of the wsrd aston
ished" was amusing. It was: "A boy
went to the woods; he astonished some
apples ON q tree"-meaning he took
them by surprise.
Here 10 q composition exactly as IL
was written by boy II years old. q
member Of this class:
"a boy went to the woods. He saw q
yellow bird standing on the grass. he
want TO caught the yellow bird. He put
over the bird. The bird would nos oat.
He caught the bird and went away and
give for his mssher. he tell his mother
about the yellow bird. His mother was
Glad and gos the bird into the cage.
Another yellow bird vas glad 20 meet
the bird. Two birds talked about sing
sweet. The mother charmed the bird
sing. The boy again go 10 the wood.
He saw an old house are weak. de Try
climbed up. The house With the boy
fell 70 the ground. He soon died on the
ground. His mother hoped the boy Get
the bird. His mother waited. The 10Y
no come IL. His mother 20 go TO the
old house. She saw the boy died ana
she Was very cried and hurt in her
haarf