Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-09-14
,ATEACHER'S EXPERIENCE.
rURSnRR ADVENTURES or fME urY sIsL
IN 4 COUNTRY SneoL
sSysnth, pspss BY oeovts r. vandslear, Ia III,
Ne9 York Evening Post,

" sue average OTOoQ prlm tnat cnlldref
cannot possibly be taught snything with
out the daily exercise Of corporal punish
ment. Great fault was found with me 70
banishing from the school-rucm this reli,
OF barbarism. That I maintained bettel
order than my predecess ,rs that all my
OF crawlipg reluctantly 10 school, % II 70 I
prison, came gladly, and of course Learned
In month -these facts were not denied
But whom has stupid singrained prejudics
ever yielded TO reason, 70 demonstration
ton had not yet been openly urged, bu,
Mr. Ha Q, In whose pleasant home was {
frequent visitor, told me Of this and many
another objection to me and my conduct
He would sometimes laugh till the tears
very words Of my critics. would laugh
too, but nevertheless these things troubled
me. had, of course, learned long since =
that Is, about five weeks since--that there
IL no place on earth like country village
ior noble, generous, high-minded gossip.
not only TO his own private affairs, but
with equal If not superior zeal to the pri-
vate affairs Of everybody else.
had been teaching about six weeks,
however, before the opposition to me and
TO my methods, which had been shoulder
Ing In secret, burst forth openly, aggres-
sively, and from some quarters even
vlciously. The first intimation I had CT
the trouble was a hurriedly written note
from my Quaker friend informing me that
directors on the ensuing Saturday to
answer charges which had been preferred
against me by a number of the patrons of
the school. "rhese relate" wrote Mr..
Hale, 'chiefy to your alleged absurd
methods Of teaching the younger children
shall be there, for anticipate funny
scene. i rely upon your wit to defeat the
directors. Don't be bit afraid. They
can't do anything without unanimous
vote, and, as have said, shall be there"
On the whole, / was glad of 1t. Secret
objections could not answer; open criti-
cism could meet openly. On the follow
ing Saturday, therefore, 1 went gladly to
the house where l first met the board.
Here l found assembled not only the
Also Some of them were my friends, who
were indignant that should be treated in
this manner. Most of them. however.
were either openly or secretly opposed to
me, or rather TO my "new- tangled ide, -
The ball was opened by the old presi-
dent, who stated in broken English the
subject of the meeting. "Dere has been
COMPLAINT againsd der deacher dot she
don't whip der childrens to make dem
learn, sthill und dot she deach back wards,
OF vile-dot she deach dose childrens to
read pefore she deach dem to SHE'LL sthill.
Jacob?)
.'Yaw. das es so" (Yos, that is true). re-
piled the ge tleman thus appealed to,
Rrayely nodding his head.
"Wass sagst du, Frantz?"
'Das es so, das es So" assented Frantz.
She deach all der kleina Qittle) childrens
10 read before she deach dem to spell und
have not Whip mine poy vunst--not vunst
"All this is perfectly true" said. "I
do not whip them, and teach them to read
simple sentences of short words first, and
afterwards teach them to spell the words.
In this way, even the smallest children are
at once interested in their lessons and they
rapidly than by the old method. To teach
them to spell first is to teach backward.
Mr.. Hale translated this into the native
dialect for the benefit of those present who
could not understand English. The board
stared at me in blank amazement This
open confession of stupidity astounded
them.
"Why it's ag'in' natur % exclaimed one
member. This man was a chronic fault
finder. He made trouble for every teacher
the board had ever employed, with every
minister his church had ever called, and
always had a quarrel on hand in every
lodge that admitted him to membership.
He had been bitterly opposed to me from
the outset Its tiyin' in the face ona-
turf" he cried indignantly. SIS she
read, lessen they knows how to spell9
They can't do it,
ooh, yes, they can. Mr.. Hegener," l
said. Everybody can, and most people
do 1t every day. have a newspaper here
will you please he kind enough to read
this little paragraph"
He took the paper and read with COM
parative ease, but with the native accent
and in stupid, drawing tone, as follows:
1.-THE hospital was crowded, the soldiers
I.ass r<I \,
box. Some were suffering from wounds,
and the pale, pinched faces of those whose
limbs had been amputated were pitiful to
behold. There were cases also of various
diseases: Pneumonia, neuralgia, chronic
rheumatism and various malarial afiec-
tions."
"Now Mr.. Hegener," said, " you have
read this paragraph without any trouble,
and II what you say is true, you can, OF
course, spell every word in it. Let us be-
gin with some of the easiest ones. Spell
PtVnt."
Mr.. Hegener turned very red in the face
and then very pale. He looked exceed
ingly awkward and foolish, but there was
no way out of it for him. gave pencil
and paper to young man who was pres
ent-a clerk In one of the stores of the vii
lage-and requested him to write down the
words just as Mr.. Hegener spelled them.
He began "P-i-t-y, pity, fu-double ],
full, pityfull."
Very well, Mr.. Hegener," ! said
Fortunately the clerk did not smile, Mr.
Hale's face was as expressionless as an
oysters and all the others looked on as SOL
emnly as owls The gentleman thinking,
therefore, that he had spelled the word cor
rectly, possessed n little more confidence.
Then followed "soljers" for soldiers,
croudcd'' for crowded, "deseses' for dis
eases, suflerin" for suffering, and
cronick" for chronic. gave these same
words to some of the other members, who
also proved their originally in this branch
of learning. The fact that l gave them te
the others, however, was proof conclusive
to the mind of Mr.. Hegener that l had
failed to entrap him--that he, at least, had
come out successfully from the test. He
was in a very triumphant mood indeed.
tole you," he said, glancing proudly
about him, " that you can't read lessen
you know how to spell first. You can't do
said nothing; but rising, went to the
window, and called in SOME of the little
children who were playing in the yard. l
to go to the woodsswith them for ferns and
flowers, after the meeting of the board.
The children came in, thronging happily
around me--the youngest about five years
of age, the oldest about seven. i had
printed the following sentences, each diff
ferently arranged. upon separate slips OF
paper--five in all-thus: "rhe crowded
room, full OF soldiers, suffering from
chronic diseases, was pitiful''; and thus:
:" 1t was pitiful-the chronic diseases o: the
soldiers, who were suffering in the crowde!
room," and so on.
"Now, gentlemen" said, as I handed
each child one of these printed slips, 'these
little ones never went to school before they
came TO me. i am their first teacher, and
have taupht bIlt six weeks NOW Won say