Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-03-27

manent conduct record, and the school
starts Monday morning in new strife.
One or small minority in section may
bring disgrace upon the whole, and need
private treatment; but the majority are
sure to make it uncomfortable for the
dlsturbers and bring moral force to
bear in favor of order ~
Brief, sententions thoughts, not too
many. should he written, If there be
hidden meanings IN them, all the better.
See that the children read and understand
them, the blackboard will be of no use if
the teacher himself forgets or Sights it,
or is tickle, or stupid, or even vain and
ostentatious in its use. If the teachers
be too small, the program may he posted
on paper of large size, or the teacher can
add to the blackboard surface with ma
Mia paper and little liquid stating
School Journal.
The Childrens Reading. What do the
children read? Do their teachers know
Do they read anything with relish! If 50,
is it the sensational blood and murder
stuff so abundant and so cheap, or is it
something both interesting, relishable and
instructive? Again, is their appetite
healthy or diseased? Or are they omnivor-
GUS readers OF everything that comes
along? There are dangers on both sides
of this question of what and how much
to read. On the one hand, they may
read little or nothing, and miss the vigor,
health and intelligence which good books
1mpart. On the other, the hosts of mag.
azines, newspapers and story books are
likely to clog the appetite, or clutter the
mind with unrelated and undigested facts
Or worse yet. they may encourage the
habit of reading for mere pleasure or
pastime. In either case there is danger
that children will fail to get mental nerve
and backbone, and never have courage to
dig" for knowledge.
We teach children arithmetic; we
would like to teach them to draw, to use
their muscles, to manipulate readily, to
handle tools, to see what lies around
them. The one thing we never teach
them is to read with profit. This is
proved by the fact that for one book of
value there are forty of trash drawn
from the library.
The remedy is in the primary and
secondary schools. If we are to make
readers of good literature, we must begin
young. Efforts in this direction are no.
ticeable in the numerous supplementary
readers recently issued to accompany the
regular series of readers. the biographies
and the science studies; in the multiplied
libraries of good books; in the formation
OF reading clubs. with a regular course of
reading; the observance of authors days
ETC., in our public schools.
A sensible way of teaching history is
to get pupils to spend good portion of
time out of school in reading and study
ing the literature and biography arts,
manners and customs of the respective
periods under review. A teacher who
has skill and vim can usually organize
classes for reading out of school. BY
the aid of maps. pictures and specimens
| of various sorts, illustration of the
special subject, reading can be made
fascinating, while instructive and health
full. We recently attended reception
of class in history thus conducted, and,
with others, were entertained with read
ings, original and selected, covering the
work of term, and were surprised at
the interest and intelligence and the evil
tlence Of good taste manifested by. the
lldren.-Selected