The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-01
THE CITY TEACHERS.

The teachers of the city schools held
their regular monthly meeting at the high
school building.
DR.. Stevenson presided, and the meeting
was opened with singing, Scripture read
ing and prayer The roll-call showed a
full attendance. The assembly was then
entertained by most excellent paper upon
'Habits," by Miss Rebecca Amidon,
which was given the closest attention.
The following is a short extract of the
paper which hardly does it justice:
1.-The bright pupils in school, who always
have good lessons, are the ones who gener-
ally receive the most praise; but it is the
dull, plodding pupil, who digs out his
lessons for himself who is the diamond in
the rough. The little habits repeated day
after day in the school room, form the
character of the child, and become great
powers for good or evil. The great Allan
tic cable is not made of one large strand,
because the storms and pillows would
snap it instantly: but it is composed of a
great number of small strands, closely
interviewer which gives it great strength.
Thus ''habit is a cable; we weave a thread
of it each day, and it becomes 50 strong we
cannot break it." Education is largely
made up of habits, and the public
school is the place for the chill
dren to make good habits. The great
value of education is thoroughness and
adaptabilities. Regular attendance gives
thoroughness to school work, and while in
school the pupils should be taught useful
habits, that cling to them through life.
The teacher should carefully cultivate
habits of CELEBRITY of attention, of prompt
ness, regularity and concentration. The
habits formed in school are of far more
Importance than knowledge Children
should be taught self-government-a ma
ton that is capable of self-governmenth has
a future before it brighter and grander
than language can paint it, and teachers
should have constantly before them the
formation of the character of their pupils.
The paper was ably and vigorously dis
cussed by Messrs. McMichael, Carson,
Prof. Young, and Misses Kuhn, Bryson,
Graham and Cleveland, who emphasized
many of the good points and presented
many new thoughts.
DIR. Stevenson commended the paper, and
made few well chosen remarks upon the
subject, briefly as follows: Repetition of
attention in class can be continued until
it becomes a wonderful power, which will
lead the student to success in life. Man Is
simply a builder of habits which are
formed early in life. Habits make
the character-what a man is in
life, i'll business, in social rela-
tions, his character-are all made
up of those habits formed in early
youth. One bad habit formed in school
may be the cause of wrecking a life, which
would otherwise have been success.
Every power of the child must be develop
ed and cultivated that the child comes out
in the world well balanced man or
woman Every school should be self
governed, and the standard of government
should be ''What is right?'' not ''What is
is forbidden"
The next was a paper by Prof. J. D.
South, about "RuIes for questioning"
Mr.. South said that in this age of Topic
Method and Lecture Method, the good old
fashioned question and answer method
was neglected, hence good questioners
among teachers were becoming a scarcity.
This was one reason so many teachers
were doomed to disappointment on eXami-
nation day. His paper, which was pro
nounced by many Of the teachers to be the
most beneficial to which they had ever
listened was devoted chiefly to the dis
cussion of the following rules:
l. Never answer your own questions.
, Development requires time, then first
give pupils time to think.
3 Have all answers clear and unambig-
uous, aud to mean but on thing.
1. Allow no guessing at answers.
D. Drill pupils to answer in as few words
as possible to be consistent with accuracy.
6. Every true answer should restaUe
enough of the question to make a com
plete propositiOn-thus training in SEN
tence making.
:. Every pupil must hear every answer
pupils must speak loud
enough to be heard by the entire class.
s. The teacher must never repeat the
answer given by pupils, as it causes loss of
if he does.
O. Let pupils themselves occasionally
form questions, as the teacher can then
see where they are lacking and viii have
better understanding of his pupils.
The paper was deliberately discussed by
Messrs. Knight, Vowel, Allen, Rosenber-
ger and Miss Smoke.
Superintendent Stevenson then called
attention TO Arbor day, which comes April
10 and requested that it be properly OBJ
served by literary exercises and the plant
ing OF trees at the permanent buildings
Other miscellaneous matters concerning
the welfare of the schools were disposed /
of. when the meeting adjourned feeling