The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1891-07-16
THOUGHTS FROM a TEACHER.

To the Editor Of tie Teachers C0!umn !:
Sometime ago you requested the teach
ers to furnish something for their column
during the vacation. I will try to COM
ply with ycur requst, THERMOMETERS 9S'
in the shade) and send you few ran
dom thoughts, some of which were sug-
gested by the last meeting of the Teach
ers' Association.
One teacher could see very little ad.
vantage in the use of the new arithmeti-
cal charts, and it was not his fault that
he failed to get practical illustration of
its advantages. His idea was that the
dots on the first few pages would have a
tendency to cause the child to count on
his fingers. Think one great advantage
in its use is to prevent that very thing.
The child, who did not thoroughly
acquire the facts of numbers when he
began it's study, is the one that uses his
fingers to reach fact in the advance
study of arithmetic. The charts afford
so much drill, that pupils may soon ac-
quire the facts aud give them without the
slightest hesitation. I find the use of
objects very helpful with beginners. I
have them apply the facts learned from
the chart by means of little problems
made by themselves. They soon acquire
simple relations of numbers, also use of
fractional parts. Sometime one sees
older pupils divide or multiply just as the
book says without and reason about it,
not thinking what the figures represent.
They have been trained to figure work
instead of the study of numbers. The
charts aid the teacher in forming good
foundation for the study of arithmetic.
Want of time is drawback in using
chart drills for separate classes. / COM
bine them much as possible, making the
drills more difficult for older pupils than
for Titles ones.
Inregard to methods of calling on pu-
pills to recite, I much prefer to question
the class, and call op individuals for an.
swers, to the use of the consecutive
method. On the exclusive use of the
latter, I am reminded of 8 story told by q
Sunday School teacher of your city. She
taught the child's catechism to class of
small boys. They sat in the same order
every Sunday. Once it happened that
one of them was absent. She began as
usual at the head with the first question,
"Who made you?' and received this
reply: "The little boy that God made is
not here to day." By clinging too closely
to the above method, we teachers some.
times receive just such odd replies. tits
also temptation to pupils to give their
attention only long enough to answer the
questions addressed to themselves.
I do not keep an individual class
record, but keep record Of the class as
whole ON the black board, star y
indicating good lesson, q ring lo) not
good.
In class work I try to use questions
and suggestions that will cause the pupil
to think for himself, and not let the book
or teacher do it for him, for, by simply
trying to recall the words of the book, he
will gain very little. I find pupils who
spurn questions not in the book. They
imagine such questions spoil "beauti-
fup recitation, or perhaps 1t is too much
trouble to think out the answers. But
often we are too hurried and do not give
them time enough to think. Every good
thought is produced slowly, and takes
more time than singing out the words OF
the book. I want pupils to speak as nat
urally in the class as they do in conver,
satiou, and avoid that expressionless
monotone, or that tiresome interrogative
tone. Experience has taught me this
if in my own mind there is a feverlsh,
disturbed condition, the pupils are likely
to partake of it, and their work is not 80
good. I 6Dd also that sharp, stern words
of command will sometimes cause very
uuamiable replies, perhaps ending in q
ft of stubbornness, while 8 pleasant re-