The Newtown bee., 1893-10-06

Meeting at the Newtown Academy.-Who The
 Speakers Were.
 The teachers meeting at the Academy, Tuesday, was opened promptly at by State Secretary Charles D. Hine suggest ing to the teachers that they hold teach CTS meetings once a month, either Friday afternoon or Saturday, as it would be the means of doing them much good. The suggestion is good one and we hope to see it carried out. Mir Hines subject was ''Reading," and he dealt with it in a masterly manner. Reading is one of the most important branches taught in our schools for every one makes use of it all through life. Teach the child to read. They should be able to read intelligently any common book or paper at six or seven years of age. Try and
 CULTIVATE TIE HABIT
 of reading among your pupils and be they read good books and it will be of great benefit to them in after year. Get rid of the old ways of teaching. ThYre is no need to teach the child letters They contain no ideas, they vii; learn words much more rapidly if they do not know the letters, and it is not necessary that the words be small words either. They will learn large words just as quick ly if they understand their meaning and use. We are not teaching reading unless we teach them words that represent ideas. Children learn best from objects and pie lures. Ihe principal thing is to connect the spoken
 WITH THE WRITTEN WORD.
 The best way is to have children read to themselves and then tell the teacher the thoughts and ideas they have gained. G. l. Aldrich of Newton, Mass, was the next speaker. His subject was "Arith- metic." The results in teaching this study depends upon the way it is taught. The principal ends to seek are knowledge and training. We need very much more of the latter than of the former. Teach them rapidity and facility in com. putting simple numerical combinations.
 ALWAYS DRILL
 your pupils upon what you taught them the day before and test their work before advancing. Give them exercise in read ing problems. In solving and explaining their work and in forecasting the an swers. Have thorough organization and not more than three or four classes. Finally never dare to give out lessons ir arithmetic without preparation. He end. ed his interesting talk by quoting say ing of Napoleon, "There are no poor re giments there, there are poor colonels, ; and aptly applying it to our schools PROF WARREN
 was advertised to speak on language but he devoted his time to a criticism o1 our schools. MT Warren was one of the men appointed by the State board o1 education to visit the schools in this county and report upon the condition o1 the same. Consequently, he had met most of our teachers. He finds the same fault with other schools in Fairfield | county as he does with Newtown schools and says something has got to be done to improve our schools as the children are not getting what they ought anG l should have from our public schoo | system. In all our schools, too, much time is given to arithmetic and not enough to language. He compared thi; town with another town in this county having a smaller population and lowel 1 grand levy, yet paying out for it schools one-third more than Newtown and witt l the result. of having better schools. OF THE PUPILS
 examined by him in these two towns ir one study, language ,Cne average per cen1 of failures for Newtown were 42 to 3; for the other town. He believed in con solidating our districts, put the two schools in the Street into one and give the money to one good teacher. In the evening only small audience greeted A. B. Morrill,, principal of the new nor | mal school at New Haven whose subject was s'A common sense education.n MI l Morrill, is pleasant speaker and held l the attention of lis listeners in clever manner. He said there was a great | difference of opinions as to the way edu- cation is presented at the present time
 PEOPLE COMPLAIN
 of not understanding the way and req. sons of teaching by the word method Children are not taught as in days gone by. Teachers say they are not famil. far with normal methods. That there is something new in vogue. Parents also complain of the same thing. This is a very great misapprehension on the part of the people. There are no new meth- ods in normal schools locked up behind it's walls. They teach on the phrase of