The Portland daily press., 1894-01-15

The schools of Portland have been
brought to the attention of the public
more frequently this year than has beon
usual. The rebuilding of the High
School, a most important work, and the
introduction of the manual training
system, another step Of consequence,
have caused a general interest that has
not always been manifested.
The time has seemed to the PRESS
opportune for calling to attention GER
tain features of the school work which
have been going on quietly and unob-
trusively, yet with remarkably beneficial
results. 1t is doubtful if any consider
able number of the parents of Portland
realize how different is the school room
of today, especially the primary school
room, from the noisy, turbulent hives
of quarter of a century ago. The
change has of course been gradual, but
the last two or three years have wit
messed a great acceleration of the speed.
Two strongly marked features charac-
terize that change: The increased esti-
nation in which the Primary teacher is
held; and the effort to develop and lead
rather than urge the child.
A tour of several of the primary school
rooms made by a representative of the
PRESS the other day. was a revelation
and a SURPRISE The old methods of
teaching have been swept entirely away.
The old primers, with their well thumbed
leaves, and their stirring accounts of
the boy who went up and the OK that
ran, have disappeared forever. For the
first few weeks of school the primary
school scholar does not see primer at
all, and when the book is finally intro
duced it is only during the recitation.
The aim constantly before the teacher
is to keep the scholar interested in the
studies, and the book, with its new les
son each time, comes to the pupil as
fresh joy at each recitation.
A small cupboard of toys is to be found
in every primary school room in Port
land. The privilege of working with
these toys is the introduction of the
child to the school. The pupil is led
to tell what the toy is, to frame little
sentence about it, TO see that sentence
reduced to writing on the board, to rec
ognize that sentence when it is seen
again, and thus learn the words and
their relations 1t is surprising how this
introduction BY way of concrete object
lessons keeps the young minds at work,
and what quick and excellent results
are obtained. The old sing song reclta-
tions, with that special and peculiar
stress on every the" which was handed
down from generation to generation of
primary classes, has entirely disappeared.
The child from the first reads as ne talks
that is, naturally and with a proper ac-
cent and expression. Phonics or the
study of the sounds of the letters, is in
troduced as help; and shows some ex-
cellent results. Knowing the proper
sounds of the letters, the youngest
pupils, who have been in school only
since September are able to pronounce
such long words as understand"
and comprehend when seeing them
written on the board for the first time.
But the proficiency OF the pupils was
not what struck most forcibly the rep
resentative of the PRESS. Their
intense eagerness and interest is
surprising. In all the school rooms
visited not a single sign of listlessness
was observable. On the contrary there
was an eagerness that showed itself in
every movement of the body and ex-
preston of the face.
The plan of leading the child to arrive
at knowledge though the logical process.
es of his own mind does not stop with
the reading lesson. The arithmetic
affords an even finer field for the plan.
The CHASTITY skeletons of the multiplied
tion tables no longer haunt the small
boy. He fears them no longer, because
he makes them. With little blocks,
pennies or other objects under the direc-
zion of a skillful teacher, the smallest
children begin to work out the facts
that two and two are four, that three
from five leave two and that two times
three are six. Not only this, they also
begin to conquer fractions, terrors re-
served of old for the limitations into the
higher degrees.
To describe all the interesting methods
to be observed in the lower grades of the
Portland schools would require several
columns
Parents who were brought up under the
old methods will be far better pleased
to visit the schools for themselvs than to
read about them. The drawing lessons,
the gymnastics, the Rotations of poetry
the singing, the reading that would do
credit to the best form of evolutionary
training, may all be observed in the
lowest grades.
With these changes has come the in
creased dignity and Importance of the
primary school teacher. The pernicious
heresy that anyone can teach the A. B.
C's has been routed from the Portland
schools; and in it's place has been recog-
nized the principle that when the plant
is tenderest it should have the most
skillful culture.
Large Gorge of Coal for Cuba.
The larUa four-no aStad coboo,,, I'll