Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-03-10
KENNEBEC TEACHERS
Hold Their Annual Meeting in the
Cony School Building.
4 Large Abundance Present and Some Very
Interesting Papers Read.

Tie Kennebec Teachers' Association
held its regular annual meeting in Augusts
Friday at the Cony high school building.
Representatives were present from all parts
of the county.
a The meeting was called to order at 10. SO
A. M. by President Prof. A. II. Brainard
Of Augusta, who welcomed the members in
a few brief and appropriate remarks.
Prayer was offered by Prof. J. S. William
son. Prof. G. A. Robertson of Augusta,
A. L. Lane of Waterville and Mirs
Clara Burleigh of Gardiner were
as committee to select officers
for the enusing year. The exercises in the
primary department were especially inter
esting and the brightness of the scholars
was striking. Teaching exercises in num-
bers by Miss Jeanette Selling of the
Grove street primary school, Augusta, was
full of interest and afforded some excellent
suggestions, aiding the little folks in per.
forming mathematical calculations readily,
and training the minds to work quickly.
When the half Of 20 was asked, the one
solving the problem first would hold up the
hand. The question was not answered 10.
but the half of 20 is 10, and all such ques-
tons were answered in this way, plan of
which gives pupils full under
standing Of the question.
The exercises in language and reading,
by Miss Ida B. Rogers of Waterville, con-
sisted in explanation of the methods best
adapted to training the juvenile mind in
these branches. The little folks were in.
structed to read from pictures and easy
reading books. The pupil was
asked to make a sentence about
something and then write it upon
the blackboard. These exercises are
usually continued during the first four
months of the child's work. The pronun-
citation of words and facility in reading are
carefully practiced.
In the high and grammar school depart
ment the teaching exercises in grammar by
Miss Emma Clark of the William R. Smith
school, Augusta, was one of the most help
full and pleasing features of the morning
session. Quotations from Longfellow were
recited by the pupils and analysed. The
method of instruction was such as to con-
vey to the pupil clear conception of the
meaning of each word and sentence.
When the class was asked to make
q statement, one little fellow, probably
thinking it was past dinner time, remarked:
sit is time to 60 home" This witty re-
mark occasioned considerable amusement
and called attention to the fact that the
hour hand was slowly moving past the
largest figures on the dial.
The paper on Elementary Science
Work in Public Schools" by d. S. Farm
ham, A. NJ, of Brookline. Mass, was full
Of excellent suggestions. 1t was, in part,
as follows:
Nothing new in education since Come
MUS, Pestalozzi and Frobel, their radical
views as to the scope and ends of educa-
ton, and the methods of attaining those
ends were ever as advanced as any of our
time," so cay writer's on pedsgogics.
.sBy co-ordinating history with geogra-
ply and basing all history which has to do
with the acts of msn on geographic con-
based on geological formation
the pupil will bave far broader education
acquired in less time than of those three
subjects which nature united, were not d.
Geology is the foundation of the
of all animal and vegetable
life.
Chemistry in its various forms runs
through all the activities of plant and ami
NAL life. The little chemical laboratory in
every green leaf is busily at work for the
life of the plant, the same as the change of
in the human lungs is chem
icslly changed to oxygen and carbon. the
plant using the carbon and sending off the
oxygen for animals.
The fact that heated air is lighter and
rises is the true explanation Of all winds, all
currents, the cause of preparing and distri-
button of rain, as we'll as the distribution Of
O4yRtu W HAL duu CdEOUuuAVA'uC w PAoutcs
'.If teachers will throw aside the great
amount of rubbish in arithmetic, geography
and history, and thus save the precious
time of the children to put them in contact
with the vital laws of God by which they
are surrounded, the present generation of
pupils would be far better prepared for the
duties of life
The paper by J. H. Blanchard. superin-
tendent Of schools, Wsterville, was instruc-
tive and timely. The following is an abb
stract:
"My experience till the present year has
been confined to high school work and l
shall discuss "Geograph. History and Math-
ematics in Grammar Schools," from the
de ficiences that have observed in scholars
as they enter the high school. The student
gets scattering of geography, but too often
does not know that the earth has anything
to do with himself. A great deal of time il
" asted in teaching geography, by reason of