The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-04-22
TEACHING TO OBSERVE
Advanced Ideas of the Public
Schools Primary Department.
Reading Grimm's Fairy Tales-The
Gregg Fund for Broadening the
Culture of Teachers.

Inc vast machinery OF the puDnc ScnOOiS
moves as smoothly as did the big engines
at the worlds fair To the outsider there
is no Jar. and, as far as a great majority
Of people are concerned. there is no change.
The taxpayer, individually, may not know
IT; the man or woman who has no child in
the school may not know II, but those who
have any knowledge of how the schools are
conducted are well aware that the line of
study is not what II used to be. The public
schools were in good order when Prof. j.
VI. Rice dropped suddenly in upon them
and wrote his article for the Forum which
made the Indianapolis schools objects of
interest from Maine TO California. He Wis
tied every State and hundreds of the lead
ing schools in them. He had not heard any
thing in particular about the schools here,
and just before he left the city he pro-
pounded the question, Where did you get
your ideas for all this?" and the answer
came that most of ii was evolved and the
remainder was found in books and picked
up at the National Association of School
Teachers.
Much of the credit of the present system
in the schools, where over a hundred are
being graduated each year, is due, among
others, TO Miss Nebraska Cropsey, the
sistant superintendent. To her mind be-
quests left to colleges are good, but the
leaving of them puts the advantages at the
wrong end Of school life. The education
should begin in the primary school, and
hand work should advance with knowledge
of text books, she thinks With this idea
in mind, various phases of kindergarten
instruction have been added to the work
of the first year pupils, and sewing and
drawing are a part of the six-year-old's
daily exercises. This beginning when the
children first enter school is continued in
the twelve years of school life.
1t Is DR.. Rice'S opinion that such rules
should be adopted that in primary schools
the children should be taught the power of
observation and taste in literature.
The work OF the primary instructors is
progressive For two years the ones on
whom this duty falls have been selecting
poems for the reading classes. Nature
study is that upon which the reading work
Is based, and to look at nature in relation
TO humanity is one of the foundation stones
In the selections both the poetic and fam
ciful sides are considered. For instance
the lesson is on pea Ii is not only dry
seed. but 1T Is swelled seed a plantlet:
seeds. making a perfect circle of informa-
ton in regard to il. Then the pea is con-
sldered as TO size, shape, mode and rate Of
growth. Nor is this all. Hans Christian
Andersens story of the pea vine is read or
told. Thus the one subject is not only a
reading lesson, but much valuable informa-
in selecting the poems to draw from genius
Stories are not excluded. Many of Grimm's
fairy tales are adopted, though some of
them are thought hardly fit for children,
unless changed Tennyson'S Brook" is
one where not word had TO be changed to
T make IL perfect to teach from any point.
out subjects are made clearer by words
water-color pictures and drawing.
me work in the high school should be
reflective, 1t is believed by the teachers
and. instead of that being the place for the
Introduction of manual training, it should
be the end, and where the pupils could
make the work speak for itself. The whole
problem of education should be i'm the pri-
mary grades, ii is insisted. Grammar, that
DugaDoo OF two decades ago, begins now,
without the children realizing it. in the
fifth year, and the time when they used TO
be conJugating verbs is spent with nature.
Inc finest grammar lessons are in ltera-
ture and in association with people of cul-
tvation. The critical study in grammar Of
some few years ago dwarfed the creative
With the needs of thousands of children
In the schools came necessity for econ
oiny. RMS was met In practical and in
genlouS way. The children in some of the
schools We're taught TO set type. and in
THIS way all the supplementary reading has
Deen furnished. Professor Hanous, of
Harvard University. sent TO many schools
Tor their plans of teaching reading and pro-
nounced the one sent from this city to be
the best of all.
THE GREGG FUND.
teachers are employed is a lack of broad
culture. The teachers are a noble lot of
workers. but many of them have no more
than what has been gained within the con-
fines Of their own State. When DR.. Rice
save his lecture here on Scientific Educa-
tion,' among other things he advocated
sending some of the teachers abroad. He
suggested Germany for year or more of
special study There were but two, possibly
three. who knew that that idea was not
Mr. Rice's at least for that lecture. 1t
came from Miss Emma B. Ridenour, secre-
tary OF the Board of School Commissioners
Not only had she formed the idea but il
was not vague plan. Such special educa-
ton needs money
Once there was a man-that is the way
stories DeSln-and his name was William
Gregg. he taught school in Indianapolis
nhere Is no record that he was a teacher in
me public school, but he had an interest in
them at least After this man went to Bos-
ton he made a Will Some time elapsed and
ne went TO Virginia, and there died The
VIII provided that certain property should
De used Tor the advancement and promo
ton or the free schools of Indianapolis'
Ihere was some legal contest over the will
Dut considerable property came to the
school commissioners. Mr.. George Merritt
Is trustee of the fund, and on a visit TO
the property found two farms, one of ninety
aces and one OF 200 acres and some real
estate at Abel, Ia. and in Illinois All the
property has been sold but the farms, and
$4,000 or more. The income from the prop
eTty sold is $500 year. The principal is
INTO school bonds so they have the
Deleht or the money. With this 81 300 and
the rent of the farms ii is proposed to send
Two teachers away each year The choice
or those TO be sent rests with the president
ot the Schoo! Board, the trustees of the
Gregg fund, the superintendent assistant
superintendent and principal of the Normal
School, providing that at no time are these
AT men o. ali women OF course such n
move VIII be very popular. and other States
would want our teachers. The ones sent
away E,ust show by their work in the
schools that they have professional
strength. Ihen they must bind themselves
10 return TO the Indianapolis schools and
teach COR hve years at least. Many of the
teachers nave others who are dependent on
them and cannot afford to forfeit their
salaries. 1t is not the idea of the promoter
that they shall. but that question is TO be
settled by the School Board. The advan-
taEeS for the year away will be known
as the Gregg scholarship.