The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-04-09
A PORTLAND TEACHER.
New Methods of Instruction in Arthur b.
Morrilis New,Haven SchooI-A Sample
Glass of Little Ones.

A recent number of the Buffalo IN. Y.
Express contains an article by Lilly Lord
Tiff, of the Buffalo board of school
examiners on Some Yankee Schools. !"
The writer has recently spent some time
visiting the schools of Connecticut, of
which she has written in terms of high
praise One OF the schools described is
the Skinner school in New Haven, Of
which Mr.. Arthur B. Morrill,, formerly
of Portland High School. has charge.
OF this school the writer says: Prof.
Morrill,, in charge.of this.school, has a
State. Normal Training Department of
81 young ladies, in threesdivisions on the
upper floor. Not needing the lower
floor, the kindergarten and the first five
grades of the Skinner school were
allowed to remain, under his supervision,
Mr.. Morrill, was sent a year ago to organ
ize this first Teachers Training Class.in
New Haven, after six years. experience
in New Britain and Willimantic, and
is a very clever, progressive man of
about 80 years. His Normal class will
have year of hard study ..and drilling
under him before they will = be allowed
to.take charge of.sclasses, even though
they should be star" college graduates.
After sitting with one of Prof. Morrill's
classes through lecture on the" Clam, u
illustrated by black board drawings ofthe
eills, the body, or by the opening of the
shells and removing the clam, the fish was
In nj in hocfy> nf
water , showing the action of the gills
the-mouth, etc. explained SO clearly and
forciblysthat any one present could take
the reading lesson.on the clam which
forms one of the subjects for 1.-The
primary grade andsteach these youngest
children to be more interested in .nature
than in all the fairy tales ever written.
But we must not tarry in the Normal
class, interesting as its work is. As
soon as Prof. Morrill, was at leisure he
tookDDme down to the first grade, land re-
ouested Miss Vernon to call.a reading
classic the blackboard and give read
ing lesson as rapidly as possible. Soon
a row7of 10 "rots"stood before the.teacb-
or "a black dog" read sentences like
these, quickly written by the teacher
aTher tube had colored liquid in it.
| The height of.the liquid was marked by
| tying string aroundsit. Then the tube
was heated. The heat forced the mole
cules further apart. Then they took ur
more room. We know lit, because the
| liquid rose in the tube above the mark
| AS fast as these sentences were writ
| ten the little hands flew up, each one
| eager to read. asked what as.tube was,
what a molecule was, ETC. Each one
knew, the smallest child of all running
| to the cabinet to- bring me tube. They
| tolo me what solid was. explained &
| LIQUID, gas, told the component parts
Of air, etc. have never seen in any
| iolIy little baby brigade than in the frs
grade of the Skinner school. They
were much .more Interesting than thu
| kindergarten, which was across the hal
| from them.
Not?havingEtime enough to go through
every grade, skipped to.the fourth. Th'
teacher very kindly called one division
to .recite. The lightning-lik
rapidity was dazzling with (which boy
| and girls ranging from 10 to IL years.