Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1895-02-01

Last Friday our people had an opportunity
OF hearing some good educators discuss GER
tain methods that are In use IA the lrading
schools Of our country, and also Of seeing
some pra -tical Illustrations OF these methods
n thry are used in our own school. The
work OF the day was done chiefly by our State
superintendent, NJ. :. Stone. 1. Freeman
Hall. Superintendent Of Schools Of Arlington
Mass, w. n. Parsons County Examiner and
Miss Reua Hail Mr.. Stone discussed the
matter OF school management in which he
Offered some valuable hints and suggestions
lie believed that the best disciplined school is
the school that has no apparent discipline. in
other words, that discipline j. not punish
ment. lie thought a noisy teacher generally
had a noisy school: that the first aud great
est secret OF school mana cement il t. keep
the pupils busy, otherwise they are very sure
10 keep the teacher busy; that much depends
on the way the teacher begins the first day.
that good common sense Is necessary first of
all on the part of any teacher; also good
moral character. for in order TO govern others
the teacher must govern himself: a knowi-
edge of his individual pupils too and under
meath all, kindness and patience. This is the
second time that Mr.. Stone has visited Island
Pond. :: 81 each time he has shown himself
capable an Tor his position one who knows
the practical as well as the theoretical side Uf
"A teachers work.
Mr.. Hall took up the subjects of langu7 re.
spelling and geography The first h SAYS
should he taught in every lesson, and should
be part OF the childs training from hls iiIst
day at school until about the eighth year.
Then grammar should he introduced. which
he thinks should be taken straight, but only
after thorough preparation by continual
practice in language. Language tell. the how
of expression, grammar the why. In spelling.
Mr., HAIRS principal point was, that every
pupil should know what he knows that he
knows, and know what he knows that he
don't know" Then by adding each day to
his list of known words. pupil may make
satisfactory advancement in learning to
spell; and there is no one, in MIR. Halls opin-
ION, who cannot become "A good SDeiier
proper methods are used through his school
course; he showed too how the sight method
OF teaching children to read is great help in
leading them to spell correctly. by fixing the
form OF the word in their minds. His work
in geography was perhaps the most interest
ing and practical. especially as he showed
how to make a difficult topic easy for chill
dren to comprehend. He advised the OF
the surface OF the earth first OF ALL then the
moulding board, then charts and globes, and
lastly books.
Mr.. Parsons, the Principal of our High
School. also County Examiner, used the first
period in the morning in sho wing his method
of teaching the metric system, considering il
the simplest and easiest system of measure
ment ever in use, and predicting that many
of us shall live to see our present clumsy sys-
TEN give place to 1t.
Miss Rena Hall brought her youngest
pupils into the Institute tor two exercises
one in primary reading, and one in number
Notwithstanding the CRUDE system OF teach
ing children the rudiments of arithmetic.
Anyone of the "old school" who saw the
work oi these classes, must have had his
faith in the efficacy of alb alb and b-a ba. seri.
ously shaken; and any comparison of Miss
Hairs methods of teaching number work
with the old and laborious way OF learning
tables and tables in the four fundamental
processes, would be useless.
In the evening Mrs w. b. Causebrook gave
q most enjoyable organ recital. after which
Mr.. Stone called upon McsSrS. Howe, Hob.
son, Andrew and Parsons for a few words on
the subject of schools, as viewed from their
standpoints. Folio wing this Mr.. Hall gave
a talk on what good school should be,
which was listened to with the closest inter
est. Mr.. St, then closed the meeting with
some appropriate remarks, congratulating
the town among other things on our elegant
new school building, which he visited that
afternoon. The meetings were we'll attended,
about twenty teachers being present and
many of the citizens showed their interest by
their presence large part OF the day.