Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1895-03-01
WORTHLESS METHODS
DEVICES THAT ARE HuRrFvl IN
SCHOOL WORK.
Educational Journals Filled with a
Multitude of so.called Helps that
Are Worse than Useless-Instruc.
zion of Children the Work of Women.
Misleading Illustrations.

49, E-. HE use of worth
I'll J : : : : : : ! :! : !; : :; :: :: ! J: !: !: !
@-]0G less and unphilo-
RcSSS |, sophical methods
~ and devices is, In
a I'm" my judgment, u
AES hurtful mistake In
~( school work. The
~ educational jour-
nails Of to-day contain a multitude of So
called helps, methods and devices for
the use of teachers. A few of these are
good and disable; some are of doubtful
utility; and many IRE positively disad-
vantageous. No amount of this ready
made school provender can take the
place of hard study and careful prep
aration on the part of the teacher. IL
would be well for him, of course, to
understand something of the methods
of others; yet he should devise his own
methods, in the main, and retain his
own individuality. Young and mex
perienccd teachers often retard instead
of foster the mental development Of
their pupils by attempting to apply
the various educational fads now being
heralded MS improvements. Some
teachers, it would seem, keep the
younger children dawdling with OBJ
jects long after they should be LAID
aside. The use of beans, buttons, shoe
pegs, grains of corn, molding boards,
etc, for weeks and even months. in or
der to teach numbers and geography,
Is nonsense. Shoe pegs are very USE
full in the sole of a shoe, and may, per-
haps, be used by a child in learning to
count, with profit for a while; but they
are and not ends. Much of the
so-called busy work" Is Of doubtful
utility. A good story is told of n
teacher who gave a little boy some
beans to count. merely to keep him
busy. After a while the teacher looked
around and found that the little fellow
had eaten them up. He doubtless I'M
derstood the use of beans better than
did his teacher.
Another thing equally vain and USE
less is the scrap-bag method of recita-
ton. 1t consists of combining with a
particular study n multitude of odds
and ends pertaining to other branches.
For instance, a teacher will sometimes
attempt, in connection with the reading
lesson, to teach n great many things
concerning language, history, geogra-
ply, etc. The mind can not well give
attention to thought study and form
study ut the same time. While we are
endeavoring to get thought, let us not
be concerned about the ann in
which 1t Is expressed; and then we can
consider forms Of expression ut some
time when we are not concerned about
thought.
Another mistake, as l believe, is the
notion that the work of pupils must
be made so easy, by means of helps, de-
vices, and ingenious appliances, and be-
come so much like play, that the pupil
will actually enjoy it, and be relieved.
as far as possible, of hard study and
close application. The valuable dis
cipline of faithful and long continued
mental labor is lost by this attempt to
make everything easy and pleasurable.
Learning without joy is better than
joy without learning. There is no royal
road to learning. and If there We're, the
learning would be of a useless charac-
ter. The mind, like the body, grows
by exercise; it is only by vigorous and
developed.
Sometimes Illustrations are used
which are misleading. A little boy, in
studying his geography lesson, found
the island of Nantucket near Massa-
chusetts, but complained that he could
not remember the name. In order to
help him ovc the difficulty, this sug-
gestion was made; Suppose an old
woman had a daughter named Nan,
whom she wished to tuck u dress. she
would say, 'N%an-tuck-it.' Now Just
think of that when the question is
asked by your teacher" So when the
class was called, and the question was
asked, he began swapping his fingers,
Indicating his eagerness to answer.
"All right, Johnnit," said the teacher.
"what is it," at is Nan-hem-it!" said
the boy, with an air of triumph.-Prof.
Williams, in Educational News.
Women and the Public Schools.
The education of children. with all
that 1t involves. is surely the work Of
women. More and more the founda-
ton of education, the primary efforts
in schools. IRE being understood by
women as belonging to their interest.
Not only those relating to their own
children but to others, especially those
who are under public school drill. A
true mother should be q citizen mother.
interested in the city and country be-
cause children live and grow in them.
She should know about the sanitary
conditions because these affect the
homes: must see that the streets are
clean, as the children walk and play in.
them; must desire truth and onest
in officials, because they come in touch
with c%hildhood's. Above oil else. tho
mother will care for the schools how
they are conducted, how built, how
~situated-not only the special school
where her children go or have been but
in schools, in education. True mother.
hood is not selfish, but broad. The
very word is the glory of womanhood