The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-12-19
TEACHERS MEET
Interesting Discussion by PGda-
gOglGS.
LECTURE BY MRS. TOWNSEND
Talk on " Truth in Natu-
raj Phenomena"
Miss Willis reads Paper and Miss
of 7 eachers' Union.


Teachers Union met on Friday, Dec.
IL with twenty-seven members and six
visitors present.
A vote was taken to have only one
sitting at the future meetings,-from
a. m to 12:3O-as that covers all the
time usually spent at these sessions.
The program work began with
lecture from Mrs. H. G. Townsend,
accompanied by simple experiments.
The blackboard schedule announced
the topic, Products of Incombustion,"
and the object, Truth in Natural
Phenomena; and it closed with the
following form:
Content-Interest, Observation, Ex-
pression-oral, written, or by drawing;
Grammar-in a wide sense; Spelling,
Original Investigation.
Mrs. Townsend called a class of
teachers to assist They first burned
lamp lighters, holding one end tightly
to prevent the free passage of air.
Combustion was slow, and the pro-
ducts were charred paper and smoke.
They then burned other lamp lighters
with both ends open, permitting free
current of air At the escape end they
lighted the escaping gas, which flashed
with a brilliant flame. They also set
the smoke on fire with a match.
Mrs. Townsend next heated test
tube full of splintered wood and con-
nected by glass tubes with a glass jar
full of water. Very soon gas was
generated from the wood, which passed
into the jar and displaced all the water.
The lecturer said apparatus for ex-
periments of this nature and many
more, cost but little. She had per-
formed experiments at least once
week at Lahainaluna for two years at
an expense of only $1,000. The lee
lures were accompanied by pictures of
the apparatus, drawn by pupils on the
boards, and were followed by written
abstracts from them, reviewed and
corrected at last by the teacher. She
wished to impress on her present audi
ence the fact that these experiments
stimulated children to observation, to
81
selves.
Miss Willis read paper on Teach
ing Reading" She first spoke in a
general way of reading material-what
children should read, and how the
story or book should correspond to
and accompany the conditions and
stages of development of the child.
She quoted from an article in the
November Forum which describes a
Normal School in Detroit in which a
child is carried along from stage to
stage as though one baby mind con-
tanned in itself all the elements of
nation-a race-in its progress from
savagery to civilization. Hiawatha
stories and pictures and toys for the
little savage: Kablu, who learns that
Man is he who thinks" for the early
CLEANS of progress; Darins the Persian
boy for another step, and so on. Miss
Willis closed her interesting paper
with remarks on some of the technical
methods of teaching reading now in
vogue.
Miss Coan's paper was on the aims
and Pursuits of the Teachers Reading
Club of HilO." The club meets once
a fortnight; the leader is Mrs. Town
send.
The reading is partly along the lines
of the National Teachers Association,
but not confined to that. The aim Is
self improvement. Page has been
studied for about two months. The
highest aim Of Observation-Disclosures
building-has been discussed, as well
as other subjects that come along in
the course.
The leader of the club is also pre-
senting the claims OF the New Educa
ton" and Miss Coan read extracts
from McMurry's work on/ General
Methods of Teaching, in regard to the
value of Nature study and good litera-
ture and the story of noble life to in
spire to noble living.
Miss Deyo on Items of Interest"
fulfilled the requirements OF her text
nv q good little talk on observations
and experiences during her late visit
East. She was specially impressed by
the prominence given in the schools
TO the subject of patriotism; good for
girls as we'll as boys, for the girls are
soon coming to the front. (Here
small groan escaped from gentleman
in a corner).
Yes when she visited lady friends in
Salt Lake City, she learned that they
had formed a reading club to study
cociaI science. political economy and
I,indred subjects, that they may be able
to vote intelligently.
Miss Deyo attended a teachers in
,-;+,,+o- took note of the drawing
topic-found that the speaker on that
Ranch thought many schools used mo-
deIing rather too long before coming
~ actual drawing. A new thing is
often carried to an extreme and Is
afterwards modified. She found
teaching geography by Journeys a
fsvorite method And writing the es-