Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1897-02-11
TEACHERS INSTITUTE.

Jolly, of this city, on Friday and Sat
urday of last week, was an exceptional
success, both in attendance and inter
est manifested
Prof. McGregor, OF the Platteyllle
Normal, and Prof. Gillian, of Milwau-
kee, were the leaders. Geography,
Arithmetic, Reading and Language
were the topics; the two former being
assigned to Prof. Gillian; the two lat
ter to Prof. McGregor.
The sessions were from ,, a. IN. to
IL, and 1:l5, p. m, to A.. Ana IL Is
wonderful how much person can
really learn between these hours when
they have two such leaders of thought
as Profs. Gillian and McGregor. we
would like to give an outline Of the
way these topics AS assigned were
treated, but space and time shut us
out save In two cases; and these two
we offer as samples.
On Friday, Prof. Gillian showed how
the imagination had n great deal to do
with arithmetic, In helping the child
to solve the problems, and to make
an analysis of the proposition. There
was q mechanical way OF doing ex-
amples. 1t was perfect machine.
You put the problems in--tuIn the
crank that Is, multiplied and divided,
or added and subtracted In the regular
order, as required by u fixed rule, and
out would come the required answer.
IL could not be otherwise, even II the
child had no idea of what he was doing.
It was a kind Of slot machine that did
the work for the child. OF course,
these rules were necessary, and must
be observed; but at times mathemat-
les can be simplilled, and made highly
interesting, and the reason Of the rule
manifest, by the aid of the imagination,
when the problem dealt with familiar
objects and their relation to numbers.
If practicable, we would like to give
some examples by which he illustra'
ted these points, but we must pass on
to say something about Prof. Nc
Gregors talks about reading and
language.
That on Saturday afternoon was
really u lecture on English literature.
He said that there was difference
between mental and oral reading, In
the fact that there were those whom
you could not bear to hear read aloud,
yet their mental activity was 30 great
that they would absorb whole pages,
and take the whole idea In almost ut
once, while the one who might delight
you by his oral reading could not
comprehend the idea Mt II glance. He
would have to study 1t before he could
take 1t In. In this way an injustice
Is often done u bright child because
his oral reading Is poor. From this, he
passed on to speak of the interest that
should be awakened in the childs
mind; and one of the best ways was
to point out the beauties OF IL pass.
age, while reading Let 1t be read the
second and third time, lot 1t be studied
until all It's hidden beauties are brought
out. He illustrated this by line
from Homer, and also bya passage
from Sir Walter Scott. Such beauties
lead pupils to explore in this field of
literature. And how much they find
We wish we could say more under this
head, but we must pass on, with the
Professor, to speak of the relation of
grammar and rhetoric to language.
The difference between these two was,
that sentences, although perfectly
grammatical might not be attractive.
This was what rhetoric did. 1t adorned
and dressed up the sentences, and
created variety of expression which
was always pleasing to the nearer.
He agreed to the Importance of gram
mar and it's necessity in helping MS to
understand what we read. Unless we
can analyze these sentences, and see
the relations of words. haw can we
take in rs we ought the idea of the
writer? This is what grammar does
for us; and the absurd prejudice that
at times existed against its utility,
came from those who had only mas
tered the routine work, but had no idea
whatever Of the principles, or the re-
lations of words for which the dry
syntax stood. He illustrated these
ideas in a splendid way from two books