The times., 1898-09-04

all comfortable, and that the ''monky''
| would be much smarter to keep the
| nuts for himself
! Here is youngster who is impressed
with the fact that the elephant is use
| full:
THE USEFUL EFELANT
| The useful cfelant grows in hot countries like
:. the cocoanut. lie pile wood and but down
things like walls The efelant is useful to ride
, on; YOU sit in a house to ride. The efelant has
/ four feet all very large and useful. He has a
trunk and it is useful in many ways, lie puts
water and nuts into it. The eielant is useful
| in war. He scares away the horses with trum-
pet. The efelant is large useful animal.
WILLIAM PETERS.
! And here is a child who has evident
| ly striven TO uproot from his mind the
old-fashioned ideas of the lion which
were instilled into the brains of our
| grandfathers:
| THE LIONS
| Lions are always walking except when eating,
and then they growl. Their roar terifeyes but
their tails are not so long as the monkeys.
| They cats matter what you think, and
their size has nothing to do with it. Once IL
| was fashnabe To call them noble, but they are
mean matter what your fable book says and
| You must stop talking. Once donkey stole
lion skin, but the other donkeys killed him
! because he MADE so mucn noise win his brain.
| That showed he donkey. Keep still when
| you thinking. JOHN CROKER PERKINS.
The moral of that donkey story. by
the way, would be good one for some
of our legislators to remember. 1t
would save the printers Of the Congress
sional Record a great deal of work.
The basic idea of this system of in
struction is good. In spite of the some
| what peculiar way in which the chill
dren have expressed their ideas, it is
easy to see that some teacher has
| spent time and trouble in teaching
natural history to those infant minds.
Some of the misconceptions are per-
| fectly natural ones, and such as all
children would be likely to make To
a child the world is all wonderful and
one thing is not much more incredible
! than another And ii is absolutely
impossible as any teacher will testify,
! to explain even the simplest thing in
such way that every child in a class
| of fifty or sixty will understand it.
| Some of the children are too shy to
ask for further explanations. and some
are too Indifferent. Perhaps the ma
Jtlity VI lnG phDlIS nave iliO iiOIlie
! teaching which will enable Them to
understand words and phrases which
! are Greek to the rest. Moreover,
| child's mind will only hold a certain
! amount of knowledge, and things
which to the adult are familiar are to
the child matters which require care
! full thought. Children will often blum
der in expressing thing which is per-
fectly clear in their own minds. es-
| pecially if they have not had training
| in expression. And all these facts
4 dren should be grouped in small classes
rather than in large. during the time
| when the mind is forming.
The American school deteriOrates
| just in proportion to the substitution
of the graded for the ungraded sys-
| TEN. AS the school grows larger it
| becomes less valuable to the student.
! This may seem a sweeping statement.
but in the ma ajority of cases il is abso-
lutely true In spite of poorly edu-
Gated teachers with little experience,
in spite of short terms, antiquated
school books. and few out-of-school
| advantages, the best type of ungraded
| country school turns out more
thorough scholars than the best type
| of city school. And the reason of this
| is that the country teacher has a
| chance to do individual work. The
| Ounce will be a Ounce, In city or in
country. The bright student, in the
country, usually appreciates the value
| of an education, is eager to learn, and
! is given particular attention by the
teacher In the city. the student of un-
usual ability either breaks down in
| trying to keep up with class of much
| older scholars, or wastes time and gets
| into mischief because he has not
| enough to do. In the country school
the student must reason things out for
| himself In the city school the mani
fold helps leave no excuse for the
student to help himself. These defects
in our school system are not necessary.
The city school, with its manifold ad-
yantages in the way OF city Libraries,
! museums. daily papers. and education
for the teachers, should be far in the
lead. Its great defect is that it leaves
no room for individuality. The adult
| can sometimes be made into a machine
| with advantage; the child cannot
| Children were not meant TO be brought
| up in platoons.