The record-union., 1898-11-25
WHAT CAN We DO FOR THEM?
CHILD EDUCATION AND SOME
oF IT'S PROBLEMS.
Paper Read by Miss Anna G. Weeks
Before the Late Teachers
Institute.

AT Tuesdays session of the Teachers
Institute the following paper on What
Can We Do for Them?' was read by
Miss Anna c. Weeks. Principal OF the
Sacramento Grammar School:
In those highly respectable educa-
tional journals for which we have been
so kindly and paternally advised 10
subscribe. we are constantly meeting
with more suggestions, good ana otn-
erWise, than we could carry out, We're
our years of teaching prolonged 10
the despair of the waiting throng OF
applicants and the desperation of the
unhappy Directors. We meekly read
the journals. and we meelxly listen 70
the tales of the wonderful educauonal
feats performed elsewhere, until We
are somewhat ashamed to go on living,
knowing, as we do. that few OF the
arts and possibly one or two Oh the
sciences are not receiving our undi-
Nided attention.
We are not doing our whole duty py
mature study, for instance, for none Oh
our pupils have yet been taught the
best method Of killing the poor httl@
insects that are needed as specimens
Elsewhere they are ahead OF US III
this respect, and little children are
sometimes told how quickly scalding
water quenches the spark of life In
some miserable atom of the great liv-
ing universe about us. Think or
irhild's receiving that sort OF lnstruc-
fion in the "cause Of science, ana
Aistening to a lesson on Kindness 10
lAnimals'' shortly afterward!
NJ Possibly some parents may forgive
Ms if our very young pupils do not
pursue their Investigations and carry
Dn their experiments in the reanstlc
away affected in more progressive
Aowns. for even in the midst or all tne
B enthusiasm worked up there, some pe-
anighted mothers have been known 10
draw the line when as food for 'op-
seryation lessons anthills are TO De
dug up and brought bodily, with thelr
very lively inmates, into the maternal
Kitchen and backyard, to the oetri-
ment OF the family syrup and the
Family temper Also do those mothers
groan when their offspring sally Iorln'
kyith fifty others as thoughtless anu as
irresponsible, each armed with an Ut
ange a bottle, and candle, 10 Illus
trate the movement or the eaftl
around the sun. The idea of individual
almost anything except fire as a base
of onerations but were there not a
special. Providence for children and the
class of people who shall be nameless,
that schoolhouse, with its collection
of restless children, unsteady botties
and lighted candles, would long ago
, have disappeared in a blaze or glory.
Conservative as we are, however, we
are advancing, for We are now eagerly
looking forward to teaching singing
fv note. without the assistance or q
music teacher, many OF US bringing
to the work the special qualification
rlained by Mark Twain when he be-
rame an agricultural editor-a mind
unbiased and unprejudiced by the
slightest knowledge of the subject
Undoubtedly, however, our success i
assured. for we are to be aided oy
system of music readers so marVei-
ously constructed that they are war
ranted to supply all our defciencles
of voice ear, or musical educatfon. II
what wonderful perfection has the arr
of making text books been brought!
Meanwhile. before "our curriculum
mas been enriched" to such an extent
Hhat we are all on the verge OF nervous
prostration, perhaps we can look at oul
own schools and our own pupils. and
ask ourselves a few very simple anc
practical questions.
Can any Improvement be made IN the
rommon speech OF our pupils? A mar
who says done and "seen," have
WENT and "have came" and who i
reckless in the use of his double mega
dives is handicapped all his life, never
receiving half the credit that he may
deserve for general intelligence and
fair amount of scholarship; although
curiousdy enough, anyone may say
ssbetween you and l." and be considered
by nine out of every ten TO pay grea
regard to the niceties of speech.
The simple study Of grammar, valu
able as Ii is, Will not meet this DIN
Guilty, for before the part of gramma
dealing with verb forms is reached tn
children will "haye came" and "hav'
went" so often along the wrong bu
familiar road that their steps will no
easily be turned in another direction
still have much faith in the persisten
repetition of the "good usage" exercise
ito be found in our revised grammars
and I have sometimes wonderei
whether the teachers of grades below
the sixth could not make use Of tn
same or similar exercises until cor
rect forms sound right to the young
children.
hesitate to suggest anything tha
Implies additional work for teachers o
other grades, but when I talk with in
Aelligent well-informed boys and girls
who have been eight, ten or tWelv
years in school, and hear some Of then
express the most sensible thoughts j
pitifully poor English, / know that W
need help, and turn to the children
natural helpers, the teachers OF tn
primary schools. If you can aid us i
baniEhing some half a dozen incorrec
expressions, you will earn the thank
of innumerable children who must loo
to their teachers for deliyerance froI
the tyranny OF habits formed durin
the many hours spent outside of tn
surroundings of school. Probably til
thanks viii never be formally tendere
you, and will go TO swell the list {
outstanding debts that you may cor
slider among your real, though uncol
lected, assets
For the expressions already mention
ed we need not reproach ourselves. s
far as the formation of the faulty hab
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