The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1899-11-24
COUNTY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION,
A Pleasant Meeting Held IN Corunna
Saturday.

SATURDAY.
The Shiawassee County Teachers As
ISOLATION met for its fall meeting Of
1899, Saturday forenoon. in the M. K.
church in Corunna, and as usual en-
joyed please as well as profitable
time.
The morning session was short, the
program not beginning until half past
ten o'clock, and but one paper being
arranged for. Science in the Grades, I"
the paper prepared by Mr.. w. j. Kent,
of Owosso, therefore had almost the ex-
elusive attention of the association as
the secretary's report was deferred
until the afternoon session and the only
other regular matter of business, the
appointment of committees took but
little time. In discussing his subject,
Mr.. Kent quite properly took it for
granted that it was the grades of. the
district school rather than of the city
schools which were meant in his dis
cussion, tho his remarks applied also to
the latter, and the most of his observa-
tions on which the larger part of his
paper was based, were taken from his
work as principal of graded school.
The plan which he suggested, one too,
which seemed to be good one from
more than one point of view, was that
rather than attempt to crowd in another
set of subjects in the already crowded
program of a country school, the latter
part of each Friday afternoon, the hard
est time of the week ordinarily in
which to keep pupils interested, should
be devoted to talk and work along
some line of science. For instance the
structure of certain leaf might be the
subject for one Friday afternoon and
all could try to make drawings of it.
A sparrow might be the subject of
another-the boys would be only too
delighted to furnish sparrow, or for
another week, a squirrel, and so on the
list of things to be studied being
limited only by the limit to the fertility
of the teacher himself In this work
Mr.. Kent assured his hearers, the great
est value would be found not from the
fact that they learned just such and
such facts about the particular animals,
plants or minerals studied but from the
added interest and zeal which this work
would inspire the pupils to put into
their other studies.
The afternoon session began at half
past one and besides we'll rendered
recitation by Master Stanley Bigelow
and vocal duet by Misses Mary Shut
tleworth and Edith Driscoll, there were
two principal subjects, one a paper on
THE Teachers Outside Reading"
under the two heads of general reading
and the value of state reading circle
work, by Prin. w. B. Sheehan, of Du-
rand, the other practical illustration
of "Some things that can be done with
the Speer number blocks" by Miss
Nellie Goss, of Owosso. In his paper,
Mr.. Sheehan took the ground that or
binary reference books, encyclopedias,
teachers publications, and even such
magazines as the Review of Reviews
should not be considered outside read
ing at all. If anything could be called
"inside reading" he said, those were
just the places where it was to be
found. He made a strong plea for the
reading of the masterpieces not only of
years ago but of today. In her part
Miss Goss had class of seven bright
little lads and lassies who stood behind
a table on the platform and performed
mental gymnastics before the audience
with the Speer blocks. Miss Goss was,
however, careful to impress it on her
audience that the exercise was far more
varied and covered much more than
could ever be done in one recitation.
Is was more in the nature of an ex-
animation on a months or a terms