Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1899-05-06

DR. Forman followed by Devotional
Exercises conducted by Rev. 5. NJ. Nor
gan Pastor of NJ +. Church. After tn,
roll call by the Secretary, Prof. ii. j.
Handy Principal of Pocomoke High
School read paper, Something About
Our PublicSchools. lin which he claimed
that the course of study pursued in the
High Schools of Worcester County is
too short. He advocated the introduc-
tion of more branches of Science, ZoolO-
gy, Botany. Mental Philosophy.
Since the Principal already has more
work than he can satisfactorily accom-
Physician and the Minister he engaged
by the school authorities TO deliver lee
lures before the school on their rcspec-
tive branches of education.
Miss Elizabeth Denny Of Washington.
ID. G 4. Il teacher in that city, now gave
one of her three lectures on Language
work. Miss Denny advocated system
of teaching 50 radically different from
/ that usually persucd i'll our public schools
and brought forward such strong proofs
of the excellent results of her methods
that her discourse aroused probably as
much thought and as much discussion
as that of any other speaker during the
Institute. The feature of the system she
uses is rs follows: the child, before
he has learned either Ia distinguish the
letters of the alphabet ut sight or tn
form them himself is required To repro
duce on slate. paper or board, Il short
sentence which has been written on the
board by the teacher. Before requiring
the child to write the sentence, how
ever the teacher has repeated orally the
sentence and has caused the child to do
the same until the sentence in question
has formed a lasting impression upon
his mind. Then, that the child may
form a mental juncture of the sentence
as it appears on the board, the teacher
re-writcs the words quite Il number of
times. Having erased the sentence the
teacher then requires that the child re-
produce it. He has mental concep-
ton of the sentence in its entirety. as it
appeared on the board, without regard
it contains, and will write il. not by
spelling the several words aud forming
the letters, but by making an exact copy
of the picture. !. =. the written sentence
which the teacher put upon the board.
Miss Denny states that if this work he
continued for some months the child
gradually and naturally learns both to
recognize the form of the letters and,
of course. omakc them himself As an
aid tn this she advises that the child be
early taught TO sketch the forms of
leaves. plants. furniture. animals or
any object which may come under dis
cussion. She gave some very good and
useful advice conc ,rning the teaching of
language. and read several short papers
written by students of the LIST, 2d and
Sd grades respectively. which are in
deed remarkable productions for chill
drcn of their years and which plead elo-
qucntly for the system of education
which Miss Denny so earnestly champ
ions.
Prof c. l.. Stewart of Maryland Ag-
ricultural College i'll speech on Tues
day and another on Wednesday, set forth
the advantages which the young child
may derive from course i'll nature
study. As material aid to the teae ner
giving this instruction he advised that
each teacher make collection of flies.
bugs, cocoons, insects of all kinds. which
may be very profitably studied and ex-
amined before the class Prof Stewart
gave much practical and valuable infor-
nation a. regards the classification and
preservation of the various insects. He
was supplied with collection of but
tcrflics and cocoons which he caused TO
be passed among the teachers that they
might see for themselves just how they
should be preserved and mounted.