The Republican journal., 1900-10-04
Waldo County Teachers Association.

rlludy anu SATURDAY, Sept. 18th and 18th
The Friday morning session was opened al
10. a. m,, President W. R. Howard, Princi
pal OF the Belfast High school, presiding
After prayer by Rev. Mr.. Barker of Brooks
A. B. Stantial, Superintendent of the Brooks
schools, welcomed the visiting teachers in a
most cordial manner. A fitting response
was made by Superintendent ]. R. Dunton
of Belfast.
Miss Juliette A. Wiggin, the delegate to
the June meeting of the w. c. 7. U. at Mon.
roe, made brief report of that meeting and
it was voted to send delegate to their next
meeting, and to invite them to do the same
in order to stimulate intercourse between
the two bodies.
The subject of the morning session was
Geography. Supt. Dunton spoke, in man
ner which showed his perfect familiarity
with the subject upon elements of Geog-
raphy." First the child should gain ideas of
geographical facts, hill, slope, watershed
ETC., from his own experience, preferably
out-of-doors. From this, he should learn the
names applied by books to these same ideas,
and, having accomplished this, learn to ex-
press for himself these ideas in geographi-
cal language. In connection with this last,
comes the power to read maps for position
physical forms and elevations. Finally con
meet all these ideas with the realities of life
In all the work in geography, imagination is
the corner stone upon which to build, and
should be assiduously cultivated.
stAdvopoa6 Eoof,,,,,I,,-,, H. NJ
Principal of the Brooks High school, car
ried the same ideas into the higher work.
Mr.. Jones spoke of newspapers and maga-
zines as at the same time the source and in
centive of much geographical knowledge.
He would advocate the topical method with
advanced students, and gave very compre-
hensive outline of topics for use in this way.
A full and free discussion followed, in
which several points were cleared up in a
satisfactory manner.
The last topic on the mornings program
was paper on the "School Improvement
League of Maine," by Milton P. Dutton,
Principal of Searsport High school. Mr..
Dutton spoke of the purpose of the League,
its value, and of its working in Searsport,
where a branch was organized last June.
This society is doing great work all over
the State. in the way of improving the sur
rOundings of the children, and should re-
ceive the hearty support Of every one inter
ested in their welfare.
The afternoon session was called to order
at 2.30 by President Howard
nf
ted delegate to the next W. c. T. q. County
Convention.
'Methods of Teaching Reading in I'm
graded Schools" was the subject of a care
fully prepared paper by Mrs. Carrie NJ
Aver of Liberty She illustrated various
ways of obtaining the thought from the
printed page, and concluded with series
of valuable suggestions.
Miss f. NJ. Reed, Ex-principal of the
Springfield, Mass, Training School, gave a
talk upon elementary Reading" She
spoke of the child's natural craving to get
at the thought in the printed page and
urged that this desire be fostered. Aftel
taking the elementary consonant sounds
she would proceed to the short vowel sounds
and assist the pupils to combine them in
known words. working up to the more diff
cult sounds This should be done with
known words. Unknown words should
first be associated with the ideas, before
sounding. Reading books should serve: LIST
for uency, 2nti for verifying knowledge, ID
for literature.
The next topic was 'Advanced Reading,
treated in most able manner by Prof. H. NJ
Estabrooke of the University of Maine
The Professor thinks there should be more
reading for readings sake in our higher
schools, particularly oral reading. BY ora
reading the pupils acquires fluent style OF
speech, his ear is trained to recognize the
beauty of sound and he is helped to clearer
understanding of all written thought. Prof
Estabrooke outlined several helpful exer
cises for obtaining full control of the voca
organs, and enriched his talk with many
gems of literature. After discussion the
meeting was adjourned until evening"
The evening meeting was opened by {
selection from an orchestra composed of 10
cal talent, after which the question box wa.
conducted by State Superintendent W. w
Stetson, in his own inimitable way.
second selection from the orchestra follow
ed, and then the President introduced thu
State Superintendent, the lecturer of tht
evening. His subject was "The Value O
Pictures as Educators After showing thu
need of cultivation of the picture sense
the speaker wove his talk about some of tn,
worlds masterpieces of art, illustrating hi
words by beautifully mounted copies o.
paintings by Millais, Landseer, Bodenhaus
ell and others. The interest with which
the large audience followed the speake
proved the truth of his words.
Mrs. Barker next rendered vocal solo il
a very pleasing manner, and after selec
ton by the orchestra the audience dispersed
Saturday morning Miss Reed had the frs
place with the subject, "Arithmetic, How
Much and How" She believes that thu
great principles underlying arithmeti
should be treated objectively and ever,
possible means taken to fix these in th
pupils minds; also that pupils should b.
led to discover as much as possible 70
themselves.
After this, Prof. Estabrooke spoke of tn
interest manifested III Orono in the Schoo
Improvement League, and told of the worl
of one Women's Club
| After intermission, S. c. Thompson o
! WiutarOOrt smoke ON ssShOul1 ROp<- apl1