The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-11-11
TENT BOOKS.
Interesting Paper Read by John l.
Ainsworth Before the Teachers.

''What changes should be made in the
text books for the benefit of our publ ic
schools
This was assigned by the committee as
a basis for the few remarks which l shall
endeavor to present this afternoon, and |
wish to bring out a few facts, which,
though they may be different from any
other facts on the same subject now in
use, | hope will be acceptable to at least a
portion of this. concentrated representa-
ton Of intellectually, whatever that may
be.
Looking over the list of books nowfo found
in most of our rural schools l think l
could recommend a clean sweep" and
benefit the most of them; and it was in my
mind to close right now. and let the sub
ject be discussed. But | have not done
50, and whatever I may say later. want
to be distinctly understood as standing
emphatically in favor of my clean sweep
proposition.
In the first place we have been using
those books long enough; and how child
rem can stand it to sit and con the pages of
the same old books day after day, week
after week month after month and year
after year, is the language l wish to
brilliantly display until some doting par
need not &C to Denmark to discover the
decomposed condition of the something
which we have heard mentioned with re-
ference to thar Country only.
Man shall not live by bread alone isl
the quotation have been looking for, and
am glad have found it. 1t gently leads
me up TO an opportunity TO say that the
children under our care ought not to be
compelled to get an education or perhaps
complete an education, such as ii may be-
from a set of textbooks dryer than the
proverbial bread alone would b core,
Gentlemen. said teacher addressing
a school board in one OF the back town
ships "If something is not done here
and now to relieve the text book situation
| will write new set, publish them and
adopt them myself. Do you hear me?"
Placed in this situation that board was
forced to act, and now / sam tempted to
try that same plan. Most assuredly, some
thing would then be done, and l hear you
say, yea, truly.
write composition in which he should
say something about all the days of the
week, responded as follows: g." Monday
me and the old man killed bear, and
there was meat enough to last over Tues
day, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sat
urday and Sunday.
When Mark Twain said. I'VE are
nation of sixty millions of people. mostly
foo's l wonder if he intended it for Joke
or as stern reality, brought about by the
tact that, year after year, we have been
teaching children TO stand up book in
hand and read,
"a little bird with feathers brown,
Sat singing on tree;
His song was soft and low
And folks all thought, twas me
look into first book in geography
sometimes, and wonder if | could learn a
well as the children do now days, and |
give up. search the pages of our arith-
metics for something sensible and practi-
cal, and meet the old familiar features
of John Jones who divided his estate
among two sons and three daughters
wade through page after page of a speler
in quest of word which can properly
use in a sentence and finally pass the
book back to the children in the hope,
that as there are more Of them than there
is OF me, they may be successful. | peep
into a history. and find an interesting little
anecdote about Capt. Bragg, and the grape
shot, the authenticity of which is denied
in the next paragraph, or in a note a, the
close of the chapter
l do not favor the use of a language
book or grammar, which contains in
correct forms of speech in such profusion
as some OF them do. There will be plenty
of inaccuracies of language, even if have
to unintentionally invent them uuaided
and alone.
OF course a teacher should be able TO do
little work outside of the text book and
some of us can but We should have had
and ought to have a little co operation on
the part of those people whose business it
seems to have been to manufacture text
books to sell. Said lady once, Zone
must have food for the mind as well as for
the body, you know, and SO ! subscribed
for the Police Gazette; and there was in
tellectual meat enough in that publication,
suppose, to supply that family on Tues
day. Wednesday Thursday, Friday, Sat
urday, Sunday and Monday Yea verify!
she had killed bear, and some of our
school boards have obeyed the injunction,
go and do likewise and they have un-
mistakably not been out done by the lady
last above mentioned
The gentleman who was unable TO read
the bill of fare, but who wished good
dinner. indicated that he would have some
Of the first and a little of the last on the
bill, and he was given a tooth-pick and
glass of water. This is vastly more than
some of US get from the old text books,
because there was point on either end of
the pick, while we have text books con-
tanning but one, and that one as yet in
visible and undiscovered, unless il be in
the style, beauty and durability of the
binding.
Facts are stubborn things" and it
seems to me that they become only more
stubborn. clothed as they are in the
language of our school books, which
amounts to soldiers ration Of bareback
and no coffee
Give us something sensible.
Give us something reasonable.
Give us something attractive.