The Tupelo journal., 1904-11-04
EDUCATIONAL BUREAU
Under Direction Of KATE MARKHAM POWER.
Helen KeIIer,s Life.

Helen KeIIer's Life.
Il may be that I am wrong, but to
me 1t seems that the story of no hui
man life that has been written should
signify SO much to a teacher as Helen
Keller's STORY of My Life" In this
book-thrilling with interest through
every word-this wonderful blind girl
tells the story Of her life, a life OF sim
gular purity and beauty, filed to the
utmost capacity with all that is best,
and gives to the world her letters Of
fifteen years.
With this is a history of her educa-
ton by John Albert Macy and Anne
Mansfield Sullivan. Her education to
a point where she could graduate from
Harvard (Radcliffe) with honors, de-
spite her blindness and other terrible
limitations as a deaf mute, is in it.
self one of the marvels Of this marvel
u age. Another point of exceeding
interest is the fact that no woman of
her years, in this age, can count so
many and such great men and women
as her friends. The best and the high
est in ability and character in this and
other countries count it q privilege to
have the friendship Of this girl whose
only asset in her childhood was misfor-
tune. How nobly she has developed
from that dark and silent childhood in
to a radiant womanhood, is the lesson
that her life-story holds and which all
teachers should study. If there is, in
all this land, a teacher who can read
this book and not be a nobler and
more successful teacher, she deserves
our pity-and has it. This charming
story Of the unfolding OF a mind linn
tied by the absence of all ordinary
avenues of learning is worth a hun
dred times as much by way of inspira-
ton to a teacher as any amount of the
orizing about minds with no %apprecia-
BILE limitations. Every teacher would
be the stronger for having read this
girls own story of her life; and surely
greater patience will come with the in
innate knowledge of Miss Sullivan's
part in unfolding the close-shut leaves
of this, now beautiful, human flower.
The Value of Scrap Books.
1t may be hat the suggestion / am
about to make has in it nothing new.
If SO, | truly rejoice, because both pu-
pills and teacher are reaping the varied
benefits accruing from the work. If
not, however, l would like to urge up
on the teachers of the older children
the great good of interesting their pu-
pills in making good s~crap-books. At
first these may be general in their ma
tf,rn ond 1ofnr DC intoroct on6 hnnw1.
edge grows, the work may be special
ized," and books devoted to one sub
ject. | know of one young girl who
had a strong interest in the life OF
Mary Queen of Scots and has collected
from magazines and other sources ar
ticles, illustrated or not, as it happens,
verses, pictures or buildings and local
tiles and portraits relating to this he
rome, and has put them into a single
scrap-book, making a volume in which
she takes much pride. When she can
not obtain a printed copy Of an extract
she wishes to add she does not hest
tate to copy it out neatly upon the
pages of her book, which is merely q
large composition book"
The educational value of such work
is by no means slight, since to know
one thing we'll one must needs learn
much of many others. Indeed, 1t has
been said more than ice that to know
one thing completely we should have
to know all things.
There is a good suggestion here.
You will be surprised, if you begin to
gather material upon some topic, to
see how much is printed about your
.favorite subject.
1t Is wisest, though, to restrict the
work somewhat, as the choice of too
wide a subject frequently results in .
waste of the time put into the work.
The Indian School Journal.
OF all the many papers and maya
zines that come to this office, few have
given me greater pleasure than the lit
tie paper published each day by the
pupils of the model Indian School at
the Worlds Fair. This is an attract
i've four-page paper called the Indian
School Journal, and 1t is altogether
the work of the boys of the United
States Indian School at ChilOcca, Ok
lahoma, under the instruction OF e. X.
Miller. This school is, l believe, the
largest Of our government schools for
Indians and has certainly made a fine
impression at the Worlds Fair. There
are about one hundred pupils at this
Worlds Fair school, which is located
on the Indian reservation, in the midst
of all sorts and conditions of Red
men. There are gathered a number of
old Indians, living in primitive fash
ion and using the crudest implements
and utensils. AS their forefathers
lived, so do they live, in the very CEN
ter Of the heart of the world With
in the reservation is this school,
which speaks louder than words could
ever speak of what education has done
for the Indian. A visitor to the school
will see few books, but many boys and
girls working at the trades by which
they expect to earn their living when
they leave school. 1t has been found
that manual training is best adapted
to turning the Indian into a useful cit
iEen. There you will ind boys doing
farm work, caring for stock. (Practi-
cally ali Indians W land, you know,
and ought to be taught how to use it to
tho best a~dvantage.) You will ind
them doing blacksmith and carpenter
work, making brick, burning lime, cut
ting stone, working in leather and sill
yer. The girls are trained in domestic
science, for they will have houses to
keep clean and families to care for.
They learn to cook, sew, nurse the
sick, raise chickens, make butter and
cheese and to work in all the native
arts In which Indians excel-basket
and blanket weaving and the making