The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1905-04-08


The meeting of the county teach
ers association held at Richardson
Friday evening, March 81, was quite
a success, considering the unfavor-
| able weather and the inconvenient
location of the place in respect to
regular means of transporta ton.
There was good attendance of
teachers, and the local interest was
such as to pack the house with an
attentive audience. The county
superintendent, Mrs. G. B. Buxton,
and the following named teachers
we're present: From Lopez island,
G. R. Weatherby, Florence Allyn,
Louise Wakefield and Mildred Ire
land, from Orcas island, Fl. E. Loop,
Bessie Boyer, Belle Williams and
Evelyn Nichols; from San Juan ISL
and, N. B. Stump, F. F. Joubert,
Grace Sharp, Christine Clausen and
Nellie Sweeney.
Considerable time was given to a
discussion of Laing's Manual on Read
ing Miss Williams reviewed the
authors line of thought leading up
to the Concentration Method" Miss
Ireland spoke of Getting the Cen
trail Thought" and Miss Sharp dis
cussed the chapter on Reading To
gether." Miss Clausen followed with
a paper on primary reading, in which
she gave suggestions for analyzing a
word into it's elementary sounds and
teaching the diacritical marks that
represent them. In discussing the
paper Mr.. Joubert asked whether
child from the 4th grade on should
not, by the aid of diacritical marks,
be able to pronounce the new words
he found in his text books; and no
one would answer no.
Mr.. Weatherby gave an interesting
talk on Nature Study. He began by
asking why we should teach it. Mr..
Joubert gave this reason: "Ch lid
hood is the proper age to acquire
the multinudinous facts on which the
more mature mind later bases its
generalizations, called natural laws.
Miss Clausen said ''study of nature
developed a love of the beautiful.
The speaker emphasized this last rea-
son, adding the thought that a study
of the created forms about US would
lead the child to a contemplation OF
the Creator. Taking the study of
plants as an illustration of the i'm
portance of the nature study, he cal
led attention 10 numerous interesting
facts which pupils could be led to dis
cover. Mr.. Weatherbys admirable
talk was married, however, by the
number of questions he took pains to
ask Mr.. Joubert. 1t seemed doubt
full at times whether his main object
was to suggest to teachers methods
in nature work or to give that gen
tleman an oral examination in bot
any. Mr.. Joubert cheerfully ans
wered all his questions, and apparent
ly to Mr.. Weatherby's entire satisfac
tion
By way of recreation two recita-
tions followed. Rose Stevens, a pu-
pil of Miss Wakefield, recited "Billy
and the OWL very skillfully y-both
the Irish brogue and the boot; and
Miss Wakefield herself gave hu-
morous selection.
The teachers then formed them
selves into an arithmetic class. Mrs.
Buxton sent Mr.. Loop, Mr.. Joubert,
Miss Sharp and Miss Wakefield to the
board and read a problem to be
solved. All had their work in the
form of equations except Mr.. Loop,
who had placed on the board only
the mechanical operations necessary
to get the answer A lively tilt be-
tween him and Mr.. Joubert followed.
Miss Allyn read paper on the rel
ative Importance of arithmetic.
| Mr.. Graham asked the teachers
what subject was of most value to
one who would have more or less bus
;n.ss to transact. Mr.. Loop and Mr..
1 Ioubert both held that it was not
arithmetic but reading. In other
words the amount Of arithmetic need