Warren sheaf., 1907-01-10

NUMBER 6
and see what they have to offer. Only
along the lines Of reading, writing
and arithmetic / wish TO make
few suggestions in this circular and
4 hope it will not come amiss.
There is a tendency in nearly all
our schools to cover too much
ground and we must check this or
we will never be able to teach we'll
the things the children need most.
During the first two and most of the
third years at school we should not,
and must not try to teach the chill
dren nything, but reading with a
little paper cutting, counting and :
some writing Of figures and ords,
as busy work. 5
This IS the time to lay the founda
tion for good readers and you must
try to have the above named classes
read at least three short periods a
day, four would b. better If time all
lows it, and don'J forget to have the
children reproduce what they read, p
pronounce words with them, drill on
phonics some, and teach them the
difference between is, was, are, were,
has, have, etc.
Next, how many ofSour pupils at
the ages Of IA to l8 years can write d
good legible business letter, make
out a receipt, or write a good compo
sition? Jast try yours tomorrow
and if you find that most of them S
can not, which / know you will, just &
drop technical grammar for a month
or so and work with practical and
applied grammar, which you know is
just what they need. So with arith-
metfc. / find but in very few Of our
schools that large boys and girls
working away out in the back part
of our arithmetics' can work such
examples as: How many cords Of
wood are there in a pile of wood 1711ss
feet long and 9115 feet high?
How many acres Of land are there
in a tract Of land 80 rods long by l6
rods wide? %
How many gallons of water does a.
cis5ern 6 feet in diameter and 6 feet
deep hold?
How many bushels Of wheat does
a bin I feet by 5 feet by 3 feet hold?
How many square feet of lumber
are there in a plank 16 feet long
inches wide in. one end 9 in the other
and inches thick and what will it !
cost at S42. 90 per M Anyone stop
ping to think knows that PARTIAL and
lequational payments, exchange, com
pound interest, and all these things
! which we waste so much time With
will never be used by our boys and
girls and that on the other hand
problems like the foregoing are met
with nearly every day.
Let us drill thoroughly on addi-
tion, substraction multiplication and
division, get each child to learn the
MULTIPLICATION table so that he can
use it quickly and accurately. then
teach fractions, percentage and deci-
mails and their relation to each other
and while you are thus using the
text book make up practical examples
yourself in the evenings and bring
them to school the next day as sup
Elementary work This, being your
own production and meeting the
needs Of your particular school, will
do immeasurable good.
Let the children also make up pro-
/ blems where it may seem advisable,
and let them reverse the examples.
/ to prove them, as: Ifa pile of wood
contains 31@ cords of wood when it
4 is feet high how long is the pile?
d In like manner can we. make his
4 tory, geography, and the whole
] school curriculum interesting and
d profitable.
I Hoping you will try these or SINH
lar schemes and knowing you will
be pleased by the results
I am, yours for the best school
year in Marshall County
i. M. Mithun.