Amador ledger., 1909-11-26
AMADOR COUNTY
TEACHERS INSTITUTE
Minutes Of Proceedings.
November ls, 1909.


utes was omitted and Mr. Kirk took ut
the subject Logical Sequence in hand
ling the )pic of geography. The tendency
has been to grow dogmatic in our work
For many years it has been carried or
in bad way, contrary to the natura
procedure of the mind. Later or
came the thought 1--WE must begin al
home. This too has been carried on ir
all illogical way. Begin with natura
surroundings. The child must adap
himself to things about him The
fundamental ideas in arithmetica
geography study arc lst, Location oI
things End direction; 3rd; distance
4th area We fail to drill on relative
position of places. Do not teach posi-
iion of all the degrees of latitude, but
Just few important ones Fix we'll all
noted places, rivers, AMI mountain
systems. Servicable geography is not a
large quantity, but only few we'll fixed
points. The physiological eason for
beginning at home is that the child must
he given something to appeal to his
imagination, in order that he may learn
to reason and grasp thought Three
things are to be noted in relation to
home surrounding, viz People who
produce things; people who sell things,
and people who buy things. After the
home course take the pupil all about
the world. Show how conditions can be
improved by comparing home conditions
to. those points desired to be fixed in tn
mind of the child. Before the 4th or
5th year, bring in great deal about
home surroundings, some knowledge of
government. Get local geography, then
world geography. Just a few briefs
sharply cut lessons about shape, rela-
tive position, true notion of latitude
and longitude, great continents, few
great rivers, few ranges, countries, a
few words about people The logical
teacher grasps few great things. She
does not see how much she can teach,
but how much she can leave out
A discussion by Insti ute followed
which brought out the following.
Have in our work sequence by all means
lst. Home world-giving known things
to furnish patterns to grasp outside
world
2ad. Get necessary relationship of
home to outside world.
3rd. Fill in and expand the know
ledge of the world at large. Above all,
get your plan well worked out. Know
what you are trying to do. Hitch to the
historical part of the work the character
of the country in which the people live
and determine the occupations.
Mr. Armstrong, secretary of California
Teachers Association. and editor of
Sierra News, was introduced He pre-
sented in a very forcible manner,
reasons why the teachers should stand
together as body, that they might get
needed legislation to protest their rights
Some things that have been accomplished
by the association. The child labor
law; compulsory education law. The
60 per cent law. One thing the associa
tion is working for is to secure better
protection for rural teachers. Another
thing is to bring the county superin
;t,fr n1ncnr tOnOh uifb f1a
schools of their respective counties. The
three phases to be worked out are. the
question of salary; that the terms be
satisfactory; to secure ourselves for
the time when efficient service can no
longer be rendered In order to secure
these results we should have effective
organization. The state being so large
it is better to have several associations
meeting the demands of the teachers in
these centers, these sending delegates
to state association and thus concen-
trating their force in securing necessary
legislation Teachers should avoid sec
tionalism and work together for their
common good.
Prof Babcock next spoke of "School
gardens" " A school garden has been
called the fundamental prerequisite to
true nature study teaching. 1t teaches a
private care ofpublic property more than
a of teaching history will do. The frs
idea of public garden was to keep idle
people busy, especially giving the pool
a chance to obtain living by means o
cultivating vacant city lots. There is
nothing that does more toward eevatin!
the home life of the poor than schoo
gardening 1t means much to children
of large cities especially to those from
tenement districts. Things to be noteC