The Mena weekly star., 1909-12-09
CLASSIFICATION.


 organization of school containing but one department, is to establish continuity of successive and pro gressive work, from year to year during the usual school life of the child. The order of the studies should be so arranged as to be adopted to the healthful develop ment of the cnild's faculties. These several studies have a natural de- pendence upon each other and are SC related as to strengthen his powers for acquiring knowledge. provided they are presented in this natural order. Hence, a definite object of attainment can be presented to the pupil in given course; fixed amount of W as the minimum can be successfully presented to those who are under our care as subjects of development.
 With this view of the subject, there must of necessity be certain branches of study better suited to pupils advanced in school life, than to the beginner of tender years. This must lead to some system of classification; this system must meet the wants of the pupil and at the same time be adapted to the imme- diate surroundings of the school.
 The most convenient divisions of mixed or ungraded school olscems to be u at of three divisions, or depart ments. In France these divisions are called Lower. Middle and Up per Classes; in Switzerland these divisions are called First, Second Third Groups; in Prussia they are Lower. Middle and Upper Grades; Austria calls the divisions Groups; in the United States there has been but little done in this direction, but the graded schools call these divi- sions Departments. The term divi- sion seems to be quite appropriate and best understood by the rural population. hence we adopt these terms. The term. Department or Grade seems to carry with it some thing indicative of city school life, and arouses prejudices of the rural inhabitants and in the mind of the average country pedagogue to a greater extent than the term divi- sion. Adopting this term, and fol- following the plan of those counties which have given much attention to systematic classification of the schools, we adopt the terms Primary, Intermediate and Advanced diyi- sions, as possibly the most expres- sive to those who are most concerned.
 Since the age cannot be relied up on to indicate the advancement of the pupil, some other basis of classi- fication must be adopted. All at tempts to classify under the head of time have thus far proved unsatis- factory, and have been abandoned sooner or later. The element of time, therefore, cannot be the basis of a thorough classification. It is believed that the readers afford the best basis for present classification | in the country school. It would seem necessary to classify from some thing in common, as that which is not common to all would fail to in clude all. Much has been said and more has been written upon the sub feet of classification in the county school, bnt no practical scheme sue ceeds so well as that of making tho reader the basis of classification foi all branches of study. It is custom ary for pupils to read all the way through school life, from the time they enter the First Reader unti they leave the school in the last reader used. It is the experience o1 the writer, from an investigation made some years since. that thou
 sands of pupils read in the classes a a regular daily exercise. Gin tht adopted reader) for twice the mum Der of years necessary to make then
 SAYS HE KIDNAPPED OWN SON