Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-12
Plan to Make Small Scholars
Feel at Home.
TO CARRY CHAIRS AROUND
Light, Movable Desks Also to Pc
Tried in First Grades.
KEEP PUPILS NEAR TEACHER
idea to Remove Fear Of Formally
by Making Family" Groups
Of Little Ones.

To take away the old fear of the stiff
disciplined schoolrooms and make them
into a nice little meeting place, where
children have a splendid time, and In
cidentally learn more and better lessons
than children ever learned before. an en-
tirely new experiment will start next
Monday which will result in an enormous
investment in new furniture IL the scheme
at the Franklin School,, where the brains
pertinent will mark the first step in an
entirely new method Of teaching the
very young school children.
The idea Is from the brains OF Stephen
E. Kramer, director Of intermediate In
struction, and John A. Chamberlain, SUI
pervisor Of manual training, and is brand
new in school circles.
The scheme has to do with the little
stif-legged desks which the children in
the first and second grades have studied
at from the early times when desks sup
planted the old-fashioned FORMS" The
desks sit In rows, formal and formidable,
and the black iron legs of the desks and
the stiffness with which these little pieces
of furniture sit on the floor all add to
the strictness of discipline which in these
latter days is beginning to be looked upon
as having disadvantages as well as ad-
vantages.
Movable Table Desks.
Mr. Kramer has devised little table
desk, only a few pounds in weight, which
any first-grade child can lift up and
carry around the room. Mr.. Chamber
lain drew the plans and made the mod
els. A little chair goes with each small
table desk, and both desk and chair can
be picked up and carried anywhere In tho
Schoolroom.
The idea is to get away entirely from
the old-fashioned penitentiary-like school,
room air for the younger children. MT.
Kramer is going to put these little port
able tables and chairs in two OF the
spractice schools the first
grades at the Force and the Franklin
schools Practice schools are the show
pieces of the educational plant. Children
who attend them have distinct advan-
tage over those who attend ordinary nrst
and second grades. Teachers newly ap-
pointed, as a rule, are assigned to hrst
grades, and to be promoted In salary 10
any great extent they have to be as
signed to higher grades. The result Is
that there is a constant drain on the
lower grades for teachers, and new ap-
pointments are being made in the lower
grades faster than anywhere else.
However, a few teachers who have the
gift Of teaching the very young are kept
in the first grades at comparatively high
salaries. These are the teachers OF the
practice schools and the advanced ex-
periments in pedagogics are intrusted to
them.
All Can Sit Near Teacher.
1t will be with two of these gilt-edged
teachers that the new experiment OF
gather round me. children" will be
made The children will be taught to use
their desks only when they have to.
When the teacher wants to tell them
simple tale of how one and one makes
two, they will pick up their little chairs.
push aside the desks and sit around the
teachers chair in a very fascinating little
family group. The chairs and desks nave
rubber tipped feet. SO there will be little
noise.
In this way the teacher will get right
in among her children. When she Is dem
onstrating at the blackboard the little
boys and girls will bring their chairs ana
sit close to her. AS every one knows,
the present method of having straight
and stif lines Of desks and chairs makes
IL imperative that some OF the children
will have to sit far off in the back row.
The idea will gain favor, 1t Is believed.
and will also take away a little or the
first fear of the schoolroom that small
children have