Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-18
Forty Thousand Capital Pupils
Greet New Teachers.
NOT A HITCH IN PLANS
Organization Work Is Accomplished
With Dispatch.
NO DOLEFUL FACES TO BE SEEN
Children Welcome Opening of
School After Long Vacation.
Colored Glasses Taxed.

Washington's children went to school
today for the first time this season. and
SO we'll has the work of anticipation been
accomplished that before 10 o'clock the
school world appeared to have been run
ming along continuously without a break
all summer long.
Ihe promptness, the readiness and the
smoothness with which every teacher and
child stepped into their places and took
up the work Of the three HIS" is the
most conspicuous feature of the opening
day. The three HIS is Supt William NJ
Davidson's advanced term for the old
fashioned three RS Head, heart and
hand have taken the place of the old
fashioned readin, ritin', and rithmetic
Not that DR.. Davidson has suddenly in
stalled a new method of instruction, fol
such is not the case.
Washington schools opened today with
the carefully built up system and meth
DDS of instruction which have made these
schools the pride of the city and country
and the new superintendent of schools Il
waiting today to find out just how good
the teachers and children are.
From the very little folk who went to
kindergarten this morning for the very
first time in all their happy five years
OF life up to the normal school girls, who
enter on their last year of instruction to-
day, there was not a doleful face in all
the 10000. They say that the cartoon
lists idea of drawing schoolboy with a
mournful countenance is an exploded
idea-one that died out when the bundle
OF switches for discipline was cast into
the furnace, some years ago.
School Is Pleasant Nowadays.
The teachers are taking the view that
their pupils like to go to school and are
anxious to get back again. Any one who
took the trouble to look at the children
as they went from home this morning
with their new clothes and clean faces
would have had hard time to find q
face that told of a heavy heart. 1t must
be that school is a pleasant institution
these days and that teachers are not a
all unpopular.
E. l.. Thurston, assistant superintendent
Of schools, was talking about that very
thing this morning.
Why" he said, schools are fine. Chill.
dren like them. The modern idea of edu
eating children is not the iron-clad thing
| 1t used to be. l met seven children, by
chance. on my way to the Franklin
School this morning; all of them were pu
pills of my old division, and every one
Of them took the trouble to stop me and
say they were glad to get back again
Some of them like certain studies and
are interested in the way the studie:
are taught. Others want to see theil
friends again; others are naturally tired
Of their long vacation.
To prove this all one would have tt
do would be to learn how easily the
classrooms turned into regular organized
SchoOlroomS this morning, with teacher
holding the attention of the pupils ir
about ten minutes. It was all done as
easily as pie, to use a childS expression
hay n n
them got there at half-past 8; then the.
went inside and took their seats; then
having been marshaled for their promo
tionS they went to their new teachers
and in five minutes they were at ease.
How to make forty thousand pupils be
have properly on the first day of schoo
Is one of the secrets of the teaching pro
fession. The eighteen hundred teacher!
in Washington evidently know the secret
Receptions at Kindergartens.
The kindergarten teachers held yer,
pretty receptions today when the five
year citizens came to school. There Is q
pretty story in every child who enrolled
today, and a pretty story in the member.
Of every class who gathered around il
their little chairs, not five minutes aftel
the bell rang to hear the first story from
the lips of the pretty lady who is goins
to prepare these young men and womer
for the more serious work Of the frs
grade next year.
Here is just one story of a five-and-a-
half-year-old girl who went to the
Powell School kindergarten for the first
time today, and, of course, it is oily one
Of many. She is probably as pretty a
little girl as there is in the world. with
her golden hair. cut Dutch fashion, ano
her face and arms Drowned by the sur
of a vacation at the seashore, to say
nothing of a spair Of chubby legs on
which short pink socks looked as nice as
a flower itself. Well, she was dressed
for school at o'clock this morning, and
the face-washing preliminaries than sh.
burst out of her house and ran to See
her little fve-year-old neighboc next
door.
Harry" she called through the screen
door; don't come over to see me, be-
cause l am going to kindergarten today.
and l can't have any callers"
The big" boys and girls who filled
the graded schools were not at all be-
school Fairgrounds before the bell
rang. There were thousands of them
on the streets. Every one saw them
today and their presence recalled to
the business men and women that
there was another year begun.
Of the first four grades by getting
them acquainted, and the very first
language lesson of the year was the
teachers method of getting her little
friends to tell the marvellous adven-
lures of the long vacation. Then they
went through a little review work.
just enough to get their minds on the
real business of the school, with just a
little step in advance SO that no pupil
can say he or she learned nothing at
all today.
Normal Schools Open Early.
In the high schools the organization
was a little more complicated. but just
as effective Already the new high
school scholars have begun to feel a
little of the wider freedom and the
heavier responsibility which their
courses demand.
In the normal schools the work
started early. Large entering classes
give the school officials something to
themselves for
It was just snatch of talk which a.
Star reporter heard in Normal School
No. l. where Miss Cooling. the principal
was explaining matters to her new pupils
She was telling them of the business of a
teacher, and SO fascinating did this busi-
ness Of teaching seem and SO many fine
things for pupils in the wears tn come