Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1911-12-15

you like, do as you like.
Is this a schoolboy's dream? No, it
is a school right here in New York
city. Its students are ordinary chill
dren, just such as you meet every day
in the streets or see in the public
schools its teachers are men and
women who differ from ordinary men
and women only in their ideas about
how boys and girls should be taught.
To be specific, the school is at No.
104 East Twelfth street 1t was start
ed by the Francesca Ferrer associa-
ton. 1t is supported by voluntary con-
trbutions. Its teachers are Mr.. and
Mrs. John r. Coryell and its director
is Bayard Boyesen, who until recently
was a professor of Columbia univer
sity, says the New York World.
School having opened one morning
recently-opened not with the ring
ing Of bell but simply through the
arrival of Mr. Coryell and some Of the
pupils-a small sevehyear-old boy, pro-
duced pudding stone" from his
pocket, showed it to Mr.. Coryell, said
his father had told him it was sand
stone, and asked Mr. Coryell's opinion.
The teacher said it was "congomer
ate'-so called because it was a jun
lbled UP mixture of a lot of other
stones, fused together by heat.
The boy asked how it had got the
heat. This opened the way to a lesson
In geology and physical geography.
Some of the other children were in
terested; some of them not Those who
were listened in silence; those who
were not did something else or talked
among themselves.
His System of Teaching.
Mr.. Coryell traced back the changes
IN the earth, told how their history is
known, described the animals, birds
and plants that lived at the success
sive periods and of which traces are
now found in the form of fossils.
1t was not a lecture. He simply an
swerd questions. The boy who had
brought the stone led all the way in
the voyage through the ages, and Mr.
CoryeH merely acted as guide. Some
OF the other boys followed part of the
way, but one by one they ceased to be
interested and turned away to ether
things that interested them more.
The little inquirer, however, grew al
most excited with interest. And when
the journey ended he and his guide
were standing on the edge of the Arc
tic ocean, to the north of Siberia. as
sisting in the work of cutting from the
fnn "a -
been standing there frozen in for tens
OF thousands of years. On the way
they had formed the acquaintance of
many extinct beasts with names as
formidable as their pictures.
Tho journey had led over several
lands. They had spent the greater part
of the time in Siberia, and this in
volved few words on the geography,
history and government of Russia. No
information was given that was not
sought by questions.
knowledge CIeverIy InstiIIed.
A little girl brought to school a
piece of kindling wood to which a
small fan-shaped fungus still chung.
She had never seen anything like it
before, nor had any of those t~ne-
ment jewellers among whom she lived
The children crowded around as she
exhibited the strange object and ask
ed what it was.
Mr.. Coryells explanation led several
fthe children to seek further in
formation about funguses. Some of
them asked If they were not poisonous.
One wanted to know why SO many
Italians had been poisoned by them
early in the fall. Mr.. Coryell said that
this was because at home in Italy they
had been in the habit of eating a fun.
gus which was quite harmless. but
that looked almost exactly like one
found here in America that was dead
ly poison.
AS they were talking about wood a
boy said that some one had told him
that paper was made from wood, but
he did not believe 1t. The teacher de
scribed hiw wood is ground into pulr
and pressed out into paper, and he
added:
And I have necktie made OF
wood"
chorus asked him to show 1t tc
them. The following day he wore
the cravat, one of those of woven wood
fiber that SO closely initiate silk. He
took it off and passed it around the
class. The little fingers felt 1t and the
curious eyes scrutinized it closely.
The teacher explained how 1t was
made. He went on to tell of other
strange uses for wood and paper. That
the latter is pressed into car wheels
seemed to strike the children as only
less extraordinary than that the for
mer should be made into neckties.
Methods of Mrs. CoryeII.
A group of small children sat arount
Mrs. Coryell at table playing
game. She had distributed brass ring!
among them and asked them to SCI
who could make the prettiest patterr
with them. Instantly all the heads
were bent over the table and in a few
minutes stars and circles and geomet
trjt.li designs Wpra fa hing ahopa Tb,