Gloucester County Democrat., 1912-04-04
SCHOOL TEACHERS MEET
School Teachers and Others interest
ed Hear Good Addresses on
School Work.

School Work.
A large percentage of the school
teachers of Gloucester County met in
the Court House at Woodbury. Satur-
day and were entertained by talks of
expert educators. @
An interesting part of the meeting
was the large exhibit of manual
training work from the schools of
Pitman, Glassboro and Clayton. 1t
consisted of a great variety of fancy
work, brass work raffia work and
about every kind of tedious work of
that character.
Mr.. C. G. Prince was introduced
by Superintendent Steelman as the
first speaker, his subject being ''Pen-
manship" ''Penmanship, said Mr..
Prince, sis the vehicle of the child's
work. From so to rs per cent. of the
child's time, up to the 8th grade, is
spent in writing" There are about
SO different kinds of writing systems
in use, and all of them are good If
faithfully adhered to. Weak lungs,
spinal curvature, ETC., are frequently
the result of poor posture in writing.
In the case of but fifteen minute per-
iods of good writing, when good pos
ture, ETC., are insisted upon, and then
when the writing period is over, to go
back to any slipshod way which the
student may like, is defeating all the
good accomplished by the writing per-
iod Good posture, good position and
proper penholding must be made
habit and maintained throughout the
day"
The painful drawing out of the let
ters, no matter how beautiful they
may be, is not good penmanshiD.
Movement is the important thing, not
form. All children must write some
slant, but not all will write the same
slant, because of individual character
istics When writing, if the move
ment is correct, it should be possible
to see light under the wrist. A good
way to get the correct position of the
wrist, is to place piece of cardboard
on the writer's wrist, and if the
wrist is in the proper position, the
cardboard will not fall off, but If the
position is incorrect, it will immed-
lately fall off
The proper position for writing will
be obtained if the following rules
will be followed:
1. Always keep both arms on the
desk.
2. Always lean on the left arm
while writing. q
8. The paper should be held from
above and not from below.
4. The penholder or pencil should
point toward the right shoulder
5. The penholder or pencil should
cross at the knuckle, pointing at the
right shoulder.
Mrs. Borden, of Haddonfeld, a rep
resentative of the Rural Child-welfare
Committee of the New Jersey Con-
gress of Mothers, defined the object
of that Society, it being "Home-mak-
ing" The Society trains the girls to
become good home-makers. 1t teach
es that the small things are worth
while. To secure interest and enthu-
siasm in the carrying on of the work,
friendly contests are sometimes held.
Miss Bertha Ledden, of Glassboro,
sang very pretty solo accompanied
by the piano.
Supt. Geo. w. Twitmyer, of the
Wilmington, Del, public schools, was
the concluding speaker of the session.
The theme of his address was, What
is being done in the school of to-day?'
To-day, began Mr.. Twitmyer, is q
period of transition into newer and
better condition of affairs The
schools are to help the children into
a possession of themselves. There are
many kinds of agitation for conserva-
ton in this country to-day, but the
most important conservation, that OF
the child, is never heard OF. We may
go to Washington and find many de-
partments devoted to conservation, but
there is none devoted to securing the
conservation of our child life.
The school of to-day is "socialized
instrument" The school room should
be made inviting and attractive. An
atmosphere and spirit should be Great
ed into which the children may grow
into better things, and then the an
noying problems of the school Will
take care of themselves. There are
three important things to teach: 1.
The care and protection of the body.
2. Mental growth and development.
8. Enlargement of the students NOR
al and spiritual nature.
I'VE are looking ahead. Human
efficiency should be the end toward
which we work with the consequent
enlargement and enrichment of the
child's life. A fine ethical feeling and
a sense of the fitness of things should
be cultivated, and to secure the best
cooperation between teacher and pu-
Dill. the child should be taken into
partnership, and made to feel Jointly
responsible in everything that is
done.
Ex-Judge Starr.
Lewis Starr, whose five year term
as County Judge expired April 1st,
retires from office with a record for
legal acumen and prompt dispatch of
public business of which he may