Arizona sentinel and Yuma weekly examiner., 1912-01-18

rive when you like, learn what you like, talk when you like, laugh when you like, do as you like.
 Is this schoolboy's dream? No. it Is a school right here in New York city. Its students are ordinary chil- 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. IDA East Twelfth street. It was start ed by the Francesca Ferrer associa- ton. It is supported by voluntary con- tributions. Its teachers are MT. and Mrs. John R. Coryell and its director Is Bayard Boyesen, who until recently was professor of Columbia univer- sity. says the New York World.
 School having opened one morning recently-opened not with the ring ing of a bell but simply through the arrival of MT Coryell and some of the pupils-a small seven-year-old boy, pro- = duced a pudding stone" from his pocket, showed it to MT. Coryell, said his father had told him it was sand stone, and asked MT. Coryell's opinion. The teacher said 1t was "conglomer- ate"-so called because 1t was a jum- bled 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.
 MT. 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.
 It was not lecture. He simply an swerd questions. The boy who had brought the stone led all the way in the voyage through the ages, and MT. Coryell 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 other things that interested them more.
 The little inquirer, however, grew al- most excited with interest. And when the Journey ended he and his guide l were standing on the edge of the Arc tic ocean, to the north of Siberia. as- sisting in the work of cutting from the ice the body of mammoth that had 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.
 The journey had led over several lands. They had spent the greater part Of the time in Siberia, and this in- Volved a few words on the geography, history and government of Russia. No | information was given that was not sought by questions.
 Knowledge CleverIy InstiIIed.
 little girl brought to school a piece of kindling wood to which A small fan-shaped fungus still clung She had never seen anything like if before, nor had any of those tene- l .ment dwellers among whom she lived. The children crowded around as she exhibited the strange object and ask | ed what it was.
 MT. CoryelIs 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 i early In the fall. MT. Coryell said that this was because at home in Italy they | had been in the habit of eating a fun l 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 l boy said that some one had told him that paper was made from wood. but | he did not believe it. The teacher de | ;scribed hiw wood is ground into pulp | and pressed out into paper, and he added:
 And I have a necktie made of wood"
 A chorus asked him to show 1t to | 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 1t around the class. The little fingers felt it and the | icurious eyes scrutinized it closely. , The teacher explained how it was made He went on to tell of other | strange uses for wood and paper. That | Hho Ioffor ;e Into oor Il