Norwich bulletin., 1912-05-25
THE TREND OF TEACHING SHOULD BE
 TOWARD COUNTRY LIFE

dragged into the pitiless maelstrom of city life. We would much rather they would stay on the farms, ana come into joyous possession of all the advantages of wholesome, race-up7 building country life.
 Let's begin with our country schools and see if we cant change them from hotbeds of discontent with rural con ditions. into nurseries of interest in country possibilities!
 It has fallen to the lot of woman school superintendent out in rural Iowa t6 put the thing in the cleverest phrasing l have seen. Teach a country child in terms of the country life" That is her gospel of eduea-
 tioH, which she is enforcing upon all
 the school ma ans of her big county
 They use text books. Of course; al
 ways will have to, more or less, though
 this lady has had to prepare one or two
 herself, in order to get something
 really useabe and useful But the chil-
 dren are also encouraged and shown
 how to read the books of the fields and
 learn the teachings of the hills. A
 visitor who chaneed into one of her
 schools at the opening heun recently
 found that the first morning exercise
 was in the indentification and history
 of plants mostly common weeds,-
 which the children had gathered on
 their way to school from roadsides
 and fence corners, They were not
 loaded up with lot of tengue-twist- ing botanical names, but each weed
 was identified by it's common name,
 its peoularitles of growth and color
 pointed out, its history briefly told, it's
 origin explained, its character made clear-whether pestiferous enemy
 of worthier plants or one possessing
 some use in itself Even the littleSt
 tOddlers were as interested in this as
 if it had been a game. Those in the
 fear of the long approaching teach CTS desk could hardly restrain their babish impatience to show what they
 had picked and find out what it was,
 They began their real school work the
 very minute they left their own front gates. The walk to school was not a doleful thing but a chance for some new and wonderful discovery. They didn't creep, like snail, unwillingly to school" like Shakespeare's unhappy sChoolboy, but hurried there as eager
 ly as if to picnic.
 All through the teaching day these | youngsters were taught in terms of the country life" Was 1t a lesson in
 grammar When the girl had defined a "compound sentencen and was ask ed to give an example of one, she didn't hesitate and stammer in blind
 mental search for some subject out of
 a textbook. She simply glanced out l of the window and remarked casually and naturally: Tt is 8 fine day and the farmers are picking apples" Was the subject arithmetic The lad wasn't asked what the net income would be from a six per cent, stock costing OF the market S97, but something like this: If you catch five muskrats and
 one mink this winter and sell four of the skins for 25 cents and one for 35 cents and one for s5.5O how much money will you have?" Any boy who lives near a muskrat brook can see the sense of such arithmetic as that and can take some interest in it, too.
 [ like that heretofore quoted phrase about Natures infinite book of se-
 crecy." And yet her secrecy is worn
 only as an outer garment to make pur-
 suit more attractive and discovery
 more enchanting. Her mystery is not
 moFose and repelling, but tantaIizing
 and tempting. Nor is it ever without
 coquettish willingness to be unveiled by the right hands and to the right
 eyes at the right time.
 She is q sweetheart better worth
 courting direct and in person than bv
 any text book proxy. She is a teacher
 who never makes mistakes,-if only
 we learn her lessons aright
 So ! hold up both hands and stamp
 approval with both feet for any at- tempt to get our young folks to study her at hFst-haHd and learn from her n her own school It is not only that
 they Will learn more things WGFth knowing in that way, but that they VIII know that which they know more | definitely and certainly. Above aIl and more important than all, the ten decy will be to increase the com ing geneFatiOn's respect and love for the great | nlFeFSai Mother
 The boy who has aRee got his eyes opened 10 the glory and sPlendar of his 1 country born inheritance won't be ! easily tempted aside by the coInpara - lively tawdTy adornments of ciUyar- ehitecture, The hoy who has once got Els marching stride timed to the ever ! mastering rhyme of natures stately atSkt&uASS A III hS Muen less likely to { De iured into following the Faucaus dis cards of eIeeus calIiope That boy ! who has early come to feel, in the tides
 oE his own heinz, the infinite and l eeerR2l power of natures tremendous < ebb and flow will be much less likely ' t@ had temptation iR the swirl and eFEl- { arInglement Of the crawling market < place.
 ! Ia 1ther words the youth who has ll-a.r. ..alre-s,t a--.a.lLia.--.al.- ---a.-