Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1913-01-16

its contour, its rivers and climatic
conditions. The student will learn
best by combining actual contact with
the country by travel with book
knowledge. He cannot learn from
paper alone. The child is learning
fast in practical things before attend
ing school. Almost too fast for some
of us To keep up with him when it
comes to answering his questions.
When he commences school he must
be quiet. He must not make any per-
sonal Investigations i'll any line. He
cannot ask questions, he must answer
them. His normal activities are
blunted. He learns no longer from
nature but from books. His becomes
an artificial life. and | hold that it is
wicked to waste twelve to fifteen
years i'll getting an education when
half that time would accomplish better
results along practical lines. Better
have these six or seven years devoted
to useful and profitable labor than
spend them in misdirected uselessness
as now.
From the very first day in school
the child should learn more and more
OF the things that pertain to every
day life. All the secrets of the mi
croscopic world should be made clear
to him from day TO day by actual eX-
perence in the use of the glass. The
principles and laws of physics as they
are daily demonstratable; the facts OF
bacteriology which are now closed
book TO the vast majority should be
as familiar to the schoolboy and girl
as the butterflies in the road He
should learn of the chemistry OF soils,
the phosphates and carbohydrates and
their value. Most OF you people are
already lat sea" on these terms, but
they are vital 10 the proper knowl-
edge of even your farm life. Start
the children not at desk but in a
play-room or yard with a training
in the use of the hand and eye so
they will understand the need of read
ing and writing to convey impress
sions. Introduce the mysteries of ma
ture in botany and zoology by the use
of the test tube and the microscope
and begin that way, not waiting to the
later years of a. high school course,
which eighty-four per cent Of them
will never reach. Cultivate observa-
ton and original thought from the
beginning. Most students have these
faculties blunted long before they
reach college course or have oppor-
tunity to use them by the old system.
Teach elementary agriculture and do
mestic science from the very first
day the child attends school. To at
tempt in in the eighth grade today
without any foundation to build on is
farce, for the child knows nothing
of chemistry or its related sciences.
A new course of study along the
lines | have outlined will cure the
present tendency OF boys to get away
from the farm.
Many previous incorrigible boys
have been rescued at the last hour by
the introduction of manual training,
because there they found opportunity
to really do things. They kept them
selves busy and when they came to
mathematical problems which they
could not solve they came back to the
schoolroom to learn how and they
learned it, and then mastered the job
i'll manual training. One such boy
whom | noted finally finished the high
school, then the college, and the uni
versity graduating with honors and
working his way all through alone,
but he found himself back in that
manual training room after most of
his teachers had given him up. Boys
and girls trained to labor and for
practical work never become educ lated
parasites, nor cultured criminals
The common or district school OF
today cannot give the advantages of
manual training, the chemical, physi-
cal, botanical or meteorological lab
oratory. With their eight grades and
% to 80 classes or even five grades
represented with 20 classes their
teachers are performing now almost
impossible tasks. They have neither
time nor opportunity to add any other
Npih uiihNl iilN plOSNNlll Oul IL llllli.
The demand should be for change O,
system not added burdens to an al
ready overcrowded teacher. To look
for relief here is hopeless. There is
only one thing under heaven to do
and that is to forget everything in
connection with the little red school
house. Let history alone tell of what
it has done. 1t meets our needs no
longer. Today it is a stumbling block
to greater progress. What we want
now is a centralized school where the
interests of large number Of peo-
pie can be consolidated. A school
where you can hire competent in-
structors properly equipped with APP
paratus for the practical teaching of
every branch OF science and adapting
it to each grade The aim should be
to make the children lovers of doing
things. lovers of labor For man sue
ceeds best i'm what he loves TO do