El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-07-23
No Desks In New School
Children Are Taught While at Play
and Whistle or Talk at VIII;
Each Pupil Has Garden.
- By Frederic J. HasKiR-
? AsHTNGToN. D. G. July 49,

within the reach of any country school
| district Therefore much thought was
given to its equipment, as being the
necessary first step that. once taken,
might perhaps determine the whole
| future of the school To get as far
| away as possible from the traditional
school room idea it was determined to
have no desks; to have three rooms,
! each to be used for a different pur-
/ pose; and to make the physical sur
! roundIngs of the children as home like
as might Diminishing every s'lg-
| geston OF the jail like school house
! with its rows Of desks and its prison
discipline.
: As the intention was for this school
| to multiply in the country districts,
! farm house was desired for the first
/ home of the new school Three rooms
were lifted up The first and largest
! one was furnished with a long table
| covered with burlap and was chris
| tened Teachers room" Curtains of
! Scrim SOftened the lines of the windows
/ without cutting off the light, ported
plants were placed before the windows
and the room given a cheerful air.
Broad shelves were built for writing
! and drawing materials, scissors, mod
cling clay, and sewing implements. A
Few chalrS We're grouped about the
I big table. Only the blackboard gave a
/ hlnt that this was school room
Fairy TaIes For School Books.
III the ldDlE were displayed the
| books, the school books, Mother Goose,
P1nafOre Palace, Robinson CruSOe.
Lang's Fairy Tales, ana the like.
The next room was turned into a
carpenters shop There were two
benches, very simply made, and such
! ordinary carpenters tools as saws.
hammers, chissels. square. a brace
and bit-nOthinE not eaiIy to be had
in any farming community
Ihe third room was dedicated to
cookery There was big coal range,
two kitchen tables. the cooking uten-
Sis, and dishes Again care was taken
not to have things that were not part
OF the most ordinary kitchen equip
ment-special devices of the dOmes-
tic science schools being barred in IA
Yor of the ordinary implements of the
common farm kitchen. And here also
the inevitable blackboard Seats were
placed on the veranda, and here, near
the pump, were hung the drinking
cups, one for each pupil, on numbered
pegs.
Such was the house. The garden and
the playground were there and with
garden for the wheel hoes, rakeS, hand
hoes and trowels, they were much as
nature furnished them
Becomes n Fact.
On March q, 1911, at 9 o'clock in the
morning, the Rock Hill school ceased
to be a project and became a fact
The experiment was launched Mrs.
Browne found eight children, two
boys and six girls. ranging from
to 9 years old, for her first human
material
In the garden the children found
that each of them was to have a gar
den for his very own, and they wanted
TO begin work instantly. A three foot
walk had been laid off down the mid
die of the garden By measuring, the
children helping it was found to be
40 feet on either side from this walk
to the fence SO each garden was to
be 40 feet long, and now it must be
decided how wide each was to be.
Each child wished for a very large
garden, but the teacher their zeal to a
width of seven feet so as to leave room
Regret to Go Home.
Walks were laid out, one foot wide,
separating the children's gardens. Diff
ficulty was found in getting the sides
straight and one of the boys suggested
the use Of a garden line. A piece of
Irvine was found and the children after
much measuring, finally laid off their
own gardens and began to dig with
pride of ownership That was the first
day at school and not a child would
90 home when school was out
Next morning the teacher found all
the children there when she arrived,
and all in the garden. They were too
eager to wait for the school bell!
Shades of ferrlue and switch! What
manner of school is this2
But some of the children had for
gotten what gardens were their own,
so they insisted that the gardens be
asked to go to the blackboard and
draw a plan OF a marker. They all
agreed on a stake with a cross piece
that should bear the name of the own
err OF course they talked all the time
trey were making the markers to |
each other and to the teacher, but the
talk was all of what they were doing.
One boy perhaps vaguely feeling the |
influence of past generations of school ]
children, asked il he might whistle as
he worked at the carpenters bench. /
Certainly said the teacher. And no 4
one thought il at all surprising that 1
McITer should whistle in SCHOOL,
Learning to Read.
Each part of the work of making the /
stakes was assigned to a particular !
child The assignments were written /
on the blackboard by the teacher No /
word was spoken The older children /
read their own orders, or whatever /
they may be called, and read the 9TH 1
ers to the younger children. Ambition /
to be able to read their own orders !
made 1t necessary for the tiny tads to 1
read They simply cOludn't get along
without it So a little sentence ap-
peared on the blackboard: 81 have 2
garden" And it was read aloud, and |
then everybody made the word seed" |
with the cut out letters on the table /
But there was no class in reading and /
no recitation in arithmetic, or no I
semblance of the conventional school
On the third day it was too wet to
garden, so grains of corn were put in
wet blotting paper to germinate and
some beans that were put in damp /
earth on the first day are examined.
They have sproutedi The teacher /
speaks of the bay bean, the seed coat,
the two leaves, the stem and root, and !
she writes the word "see" on the
blackboard. Then "see the potato, and /
they model a potato in clay, and they |
draw pictures of the bean on paper and
color them-a very fine game.
Measuring the Moisture.
On this third day the teacher asked
the children how much moisture there |
was in the soil in the garden. She /
didn't say that this was part of the /
work of the class in arithmetic. She !
Just asked the question. The tiny heads
puzzled over it, and finally one boy
burst out with the suggestion that /
trey get some of the soil and weigh it I
and then put it in the stove and dry it
out and then weigh again and see how 1
Inuch lighter It was. It was done, and
as the wet earth weighed two and
pounds and when dried out !
only two and four-eighths pounds,
everybody knew there was an eighth
Of a pound Of water in it. The num-
oerS We're written on the blackboard (
ana the final result was put there. too, I
put no one suspected that he was be- (
Ing taught mathematics
From the very first the afternoons |
were spent on that big veranda, the
teacher reading a fairy tale. and one /
Of the older children sometimes read /
-ng from Mother Goose, and then all of /
them QramatiZing the nfaoe &c Mrs J