El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-07-24


boy or little girl, your
father and mother had sent you to
| school where you had nothing to 40
all day long but play, wouldn't you
| have thought them kind? Probably
| you went to a school and sat for long,
silent hours on a hard bench longing
| to be out of doors, and yet trying TO
master a multiplication table that was
absurdly silly.
Now all that sort of thing is done
away with in the experimental rural
| school at Rock Hill, S c. In the Rock
Hill school the children learn not only
| the multiplication table and the rules
| of grammar, but they learn a great
| many things in botany and zoology and
chemistry from the very first day IN
school Of course the teacher is too
| kind ever to make use of the Word
grammar or chemistry" for she is
helping all the children to have good
| time and it would spoil the game 10
make work of any little thing AT
Rock Hill an education comes natural
ly-it's all in a days fun
Kitchen as school Room.
The very second week of the schools
life the kitchen began to be a center
of activity. The children made an in
ventory Of all the utensils and dishes,
the little ones counting aloud as Wen
as they were able, the older ones max
ing lists. The spelling in the lists was
| corrected and the best one pasted up
in the cupboard door Sometimes
Kitchen WOTk IS dirty 50 the LONSAo
| had to be provided.
Get Lessons in Washing.
One day the towels must be washed
The teacher asks all the children about
ious methods in use in as many homes
But the school decides that the school
towels will be washed in soap, boiled
/ in sOapy water, washed again without
soap and then rinsed twice The
/ teacher writes the orders on the black
board:
Fire-PauI and Jack
Tub-Silas
Line-LOnnie and Marion.
Water-Bennie, Clarence, McIver and
Estelle.
TOweIs-Bruce-
Clothes pins-Margaret
Soap and washboard-Sara-
BY this time even tiny Nell has
| learned to read her own orders. (The
school is now entered on its fifth
I week.. The materials all provided,
each child washes his own towel, and
puts II in TO boil Then all or them
take the "cut OUT letters and make
on the table such words as rub, tub,
water. soap, towels, wash Then they
read real reading lesson Rub, rub,
rub! See my tub. This is washing
day. I like to wash. Do you like TO
wash? When the towels are being
( washed through other waters they all
sir the Mulberry Bush-"This is the
Waw We wash our clothes, wash our
clothes" and when they were dried
they were irOned TO the same songful
accompaniment
When the washing was done every
body went to the garden and found
| that the turnip and squash leaves Were
( Curled up in the heat. What went with
! the water that was in the towels when
| they were first hung on the liner Does
l the water leave the turniD leaves in the
| same Way2 And If We had rolled up
towel would it have taken longer to
dry Out2 That is why the leaves curl
! on hot day. so that they won't dry
out so quickly, the teacher tells them
| And they know it is true. But they
/ don't know they have had an elemen-
| tary lesson in hydraulics.
How Grammar Is Taught.
Z Now the teacher had never said a
| word about grammar. but without say
| ing anything, in writing down new
| words to be learned one had always ar
| ranged them in columns. the names Of
/ things in the left column. words deS-
/ of action in the third. The children
| naturally grouped nouns, adjectives
J and verbs in this order. The children
! copied from the blackboard the title
wrote what they pleased, but followed
| Mrs Brownies cOlumnar habit of ar
! ranging words
Cooking and Eeating.
Literature and language-hOw many
| crimes against innOceDts have been
| done in school in the name Of lettersi
| Robinson Crusoe and Mother Goose
are the literary mentors at Rock Hill
| and how the children do enjoy them.
| They dramatize everything of course,
! and Robinson CrUsOe is so long that
] they make an island under the null
7 berry tree in the yard and the teacher
! reads from the big book and some of
| the children read from the simplified
| book and then all act Robinson CrUsOe.
| It's great fun! 1t takes more than
| i've weeks, and they get tired in the
farn ct Z
| 10 the island and play Robinson. Some
| times eat there. too, for the boys make
! fire with sticks like Robinson did and
| cook meat over the coals-hOld it over
! the fire stuck on a sharp stick, just
like he did on the island. And before
long all can read and all take turns
/ reading the part they are going to act.
| And cook! And eati They eat the
| things they grow in our own gardens.
| OF course they grow more than they
I can eat at school, so they take some
| home and some they sell and keep the
pocket money for their very own. That
Is the way they go to school in Rock
Perhaps no part of the whole school
| Work was more successful or more
! pleasant than that done in the kitchen.
| Peas taken from the children's own
| gardens are 10 be cooked for luncheon.
| The orders for picking and preparing
| The peas, and washing them and cook
| mig them, and keeping up the fire, etc,
a. Z put Oh AAAC DOdLu- On the BOARD IN
I teachers room are the orders for set
ting the table-each pupil being as
| signed a particular task by that sill
! ent bit of chalk
| Teaches Them How to Eat
And when the food is cooked and put
on the table a simple grace is said.
There is no hurry, for Mrs. Browne
eats slowly and so do the children.
| They learn how to use their knives and
4 forks properly. They also learn that
/ 1t is nice to talk and tell stories at
the table, and each child tells a story
or there Is more often a discussion OF
I crops and the weather, but the teacher
tries to guide the talk away from shop
and toward the broader fields Of gen
eral culture.
! Sometimes, when there is time, there
IS banquet and the children make
little speeches and learn how to be al
ease in any place. All this to counter
act the damning blight of the silence
that broods in the farm house silence
| partly due TO adage that children
should be seen and not heard-an old
saw that has produced countless thou
sands Of i'll at ease, shy and silent
country boys and girls. You see It's
all in the days fun, and if we like to
! go to dinner parties and talk and hear
stories, and have a good time why
! shouldn't We learn how when we are