New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-06-14
SCHOOL in which all the work

O SCHOOL in which all the work
n is play, in which there are no
dos" and "donts" and IN
which the child learns by doing things
ne likes to do is America S latest con-
tribution to the science OF education.
1t is the School of Organic Educa-
ton at Fairhope, Ala, and its funda-
mental principle is directing, rather
than forcing, the growth OF the pupil
In this school there are no grades,
no examinations, no promotions and
consequently no failures. There is
merely growth-merely natural de-
velopment along the lines of the
child's individual desires and aPti-
,udes. The child who lacks the math-
ematical faculty, for instance, is not
required to struggle with forbidding
tasks in numbers.
The burden of conscious striving to
do a task merely to have done 1t never
encumbers his mind. He never is
asked to do anything which is I'M
pleasant to him, and although IT may
be found necessary for MIN to acquire
knowledge of subjects that do not at
tract him. he is led to do so uncon-
sciously and without any feeling OF
unnatural effort. In short, organic
education is teaching the child to lead
a natural life, such as he might choose
if his own instincts never were inter
Tered with. and helping him to derive
from that life a knowledge which shall
be a kind of second nature to him.
Makes Use Of Montessori Principles
The founder of the new system, or,
-ther, the one who developed IT, is
Mrs. Marietta L. Johnson, tor many
wears a teacher in American public
schools. Mrs. Johnson has made use
of the principles laid down by Nine.
Montessori of Rome, but she has
gone much further, not only in ex-
tending the work beyond infant train
ing but also in the application Of re-
suits.
In Mrs. Johnson's school the young
children, instead of sitting at desks
with the teacher trying to coax read
ing, writing and number work into
them. spend the time making things
out Of paper, hbres, cardboard, clay
and other material that they can cas-
ily mould to their own thoughts They
have gardens in which they plant what
they choose, with the sympathetic as
sistance of the teacher. They listen
TO stories Of history and foreign peo-
pies
They learn a great deal of poetry,
which the teachers recite to them;
but memorizing this is not forced by
drill. They dramatic the stories and
the poems that they learn, so that
their stories and poems mean more
than mere SUGGESTIONS of words, so
that they learn to understand what
they hear in a vital, dynamic way.
They have an opportunity to learn
modern language by hearing it spok-
en-. for Mrs. Johnson realizes that the
speech centres develop early, and
utilizes them when they will produce
the maximum results with the least
effort
Outings Are for Pleasure.
The teachers are allowed to take
the children out of doors or away
from the school whenever they so
wish. The children go out to see the
tadpoles hatch out or to watch the
buds burst open; they visit the black
smith at work; they watch the field
workers, and help where they can.
All this is done for the pleasure and
profit that comes from the doing, not
for the purpose of gathering material
for compositions" or for passing ex-
aminations.
Mrs. Johnson believes that children
in the cities could proftably visit the
parks and the museums, the shops
and the mills, the docks and historic
sites 10 great advantage. She believes