Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1914-11-20

subject she says until the mother was In despair
fearing the child's mind might be lopsided. At
meeting In New York however the
mother met Prof A. R.>Hornbrook, woman mathe-
matics teacher who soon put her the right track
Professor Hornbrook explained that Mrs. Stoner
had been successful in teaching music art poetry.
history and languages because she herself loved
those studies and had failed to teach mathematics
because she had not brought the fairy interest into
It. She volunteered to send weekly outlines OF work,
which Mira Stoner was to employ according to her
own ideas.
Mother and child then began playing games with
small objects, such beans and buttons. These
objects would be placed In q box and they would
take turns drawing them out to sec which could
get the most at . single grab. When helping the
maid shell peas they would try to see how many
peas there were in two or moro pods. IN this
way rudimentary lessons in addition were taught,
To make greater progress they played parchesi
with small dice and got practice from adding mp
the spots. First they used two dice. but finally
they used i've and Winifred sodn able to add
all the spots without conscious effort. They
played all sorts of games which would require
simple addition and multiplication. In learning
subtraction. they would have battles with tin sol
diers and marbles and whenever . cannon shot"
would topple over . given number Of soldiers,
winifred was able to decide how many were left
standing without stopping to count
Cancellation became . battle. one Of them play.
and the other playing the other. There never
were any quizxes. because Winifred was taught to
get results and was not taught rules She
learned the values Of money by the actual use
Of coins and the values Of market products BY
going to market herself. To learn pharmacists
weights and measures. Winifred played at keep
ing drug store and sold things to her mother.
And II went through the whole subject, until
at last the girl became fascinated with the funny
doings Of Mr.. X and got interested In algebra.
A. -
physical punishment When she did well. the good
Fairy Titania would hide goodies under her pill
low and when she was bad the fairy failed to ap-
pear II she was ten minutes tardy about some
task. that meant ten minutes lost which had to
be taken out Of her next recreation time. She
soon learned that onenses could bring about their
own unpleasant consequences. while good be-
havior meant tangible reward. She was never
permitted to stay at . single task when the point
Of fatigue had arrived.
striking instance Of Mrs. Stoner's methods,
well an illustration Of the child's intellec-
tual bias IL the story Of winifred and the humble
bee. In her zeal to study the insect at first hand.
she picked one up. The natural consequences
followsd While she was yet suffering winifred
described her experience in these lines:
One Jay saw . bumblebee. bumblins on q rose,
And - stood admirins him he stung me on the
Ny nose In pain II swellsd % large It looked Ike
. potato,
So daddy said: but mother thought twas more
like tomato.
And now. dear childrsn, this advice hope you'1
take from me.
And when you zee bumblsbes Just let that
humble BE-
Like her mother, Winifred believes IN woman
suffrage. She has written several poems IN b.
half Of equal franchise rights. which have been
publishsd In various newspapers and magazines.
Her ~valentines for Suhfassttes" are decidedly
elsv9 and have helped The causA