The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-06-21

since the school started Among the
I teachers at present in the school are
two men serving life sentences and
one serving a term Of twenty five
years
The attitude Of the teachers toward
the pupils is the kindly, helpful
sort that characterlzes sympathetic
teachers everywhere and If the
teachers are anxious to give all the
| assistance in their power the pupils
are equally anxious to take advantage
OF the help offered them.
Courses Taught Are simple,
The courses taught are, of course,
the most simple and rudimentary,
very little above the kindergarten in
many cases. Where there are so many
varying degrees OF intelligence and
so many obstacles to he overcome,
particularly among foreigners some
of whom speak little English. II is
extremely difficult 10 maintain regu-
lar classes. There are n number OF
mental detectives in the school whose
disadvantages in this regard have TO
be considered. while others make such
rapid progress that they soon dis
lance their fellows. Some of the
quickest learners are found among
the negroes. The prison population
is 66 23 per cent negroes and the
percentage or negroes IN LIE HE ut
school is about the same.
The teacher called one of his pupils
forward who had just finished a les
, son IN writing. The man was an in
telligent looking mulatto, with the
good humored smile characteristic OF
his race. Although he knew only q
few letters In the alphabet when be
entered the school less than two
months ago and could neither
read nor write. he exhibited q page
which he had copied from reader
in a very fair chirography and read
/ the lines of a simple poem with few
mistakes. When asked questions about
the subject matter of the poem he
answered readily.
This man is, Of course, an excep-
tional case, although there are many
who make surprising progress. While
| the warden was talking huge man
walked past That man." said the
/ warden, has wife and ten children
outside. He has learned to write their
names since he entered the night
school,
| The teacher showed some work
| done by a typical bully" and saloon
| fighter who had served several terms
before he came to the penitentiary.
This man was twenty-three years old
and what Is known as bad case.
He could barely write the letters a
the alphabet and do some simple fig-
| uring. He was in the night school
! less than month. during which time
he learned to write a fair composition
and showed marked Improvement in
other studies.
The system Of teaching when a man
first enters somewhat resembles the
Montessori method for children. 1T
would be almost a hopeless task to
teach man his alphabet and start at
the very foundation of his education,
so the men are taught to recognize"
an object A book. for example, is
placed on a table. The book is iden-
tilted and then sentence Is written
about 1t on a blackboard. BY empha-
sizing the object itself and what hap
pens to 1t the foreign pupils pick
up a knowledge of English while
they are gradually taught to read and
write.
In addition to reading and writing,
simple arithmetic, some history and a
little geography are taught. No at
tempt Is made to teach grammar ex-
cept by. means of weekly compost
tons. which are corrected and handed
back. The men are also taught their
history and geography largely
through competition work. The school
y held evarY night n tho prison