The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1914-10-31

Throughout all this preliminary instruc-
ton, Winfred encouraged to take
- all the outdoor exercise possible, and
soon the peer of the boys of her
age in the neighborhood at wrestling.
! !. ]. !
\ or throwing catching ball.
From that time Winifreds life became
prolonged play OF the game of Let's
l Pretend Sometimes she and her moth
| er would be somebody" and often each
81 would be herself and an alter ego. That
is, Mrs. Stoner would play one minute
that she was herself and the next min
ute that she her dear friend Nellie
and Winifred would alternate between
being herself and her dear friend Lucy
In this way they often could get up rath
er a sizeable party when about to make
some new exploration into the realm OF
knowledge
i>1Ain3I Perhaps nothing is more illuminative
in Mrs Stoners book than her account
of how she taught the child mathematics.
Winired had failed to get any sort OF grasp on the
subject she says until the mother was In despair.
fearing the childs mind might be lopsded At
chautauqua meeting in New York. however, the
mother met Prof A. R. Hornbrook, a woman mathe-
matics teacher who put her on 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
it. She volunteered to send weekly outlines Of work,
which Mrs 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 a box and they would
take turns drawing them out, to see which could
get the most at a single grab. When helping the
maid shell peas they would try to see how many
peas there were in two more 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 up
the spots. First they used two dice, but finally
they used five and Winfred was soon 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 a cannon shot,
would topple over a given number OF soldiers.
Winifred was able to decide how many were left
standing without stopping to count
Cancellation became a battle one Of them play
ing the numbers side OF the dividing line
and the other playing the other. There never
were any quizzes. because Winifred was taught to
get results and 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 so 1t went through the whole subject, until
at last the girl became fascinated with the funny
dongs OF Mr.. and got interested In algebra.
Winifred never suffered the humiliation Of
physical punishment. When she did WELL the good
Fairy Titana would hide goodies under her pill
low and when she bad the fairy failed to ap-
pear. IL 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 offenses 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,
as well as illustration Of the childs intellec-
tual bias is 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
followed. While she was yet suffering, Winifred
described her experience in these lines:
One day saw bumblebee bumbling on a rose
And as stood admiring him he stung the
My nose in pain 1t swelled SO large 1t looked like
potato
So daddy said; but mother thought twas more
like tomato
And now, dear children, this advice hope you'll
take from me,
And when you see a bumblebee lust let that
humble be-
Like her mother, Winifred believes in woman
suffrage. She has written several poems In be-
half OF equal franchise rights, which have been
published In various newspapers and magazines
Her valentines for Sufragettes" are decidedly
clever and have helped the cause.
S-S~S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>~~~~... ,,oo>~>~~~