The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-03-11
INSTRUCTIONS FOR
ADULT ILL|TERATES
Dealing With Adult Rudi-
mentary Education
Difficulties Met in Teaching and Classify
ing the individual Need Of Instruction
to the IIIiterate Adult Earnestly Seek
ing Benefits of Primary Education.
Chautaugua Paper By ''Pendennis. >

The ideas advanced in this brief
paper are the result of actual ex-
perience. as a teacher and principle
instructor in schools, wherein the
pupils were male adults.
1t is very easy matter to establish
a school for male adults, for the
thirst for knowledge is unquench-
able and those who are illiterate
when they reach the age of adoles-
ence. fully realize the great handi-
cap their lack of education has placed
upon them, and are consequently
eager and ambitious to learn.
1t is very difficult. however, to
make a school for male adults a
vital practical source of helpfulness
and aid to all who attend it's ses-
sions. This Is the great question
that confronts all teachers of male
adults. In the cities where night
schools have been provided for
illiterates. willing and able instruct
ors have found the task of teaching
a very unsatisfactory work.
1t is not a question of what to
teach, so much as the proposition
of, how to teach that which will
serve the need of the pupils. The
difficulty lies in the endeavor to
find the way to reach the needs of
the pupils with the knowledge they
most need and require.
To give them the help they need
and impart the knowledge in such a
way that they will acquire the rudi-
ments of a practical education.
The rudiments of practical educa-
tion are the fundamental sources
from which all education springs.
First, the printed alphabet and
the vowel sounds; second, the use
of ink, pen and paper IN the straight
and curved lines Of the written
alphabet; third, the work in num-
bers, addition, satisfaction, multi
plication and division, and fourth,
constant and daily drill in enumera-
tion. This Is the plan and outline
that anyone would suggest if asked--
what to teach? We all know that
if man is to acquire an education
he must first learn to read, and COM
pute in numbers.
Next comes the suggestion-How
are they to be taught essential pri-
mary principles of education? This
is the question 1 will endeavor to
answer and will give only such
facts as have been gathered by me
in personal experience in the actual
work of teaching male adults.
Let us first consider the pupils
capacity for receiving instruction.
Let us endeavor to ascertain in
what manner the pupils shall be
taught and finally what kind of
knowledge is most fitted for their
needs and requirements.
The discussion Of mentality brings
out the idea of an analysis of the
capabilities of the pupils TO receive
instruction. The manner in which
instruction is to be given, advances
the human view point, and leads in
to a consideration of the kind of
men that are to be found within any
night school for male adults.
This country is so large and its
population of such mixed character,
that among the pupils of city night
school will be found nearly all ma
tionalities and races.
German, Scandinavian, Russian,
Finn, Austrian, Hun, Jew, Chinese,
English, Irish, Scotch, and native
born. OF the races, white, black,
red and yellow. A complex babble
of tongue and color of skin and
cast of feature. To teach. to in
struct in a school composed of so
many nationalities would not be so