The Washington herald., 1921-01-09
Where Children
Like to Learn
NeW Departure in Method
ofTeaching Youngsters
Produces Results.

"A their work more, interesting than
their vacations, and where the word
hookey" is unknown, has been built in
Empora' kans., by completely junking the
old-time recitation with its take the next
hVe pages for tomorrow" and replacing il
with the project method" This departure
from the old method has been made in
the training school of the Kansas State
Normal, where some $50 children. from
the kindergarten through the junior high
school, are being fed on a mental diet of
projects"
"A project as explained by DR.. H. c.
Lull director of the training school. "is
an exercise in which the child, not the
teacher, sets up purpose to do or learn
something, then makes his plans and
tackles the job. The child takes the mi
tlatiVe. the teacher assisting by suggestions
rT anu olrecuons rather than by commands
Inc PROJECT may rise in connection with
any subject, may be done by single child
or group of children, and may be finished
IN a single class period, or NAV extend
over weeks, but always it grows out of the
chllds own interests, and is so Immediately
connected with his own life that he can see
a reason for doing the work"
How the Plan Works in Training School
A visitor at the training school last
week found the twenty-nine children of
the sixth grade enthusiastically writing
letters to Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin
Riggs as the last exercise in a project that
had been under way for six weeks The
project originated when one of the children
asked their teacher, Miss Gertrude Brown,
to let them dramatize the Flag Raising at
Riverboro," from Kate Douglas Wiggins
New Chronicles of Rebecca"
Their language period for two and
half weeks was spent in dramatizing the
story. They added new characters until
they had part for every member of the
class: They gave their play at the training
school chapel, then at the Lyon County
community fair and published it in their
school paper, the Searchlight which is
project in ITSELF furnishing the motivation
Of print for the composition work of the
intermediate grades. Then someone wanted
to write letter to Mrs: Riggs, telling her
OF their work and again the entire class
was off on a new task, competitive, too, for
the best letter was to be sent
"All the letter writing of the training
school is done on real letters" Miss Brown
said, "and the children never tire of the
work They correspond regularly with
other school children, write to our French
war orphans and write invitations and bust
ness letters in connection with our pro-
grams. Fully two-thirds of the compost
ton work in the intermediate grades is
done for the Searchlight and there is an
immediate purpose back of every exercise"
Free Choice Room Is Novelty
A "free choice room," where the children
spend two hours a week is maintained
for the primary grades. The room is
equipped with dolls and material for doll
dresses, hammers, saws, nails and boards,
modelling clay and other materials for con-
struction work; dominoes and other games
that require the of numbers; Mother
Goose rhymes and pictures and stories that
suggest reading; blackboards and crayons,
brushes and water colors to suggest writ
ing and drawing. The children are free to
work with any of the materials in the
room, the only restraint on any child being
that he must respect the rights of the
other children by being good citizen"
+ = +
Two-thirds of the projects in our pr-
mary work start in the free choice room,"
MISS Achsah Harris, primary supervisor,
said. Here the children discover the
need for reading, writing and number work
and they come back to the classroom eager
to learn. For example, a fortune telling
project that included reading, writing and
spelling, originated here and was contin-
ued in the class room. The teacher con-
sented to let the children tell fortunes BY
means of written slips of paper drawn
from basket. She started them off with
the incomplete sentence, You will be-
the children to fill in the blank By the
next class period one second grade boy
had learned to spell twenty-five new words
such as president and baseball player, and y
score of others had learned a dozen or
more new words"
The junior high school students have
made survey of Emporia that led to a
study of the city health ordinances, water
supply, sewage and garbage disposal and
the writing OF letters to the mayors of
other Kansas towns to learn how the
health of the citizens is protected
A Four-Year Trial in Emporia.
The project method" has been tried
out at Emporia for four years and the
training school teachers are unanimous in
declaring it superior to anything they have
seen under the old way of teaching. There
are practically no cases of hardness, no
cases of hockey" and no problem of at
tendance except to keep the children at
home when they are i'll, according to the
teachers.
There is never dull minute for the
children" Miss Brown said "They enter
into the projects with so much interest
that they never think of gazing at the
clock to see when it is and with few ex-
ceptions they find their vacations less in
teresting than their school work"
"Will the plan work in other schools2
Yes, as fast as the teachers will work it."
Mr.. Lull said. "It is Just beginning to
take hold and the teacher is the onIy oh