Evening star., 1937-10-10

variably followed by a discussion
which the visiting teachers lead the
meeting by asking the questions tn ~
deem will be most helpful to them in
working out their own individual
problems
Advise Those Abroad.
An interesting phase of the work OF
Miss Linds Office has to do with re-
plies to the letters of various Ameri-
can parents abroad in the service OF
our country, who write for courses OF
study and other information that Will
enable them to adjust their children
to our Washington schools after their
sojourn in the schools of other lands.
Such letter on Miss Iind's desk
the day of my visit said: "A little
American visitor has aroused us 10
the fact that our youngster speaks
French fluently, but certainly needs
to be brushed up on reading in fer
native tongue. Will you be good
enough, please, to forward us hsl
of American readers for what would
be the first two grades in washington
and the vocabulary our child should
have in English? Perhaps on the
whole, if you will be so kind, it would
be well to inclose as well copies OF
courses of studies for these two
grades"
To it are likewise referred the re-
quests of educators from all over the
world that through the medium OF
the teacher such and such little boy
or girl in a foreign land would like
to exchange letters for practice IN
English with a pupil of like age IN
America. The days mail had brought
a sheaf of these from no less than
seven overseas countries.
Still another function Of Miss LIND
office has to do with the intensive
study, on her own part and that OF
her staff, of all manner Of text books
as they appear in print from various
publishing houses. Promising ones
are appraised for possible recon-
mendation to the Text Book Commit
tee in the public school system OF
which Miss Lind is member.
At this point Miss Lind told OF the
tremendous change for the better
which had come about in all klnds
Of text books during the past decade
not only with regard to their content
interest. but their interesting pictures
and print that considers children
eyes by its kind of type, as well as
its attention to the length OF the
reading line Nowhere has the i'm
provement been greater than it is in
the preprimer and in all the reader
series.
Research Work Done.
She spoke, too, of the research work
that is being done by her department
concerning the needs of children re-
quiring remedial reading. This group
represents the group who have not
learned to read through the usual
processes in vogue in our schools.
Perhaps they are ear-minded rather
than eye-minded. Often the general
physical condition Of the pupil enters
INTO the picture, or IL may De tnat
there is need Of recourse to what is
being done in special sight-saving
classes along the line of what has
been done in cooperation with DR.
Benjamin Rones when he was asso-
ciated with the late DR.. William Hol-
land Wilmer at the Wilmer Institute
in Baltimore.
Teachers in our Washington first
grades teach almost as much through
the material written by them in con-
junction with the children concerning
the community in which they live, as
they do from printed text books. In
many of the first grades it is not un-
usual to even find little five -day-a-
week newspapers, gotten out by en-.