Evening star., 1940-02-12
When Purchasing Linens for the New Home Never Smp Quant
Interpreting
Words Best
Procedure
knowledge Should
Be Supplemented
By Actual Use
BY ANGELO PATRI.

In the beginning was the word"
Most Of our teaching begins with
the word. A great deal Of it ends
there and is, consequently, useless.
Not until the word has been clothed
in experience is it valuable. Yet
many Of our children attending
school dutifully, for the most pre-
cious years Of their lives, are given
words and more words, but no ex-
periences to help to give them the
learning value of the words.
How many children think that
II they know the right answer to
the teachers question that they
know all that is necessary? How
many teachers believe their whole
duty lies in getting those right
answers, in setting down in terms
of per cent the results of their
questioning? How many schools are
concerned about the class averages
they obtain, the number of pupils
who pass the State examinations,
content if they stand high on the
list? You have only to look at your
own school for an answer.
You have only to think a mo-
ment to know how futile this kind
of teaching and learning is. Learn
q recipe for making bread, recite
1t, pass q written examination about
It. Still, like many teacher of.
domestic science, you have got to
learn how to make a loaf of bread
one can eat. The word must be
clothed in experience or 1t Is empty
Of value.
am not asking to have the
cow brought into the schoolroom in
order to teach a child that milk
comes from her to him, but visit
to the pasture and the barn, the
milk plant and the milkman would
be very useful and put meaning into
q whole series of words that for
most children remain sounds.
Experience need not always be
purely physical and confined to
the use of materials. Along with
every idea, however, personal ex-
periences that call for interpreta-
ton, use and application to other
situations, is necessary. If a child
learns a new worG, make a point
of having him use it until 1t be-
comes part of his working vocab-
ulary and his thinking. If he
learns about a process, a material,
or a place, give him an opportu-
nifty to get close enough to the
Idea to tie it to other experiences
and so put meaning into it.
Action is the essential element
In children's growth. They must
move, act, or do something to life
If they are to grow and remain
alive. We take these creatures of
action, at a time when their ac-
tivity is at its height, when their
learning power is at its peak, and
force them to sit still for the best
part of their day, and learn words.
We are sometimes stupid about
education and its values, although
we spend more money and do more
talking than any people on earth
about that subject.
Adolescent boys and girls, starting
about the age of IL and continuing
until the children are self-sustain-
ing, must have active school work.
When they are forced to listen,
write, recite, read-all with words,
without any opportunity for creative
work-they become rebellious, de-
structive and disorderly. Their
growing time is being wasted. Test
this for yourself. Ask the boys and
girls of these years in any school
in the land what they can do, not
what they know, and see what results
you get. Study to see how useful
these children make themselves out
side of school-in the home, the
community, and the Nation. Then
Judge the values of the school system
accordingly.
Wasted youth is national sin.
Camp or military school? viii
your boy be happy and benefited
by them? This and many other
questions are sympathetically an
swered In Angelo Patri's booklet,
"Your Child and Other People" {"
Send for 1t, inclosing 10 cents in
coin. Address Angelo Patri, care of
this newspaper.