Song of the Lark Breton George Washington with The Perry Pictures It is well worth the cost to surround childhood with beauty. It is one of the privileges and duties of the public schools. IS YOUR SCHOOLROOM DOING IT? For $1.00 each in lots of two or more, or for $1.25 for a single picture, we furnish really beautiful pictures in a great variety of subjects. Each picture is on paper 22 x 28 inches, and most of the pictures themselves are about 14 x 17 inches. The price of these large pictures will be advanced later. ORDER NOW! Among the choicest subjects are: Sir Galahad, by Watts The Shepherdess, by Lerolle Song of the Lark, by Breton The Angelus, by Millet Christ and the Doctors, by Hofmann If you are not acquainted with these fifteen subjects, for 30 cents we will send you these 15 pictures in the 511⁄2 x S size, and from these you can select the ones you like best in the 22 x 28 size. We will send you a list of more than 150 subjects, 22 x 28, for a stamp. How to Raise the Money If allowed, let the pupils bring money, perhaps no more than ten cents each in any case. Perhaps a better way is to ask citizens if they will "Can't You Talk?" by Holmes present a beautiful framed picture to the school. You Send to us for the pictures and have them framed in But Do It Now, and let the pupils have the pictures to enjoy for several months in this school year. We Sell 10 of These Choice Pictures, at 95 Cents Each, for $9.50 In the 10x12 size, send for the above five, Think of Buying Really Beautiful Pictures for Framing at $1.00 Each, in lots of two or more! except Dickens (not published in that size) You may want a very few portraits, as Washington, Lincoln, President Wilson, Longfellow. and for President Wilson. The 5 for 50 cents, $1.25 each for any number. postpaid. These cost The Perry Pictures Company, Box 1, Malden, Massachusetts TEXTS THAT ARE NEW AND OPPORTUNE FIRST LESSONS IN BUSINESS By J. A. Bexell. $.68. The first volume of Lippincott's thrift text series- of vital interest and instruction to pupils of the grammar grades and junior high schools. AMERICAN LEADERS (Books I and II) By Walter Lefferts. $.92 each. History story texts, describing the lives of some 40 national leaders, written in consonance with the recommendations of Committee of Eight of the American Historical Association. WATERBOYS AND THEIR COUSINS By Charles Dickens Lewis. $.60. A new and different nature reader, for grades four and five. VERSE FOR PATRIOTS By Jean Broadhurst. $1.12. To encourage good citizenship-splendid contribution to High School English. SIX NEW BOOKS For Primary Schools Games and Rhymes for Language Teaching in the First Four Grades (75c) By Alhambra G. Deming. 128 pages. Cloth. The book contains all together 72 games and endeavors to correct in an interesting way the common everyday errors of spoken English. There is no primary teacher who would not benefit her class by the use of this book. Primary Seat Work, Sense Training and Games (75c) By Laurs R. Smith. 160 pages. Cloth. A new book that solves the seat work problem for the primary teacher. It presents simple and definite instructions for carrying out a great variety of interesting educative exercises, with over 300 helpful illustrations. Number Games for Primary Grades (75c) By Ada Van Stone Harris and Lillian McLean Waldo. 125 pages. Cloth Illustrated. Contains 58 number games designed to create an active interest in number and to make the child skillful in applying it directly and naturally through the "make-believe" element and the idea of friendly contest. Nonsense Rymes and Animal Stories (50c) By Alhambra G. Deming. 65 pages. Cloth. 35 illustrations in black and color. For language teaching in the primary grades. The attempt here has been to incorporate the commonly misused expressions into a form which shall so appeal to children that they will voluntarily give much repetition to the correct form. Animal-Land Children (55c) By Margaret Flora. 128 pages. Cloth. With over 50 illustrations and frontispiece in colors. The author, with rare tact, portrays the various characteristics of these wild-folk children in a way to teach little human folks some valuable le ssons. Father Thrift and His Animal Friends (55c) By Joseph C. Sindelar. 128 pages. Cloth. With 40 illustrations in black and color. A fascinating story for children, dealing with a subject which is of prime interest at the present moment, namely, the teaching of the habit of saving. Intended for reading in the second and third grades. Our 1920 Catalog of Books, Helps and Supplies is now ready! A complete standard teachers' guide book. Many new things have been added. Mailed free. Request a copy. BECKLEY-CARDY CO., 312 w. Randolph St. CHICAGO "THE HOUSE OF BETTER MATERIAL" Primary Education VOLUME XXVIII D A MONTHLY JOURNAL FOR PRIMARY TEACHERS FEBRUARY 1920 The Blaming Habit Jessie Althaus Primary Teacher, Franklin School, Muscatine, Iowa ID you ever have it, the blaming habit? Are After the High School has blamed the grammar grades for deficiencies in certain lines; after the higher grades have loaded deficiencies on the lower grades, and so on down to the first grade teacher, who, if there is no kindergarten, has put all shortcomings on the parents and home; what have we done to remedy the evil? The fact that the above criticism is often justly given makes the thoughtful, efficient teacher stop and consider whether each child knows just what he is required to know for her grade; though we as teachers are not responsible for what the child brings to us mentally, we are responsible for the developing of what he brings and for what he has when he leaves us. Just imagine the result if each teacher from the kindergarten and first grades up, knew absolutely that each child had comprehended and mastered, to the best of his ability, the lessons of each and every day. If the teacher were an efficient one she would remember that to-day certain ones were not well grounded in the new subject taught and would make conditions such that those pupils would again have a chance to see the same subject in a new guise. This may sound hard, but it is practical, and no teacher has any right to deprive any child of his right to know certain things as part of his work, neither has she any right to send pupils unprepared to another teacher, who must then be burdened with the work of the grade below when she needs all her time for her own grade. Think what it would mean to have each child, according to his own ability, rooted and grounded in what he has been taught. The teacher ought to hold each child responsible on every occasion for what he has been taught; e. g., after the use of the comma has been thoroughly taught, everything written by the pupil should use the comma, otherwise it is wrong for the teacher to accept it. Concert work, too often not wisely used, is a good way to hide ignorance of a subject. Who does not remember his own experiences? How glad we were, when not prepared, to have every one in the class "yell" out the answer. My, what a relief! How afraid we were that we might hear our own name! No teacher can be sure that every child knows the table of sevens if day after day the work is given in concert. Again a teacher may be sure that something is very radically wrong with herself and methods when the greater part of a class fails to grasp the point and the recitation falls flat; too many times teachers do not take time to plan their work, they trust to luck. Have you ever known NUMBER 2 a teacher to sit at a desk, book open in front of her, asking question after question from the book? Have you ever known teachers to not even have an aim for any one lesson of the day? On the other hand, have you not known teachers who spent time on preparation and were ready to assign certain topics in certain books for a pupil or pupils to look up and report? No teacher can be thinking about her clothes, social engagements, or debts and be doing justice to each pupil, for as sure as she does, the unprepared pupils will slip through to-day's work; neither can these pupils secure by a quick review what was missed, and so these pupils go on with that one thing a weak link in the chain. A certain child got to the eighth grade, where the teacher soon discovered him trying to subtract by beginning at the left. The seventh grade teacher too was aware of this deficiency. Why was he allowed to get as far as the eighth grade with that wrong method? What shall we say about such a condition? Does it not seem probable that some where it may be down in the second grade where this child learned subtraction without "borrowing"though he had the answers correct on paper handed in, or even at the blackboard, he did not know the process? Who knows if this child had been taught the value of units, tens and hundreds, etc? Had this been made definite and plain he would never have tried to take thousands from hundreds and so on. But you ask, "How can a teacher know all these things about every child?" Had each teacher felt that she was responsible for what each child has when he leaves her, this boy would never, never have reached the eighth grade with such results. Here is little John, who did not have as good a start in life either physically or mentally, as William. Shall more time be put upon William because he eagerly absorbs what is taught and makes it part of himself than upon little John? If the fact is true that the test of a teacher's ability is not in teaching bright children, because they will learn in spite of a teacher, then we see that little John needs all he can get. Shall it be taken for granted that those new words presented to-day sank as deeply into John's mind as William's and never an opportunity made to see just how much is part of John? These opportunities are golden for the good teacher, for to-morrow she says, "We will make a garden (Children in circle) and plant some flowers" (words on paper). Different children pick as many flowers as they know: then comes John's turn, who only picks up two words which he knows. To-morrow John must be given a chance to review these two words he knows and also learn a new one. To-day Bernice does not know bed because she does not know the sound of "b." The wise teacher immediately associates bed and "b" with Bernice and stores this away till the next phonics lesson; where the thought of the story concerning the bed is recalled and the word bed put on the board, the sound of "b" is given in other words by other pupils, and so on, until finally Bernice finds "b" on the chart and can pronounce ever so many words with "b." The next day the consonant "b" appears upon the board among the other review sounds. Now, was all that worth while? To-day the "B" class go to the board to count to one hundred. Edward turns his four the wrong way: while the others continue their work the wise teacher helps Edward to make his fours right and by so doing she saved the child and future teacher both much trouble. Was it worth while? Another child makes "m" with only two "overs" at the board; what a small matter for the teacher to guide the hand to make three "overs." It took a little time, but how much trouble it saved! It only took a minute to whisper to dirty little Joe that to-morrow he might surprise you by having clean hands and face and so help sister while Mother is sick. Here is James, who has come from another school as an "A" class pupil, but cannot sound with the A class; of course he is pleased to think he can come to the B class phonics too - and thus be doing two classes in one day; think of it! Many, many illustrations can be given to prove that if in a room of over fifty pupils the teacher can, in this practical way, associate the needs and lacks and good points of each child in her mind she will be causing the pupils to really and truly know. What a wonderful thing it is to see the child when he awakens to a realization that he has power within himself to progress. If each teacher knew her own work as well as that of the grades above and below, she could use that of the grade below as a fount of stored away supply from which she could draw at any needed time and use the work of the grade above as a beacon, and children would not have to suffer from indiscreet remarks from their teachers. Let us remember that schools are for the children and that it is a wonderful and yet a sacred privilege to train these little souls who will soon be men and women, better, let us daily pray, than we ourselves. Our Little Citizens Etta V. Leighton Civic Secretary, National Security League Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, Leave thy low-vaulted past - Holmes After years of exhortation, the schools and the public are awake to their joint responsibility in child bodybuilding. They have gotten down to definite procedure, to rules of health and standards of well being, and planned diet lists. We have got to do the same thing in civics we must definitely plan for character building. We have talked a long time about it; now it is time to do something. In this day of destruction, this day of wild talk about overthrow, this day of unrest in which our children are growing up, we must, by "precept on precept," show that the only permanent helpful change is through growth, development, construction, not through destruction. Our dangers exist because men of weak and faulty character are easily led astray by wily agitators. We must make building character one of our main aims in citizenship teaching. Our nation needs a basic loyal following of good citizenship. In the mistaken conception that good character will come spontaneously as the fruitage of intellectuality and scholarship we have neglected the moral training of our people until we witness today the threatened disruption of social, industrial and governmental systems, with all that goes to make civilization. One or two hours a week of religious instruction in church or Sunday school, reaching but a meager percentage of our youth, is wholly inadequate to the character building of a nation. The absence of real home life, under strong parental care and discipline, in the congested sections of our great cities wholly precludes that moral training in the home that characterized the pioneer period. The one opportunity still open is found in our public school system, where attendance is compulsory and where all the necessary organization and power for moral training exist, awaiting only proper direction. - H. O. Rittenhouse, Commander, U. S. N. (Retired) In February we can set the children consciously at work, building up their own characters by properly teaching Washington and Lincoln. Oh, what a waste, year after year, what a mass of irrelevant facts, totally unrelated to the child lives are taught, though by selection and relation, an actual contact with the spirit of the great leaders can be made, so that their lives actively and decisively influence the thought of our little citizens! Show how Washington and Lincoln, starting at opposite ends of the economic scale, both by conscious effort built up their strong characters. Be sure to bring in Washing tons Rules of Conduct; by citing him, you can inspire your children to deliberately set themselves to forming good. habits. Washington Helps Americanization Certain of the rules of conduct apply to present-day conditions-be sure the children see the connection. Think before you speak; pronounce not imperfectly nor bring out your words too hastily but orderly and distinctly. When another speaks, be attentive yourself, and disturb not the audience. If any hesitate in his words, help him not, nor prompt him without being desired; interrupt him not nor answer him until his speech be ended Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to keep your promise. Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience. There would be no wild mis-statements of facts no howling down of audiences, no breaking of contracts, and no attempts to profit at the expense of our neighbors, if these four rules of Washington were lived up to. Building up our homes and our towns is universally recognized as civics work recognized as civics work-building up our personality is equally a civic duty. We have no right to let the gates of our fence sag off the hinges, we have no right to a dirty yard, equally we have no right to act and appear slovenly. We have Clean Up and Paint Up Campaigns for our town; we would do well to have Brace Up Campaigns for ourselves. Tell the children that all during February we are going to try to be like Lincoln and Washington, careful in our speech, kind, hard working and helpful. Remind them that Washington, born in good circumstances, worked hard, just as Lincoln did, that he was willing to undertake hard and dangerous tasks like his journey to the French Fort, that he worked hard on his estate and kept strict accounts and was a good business man, and that he shared the privations of his soldiers. The Secret of Success Lincoln, born poorer than anyone we know, won successWashington won success, so did Benjamin Franklin, so dɔ thousands every year, and almost every one of them won by work. James A. Garfield, who, born poor, died President our pupils realize about Lincoln and others who rise in lifeof the United States, said: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.. They know that Ruskin was right when he said: If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if good, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it. Pleasure comes through toil, and not by self-indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love his work his life is a happy one.- - Ruskin I hear some teacher say, "Does Miss Leighton expect us to teach such civics to first and second grade children?" The answer is, "Yes." The substance of all of this attempt at character building is easily understood even by a child of five. He knows he can do almost anything he attempts if he tries hard enough. Our children are living in an atmosphere of disgust and whining. Statistics show that hardly anyone is working up to his pre-war capacity, and we must, through our civics teaching, build up the ideal of the American citizen as "able, energetic and willing." Child Personality Then, too, there is no more favorable time than childhood to begin to build personality. We all know heartrending tales of misunderstood children. Why, then, do we not help our children to bring out and develop the better side of their characters, basing our appeal, not on the selfish ground of greater personal attractiveness, but on the noble foundation of better citizenship? Some one has called February the "high tide of the school's patriotism," and there is no doubt that the recurring of Grand Army Flag Day, celebrated on Lincoln's Birthday, February 12, and Washington Birthday celebrations have been potent factors in teaching love of country. The wise teacher will not let these celebrations become hackneyed. Every year she will try to do some library reading herself on the lives of these two great shapers of our country, and will set the children at work to bring in from home papers and magazines articles for the Washington and Lincoln File. Most valuable material, especially by way of pictures, can often be obtained from magazines. Public Appeals to Patriotism We learned during the war that instead of subtracting from our efficiency, community service vitalized all the activities of the school. There is every reason now, while sedition is rampant, for our attempting to bring our Lincoln and Washington celebrations to the notice of as many as possible. If it is at all feasible, the public should be invited to witness the program. Any ordinary sized school can secure enough pictures having to do with the lives of Lincoln and Washington to make several interesting window exhibits, which store-keepers will be glad to give space to, beside the placards inviting the public to attend the school observance. Even if you can't invite the public, school window displays are worth while. Invite the G. A. R. February 12 is G. A. R. Flag Day, and wherever possible veterans of the Civil War and members of the Women's Relief Corps should be honored guests at the celebration. The G. A. R. are fast passing on. They saved the Union and their patriotic citizenship in the last fifty years entitles them to respect and is already the accepted model of the American Legion. Children taught to respect the old soldier are acquiring one virtue of citizenship. Elsewhere in this article is suggested the lesson that should be impressed on everyone at the close of a Lincoln celebration; that is, with everything against him he built himself a character and achieved a success that is the beacon light of all time. He realized what we must make that they rise not for themselves alone but that every step they take upwards makes progress possible for others. Civic Clubs Action is the goal of civics teaching. - Henry Suzullo your To get action of the best kind keep your clubs "Civic Guards"-alive. Wisconsin has state-wide forganization of school clubs and Cincinnati has a system of school clubs and citizen co-operation that is of the greatest value. The co-operation from outside comes from a Committee of Sponsors of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Woman's City Club. Cincinnati's announcements note that "Lessons do not often function in out of school life club activities do." The club president attends the Board of Directors meetings, and brings back a report of his own school. His attendance brings him into contact with club presidents from the other schools and helps to promote unity. The outings and week-end hikes are features of club life. They have a paper, The Civic and Vocational League Herald, which is issued on the second Tuesday of each month. It is used to disseminate ideas developed within the clubs. There are over 4000 children in the Civic and Vocational League. The dues are two cents per member. The children are supposed to handle finances of the club by check and on the model of large organizations. Parliamentary Law Makes for Americanism In the regular meetings of the Civic League, the children observe order and decorum. They adhere to parliamentary procedure. The importance of this is evident in the announcement that a large and radical meeting held to vote on a matter of the utmost importance, refused even to have a chairman or put on record the motion for vote in any regular fashion. Of course, there was no real registering of opinion in a noisy mob. Most of the decisions of radical bodies are merely the say-so of a few vociferous leaders and men have been howled down in I. W. W. meeting for even suggesting that the leaders should account for funds in their hands. It is of the utmost importance that our children be trained in the orderly process of learning the register that opinion, if we are to continue to govern by the opinion of a body and the legal way of casting votes to will of the majority expressed in accordance with law. The Cincinnati plan brings the child into direct contact with opportunities for civic service; he learns that "his cooperation is as important as that of the adult." Anyone who has seen the beautiful earnestness with which these young citizens work know that they will in the future continue to be found on the side of righteousness. Valentine Day This year Valentine Day will fall on Saturday, but it is worth while, if you can possibly spare the time, to devote thirty minutes of the last Friday to a Valentine Party. Of course, the drawing period has been given up to the making of valentines, and we teachers are glad to note the almost total disappearance of the so-called "comic" that was intended to hurt and wound the recipient. Valentine Day can be one of civic value if it teaches "artistic kindness," the pretty way of adding to the happiness of our neighbors. Largely due to school celebrations, Valentine's day is not now one of lovers' sentimentality, but more and more becomes an excuse for kind and friendly greetings. The Valentine Party offers a good excuse for teaching manners. Cultivate Civic Imagination You can have a Postman who, besides his U. S. Mail insignia, wears a great red heart on his coat, to distribute |