Alphabet File page 199
It is a great mistake to measure our success in the school room by the number of pages we cover in a given time. To finish half of the arithmetic is better than that all of it be just scanned or looked over.
Accuracy is first in all teaching, and then by constant repetition, we may get somewhere in training the young to accomplish something.
If we require more accurate work in the lower grades, taught the child to work independently, quickly and in an orderly way, we would establish such power of study as would be of great help to the student when he has passed on to the High School. (KCHS-vault)
Photo of Rita Breath, Primary Dept. teacher, p. 18; photo of Primary class students, and of interior of auditorium, p.
19. (KCHS-vault)
"A Cheerful Smile Makes a Cheerful Child," by Rita Breath, Primary Department.
One of the best incentives for good work is a cheerful presence. Children respond to a bright smile as flowers will respond to the rays of bright sunshine. Best results everywhere may be obtained by an environment of cheerfulness. Put children in a dark and gloomy room, and, like plants under these conditions, it will stunt their growth both physically and mentally.
One of the best known examples of the beneficial effect upon humanity of a happy disposition, is the life of Marshal P. Wilder, who, tho handicapped by a deformity, still left to the world a legacy of humorous sayings in his lectures and books, which has caused many of us to look at life from the sunny side of the street.
Teachers, who have such power to help the home in molding their charges' characters, should always remember that more influence for the betterment of children can be gained by a loving smile than by hours of fretful scolding.
When we greet the child, either in the home or in the school it is very necessary to try, by our smiling sympathy, to gain the confidence so much needed in developing character. Children are able to judge us, knowing by a God-given instinct when anyone so closely connected as a teacher, is in full accord with them. So teachers should use their privilege to scatter sunshine into as many dark and dreary places as possible.
As a reward what more beautiful tribute than a roomful of happy, bright faces, eager to please the teacher and parent by acquiring knowledge? "Smile, and the world smiles with you," is old but so true, that it is well worth practicing. (KCHS-vault)
Photo of S.P. Powell, p. 20 (KCHS-vault)
"Training for Life a Duty to God," by S.P. Powell
Various reasons are given why people should be trained for life and for service. Ordinarily, the thought that is uppermost in the minds of most people is that a person should be trained for life in such a way as to enable him to make a living for himself and those dependent upon him. There is, perhaps, added to this though of social efficiency, which would fit a man to intelligently perform his duties in the social realm of life. It is true that a man should train and inform himself on the industrial and economic problems of the age in which he lives. It is necessary that we do this in order for each of us to exact from the world the financial benefits due us as individuals.
It is also true that a person should give himself that training that prepares him to contribute his share to society and a government. But these are not the highest reasons why a man should be trained for life.
Many people doubtless wrongly construe the words of the Great Teacher and Master when he said, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." The meaning is broad and far-reaching. No doubt the Master had in mind the physical comfort and social welfare of the human race when he uttered these words of advice for the guidance of parents. But that is not all. Christ without doubt meant that man should be trained to perform a life-long service to God. A service from which he is not to depart in the mature and declining years of his life.
God has honored man above all other subjects of His creation. He conferred an inherent dignity and worth upon man when he created him in His own image. Since God has so honored man in his creation, it goes without saying that he expects man to serve Him as no other creature is expected to do. So if man does not fit himself for the highest service he is capable of rendering, he is to some extent guilty of ingratitude towards the God to whom he owes existence. This being true, the school should ever seek to impress the child with the idea that training for life is a duty to God.
Let us consider some of the great problems confronting the citizens of tomorrow, and thereby get a broader conception of the duties he will be called upon to perform. Less than a year ago the young manhood and womanhood of America was being called upon to perform heroic service at the battle front. Only yesterday, it seems, we were witnessing bloodshed, destruction of life as the world has never seen before. Almost daily we were receiving news of the destruction of life and property. At last, however, the clouds of war have rolled away. A new day has dawned, and it is hoped the world's work will proceed in a peaceful and constructive fashion. The new day has brought new duties and responsibilities. Every man and woman who is prepared will have an opportunity for several years to see service in the work of rehabilitation and adjustment. More than ever before, the opportunity comes to man to reconstruct governments and establish principles of Christianity in accordance with the teachings of Christ. We owe it to God to train ourselves for this great work. Our schools and teachers must be the factors, and channels through which these opportunities for training are afforded to man. (KCHS-vault)
"Manual Training in the Rural Schools," By Mrs. B.C. Vance For a good many years I have longed for a chance to try out manual training in the rural schools. I have, several times, made a feeble attempt to give my pupils an opportunity to develop the creative faculty, which every child possesses. But for want of proper encouragement, lack of time, tools and materials, I have never yet had a fair chance to carry out my plans.
Manual training not only develops the child's creative faculty, but it furnishes a healthful diversion, both mental and physical. It encourages the making of useful things., He "learns by doing." He is taken away from the idea of being schooled. He proceeds on his own initiative, and finds himself capable of undertaking things he never dreamed he could do alone.
We give the boy a nice piece of wood, marked out on a series of squares. The necessary measurements are here shown, at a glance he can see the relations of various lines. He gets an idea of a proportion, and a way that would be almost impossible if we had given him the dimensions numerically, instead of graphically. Before touching a single piece of wood, let him decide exactly what is required, and if he succeeds, he must have a clear mental picture of each part of the thing he is going to make. He also realizes, that to hurry or become impatient, will result in a failure. He learns to be accurate, to concentrate, to be patient and persevering, if he hopes to accomplish anything.
Our public school system has tried to force all children along on the same lines of development. No greater mistake was ever made. We can't all be mathematicians, historians, etc. Many a backward child will be found to have a strong manual tendency, which if tested, would measure up to the child who has strong mental inheritance. The child with manual tendencies desires to do things with his hands, because he can do them easily and quickly.
With him constructiveness is large. His mind controls his hand. This movement takes him upward and forward and he is lifted out of the mental gloom, and does not have to grope in darkness, for what his mind had to grasp. He soon learns to experience perception, can see how objects compare, his reason is developed, his judgment grows stronger, and greatest of all helps to him, he begins to have confidence in himself, and self-esteem is firmly established.