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dren waste quantities of ink and paper, together with much energy, in trying to express in writing, what they have never had an opportunity to think; and they have not had an opportunity to think it simply because they have not had an opportunity to talk it,—talking being the only means by which they could organize and clarify their notions about their subject.

In the higher grades, if half the time which is spent in teaching pupils the art of written composition were spent in training them in oral compositions, the results to the other half spent in writing would probably be vastly more valuable than they are at present.

The appeal is especially made for oral composition in the primary school. It is not unusual for much of the language work in the second and third grades to be written. This is not only a reversal of the natural order, but the nervous strain is very great in the effort for mechanical accuracy before the child is equal to it. He lacks both the necessary muscular skill, and the general power of coordination needed for pleasureable, successful effort in writing.

Oral work with stories in the primary grades, and oral work in story and history with which. some intermediate grades are blessed,-work in which the teacher makes the presentation in story form, and pupils listen and reproduce, has two important functions.

1. The function of appreciation, that is, training the child to listen and appreciate.

tions with others. Worse than this is the language that is not even the expression of thought, but is the mere fitting together of words to meet the conditions imposed by some requirement of form: As when a child is told to write an interrogative sentence, instead of being required to ask an intelligent question about his geography, his history, or his constructive work.

The fluency and ease of expression will largely depend upon the feeling stirred by the teacher in her handling of motives for the child's effort. If he can tell his story to somebody who wants to hear it, the exercise is freed from that stiffness and formality which often characterizes this sort of work.

Not only oral, but written work should be made communication. The writing of exercises, to be corrected by the teacher, and often to be merely glanced at by the pupil, and not revised, is a waste of energy. But if the piece of writing is to be put to a definite purpose,-if it is to be sent to some one, if it is to be exchanged with similar products from some other school-the results will be much better.

It is this idea that is leading the teachers in many elementary grades to have the pieces of written work saved, to bind these in attractive booklet form, and have these taken home or sent to friends.

Letter writing today is made more vital by being actual writing of letters, to be addressed and mailed, thus making school efforts become a part of

2. The function of expression, that is, training life. Form is more quickly mastered because the him to think and speak.

Now, between these, there is an established relationship. Ability to appreciate, as it widens, enlarges our ability to express; and as expression grows our appreciation enlarges.

In composition work the ideal condition of fluency and clearness is that the right, the natural motive for expression be touched; namely the desire on the part of the child to express to somebody something he is interested in. This is the reason for language expression in life, and the means and methods that are selected for language in school should endeavor to operate under the same motive.

The term, "Expression," sometimes seems to imply the mere putting forth of thought, but it is impossible to conceive of any natural expression whose only reason of being does not involve rela

child feels the present need of it. It is not, as so much of our technical language is, a preparation for future use, about which the child feels now no particular concern.

(Concluded next month.)

FLOWER GROWING CONTEST.

Why not a flower growing contest this year? Give each pupil a half dozen seeds of nasturtium or of some other rapidly growing plant and offer a prize for the best plant to be produced and exhibited on the "Last Day." This work could be made the basis of much practical agriculture and would furnish some excellent material for language and composition. Pupils will take hold of the plan with enthusiasm and you can do it all for 25 cents-10 cents for the seeds and 15 cents for the prize.

C. B. S.

SOME POINTS ON CONVERSATION LESSONS.

It is because teachers have realized the importance of training in oral expression that it has received so much attention. This was not a new feature in education when people began talking about it a few years ago under the name "conversation lessons." Thoughtful teachers hundreds of years ago realized that education is a drawing-out process, and that one of the first steps in school education is to get the child to express his ideas orally. They realized that in real life, oral language predominates largely over written language, and also that thought becomes more vivid by being expressed. Because of their zeal in oral language-training, born of the realization of the importance of such training, the conversation lesson became a fad, and was carried to such an extreme that the thought seemed to be simply to get the child to talk. It made no difference what he talked about or what he said about it, but talk he should, and talk he must, and the result in many cases was an aimless twaddle from which the teacher came smiling and triumphant-the child had talked! and from which the child came feeling that schoolt doesn't amount to much, and with the idea, if he had gained any idea at all, that school is a place where you are all right if you talk-no matter whether or not you think at all, just talk and your path will be strewn with roses. In that regard the time spent in the conversation lesson was worse than wasted.

To make language training an artificial thing is a mistake. People use language when they have a thought to express, and unless there is a thought to be expressed there is no need for language. The conversation lesson should not be used except to teach something besides language. It is a mistake to have a separate language class for little children, a mistatke to lead them to think that the correct use of language is something foreign to the other studies and to everyday conversation. Let the conversation lesson develop a subject in reading, like the understanding of some poem or story, which is one of the very best places for it to develop, because here the child's ideas of life may be broadened, his emotions touched, his intellect quickened, his imagination exercised, by the discussion aroused by some question the teacher asks about something in the selection. Or, let it center around some picture. While the beauty and the

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meaning are sinking into the soul of the child is a good time to get a free expression of the ideas suggested by the picture. Or, let it spring up naturally in connection with nature study. Rare indeed is the child who is not interested in nature. ways following a given law, yet never twice the same, the phenomena of nature present a puzzle to the child that he enjoys working out. His curiosity which is, and should be, the largest part of him for sometime after he enters school is excited, and he forgets his shyness in his eagerness to know, to learn, to find out.

The thoughtful teacher finds many places for the conversation lesson. Material is found on every side. Pets, animals like the turtle and the frog, the coverings of animals, birds of prey, insects, flowers, fruits, vegetables, seeds, how plants travel, kinds of wood and their uses, ways of traveling, industries, ventilation, evaporation, the weather, the thermometer, the barometer, uses of steam, winds, clouds, rain, wood, coal, and light, the wearing away of rocks, etc., are excellent subjects for study for the sake of information, and afford a means for oral language training.

The child of six years, has a great store of bits of knowledge about many things, all very real knowledge, because gained through experience. Much of it is incomplete, inexact, and unrelated. He knows about the well, the cistern, the lake, the river, the clouds, the rain, but he has not related them. He knows of the creamery, the cheese factory, the thresher, but he has not thought of them in their significance to daily life. He must be taught relations, and trained to see them in his daily life. Here the conversation lesson is able to

fulfill its real mission. When he sees the relations between these bits of knowledge they take on a more interesting aspect, and that stimulates the child to talk, and instead of making good English seem something to be used only in language class, makes it a part of every thought that is expressed.

One of the best ways to secure a logical arrangement of material in the child's mind is for the teacher to ask questions about it. If she holds in mind the knowledge the child should get, and asks the questions in logical order, the material will of necessity be well arranged in the child's mind.

The conversation lesson is especially adapted to first grade work. It helps in large measure to overcome the shyness of the bashful child. Con

versation is the connecting link between the old, or the home life, and the new, or the school life. Conversation is the best means of teaching the English language to the foreign child. It has been remarked that the quickest way to teach a foreign language to a child is to let him play with children who speak that language. The reason is plain. While they play they talk, and they talk about, not the use of words and the correct forms of expression, but about something that is of vital interest to both, about the thing they are doing.

So in the school, the best way of all is to let the children do something, and let them talk about it. Let them forget if they will that they are in school. Encourage them to talk freely. To speak well the child must feel that what he has to say is new to at least some of his hearers. There is very little inspiration in telling something to a class and a teacher when you know that they know what you are going to tell as well as, and perhaps, better, than you do.

Suppose you have told the children the story of The Musicians of Bremen. Let them do some free hand paper cutting of the different characters in the story. Let one child or one group of children cut out the donkey, another the dog, another the rooster, etc. For a conversation lesson, the object of which is to get the incidents in the story arranged in the child's mind in a logical way, as well as to train him in the use of language, ask questions like the following: Which one of the animals seemed to do most of the thinking? What was the donkey thinking about first? What was the first animal the donkey came to? How did the dog look? Why? Proceeding with questions in this way, bring out the conversational parts of the story. Then if it seems that more work is needed to fix the story in the minds of the children, and to get the thoughts formulated, say: "Now let us pretend that the animals you have cut are the real animals and really talk to each other. You do the talking for them."

Another way to use this story is to have different members of the class tell the part of the story he liked best. This is also a good story to dramatize. Let each child pretend to really be the character he represents, do what that character would do, and say what that character would say. Many and varied are the values of dramatization and the conversation side is not one of the least.

The conversation lesson also affords an excellent opportunity to enrich the child's vocabularly. The teacher aims to give new words, and to extend the application of old words. In the second grade at the close of the lesson some child may sum up what has been brought out in class thus getting practice in continued discourse; and here is an excellent place to overcome that pernicious habit of stringing sentences along by and, and also to do away with those all-embracing yet perfectly meaningless phrases, "and everything," and "or something."

THE PREDICATE ATTRIBUTE.

D. B. T.

JESSIE B. MONTGOMERY, PLATTEVILLE NORMAL.

The spoken sentence, the intimate expression of a judgment in process of forming, should be the first material for study; then the printed matter, the constructed sentence; and, third, the written sentence constructed by the pupil.

In illustrating the teaching of the predicate attribute, the sentences have an immediate meaning for the pupils of this particular class. "Louis was tardy this morning. What attribute have I asserted of Louis? Pansy is my new dog. Could you have told what Pansy was until I completed the predicate? Then what attribute is asserted of Pansy? Dog and tardy are called predicate attributes. Rip Van Winkle was lazy. Attribute asserted of Rip? Lazy is called a predicate attribute. Icabod Crane was superstitious. Attribute asserted of Icabod Crane? Young Brom Bones was a bully. Attribute asserted of Brom Bones? What other attribute of Brom Bones is expressed? (Young.) Bully and superstitious are predicate attributes. Young is not. "Are you now ready to to tell me what a predicate attribute is ?" After a correct statement has been made and repeated, quick application is made. plication is made. "Give quickly the predicate attributes as I give sentences:" 'Beowolf was a Saxon hero.' 'Sir Galahad was a true knight.' 'King Arthur was strong and brave.' 'Bohia is a shipping port.' 'Eight and one-third per cent of a number is one-twelfth of the number.' Then the assignment given-a list of sentences from text for inspection, from which to select predicate attributes and the construction of a limited number of sentences in which they can distinguish predicate attributes.

SMILE.

What is the value of a smile? Perhaps it has no cash equivalent but that it has a pedagogic value is beyond question. How it lights up the dark corners of the room and the sometimes gloomy recesses of the children's hearts. They bask in its radiance like flowers in the sunlight. They grow brighter and happier and better under the mellowing, harmonizing influence of a sympathetic smile. Two third grade pupils were discussing a practice teacher who had work in their room. They approved her methods and accepted her instruction but one of them said; "She is too solemn; how I would like to see her smile, just once!"

circle nor for the social circle but bring them out
and give them an airing in the schoolroom. Not
the forced sickly facial contortion born of a sense
of duty but the genuine, soul soothing kind that is
born of a merry heart and which lights up the face
like a sunburst after showers. Says the Holy
Writ: "A merry heart doeth good like a medi-
cine." Try this remedy on your school and note
its effectiveness in curing gruffness, coarseness
and rebellion.

"He teacheth best who loveth best
All things, both great and small."

C. B. S.

Saints are good souls who were cannonaded

Teachers, do not keep your smiles for the home through life and cannonized after death.

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HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS FOR THE SCHOOL

ROOM.

1. To give interest and artistic finish to your composition work let the pupils illustrate some of their work with marginal drawings or adorn it with suitable covers of their own design.

2. This is the time of year to get the bird and flower calendars ready. In addition to the school calendars each child may have a little booklet with appropriate cover design and properly ruled in which to keep his own observations of the plant and bird life.

3. If there is no museum in your school start one today. Secure a small cabinet to begin with and then begin to collect ores, granites, marbles, woods, plant life, industrial exhibits and anything which will be of service in making your instruction more concrete and forceful. Get pupils and people of the district interested and you can soon accumulate a collection of treasures which will be of great value to the school.

4. Hang a glass prism or a piece of mirror in a south window in such a way that there will be a blotch of light or color on the opposite wall. Note and mark the path of this patch of light for a number of days. Account for the movement of the patch. Why is its path the arc of a circle? Why lowest at noon time? Why does the light not follow the same path each day? At what time of year will the noon time position of the light be highest on the wall? What will happen then as to the path?

A good lesson in observation and physical geography.

5. Why not name the rural schools instead of calling them as at present by number? Let the name given be an appropriate one and be chosen by the pupils or by the people of the district at a public school program.

6. We do not see the rural schools as much in evidence in the county' papers as is desirable. Teachers should see to it that matters of importance concerning their school find their way to the public press.

7. If you want something to interest pupils in animate nature get a dripping pan, paint the interior to prevent rust and then put in some soil and water. Now, get a couple of clams or crayfish and put them in your improvised pond. The writer kept a pair of clams in this manner in the school

room for six months and they furnished a never ending source of interest.

8. Are you keeping your temper through all this display of Wisconsin weather possibilities? Does it aggravate you when the boys track in mud from out of doors? Do you get the blues when you have to walk home in the rain and mud? Do you feel disturbed when the seed tester will not work on account of the cold weather? All this would be very natural and very human and very like us all, but now is the time of all times to "keep sweet."

9. Is it too early to find a mass of frog's eggto be kept in a glass can in the school house window and to watch for further developments? Look in the ponds in shallow water for a jelly like mass punctuated with numerous dark colored bodies. These are the eggs. The hatching into polliwogs, and the raising of the polliwogs through the transition into frogs are processes worth watching and which the child will never forget.

10. If the teacher can not have a sewing class in her school she can at least secure samples of the commoner kinds of cloth and talk with her girls about them, learning their characteristics, durability and suitability for various uses. Such work would help girls to purchase fabrics to much greater advantage and to adapt material to use much better than they might otherwise do.

SUGGESTIONS FOR SEAT WORK.

C. B. S

Have you tried spool knitting? If a child has some aim he will knit yards of it. Let the boys make mufflers or mittens and the girls hoods or doll clothes. This can be done by sewing the cord to a paper pattern and then catching it together with yarn or thread.

In the fall encourage the children in collecting seeds of all kinds. These can be used all winter for seat work, forming letters with them, making borders, etc.

Take advertisements and let the children cut out the letters they have learned, putting all of one kind together.

Always have some aim in busy work or else it is not a success. Illustrate your lesson in geography, reading, or language. Have you tried making a spelling book to illustrate each month? Let the older children draw them for you. The younger ones can cut them out, color them and write the words in them.

G. R. J.

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