Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/394

378 besides children grows started a talk about animals, in which were given the statements "Animals grow," "Animals eat" "Animals sleep," "Animals play." In like manner similar statements about plants were obtained. The children were easily led from thinking of a particular child, animal, or plant, to the general conception and the use of the general term. This was the first lesson in natural science.

Recalling the first general conception reached in the science lesson a child was asked, "Nina, what did you say children do?" "Children grow," she replied. I said, "I will put upon the blackboard something that means what Nina said," and wrote in Spencerian script, "Children grow." In response to invitation the children eagerly gave the general statements gained in the science lesson. Each was written upon the board and read by the child who gave it. They were told that what they had said and I had written were sentences. Each child read his own sentence again. This was the first reading lesson.

One by one each child stood by me at the board, repeated his sentence, and watched while it was written. He was then taught to hold a crayon, and left to write his sentence beneath the model. When a first attempt was finished, the sentence was written in a new place, and the child repeated his effort at copying. In this manner each made from one to four efforts, each time telling what his copy meant and what he wished his effort to mean. None of this work was erased before the children had gone. This was the first writing lesson.

The children were led to count their classmates, their sentences on the blackboards, the tables, chairs, and other objects in the school-room. It was found that all could use accurately the terms one, two, three, and four, and the symbols 1, 2, 3, 4 were put on the board as meaning what they said, and their power to connect these symbols with the ideas that they represent was tested in various ways. This was the first number lesson.

The children were shown a magnetic needle and led to note the direction of its points when at rest, and the terms north and south were given. This was the first geography lesson.

After recess each child read his sentence, wrote it once, and then the subject of the science lesson was pursued further. After special answers to the question, "What do children eat?" the general statement was obtained, "Children eat plants and animals." Similarly, the children were led to give "Animals eat plants and animals," Then came the question, "What do plants eat?" One suggested the sunshine, another the rain, another the air, others the ground or dirt, for which the term soil was given. It was concluded that rain, air, and sunshine help plants to grow, and that some of their food must come from the soil; and the