Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/400

384 of getting plants in proper condition, the only portion given was that on the cotton plants. Fine specimens of these were received from Georgia, which kept fresh nearly two weeks, and showed all stages, from flower bud to open boll of cotton fiber. No work in zoölogy was done, save the giving of a few lessons on silk-worms and sheep, as yielding silk and wool. In physiology, lessons were given on the general parts of the body: on the joints, skin, hair, nails, and teeth; on the chest, and the process of breathing and its products; on food and digestion—all with reference to the care of the body, keeping the lungs from disease, and the true object of taking food. Geography was connected with science, history, and literature—the original habitat and migrations of rocks and plants, and the location of events leading to imaginary journeys. The forms of water and land, and a demonstration of the shape of the earth by the positions and appearances of vessels at sea, were gained in lessons to the country and the sea-shore. Boston and its surrounding townships were studied in connection with lessons in local history. Maps, globes, compass, and modeling clay were used throughout the course.

While the work in mathematics was not so fully developed on new lines as in other subjects, some work done in the first year may be of interest to the reader. In a field lesson of the second week, some distinguishing features of the apple, beech, pitch and white pine trees were noted and branches obtained. These branches furnished material for many days' number lessons. Apple leaves with their two stipules, pitch-pine sheaths with their three needles, beechnut exocarps with their four sections, and white pine sheaths with their five needles, were used by the children in constructing concrete number tables, which—picking up the objects—they recited as follows: "In one sheath of white pine are five needles; in two sheaths of white pine are two times five needles," etc. When the concrete table was familiar, the same number relations were written on the blackboard with figures and symbols. In this manner the children learned the four classes of tables as far as sixes. Meanwhile the study of geometrical forms and the plant lessons gave illustration and review. In January work with money was begun, and continued through the remainder of the year; but other opportunities to give practice in number were utilized—as, the six faces of the halite crystal, the six stamens of the tulip, etc. To get unworn coins we sent to the Philadelphia Mint. In two lessons the children learned the names and values of one copper, two nickel, four silver, and six gold pieces; in the third, by placing piles of coin side by side, they constructed and learned the table:

 Two silver half dollars equal one gold or silver dollar. Four silver quarter dollars equal one gold or silver dollar.