OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 13

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

FOR SENIORS AND JUNIORS. [Conducted by Magibteb, to whom all 1 communications must be addressed.] [MAGis-not will be c lad to receive Natur, Motes, marked papers containing educational •rtisles, diagrams, details ot experiments, etc , •f scholastic interest io teachers and pupils. ' Corre«poßdentß using » pen ium« must also ; •Hi nsam* and »d«brMs.] j EDUCATION IN AMERICA. ' In tße Teachers.' Times there is appearing a series of articl«B on American school, J and one lately published is headed "Individualrt^. Thuro is no doubt thar modern education requires individual teaching, and < therefore small classes; and as an aid tho ' individual desk is an essential. We pn<-lo ' ouraelTes upon T>eing in the forefronl in everything that makes for efficiency, but I ' am" afraid that our hats are rather largor than the contents of our heads require, quality .being considered. 1 To show what is being done in th« United Stafies, I am giving & quotation or two f r<>rn the article. After saying that "individuality is.. more than any other one word, the keystone to American education to-day,'' and showing that teachers study the idiosyncracies of pupils, the writer pointe out that there are two outstanding factors necessary to secure good results: — " The." first of these is the eize of the classes, .which almost universally ie smaller than that common in England. Rarely will you find a class of 50 or more ; 45 it, apologised for as a large class, 40 is rogarded as being as many as one tcaohor can conveniently handle, and 50 is looked forward to as the ideal. Compare these numbers with those that still are far too frequent in. our own jcountry, - and one reason why the needs of each child can be inoi-c easily understood and provided for can be quickly grasped. It is'probably beyond any one person's power to know every one of 40 children well, even in the space of throne year during which alone, in many schools, they remain under one tcachvv. but some approximation to full knowledge can be reached ; beyond that nuinlj^i* the difficulty increases in geometrical progression. And knowledge* -alone- is- not sufficient ; for its application time is necessary, 1 certainly in the first instance, thotitrli later time may be saved; but" the larger the cla.*s"[ the greater the demand on the teacher' -< j time and energy, and the" less there is to be ' spared for tentatively -applying t,uch knov - > ledge as may have been-gamed. j The writer then proceeds to r«cint out { that as a result of this individualism chil- j dren are trained to express themselves ( freely and effectively: — "And not only is there this general I tendency to consider the ne^ds of ea«h child, but many of the methods adopted in teaobing tend also to the assertion of i individuality. All the way up thr<\uo-h [ the elementary school, from quite tho , youngest grades, children are trained to | stand before the class and say short recit-a- 1 tions, or tell stories, learnt or e»cn cj'iiposed by themselves. Much could He , written on this line of work, and vom-r- <if t it is certainly open to discussion, but h.-n<- ' the point to be considered i> that tni~ I standing forth of the child frorr hi«- fellow-* to do a piece of work which will !» subject to the criticism of others inn,y j.n<n<? an important factor in the de\eioi>m«n) of a truer sense of self, and will ahno-.^ '• inevitahly lead to a truer confidence m ' 'one's own powers. And this conxv* oui , more clearly in the criticisms of w*-.il< done which are often asked for from orhor "members of tho class, and which ar** rally frankly and f-a.iriy given. Thc.j criticisms are themselves liable to h* «'u<. ; cussed by others, or to be teni]x:r«*l bj ' the teacher in her final summary. W 7 h»>tli"r much of this may not. under un-kiiHl ' direction, lead to an over-aooentuatir, , ot ; self-consciousn<«s i 6 a question well worihv ' of consideration. Again, children ar^.l more gpen-erallj' -expecrtocl -t-o sf^jncl l';~> &•►<» give lengthy answers to questions put v them, to talk freely upon th^ir feet 1!. u 1 is tho case in English schools; and i!uanswere co given are liable to err in- 11 . on the part of other puj)ils or by ;iic teacher. And it is no uncommon 'iiiiu ' to give certain members of the cla. •- .1 : definite piece of work to do and '.ell •th-pi to come to the next lesson, or a %\^^k J later, prepared to tell the rla<=r> whit.' ri ■ \ | have learnt on this matter The eon '• fidenc© and readines-s with which boys nn<' girls of 12 or 13 years of age 'wilt comeforward and give the results of their "-turK speaks weJl for the system, whatever erit^ cismG may be passed upon it. -From "r.c point of view the ohild is learning to knov himself, to realise himself, as it w-rre as against tho other members of the cla-*=. This freedom ot expression is what MiMarshall advocated so stronirly in the experimental science lesson he gave. .before the Teachers' Institute last week. A MOTHER'S LOVE. " You all read with horror the details of the terrible fire which took place at P^rl Chalmers a week or so apo. Wha.t cm Ih> more pathetic, and at the same time w? ■<- can show more a mother's love than the following simpl" statement, which appeared "in the Times report of the *arl occurrence? — "Here in tho bedrom va* ,•> pitiful Sight. The mother, ©la-oping her four-year-old son tightly in her arm«. lay crouched in a corner. The wom%n had evidently tried to shield the ch>!d--body with her own, for she wa* chaired all down the right side, -and the child, which was under her left^ breast, though dead, was only blistered." I think it was last year I gave a selection of extracts having "Mot her 1 - as their subject,, and a reader asked mo if 1 hart eny more. Since then I have put a,=ide *ome shorj; pieces" I have come across intending'to make a couple of columns of them some day, but I cannot resist giving you some of them now. I am; sure you will be none the worse for reading thorn, and they may cause you to be a little more thoughtful "and considerate in helping her. Your Mother— Do Not Fobget. To manifest an interest in whatever interests or ami.ses her. To seek her comfort and pleasure in all things before your own. Not to forget that, though she is old and Wrinkled, she etill loves pretty things. To make her frequent simple presents and

to bs =ure that thc-y are appropriate and tasteful. To remember that she is still a girl at heart so far as delicate little attentions ar© concerned. To give her your full confidence, and never to do anything which you think she would disapprove. To make her a partaker, so far as your different ages will permit, in all your pleasures and recreations. To lift all tbe burdens you can from shoulders that have grown stooped in waiting upon and working for you.. Never to intimate by word or deed that your world and hers are different, or that you foel in any way superior io her. To treat her with the unvarying courtesy and de-ference you a-ocord to tihose who are above you in rank or position. To study her tastes and habits, her -likes and dislikes, and oa*er to them as far as pofsibla in an Tin obtrusive way. To bear patiently with air her peculiarities or infirmities cf -temper or dispositixm which may bo tho result of a life of oare and {oil. To remember that her life if monotonous compared with yours, -and to- take her to some" suitable place of amusement, or for a little trip to the 'country, ot to the city if your, home is in the country, as frequently »s possible. — ". Success.'' Where s Mother ? Bursting in frrm -^choo or play, This is' w'lat the chi'dron say ; Troop Jig. cuwlis g bug and small, On the t>r<=- f-J'l, ir. the hallJoining in th« const" ni cry, Ever :u- tfrf« day 1 * {r ■ by " "Whore's m- t'-ier?" Fiom the weary bed oi pain This same quesitian o- me- again ; From the bny with s-?-rk!ing ey«s, B«<Tin<» home h = enThcs't t> izo ; Fr<>m the bioavcl and b -arded son, Perils pa s,t aid '.onourc won; " Where's mr ih«r?" Bui-flered with a lone y task, On? day we may winly ask For the coin fort of 'c Tee, For the rest <-f her embrace; Let us love h/.r while we may, Well for u= that we can say, " Who**e'o mnthT ?" Motbei Math untiri .g hands At the post of duty stains. Pa-t'eit seeking not "her own, Anxioius for the good al< ne Of the i\hi)dre • as 'hey cry, Ever as tW riavp go by, " Whce's m t' er?" Only One Mother. Hundred* of slars in tbe pretty sky, Hundreds of shells on the "hcte together Hundrpcls of bird-? that g-> si<ging by ' Jluiwlreo.-- of b=«s in the -uruiy 'eather; Hunidreds of develops to gieet the morn, Hi-njdrid-j of lamb* in t,ie crimson clover, Hundreds vi butterfl.es on .he lawn, Biit only one mother the wide world over. ' THERMOMETER READINGS. Both *' Pater " in the Witness and myeHf have lx><>n trying to get teachers and others to send in thcrmometrieal and barometrical readings, but hitherto with lit.tlo ',uocp*s. Perhaps if wo modify our p.an little we might succeed better, though to achieve our purpose a maximum and nuinm.'-ii fhf-rmom-pter is required for iho formo^ purpose. Lately "Pater" had a return sent from tho iTarakanui School, and a lad .seiit to me readings made at the Morakanui bi m ion. "Pater" has handed fns ovi to me. and I have modified Master La id Jaws Th-r^e are the fables and the tatter hy ,V r Jart: — SrlKv-i. llataka.mi June 20. 1907. Dear *' M.>.<. i-.Pr,' — Enrk *eel you will find ih.p iiiiori 1 -•■.,<•. y v we r <> asking for concerninj thf in'v ii:um and mr .mum temperature ii' Oii'r.,l Oufjo io- Jui c ti date W'- hi- q now ?. corecti-oii of daily records ot li-iri'ictfr )»fi'lifg? a' cl rrsx mum aid mmin.r.m tueinicni'Je: readings for the past 12 in'intli--. jud -liou'rl be exWme'y pleased if w«! cou.d txchsi"pe <uther fipures of graphs with any other school. The monthly sumnuTir-: o c \"CHth*»- ob c ervat.ons that are published iii fie "Wi^cs and Daily Times are veiy ii"-pf('! for comnarative purposes but daily re.«>(3's hem another school", especially from oik' near thp =ea co&st, wouVl r>rove far more Ji c 'H'i'.tue — I am yours tru I}-.1 }-. J^mes A. Jack. At JL'ta^anui. Central Otago. Mi\ini.mi teii.peraiti'-e durirg day of June 3, * ol'ifg iln ,:mt*fl t'-miyiatu-e during night of June 1 t .>i'd i.il'il of June 19, 19deg. Jh.Mwui'] temperature at 9 a.m. on June 22, Ixl.i nuuiii temperature at 9 ?..m. on June 20, A\-"'i.'t- temperature at 9 am', for 28 day; 34-.1-J-James A. Jack. Mitaicanui Station July 1, 10W. I)*., r ' Mie'cV*-" — TVe following is a record of "•■• mi f-at-i'o" f 'j' the nu nth of June — mil 1:1 uri °.nd ma>..nuim. Fahrenheit — taken i< v ni\ ' r ,' + l'Pi • — Pata for June, 30dav M-x.n.ti-- Mrlpg. F., or 18de ? . of frost. This re; •,r:-pil tw cp— 2lst and ioth. Ak..=.uc cry mill. mum, CMd-eg iJaitTMi n o7«!oi.' — on the 2^th. A (:iv.-> dd !y maximum 43deg. I -hill be plea c ed to let you have the tem]>ti ,'tu.rt for July should ycu wish to have •tL' >xi — Your= truly. Russell Roberts Laidlaw. Tinvifrh thf sohool and st-ation are near < .X It <>;Vr. it will be tycon that the records ii< v coii*i' It)r,vble1 t ) r,vble difference. Wl'v? Fif-uinon-' Direction of wind-, or hill o, r.KinMuin ranjros? Dunedin lecords <!o not u<> ! 1 loiv $ degrees of fro-f a^- far as '. I k'i'.v. -lio'iirh wiihin short ais-Uince^ tem•ir.ii t ."■ --orv °T' y'lv. Thoie '.u're l'<-avy '; '<■- - at the Botanical Gai<^.-- uhon, •I K,*vh <•! \.-)i'-'i oi* soiuc o:hor cause, !'.<■■!<• w ••> no f>< -ts up the Leith Valley. Do ;tn\ of lnv renders taJ-e pun^hine re-co-i 7 v Theio are places in tho Woodhvisih and the Xorth-Ea-t Tal'.eys where, in tlie mi('rl!o of winter, there is not move ' ThAr> an I'onr's s\m=hine. while in other i places olow at hand seven hours of sun- . sliino were rogi^toicd on the Fame day. S^nr? nlonir records, plca&e, and help to rrake rompari=ons. I *&i-all be o-lad if Ma'-i-'r Laidlaw will son<l in his records monthly. {jiving tho di 'tails as they appear in this issue. CORRTvSPOXDEXCE. J., Rimu, sends tbp followine;. It should I have appeared before. Will rome one confirm or criticise J.s statements? : Dear " Magi=tcr." — I am r-ei^oHing to you on Seeing, en the 23th June, a pair of yellow harxmers. male and farnale. I think it is 1 rare in New Zealand. This is the first I have i seen It is a harmless l>ird, and mostly seen in pairs at all tinie= It is one cf the bunting family, best known in Soctlund as yellow yit®.

THE "CALL-BIRD." ' Dr Fulton and others have scatJiingly denounced the gun. fiends who shoot rutnlessly. It seems that, with migratory birds, to shoot the first of the sea-son ie at times a madness that the most unconscionable shooter has found_ out to . tell, immediately against himself. In' the Argus some weeks ago there was an interesting article on the " Cell-bird," the forerunner of its kind, and as I imagine my bird-loving readers will be interested too I give extracts from it. This article was sent to me by two readers, one in Melbourne, the other here in Dunedin. I am much obliged to both : — "The more one studies the habits of birds the more wonderful the perfectly natural seems. It is the nature, for instance, -of the - nightingale, to spend the greater part of the year in the jungle fastnesses of the Gold Coast -country and other regions un-familiar to the majority of mankind; ro visit* certain parts of Europe in the spring for breeding purposes; and to arrive and depart with a regularity that is positively\meclKtnical in its-, consistency. On the came "day" of the same month of each year the advance guard of the nightingale tribe, may be looked for in England;, and their legion of followers may be expected to conic in more straggling order when the sanctuary for the season has been located by the ' scouts.' The exactitud-e, of the whole enterprise in coming the great distance to be traversed each year is wonderful, even when it is recognised that the birds arc • impelled by instinct alone, but there is- something' that baffles and perplexes in the still more wonderful fact that the main body of the tribe come with ■ unerring directness to the very spot selected by the- pioneers in the long and perilous flight. The call-bird of tho snipe mokes its wonderful jo.urney to Australia — probably all coveriog tits 10,000 miles from Siberia in the course of two or three weeks — generally about i-he middle of our spring, and may conti: *fe right on to the interior of the contm „t before landing. There may be two or three or more of theoe birds. They seek flaT;, moist country, where there are^. swamp and grafia and reede and the conditions arc specially adapted for their curious methods of feeding by suction, lie strangest thing about the tjftipe is tho t °rerious manner in which the call-birds T ''• •-• '•>■•"• Ihe rest of the family or not, according to what has happened to . ■■-.< -. The avorage eager sportsman who goes forth with the object of achieving the inglorious distinction of securing " the fisrt snipe of the season," and having the marvellous feat duly recorded in the local 1 newspaper, probably knows nothing of what is involved .in the enterprise. The man who has studied the habits of the, bird, no matter how eager he may be to shoot <iome of the spring visitors before his neighbours succeed, will always restrain his j ardour in regard to the first few members ! o 1 s>e f. ' seen. This is not because I the natuv* st in him is stronger than the ; sportsman . Ihe reason is more sordid than that. Unlecs he is a. tyro he knows that to kill the call-bird is to destroy all prospect of further sport, so far as snipe- ! shooting is concerned, for the year in that | particular district. He knows — and this is j one of the most marvellous of the natural instincts of the snipe — that if he kills the call-bird the family of which it is but the forerunner will not arrive that season. There would appear to be some sort of telepathic current of understanding subsisting between the few birds which com© | ahead in the great journey from one j country to another. At all events, even | instinct, does not seem to satisfactorily account for the fact that the tribe- n<neiland in the locality in which tho firrt arrivals have been killed. The^ family may bo n full flight for the destination indicated by the scouts whioh have gone ahead, and yet if the latter should meet with disaster the selected locality will not be visited by the. remainder. What happens (o the tribe in the event of their enterprise being disorganised in that matter is as much enshrouded in mystery os is the power whioh the call-bird, while perhaps thousands of miles away, appears to exercise over the flight of the tribe." :