Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

himself thinks only of imitating the activity toward which he has been led. Again-when he is playing our guessing games or working with blocks of clay or other material of the kindergarten, he is all unawares, training his senses, and therefore laying up his stores of mental impressions to be used later. In this world of play he learns not only to observe, to remember, and to create, but also to forbear, to help and to sympathize with his comrades; nor is this all. The year's work in a good kindergarten leads him through a series of experiences in which are foreshadowed the great institutions of man. Here again, with songs and stories and games about bird families, squirrel families and the like, the fingers of his chubby little hands are a family of workers.

All things with which his thoughts come in contact become new illustrations of family life. He involuntarily calls his long sticks papa and mamma sticks and the short ones baby sticks. I had a child come to me one day and with great delight exclaim, "I have brought you a whole family of spools, a grandfather spool and all." Sure enough, there they were. A large spool which had held carpet thread represented the portly grandfather of his experience. Again and again like illustrations show that the children are slowly but surely comprehending the family relationship.

One day, when we were playing the game of blacksmith, two little girls had been chosen to play the part of the blackmiths' wives, who were to get the dinner ready for the sturdy workmen on their return from their blacksmith shops.

One of the children set herself heartily to work, pretending to scour the table and place imaginary dishes upon it, and to busy herself in general in the preparation of the supposed dinner. The other child dropped down into a chair and folded her hands. "Why, Betty!" said I, "you will not have Charlie's dinner ready for him when he comes home." "My mamma does not cook dinners," contemptuously replied this offspring of aristocracy. I said nothing. The game went forward. When the shoeing of the horses was done and the little blacksmiths had played the washing of faces and hands and the taking off of their imaginary leather aprons, each turned to the corner of the room which represented his home. Now was my time to impress my lesson of family duty. "Charlie," said I, quietly, "I think you will have to go over to Katherine's house for dinner to-day; Betty does not seem to have anything ready

for you," and phlegmatic Charlie walked quite unconsciously over to the opposite side of the room. My little aristocrat colored slightly, but said nothing. I noticed from that day on no child refused to do his part in the family life. Most diligent of all was little Miss Betty, who had learned her lesson that he who would have a home must share in its labors.

Later in the year, when this relationship has become clear and fixed in the children's minds, we begin taking them to the shoemakers, the blacksmiths, the carpenters, and various other forms of the primitive activities of the trade-world about them. They learn, as a matter of course, that the cobbler's children must have bread, that the baker's children must have shoes, that the blacksmith's children must have a house to shelter them, and so the necessity of the great trade-world grows up within them as it has grown up in the world outside, in order that the family life might be sustained and supplied.

Again, stories are told of the workmen, songs are sung about the busy blacksmith, the jolly carpenter, the merry cobbler, the children themselves becoming these workmen in their imitative plays, and thus come into sympathy with the real working world around them. I believe myself, firmly, that the great problem of capital and labor will not be solved by laws enacted in legislative halls, but by the sympathy aroused in the nursery and kindergarten world. Never shall I forget the lesson once taught me by a little five-year-old girl. I had called into our kindergarten a scissors grinder in order that the children, by seeing him do his work, might more perfectly imitate it in our little game of scissors grinder. After he had sharpened one or two pairs of scissors I paid him his price and opened the door for him to go, when this child exclaimed, "Oh, you forgot to thank him, too." She had been the scissors grinder in our play circle, and had thus realized that courtesy as well as wages were due to the laborer. Think what a revolution would take place when all mankind come to such a realization.

As the year progresses, the lessons in form, color, number, position, direction and size go steadily forward, so too do the impressions concerning life and its relationships. By degrees the children are led to discover the necessity of the state relationship. Policemen must be employed that trade life may not be interfered with; firemen must be ready that homes

may rest in security; even soldiers must be trained that the nation may be protected.

Little by little is instilled the meaning of true knighthood and lofty heroism, which sacrifices personal interests, family ties, and mercantile prosperity when the state demands it, until the flag of our nation becomes the symbol that it really is of loyalty to country, of sacrifices of lesser interests to greater. Could you see as I have seen twenty, thirty, forty little Bohemians and Germans waving the American flag high above their heads, bowing in reverent laudation to the picture of George Washington as it hung upon the wall, singing with all their might "My Country 'tis of Thee," you would realize as no words of mine could paint for you the strong and deep impression which state life has already made upon these young minds.

Official Department

The annexed circular is being sent out with the new list of authorized text-books for Protestant schools.

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,

QUEBEC, July 12th, 1899.

Circular to Teachers, School Commissioners and Trustees.

It is the duty and privilege of Commissioners and Trustees to select from the accompanying list of authorized text-books, those that shall be used in the schools under their control for the next five years.

This selection should be made at once, and a copy of the list selected should be sent to the Department of Public Instruction forthwith.

Teachers have not a right to make this selection nor to change the list selected by the school board; but they may advise the Commissioners or Trustees.

It is recommended by the Protestant Committee, that Commissioners or Trustees consult with the Inspectors in charge of their schools, before making their selection, and it would be well also, to take the teachers into their confidence.

For the sake of convenience the local booksellers should be furnished with a copy of the selected list, so that they may provide for the wants of the community and not burden themselves with books not used in the schools of the locality.

In all cases, it should be seen that the latest editions of the several books selected are furnished.

Commissioners and others are also reminded that the Educational Book Company are under agreement to exchange all copies of the old edition of the Canadian Readers for copies of the new Quebec Edition, free of cost.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

(Binding must be made satisfactory).

Practical Speller Revised...... Ed. Book Co...... 0 30

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Business Forms and Accounts.. Copp, Clark Co...

Arithmetic...Graded Arithmetic.

Parts I and II.

Ele. Arithmetic Revised.
Martin's Simple Rules..

.Grafton & Sons.

[blocks in formation]

.Sampson, Marston,
Lowe & Co.....

0 06 ea.

0 10 ea.

0 15 ea.

0 30 0 10

0 25

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

English...... West's English Grammar for Be

ginners..

Hyde's Practical Lessons in

use of English... Story-Book Readers

..Copp, Clark Co...

the

Geography...Calkin's Introductory, Quebec
Ed. Revised.....

. Copp, Clark Co... 0 30 .Nelson & Sons.

Nelson & Sons... 0 65 (Recommended on condition (1) that the work be corrected to date, (2) that a map of the Province of Quebec. showing present boundaries, and a map of the Dominion of Canada, showing bounds of the New Provisional Districts be inserted, and that the price remain at 65 cts.) Geographical Readers...

Scripture....The Holy Scriptures. McLear's

Old & New Test. Hist.

. Chambers.

History......Miles' Child's Hist. of Canada.. Dawson Bros.....
Robertson's Hist. of Canada. Copp, Clark Co...
Gardiner's Outline of Eng. Hist. Longmans.....
Things New and Old by Arnold
Foster....

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

, MacMillan & Co..

1 00

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

French .....Oral Exercises, Parts I, II, III,

IV and V.

Drawing.... Dom. Free Hand Course.

Prang's System of Drawing....Prang Co.

Music....... Curwen's Tonic Sol-Fa Series... Curwen & Sons.

Tonic Sol Fa Series.

Agriculture..James' Agriculture....

. Bayley & Ferguson.

Morang.

0 25

« ForrigeFortsæt »