Summer School Diary, part 3C - 1914

138

the Swedish folk dance at the Pageant. After considerable hesitation because of the amount of work already undertaken, sixteen teachers consented to dance at the entertainment. They were Mrs. Bray, Mrs Sole, Misses Pierce, Nichol Hetchel, Lloyd Barber Roush, Gould, Carpenter English, St. Clair, Clayton, Cahill Oakes and Mrs. Evans. As the time was so near we practiced very diligently, and soon the several changes well learned but another perplexing question arose. None of us had a costume and the regular costumer for the affair was so busy that she could not do anything for us, and to add to it all there was not a machine at Manganita Hall, where most of the participants were staying. However, Miss Mary Hetchell rented a machine and invited all to come, bringing materials and patterns, and make use of her machine, each one being her own dressmaker. What a bustle and chattering

139

as the preparations went on and how we had to hurry but thanks to Miss Clara Hatched and others who helped, the costumes were finished just in time for us to go out on the beautiful Mackay Field and enjoy the pageant from behind the scenes. Here we felt repaid for our work, when it was our privilege as participants to rub elbows with Queens Isabella and Elizabeth, Horace Greeley, Abraham Lincoln and the other celebrities present. And the thrills of excitement which ran up and down our spines, and the attacks of stage fright at times, will I am sure teach us to have more sympathy with any pupils we see training to take part in any performance of the kind.

144

July 6 Insurgency in Method

One of the most interesting lectures of the Summer School Session was the one delivered by Mr Hartrant on Insurgency in Method! He began his lecture by reciting a poem by Sam Halter Foss which brought more clearly to our minds the fact that we are continually doing things without knowing why, simply because someone else has done them as in the poem all followed the footsteps of the calf that strayed through the woods. I'm discussing physiology as it used to be taught and as it is taught today, he told stories of things that happened when people were more interested in learing the names of the bones and muscles than in keeping conditions sanitary around homes and other places. He illustrated this by talking of vallages where the people lived in the second story of the house and used the lower

145

story as a pig pen. Also of the hotel where the sign read! "In case of fire ring the towel." In speaking of reading he produced a copy of the New "England Primer", englarged and adorned and read some of the lessons it contained. It would hardly be fair to make fun of it because it was the best at that time but was certainly nothing to give a child any great desire to learn to read. Then he gave examples of the different methods of reading such as the "ABC" the "Word," "the Sentence" the "Johnny Story" and later the sound method leading up to the present methods. His mottoe seemed to be "Learn to do by Doing" and he applied this to all branches of work. In the subject of language some of the most frequent mistakes in teaching were discussed. With regard to letter writing he gave a typical boys letter to his aunt which illustrated just about what such a letter would be when written because the boy had been told he must write it. He said "Give the boy

146

some thoughts to think and he will write them," and recitd a poem of a man who built a mansion, fitted up a room away from all noise and in the room had shelves filled with books, a table and all materials he thought necessary for writing a great masterpiece. The man sat there until he was old and gray and wrote nothing because he had no thoughts to think. In speaking of drawing he spoke of a class drawing the "corpse of a rose," which is the case in drawing from models and the work mechanical. He gave us a very good saying by as teachers "I prepare my lessons in advance as want my pupils to drink from a running stream instead of a stagnant pool." This he considered a very good rule for teachers to follow. His lecture held the attention of his audience every minute and was one to be rememberd by all.