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five sections of four blocks each, each section representing onefifth of the whole. Let the pupils, by actually performing the operations indicated with the blocks find the parts called for.

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In teaching tables of 6's and 12's call the cubes eggs, apples, etc., and think them as so many dozens and half-dozens.

The squares of paper are valuable in furnishing individual work in studying fractions.

A skillful teacher can easily teach the fractional parts of one, with their combinations and equivalents through tenths in this grade.

Illustration:

Material, a four-inch square.

Place the oppo

site edges together, crease in the center. Talk about the oblongs you now have. Compare with the square as to form and size. Lead the pupils to observe and tell in their own words the following:

In one whole paper there are two halves.

One-half and one-half-one.

One whole paper holds two one-halves.

One whole paper less one-half one half.

Work with one half until the children thoroughly understand all of its combinations and separations, performing the operations with apples, sticks, lines, etc. CORA HILL.

WORK IN DERIVATIVES-THIRD YEAR GRADE.

By the time the pupil is able to use the Third Reader, he has obtained such facility in reading that he may begin the study of derived words. The work may be taken orally as a general lesson, or incidentally in connection with reading lessons. The following illustration will tend to suggest the nature of the work

on affixes and prefixes during the third and fourth year: (In the fifth and sixth years the general plan would be similar, the material, however, presenting more difficulty.)

It may be that in some reading lesson the word river has occurred. During the recitation or at another time, as a general lesson, lead the pupils to consider rivers as to their size, and to call that body of moving water that is too small for even small boats to float upon, a little river. Consider the meaning of rivulet. Write the word river at one part of the board and the word rivulet in another place. Have the children

1. State the difference in meaning.

2. Observe and state the difference in form.

3. Infer and state the force of let.

Under the word river write the word stream. Obtain from the children its meaning and lead them to infer the word that means a little stream. Write the word streamlet under rivulet. Deal in a similar way with brook, tart, wave, cloud. Let the class give orally, and then write on their slates, the meaning or force of let, i. e., define it. In like manner consider kin, as with lamb, pan, man, etc.

In this stage lead the children to observe that in each case let and kin are added or fixed to a syllable, and then state and have them write "Let and kin are affixes, meaning small or little." Have the sentence given orally many times.

Write the two as the

Ask then for two affixes meaning small. beginning of a column. Suggest others, writing them in the column as obtained, by asking the name for a little duck, a little goose, etc. Inquire what is meant by lordling, darling, etc., suggesting, if necessary, that the first means a lord or person who is little in mind but great in his own thought, and that the second is a slight modification of dear, with the affix. Have the pupils infer the meaning of nursling. State that a sack or bag is also termed a poke. Also, what those little bags sewn in their coats, vests, trousers, aprons and dresses, in which they may carry handkerchiefs, knives, marbles, etc., are called. In this way obtain the word pock(e)et. From it and floweret, lead them to infer the meaning of et. In a similar way obtain ock from hillock,

five sections of four blocks each, each section representing onefifth of the whole. Let the pupils, by actually performing the operations indicated with the blocks find the parts called for.

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In teaching tables of 5's and 1o's use the parts of $1, or dimes and half-dimes.

In teaching tables of 6's and 12's call the cubes eggs, apples, etc., and think them as so many dozens and half-dozens.

The squares of paper are valuable in furnishing individual work in studying fractions.

A skillful teacher can easily teach the fractional parts of one, with their combinations and equivalents through tenths in this grade.

Illustration: Material, a four-inch square.

Place the oppo

site edges together, crease in the center. Talk about the oblongs you now have. Compare with the square as to form and size. Lead the pupils to observe and tell in their own words the following:

In one whole paper there are two halves.
One-half and one-half-one.

One whole paper holds two one-halves.

One whole paper less one-half-one half.

Work with one half until the children thoroughly understand all of its combinations and separations, performing the operations with apples, sticks, lines, etc. CORA HILL.

WORK IN DERIVATIVES-THIRD YEAR GRADE. By the time the pupil is able to use the Third Reader, he has obtained such facility in reading that he may begin the study of derived words. The work may be taken orally as a general lesson, or incidentally in connection with reading lessons. The following illustration will tend to suggest the nature of the work

on affixes and prefixes during the third and fourth year: (In the fifth and sixth years the general plan would be similar, the material, however, presenting more difficulty.)

It may be that in some reading lesson the word river has oc curred. During the recitation or at another time, as a general lesson, lead the pupils to consider rivers as to their size, and to call that body of moving water that is too small for even small boats to float upon, a little river. Consider the meaning of rivulet. Write the word river at one part of the board and the word rivulet in another place. Have the children

1. State the difference in meaning.

2. Observe and state the difference in form.

3. Infer and state the force of let.

Under the word river write the word stream. Obtain from the children its meaning and lead them to infer the word that means a little stream. Write the word streamlet under rivulet. Deal in a similar way with brook, tart, wave, cloud. Let the class give orally, and then write on their slates, the meaning or force of let, i. e., define it. In like manner consider kin, as with lamb, pan, man, etc.

In this stage lead the children to observe that in each case let and kin are added or fixed to a syllable, and then state and have them write "Let and kin are affixes, meaning small or little." Have the sentence given orally many times.

Write the two as the

Ask then for two affixes meaning small. beginning of a column. Suggest others, writing them in the column as obtained, by asking the name for a little duck, a little goose, etc. Inquire what is meant by lordling, darling, etc., suggesting, if necessary, that the first means a lord or person who is little in mind but great in his own thought, and that the second is a slight modification of dear, with the affix. Have the pupils infer the meaning of nursling. State that a sack or bag is also termed a poke. Also, what those little bags sewn in their coats, vests, trousers, aprons and dresses, in which they may carry handkerchiefs, knives, marbles, etc., are called. In this way obtain the word pock(e)et. From it and floweret, lead them to infer the meaning of et. In a similar way obtain ock from hillock,

bullock, etc. Then have the list read. Ask the name for such endings. Have the definition repeated and the force of the affixes given. Leave the thought with the pupil that there are many other affixes with other meanings, and that at another time these will be reconsidered in connection with those as yet unknown ones.

EXAMPLE and LIBERTY.

"The spontaneity natural to early infancy is sometimes the means of saving children from the inconvenient results of their extreme organic and intellectual plasticity. But it would be dangerous to count too much on this spontaneity. The respect due to the individuality of the human being makes it incumbent on us to be very careful as to the examples the child sees around him, especially from the moral point of view. The idea in education would be to allow each child scope for his own particular bent, while at the same time setting one example before him." Locke understood the necessity of respecting the natural bias in each child, and could not endure the artificial product, which is the invariable result of constraint and affectation. He specially deplores this fault in what concerns manners and behavior in society. "Affectation," he says, "is a clumsy and forced imi tation of what should be easy and natural, and is devoid of the charm which always accompanies what is really natural, because of the opposition which it causes between the outward action and the inward motions of the spirit." Away with politeness and agreeable manners, if they endanger the frankness and sincerity of the child. "Mamma," said a child four years old, "are you not going to tell Madame X. to go away? She has been here a long time." I greatly prefer, even in a child of four years, this frank and innocent rudeness, to formulas of politeness, repeated by rote, but not felt.

There is another reason, well worth our consideration, which should deter us from stifling a child's natural initiative by the undue influence of our example and activity. We see in animals a sort of individuality of action which does not belong to man; the development of their powers and skill affords them

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