THE SCHOOL ROOM. [Conducted by GEORGE F. BASS, Surpervising Principal in Indianapolis Schools. CLASS EXCURSIONS. It is becoming fashionable to take the primary geography class on excursions occasionally. Not for a picnic or an outing of any sort, but for the purpose of affording an opportunity for the pupils to get some fundamental geographical ideas that will enable them to study geography through the imagination. No one who has not seen the Amazon River can think it in any other way than by using his imaginative powers. A pupil may be taught to say that "a mountain is a vast elevation of land," without forming any adequate picture of a mountain. How shall this make him see a mountain when he has never seen elevations of land of any sort. tion must precede imagination, hence the excursion. Observa No teacher should take his class on an excursion just because it is fashionable to do so. Be sure your class needs it and that you know just what points you expect to make and how you propose to make them. The writer knows of an instance in which a boy after returning from an excursion could only say that some bad boys ran away from the teacher. Now let us think of a class that never studied geography with a book. They live in town. They know the cardinal and semi-cardinal points of the compass when they are at home. All the geographical elements they know are those that an average child would pick up in running about town with a trip or two to the country. Some of them have never seen the country. Some have looked at it and never seen it. This is frequently true of children who live in the country. Let us take this class out to a neighboring hill and see what they can learn about slopes and their effects. The object is to make them think of the whole surface of the earth as made up of gradual and abrupt slopes. We shall visit a neighboring hill. The one selected has a steep slope toward the west with a stream of water flowing parallel with its foot. Beyond the stream is what is sometimes called "bottom land." It is mostly covered with corn that was about "knee high" at the time of the visit. There is an occasional wheat field and one meadow. Beyond this bottom land there is a range of low hills. Toward the east the land sloped very gradually toward another stream of water. This large hill was covered with forest trees and in some parts man had tried to help nature beautify it. Flowers had been planted in pretty designs. He had made fountains and walks and had in other ways beautified the grounds and called the whole hill a park. Of course, all this was done to "make money." Bnt much of our hill was in the state nature left it. The fact that man has changed our hill makes it all the more valuable, for, in addition to giving us the basis. for the study of the earth in its natural state, it furnishes the basis for studying man's influence upon the sur-. face of the earth. With the aid of this hill and the city near it we shall be able to study the whole world in all its different phases. When the children reach the hill they are filled with delight. Many prolonged O's that mean so much were heard on every side. They were all eyes. Birds, bees, ferns, flowers, animals--everything delighted them. The teacher was delighted, too. He did not "squelch" them with his "definitely fixed purpose." He let the enthusiasm have full sway. He thought no more of stopping the flow of enthusiasm than he did of stopping the flow of the stream of water just over the brink of the hill. The children had not yet seen this. He did with the children just what men do with a river. They build a dam across it, not to keep it from flowing, but to turn it into another channel, so that they may utilize this tendency to flow. He showed that he was in full sympathy with the children, and yet he did not forget his purpose. He wished them to make some special observations that would put life into the geography work that he expected to give on his return to the school. This purpose he studied how to accomplish without loss of interest. Good feeling is essential to learning. He said, "Children, let us see what we can find in this direction," at the same time looking and pointing westward. "By the way, what direction is this?" "West," came in a chorus. "How do you tell?" "Why, see the sun!" said one. "Is the sun always in the west?" asked the teacher. the afternoon it is." "In "Sure enough," said the teacher. This was said on the run toward the brink of the hill. No "lines" were formed and no hands were put up to ask permission to answer. Just think of it! When they reached the brink of the hill, everybody seemed to have something to say and all spoke at the same time. We caught some of the remarks. At first nearly every one said, "O-O!" Then came, "How beautiful!" "River!" "Creek!" "Brook!" "Water!" "Boats, boats!" "Men and women in them." "Let's wade!" "No, no, its too deep to wade!" and so on. The teacher waited till this little burst of admiration was over. He observed much that gave him a deeper insight of the children than he had ever had before. Finally he said, "How did that river happen to be there?" At this some of the children gave a kind of laugh that means that "I don't see what you ask such a question as that for." He continued, however, "I wonder why it is not over yonder by those other hills." "Why, water runs down hill, that's why," said one of the children. T.-Where does the water in this stream come from? 1st Pupil.-From rain. 2nd Pupil. From the ground. It comes out of the hills. T.-How do you know? Pupil.-My papa told me so. And once when I took a walk with him he showed me a place where the water was coming out. We drank some of it and I liked it. It was cool. They called it a spring, papa said." Just here a pupil said, "I wish I had a drink of it now for. I am awful thirsty." "Very thirsty," said the teacher. "Yes," said the pupil, "very thirsty." do I," and "So do I" came from several. "So T.-Let us see if we can find a spring. Perhaps Which way shall we go? Willie can help us. Willie. Toward the river. T.-Why? Willie. Because the land slopes toward the river, and water always runs down hill. T.-Very well. And away we went, teacher and all, with Willie in the lead. We clambered down the steep bank. In some places it was so steep that the children held to bushes to keep from rolling down. They said they thought it was "lots of fun" and I guess it was. Finally, we all came to the water's edge. I was sure the teacher knew just where the spring could be found, but he said nothing about it. He gave the children a chance to have the pleasure of discovering it. While they were hunting for it and finding many things they were not looking for, we thought of the early explorers of our country and of how interesting and real this teacher would make the story of their explorations. These children are now real explorers. While I was thus pondering, I heard a voice calling, "Here, here, I've found one!" Then there was a stampede for the spot. The water came out of the side of the hill a few feet up and trickled down the side till the slope was more gradual and the ground softer, when it flowed through a narrow channel of its own making, till the little rill reached the brook. Some one said to it, "You're very little, but you make your own way in the world." "What doyou mean?" said the teacher. "Why, I put this stone in its way, and it was only a short time till it had made a way around the stone." Said another, "That is the way for us to do. Don't give up, but keep on trying." "Yes," said a third, "and it makes me think of the old saying that 'where there's a will there's a way.' Another remarked that she thought we'd better say that where there's a will a way will be made. Another quoted a line from Tennyson, "Men may come and men may go, "Children came this time," remarked one matter-offact fellow who knew where the best "craw-dads" for fishing could be had. "Well," said another, "I guess Tennyson meant everybody when he said men. Any how, we are little men and women. Don't you remember Louisa M. Alcott's two books, one called "Little Women" and the other "Little Men?" Just here another little girl said she knew a piece about a brooklet. Several said at once, "Recite it." She did so and with telling effect, too. It is as follows: "A brooklet came from the mountain, As sang the bard of old, "Far away in the briny ocean There rolled a turbulent wave, Now howling along the cave. |